Nov 17, 20235 min read

November 2023 Trip Report - Introduction and Lessons Learned

We just returned from another trip to Walt Disney World and are excited to share the details with you. During this trip, there were a few new things happening, including the Disney 100 celebration, the first of the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party for the year, Food & Wine, and the opening of Moana: Journey of Water.

The Logistics

This trip was different from most that I take for a few reasons, the cause of which was the reason for the trip. The spousal unit had to go to Orlando for a conference and my daughter and I were tag-alongs. Given the conference was at a specific hotel, we had to stay at that hotel, which is off-site for Disney. We also needed to bake in some rest days because the trip was during the school year, and we need to ensure the daughter could get her make-up work done. So we were off-site, with only three park days, and one Christmas Party day (meaning we visited all four parks - our Magic Kingdom day was the Christmas Party), and the other days were mostly rest days. For me, this is a short trip, but in the end, it was enough time to do everything I wanted to do. This was also the first time I didn't park hop.

On two of our park days, the spousal unit joined us. He selected Disney Hollywood Studios (for Star Wars), and Animal Kingdom as the parks he needed to join us for. On the other days, it was me and my 16-year-old daughter at EPCOT and the Christmas Party.

Staying Off-Site

Staying off-site is not usually a thing I recommend, and this is still true. But in this case, the husband needed to be close to his conference. Staying off-site means a few things that, in my opinion, are not ideal:

We miss out on early entry. Disney resort guests can enter the park a half hour earlier than offsite guests, and one would think this is not a big deal, but it is. If you can't enter early, you have no chance of rope dropping anything in a meaningful way. Wait times are already well under way by the time you arrive. In fact, we arrived at general park opening on two of the days, and found the lines at the turnstiles unbearable. Given we couldn't rope drop anyway, we just decided to arrive a few minutes after the turnstiles opened from then on out so at least the lines were moving when we arrived.
Transportation to and from the parks can get spendy. Without complimentary Disney transportation, we found ourselves relying on Lyft and Uber for most of our transportation, and due to surge pricing at park opening and closing, some rides were $24 or more one way. This meant some days we spent about $50 on transportation alone. HOWEVER, one thing to be said in favor of staying off site and relying on Lyft or Uber is that it's awfully nice to ride in a private vehicle with a seat, especially at park closing. And we never had to wait long for a ride.

Itinerary

Here's our itinerary. I'll go into more detail in future posts.

Sunday, Nov 5 - Flying to Orlando. Check into Rosen Shingle Creek.

Monday, Nov 6 - Disney Hollywood Studios. Lunch at Woody's Roundup BBQ

Tuesday, Nov 7 - Rest day. Dinner at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium (Universal Citywalk)

Wednesday, Nov 8 - EPCOT

Thursday, Nov 9 - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom

Friday, Nov 10 - Rest day

Saturday, Nov 11 - (Veterans Day) - Animal Kingdom. Dinner at Yak & Yeti

Sunday, Nov 12 - Flying home.

The Christmas parade at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Most Merriest Major Take-Aways

I still don't recommend staying offsite, but if it must be done, it is possible to still do everything you want without rope dropping by using Lightning Lane (LL) and Individual Lightning Lanes (ILL) judiciously.
Speaking of Lightning Lanes (LL), the ability to modify lightning lanes to a later return time is a game changer. More on that later.
It pays to refresh the Genie+ app if you see a Lightning Lane return time that doesn't work for you, especially at the beginning of the day. Twice this helped us: Once at EPCOT, the initial return time for Remy at 7:00 AM said 12:45 PM. I felt that was too long to wait for my initial selection, so I refreshed, and a 9:45 AM return time showed up. Later, similar thing happened with Flight of Passage and Individual Lightning Lane. The first return time I was served was 6:30 PM which conflicted with dinner ADR at 7:00 PM, so I refreshed, and was served a 4:30 PM return time.
If you see merchandise you like and will not be returning to that park, buy the merch. Not all gift stores are created equal and while you see some of the same stuff over and over, other stuff seems to be exclusive to certain stores.
The Tree of Life Awakenings at Animal Kingdom can be viewed both from the front of the Tree of Life, AND from the back. Almost nobody hangs out in the back so it's nice and uncrowded.
If you're going to be in the parks over a holiday and need to decide which park to be in, Animal Kingdom is the least crowded. In fact, the crowds felt lower than average on Veteran's Day this year, probably because guests are flocking to the other parks.
If you want to see EPCOT fireworks, but don't want to deal with the World Showcase crowds, you can get a slightly obstructed but still very good view from the bridges in front of the Odyssey Restaurant building. You will not see fountains or jet skis from there, but the fireworks are clearly visible, and you still have a little lagoon they'll be reflected in.
If you can, seeing the second showing of the Christmas Party parade is the right move. There is plenty of space on Main Street then, even on a sold out party night.
If you want to see Journey of Water and don't want huge crowds, going first thing in the morning is a good move (This tip comes courtesy of Adam Hattan, and was then tested by us and found to be true).
Despite higher than average crowds throughout the week, mobile order at Quick Service restaurants continued to be flawless, with our orders always being ready within minutes. I strongly recommend using it.
I also strongly recommend using mobile checkout at stores that offer it when you can. We used it at Star Traders, the Emporium, Tattooine Traders, and Creations. It saves so much time waiting.
It pays to be a good Lyft/Uber rider. Drivers can also rate YOU and your rating impacts whether a future driver chooses to pick you up. We always tip and are clean and polite. I have a 5-star rider rating, and I never had a problem being picked up within 10 minutes anytime, even at park closing.

Stay tuned in the following weeks for our day-by-day trip reports! One way to know when we post a new blog is to follow us over on Facebook. Until next time...