Just Back: 5/4-5/12. Had a great time!

[JennyMP03]

• Crowds and EMH: The pendulum swung back and forth as far as crowd levels went. I decided to ignore crowd level predictions and plan carefully otherwise, and to just assume every day would be a crowded day. That said, we had a few times here and there where crowds were considerably lower at a certain park during a certain time of day.
  
  Related: Extra Magic Morning hours are AMAZING. 5/5 was predicted to be quite a busy day and MK opened at 8 (which wasn't technically an EMH, but still very low attendance). We jumped right on BTMRR, Splash, Space, and Buzz in the first hour. It was the perfect morning to start our trip.
  
  We tried an evening EMH at MK when it was open until midnight. Didn't care for it much. Lines didn't diminish the way I'd hoped until after 11:30 or so. Morning EMH is where the value is at-- our morning EMH in AK was wonderful, too.

• Weather in early May: The weather was gorgeous. An overcast day with a little rain last Sunday, and nothing but sunshine and blue skies until today when we left. It wasn't even very humid until Friday. We had a few mornings and nights that were pleasantly cool, and I even saw a few people with hoodies and sweaters for the cooler hours. I wore one myself while sitting by the water on the Trader Sam's deck. Rest assured it was plenty warm for the parks and pool, though. I'd absolutely visit in early May again for the weather. And Epcot was GORGEOUS with Flower and Garden! I loved looking for the character topiaries.
  
  
• FP+ and Standby: Standby is a breeze for the first couple of hours of park operation. I often booked fastpasses for the evening park of the day and didn't regret it. Enjoying several attractions from 8-11:30 in MK with short waits and having Flight of Passage FP+ waiting for us at AK that evening was just perfect. (An INCREDIBLE ride, by the way. Must be experienced to be fully appreciated. We were blown away and fortunate enough to get a second ride later in the week.) We were able to get to Navi with a 15 minute wait just before park closing, too.

• Food! Snacks! DRINKS! No dining plan. We've had it twice before but I appreciated the freedom of not feeling I must maximize every credit. We bar hopped on our arrival night by taking the bus from Riverside to Disney Springs and went to Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, Morimoto Asia, and Homecoming, all for drinks and small plates... and Hummingbird Cake! Nothing disappointed. (Also highly recommended at DS: The VOID Star Wars experience. We were three adults losing our minds with giddiness from start to end.)
  
  Our favorite bar remains La Cava in Epcot. Legit margaritas and the trio of dips with chips is excellent. Nomad Bar in Animal Kingdom was delicious as well, and we loved their bread service.
  
  We had five ADRS: Liberty Tree Tavern, Ohana, Biergarten, Sanaa, and Rose and Crown. To my surprise, Rose and Crown was my favorite by far. We had an 8:00 PM reservation and were sat on the patio for Illuminations. The bubble and squeak (baked mashed potatoes with cabbage) was unexpectedly good, and the Sticky Toffee Pudding was unreal. So decadent. It was the best view of the Illuminations globe we'd ever had, and so pleasant to watch while seated with beers in hand.
  
  Biergarten would be okay, but the communal seating made us uncomfortable. We knew that was an element of it, and our dining companions were as pleasant as you could imagine, but we're pretty introverted and felt uncomfortable. We did our best to socialize politely, but it was a tight fit and little elbow room. We tried, but won't be going again. Too bad because the atmosphere is awesome and I enjoyed the pretzel bread and potato and leek soup.
  
  I'd overall go for a snack before a meal, and I had my clear favorites: dole whip float in MK, Mickey pretzel with cheese at various locations, ice cream cookie sandwich, and carrot cake cookie at HS. I'd live off snacks if my husband didn't encourage me to consume some protein once in awhile.

It was a great trip overall, and I've convinced my husband of the magical powers of morning EMH followed by a midday break. We had so much more energy on days we didn't try to power through. That said, we did take days to sleep in and go to the pool and take it easy before hitting an evening park. It was a nice balance overall and helped us avoid exhaustion and meltdowns.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Glad you had a good time. We were in MK 5/5 also and it was a good day.

 

[cassie58]

Sounds like a great trip! Nice to get a lot done and relax as well! Can't agree more about morning EMH - not normally a morning person, but well worth it at WDW! We like to combine with late brft at our faves like TH and CP, getting a lot done early, then eat, with FP for later. Definitely wish we could go at this time of year - waits have been so good last few weeks! Told DD we need to homeschool her so we can go at this time since can't miss easily now in HS - Lol! (She did not disagree by the way!) . Glad you got to experience FoP - DD and I got lucky with extra FP released in Nov. - so cool, especially w/o the wait! I was so excited to just grab newly added FP for DS on Senior Trip in a few weeks(thanks to fellow Dissers posting!) - can't wait for him to try it!

 

[Davey Jones II]

People keep saying that we should book our FPs for early in the day, so it's interesting that booking them late worked out so well for you. I guess it depends on crowd conditions.

 

[Networth]

People keep saying that we should book our FPs for early in the day, so it's interesting that booking them late worked out so well for you. I guess it depends on crowd conditions.

That is what many do because it allows them to (sometimes) get additional Fastpasses but everyone should do what’s best for them.

 

[Disnsyncey]

People keep saying that we should book our FPs for early in the day, so it's interesting that booking them late worked out so well for you. I guess it depends on crowd conditions.

I usually book them for the time right after it starts to get crowded, so you can enjoy the time with short lines and then you can also book them after you finish your first ones....

but yes, all depends on crowd levels haha

 

[JennyMP03]

Glad you had a good time. We were in MK 5/5 also and it was a good day.

Thank you! Glad you guys had a good MK day last Saturday too. I know many people were worried when they extended the hours, but I was pleasantly surprised at the crowd level. We left at noon, though, and went back to the hotel until Animal Kingdom around 5.

People keep saying that we should book our FPs for early in the day, so it's interesting that booking them late worked out so well for you. I guess it depends on crowd conditions.

There were a couple of days when I booked them starting around 10 AM. But honestly, when I did so, most rides I wanted FP for in the evening were already long gone. That being the case, evening FP worked better for us, I think. I know some people are ace at getting multiple FP a day after their initial three, but we rarely tried to book a fourth. We had park hopper, so we were able to go back for any FP rides we wanted in a park another day, and I usually planned on two parks a day-- one for morning, and a different park for evening. Evening FP may be more of a roadblock without park hopper, now that I think about it.

 

[mamamelody2]

Sounds like a great trip! Thanks for sharing!