Spontaneity Is Not Dead- A Barebones Trip Report

[wisblue]

One of the common themes on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies forum is that, because of ADR’s and (especially) FP+, it is impossible to enjoy a spontaneous trip to WDW. Some of the most frequent comments are that FP+ “requires you to plan every second of every day” and “forces you to keep your face glued to your phone all day”.

We had a recent visit that I think shows that these comments are dramatically overstated, if not downright false.

Here are the details of the trip:

Dates: Thursday, November 6- Sunday, November 9, 2014. This was the weekend of the Wine and Dine Half Marathon, the final weekend for Food and Wine, the weekend of the first Christmas party, and the opening of the Osborne Lights. So, maybe not the busiest holiday time, but not exactly a quiet time. Touring Plans reported crowd levels at the parks we visited in the 5-6 range.

Players: Me (a retired 62 year old), my wife (age not given), and our daughter (24) who is a seasonal cast member and was at WDW to pick up some hours and visit some friends.

Background: We stayed at All Star Movies but, because we planned to enter the parks using our daughter’s gate passes, we did not make FP reservations in advance. We made one ADR for Saturday at Liberty Tree Tavern because our daughter has worked there and we wanted to try the dinner. So, other than that one ADR, and a general idea of what parks we wanted to visit which days, we had no plans.

A few days before we left home, our daughter informed me that her gate passes were blocked out for MK on Friday and Saturday and Epcot on Saturday and Sunday. So, I had to make some mental adjustments to our park schedule and cancel the ADR because I wasn’t going to buy a park ticket just to get dinner. The bottom line is that, as we checked into the resort on Wednesday night, we did not have one minute of any day planned, much less every minute of every day. Also, because my wife and I do not have smartphones, we didn’t have to be concerned about having our faces in our phones.

 

[wisblue]

This is going to be a dry summary because I just want to show what can be done without plans, and not to provide pictures of all of the fun things we did and good things we had to eat.

On Thursday morning, we got to the bus stop before 7 AM to get to 8 AM EMH at the MK. When the park opened, we went immediately to 7DMT and were among the first on the ride. Over the next few hours, we enjoyed Buzz, Pooh, Space (which was down when the park first opened), HM, Splash, BTMRR, POTC, Jungle Cruise, the Move It. Shake It street party, lunch at Pinocchio’s, and browsing through some shops. At about 9 AM we picked up FPs for Space, HM, and JC with return times in late morning and early afternoon, and we used each of those.

In the early afternoon, we took the monorail to Epcot, mainly to spend a few hours strolling around the World Showcase and sampling from the Food and Wine offerings. We did that, saw one of the David Cook concerts, and stayed for Illuminations. We didn’t bother with attractions because we knew we would be coming back the next morning.

 

[wisblue]

On Friday we arrived at Epcot at about 8:30 for a 9 AM (no EMH) opening. Essentially, we were in the exact same position as any offsite guest that didn’t have FPs in advance.

When the park opened, and without getting any FPs, we did Soarin, Test Track (single rider), Mission Space Orange, Spaceship Earth, Nemo, and Figment before heading out to the World Showcase when it opened at 11.

We rode Three Caballeros and walked around the World Showcase (picking up a few small snacks along the way) before exiting at the International Gateway and walking to the Beach Club to get a bus to Downtown Disney.

At DTD we had lunch at Earl of Sandwich and walked through a number of the stores on our way to buying tickets for the early Saturday Cirque de Soleil show. After getting the tickets, we took the boat over to Saratoga Springs (our home resort!) to get a bus to DHS.

Our main reason for going to DHS was to see the opening night of the Osborne Lights. We arrived at DHS at about 4 PM and got a FP for the Movie Ride with a nearly immediate return, and also rode Star Tours (10 minute posted wait, actual walk on) before heading over to Streets of America for the Osborne Lights. After enjoying the lights for about an hour, we walked over to the Boardwalk for something to eat and some sidewalk entertainment before heading back to our room.

