Marathon Weekend 2020

[flav]

I should save this for SAFD or closer to January, but how many of you are planning on skipping HS altogether marathon weekend to avoid the GE madness?

Right now, I’m leaning heavily:
Friday - MK
Saturday - AK
Sunday - MK
Monday - Epcot

(Yes, I’m an overplanner. Yes, I will mull this over for 9 months.)

I will probably go to GE anyway but I’ll get Park Hopper to be able to adjust the plan if need be.

For WnD 2017, I had a FoP FP on the afternoon after the 10k and then decided to wait the 2 hours to see Navi River. I tried to sit in the line for most of it in order to rest for the Half the next day. So 2h of rest... preventing me to overdo it in the park was not a bad compromise.

 

[DarthGallifrey]

I’ll join you in the over planners club...
Thurs - AK
Fri - MK
Sat- none
Sun -MK
Mon -Epcot
Tue - debating if I’ll do a park or not.

I'm the same way. I have excel sheets for all my upcoming trips haha.

Though I am crazy and will still be braving the HWS crowds. Especially if they have any sort of hard ticketed event.

Wed - MK
Thurs - EPCOT
Fri - AK
Sat - MK
Sun - HWS
Mon - EPCOT

 

[rteetz]

I should save this for SAFD or closer to January, but how many of you are planning on skipping HS altogether marathon weekend to avoid the GE madness?

Right now, I’m leaning heavily:
Friday - MK
Saturday - AK
Sunday - MK
Monday - Epcot

(Yes, I’m an overplanner. Yes, I will mull this over for 9 months.)

Skip? What kind of nonsense is that?

This would be my second trip after SWGE opens anyways. Gotta brave the crowds at some point.

 

[rteetz]

I actually think it's likely to make those lines longer. That's what's happened in AK since Pandora. It will drive up general attendance at HS and once they've done what they can on Star Wars rides, they'll hit the rest of the park, I suspect.

Yep.

 

[IamTrike]

I'm not sure what I'll do about GE during marathon weekend. If it's just DS and I we'll likely only be there Fri-Mon. I think a lot of it will depend on the crowd levels. If it's a multi-hour wait just to get into the land I don't know that we'll want to waste time on that. We might try and get there well before rope drop on Monday, but that my just be a sleep in day.

In terms of RnRC and ToT I would guess that the lines would be longer later in the day, but I wonder how long they will be in the mornings. With GE I thought they were setting up a queue just to hold people before they get into the land as well as for the rides. Depending on how many people that pre-land queue holds you could have an decent portion of the park capacity just standing in line to get into a land. It seems like that would impact the other rides lines.

 

[rteetz]

In terms of RnRC and ToT I would guess that the lines would be longer later in the day, but I wonder how long they will be in the mornings. With GE I thought they were setting up a queue just to hold people before they get into the land as well as for the rides. Depending on how many people that pre-land queue holds you could have an decent portion of the park capacity just standing in line to get into a land. It seems like that would impact the other rides lines.

I think crowds will increase at WDW overall due to SWGE. Rope drop will be probably an amazing time to ride RnRc and ToT all you want as others fight for SWGE, TSL, and MMRR.

 

[lhermiston]

Skip? What kind of nonsense is that?

This would be my second trip after SWGE opens anyways. Gotta brave the crowds at some point.

Yeah. I’d feel differently if I was going multiple times a year, each year. WDW still feels like a rare enough experience that I want to spread my time around. I/we have almost never done whatever is new and big (TSM, Elsa and Anna meet and greet, 7DMT) on the respective trip. It gets put off until next time.

After 2020, I suspect I’ll be taking a Disney break until after all of the Epcot, Tron, etc. work is done. That feels like a good time to check out GE.

 

[huskies90]

I won't wait in lines either but how can you skip SWGE especially if you are an occasional visitor? Even if I was there on 8/29 I would try to at least check out the land. But I won't wait on any long standby lines even though I love Disney's queues. I just hate lines. I have been on Flight of Passage at least a half dozen times and I have yet to do standby - which I do want to check out that queue one of these days. But I will not get in any line that is over 45 minutes.

Disney always does a great job managing crowds. By marathon weekend, even if I can't get a fastpass for whatever ride(s) are open by then, I will at least go and check out the new land. I have an annual pass so if DHS turns out to be so crazy and unmanageable, I will hop away...

 

[IamTrike]

I won't wait in lines either but how can you skip SWGE especially if you are an occasional visitor? Even if I was there on 8/29 I would try to at least check out the land. But I won't wait on any long standby lines even though I love Disney's queues. I just hate lines. I have been on Flight of Passage at least a half dozen times and I have yet to do standby - which I do want to check out that queue one of these days. But I will not get in any line that is over 45 minutes.

