Surviving Columbus Week (or other busy times) with School Aged Kids

[jwolfpack]

Family of 5 (2 adults + kids ages 10, 8, and 5) just back from a 7 night trip which began the Sun (10/7/18) of Columbus Day Weekend. Crowd levels were very high for the duration of our trip due to fall breaks in several states, Columbus Day holiday, Hurricane Michael evacuees, and MNSSHP / Food & Wine Festival draw. We had an absolute blast despite the crowds. I learned so much from these boards in planning our trip, so I wanted to share some of our strategies and lessons learned here!

• Park Hop: Because MK crowds are so influenced by MNSSHP (higher crowds on non-party days) and Epcot crowds are so influenced by F&W Festival (higher crowds on weekends and evenings), park hoppers have a lot of value at this time of year. We often spent party days at MK where crowds were low, then park hopped to another park for evening shows. To see HEA (which was only offered 3 times during our trip), we’d spend the day in another less crowded park, then park hop to MK just for the evening.

• Early Starts: We’ve always been rope droppers, but we upped our game this trip. On MK mornings, we had PPO BOG breakfasts which let us be 1st in line for SDMT or Peter Pan. At Epcot, we had PPO Garden Grill breakfast, which let us be 1st in line for Soarin’. We did EMM at both Toy Story Land and Fantasyland. The only park we truly rope dropped was AK where a 7:30 arrival time (with 9:00 opening) let us ride FOP twice (using rider swap) by 9:30. Using these early hours, meals, & events to knock out headliners helped us to feel like we were always one step ahead of the crowds.

• Rider Swap: This was our first time using the digital swap system, and we had no issues. The CM just asks which 3 people will ride the second time and scans what is basically an extra FP onto those bands. When we used in conjunction with pre-booked FP's, they never asked if members of second group had FP's booked. My 5 year old is 42” but hates big rides, and we had no issue getting a swap anywhere we asked. We used it at Space, Splash, Big Thunder, EE, FOP, TOT, & RNRC.

• Afternoon breaks: Our early starts combined with extremely hot weather, made afternoon breaks a must! Our best days were the ones where we went back to the room to rest or swim from ~1:00 pm through ~4:30 pm. We stayed at Poly, so this was pretty easy to do. The couple of days we tried to power through without a break, we all ended up fussy with each other.

• Early FP’s: In general, we booked FP’s at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00. We had pretty good luck finding 4th (and often many more) FP’s for the afternoons and evenings. I wouldn’t count on getting them for headliners, but we had great luck getting them for things like Dumbo, tea cups, POTC, IASW, Haunted Mansion, and even Space. Several times, we stood outside a ride with a posted 45+ minute wait, refreshed the app a couple of times and found immediate FP’s available. We were not successful getting Test Track as a 4th FP despite checking often on our Epcot day.

• Upcharge Events: We did HEA dessert party twice, MNSSHP once, and EMM at Toy Story Land and Fantasyland. These events are expensive for 5 people, but have increased value IMO during crowded times of year like this.

• MNSSHP: We attended a Thurs party and found the crowds quite manageable! We rode HM at 7:00, trick-or-treated through Frontierland & Adventureland, rode Pirates, watched 1st parade from hub (staked out spot ~7:45 pm), watched fireworks from garden in front of Casey’s (we were able to stay seated!), trick-or-treated in Fantasyland, rode Space, and finished off the night trick-or-treating in Tomorrowland. We came home with 1,039 pieces of candy – my 8 year old sorted and counted it all! The kids made it until ~11:30 and walked 12 miles that day.

I hope this helps someone in planning their trip! Happy to answer any specific questions. Here was our very basic itinerary in case that helps anyone (* indicates a MNSSHP day at MK):

• Sun – Rope drop AK, AK day, check-in to Poly, HEA dessert party
• Mon* – EMM at HS, park hop to MK, evening off
• Tues* – EMM at MK, MK day, afternoon break, dinner at Sci Fi & SW Fireworks
• Wed – Garden Grill PPO, Epcot day, afternoon break, HEA
• Thurs* – BOG PPO, MK day, afternoon break, MNSSHP (returned to park ~5:30)
• Fri* – morning off, HS afternoon / evening, Fantasmic
• Sat – BOG PPO, MK day, afternoon break, HEA dessert party

 

[BetsyELG]

I'm trying to research the Rider Swap. We are going in May, 2019. Myself, my daughter and her daughter, age 7. There will be several rides that my granddaughter won't go on. My specific question is: Can my daughter and I get different FP+'s and get rider swap passes for the rides we each do not have FP+'s for? For instance, at Epcot, I get a FP+ for TT and two others, she gets one for Soarin' and two others. I go to TT and ask for a rider swap. Will they add the rider swap to my daughter who will enter the FP line when I return even though she does not have a FP+?

 

[jwolfpack]

I'm trying to research the Rider Swap. We are going in May, 2019. Myself, my daughter and her daughter, age 7. There will be several rides that my granddaughter won't go on. My specific question is: Can my daughter and I get different FP+'s and get rider swap passes for the rides we each do not have FP+'s for? For instance, at Epcot, I get a FP+ for TT and two others, she gets one for Soarin' and two others. I go to TT and ask for a rider swap. Will they add the rider swap to my daughter who will enter the FP line when I return even though she does not have a FP+?

Based on our experience, this would work. No one ever asked us what FP's the group riding second had booked. Others have reported this not to work at FOP, SDMT, and SDD. We did not FP any of those, so I can't speak for if you'd be successful on those or not.