SarahWeasley
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2010
Hi all. Hoping you guys could look at what I'm thinking about for our next trip and tell me if you see any red flags.
We're a mid-30s couple, no kids. This will be our fourth time at WDW; last visit was May 2016. We're staying off-site (so our FP window opens in a few days, which is why I'm trying to get our plans figured out now).
He loves coasters; I like some milder coasters. I like the old-school fantasy stuff but he doesn't, so I mostly let him off the hook for that. He hates getting up early; I can generally get him to the park by 8:30 or so.
So here's what I'm thinking:
Saturday, 9/22:
We're scheduled to land at MCO at about 2 PM. Collect rental car, check in at hotel. Head to MK.
Get FPs for Space Mountain (his favorite), BTMRR (my favorite), and Buzz Lightyear (need to ride at least 2x on our trip). I'm thinking starting FPs at 4:30 PM should be reasonably safe, although I know it's possible we could still not be there by 5:30. (I'm pretty much writing off doing 7DMT on this trip unless we get really lucky with FPs. We rode it last time at DAH and it was good, but not 45+-minute-wait good.)
Besides those FPs, our goals would be to see OUAT and the fireworks, and to do stuff where crowds don't matter: Philharmagic, People Mover, Monsters Inc. If the timing doesn't work out on those, it shouldn't be too big a deal. If we can hit some other stuff with low waits, cool.
I recently found out about refreshing for earlier FPs and will definitely try to utilize that throughout our trip!
Sunday, 9/23:
Morning FPs: BTMRR and Buzz for both of us; Space Mountain for him and Peter Pan for me.
Other priorities are Haunted Mansion, POTC, the Muppets show, and any of Philharmagic, PM, or MI that we didn't see yesterday. At some point, I want to ride IASW, Little Mermaid, and Winnie the Pooh, which I'm anticipating I'll be able to get an FP for, and I figure he can go ride Space Mountain again while I'm doing those.
I'm hoping we'd have time to go back to the hotel after all that, and then in the evening I want to go over to AK with the priority being to ride FOP at the end of the night. AK is currently scheduled to close at 8 PM (with RoL at 8:15, which we can skip), so I'm figuring for arrival at the park at maybe 7:15? I don't want to cut it too close. I'm also nervous they'll close the line early and we'll miss our shot. We've never tried getting in line at park closing before.
My hope is that he will love FOP so much that on our AK day he'll be willing to get up early enough to do it again.
Monday, 9/24:
DHS. Get him there as early as I can (which, as said, is likely to be maybe 8:30).
Hit Slinky Dog first, then TSMM. Probably skip the Aliens unless the line is weirdly short. Get Star Tours FPs for, say, 11 AM, and TSMM FPs (gotta ride at least twice) for about 12? (edit: Actually, probably makes more sense to try for TSMM later in the day after B&B, like 2.)
Get lunch somewhere.
I'd like to see the Beauty and the Beast show, so I'm thinking I'd plan to see the 1 PM show, and try to get FPs for RNR Coaster and TOT (neither of which I want to ride*) that he could use (borrowing my MagicBand) while I'm doing that. I'd also be happy to kill time at Little Mermaid, but I don't need to see it.
At some point we'll want to see MuppetVision but that can be anytime.
Go back to the hotel and relax, and have a nice evening somewhere else. (Likely dinner at Monsieur Paul, I have an ADR.)
*He has coerced me twice into riding RNR Coaster with him; for this trip I've bartered with him that I'll try Everest instead. I will miss seeing Ken Marino, though.
Tuesday, 9/25:
Epcot. Probably arrive at 8:30.
My plan here is kind of up in the air because FP availability is worse (it's a PM EMH), so I can't count on anything right now. We want to do Soarin', Living with the Land, MS Orange, and Test Track (together), plus Spaceship Earth and Turtle Talk, and I want to ride FEA. Plus we'll walk World Showcase, of course.
I think I'll just have to wait and see what FPs I can get and try to arrange around that. One thing I have gleaned is that Soarin' queues seem to be way better than they used to be and I should definitely prioritize a TT FP over Soarin'. FEA waits in the morning don't seem that bad these days either (I wouldn't wait more than 40 minutes at most for it, it took me like two years to watch Frozen on a plane and I was underwhelmed).
Wednesday, 9/26:
AK. As said, I'm hoping he will be motivated by doing FOP on Sunday to get up early enough to get a second FOP ride first thing.
If not, I might be motivated to get a Lyft over by myself to ride first thing. We'll see.
Otherwise, I'm not that bothered about this day. I'll get FPs for Navi, Kilimanjaro and Everest (and he'll probably ride Everest again single-rider which has always been fast). We'll also want to ride Dinosaur, ITTBAB, and Primeval Whirl, and do the trails. We might see one of the shows (I've heard Flights of Wonder isn't worth it anymore with the UP! conversion, which is too bad). I think I'd like to see Nemo, we've never managed it. But aside from FOP, I don't feel like there's that much to worry about.
And when we're done at AK, we will head over to Universal for the second part of our vacation!
