Busy Day in August - Which Park First?

[TommyJK]

Going for one day in August with Park Hopper. I know it will be busy. I'm trying to decide for myself which park will be best to go to first. We're not staying on site so we can't take advantage of early hours.

Firstly, we are a family who will be going mostly for the more thrilling attractions. We pretty much won't be doing anything in Fantasy Land (other than maybe checking out Alice's Labyrinth).

I've looked at the hourly wait times for the same period last year so I have a good idea of which rides are busier during which hours of the day (I love this site to see all of the historical detail https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/wait_times.php?a=history)

I'm leaning towards doing rope drop at DLP first and heading straight towards BTM right away to get a Fastpass, then touring up towards Indiana Jones, followed by Pirates, then heading down towards Discovery Land.

Then head over to Studios.

My key reasoning is based on the following points:

• No advantage anymore of Rope Drop of Studios since Crush's coaster will already be busy from those with Early Access, so for this we'd do single rider later in the day.
• Ratatouille has a good Single Rider queue that we'd use later in the day.
• If doing Studios first, by the time we do Crush's (single Rider), Ratatouille (single Rider), ToT, and Rock n' Roller Coaster, and then going over to DLP, there's a good chance BTM Fast Passes could be all gone.

Thoughts?

 

[Suzanne1979]

Hi Tommy,

My thoughts are: excellent plan, you really thought it through.

FP for BTM is a good idea, they tend to be gone quickly. Same goes for ToT, so you're probably going tot have to queue there then (in my experience, queues are either 120mins or 30mins, so it's a matter of keeping your eye on the app and/or pass the ToT frequently when in the Studios (that can't be hard, the Studios are not that big...).

Crush is dramatic either way, even by single rider, so you might want to go for that strategically in terms of "just after lunch" or something (to make the wait bearable for the family, the 1st part of the queue can be hot as well).

And yes, August is busy, but I've always found the weekends the busiest (even in late September), so hopefully you'll be able to go on a weekday and you should be fine. Enjoy your trip!

 

[TommyJK]

Ya. Going on a weekday, likely Thursday Aug 2nd.

When I look at the same Thursday (and Wed and Friday) last year in the hour by hour queue times tracked at https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/wait_times.php?a=history:

• Tower of Terror was relatively low through the day (20-30 min), so it didn't seem too terrible (fingers crossed it's similar this year)
• Same with Rockn' Roller Coaster
• Star Tours was low after 5:00 pm
• Indiana Jones was low for the first couple of hours and then again after 5:00
• Hyperspace Mountain mountain was ~45min all day, (but has single rider)
• Crush's Single rider was a constant ~45min all day until the last hour that dropped to 30 min

I know queue times won't match precisely the same as they were last year, but I have a good gauge on generally what to possibly expect. And yes I am an app fiend when it comes to parks (Disney, Universal etc.). So between planning for a smart start, constantly watching the apps to guide us where waits are lower, and getting a few fast passes throughout the day we should be able to manage a decent day.

Gutted though that Phantom Manor will be closed for refurb. Was looking forward to that one

 

[Minerva Mouse]

I'm going late August, no plan, my travel companion is NOT a planner, soooo... Anyway, I am also super bummed that Phantom Manor is closed. Assuming you've been to Disneyworld, and or maybe Disneyland, do any rides in Paris differ significantly from the US? I would like to get a sneak peak of Rattatouille but other than that I'm really not sure. I'm not a big fan of the DW Star Tours, or the DL Indiana Jones, but I do love DL and DW Space Mountain and TOT. Any advice?

 

[Princess_Kirky]

I think Rattatouille is under refurb in August... You might want to double check. Indiana Jones is completely different in DLP. It's a roller coaster and not nearly as good as DL, in my opinion, it's not very long and not very thrilling and theming leaves a lot to be desired. Hyperspace Mountain is better than the version in MK or DL as it super thrilling. TOT is not as good as the DHS version - it's similar to the DCA version before it was changed over to the Guardians. POC is a must at DLP, it's great! I am also disappointed we will miss Phantom Manor.

We are doing one day in late August and are skipping studios as the only thing we'd be interested in is Rattatouille and that won't be open. I guess we will wait for the Epcot version to open in a few years. We'd rather take the day a little slower and visit only one park and really take in the details.

 

[Minerva Mouse]

/QUOTE] Thank you Princess_Kirky