Disney World in November

[nanersnail]

I'm just getting started in planning our first trip to DW. Realistically this will probably be our only trip there for a very long time so I would like to get the most out of it. There will be 4 of us and kids will be 8 and 11.


From what I've been reading, it sounds like "slow days" are really not slow days at the parks right now. We were thinking of going 11/1-11/10 in hopes that they would be slower though and just pull kids out of school. The 1st and 10th would be travel days for sure since we are in the Pacific Northwest. That leaves us 8 days to possibly be park days. I was thinking 7 days would be park days and one would be a resort/pool day. My plan was 4 park days, 1 pool day, and end with 3 park days then go home. Is that a feasible plan or would we rather need 6 park days and two pool days? 

At this point I've been looking at resorts on my own and not using a travel agent. I was thinking we would stay at Pop Century since staying at one of the deluxe resorts is not a priority for us and we'd rather be able to spend the money elsewhere. Any pros and cons in staying there? Any pros and cons on using a travel agent? Is there stuff they can or will do that would be better in letting them handle things for us?

Are there any must do things we should look in to? Is there character meals we should try (are they even doing these?)? Any tips, ideas or suggestions are very much appreciated!

[mrsslocombe]

I can't speak to crowds (who even knows at this point? The place was so busy in early Feb).

RE: 6 days vs 7 days. I think the ticket price difference is miniscule. Like $10 a ticket. I would get the 7 days and just plan on shorter days at the park sometimes. Or if you guys like water parks, plan a water park day.

I've stayed at Pop Century before, it's fine. The rooms are small, which doesn't bother me since we are never there (and I live in NYC, I'm used to it). The pool situation is fine, not stellar. The best thing about Pop is the Skyliner, to get to Epcot and HS. HIGHLY recommend staying on a Skyliner resort (which are Riviera, Caribbean beach, Pop, AOA).

I would price out Caribbean Beach and AOA Little Mermaid rooms and compare to Pop. AOA has better pools than Pop, and Caribbean is the hub for the Skyliner so transportation is so fast. The rooms would also be bigger (but the downside is CB resort is ENORMOUS and very spread out).

I would hold off on booking a character meal until they go back to normal. Currently you only see the characters from afar and can take distance selfies. If they go back to normal, then I think it depends on what kind of characters your kids like. Princesses, the classics, etc? I prefer to do a character meal for an early breakfast, before the park opens. That way you can eat and are already there before the rides start running. It's also fun to walk into a completely empty Magic Kingdom, take photos in front of the castle with no one around, etc.

[Deleted]

Here's the thing - the crowd calendars are totally unreliable and likely will be for a long time. I know multiple people who have taken trips recently at times that said they would be low-crowd times, and they all said the parks were wall-to-wall people.

[Patsy Baloney]

Wine & Dine runs will be during that time. I was there this past year during that time. It was crowded, but not horrible. Long waits, but we managed by utilizing single rider lines and staying in the park late. Genie+ had just rolled out before we got there, so it wasn’t really in play.

Weather was wild - hot, then a day of rain, then cooooold but sunny and beautiful. We also got to do the first Christmas party while we were there. I cried when it snowed during the party. It was magical.

Anyway, we’re doing another trip this December and we chose Pop Century. I’ve never stayed there but have at Art of Animation. Honestly, the price is good and the access to the skyliner has me excited. The bus system is great, but it’s nice to be able to use the other transportation systems in the crowd crush.

[nanersnail]

Feb 23, 2022 14:27:30 GMT -5 mrsslocombe said:

I can't speak to crowds (who even knows at this point? The place was so busy in early Feb).

RE: 6 days vs 7 days. I think the ticket price difference is miniscule. Like $10 a ticket. I would get the 7 days and just plan on shorter days at the park sometimes. Or if you guys like water parks, plan a water park day.

I've stayed at Pop Century before, it's fine. The rooms are small, which doesn't bother me since we are never there (and I live in NYC, I'm used to it). The pool situation is fine, not stellar. The best thing about Pop is the Skyliner, to get to Epcot and HS. HIGHLY recommend staying on a Skyliner resort (which are Riviera, Caribbean beach, Pop, AOA).

I would price out Caribbean Beach and AOA Little Mermaid rooms and compare to Pop. AOA has better pools than Pop, and Caribbean is the hub for the Skyliner so transportation is so fast. The rooms would also be bigger (but the downside is CB resort is ENORMOUS and very spread out).

I would hold off on booking a character meal until they go back to normal. Currently you only see the characters from afar and can take distance selfies. If they go back to normal, then I think it depends on what kind of characters your kids like. Princesses, the classics, etc? I prefer to do a character meal for an early breakfast, before the park opens. That way you can eat and are already there before the rides start running. It's also fun to walk into a completely empty Magic Kingdom, take photos in front of the castle with no one around, etc.

The sky liner definitely seems like a bonus! I hadn’t even considered shorter days if we did the 7 day tickets either. I feel like that is definitely an option.

[nanersnail]

Feb 23, 2022 17:13:50 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

Wine & Dine runs will be during that time. I was there this past year during that time. It was crowded, but not horrible. Long waits, but we managed by utilizing single rider lines and staying in the park late. Genie+ had just rolled out before we got there, so it wasn’t really in play.

Weather was wild - hot, then a day of rain, then cooooold but sunny and beautiful. We also got to do the first Christmas party while we were there. I cried when it snowed during the party. It was magical.

Anyway, we’re doing another trip this December and we chose Pop Century. I’ve never stayed there but have at Art of Animation. Honestly, the price is good and the access to the skyliner has me excited. The bus system is great, but it’s nice to be able to use the other transportation systems in the crowd crush.

