First time end of Aug

[mort1331]

So we are going aug25 to sept1. Have 5 day hoppers. Had planned on going sun, mon, tue, thur fri. Take wed off for down time and hang out. But now I see there is something called CHOC walk around the park on the sunday. How busy does this make the park? Should we just chill our first full day then do the week days for the park? We are used to WDW, and being from the east coast, early morning starts in the west coast will be a breeze, Later night might be a challenge.
Just not sure about the sunday and if this CHOC is anything like the BTG of WDW.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Absolutely avoid Sunday. Not only will the CHOC Walk make it a nightmare, but Wednesday is easily the best day of the week to do DL.

 

[tarheelalum]

CHOC walk is very crowded. Try to avoid it if possible.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Also be aware that HM will likely be down during those dates to have the Halloween overlay installed. If you need to do anything at the ticket booths, do it before Sunday (go Saturday night, if possible). The ticket booths will be a zoo on Sunday morning since CHOC Walkers only have that one day to buy discounted tickets for doing the Walk.
If you are familiar with WDW, this thread will have lots of good info for you: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets.
Here is the link for CHOC Walk: choc-walk. This is one of the largest, if not the largest, fundraisers in the West. It is to raise money for Children's Hospital of Orange County. Last year, there were 14,000 walkers -- and that was a smaller group than the year before! Walkers start assembling before dawn, start the Walk on Main Street around 6 am, and finish by park opening. If you are there on Sunday morning, you'll see walkers cruising through DTD toward the finish line. This is a very inspirational, humbling event. You'll see families walking in honor of children who lost their battle with illness so that other children will have a chance to win their fight. And you'll see kids who won their battle walking to raise money for other kids. If you get a chance to watch any of it and to cheer on the walkers, do it!

 

[mort1331]

Also be aware that HM will likely be down during those dates to have the Halloween overlay installed. If you need to do anything at the ticket booths, do it before Sunday (go Saturday night, if possible). The ticket booths will be a zoo on Sunday morning since CHOC Walkers only have that one day to buy discounted tickets for doing the Walk.
If you are familiar with WDW, this thread will have lots of good info for you: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets.
Here is the link for CHOC Walk: choc-walk. This is one of the largest, if not the largest, fundraisers in the West. It is to raise money for Children's Hospital of Orange County. Last year, there were 14,000 walkers -- and that was a smaller group than the year before! Walkers start assembling before dawn, start the Walk on Main Street around 6 am, and finish by park opening. If you are there on Sunday morning, you'll see walkers cruising through DTD toward the finish line. This is a very inspirational, humbling event. You'll see families walking in honor of children who lost their battle with illness so that other children will have a chance to win their fight. And you'll see kids who won their battle walking to raise money for other kids. If you get a chance to watch any of it and to cheer on the walkers, do it!

Sounds like a great event, but not one I want to be in the parks for. So looks like we will do 5 week days straight. Figure out what to do sunday full day. Thanks

 

[blackjackdelta]

Go shopping, tour and enjoy DTD, take a nap.

Jack

 

[theluckyrabbit]

You could go to the beach on Sunday. Or a ball game if the Angels are in town. Or shopping (The Block at Orange is an outdoor outlet mall about 10 minutes from DLR and there are shuttle buses to South Coast Plaza, a high end mall, in Costa Mesa, about 30 minutes away). Agree with the pp about DTD -- shop, dine, catch a movie, bowl? Maybe do a pool day at your hotel? You could kick off your park days with a character dinner at Goofy's Kitchen in the DLH.

 

[kylie71]

Go shopping, tour and enjoy DTD, take a nap.

Jack

LOL! Nap!!!!

 

[Edmom]

We went this exact time last year and spent the Sunday (which was CHOC walk day as well) as our non-park day.
Our kids enjoyed a pool day and hanging out in Downtown Disney making build a bears. The lines both at the ticket booths and gates as we walked by were insane, so I can only imagine what it was like in the parks.
This week was excellent for crowds, we had hardly any waits for any rides and walking around the parks was very manageable. The only downside was that hours were shorter, so just be prepared for that.

 

[mort1331]

We went this exact time last year and spent the Sunday (which was CHOC walk day as well) as our non-park day.
Our kids enjoyed a pool day and hanging out in Downtown Disney making build a bears. The lines both at the ticket booths and gates as we walked by were insane, so I can only imagine what it was like in the parks.
This week was excellent for crowds, we had hardly any waits for any rides and walking around the parks was very manageable. The only downside was that hours were shorter, so just be prepared for that.

Thanks for the info. Did you feel you needed the Maxpass?

 

[Edmom]

Thanks for the info. Did you feel you needed the Maxpass?

We did not use max passes at all, and did not feel they were needed. I used the app continually for checking wait times, and if we did want to do a ride with fast pass option, often we could grab a regular fast pass and be on the ride within less than half the time indicated for the stand by time. Since I've never used max pass, I didn't find walking to the attraction area to get a fast pass to be a big deal. We would just do other stuff in the area for that 10-15 minutes before we could use the fast pass.

 

[mort1331]

We did not use max passes at all, and did not feel they were needed. I used the app continually for checking wait times, and if we did want to do a ride with fast pass option, often we could grab a regular fast pass and be on the ride within less than half the time indicated for the stand by time. Since I've never used max pass, I didn't find walking to the attraction area to get a fast pass to be a big deal. We would just do other stuff in the area for that 10-15 minutes before we could use the fast pass.

Thanks. I think we will see how the first couple of days go, and add if needed. I think we might get one for the photos everyday, for $10 I think that is worth it.

 

[Sue M]

We use our arrival day (will be a Sunday thus trip) to get settled in our hotel, go buy a few things for breakfasts, then have dinner in DTD and walk around.

