onemorejennifer
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
Hope this is allowed... but this is just a one post "trip report" of our arrival day. Thought it may help others decide whether it is worth it to visit a park the day of check-in.
Prior to our recent trip, I always thought people who headed out to a park on check-in day were kind of crazy. Turns out I was so very wrong! But let's back-track just a bit...
We're a family of 4 - DH, DD16, DD13, and me. We traveled to WDW July 11-18 with extended family - my parents, both my sisters and their families. Fourteen of us in all! (The night we all signed onto MDE and tried to coordinate our FP+ was high adventure!)
Our tickets - 6 day park hoppers - were a very generous gift from my parents. Early in the planning process, but after the tickets were purchased, I discovered that the ONLY day MK had evening EMH during our trip was July 11, our day of arrival. I was sad to miss the chance to experience late-night MK. But all of our initial planning - FP+, ADRs (we let our TA handle those), which park to visit on which day, etc. - was based on using those 6 day tickets July 12-17.
The more I thought about missing MK past midnight, the sadder I became. And my teen-age daughters were sad too. So we decided to add a 7th day for just our family of four, and head out to MK after dinner on Saturday evening. YAY!
Our drive to WDW was fairly uneventful - we left about 6 AM and arrived at our resort, the beautiful Port Orleans French Quarter, about 3:30 PM. Adding a 7th day to our ticket at the concierge desk was a breeze. The cast members there loved our hand-painted magic bands!
As soon as we got to our room I hopped onto MDE to see if any FP+ were available and chose HM (7:20), Mickey (9:10), and Cinderella & Rapunzel (10:30). There were others available but Cinderella was actually requested by my girls and that's the combination that I initially thought would work best. We ended up skipping Mickey though, because we weren't sure it would be a good idea to try and get from Town Square to Fantasyland during the MSEP/Wishes madness.
We finished unpacking, met the 10 other members of our party for dinner at Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory around 5:00 PM, and I think we were probably at the bus stop sometime between 6-6:15 PM.
So here's what we accomplished and enjoyed at MK between @6:45 PM - 2:15 AM. (I'm quite positive this is not the exact order of things, but a general approximation. If a time is listed it is because I have a photo of that event and could lift a timestamp from the EXIF data.)
I'm not going to lie - we were dragging a bit during our midnight snack at Cosmic Ray's - we were tired and hot and not sure we could finish out the night. But getting off our feet in the AC for a bit and then riding Space Mountain completely revived us for the rest of the night.
Watching "A Kiss Goodnight" and strolling down a not-empty-but-not-crowded Main Street was the perfect end to the first day of our WDW vacation.
So, all you "must head to a park after checking in no rest for the weary" people. Sorry for doubting you!
Prior to our recent trip, I always thought people who headed out to a park on check-in day were kind of crazy. Turns out I was so very wrong! But let's back-track just a bit...
We're a family of 4 - DH, DD16, DD13, and me. We traveled to WDW July 11-18 with extended family - my parents, both my sisters and their families. Fourteen of us in all! (The night we all signed onto MDE and tried to coordinate our FP+ was high adventure!)
Our tickets - 6 day park hoppers - were a very generous gift from my parents. Early in the planning process, but after the tickets were purchased, I discovered that the ONLY day MK had evening EMH during our trip was July 11, our day of arrival. I was sad to miss the chance to experience late-night MK. But all of our initial planning - FP+, ADRs (we let our TA handle those), which park to visit on which day, etc. - was based on using those 6 day tickets July 12-17.
The more I thought about missing MK past midnight, the sadder I became. And my teen-age daughters were sad too. So we decided to add a 7th day for just our family of four, and head out to MK after dinner on Saturday evening. YAY!
Our drive to WDW was fairly uneventful - we left about 6 AM and arrived at our resort, the beautiful Port Orleans French Quarter, about 3:30 PM. Adding a 7th day to our ticket at the concierge desk was a breeze. The cast members there loved our hand-painted magic bands!
As soon as we got to our room I hopped onto MDE to see if any FP+ were available and chose HM (7:20), Mickey (9:10), and Cinderella & Rapunzel (10:30). There were others available but Cinderella was actually requested by my girls and that's the combination that I initially thought would work best. We ended up skipping Mickey though, because we weren't sure it would be a good idea to try and get from Town Square to Fantasyland during the MSEP/Wishes madness.
We finished unpacking, met the 10 other members of our party for dinner at Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory around 5:00 PM, and I think we were probably at the bus stop sometime between 6-6:15 PM.
So here's what we accomplished and enjoyed at MK between @6:45 PM - 2:15 AM. (I'm quite positive this is not the exact order of things, but a general approximation. If a time is listed it is because I have a photo of that event and could lift a timestamp from the EXIF data.)
- Haunted Mansion - FP+ (7:20 PM)
- Shopped in Fantasy Faire waiting on a storm to pass
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel (8:07 PM)
- It's a Small World
- Peter Pan's Flight
- Admired a beautiful sunset from Fantasyland (8:25 PM)
- Ariel (9:26 PM)
- Mickey Bars (DDs) Iced Coffee at Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies (DH & I) (9:36 PM)
- Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid
- Watched Wishes from Fantasyland
- Cinderella & Rapunzel - FP+ (11:06 PM)
- The Barnstormer
- Dumbo
- Mad Tea Party
- PeopleMover
- "Midnight Snack" (Drinks & French Fries) at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
- Space Mountain (1:03 AM)
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (1:39 AM)
- Tomorowland Speedway
- A Kiss Goodnight (2:02 AM)
I'm not going to lie - we were dragging a bit during our midnight snack at Cosmic Ray's - we were tired and hot and not sure we could finish out the night. But getting off our feet in the AC for a bit and then riding Space Mountain completely revived us for the rest of the night.
Watching "A Kiss Goodnight" and strolling down a not-empty-but-not-crowded Main Street was the perfect end to the first day of our WDW vacation.
So, all you "must head to a park after checking in no rest for the weary" people. Sorry for doubting you!
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