Crowds in Sept? Adjusting FP choices

I've never been in September but these are my suggestions. Someone who has been may have better suggestions.

DHS - Use FPP for ToT instead of the Muppets. Even if you get into the lobby area before those in standby you will still have to wait for the doors to open to the theater. I know they recently made changes to the tiers at Epcot and DHS (don't remember what they are at the moment) so this may not work if ToT is a tier 1 one.

Epcot - Test Track has a single rider line. Would you be willing to use that one of the days and use the tier 1 for something else? I'm not familiar with Expedition Mars. Is that the same as Mission Space?

Animal Kingdom - Expedition Everest has a single rider line. Would you be willing to use it? Also, if you get to DAK early, the line to EE is usually pretty short. When I went in February, I had a FP for EE. The standby line was only 5 minutes so I used that to save a FPP.

MK - skip the FPP for Mickey's Philharmagic. You may get into the lobby faster but you'll still have to wait for the doors to open.

We'll be making our September FP+ reservations soon, also. I've read that September is historically the least crowded month, so we'll be walking onto a lot of rides even without FP+. My thoughts on your possible selections:

DHS - Don't waste FP+ on the Muppets when the crowds are low, as they will be in September. Hubby did that last November and it gave him absolutely no advantage at all over the standby people. Everyone was just walking in.

Epcot - I think Soarin' and Test Track are the only Tier One rides where you'll really need the FP+ in September.

AK - Use the Everest single-rider line and get FP+ for Nemo. It makes a huge difference in the quality of your seats.

MK - Definitely Splash Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The rest might not be necessary. Philharmagic definitely won't require FP+. I had a regular "bonus" FP for that three years ago and it gave me no advantage whatsoever.

DHS - Toy Story is definitely the most necessary FP. We always do an early FP here. We ride standby at rope drop (usually 30 minutes or less) and then immediately use our FP to go again. Unless there is a Star Wars event going on, Star Tours is rarely more than a 20 minute wait and I've never used a FP for Muppet Vision. Since you are going in the afternoon/evening, it may be a beneficial FP to have and if you don't want one for RNR, you might as well get Muppet Vision because there's not really anything else to use it for since GMR (just changed) and BatB are both tier 1. I think VotLM is still a tier 2 and that has been unreasonably difficult for us to get into lately. I think it is because it has become a much more popular FP than it used to be and if you're not there 45ish minutes before the show starts, the standby space is gone. It's a neat show, but I'm not standing and waiting that long!!

EPCOT - Not sure what you mean by Expedition Mars. Mission Space maybe? I always get Soarin' as my FP. Test Track gets a long line too, but your group has the option to get in the single rider line and split up. This is our typical strategy unless we do rope drop. Then it's TT on standby first, Soarin' FP second. If you hit WS within the first hour or so, Maelstrom is almost always walk-on (max 5 min. wait). I would definitely not use a tier 1 selection on it, but we are always at WS early. I think I saw the other day that Living with the Land was now a tier 1???? Ridiculous. I'd not use a tier 1 selection. I'd hop on LwtL standby in the morning between TT and Soarin'. Mission Space shouldn't be a very long wait standby. We don't ride it, but it seems to usually be 30 min. or less. We have yet to have a FP for Nemo that even got us ahead of one person in line, but there's not much else to choose from.

MK - If you hit Pirates early in the day, you can save a FP there. Even if you don't, the queue is nice and cool, so it's not so bad to hang out in there for 30 minutes. Jungle Cruise is also not crowded early. Lately, we've been doing these two standby first and then saving most of our FP selections for Fantasyland. You should find low crowds for most of the day since it is a MNSSHP night. If you have any interest in doing Peter Pan, I'd either plan on rope drop or FP. Standby is consistently ridiculous for that ride.

AK - Doing KS or EE at rope drop should make it fine for you to walk on. Then you can save a FP for Nemo or FoLK. I'm not a fan of doing standby for either of these shows. We've seen Nemo a lot lately because FoLK was closed while they moved to the new theater, so personally, I'd prioritize FoLK over Nemo.

We go every few weeks, all year round and this has been our experience with FP+ so far.