 

[wisblue]

Saturday morning we arrived at DHS at about 7:30 for an 8 AM EMH opening. We went right to TSMM, but it had a delayed open so we did RNRC and TOT with no waits before returning to TSMM at 8:35. The posted wait time was 40 minutes, and we waited 25 and exited a little after 9.

My daughter wanted to get a picture with Hiro and Baymax so we went over to the Animation building. My wife and I got a picture with Minnie and did the Animation Academy while DD waited for her picture. After that we did Star Tours, had lunch, and saw the One Man’s Dream Movie, the Beauty and the Beast show, and the Indiana Jones show. We did have FPs (picked up at a kiosk) for ST and BATB, but we really wouldn’t have needed them.

After the Indiana Jones show we left the park (about 2:30) to go back to the room and clean up before going to the Cirque show. In the evening, we went to the show and got something to eat at Splitsville. Because it was starting to rain, and traffic was going to be messed up by preparations for the half marathon, we returned to the room by 9:30. When I returned to the room, I checked MDE and was able to get a reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern for Sunday at 4:30.

 

[wisblue]

The rain from the night before had pretty much left, but it was still a little drizzly and cool when we left the hotel for DAK, where there was AM EMH beginning at 8. We arrived at DAK at about 8:30 and rode the Safari with no wait. We picked up FPs for the Lion King and Nemo shows (which we didn’t really need), and rode EE and Dinosaur and walked up the gorilla trail before doing the two shows (FOTLK at 10 and Nemo at 11). After a quick lunch at Pizzafari, we left the park to go to MK.

We arrived at MK about 1:30. Our main objectives there were to see the FOF Parade, have dinner at Liberty Tree, and see the Elsa castle lighting. On arrival, we went right to the FP kiosk by Stitch and got FPs for BTMRR with a 3:30 return. Then we rode the Peoplemover, got pictures with Minnie and Daisy in Storybook Circus, and browsed through some shops before getting a spot for the parade.

After the parade, we rode BTMRR, had our dinner, saw the castle lighting, visited talking Mickey, and did some walking around the park before heading back to pack for our early morning flight. Our daughter stayed to see the MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, and Wishes, but we wanted to get out before the crowds. In our loop around the park we rode Dumbo, and passed up a few other short lines because we relay weren’t looking to do rides.

 

[wisblue]

I know that, by some people’s standards, we did not do a lot of attractions in our 4 day visit. But, we did hit almost every major attraction in each of the parks, and could easily have done a lot more if that had been our goal, especially if we had tried to do attractions later in the day. That’s when I would have made FP+ reservations in advance if they had been available to us and if we wanted to spend more night time in the parks.

But, we had a great four days without planning anything in advance. My recommendation for anyone that wants to have a fun trip without doing a lot of planning would be:

1. Make as few ADR’s as possible. They dictate your schedule a lot more than FP+.

2. Get park hoppers because they give you maximum flexibility.

3. If you can, make FP+ reservations, but treat them like opportunities and not commandments. If you can’t get exactly what you want, don’t spend a lot of time fretting and stalking for availability. By taking advantage of rope drop or late hours, and the FPs you can get, you should still be able to do what you want.

4. If you do make FP+ reservations, make them for later in the day instead of trying to burn through them in the hopes of getting more FPs later. That availability can be erratic at best, and you might end up wasting those 3 FPs at times when standby lines aren’t that long.

5. Making FP+ reservations later in the day also gives you more flexibility to make last minute changes about where you want to start your day. Some people say they like to go to the bus stop and decide what park to go to based on which bus shows up first. If you have later FP+ reservations, you can still do that and use your FPs later

6. Unless you are afraid that your trip will be severely impacted if you miss one or two key attractions, don’t let your FP+ reservations get in the way of your desire for a more spontaneous trip. FP availability the night before and even same day is still pretty good for rides, except for the most popular things like 7DMT, TSMM, and maybe TT and Soarin. If missing one attraction does make that much difference, then you may not be that spontaneous in the first place.