At DL you can’t get your tickets from Canadian voucher ahead of time. You get them at the gate. I wasted some time waiting at Guest Relations window to trade in voucher, thinking it was like WDW. Totally different system. So had to go to the now much longer entrance line at the gates. It’s actually much faster process than WDW. I found getting thru the gate in general much faster than WDW. No fooling around with finger scan, and getting held up by people or kids who just take forever to figure it out.

We bought the Max Pass, and found it a real time saver and saved our feet a lot of extra walking. At $10 I do it. But if they raise price I may not. They keep saying it’s a introductory price, which is too bad. At $10/person they’re still making a lot of $ off it. Any more and it just becomes another Disney cash grab imo. And we know it’s coming.

 

[mort1331]

We use our arrival day (will be a Sunday thus trip) to get settled in our hotel, go buy a few things for breakfasts, then have dinner in DTD and walk around.

At DL you can’t get your tickets from Canadian voucher ahead of time. You get them at the gate. I wasted some time waiting at Guest Relations window to trade in voucher, thinking it was like WDW. Totally different system. So had to go to the now much longer entrance line at the gates. It’s actually much faster process than WDW. I found getting thru the gate in general much faster than WDW. No fooling around with finger scan, and getting held up by people or kids who just take forever to figure it out.

We bought the Max Pass, and found it a real time saver and saved our feet a lot of extra walking. At $10 I do it. But if they raise price I may not. They keep saying it’s a introductory price, which is too bad. At $10/person they’re still making a lot of $ off it. Any more and it just becomes another Disney cash grab imo. And we know it’s coming.

Nice to know about the Can tickets. That was one of the things I was thinking about doing on the Sunday we are not in the parks. Yes it is $10 but that is times 4 of us. So If we dont need it then only getting one per day for the photos will work.

 

[Sue M]

Nice to know about the Can tickets. That was one of the things I was thinking about doing on the Sunday we are not in the parks. Yes it is $10 but that is times 4 of us. So If we dont need it then only getting one per day for the photos will work.

Your welcome. We got to the park extra early thinking we had to exchange at Guest Services. Gate line was short, but because we wasted time in wrong line Gate line got much longer.

I can see your point about $40/day extra for Max Pass. The good thing is you can try without first and see how you do. We found we were able to get on more attractions, our strategy was rope drop and ride the most popular ride first standby, and while on standby queue we were already making next FP and so on. And it saved on a lot of extra walking.

 

[Frozen2014]

Thanks for the info. Did you feel you needed the Maxpass?

We just missed the Choc walk last year so can't comment on that, but we did come similar timing last August from Tuesday to Friday. If it's in your budget I recommend MaxPass...even for a couple of the days. It was really hot that week and so it helped with less running around (u.e. book on phones vs having to walk to the ride to grab paper Fastpass). We also virtually had no waits as we used FastPass for any headliners.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[OneTrackMind]

We just missed the Choc walk last year so can't comment on that, but we did come similar timing last August from Tuesday to Friday. If it's in your budget I recommend MaxPass...even for a couple of the days. It was really hot that week and so it helped with less running around (u.e. book on phones vs having to walk to the ride to grab paper Fastpass). We also virtually had no waits as we used FastPass for any headliners.

Enjoy your trip.

As others have said, CHOC Walk is a really busy day - we managed to hit it twice. Once because I had never heard of it and the second time because it was either go then or not go. We still had a great day in the parks and MaxPass really helped with such a busy day. And it was amazing and inspiring to see the walkers go by with their signs!
Another thing we weren’t aware of when we planned our trip is that the hours were much shorter the last week of August. So early morning was still good, but not as useful as really early mornings (fewer people make it for 7 am than 9 am)! And the parks weren’t open as late at night either. So we just packed more in during the shorter hours and it all worked out great!

 

[Frozen2014]

As others have said, CHOC Walk is a really busy day - we managed to hit it twice. Once because I had never heard of it and the second time because it was either go then or not go. We still had a great day in the parks and MaxPass really helped with such a busy day. And it was amazing and inspiring to see the walkers go by with their signs!
Another thing we weren’t aware of when we planned our trip is that the hours were much shorter the last week of August. So early morning was still good, but not as useful as really early mornings (fewer people make it for 7 am than 9 am)! And the parks weren’t open as late at night either. So we just packed more in during the shorter hours and it all worked out great!

We were fine with the hours, but good point if people are used to staying late into the night or getting up early.
To add to that, I think it is starting the last week in August that WOC plays every night, but Fireworks and Fantasmic switched to only showing Fri, Sat and Sun.

 

[mort1331]

We were fine with the hours, but good point if people are used to staying late into the night or getting up early.
To add to that, I think it is starting the last week in August that WOC plays every night, but Fireworks and Fantasmic switched to only showing Fri, Sat and Sun.

That's too bad. we fly sat to sat and in the parks mon-fri. If fireworks and fantasmic are only the weekend, then we have to do both on the last night Friday. Need to keep and eye on the schedule.
Do they do a "last kiss goodnight at DL"? since we are from the east coast staying up late would be tough but its great walking around MK with next to no one afterhours.

 

[Frozen2014]

That's too bad. we fly sat to sat and in the parks mon-fri. If fireworks and fantasmic are only the weekend, then we have to do both on the last night Friday. Need to keep and eye on the schedule.
Do they do a "last kiss goodnight at DL"? since we are from the east coast staying up late would be tough but its great walking around MK with next to no one afterhours.

We had the same (Tues-Fri) but it's doable. On the Friday night, we saw the 9pm show of Fantasmic and just stayed in our spot to watch the fireworks. The view is probably better though infront of the castle. Not sure if you can do it better with late shows as we stuck with the earlier times.