What would you do?

katyringo

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 21, 2017
Okay. We have 4 day passes and 1 day in each park.

current plan is that our plane lands at 1pm on arrival day. Check into pop and then we have dinner and shopping planned at Disney springs. 1 day at each park and our last day we are doing AK before it flight leaves at 5pm.

I am worried about missing out on Rise.

so I am debating that upgrade to 5 day passes an on arrival day we head for Epcot. We could maybe still go to Disney springs for a late dinner after Epcot closes. We could then do 2 full days at HS and thus two chances for rise. I also think my husband and I will most enjoy the rides at HS. For reference our favorite rides at Disneyland are incredicoaster and guardians.

thoughts? I really want to visit Disney springs. I guess we could go to Disney springs after one of the HS days as well since they close at 7..

hummm..
 
We are planning on 5 full days, and I was heavily debating on which park to duplicate. My son and his GF really want to do the Star Wars stuff, and after doing some reading about Rise, we decided to go with DHS for the duplicate day in case our first day is a disaster. If you can swing the extra day and are set on Rise, from what I'm reading it's worth it to have the extra day as a back up (again, no personal experience, just what my research has led to).
 
Hey Katy!

It's not a bad idea to upgrade to a 5 dayer and squeeze in EPCOT on that first day. There are some pros and cons with it.

If the plane gets in on time, you gotta factor in the ME over to Pop and getting sorted out before heading to EPCOT. From Pop to EPCOT with the Skyliner - you're looking at about 20 min in fly time there. By the time to get to EPCOT - you won't really have a WHOLE lot of time in the park. Now, it doesn't have as much currently with the ICM's not there... but it's still a lot of ground to cover from World Showcase to Future World.


I would recommend getting to DHS early. In my experience, it isn't hard to get a boarding pass to secure your times on ROTR.

Pro of 2 days at DHS (my fav park) is that you get to ride all the BEST rides at WDW a couple times. If you haven't been there before I would equally recommend 2 days there. It's just hard to shave off so much time at EPCOT.
 
We're planning two DHS days during our upcoming stay. If ROTR is a priority, I recommend reserving multiple DHS days. That way, if you don't get on the first day, you at least have hope for it working on the other DHS day.

And if you do ride it the first day, you can :banana: knowing that you'll have a chance at a second ride later in the week. This also allows you to spend more time exploring Galaxy's Edge if you're inclined to without worrying that you won't have enough time to see the rest of the park and ride the non-Star Wars rides.
 


We stayed 3 nights in August and made 3 park resies for DHS. The first day, we got to ride it!! The 2nd day, they shut the ride down before our boarding group the 2nd day. The third day, the attraction was down the whole day. When we did get boarding groups I got 11 the one day, and 16 the other.
 


Speaking for myself: I booked 1 day at DHS. If I miss out on ROTR, I miss out. It will be there next year or in 15 years or whenever I get back there (my last parks trip to WDW was over 14 years ago). DHS is the park I enjoy the least, especially now with no shows running, and the removal of one of Disney's best rides, the GMR.
 
Okay. We have 4 day passes and 1 day in each park.

current plan is that our plane lands at 1pm on arrival day. Check into pop and then we have dinner and shopping planned at Disney springs. 1 day at each park and our last day we are doing AK before it flight leaves at 5pm.

I am worried about missing out on Rise.

so I am debating that upgrade to 5 day passes an on arrival day we head for Epcot. We could maybe still go to Disney springs for a late dinner after Epcot closes. We could then do 2 full days at HS and thus two chances for rise. I also think my husband and I will most enjoy the rides at HS. For reference our favorite rides at Disneyland are incredicoaster and guardians.

thoughts? I really want to visit Disney springs. I guess we could go to Disney springs after one of the HS days as well since they close at 7..

hummm..

1. I've had many flights delayed over my years of travel. You don't mention when you are traveling, but in winter months, I've had a number of flights delayed/canceled over the years due to major storms. It might be fine in Orlando and your destination, but if the plane came from a city hit by the storm, blam. I usually keep arrival day plans flexible. That said, I have also wound up with a few bonus vacation days over the years.

2. I usually approach by making a rough list of everyone's priorities. If something is high priority, we try to do it. If it is low priority, maybe we don't. Other times, it ends up that we ignore the priorities list, in favor of the most practical. We try hard to just go with the flow of what is realistic, and not get to hung up on any one specific thing happening. Sometimes it is fun to attempt the nearly impossible; we just don't get hung up expecting everything to turn out.

3. While I'd put both Disney Springs and Rise in the attempt category; I'm also inclined to add that you have much more control over the Disney Springs visit.

4. If your family wants to give HS 2 days, you certainly could. When it was my family, I didn't and wouldn't. I just wouldn't structure 2/5 of our visit to prioritize 1 attraction, especially one that is as uncertain as Rise is, unless we really did want to go to HS 2/5 of our trip, but that's my way of prioritizing.
 
1. I've had many flights delayed over my years of travel. You don't mention when you are traveling, but in winter months, I've had a number of flights delayed/canceled over the years due to major storms. It might be fine in Orlando and your destination, but if the plane came from a city hit by the storm, blam. I usually keep arrival day plans flexible. That said, I have also wound up with a few bonus vacation days over the years.

