Hey all,
First. I tend to over-explain things as I like to give detail, so please bear with me...
We are nearly 50 days out until we embark on our WDW and
DCL vacation... and I have a few thoughts and questions that perhaps some of you guys might be able to comment on. Well, we normally wouldn't be caught dead travelling to Disney Parks & Resorts over US Thanksgiving (or comparable holidays) and the weekend that follows it. However, due to changes that were necessarily made in our flight arrival itinerary on the part of our airline, we took it upon ourselves to re-book our arriving flight to arrive into Orlando instead of Miami a few days earlier than anticipated (as we initially planned to do just the cruise) and then just rent a car and drive up to Miami early in the morning of our cruise departure date.
So we went from arriving and sailing on December 2nd in Miami, to arriving November 28th at around 10:30 AM in Orlando. We found good price with my discount to stay the few nights at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, which I've never stayed at so I'm looking forward to that. At the time of re-booking, I didn't realize we would be making a WDW stay overlapping with Thanksgiving... I'm Canadian and have Thanksgiving in October so I initially didn't think anything of it until after booking and then realizing there was a holiday marker on my iPhone calendar and that it was US Thanksgiving... to which I immediately audibly exclaimed, "Oh... crap!!"
Anyways, with all that context out of the way... how bad do you think it will be this year during Thanksgiving and the weekend that follows it? I know historically that it is one of the worst times of year to visit in terms of crowds, but with this year's attendance being lighter than usual... maybe it won't be too bad? The reason I think otherwise though is because of what booking FP+ earlier this month was like. I got online RIGHT at 7 AM EST to book and even though I was right on everything, Slinky Dog Dash was completely sold out and many of the sought after attractions like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Avatar Flight of Passage were not available for morning return times but were giving times out for later in the day (luckily they were there at all, though I typically prefer to get our 3 FP+ selections over with in the late morning/very early afternoon so that we can get on with our day and make more FP+ choices as we go).
I really don't know about this. I've had trips to WDW in August in years past and so long as I was right on the money for getting online to book at 7 AM EST 60 days out, I was able to snag Slinky Dog Dash and other attractions early in the day with no problem. I've never faced the experience of getting online right at my time window and having ANYTHING sold out before... is this a common occurrence? Have I just been lucky in past years?? Slinky was our #1 FP+ priority but we settled for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster instead as we thought that was a logical runner up based on how slow that one moves through people and how long the queues can get.
Which leads me to my next question... we will be visiting Disney's Hollywood Studios on Friday, November 29th... like I said we have a FP+ for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and also Star Tours - The Adventures Continue and Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! scheduled for our day. We also have a 3:05 PM lunch ADR at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. So those are the definites of our day... but I am wondering with Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge now in the mix, how should we deal with our rope drop and first hour plans? Should we rope drop Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run or Slinky Dog Dash when the park opens? What about Toy Story Mania! and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror?? I'm just wondering how we should deal with crossing off those attractions with no FastPasses in play...
Also on the topic of DHS, finding any 2 person ADRs for Oga's Cantina has been impossible, even when I checked months ago. Seems I can find openings on all of the other days we are at WDW, except the Friday we have allotted to DHS (I'm a CM using a mixture of Cast admission and regular tickets, so that's why were a locked in to certain days). So anyways, I tried searching Oga's Cantina for 1 person openings, out of curiosity. Wouldn't you know it, there were several times available throughout the day that I could snag. So, I did... just because I could. Managed a 9:55 AM breakfast ADR. I suppose that my main question here is if I show up there with an ADR for 1, what is the likelihood that my significant other will be allowed in with me? I ask because I know one year when I couldn't get an ADR for 2 for Be Our Guest Restaurant on a past trip, I did manage to find a lunch opening for 1 and I took it, showed up, said I had one other with me and they permitted us in without batting an eye. Not sure if Oga's Cantina would be a little more strict on that...
So other than DHS on the 29th... we plan to get right onto Disney's Magical Express at MCO and once we get to our resort on property, drop our stuff and hit Epcot immediately (FP+ for SSE, MS & SATW) with Disney Springs in the evening after Epcot closes.. Saturday the 30th will be our Magic Kingdom Park day (FP+ for SM, SPLSH & SDMT) and Disney's Animal Kingdom Park in the morning and afternoon of December 1st (FP+ for EE, KS & AFOP), with a return to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the evening as we have tickets to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (it'll be my first time at WDW during the holidays... so I am pretty excited to see all the festive decor). If there are any tips or comments anybody could provide tailored to the above plans, that would be great but I do have one thing that I am mostly worried about...
You see, I have a breakfast ADR at Kona Cafe for 10:55 AM on our Magic Kingdom day... Saturday, November 30th. Our plan was to rope drop the park and spend the first hour and a half or so of the day doing stuff there, then hop the monorail over to Disney's Polynesian Village Resort for breakfast, and then ride it back to finish up the rest of our day at MK. My question is, with it being Saturday on the Thanksgiving weekend, how likely would it be for us to get locked out of the park due to capacity reasons after we return from breakfast? I'm hoping that it is unlikely to happen but you never know. If it does close, would the fact that we have FP+ selections, but also more importantly, a dinner ADR at Be Our Guest Restaurant allow us in if there's any sort of admission block??
Likewise, on Sunday, December 1st, our Animal Kingdom day... we would like to go grab lunch at Sanaa with our ADR at 11:55 AM... but I am also curious to know the likelihood of being shut out of there as well? I'm guessing it would be less likely than MK on a Saturday... but I'm still hoping that somebody with the experience or educated guesswork abilities can help shed some light on these types of situations.
Any other advice or tips to make our trip go all the smoother would be GREATLY appreciated as well! Big thanks to anybody who has read through all my ramblings above...