Random thoughts from our 11/3-11/10 trip

[VeronicaZS]

We are still decompressing from our amazing trip. We stayed in AoA with 7 park days and our first MVMCP. Here are some random thoughts.

TSA Precheck - So awesome and so easy. Can't believe we didn't do it earlier.

EMM / 8am vs. 9am openings - I am SO glad we avoided morning EMM and all our park openings were 9am. We are firm believers in rope dropping but we had an exhausting week and we had to move ourselves along just to be on time for 9am openings, we tried to be at the parks by 8:15-8:30. Getting ready and out the door an hour before then would have felt like punishment and I was so glad we could let the kids wake up on their own. I will actively avoid EMM and even target parks that are doing the paid early events so I am guaranteed that they won't change the opening time a week or two before the trip.

7 park days - Speaking of exhaustion, while we loved everyday of the trip we did to much (48 miles!!!). We should have built in a day of rest in the middle. It is just so tempting to add park days especially past 5 days when the price difference is negligible even for a family of 5. It was also really hot so we would have enjoyed and appreciated a day at the pool and some relaxed shopping at Disney Springs.

4th Fastpass is a double edge sword - I feel like I may be a black belt at the 4th FP. I like to book 9:30-10:30, 10:30-11:30, 11:30-12:30 and use the last one right at 11:30. I had a lot of luck getting additional FP but now that we have the 4th trip in 4 years on the books I think we need to be more selective about what we get. No more crisscrossing the park or waiting one more hour so we can use one last "good" FP. Especially early in the trip when you are feeling all peppy. The boys are old enough now where they can keep up but it does catch up with all of us eventually.

MVMCP - I am still processing how I felt about our first party on 11/9 which was not a sell out. After reading the boards I was expecting it to be crowded and it felt pretty (too?) crowded to me. It was also our last night of the trip and we were exhausted (sensing a theme?!?!). I think I would have been way more positive on it if every step wasn't painful. The parade and fireworks were nice and the overall atmosphere was A LOT of fun but if I ever did it again I would never do another park that day. We spent the morning at HS, left at noon but we were still tired. We ate at Crystal Palace at 4:40 and weren't done until 6 which was fine with me because we needed to slow down but the kids filled up on treats there. We still did some treat lines but were stuffed so I took home probably 30 cookies which I am not unhappy about . (There were 7 in our party and at Pinocchio Haus they just hand you 4 cookies). I was very happy we did matching shirts and I bought Christmas light up necklaces on amazon because it contributed to the special atmosphere.

Jersey Week crowds - I think we are used to crowds and are pretty good about planning for that (rope drop, FP strategy, mobile order food etc.). But this trip I noticed that FP lines felt a lot longer. There were many rides where the FP line extended well beyond the tapstiles in some cases with 10-20 min waits just to check in. We are "walk with a purpose" type people so the crowded walkways didn't really bother us, we are pretty good about finding a seam and moving and weaving. Overall the crowds didn't bother us enough to turn us off Jersey week however after 2 Nov trips my preference would be to skip next year and go during Flower and Garden.

Edit Transportation - Last year we stayed at the YC and of course it was lovely but I didn't think it was $1500 more lovely than AoA where we get 2 bathrooms and much more space. Our rationale was that we would save money on the hotel and put it towards dining and transportation. We only ate at AoA once on our arrival morning and took Lyfts as needed. For the most part the busses worked great but if thought we would have to wait for more than one bus we just used Lyft which was always quick and efficient. For all our Epcot visits we automatically took a Lyft to BW and walked from there. What a pleasant way to enter the park. The only time we took the Minnie Van was to MK to get dropped off close to MK. I would totally make all the same decisions again but I think DH was missing the YC.

Doing new stuff - Disney is so overwhelming it is easy to go back to what is familiar or what worked well from the last trip. For our 4th trip there were still some things that we had never done and I made a point to check them off the list; Carousel of Progress, Hall of American Presidents, Sorcerors of MK, Voices of Liberty, Primeval Whirl, Muppets @ HS, various characters. We also purposefully tried new QS and TS restaurants and were glad we did. There were a few other attractions that we still didn't get to and that is okay; Void, American Experience, AK Tree lighting and Rivers of Light.
There is always the next trip!!!

 

[mousehouse23]

Wonderful trip report. Thanks so much for sharing it! I'm glad the Christmas party wasn't too crowded.

I completely agree about adding a down day to the middle of an itinerary. It's always a struggle to forego a day at the parks, but we're always glad we take some time to rest and recuperate. Not just bodily, but there's a psychological toll to being go, go, go all the time, too. There's nothing "vacation" about it.