Disney always does a great job managing crowds. By marathon weekend, even if I can't get a fastpass for whatever ride(s) are open by then, I will at least go and check out the new land. I have an annual pass so if DHS turns out to be so crazy and unmanageable, I will hop away...

I'm not sure how that will work with GE. I thought at least for at least Smugglers Run there isn't a fastpass option in the short term. I don't know how accurate it is but I know Len Testa and Jim Hill were talking about the queuing area just to get into the land. It sounds like Disney is planning a pretty decent size staging area to just hold people before they get into GE. Without a Fastpass option in the land I'm not sure how you avoid that short of being there well in advance of rope drop.

 

[DarthGallifrey]

I'm not sure how that will work with GE. I thought at least for at least Smugglers Run there isn't a fastpass option in the short term.

Yeah, they said no maxpass or fastpass for Smugglers Run at the beginning. What they might do is add the mp/fp option for Smugglers after RotR opens but then have no mp/fp for RotR at first

 

[ANIM8R]

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go through HS during the Marathon.

If not, we'll be reading about it on marathoninvestigation.com !

 

[IamTrike]

If not, we'll be reading about it on marathoninvestigation.com !

I was actually going to try and make a MarathonInvestigation joke when I made that comment. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that's thinking about course cutting jokes.

 

[lhermiston]

I won't wait in lines either but how can you skip SWGE especially if you are an occasional visitor? Even if I was there on 8/29 I would try to at least check out the land. But I won't wait on any long standby lines even though I love Disney's queues. I just hate lines. I have been on Flight of Passage at least a half dozen times and I have yet to do standby - which I do want to check out that queue one of these days. But I will not get in any line that is over 45 minutes.

Disney always does a great job managing crowds. By marathon weekend, even if I can't get a fastpass for whatever ride(s) are open by then, I will at least go and check out the new land. I have an annual pass so if DHS turns out to be so crazy and unmanageable, I will hop away...

My rationale: I’m not an annual pass holder and I won’t be getting park hopper. So one park/day. Four days means HS would account for a quarter of my park time. Let’s say I spend 10 hours at HS and 4 hours waiting to do two attractions. That’s 40 percent of my day and I think I’m being conservative with my estimates. Just not worth it for me.

Galaxy’s Edge will be there in 2022 or 2023 when I make it back. I can pretty easily wait until then.

 

[rteetz]

Yeah. I’d feel differently if I was going multiple times a year, each year. WDW still feels like a rare enough experience that I want to spread my time around. I/we have almost never done whatever is new and big (TSM, Elsa and Anna meet and greet, 7DMT) on the respective trip. It gets put off until next time.

After 2020, I suspect I’ll be taking a Disney break until after all of the Epcot, Tron, etc. work is done. That feels like a good time to check out GE.

Epcot will be 2022-23 before all is said and done. I’m sure there will be other stuff under construction at that point too.

 

[ZellyB]

Epcot will be 2022-23 before all is said and done. I’m sure there will be other stuff under construction at that point too.

When is the estimate for the Mickey/Minnie ride inside the theater at DHS?

 

[rteetz]

When is the estimate for the Mickey/Minnie ride inside the theater at DHS?

Well now that SWGE is opening early that may change but it was Aug/Sept.

 

[ZellyB]

Well now that SWGE is opening early that may change but it was Aug/Sept.

Oh that's sooner than I expected. Yet another reason DHS will be a mob scene for W&D. HA!

 

[lhermiston]

Epcot will be 2022-23 before all is said and done. I’m sure there will be other stuff under construction at that point too.

No doubt. There’s always something, somewhere under construction. My point is I’ll probably be waiting for a bulk of what’s announced/rumored to be complete before planning my next trip after 2020. A few years will get me tron, ratatouille, GotG, Epcot spine redesign and the Mickey and Minnie ride.

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm not doing marathon weekend next year, so this is slightly less relevant for me (although I'll hopefully be down there a month later for Princess, and I don't expect the lines to be that much shorter), but my take is that I'd probably try for EMH, and whatever I can't get done during EMH (or if I can manage a FP+) I just skip until a later trip. I still haven't done Flights of Passage, and I've been twice since it opened (although last trip I had a FP+ but skipped because I felt like garbage). Conversely, I did everything at Toy Story Land two days after it opened because they were having daily morning EMH and we got there stupid early. I have no problem showing up at DHS at 6:30-7ish for an 8am EMH to see Galaxy's Edge. But I know that probably wouldn't work for people with kids of certain ages because the kids would rebel if you said "6:30am."

 

[DarthGallifrey]

No doubt. There’s always something, somewhere under construction. My point is I’ll probably be waiting for a bulk of what’s announced/rumored to be complete before planning my next trip after 2020. A few years will get me tron, ratatouille, GotG, Epcot spine redesign and the Mickey and Minnie ride.

Yeah, I am doing a couple races in 2020 but 2021 I think will be a break from at least WDW. Might finally do Disneyland Paris that year