Is SWGE impacting your trip? Discuss your plans here!

[rteetz]

If you do try to go to Hollywood studios and avoid SWGE do you think it would be better to go in the morning when everyone is flocking to SWGE and free up other rides? OR would the evening be better after things have died down a bit? Or maybe by the evening people would be done at SWGE and moving to different parts of DHS‍ So many questions hahaha

I think if you rope drop DHS and avoid SWGE you’ll get a good amount in but as the day goes on and people spread out those lines at all the attractions will climb. Late at night they will Fall some but I think rope drop may be the best bet to get other rides in when SWGE is open.

 

[fiasco32]

Not me. Disneyland is a dump. I'm not going there again. Like my then DS15 puts it after our last Disneyland trip 5 years ago,

"Disney World is like Cinderella. Disneyland is like Cinderella's older, uglier sister."

And what's ugly about Disneyland? Anaheim. What a dump.

Beg to differ.

There are quite a few things that Disneyland has over Disney World. California Adventure is Disney's third best park, behind MK and AK. The toon sections of Disneyland are really well done (much better than the Circus section of MK...blech), and MK doesn't have the Matterhorn, which is a Disney icon.

Also, Anaheim is certainly no more of a dump than the greater Orlando area.

 

[rteetz]

Beg to differ.

There are quite a few things that Disneyland has over Disney world. California Adventure is Disney's third best park, behind MK and AK. The toon sections of Disneyland are really well done, and MK doesn't have the Matterhorn, which is a Disney icon.

Also, Anaheim is certainly no more of a dump than the greater Orlando area.

Third best is an opinion

Disneyland has a lot more attractions to eat people up vs. WDW. Disneyland has smaller walkways and such though.

I also agree that Anaheim is no more a dump than Orlando is.

 

[iona]

We’re going to be there at the end of September/beginning of October. When we first booked and they were saying “late fall” I was hopeful we might catch some previews. When they changed it to “fall” I was hopeful that it would be open when we were there. Then people on the boards started saying that it wasn’t likely to open until late November/December (is December not winter?) and now people are upset that it’s going to be open in September. This all leads to my question - when is fall? I’m from the UK so obviously our seasons are a little different but I always thought that the Food & Wine Festival was in the fall and that therefore September was in the fall?

I’m not trying to upset people who are frustrated that their carefully planned trips have been disrupted (indeed I need to redo all my own park plans) - I’m just trying to figure out the Disney seasons for future reference - particularly given all the things that are opening in the next few years.

 

[WaltsMartini]

I feel like I went through the 5 stages of grief when this announcement came out! I'm finally at "acceptance." Here's how I got there:

Background - dates are 9/11/19 - 9/15/19, with 3 days of park tickets, no hopper. This will be DS(4)'s first trip. I was VERY purposeful in picking these dates due to low crowd projections, my husband's absolute hatred of crowds, and the blogsphere's statements that "Star Wars won't open until at least November." I was also very purposeful in making this a short trip to ease my DHH (Disney Hating Husband) into a trip, with hopes these will become more frequent.

At first when I heard the news, I actually almost cried. So much strategizing gone to waste. I was going to cancel and try for August 21 - 25 instead. This made flights more difficult for us, but would avoid the opening.

The Touring Plans post about crowds not changing that much in other parks and still being ok and only moderately higher in DHS other lands, along with a friend who goes 1 - 2 a year saying that she doesn't think crowds will change that much outside of DHS, talked me out of it.

Unfortunately, Toy Story Land is really important to us - my son is obsessed with the movies. Our plans had been to do DHS Saturday 9/14, last day of our trip. I am going to wait until July and closer to FP booking, however, what I may do is buy a fourth day of park tickets, add the hopper option, and do DHS FPs on BOTH arrival day 9/11 for the evening, and still do FPs for first thing in the morning on Saturday 9/14. If, leading up to our trip, it is looking like DHS is totally crazy, we can hit Toy Story Land on arrival day in the evening, and then use Saturday 9/14 to re-visit other parks (only doing MK, AK, and DHS this trip). And, if he totally loves Toy Story Land, then we have the option of going again on Saturday.

It is NOT ideal - but this is what Disney fandom has been training me for LOL - the ability to be flexible and know of lots of other options if things don't go how we planned!

