We arrive 11/20 (Tuesday of Thanksgiving Week). Will arrive at Grand Floridian by about noon. We leave Monday 11/26, and have 4 day tix with Park Hopper. I was originally planning on doing the parks Th, F, Sat, Sun.
Trying to decide if we should
A. Go to HS when we arrive and take advantage of it being less crowded than later in the week
B. Explore other resorts for their holiday decor, enjoy just riding the boat, walking around Boardwalk area, etc. Make an ADR for someplace.
C. Go to Disney Springs and walk around, have lunch, shop, return too resort and enjoy the pool and dinner
As of right now we are still planning on spending Wednesday at the resort all day (pool, boat rental, other recreational activities).
I think either B or C would excellent choices. I’m not sure how early you will be arriving on Tues, but I would not use a park ticket for less than a full day - especially if it meant missing RD at DHS. TSL will be open by then, and I think a FPP plus RD strategy will be the only way to get the headliners in in one day.
Really? We always have tickets for every day. We won’t arrive until 4:30pm at the end of March, and will be coming from the West Coast on a 5:30am flight, and we still got tickets for that day. We are planning AK from 7-10pm, plenty worth it for FOP and Pandora alone. @hcerar, I would definitely plan a park day that first day. 4 days in the parks is really not very much, we go for a minimum of 7 or 8 days and still have a hard time seeing everything we want to see. I am not sure I would choose HS though, as it is hard to ride all the rides there because of the tiers, so rope drop is a must in my opinion. Personally we like to spend 2 days at MK, Epcot, and now AK as well since Pandora opened. I would pick one of those three parks and make your FPP for the afternoon. If you want to swim I would plan that for mid day breaks when the parks are the most crowded, and you are ready for a break after being at the parks early. Just my opinion, of course.
There’s only 4 attractions currently at DHS, with TSL it will really only add 1 more to be truthful. I mean unless you’re going to every single show as well, DHS is a half day.
My recommendation for OP is:
Do C on Tuesday, Pool and resort on Wednesday, then:
Epcot day / DHS afternoon / night - You can walk from one to the other. Do the DHS at night so you can view Star Wars fireworks or Fantasmic, sometimes depending on schedules, you can get both in.
MK full day - Fireworks at night.
AK day / Epcot night - So you can see Illuminations if you choose.
Then for the 4th day, do either MK or EP again in the day and AK at night. Trust me, you’re going to want to ride Flight of Passage again before you go home and there’s nothing like AK at night. It’s a completely different park at night.
I agree with this, but in replty to @Wahoohokie’s question, only if I was sacrificing a full day at a park in order to do so (which is what the OP appears to be considering). As the incremental cost of tickets goes down dramatically with each additional day, I would consider adding a day to the tickets and going with plan A.
Assuming you don’t have parkhoppers, I would do DHS on arrival day. That’s mostly because when I arrive I’m so anxious to get to a park that hanging at the resort would make me nutty. If you can get some FPs for that afternoon, you can do all there is to do at DHS on that day.
Then use Weds. to resort hop, shop, and hang at the pool. Make an ADR for DS at night; then you’ll have a plan for the evening.
A bit of an explanation of my above post… On those occasions when I have had an AP, I absolutely went into the parks on arrival day. But most of the time I had a Military Salute ticket which was only 4 days (now there is a five day option) with no ability to add more days without buying another 4 day pass.
I drive from Pensacola, so even if I leave the house by 5:00 AM, the chances of being in a park before 2:00 PM are slim (3:00 seems to be closer to the norm); I’m not going to use a full day ticket for a half day. Plus the drive pretty much wipes me out. I plan my trips for the number of days for which I have tickets, plus a travel day on either end.
On arrival day, after a bit of rest in the room, I either go to DS or to one of the resorts for dinner, and make it an early night in preparation for 4 or 5 days of RD to closing touring.
I missed that going on arrival day was going to replace another day. If that is the case, then absolutely don’t give up a full day (and rope drop) for a half day. I thought they were going to add days. Now that I read back, I think they should get more than a 4 day ticket,I would get a 6 day, and not take a break day personally. I can’t imagine having a leisurely day Tuesday and Wednesday, we would be crazy having to wait to go to the parks. Plus, the Disney tired starts about day 3-4, so we plan sleep in days every 3 or so days but never miss an entire day from the parks. If you must have a resort day, I would do that in the middle of the trip when you need to recharge and catch up on sleep.
If the OP has regular 4 day tix which can be extended cheaply, then I would definitely suggest doing that. After 4 days, adding an extra day in the park is relatively cheap and that would be ideal. If the tickets can’t be extended then I’d pursue either B or C - checking out the monorail resorts/WL/AKL/BC/YC for Xmas decorations and a good meal can be a lot of fun and Disney Springs has a lot to offer as well. But if I can do an extra day in the parks on the cheap, I’d lean that way…