A trip to WDW is so much fun, but it's also an endurance test, physically and mentally. I'm sure you'll take what you learned from this one and make your next trip even better!


p.s. I groused at my husband for being so insistent about TSA pre-check. Now I thank him every single time we sail through that line! It really was so worthwhile.

 

[Disnsyncey]

I walk with purpose too! and I learned my skills at WDW

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I completely hear you on the early mornings (I think you mean EMH though). We had a8 am open added to the last day of our week. Ha, that's nice, but we won't be there. Too hard after a week at Disney. We also have to be judicious in our attendance at fireworks. We limit it to 2, maybe 3, night time shows. Which nearly kills me. It is very hard to leave the park right as a show is starting (we always mean to leave earlier than that and fail).

We do take a mid week break. The last two years we have done partial days (the allure of cheaper park tickets) but this coming trip the kids actually said no, that they would rather stay at the resort.

This will be our 4 th trip with kids and a lot of the attractions you listed are ones we haven't done with our kids either.

Glad you had a great trip.

 

[AngiTN]

I'm totally on the TSA Pre-Check bandwagon too. MCO is why we got it. I've said for years that they can fund the entire program on people who buy it after going through security at MCO alone.

EMM / 8am vs. 9am openings - I am SO glad we avoided morning EMM and all our park openings were 9am. We are firm believers in rope dropping but we had an exhausting week and we had to move ourselves along just to be on time for 9am openings, we tried to be at the parks by 8:15-8:30. Getting ready and out the door an hour before then would have felt like punishment and I was so glad we could let the kids wake up on their own. I will actively avoid EMM and even target parks that are doing the paid early events so I am guaranteed that they won't change the opening time a week or two before the trip.

This is confusing me.
EMM is the early morning paid event.
Do you mean you will avoid EMH?
We do avoid EMH except for Holiday times and then we utilize it. But changing park hours have never really bothered me since we don't book PPO ADR. I guess because we don't rope drop.

 

[nkereina]

OP - thanks for your report! Love these quick hit styles of posts. 4th FP worked well for us too. We took it a step further and attempted to modify our pre-booked FPs after checking into the one prior, by moving up the times to make the most of the morning!

This is confusing me.
EMM is the early morning paid event.
Do you mean you will avoid EMH?
We do avoid EMH except for Holiday times and then we utilize it. But changing park hours have never really bothered me since we don't book PPO ADR. I guess because we don't rope drop.

I think OP means they will go to the parks with Early Morning Magic, because you can safely assume WDW won't move up the opening time when EMM is going on. In other words, if the park is due to open at 9am and EMM is scheduled, you can count on a 9am opening and not a last minute change to an 8am opening. This is what I took it to mean.

 

[EmmyKay]

I was there the same week! I found issues at the FP entrance with confused people that didn't know how to use FP and were asking cast members. I encountered this several times where people without FP would block the entrance.
I feel like a 4th FP black belt too!!! We really didn't wait for anything.

 

[heidijanesmith]

Great trip report!

Thanks for all of your thoughts and reviews.

 

[AngiTN]

I think OP means they will go to the parks with Early Morning Magic, because you can safely assume WDW won't move up the opening time when EMM is going on. In other words, if the park is due to open at 9am and EMM is scheduled, you can count on a 9am opening and not a last minute change to an 8am opening. This is what I took it to mean.

I think that is what they meant too. But that's not what they typed, hence the confusion and why I asked if they meant EMH

 

[AngiTN]

I was there the same week! I found issues at the FP entrance with confused people that didn't know how to use FP and were asking cast members. I encountered this several times where people without FP would block the entrance.
I feel like a 4th FP black belt too!!! We really didn't wait for anything.

I've seen this too. I wonder if it would help if they marked the entrances better?

 

[nkereina]

I think that is what they meant too. But that's not what they typed, hence the confusion and why I asked if they meant EMH

Oh, you're right - I read it correctly in my mind and didn't even notice the typo! lol!

 

[nkereina]

I was there the same week! I found issues at the FP entrance with confused people that didn't know how to use FP and were asking cast members. I encountered this several times where people without FP would block the entrance.
I feel like a 4th FP black belt too!!! We really didn't wait for anything.

I've seen this too. I wonder if it would help if they marked the entrances better?

Yep, also experienced this! I think maybe larger signage would help, but one of the problems we saw is that people who are not familiar with the process will cautiously stroll up and wait for direction from the CM stationed at the FP entrance, and they all wait behind the one scanner. If the CM is distracted or helping someone else, these people don't know enough that they can scan their bands on both sides and continue through without even interacting with the CM.

We also saw a lot of people who were a couple minutes early that were stopped by the CM from entering, and instead of waiting off to the side, they loiter in front of the entrance and clog up the walkway. As if they are waiting for the CM to say "ok its time now!"