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Required September, October and November 2012 Itinerary and To-Do List Changes

By Dave Shute

The Autumn-Winter-Spring Itinerary and its associated To-Do List work fine for most of the time in September and October.

However, each week needs a minor change:

  • For a 9/1 arrival date, because of a special event at the Magic Kingdom on 9/8, swap Thursday evening and the evening of the Second Saturday in both the itinerary and the To-Do List
  • For arrival dates of 9/8, 9/15, 9/22, and 9/29, and for 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, and 10/27, and 11/3 a change in the typical Extra Magic Hours patterns means that you need to swap Wednesday and Friday in both the itinerary and in the To-Do List.
  • The rest of November does not require these changes


4 comments

1 Claire { 09.25.12 at 8:10 pm }

Dave, I am an intense vacation planner (intense!!) who has very little time off each year so I work very hard to make sure to I do things right. We live in Calif. and did a 6 night/5 full day stint at Disneyland/DCA over Xmas 2010. We had everything planned to a T and in spite of the ridiculous crowds, we had a great time. That has been our only Disney park visit. Now we have 4 or 4 1/2 days at WDW Nov 8-12. We feel we are old pros about the MK rides and fastpass, but wary about how much time to allocate to Epcot, DHS and AK, given our limited amount of time. Our kids are 9 and 6 (favorite rides: coaster, Tower of Terror). I will make lunch and dinner reservations for each day, so need to plan out accordingly. Will Epcot rides be okay on Sat Nov 10th, even though there is a food and wine festival?

2 Dave { 09.26.12 at 8:39 am }

Hiya Claire!

Epcot is the most distinctive place compared to DL/DCA, but is intrinsically less fun for kids the ages of yours (especially the 6yo). I’d spend a morning and evening there, with the morning focused on the rides in Future World and the evening on touring around World Showcase, dinner, and seeing Illuminations–which will be at 10p your night. F&W means World Showcase will be mobbed, but has little effect on ride wait times.

AK is the next most distinctive and deserves a full day.

There’s lotsa overlap between DHS and DL/DCA–but based on what your kids like, it’s worth a morning and evening at least.

That leaves a day for MK, and a morning–if you go 4.5 days–to return to your favorite!

For help prioritizing rides and such, see this: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2011/03/09/the-comprehensive-guide-to-walt-disney-world-rides-and-attractions/

3 Dana { 10.14.12 at 9:22 pm }

Hello, we are coming with our 10 year old girl. We come to Orlando 11/6-early M -0. What do you suggest we target? We have done the princess thing…. No need to do that again 🙂 thanks

4 Dave { 10.15.12 at 4:16 am }

Hi Dana I’m not quite following your question–“early M -0”?

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