7. It is obviously going to be a lot more difficult to make late plans at the busiest times of the year. But, then, those times never lent themselves to a truly spontaneous trip in the first place.

 

[DisneyNole12]

I love reading this!!! I agree that spontaneous trips are not the thing of the past. My experiences are different because I only make day or weekend trips but Ive never had a problem doing the things we wanted or eating where we wanted. Just have a little flexibility, get to the parks early, and have fun

 

[disneyseniors]

Wisblu: We went at a very busy time just before Thanksgiving, due to the grandkids and their school schedules. We always go on slower times, just like you did. That time of year, the first 2 weeks of Nov. is a slower time and we have just walked on several rides just like you did, in the past.
That being said, this trip was totally different, ride, fp, crowd - wise!!! The crowds were horrible (for us) and if we hadn't made fp's 60 days out we would not have been able to do the long standbys at all!!! We did rope drop and rode much less than we usually were able to do, all due to crowd levels. The standby's were longer also and crowded due to the fp spreading out the crowds in the parks. There were A lot of ride breakdowns in all the parks, not jus the MK.
So, I think that if you go when it is slower then touring like you did (and we do also) would work without worrying over fp's. We also are in our 60's and go at a slower rate, ride when we want, shop, etc. We don't have a smart phone either and we got by with me writing down our fp's and adr's on a small piece of paper and carrying that with us. Worked well.
If you go while it is crowded, then fp's are needed, IMO. I think that's the difference. We are planning on late Nov or early Dec next year at our usual slower time of year, and we are not worrying about fp's. Sure, I will make them and use them if we want to, not stressing over them.

 

[wisblue]

Most of our trips over the years have been at busy times like Christmas and Easter. On those trips we get to the parks early and do as much as possible before the crowds get too large.

Like I said, I don't think you could ever be too spontaneous at those times. Standby lines were always very long in the middle of the day and paper FPs would run out early. We usually take a break in the middle of the day at those times to get away from the crowds.

FP+ worked great for us last Christmas because we made reservations in the evenings and were able to do 3 headliners that we couldn't have done otherwise. By making the reservations later, we could decide in the morning or the night before where to start the day without affecting the FP+ reservations we have for later in the day.

 

[Laketravis]

Thanks for the trip report, sounds like you enjoyed every minute! Out of curiosity, how many times a year do you go? Like you, I'm retired as well and would like to go more often than we currently do even though a lot of people already think we go a lot.

What other times of the year do you go? Which times seem to be the best for you in terms of weather, cost, crowds, etc?

We actually considered moving to Florida to be closer to the entertainment venues and gulf/atlantic fishing but after researching it found the cost of living in Florida to be substantially higher than Austin, if you can believe that.

 

[wisblue]

Thanks for the trip report, sounds like you enjoyed every minute! Out of curiosity, how many times a year do you go? Like you, I'm retired as well and would like to go more often than we currently do even though a lot of people already think we go a lot.

What other times of the year do you go? Which times seem to be the best for you in terms of weather, cost, crowds, etc?

We actually considered moving to Florida to be closer to the entertainment venues and gulf/atlantic fishing but after researching it found the cost of living in Florida to be substantially higher than Austin, if you can believe that.

We visited every other year for several years and, once our daughters were too old to take out of school, those trips came during Easter breaks. Once the oldest started going to college we took a few trips over Christmas because that was when college and high school breaks coincided. We bought DVC back in 2006 and the number of points we bought was designed to get us 2 trips every 3 years. Since our 2 oldest daughters are now teachers, our trips still generally come during school breaks.

The last 3 years have been unusual because our youngest daughter did a college program, then came back to finish college, did another college program, got a professional internship, and stayed a while after that working for Disney. So, between going to Florida helping her move in, out, and around and just going to visit, we have had several short visits the last 3 years. But, if I'm going all the way to Florida I want to spend a few days in the parks to go along with the "business". So now we have had more experience seeing what the parks are like at non holiday times. And, after dealing with the holidays, the parks seem very peaceful to us most of the time.