We are long time WDW vets. We started going to DLR about 12 years ago. We have been to DLR every year for the last 10 years. We alternate coasts and we also take trips to WDW, with our last WDW trip being last October. Since WDW started FP+, WDW trips involve a lot more planning and can be a lot more stressful. It is true that they are less flexible than trips to DLR. Giving everyone 3 FP in advance instead of 1 at a time like MaxPass (which we love), definitely gums up the system, makes it difficult to move things around the day you are there, and creates longer standby lines in general. For example, before FP+, POTC was generally walk on for us (we go in low to moderate crowd times). I can not remember waiting more than 10 minutes for years and years before FP+. Since FP+, if we do not have a fast pass, the wait is generally 20 to 30 minutes-- we would be excited if it was 15 minutes. Before FP+, if the line was 20 minutes, we would probably have decided to just come back later. Now, it is the norm. DLR is definitely easier, less stressful and very flexible. Before FP+ we would have told you that we liked both DLR and WDW equally. Since FP+, we do find that we prefer the flexibility and lower stress of DLR, but not enough to completely give up WDW. That said-- there is definitely a lot of magic to be found at WDW and it should be experienced. You can have a wonderful time. It is an amazing place, even if it is not quite as amazing as it used to be due to the stress of planning and loss of flexibility. It is not quite as bad as you are imagining, but it does take some work and does not have as much of the spontaneity you find at DLR. Even so, it has a lot to offer, and things to experience that you can't find at DLR.
We love World Showcase at EPCOT- and DLR doen't have anything like that. DH's first question for every WDW trip is "When are we eating at Biergarten". Pandora is amazing- even if you aren't a huge Avatar fan. There is a ton to do at WDW-- and don't let the fact that some of the parks have less rides fool you- there is a lot to explore.
.... For instance, to meet characters at WDW you need to reserve a special meal months in advance or use a FastPass to jump in a line. They don't just come to you on the street.
This isn't exactly true. My DD is an absolute character hound, so we have a lot of experience with characters at both WDW and DLR. You don't have to have a character meal or a FP to meet characters at WDW, There are a ton of characters who meet outside of meals who don't even offer FP. Many of those will be in spots outside were you can see them as you walk through the parks and you can try to visit them that way and a lot of people do-- but without planning you may find the lines too long or already cut off. If there are characters you really want to meet, it is best to do a little planning.
Also, if you watch the wait times, it generally is not difficult to find a time to meet the Princesses and Mickey without a FP without having too long of a wait. Even though we always see a ton of characters, we have not used a FP on a character since Anna and Elsa were new enough to have huge lines and offered FP. We rarely wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for Mickey on Main Street or the Princesses in Fantasyland, without having a FP and we have waited less several times.
DLR has a mix of structured line character meets and non-structured (but still mostly on the schedule and showing up on the app) meets--- certain characters wander in the area designated on the app and interact rather than having formal lines- for example at DLR, rather than having a formal meet and greet line Peter Pan often plays games with groups of guests such as hide and seek, and often Alice and Mad Hatter, or Mary Poppins and Bert will stroll with you and don't stop for a formal line. It makes it feel like a surprise, especially if you aren't examining the app and specifically looking for them in the area. At WDW it is pretty much all structured lines. The characters mostly go to their designated spots and a line forms or has formed before they got there- although there may be a few "surprises" while they are on the way to their spots. . You certainly can still walk by and spot a character and get in line. We tend to do that in the Main Street Town Square area. It is not as easy to do in EPCOT World Showcase because the lines for the characters often form before they come out, and they can get long quickly and also can get cut off quickly. You certainly could still wander by, be surprised to spot a character and get in line; however, with a little planning you can see the characters you are really interested in and avoid the huge lines. I highly recommend Kenny the Pirate's character locator-- it is well worth the subscription. He will tell you what characters you can typically find in each park, their schedule, and the best time to see them to avoid lines.
