Pre-Trip The worlds on fire, let’s go to Disney World trip

I first started stalking this page as my unofficial travel agent in 2010. Over the years I’ve ghosted it whenever a Disney trip felt too far from a reality. But, I’m back for a new trip.

Cast:
Your humble author: 41 year old male (7th trip as an adult + 3 as a kid)
DW: 42 year old female (7th trip as an adult)
DS: 16 years old ( 7th trip)
DD1: 13 years old (7th trip)
DD2: 9 years old (5th trip)

Joining our usual cast of character is my brother- 32 years old. It will be his first trip since he was 5.

Particulars:
- Pop Century (2 rooms)
- 7 days / 6 nights
- No park hopping
- Driving in from Atlanta, the day before, and sleeping off property that night.

Miscellaneous:
-First trip to Disney since 2018. First stay above a couple days since 2016.
- We love Pop, but this will be our 3rd stay there, but first since 2013.
- Only dining ressies are returning favorites for us- Sci-fi and Whispering Canyon and new to us, Wine Bar George.
- New to us- Galaxy’s edge, toy story land, Pandora, Mickey / Minnie railroad (RIP great movie ride), skyliners, and all Covid protocols.

I’ll be leveraging this thread to get info on a wide array of topics, but specifically areas i mentioned in the new to us bullet. I’m the planner of the group, but I’ve lost a fair amount of muscle memory with this last gap in visits, to say nothing of Covid.
Thanks in advance.
 
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Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
jharvey said:
Day 5: EPCOT
Park hours: 11am-9pm

with the late opening, we should be able to chill a little more than usual. Wake up at a more reasonable time and shoot to have breakfast at the resort and aim to be at EPCOT as early as practical. I came across a podcast that gave the tip to take the skyliner to Hollywood. By that time (9:30ish), the skyliner to Hollywood should be less busy. Then, once at Hollywood, catch a boat to EPCOT. I’ll have to find the podcast and listen to it, but they recommend getting off at a hotel stop, prior to Epcot and just walk it as that would save some transit time. I’ve stayed at Pop, POR, and CBR. I’ve been blissfully ignorant of 99% of what I just mentioned. Unless someone takes a fair sized BM on that, I’m willing to try it.

EPCOT has always been in contention for my favorite park. But since my last trip EPCOT became Downtown Disney circa 2014 and Hollywood circa 2018- a major construction zone play acting as a functioning business.

No ressies- we will be eating through the Flower and Garden carts. If we can luck into a Via Napoli ressie between now and close of park that day, I will be a happy man. We’ve eaten at via Napoli each Epcot day since 2012. Otherwise, we will just graze all night. I’m down either way.

Ride wise, I love Soarin sooooo much. My only other must do is Spaceship Earth. DD9 loved the three caballeros, so we will make that a bigger priority than Disney had apparently made it. Otherwise, the name of the game is to chill and enjoy World Showcase. And as God as my witness, I will burn that place to the ground if I don’t get same day walk up to Via Napoli. Serenity now!
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You could try using the touringplans.com table finder for a Via Napoli ADR. It's part of the free service on touring plans.

Disney World Dining Reservation Finder

Disney World Dining Reservation Finder - TouringPlans.com
touringplans.com touringplans.com
 
jharvey

jharvey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 6: Hollywood Studios
Park Hours: 9am-8pm

On our Hollywood days, we will get earlier than it makes sense to to be at Everything Pop first thing in order to get breakfast knocked out. Goal is to be done and at transportation no later than 7:30am.

- Again, skyliner is new to us. I don’t think I asked this on my first Hollywood studios day. For those with experience with the skyliner, specific to Pop Century, would you recommend skyliner or the bus that early? We love rope dropping and want to cut anytime off that’s possible.

- honestly, this will be a near mirror of the first Hollywood day- Getting a boarding pass, hopefully, then hitting Toy Story Land first thing. The only real curve is we have Sci-Fi ressies for an 11:45am lunch. The curve is not with the restaurant as we’ve eaten there before an really like it. As previously mentioned, Rise of the Resistance is new to us. What are the rules for boarding passes. I’m guessing there is a grace period for boarding parties? I know it’s not likely, but I’m afraid of overlapping with our lunch.