AoA is substantially more than Pop for our group of four. And we’re hoping to not be in our room much which is why Pops price point seemed appealing. As for the wine & dine, during those days is there certain parks we should steer away from?

[Patsy Baloney]

Feb 26, 2022 14:48:03 GMT -5 nanersnail said:

Feb 23, 2022 17:13:50 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

Wine & Dine runs will be during that time. I was there this past year during that time. It was crowded, but not horrible. Long waits, but we managed by utilizing single rider lines and staying in the park late. Genie+ had just rolled out before we got there, so it wasn’t really in play.

Weather was wild - hot, then a day of rain, then cooooold but sunny and beautiful. We also got to do the first Christmas party while we were there. I cried when it snowed during the party. It was magical.

Anyway, we’re doing another trip this December and we chose Pop Century. I’ve never stayed there but have at Art of Animation. Honestly, the price is good and the access to the skyliner has me excited. The bus system is great, but it’s nice to be able to use the other transportation systems in the crowd crush.

AoA is substantially more than Pop for our group of four. And we’re hoping to not be in our room much which is why Pops price point seemed appealing. As for the wine & dine, during those days is there certain parks we should steer away from?

I would probably stay away from Epcot on the weekend if you can. With all the extra food stands, more local people pop in to eat/drink and that can make the park a little more hoppin’ than usual. Otherwise, it’s just a generally busy time. We didn’t find it unmanageable, just very “people-y”.

[hermione]

Personally I’d plan two non park days. There is so much walking and it can be exhausting. My kid loves the pool/shopping/relaxing days just as much as the park days.

[sent]

November 6 - 12 is "Jersey Week." Many schools in NJ have at least 3 days off that week. I just learned our district will be closed the entire week. I'm definitely planning to book us a trip during that time! I don't know how much difference a bunch of people from 1 state make in the crowd calendars. But I'm excited that we will be able to see Christmas decorations and experience some holiday stuff at that time.

[picksthemusic]

Definitely following along here. We're planning our first trip to WDW from the PNW too, and all this info is great.

May I ask - what is Genie+? I'm happy to Google, but personal experiences here are so helpful.

I totally didn't even think about pool/relax days, but I know those will be needed for me/DH, and the kids too.

Great to know about the character meals and doing breakfast instead of dinner - empty park is so tempting!

[mrsslocombe]

Mar 2, 2022 20:11:45 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Definitely following along here. We're planning our first trip to WDW from the PNW too, and all this info is great.

May I ask - what is Genie+? I'm happy to Google, but personal experiences here are so helpful.

I totally didn't even think about pool/relax days, but I know those will be needed for me/DH, and the kids too.

Great to know about the character meals and doing breakfast instead of dinner - empty park is so tempting!

Genie + is the new "fast pass" system which allows you to skip the line at certain rides with a reservation. You use the My Disney Experience App to make reservations. There are "lightning lane" entrances for most of the attractions at each park separate from the regular entrance.

You have the option to purchase it every day (it's usually $15 per ticket though it theoretically can be more). You can purchase ahead of time or day of. Starting at 7am each day, you can make your first reservation for a ride that day. You will book a time window for that ride. 

You can make your next ride reservation either immediately after you scan your reservation at the ride OR, if your time window is really late in the day, two hours after the park opens.

So, for example, you are going to Magic Kingdom which opens at 9am. At 7am you book Big Thunder Mountain for 9:30am-10:30am. You scan your reservation at 9:35am, you can then look at the next times available for a ride and you book Haunted Mansion for 9:55am-10:55am. At 10am you scan your Haunted Mansion reservation, look at the next times available and book It's a Small World for 11:30-:12:30. And so on. 

OR, at 7am you book Space Mountain for 6:30pm-7:30pm because that's the first available time and that's your top priority. Magic Kingdom opens at 9am. You have to wait two hours after park opening to make your next reservation. So at 11am you pull up the app, there's one available for 11:10-12:10 at Haunted Mansion. And so and so forth, and then at 6:30 you can ride Space Mountain.

You can park hop and use Genie + (if you have park hopper tickets) but the other three park attractions won't start showing up in the app until after 2pm.


There are some rides that have a separate lightning lane fee and are not included in Genie +. So if you want to ride Rise of the Resistance, you have to pay $15 separately from Genie +. You do not HAVE to buy Genie + in order to book those rides, you can just do the individual ride. These are also available at 7am each day. 

As far as personal experience: we did not opt to buy Genie + on my trip. It was not worth it to us. We are rope drop to close people and have a lot of experience, so we had a strategy to ride everything with minimal waits (I have a spread sheet...I am not joking). There's no guarantee the rides that you want will have available reservations. From reading online, sometimes people have been able to book 14 reservations in a day at Magic Kingdom, sometimes it's as little as 4. So...it's a gamble. Keep in mind that the non-Magic Kingdom parks have far fewer attractions (Animal Kingdom only has 8 possible things to book) that might not be worth spending the money at those parks. The good thing about this system is you don't have to buy it for every day, you can decide it's worth it one day and save the money another day.

And yes we always do character breakfasts, not dinner. It's less expensive and getting to the parks before open is awesome. 

[curbsideprophet]

I would price out 6/7/8 day tickets. Once you get that high the price difference can be minimal. It is nice to have flexibility and not feel like you need to cram everything into less park days.

You should be able to add days while you are there as long as there is still days left in the ticket. However with the park pass reservation system it could be to you benefit to have all possible days ahead of time.

We have been happy with Undercover Tourist for discount park tickets. They are typically at least a little cheaper when buying multi day tickets.

My kids often like to bail on the parks in the afternoon and go to the pool. They will go to the pool any time of day but it can be a nice mid-day break.

Was not overly impressed with Genie + and prefer the old FP system. Felt like we were zig zagging across the park more.