As far as the character meals, and the most popular restaurants at WDW, yes, it is true it is best to book at the 180 day mark. Be Our Guest books up almost immediately and the character meals book up quickly. Some of the other really popular restaurants book up quickly too. If you don't book, you may find yourself having to stalk the website/app to try to pick up cancellations or better times for your reservations at the restaurants you really want. People cancel all the time, so you can often get that reservation you are looking for, but it can take a lot of work. There are times when I have changed some plans and am looking for a reservation closer to our trip that I am checking multiple times a day for days on end until one pops up--usually with some persistence I can get an ADR eventually. I would recommend booking an ADR for each day of your trip at the 180 day mark-- you can always change them and move them around later based on availability. AllEars has a list of all the restaurants and menus at WDW-- if you want to get ideas. As far as character meals, if you like Pooh-- Crystal Palace is fun. For CRT, while it is expensive, you get to actually eat inside the castle and meet Princesses. The food went through a phase where it wasn't the greatest--but the last couple of meals we have had there have been really good!
At WDW did you end up so tied to The Schedule that it turned into "No Billy, we can't ride the carousel twice in the morning because the other lines get too long. No Janie, you can't take off down that interesting animal trail because we have a Fastpass for Mount Everest"?
I have to admit--- we do find ourselves doing this at WDW. You book the FP+ 60 days in advance, they can be hard to change for the popular things, and they are not always at times that are convenient once you are actually in the park that day. There are definitely times that we have had to quit what we were doing and rush across the park to a FP-- and we also find ourselves criss-crossing the park more due to FP+. Before we would explore the full area at a time-- now our day is controlled by what FP+ we can get for the longer line rides. That is what makes WDW more stressful and less flexible than DLR. It is managable though.
Yes-- I would tell DD she can't ride the carousel again now-- or even at all now because the lines for other rides are getting longer-- but I will tell her she can ride the carousel again later because its line is never that long. I would also do that at DLR on a more crowded day. As far as the animal trails- I am usually begging DD to let me explore them more. LOL. We have a really good zoo at home, and from the time she was 2 until about 10-- DD would just beg to leave AK to go back to EPCOT or MK (she loves Princesses and AK does not have a Princess Presence). Once they started doing the Wilderness Explorer book with earned badges she got more interested, and now with Pandora AK has turned into a full day park even for her.
There aren't nearly as many rides in each park, and it looks like the lines get long really fast, so you need to choose those FPs wisely. So you end up learning all about the rides and about the whole park to figure out which rides you want to do and when you want to do them — so maybe there's not as much chance to be surprised? And if you're on a schedule (and committing a fair bit of each day to transit), do you get to just explore and follow your heart? At DLR, my kid would gleefully disappear into the Tarzan thing or Bug Land or whatever, and we'd follow along because it seemed like the park was built for exactly that -- exploring and being surprised and taking everything in organically.
I don't think it is quite as bad as all this. The standby lines are definitely longer because of FP+, but it is not like you need a FP for every ride you do. What you do have to do is figure out the most popular rides in each park and then have a plan for those. MK is not as hard because of the number of rides. It is pretty easy to navigate that park and to pick up FPs. Peter Pan and 7DMT are probably the hardest to find short lines during the day without FP. Next would be the mountains, although the lines seem to ebb and flow for those in our experience. For AK, FOP, Navi, Everest, and Safari would be the most popular. For EPCOT, Test Track, Soarin and Frozen. For HS--- obviously Star Wars when it opens, Slinky Dog, RNRC and TSM. The FP tiers do cause issues (especially if you have family that prioritizes different rides). WDW could easily solve those issues by removing the 3 FP in advance and going to a one at a time system where they would not need tiers- but it has been years and they have not done that, so I'm not holding my breath. So-- basically for a Tiered park, you have to pick the most important Tier 1 ride for your FP+, and then come up with a plan to try to ride the other Tier 1s without being in a long line (sometimes you will be able to pull one as your 4th FP-- but we never count on that because we have had several times where we could not).
