Early Planning Questions from a WDW Vet/DL Newbie

Mom2Stitch said:

I'm in the extremely early planning stages and need some advice for when I should plan to go. We are WDW veterans, first time for DL.

Late October 2019 we are taking a cruise out of the Port of Los Angeles. Since this is going to be my 50th birthday, I'm hopefully going to add in a trip to DLR. I've always wanted to go there and this seems like a perfect time to do it.

Our cruise is 10/27-11/3 so the first thing I'm trying to figure out is on which side of those dates I should plan for DL. The cruise is a Sun-Sun. We would want at least 3 days for DLR.

I guess that there are Halloween parties-that close to Halloween is that something we really want to attempt on a first visit?
On the other hand there is the HM and the NMBC overlay-I would LOVE to see that! How long is that up-is it until after Christmas?

Would crowds be lighter after the cruise/Halloween? How many days should we plan for? Are there other seasonal things I should be thinking about/planning for? It's hard to know what you don't know, lol.

Once I get an idea of when to go I'll have to start figuring out the best airports to fly into/out of. And then transportation. But one bite at a time....

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Lesley Wake said:

So, first thing-you will be visiting less than 6 months after Star Wars Galaxys Edge opens, so be prepared for heavy crowds!

Halloween party is fun, but definitely costly. For dates that close to Halloween it will sell out fast. Also we don’t know how it will be different once SWGE opens, but it’s expected to move to just DCA.

I would actually recommend 1 day pre cruise to see the Halloween stuff, which is pretty great! That would be a Saturday, so will be less crowded than Sunday due to AP blockouts. Maybe skip SWGE entirely that day. Then do the rest post-cruise (you’d need to check the length of time to use a multi-day ticket to see if you can do it all on the same one). Lower crowds after Halloween and it will be beginning of week, rather than end of the week. Christmas stuff won’t be starting until mid-November (based on past years schedules), so that probably won’t work for your schedule. As for number of days, right now I’d say 3 days is good. With the crowds next year, I honestly don’t know. You could postpone all SW stuff until you visit WDW, but there still will be spillover into the rest of the parks and resort. So I would probably go 1 day pre cruise and 3 days post cruise.

HM overlay is up from Sept-Dec, so you would be good either way then.

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figment_jii said:

if you go before your cruise, you'll get to see the parks with their HalloweenTime decorations and offerings. HMH usually lasts through the Holiday Season (ends in early January), but Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy usually closes just after Halloween (for a day or two, so not a long time). The decorations also often come down pretty close after Halloween (at best, things might remain up through Sunday, but possibly not). MHP is a lot of fun, but there have been persistent rumors that things may change once SW Land opens, but we won't really know anything until they official announce it (probably not until sometime between late spring and mid-summer of 2019).

If you go after your cruise, HalloweenTime will be over and they'll be transitioning to the Holiday Season. That probably won't kick off until closer to Veteran's Day weekend. You'll most likely see some of the decor, but there is a good chance that the overlays and entertainment won't have started yet. Regardless of when you go, It's a Small World will likely be closed to have the overlay installed.

This year (2018) there is Fall Dapper Day and BlizzCon slated for the first weekend in November. I don't know if they'll be happening at the same time in 2019, but those are two things to keep an eye on. BlizzCon will impact area m/hotels, while Dapper Days does increase park crowds (mostly on the weekend only).

In terms of SW Land itself, it's slated to open in "summer of 2019" - they haven't yet announced an official date. It's not really known how that will impact HalloweenTime or Holiday Time, but everyone is bracing for huge crowds in the parks. It's likely to spill out beyond just the summer opening season, so there probably won't be any low crowds periods for quite a while after SW Land opens. So, I would go expecting crowds (especially in SW Land itself) and hope for the best.

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Mom2Stitch said:

I'm sad that Small World will be closed, I love it at WDW. SM will be a must for us, so if that means it will be closed after Halloween we will definitely need to have a 1 day pre-cruise.

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Mom2Stitch said:

Thank you so much! I would have thought to avoid Saturdays, but that's good info. Are there Halloween parties on Saturdays? And is it like WDW where the decorations can just disappear overnight?

I know that SWGE is going to be a hot mess for a long while. We would love to see it, but I think the suggestion of waiting until WDW is actually very smart.

This week long vacation looks like it might stretch on over to 2 weeks, DH is going to just love that

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