We spent Sunday, 3/13 at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios and had a great time, despite crowds and a severe cold front (which may have been helpful for early crowd management, as uncomfortable as it was).
We stayed at a Disney Springs hotel, which meant we got 30 min early entry, but not the 7 am slot for booking ILLs. This actually worked out okay for us, as the only thing I would have done is buy the Rise LL, which was obviously not an option this time, but oh well.
So, we are a weird family in that we really like Disney, but, we DO NOT care for Magic Kingdom. I know, sacrilegious to say here, but honestly, MK kind of sucks. My husband and kids think Epcot is boring. I really like it, but that's just me. So, it's really just AK and HS for us.
Our plan was to get as much done in AK before 2 pm, then head to HS with the hopes of getting in at least a few attractions around dinner and close time when the lines might be slightly less busy, which overall worked out pretty well. We did not buy Genie+.
We arrived at the park on 3/13 at a little before 7 am to take advantage of early park entry. It was A. very cold, and B, the first day of Daylight Savings Time. I had on my WINTER COAT and was still a little cold. I think it was about 40, but the "feels like" temp was 32. It also felt like 5 am to us, being on Central time and just flying in the day before. This had the side benefit of reducing the rope drop crowd, I think. We meandered (I mean it, we walked a pretty slow pace, compared to the people full on sprinting) over to Flight of Passage and had about a 45 min wait, most of which we were in motion. After that we had a quick breakfast at the bakery near Safari and then walked on to that ride. We did a few trails and then watched Festival of the Lion King. We decided to skip Navi because the line was an hour and no one thought that was worth it. We went to Dinosaur which had a 50 min wait and then mobile ordered Flame Tree BBQ while in line. After lunch we went to It's Tough to Be a Bug, and then decided to take a bus to HS. Well, fail there, they evidently don't bus park to park anymore. I swear we were able to do this last year.
We took the bus back to our hotel (which I was pleasantly surprised to see had a fairly regular rotation for not being Disney property) and lost about an hour waiting for the bus back to HS, as well as a long ride to drop people off at MK first) and arrived at HS around 3:30. We went to the Indiana Jones show first, since that was the last show of the day, and got out around 5. We got a funnel cake and jumped in line for Star Tours since it was nearby and only had a 35 min wait. Every other ride was 60+ min. After Star Tours, we jumped in the Millenium Falcon line, which was posted at 65 and I think was about 70 min actual. I was underwhelmed last year riding it but we really enjoyed it this time. By this time it was about 8:15, so we could either ride Rise or Tower of Terror, both of which were posting about 2 hour waits. I remember reading that closing time posted waits tend to be inflated, but our last bus was coming at 10:30 so it would be a gamble. We decided to roll the dice on ToT, which ended up being about 60 min total and an absolute blast to ride in the dark. We ran out of the ride, stopped in the bathroom, then sprinted over to the bus lines and got on at 10 pm.
So all in all, it was 7 am to 1:30 pm in AK, followed by 3:30 to 10 pm in HS, and I think a highly productive day. The crowds were high, but I did not notice any bad behavior- no line jumping, no pushing, a pretty mellow start to what I heard would be a crazy week.
On the other hand, we went to Disney Springs twice this past week, and that was shocking. Lines just to get into stores! Any store! Planet Hollywood being out of reservations! a 30 person line just to put your name in at Rainforest Cafe! Insane.
We stayed at a Disney Springs hotel, which meant we got 30 min early entry, but not the 7 am slot for booking ILLs. This actually worked out okay for us, as the only thing I would have done is buy the Rise LL, which was obviously not an option this time, but oh well.
So, we are a weird family in that we really like Disney, but, we DO NOT care for Magic Kingdom. I know, sacrilegious to say here, but honestly, MK kind of sucks. My husband and kids think Epcot is boring. I really like it, but that's just me. So, it's really just AK and HS for us.
Our plan was to get as much done in AK before 2 pm, then head to HS with the hopes of getting in at least a few attractions around dinner and close time when the lines might be slightly less busy, which overall worked out pretty well. We did not buy Genie+.
We arrived at the park on 3/13 at a little before 7 am to take advantage of early park entry. It was A. very cold, and B, the first day of Daylight Savings Time. I had on my WINTER COAT and was still a little cold. I think it was about 40, but the "feels like" temp was 32. It also felt like 5 am to us, being on Central time and just flying in the day before. This had the side benefit of reducing the rope drop crowd, I think. We meandered (I mean it, we walked a pretty slow pace, compared to the people full on sprinting) over to Flight of Passage and had about a 45 min wait, most of which we were in motion. After that we had a quick breakfast at the bakery near Safari and then walked on to that ride. We did a few trails and then watched Festival of the Lion King. We decided to skip Navi because the line was an hour and no one thought that was worth it. We went to Dinosaur which had a 50 min wait and then mobile ordered Flame Tree BBQ while in line. After lunch we went to It's Tough to Be a Bug, and then decided to take a bus to HS. Well, fail there, they evidently don't bus park to park anymore. I swear we were able to do this last year.
We took the bus back to our hotel (which I was pleasantly surprised to see had a fairly regular rotation for not being Disney property) and lost about an hour waiting for the bus back to HS, as well as a long ride to drop people off at MK first) and arrived at HS around 3:30. We went to the Indiana Jones show first, since that was the last show of the day, and got out around 5. We got a funnel cake and jumped in line for Star Tours since it was nearby and only had a 35 min wait. Every other ride was 60+ min. After Star Tours, we jumped in the Millenium Falcon line, which was posted at 65 and I think was about 70 min actual. I was underwhelmed last year riding it but we really enjoyed it this time. By this time it was about 8:15, so we could either ride Rise or Tower of Terror, both of which were posting about 2 hour waits. I remember reading that closing time posted waits tend to be inflated, but our last bus was coming at 10:30 so it would be a gamble. We decided to roll the dice on ToT, which ended up being about 60 min total and an absolute blast to ride in the dark. We ran out of the ride, stopped in the bathroom, then sprinted over to the bus lines and got on at 10 pm.
So all in all, it was 7 am to 1:30 pm in AK, followed by 3:30 to 10 pm in HS, and I think a highly productive day. The crowds were high, but I did not notice any bad behavior- no line jumping, no pushing, a pretty mellow start to what I heard would be a crazy week.
On the other hand, we went to Disney Springs twice this past week, and that was shocking. Lines just to get into stores! Any store! Planet Hollywood being out of reservations! a 30 person line just to put your name in at Rainforest Cafe! Insane.
