Pretty good problem to have, but...

[Pisces Princess]

So we are (FINALLY) going to Disney when crowds will be lower than usual. Touring Plans has our MK days at a 1 and a 2 respectively. While I know that no longer means walk-ons for headliners, I am curious if we actually need FPs for those mornings. For perspective, my personal max wait-in-standby-line time is 20 minutes. Our usual FP+ plan is to schedule passes in the morning, then pick up 4th FPs throughout the day. BUT, we will be hopping to other parks in the afternoons (DS and AK) and I would like to schedule our FPs then because their crowd levels are considerably higher.

Any experiences?

Also - yes, I am aware that crowd calendars are often wrong.

Many thanks!

 

[kniquy]

If you plan to RD then you could save your FP for your afternoon park and maybe plan one of your MK days for the evening so that you can see the fireworks - thus planning the FP for MK that evening. We did rope drop a couple of mornings at MK with one heading to PPF and then the next morning going to adventure and frontier land -- it is amazing how quiet the frontier/adventure land area was - 5 minutes/walkons to Splash, BTM and pirates. I think if you really want to do Mine train i would FP that because at RD that is where the masses head (reason why the other side of the park is quiet). We went during a week in April with crowds of 5-7 and were able to tackle most standby rides with <20 minute waits (using the app to monitor). We are going the last week in November with crowds predicted between 1-3 so it will be very interesting to see how it differs.

Touring plans did an interview with the dis unplugged and it was very interesting the theory they had. Despite lower crowds it appears WDW then tailors their staffing or ride capacity to the crowd level - so with that lower crowds could still mean the same wait times or only slightly better. We are still planning on RD to take advantage of that -- simply amazing what you can accomplish early in the day.

 

[Mome Rath]

As above; if you rope drop MK, you can get by with using your FP's later.

 

[NYIrunDisney]

If you rope drop and get right to your longer wait attractions, you'll get by without the FP. I'd suggest doing the 7DMT first. If you REALLY want to do Peter Pan's Flight, I'd suggest doing that right after. That always seems to have a 75 minute wait.

 

[MomOTwins]

I would get the FPs anyway because with low crowds, it will be super easy to get whatever you want for 4th, 5th, 6th FPs etc. Why wait standby if you don't have to?

 

[fractalpotato]

I would get the FPs anyway because with low crowds, it will be super easy to get whatever you want for 4th, 5th, 6th FPs etc. Why wait standby if you don't have to?

If they're park hopping away they're going to wait in standby lines they don't have to wait in those parks instead of getting more FPs in Magic.

OP, I would absolutely (and did this to great effect twice this year already) schedule your passes for the second park and rope drop Magic. You can tear through rides pretty fast, especially if you can sneak in an EMH morning. You'll be frustrated if you book passes because you'll probably end up being able to standby ride things before the corresponding pass even activates.

Matt

 

[Wild4Walt]

I agree, do the FPs for the 2nd parks. We are there during times that show 1 and 2 as well. When I checked same dates in September, it was 3,4,5. I'm planning on the 1st set of numbers we saw for those dates and if 1 and 2 happen, well, yeah. But we're not counting on it so we did get FPs.