Any thoughts are appreciated. (And just writing this stuff down certainly helped in itself.) Thanks!
We're a mid-30s couple, no kids. This will be our fourth time at WDW; last visit was May 2016. We're staying off-site (so our FP window opens in a few days, which is why I'm trying to get our plans figured out now).
He loves coasters; I like some milder coasters. I like the old-school fantasy stuff but he doesn't, so I mostly let him off the hook for that. He hates getting up early; I can generally get him to the park by 8:30 or so.
So here's what I'm thinking:
Saturday, 9/22:
We're scheduled to land at MCO at about 2 PM. Collect rental car, check in at hotel. Head to MK.
Get FPs for Space Mountain (his favorite), BTMRR (my favorite), and Buzz Lightyear (need to ride at least 2x on our trip). I'm thinking starting FPs at 4:30 PM should be reasonably safe, although I know it's possible we could still not be there by 5:30. (I'm pretty much writing off doing 7DMT on this trip unless we get really lucky with FPs. We rode it last time at DAH and it was good, but not 45+-minute-wait good.)
Besides those FPs, our goals would be to see OUAT and the fireworks, and to do stuff where crowds don't matter: Philharmagic, People Mover, Monsters Inc. If the timing doesn't work out on those, it shouldn't be too big a deal. If we can hit some other stuff with low waits, cool.
I recently found out about refreshing for earlier FPs and will definitely try to utilize that throughout our trip!
Sunday, 9/23:
Morning FPs: BTMRR and Buzz for both of us; Space Mountain for him and Peter Pan for me.
Other priorities are Haunted Mansion, POTC, the Muppets show, and any of Philharmagic, PM, or MI that we didn't see yesterday. At some point, I want to ride IASW, Little Mermaid, and Winnie the Pooh, which I'm anticipating I'll be able to get an FP for, and I figure he can go ride Space Mountain again while I'm doing those.
I'm hoping we'd have time to go back to the hotel after all that, and then in the evening I want to go over to AK with the priority being to ride FOP at the end of the night. AK is currently scheduled to close at 8 PM (with RoL at 8:15, which we can skip), so I'm figuring for arrival at the park at maybe 7:15? I don't want to cut it too close. I'm also nervous they'll close the line early and we'll miss our shot. We've never tried getting in line at park closing before.
My hope is that he will love FOP so much that on our AK day he'll be willing to get up early enough to do it again.
Monday, 9/24:
DHS. Get him there as early as I can (which, as said, is likely to be maybe 8:30).
Hit Slinky Dog first, then TSMM. Probably skip the Aliens unless the line is weirdly short. Get Star Tours FPs for, say, 11 AM, and TSMM FPs (gotta ride at least twice) for about 12? (edit: Actually, probably makes more sense to try for TSMM later in the day after B&B, like 2.)
Get lunch somewhere.
I'd like to see the Beauty and the Beast show, so I'm thinking I'd plan to see the 1 PM show, and try to get FPs for RNR Coaster and TOT (neither of which I want to ride*) that he could use (borrowing my MagicBand) while I'm doing that. I'd also be happy to kill time at Little Mermaid, but I don't need to see it.
At some point we'll want to see MuppetVision but that can be anytime.
Go back to the hotel and relax, and have a nice evening somewhere else. (Likely dinner at Monsieur Paul, I have an ADR.)
*He has coerced me twice into riding RNR Coaster with him; for this trip I've bartered with him that I'll try Everest instead. I will miss seeing Ken Marino, though.
Tuesday, 9/25:
Epcot. Probably arrive at 8:30.
My plan here is kind of up in the air because FP availability is worse (it's a PM EMH), so I can't count on anything right now. We want to do Soarin', Living with the Land, MS Orange, and Test Track (together), plus Spaceship Earth and Turtle Talk, and I want to ride FEA. Plus we'll walk World Showcase, of course.
I think I'll just have to wait and see what FPs I can get and try to arrange around that. One thing I have gleaned is that Soarin' queues seem to be way better than they used to be and I should definitely prioritize a TT FP over Soarin'. FEA waits in the morning don't seem that bad these days either (I wouldn't wait more than 40 minutes at most for it, it took me like two years to watch Frozen on a plane and I was underwhelmed).
Wednesday, 9/26:
AK. As said, I'm hoping he will be motivated by doing FOP on Sunday to get up early enough to get a second FOP ride first thing.
If not, I might be motivated to get a Lyft over by myself to ride first thing. We'll see.
Otherwise, I'm not that bothered about this day. I'll get FPs for Navi, Kilimanjaro and Everest (and he'll probably ride Everest again single-rider which has always been fast). We'll also want to ride Dinosaur, ITTBAB, and Primeval Whirl, and do the trails. We might see one of the shows (I've heard Flights of Wonder isn't worth it anymore with the UP! conversion, which is too bad). I think I'd like to see Nemo, we've never managed it. But aside from FOP, I don't feel like there's that much to worry about.
And when we're done at AK, we will head over to Universal for the second part of our vacation!
Any thoughts are appreciated. (And just writing this stuff down certainly helped in itself.) Thanks!
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