Hellobee Boards

@caitcat: My som complained through the whole line to the People Mover: “why do we have to do this ride, this is going to be so boring, ugh, I don’t wanna...” and then he fell in love with the moving sidewalk up to the ride and we did it four times.

Ugh---only you guys will understand my mess up this morning. Our fastpass window opened, AND I FORGOT.

I am totally in summer mode. My last day of work at school was last Friday. I set a reminder last week for fastpasses at 7am this weekend, and set an alarm on my phone for 6:30. Well......Summer Mode Me snoozed my alarm because I totally forgot and the kids actually slept till 6:50 this morning (about 50 minutes later than usual). So I got up at 6:50, was taking my sweet time going to the bathroom, having the girls potty, brushing teeth, etc. At around 7:05, I turned my phone of airplane mode and THEN got all the reminders. AUGH. Was logged in by around 7:10 and already, some of my fastpass plans were gone or had bad times. I was literally running through the apartment, looking for the laptop and charger cord and my 5 year old asked, "why is mommy so stressed?" hahahaha.

Anyway, this is what we got in the end:

We arrive on a Sunday afternoon, we have a booked dinner at Boma that evening. I may still change that to Dinosaur.
Monday: Hollywood studios: I booked Early Morning Magic a long time ago and paid for it, so we'll already be riding all the Toy Story land rides. I used my fastpasse on just shows. I don't think we'll spend all day in the park. I do have a dinner reservation plus the reserved seating for the show that evening.

Tuesday: Epcot. I booked Akershus for breakfast at 8 am so we plan to go directly to Frozen. Park opens at 9am, so hopefully it won't matter that we don't have a FP. I'm bummed though, because I wanted to ride it twice (once at opening and once with FP). But the FP were all gone for morning. We used our FP on Nemo (9am), Soarin (10 am), Turtle Talk (11 am). So I guess our plan will be to walk from Frozen back towards where Nemo/Turtle talk are and maybe hit the Mexico ride on the way. Then maybe go back to World Showcase in the afternoon. I do want to try to walk on Test Track, but not sure when to fit that in, since we're trying to do Frozen at Rope Drop. Maybe the lines won't be too bad (crowds right now are fairy low--3-5 the whole time we are there).

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom. We have breakfast at Tusker House at 8 am. Fastpass at Kilamanjaro Safari at 9am, Kali River Rapids at 10, Na'vi River Journey at 12. This is because all of the FOP fastpasses were already gone?!! I'm hoping there will be some FOP fastpasses the day of. Do any of you know what times they tend to release the day-of FOP fastpasses? Everything else, we'll attempt to walk on. Should be lower crowds, so not expecting too many lines, and of course after we've used our FP, we'll try to book more.

Thursday: Magic Kingdom. I have BOG booked for breakfast, but I guess now I will cancel it because they changed opening ours from 9am to 8am. And our rez was for 8:05, so now it's pointless. I got FP for Peter Pan at 8 am, Belle's enchanted house at 9am, and 7 dwarves at 10:30 am, so we'll just walk on all the other Fantasyland rides between our FP, and hopefully rebook more FP in after we use ours. We have the Festival of Fantasy lunch package booked at Tony's Town square. Everything else for that day is up in the air--we'll just see what FP we can get and which lines are shortest.

Friday--our last day. Here's one of my problems. We have park hopper tix because we booked "free dining". I had planned to do a 2nd day in Magic Kingdom, since there's so much to do there. HOWEVER, there was 1 Flight Of Passage fastpass for that day in Animal Kingdom rom 2:30-3:30. I booked it in a panic as a backup in case the lines are never short the day we are in AK. We *can* do MK in the morning and then go to AK in the afternoon for FOP. But is that crazy with a 4 and 6 year old? I guess we'd do an Uber or something to go between parks just that once. Is FOP worth doing that? Also, I can't book at FP in MK for that morning, it says you can only book FP for 1 park/day. Why is that, when people have park hopppers? Anyone know?

Anyway, since we have free dining, we'll have tons of snack and 1 counter service credit each day as well, but I'm thinking of not planning those and just seeing where we are in each park. I don't want to try to plan every minute of the day.