 

[vacationer1954]

Help me understand. How come so many are bothered by this early SWGE opening? I mean Disney is only doing what they set out to do.

Of course, and they're doing the right thing. Guests are expressing frustration and different people express frustration differently.

Disney vacations really do lend themselves toward frustration because there is such a large financial cost and many magical experiences can turn on small differences. We did Caring for Giants and the Illuminations Dinner Package last week, and if it rained both would have been disappointing. That's the risk we take when we book nonrefundable experiences. We all would love more control over how things go for us, in life in general but especially when we are supposed to be "not working". That's just not the way things work. Luckily, overall, those risks we take visiting WDW pay off more often than not. You just need to take enough of those risks to see the overall.

Take the emotion out of the situation, view it logically and you'll have less heartbreak.

I don't think guests need to take emotion out of the situation. I just think we need to not tie our emotions up in expectations that we can or have controlled something that we actually can't or haven't.

We were in a DVC studio last week. Quite frankly, we like king beds, not queen beds. That's something we can control. We changed our reservation for December to a 1BR so we can have a king bed (along with the other advantages of the larger villa). We want to visit SWGE in December. We even moved our trip from November to December to increase the chances. Before the announcement, it was a big risk. They could have announced that SWGE was opening the day we leave. They could still announce that Rise of the Resistance doesn't open until we're on our way home, or it could end up that due to capacity controls we won't be able to visit SWGE even though it will be open. These are things that we cannot control and so we are prepared to be satisfied with either result - well, we'll be satisfied if we don't get to visit SWGE, delighted if we do.

So I don't think it is a matter of taking the emotion out of the situation, but just changing the default so that the default is satisfaction (rather than anger) when a risk we take doesn't pay off, and delight when a risk we take does pay off.

It is NOT ideal - but this is what Disney fandom has been training me for LOL - the ability to be flexible and know of lots of other options if things don't go how we planned!

Definitely.

 

[mshanson3121]

To avoid it I would go at rope drop. Two years later and this is solid advice for avoiding Pandora and getting the rest of AK to yourself. One year later and still true for TSL and the rest of HS.

My big question is, how bad will the line be to just get into the park at rope drop? Say the park opens at 8, what time would you need to be there?

 

[Spencer Wright]

Our trip is August 14th-25th and we are not making any modifications. I am excited for SWGE, but not over the moon. I am thinking it might cause a slight or possibly large increase in crowds toward the end of the trip. But as others have said with school and such, it will be hard for many to reschedule.

When the date was announced I was surprised how earlier they made it, and I sort of shrugged my shoulders. As of now, we are making more of a focus of doing the 'headliner's' earlier in the trip. As long as I can get on the People Mover I'm good!

I am very interested to see what the team might have to say about this topic on Tuesday!

 

[heart goes boOm]

My bf and I are going on September 9-14. I haven’t read this whole post yet... but I will after I post my question! But I keep hearing that it will be CRAZY that people cancel/postpone their trips. I don’t really want to cancel or postpone and my boyfriend said SWGE is not a priority. F&W is. We will only get two Park days with a park hopper. Should we just avoid HS altogether? Or would the other parts of HS be okay?

 

[jlundeen]

The more you look at Disney as a corporation that puts shareholders first, the less you will have feelings of betrayal. It's not about you, this isn't an affront on your personal vacation.

It's business.

I am a shareholder.

Since the purpose of this thread was to ask people how they are impacted by the announcement of an earlier than anticipated opening of this new attraction, many of us responded with our personal story.

We all understand that Disney is in business to make money. However lectures about why we should not feel the way we feel are not helpful.

Some are extremely excited about this, some are not. Just because not everyone shares the same opinion is no reason to belittle them.

 

[Disneylover99]

My bf and I are going on September 9-14. I haven’t read this whole post yet... but I will after I post my question! But I keep hearing that it will be CRAZY that people cancel/postpone their trips. I don’t really want to cancel or postpone and my boyfriend said SWGE is not a priority. F&W is. We will only get two Park days with a park hopper. Should we just avoid HS altogether? Or would the other parts of HS be okay?

Nobody really has any idea how this is all going to play out. Check out the reports daily once SWGE opens and decide what you want to do then.