The lines do get longer faster at WDW. I think that is because DLR has a large local crowd and a ton of people staying off property in other areas and it takes a while for them to all get there and filter in-- while WDW is a destination place with a ton of people staying on property or very nearby. Also as we go to DLR in the summer, the parks usually open at 8:00 a.m., where WDW typically opens at 9:00 a.m. when we are there. We love that at DLR the first few hours in the mornings are typically very short lines even on a low crowd day. That said- you will still almost always find things with shorter lines or things to explore. At EPCOT, DD could spend hours just running around from country to country doing the Agent P missions-- while DH found himself beer from different countries, and I had a nice Grey Goose Lemon Slush and shopped or enjoyed the atmosphere while DH and I took turns following her around.
Or does everyone at WDW mostly end up abandoning their plans anyway? I can get myself in the mindset to do that. But WDW sort of pushes people to hyperplan everything — and with all the attractions divided among smaller parks, each with high crowd pressure, it really does seem like access to the must-dos requires that level of planning precision. I never once worried we might not get a chance to do Space Mountain in two days at Disneyland, but it sounds like any one of the big rides at WDW is kind of a one-chance, high-stakes thing involving a FastPass or a pre-dawn rope drop scrum or a really long wait (we aren't park-hopping).
Nope we don't abandon the plans-- those FP+ are important as are the ADRs and the penalties for no-shows for ADRs. We stick to those plans. But our set plans involve those 3 FP+ rides and usually one dining reservation a day. We do not plan every day to the minute-- or plan out every ride. Outside of the 3 FP+ and ADRs, our only plans will be a loose idea of how/when to hit the most popular rides/characters to avoid long lines. I don't think most of the rides are a "one-chance high stakes thing". It is just more stressful due to FP+ and the involvement of some planning. We are not morning people--- we shoot for rope drop and usually arrive at or by about 10 minutes after rope drop. We are not an hour before the park open type people--- although that would make things easier on us. If we were there an hour before rope drop every day-- I would just have a cranky DD. Even so-- we usually get everything we want done. That said-- for last October- without being crack of dawn people and with it being a moderate crowd time-- we would not have ridden Slinky Dog without a FP. The line for it was insane--- I would have been worried about how to get on it had we not had a FP. We were there right as the gates opened our first HS day (which was not our FP day)- and there was an absolute race to SDD. We went that way to ride TSM as we had a FP+ for that first thing in the morning and SDD's line was already 90 minutes by the time we got back there. It was crazy. That line stayed between 90 and 180 minutes the whole time we were there that day. I can only imagine what Star Wars will be like.
If you aren't park hopping--that cuts down on transportation taking chunks out of your day. It is when you go from park to park and it takes an hour to an hour and a half that you can lose big chunks of time.
A lot of advocate breaks during the day-- or a day of break-- but that really depends on you. We typically stay 9 nights and we go to the parks every day. We are also park open to close people most day. DD has always been high energy. You just have to figure out what works for your family. Sadly, in all our years of going to WDW, we have never found time to go to a water park--we just always would rather spend time in the main parks. We do have a big water park at home. I would like to try that sometime. Also, realize that based on the time of year you go-- the weather may not cooperate with water parks. We have been in early December when the high was 80 and it would have worked, and we have been that same time when the high was 50 and there was no way we would have gone (and they even close the water parks sometimes due to cold temperatures). For a first trip, I would focus on the main parks. I would not buy the water park option on the tickets in advance. Unless something has changed-- the price if spending one day at a waterpark- is not much different if you buy in advance or pay for the water parks option (you only save money if you go to water parks multiple days). If you decide you want to spend a day at a water park while you are there- you can do that, but you may decide that the main parks have so much to see that you want to spend all your time in those.
[QUOTE="ErinAlb, post: 60741742, member: 644695"How did you DLR folks find your magic at WDW? Did you have regrets about how you approached it? It doesn't sound like the magic there follows the same vectors that it does at DLR, and it'd be a mistake to hope that it will. But it is called The Most Magical Place On Earth, so I'm assuming its there!
[/QUOTE]
The Magic is definitely there!!! You will find it!!! You will also find surprises along the way. You don't have to research the content of rides, shows etc. if you consider that spoilers-- you just need to know what the most popular things are and if they are important to you to have some sort of plan on how/when to get to those to avoid long lines. Have a great trip!
Don't miss that ride!!