Also, I'm still not sure which big rides my newly-turned-6 year old will want to ride. She says she wants to ride everything, but not sure she'll actually want to do Expedition Everest, Rock N Roller coaster, Space Mountain, etc. She'll be just tall enough for all of them. In any case, I didn't FP any of those, so I guess it will also depend on lines, since we'll have to do rider switch.

My main issues to decide are what to do about Friday (go to 2 parks, just to get on FOP?). And Star Wars is going to open the Thursday we are there, but our HS day is Monday, so it looks like we will miss all the crowds completely. I'm kind of wishing they'd be doing a soft opening before the official opening.....do you think there's a change of that?

@Anagram: Ugh that is annoying but it looks like you got some great stuff booked! Also remember that people's plans change so you can definitely keep checking back for FP availability between now and your trip and things may magically open up!
I skimmed your plans some but I wanted to mention that the Nemo ride at Epcot is rarely that long of a wait each time we've been there so you may find that when you arrive with your FP you might not want to use it - don't scan it! Just go with the regular line, enjoy the ride, and swap it out for another FP later in the day if that's the case.

@Hypatia: We did Akershus breakfast when my oldest was 3 and it was AMAZING. We enjoyed it more than the Cinderella castle breakfast honestly. The food was really very good and the princesses were so attentive at our table. They chatted with LO, signed her autograph book, and it helped us not to have to use fast passes or wait in line for any of those princesses later on.

I keep reading conflicting reports of when dining and fast passes open—it’s 6am Eastern, right? I’m in California so I’ll have to be setting an alarm for sure!!

@charm55: thank you!!! Any suggestions for table service for lunch in magic kingdom? I’m hoping to do the early magic morning, in which case we won’t do a sit down lunch since we’ll have a late breakfast. But I want to get reservations for lunch until those dates are released. I don’t really want anything character.

@MommySLP: If you’re on the dining plan, Tony’s Town Square parade Package is a great deal and we love the food. Otherwise I really like Liberty Tree Tavern, especially for lunch.

@Hypatia: I just saw your question. We've never done Akershus for breakfast. Last time, we did Cinderella's Royal Table, and meeting the princesses was a highlight for my kids, but the price is kind of crazy just to see princesses, so we're going to try Akershus this time to compare. Also, my oldest remembers Cinderella's RT from last time and keeps asking me if we are doing the princess breakfast again, so I'm glad I can say yes, but this time we're doing it in Ana and Elsa's house, and she seems satisfied with that.

Also, do your kids like Tower of Terror? It looks like both my 4 and 6 year olds will be tall enough to ride, but I personally don't like big drops and am wondering if I should try to get a FP for that, or just skip it.

@charm55: Okay, that's good to know. So if we pre-order our food, we should be in and out pretty quickly? We may do that then, thanks!

@Anagram: The breakfasts also come with a pastry platter, so in addition to your meal you get, I think, 6 small pastries. You could definitely get away with a meal, the pastries, and a cupcake or something.

@Hypatia: from what I understand, Disneyland is a “locals park”, meaning a lot of people have annual passes. The majority of those annual passes have been blacked out for the whole summer (because of Star Wars opening), meaning they can’t go at all.

Disney World is much more of a tourist destination and so may not see a similar drop in crowd level. However, I think a lot of the Star Wars hype may be overblown and I would still plan on a HS day.

Pandora has been a huge success for Disney at Animal Kingdom - raising attendance considerably and increasing wait times across all attractions. But with a smart touring plan and planning FPs in advance, AK (and pandora) is still totally doable. I’m crossing my fingers it’s all sorted by the time we go next March!!

@Hypatia: our trip is the week stars wars Kab’s opens, but projected crowds are still low. I’m hoping it further siphons people off other attractions and makes it easier to do everything else. But I’ll report back after our trip!

@Hypatia: Disneyland actually required you to book reservations to go to Galaxy’s Edge the first month it was open and reservations while free, it “sold out” within a couple of hours.

Since most people knew they couldn’t go without a reservations they didn’t bother going. But if you had gone lines were minamal outside of the land because of this. Plus not too bad inside because they limited the number of people.

Disney World is not doing reservations, so it’s really hard to try to compare them.

@lulumom: Welcome! We’re going in early November also! How tall is your 4 year old? There are so many rides that little ones can ride - especially if they’re 40 inches.

@skinnycow: Fun! I will have to remember to take her measurement when I get home. I keep forgetting because life is a bit crazy, haha.

