Shuffling Days and Reservations
With the extra day thrown in, and the split DxDP thrown out, a lot of my plans have changed, or more accurately shifted. Plus, with the location change, we’ll be entering Epcot through IG and won’t have to leave the room nearly as early in the morning for EP and HS days. Here’s my ideal scenario:
Monday, February 25th (180/60)
Flight lands at 2pm, ME to Boardwalk
Resort time, grocery delivery, QS dinner at pool bar/Boardwalk Bakery/Boardwalk Pizza Window
Side note: I just saw a review of the new BW Pizza Window menu and they said it wasn’t just edible, it was actually good! I really hope that’s true, because it would make like much easier when picking QS meals for my crew during resort time.
If it’s too cold to swim (late February could go either way) we’ll check out DS and do our QS dinner there.
Tuesday, February 26th (180/60 +1)
MK morning to fireworks: it’s the girls first time so, while we’ll try to get there around open, we’re not RDing. We’re going to take it slow, look around, take some pictures when we first arrive. We’ll head towards Fantasyland and make our way down towards Adventureland. We’d like to get the last Move It, Shake It Parade of the day, too.
FP Goals: Winne the Pooh 9am, Peter Pan 10am, Rapunzel 11am
Day-of Bonus FP Goal: Jungle Cruise
Dining Goal: CRT 12pm
Wednesday, February 27th (180/60 +2)
EP rope drop to early evening. We’ll try to get through all of Future World and a bit of WS but want to be walking back to BW so that they go down for a normal bed time. We’ll RD Soarin’ and start working our way through the pavilions from there.
FP Goals: Spaceship Earth 10:30am, Test Track 1:30, Mission Space 2:30
Day-of Bonus FP Goal: Character Spot
Dining Goal: Garden Grill 11:45am
Thursday, February 28th (180/60 +3)
MK rope drop to early dinner at ‘Ohana. We want to see the welcome show, RD the Tomorrowland stuff, work up towards Fantasyland, and leave around 3 to head for ‘Ohana.
FP Goals: Ariel 10am, Enchanted Tales with Belle 11am, SDMT 1:30pm
Day-of Bonus FP Goal: Jungle Cruise (if I didn’t get it before)
Dining Goal: BoG Lunch 12:30pm, ‘Ohana 4pm
Friday, March 1st (180/60 +4)
AK rope drop to ROL. We’re going to rope drop Navi, then up to Lion King, and working around clockwise. We’ll do the Pandora FPs just before dinner and then back across for ROL
FP Goals: Safari 10:30am, Kali River Rapids 2:30pm, FOP for me and NRJ for everyone else 4:50 (RS for hubby)
Dining Goal: Tusker with RoL 12pm
Saturday, March 2nd (180/60 +5)
Resort breakfast, then HS for afternoon through to Fantasmic. With the full day the day before, we’re giving the kids room to sleep in (which, for them, is getting up at 7:30 instead of 6:30) and starting slow. Once we hit HS, it’s going to be mostly shows mixed with a couple of rides until we get to Fantasmic.
FP Goals: SDD 12pm, Star Tours 3pm, Fantasmic (I’m not sure if I should really book the Fantasmic from the start. I don’t think they’ll be much availability in TSL after 3pm, so I doubt I’ll be refreshing into anything else, anyway. I might book something early to allow to expire so that I’ll be on 4th FP after Star Tours, in case we can snag something in TSL)
Dining Goal: Trattoria Al Forno 8:30am
Sunday, March 3rd (180/60 +6)
MK late morning to early evening. After another late night, we’re not going to be getting here extra early or staying too late. We’ll take the RR to Frontierland, work our way back towards the center of the park, and head out. We’re trying to hit the big parade and the Friendship Faire on this day, as well.
FP Goals: BTMRR 9:15am, Splash Mtn 12pm, Pirates 1pm
Day-of Bonus FP Goal: Jungle Cruise (if I didn’t get it before)
Dining Goal: Crystal Palace 10:30am
Monday, March 4th (180/60 +7)
EP late morning to fireworks. We’ll have resort time in the morning and head into the IG in time to get some treats at Les Halles and see everything else open up at 11am. We’ll make our way around WS, hopefully so that we’re back at the IG bridge in time for Illuminations.
FP Goals: FEA 4pm, any two to expire in the morning. Unless the kids really want to double up on something from our first Epcot day, we’re planning to just stick to the WS. Only reason I’d book the other two is so that, after we use FEA, I can start refreshing in the hopes of grabbing an additional FEA some time that evening.
Dining Goal: Akershus 5:30pm
Tuesday, March 5th (180/60 +8)
HS RD to 2ish, then resort time. Illuminations will have been another late one, but, as long as HS is a 9am regular open, we should still be able to walk over and RD it fine. They never sleep past 7:30 and can eat their breakfast in the stroller while the adults hoof it over to HS. We’ll RD whichever TSL ride we didn’t get on our two FP days, see the rest of the shows, and head out for resort time, which will also let me get the room packed up.
FP Goals: Alien Ride 9am, Indiana Jones 10:45 show, Little Mermaid 11:45. Only booking Indy and Mermaid so that I will have used my first three and can start refreshing for possible TSL bonus FPs.
Dining Goal: Sci Fi 12pm
Wednesday, March 6th (180/60 +9)
PPO at MK until late afternoon, before catching ME for an 8:25pm flight. I’d really like to do resort airline check in before heading to MK, so we’ll have to be out of the room super early. I’ll have everything packed other than morning toiletries, so we’ll wake, change, and go. I know this is going to end up being a VERY long day, but it’s our last and I think everyone will want to make the most of it. The PPO should allow us an extra SDMT or two, which would be great!
FP Goals: SDMT 9:30am, Space for 1 10:30am (RS), BTMRR 11:30am
Dining Goal: BOG PPO
My hardest ADRs, FPs, are laid out as follows:
+1 CRT lunch
+3 BoG lunch, ‘Ohana dinner, SDMT
+4 FOP (but only for 1 in the evening)
+5 SDD, Bon Voyage breakfast
+7 FEA
+9 BoG PPO, SDMT
I’m hoping that most of these will be doable. The crows calendars “think” that my +1 through +3 days are very low crowds, as they’re in a lull between Princess Half and people gearing up for Spring Break/ Mardi Gras.
The way I see it, my biggest hang up is CRT on 180+1. I would much rather it there, based on timing, area of the parks, etc, but I know that’s a really hard one to grab. As a back up, I would flip flop it with my 180+6 Crystal Palace, which puts CRT at a much later date where I should have availability. The problem with that is that I don’t want to do Akershus and CRT on back to back days. If CP and CRT flip, so would my two Epcot days.
The current plan on ADR morning is to take the hard-to-get list for myself (CRT, BoG, etc) and give hubby a list that includes booking the GG lunch and the Akershus dinner on both Epcot days. Once we see how CRT shakes out, I’ll decide which Epcot day is which and cancel my duplicates. If I don’t get CRT right at 6am, I’ll put it on the reservation finder and hope that something comes up before FP+ day.