-depending on boarding pass/ lunch timing, we may do a midday break. The ideal time for that would be 1:30pm-3:30pm. Once back at the park, we’d shoot to close the park down. Dinner will be open, so we’d possibly go with old personal favorite ABC commissary. I’m open to recommendations for CS dinner in Hollywood.
Thanks
 
jharvey

jharvey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 7: Magic Kingdom
Park Hours: 8am-9pm

this is our departure day. We’ll pack the night before and will load up our vehicles before leaving. But, being us, we will rope drop again. I’m debating taking the bus or just driving, so we can leave directly from MK. Convenience is what has me thinking about going with driving ourselves. However, unless I’m missing something, bus / monorail / ferry riders getting in before drivers for rope drop. If that is true, we are going with the bus. If not, we will drive it.

Goals for the day is to knock out 7DMT, Splash, POTC, Haunted Mansion, and Philharmagic. We will hit other things, but those are the must-dos.

We will eat lunch at the park- Sleepy Hollow probably, then exit MK by 3pm. At present, we are thinking about heading to Disney Springs, and catching dinner at a CS spot on the way out.

That is the saddest day of the year. We are looking to make a quick trip back to hit the artist formerly known as mickeys not so scary Halloween party.
 
Zipadeelady

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
jharvey said:
Day 6: Hollywood Studios
Park Hours: 9am-8pm

On our Hollywood days, we will get earlier than it makes sense to to be at Everything Pop first thing in order to get breakfast knocked out. Goal is to be done and at transportation no later than 7:30am.

- Again, skyliner is new to us. I don’t think I asked this on my first Hollywood studios day. For those with experience with the skyliner, specific to Pop Century, would you recommend skyliner or the bus that early? We love rope dropping and want to cut anytime off that’s possible.

- honestly, this will be a near mirror of the first Hollywood day- Getting a boarding pass, hopefully, then hitting Toy Story Land first thing. The only real curve is we have Sci-Fi ressies for an 11:45am lunch. The curve is not with the restaurant as we’ve eaten there before an really like it. As previously mentioned, Rise of the Resistance is new to us. What are the rules for boarding passes. I’m guessing there is a grace period for boarding parties? I know it’s not likely, but I’m afraid of overlapping with our lunch.

-depending on boarding pass/ lunch timing, we may do a midday break. The ideal time for that would be 1:30pm-3:30pm. Once back at the park, we’d shoot to close the park down. Dinner will be open, so we’d possibly go with old personal favorite ABC commissary. I’m open to recommendations for CS dinner in Hollywood.
Thanks
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regarding riding the skyliner in the morning...

I was at POP in Fall 2019 and we rode the skyliner in the morning on both our Epcot day and HS day. We were at the parks in less than 20 minutes. I loved it! But... the more trips reports I've read the more I'm thinking the bus would be the way to go in the morning for rope drop now. It looks like it's taking 45 minutes to an hour to get to a park. Not sure if more people are using the skyliner now (we went shortly after "the crash") or what but I'm sure there is someone that has been there recently that would have a better answer than me.
 
cgersic

cgersic

Well-Known Member
They have a sign out by the busses that to get to HS, you need to take the Skyliner. Don't believe it, they do have busses. That being said, depending on the day of the week, both options will be about the same time. Since the Skyliner is constantly moving, it goes much faster than the lines convey.
 
jharvey

jharvey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Zipitidoda said:
regarding riding the skyliner in the morning...

I was at POP in Fall 2019 and we rode the skyliner in the morning on both our Epcot day and HS day. We were at the parks in less than 20 minutes. I loved it! But... the more trips reports I've read the more I'm thinking the bus would be the way to go in the morning for rope drop now. It looks like it's taking 45 minutes to an hour to get to a park. Not sure if more people are using the skyliner now (we went shortly after "the crash") or what but I'm sure there is someone that has been there recently that would have a better answer than me.
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My knee jerk reaction is the bus is the way to go for our trips to the park. We really wanna do the skyliner, so maybe if we do midday breaks, that could be the way to go. That way, we are not worried about the clock.
 
jharvey

jharvey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Google is failing me, so I’ll ask here- what is open for rope drop? Best I can find is via YouTube videos that are a couple months old.
 
jharvey

jharvey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Back from the trip. I’ll do a trip report soon. Snap shot-
Wins: Pandora
Toy Story Land
Skyliner
CMs for restaurants, transportation, hotels
Rode Soarin with one of my favorite musicians!
Met Kyle Pallo!
Rope Drop- Animal Kingdom/ Hollywood

Losses:
Memory Maker
Hollywood Studios CMs
Rope Drop- Magic Kingdom

Pushes:
Galaxy’s Edge
Rope Drop- Epcot

And I will be recruiting for a dress code holy war.
 
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