 

[yulilin3]

My bf and I are going on September 9-14. I haven’t read this whole post yet... but I will after I post my question! But I keep hearing that it will be CRAZY that people cancel/postpone their trips. I don’t really want to cancel or postpone and my boyfriend said SWGE is not a priority. F&W is. We will only get two Park days with a park hopper. Should we just avoid HS altogether? Or would the other parts of HS be okay?

you will have a week and a half worth of reports so that will be helpful to you. Make a realistic, flexible plan, get your fps and have a positive attitude. It will be very busy but you can still have a good time just by planning on keeping up with the crowd reports

 

[TheMaxRebo]

If you do try to go to Hollywood studios and avoid SWGE do you think it would be better to go in the morning when everyone is flocking to SWGE and free up other rides? OR would the evening be better after things have died down a bit? Or maybe by the evening people would be done at SWGE and moving to different parts of DHS‍ So many questions hahaha

Hard to say ... I think if you went at rope drop it would be crazy to deal with rope drop, but once you are in the rest of the park would probably have low crowds and be great to be in - just how crazy will rope drop be to have to deal with? Or might they set it up with some tapstyles and areas for people going to GE and others for the rest of the park so it actually isn’t bad for those not going to GE?

Also, I suspect there may be a lot of new visitors that are there for GE and not used to how WDW works ... will they know about “rope drop”? So many questions!

 

[heart goes boOm]

The question was mostly because at 60 day mark it’s either I will need to make a FP for Slinky Dog or save it for Frozen

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Beg to differ.

There are quite a few things that Disneyland has over Disney World. California Adventure is Disney's third best park, behind MK and AK. The toon sections of Disneyland are really well done (much better than the Circus section of MK...blech), and MK doesn't have the Matterhorn, which is a Disney icon.

Also, Anaheim is certainly no more of a dump than the greater Orlando area.

Definitely a matter of opinion. I was really disappointed with DCA - especially as a family with small kids. To me it ranks last of the domestic parks. I also found Disneyland property to be way too crowded. I will say I found it to be better maintained than the Florida MK and food overall (especially quick service) was better (though I think WDW is improving).

Also found character meets to be a disorganized disaster there and CMs were often worse (yelling at guests, etc). Obviously all comes down to personal experience

Hard to compare the surrounding areas as obviously very different situations

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The question was mostly because at 60 day mark it’s either I will need to make a FP for Slinky Dog or save it for Frozen

I don’t think Frozen is getting the long lines it used to .... if you are interested in riding both I would get Slinky Dog and just roll with it

 

[heart goes boOm]

We’re going to be there at the end of September/beginning of October. When we first booked and they were saying “late fall” I was hopeful we might catch some previews. When they changed it to “fall” I was hopeful that it would be open when we were there. Then people on the boards started saying that it wasn’t likely to open until late November/December (is December not winter?) and now people are upset that it’s going to be open in September. This all leads to my question - when is fall? I’m from the UK so obviously our seasons are a little different but I always thought that the Food & Wine Festival was in the fall and that therefore September was in the fall?

I’m not trying to upset people who are frustrated that their carefully planned trips have been disrupted (indeed I need to redo all my own park plans) - I’m just trying to figure out the Disney seasons for future reference - particularly given all the things that are opening in the next few years.

September 21 to December 21 is Fall! HTH!l

 

[SaintsManiac]

My big question is, how bad will the line be to just get into the park at rope drop? Say the park opens at 8, what time would you need to be there?

For the first week/month? Who knows? I can't even figure out a time for Thanksgiving week since ROTR could be open then.

I'm prepared to go at 5am if I have to. I'm hoping by 3 months in I can book an early morning event.

 

[cebfennell]

We check in opening day, so we will zero reports to go off on how to handle DHS. I thought about completely avoiding SWGE but my 4 year old is dying to go on slinky dog dash since we missed it last year and our other kids love the Aerosmith coaster and tower of terror. So I’m trying to decide if I should plan to go to DHS on Saturday August 31 which was original day we had planned or move it until Monday September 2 hoping for more fast pass availability. Not sure if crowds will really be any different. Wish I would have planned out trip a couple weeks later so I would have at least some info on how things were planning on at SWGE!

 

[cebfennell]

Also, if the park reaches capacity and you can’t get it, what happens to the fast passes you previously made? Are they just gone and you’re screwed? Does Disney give you new ones?