You don't need FP+ for Muppets. It's never more than 10 minutes. You don't need FP+ for Mickey's Philharmagic. It's never more than 15 minutes. Star tours is also usually 20 minutes or less. Don't count on being able to walk onto ToT in less than 30 minutes. It could easily be a 50-80 minute wait, most of the day. You should pick ToT over muppets or star tours! Also, VotLM is much easier to get into at night, for the last few viewings. During the day, it's much harder to get into now w/o FP+. Also, if you are set on seeing Fantasmic, you might want to choose a FP+ for it, over any other tier one options. It isn't that easy to get into Fantasmic anymore, w/o waiting an hour in line first.

For the AK shows, you should get a FP+ for Nemo. This show is much harder to get into now and you get in first and get your pick of any seats. DH and I used FP+ for Nemo a few weeks ago and had the best seats we've ever had at Nemo! FP+ is definitely worth it at Nemo.
As for FotLK, I was highly disappointed with the FP+ here!!! We had FP+ the first day they reopened and they didn't help us at all. In fact, the FP+ line was let in after about 1/2 or more of the theater was full and most of the good seats were taken. There is no special seating at all. They directed FP+ to the really high, far in the corner seats, but it was random where they were directing us. Fortunately there's no horrible seats in this theater, but we definitely didn't get the good seats. I will never waste a FP+ for FotLK again, it was worthless! But the Nemo FP+ is an absolute must, unless you don't care if you miss it.

I agree with most of what everyone has said. Don't FP Muppets or Philharmagic. At Epcot we always FP Soarin for about an hour after we arrive, walk over and do TT first and usually have enough time to do it again using single rider. Don't waste it on Mission Space, normally you can get on very quickly. I have never waited less than 1hour for Maelstrom and would always FP it as it has the most boring queue in history!

DHS definitely TSM unless you get there at the very earliest and then it's still likely to be 30mins+

AK agree with your choices. We FP FotLK and were let in before the rest and did get good seats.

Good luck, it is so hard knowing what to pick. I would say take advantage of the fact you can get additional FP once your additional 3 are used, it helps but you may not get into what you want but in general we did.

I was there last year the last week of September/first week of October. Trust me I walked on to most rides.
DS - FP TSM, RnR and ToT but the other rides were walk ons.
Epcot - We arrived at 9:00 a.m. and walked right on to Soarin' but just to be safe I would FP it and TT. We walked on all the other rides. We didn't do Maelstrom or The Three Caballeros but I don't see why you would need to FP. Single rides would work.
AK - We arrived at 11:00 a.m. and walked into FoLK and Tough to be a Bug. We walked right on to EE also.
MK - We walked onto all of the rides because we were there for MNSSHP and rode when the first parade and fireworks were going off. The longest line was for HM and we waited less than 30 minutes.
I hope this helps.

While it used to be the case that we could walk right onto rides during the slower times of year and slower parts of the day, that has changed a lot since FP+ was introduced. My DH and I are locals that go to WDW every chance we have, which is 1-3 times a month, every month except July and August. Since FP+ has been added, each and every visit we've had, the rides and shows that used to be walk on's or walk in's, are getting harder to get on or see. People are picking their FP+ 60 days out(of course!) and now it is a very different experience in the parks from when it was just paper FP that you got the day of your visit. Now, because we only get 30 days out to pick FP+, some of the rides and experiences aren't available to us at all as local AP who don't stay on property. For example, 7dmt, TSM, Wishes, Fantasmic are usually gone by the time we get to choose our FP+ at 30 days out.

Oct. 2013-May 2014, we went every month at least 2 weekends + 5 days at Thanksgiving. I can tell you from our experience, it isn't calming down or getting easier to see shows or walk onto rides. If anything, it's getting harder. We couldn't even see VotLM most visits, unless we were willing to wait for 45minutes or more! We used to be able to walk up to VotLM 5 minutes before the show and get in...every single time we tried before FP+.