2. I usually approach by making a rough list of everyone's priorities. If something is high priority, we try to do it. If it is low priority, maybe we don't. Other times, it ends up that we ignore the priorities list, in favor of the most practical. We try hard to just go with the flow of what is realistic, and not get to hung up on any one specific thing happening. Sometimes it is fun to attempt the nearly impossible; we just don't get hung up expecting everything to turn out.

3. While I'd put both Disney Springs and Rise in the attempt category; I'm also inclined to add that you have much more control over the Disney Springs visit.

4. If your family wants to give HS 2 days, you certainly could. When it was my family, I didn't and wouldn't. I just wouldn't structure 2/5 of our visit to prioritize 1 attraction, especially one that is as uncertain as Rise is, unless we really did want to go to HS 2/5 of our trip, but that's my way of prioritizing.

Thank you. It’s October and we are coming from Omaha, Lay over in St. Louis. Weather should be fairly stable.

I did go ahead and make us 2 full days at holly woood studios. It’s not just ride there that is a must for us.. it’s every ride there. While at Epcot nothing is really a priority so I think this will work for us.
 
Okay. We have 4 day passes and 1 day in each park.

current plan is that our plane lands at 1pm on arrival day. Check into pop and then we have dinner and shopping planned at Disney springs. 1 day at each park and our last day we are doing AK before it flight leaves at 5pm.

I am worried about missing out on Rise.

so I am debating that upgrade to 5 day passes an on arrival day we head for Epcot. We could maybe still go to Disney springs for a late dinner after Epcot closes. We could then do 2 full days at HS and thus two chances for rise. I also think my husband and I will most enjoy the rides at HS. For reference our favorite rides at Disneyland are incredicoaster and guardians.

thoughts? I really want to visit Disney springs. I guess we could go to Disney springs after one of the HS days as well since they close at 7..

hummm..
If your plane doesn't land until 1pm...if you're using Disney transportation your best case scenario would be getting to Epcot around 330/4...assuming no issues and the park closes at 7. I'd just stick with 4 days...we went last week and had never tried for or rode Rise before and had a group of 11 and got boarding group 3 as we were disembarking Mickey Minnie railway ...As long as you get on your phone at 958/959 and start refreshing you should be ok...if you have more than 1 person with a phone I'd try them all to up your chances, but I think purchasing another tix for 3 hrs at epcot wouldn't really be worth it...especially considering that'd make for a super long day.
 
I'm all for 5 day park tickets either way. If you get on everything you want the first day, you can always switch you second park day rez to MK or whichever park you feel like going back to again. The cost difference isn't that much for the freedom and flexibility you'll have.
 
Thank you. It’s October and we are coming from Omaha, Lay over in St. Louis. Weather should be fairly stable.

I did go ahead and make us 2 full days at Hollywood studios. It’s not just ride there that is a must for us.. it’s every ride there. While at Epcot nothing is really a priority so I think this will work for us.

Yeah, I was late to the party. I posted before I read your later post. With current hours, I can understand why Epcot's not a priority.

In my experience, flight delays/changes can happen any time, so I just always try to plan that they might happen, especially for WDW. On my most recent trip, I got lucky- my flight landed a few minutes early! Flying's just always a bit of a crapshoot.

If HS is a priority, then 2 days sounds like a good option, and as others have said- you are likely to have flexibility either way.
 
That $34 (or so) difference between 4 & 5 days makes it less of a blow if some misadventure happens and you don’t get a long time at EPCOT. Obviously, if you are doing AK on departure day, you are willing to miss some hours. A lot of people report leaving mid-afternoon, as they have ridden everything, some multiple times.

I bought a six-day ticket to make sure I had two opportunities to try for a boarding group. Also know if I ride the first time, i can mix up my itinerary. I was there in January (less than a month after RoR opened), got a BG about 20 minutes after park opening (none of this one-minute opportunity - no COVID spacing reduction in rider volume). Got notified at 6 pm - and then line was nearly two hours! I ended up ditching it after about an hour. Hoping things work out better this week. One day I will ride it. Midichlorians willing.

But I miss the Park Hopper! EPCOT never got a full day with those tickets. I did MK, HS and E w the skyline and monorail all in one day.
 
Do read up here on how to get a BG and maybe watch a YouTube video or two. Make sure it’s a post-COVID video as the process has changed a little.
 
That $34 (or so) difference between 4 & 5 days makes it less of a blow if some misadventure happens and you don’t get a long time at EPCOT. Obviously, if you are doing AK on departure day, you are willing to miss some hours. A lot of people report leaving mid-afternoon, as they have ridden everything, some multiple times.

I bought a six-day ticket to make sure I had two opportunities to try for a boarding group. Also know if I ride the first time, i can mix up my itinerary. I was there in January (less than a month after RoR opened), got a BG about 20 minutes after park opening (none of this one-minute opportunity - no COVID spacing reduction in rider volume). Got notified at 6 pm - and then line was nearly two hours! I ended up ditching it after about an hour. Hoping things work out better this week. One day I will ride it. Midichlorians willing.

But I miss the Park Hopper! EPCOT never got a full day with those tickets. I did MK, HS and E w the skyline and monorail all in one day.

20 minutes of open boarding groups!!??!!
What!!?
 
I appreciate everyone’s input! I think I left out another piece of our decision. I think most people if they are spending a full day in Epcot right now are also there for food and wine. I’ve had weight loss surgery and so there are a couple things i will love to try but eating a drinking around the world isn’t possible.. so that also played into the decision to make HS 2 full days and a shorter time an Epcot.
 

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