@Anagram: See above -- I keep forgetting to measure her but will tonight. We are staying at Pop Century. I'll look into the touring plan, I saw someone else who posted about that and it seemed like a ton of good information.

Hey all!
I made some big changes to our original trip plans this weekend and locked in our FastPasses so I figured I'd pop in here and see how everyone is doing!

@BeatlesFan629: We are also staying at the Doubletree Disney Springs for the first time during our October trip. I am excited to get the benefits of a suite/family room for far less $$ than those offered at the Disney property hotels. Did you book through Disney or through the hotel directly? We did direct, and I am not sure if I can link my reservation to my Disney Experience plans or not...

For our trip, we previously had to change weeknds which worked out fine (planning around a local day when kids already have off school). And now we've decided to do a park-hopper day split between MK in the morning and EPCOT in the afternoon/evening. Our trip now looks like this:
Day 1 - Thurs 10/3
Arrive lunchtime/early afternoon, check-in at the hotel
Swim?
Disney Springs exploring and dinner at T-Rex restaurant. I think riding the carousel they have or little train will be fun for DD1, as will window shopping
Maybe some night swimming for DD1 with one of us if we don't get to swim earlier (or even both)!

Day 2 - Fri 10/4 (DH and my 11th wedding anniversary)
AM - Magic Kingdom
Priorities are riding new/fun rides, meeting Alice in Wonderland (we've missed her at every visit), and eating fun treats!
There are Extra Magic Hours for MK every day thru November but I'm not sure if we'll take advantage of this or not. I overplan and then relax at the park, trying to stay SUPER flexible about what we ride and see. Especially this time with a 10-month old!
My loose plan is to start in Fantasyland with Winnie the Pooh's ride, hit up Cheshire Cafe for a celebration donut, ride the Tea Cups and meet Alice, then go over to Peter Pan's Flight (first FP+). After that, do It's a Small World and get another treat at Pinocchio Haus (Tangled Eclaire). Next FP+ is The Little Mermaid, then we can circle back across the park to Adventureland, stopping at Casey's Corner for mini corn dogs and then Sunshine Tree Terrace for a citrus swirl. Last FP+ is the Jungle Cruise, then after that grab a cheeseburger egg roll from the cart and cool off in the Tiki Room.

PM - EPCOT
Start with meeting Baymax at Future World, maybe also Joy and Sadness. Then off to either Living with the Land and/or The Seas with Nemo and friends. After that hit up the ImagineWorks area to meet Ralph and Vanellope and see what's up with the Chase Visa character spot. Then down to the World Showcase to snack and sip and generally take it slow. Hopefully meet Mulan in China, but otherwise the only experience we really want to do is ride the Mexico ride. I already have a list of all the food that looks best at the different stations for Food and Wine lol.

We have no dining reservations since we plan to bring in some healthy options and buy lots of snacks. We may stay through fireworks at EPCOT or leave earlier to beat crowds and get back to the hotel for rest. Just going to wing it.

Day 3 - Sat 10/5
Enjoy the hotel and pool some more
Back to Disney Springs after checking out to have brunch at Art Smith's Homecoming (possibly meet up with my brother and SIL who live in Orlando)
Drive home and relax with the rest of our weekend before back to reality.

Who has park-hopped? Have you done it with a baby/kid?
I'm trying not to go back to the hotel for naps and just have the baby sleep in the stroller or carrier on the go. We will have a car but I think using park transportation will be easiest so that we can get from the hotel>MK>Epcot>hotel as easily as possible.

@lindseykaye: Joy and Sadness will be gone after September

@lindseykaye: Yeah I'm bummed, DD's favorite movie right now is Inside Out and I was so excited to tell her she can meet Joy and Sadness.

@lindseykaye: I agree- it's so much cheaper with a much bigger space, we figured we had to try it! My only worry is that maybe the bus situation won't be as good as it would be staying onsite. The reviews seem to say it's ok though. Are you guys renting a car or relying on the buses too? I see you were able to link the hotel to Disney experience - I was late responding to you, but we were able to do it too!

@lindseykaye: Minnie vans are great options but they’re pretty expensive - we took them from Beach Club to Magic Kingdom and it was about $35 each time - way more than Uber or Lyft would have been. We needed two car seats so it was our only option (we got bad information about the buses not running until an hour before park opening and we were trying to get to PPO breakfasts).