I would tell anyone coming to WDW now(after FP+)to really think about the top 3 things you want to do, because you do have to prioritize a little more now. For example, most people love TSM and want a FP+ for it. But if you know you definitely want to see Fantasmic and do TSM, which is more important to you because there is a very good chance you won't be able to do both anymore. Most of the Fantasmic theater is now reserved for FP+ and then you have the reserved dining package seating also. Stand by is extremely limited for Fantasmic now and unless you are willing to line up at least 1 hour before, most nights you won't get into the show. Since Fantasmic and TSM are both tier one at HS, you can only choose one. I love TSM, but it's a 3 minutes ride vs. a 30 minute show. Some trips we choose TSM and others Fantasmic, but many times neither are available for us to pick 30 days out anyway because all the FP+ are already gone for the days we'll be there.

Just checked MDE, ToT is tier two. That surprises me for as popular as that ride is.

I absolutely agree with Annie, FP+ has changed things for the worse for us locals and ap holders. We used to ride Spaceship Earth and walked right on every single time. Now there's always a line. Same with many of the other rides mentioned. I am not a fan of FP+ I don't see the changes being positive, but that's our perspective.
Whenever we voice our concerns (complain nicely), we are told that they are still working the kinks out. It's amazing how it has changed the dynamics of things.

When you are in the single rider line, you don't ride alone. You will be sitting with someone else, just not from your party. For example, it there is a party of three going on EE. Two will sit together and one in a car before or after. Then they pull someone from the single rider line to fill in the spot. My friends and I went through the single rider line a couple of years ago. We all got on the same train but didn't sit near each other. I ended up by myself. A family of three boarded the ride. I was called to fill in the empty seat. Apparently, the father thought they could all sit in one car. He didn't want that so they left. I sat by myself and the car in front of me was empty.

Tower of Terror has never been a tier 1. Great Movie Ride was recently bumped to tier 1. That's the only change to the tiering at DHS.

Maelstrom and Character Spot is now tier 2 at EPCOT, with Living With The Land moving to tier 1. People are speculating it's in anticipation of a Malestrom refurb that could be happening within the next 6 months.

I'm going the second week of September (the week of the 7th), and this is my tentative FP+ plan:
MK - Splash, Peter Pan and Seven Dwarfs. If I decide to do a second day with FP at MK, it'll be Space, Jungle Cruise and BTMRR.
Epcot - Soarin', Maelstrom, Spaceship Earth. Test Track is my favorite, but I plan on utilizing rope drop and/or the single rider lines.
DHS - Toy Story, Tower of Terror and Star Tours one day. Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones...? I don't know what I'm going to do with the last one on the second day.

As of right now I'm not going to use FP+ at Animal Kingdom because I'm going to HS later that afternoon/evening, so I'm saving my FP+ for there. Though if wait times are chill enough, I'll switch the FP's to AK. On that second DHS day I mostly just want to ride Tower of Terror and see Fantasmic!

A lot of FP+'s in general in September could be wasted (especially the week I'm going, where easyWDW has crowd levels of 1 for three days... the highest crowd level is a 3), but I won't sweat it. If I notice something having a longer line than something I have a FP+ for, I'll just try and switch it to whatever has the longest line.

Ok I don't know if this will help but crowd wise I use touring plans and last year they were right on the money. I looked up your dates this is what I found:
Sept. 16th overall crowds 2 of 10 with HS at a 2
Sept. 17th overall crowds 1 of 10 with Epcot at 2
Sept. 18th overall crowds 4 of 10 with Epcot at 2
Sept. 19th overall crowds 1 of 10 with AK at 4
Sept. 20th overall crowds 3 of 10 with MK at 5
Sept. 21st overall crowds 4 of 10 with MK at 5

Last year we were at Disney around the time you are going and we found the crowds to be not to bad. We go in September because it typically is the least busy and the wait times are fairly short.

You can find it on your My Disney Experience. Since anyone can make FP+ 30 days in advance you can go into it to see the tiers.

Here is what we're planning for the first week in September

Sunday, Aug 31...MK: Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs, Big Thunder

Monday, Sept 1...AK: Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, Finding Nemo

Tuesday, Sept 2...EP: Soarin, Mission Space, Spaceship Eart

Wednesday, Sept 3...MK: Enchanted Tales, Splash, Seven Dwarfs (may switch to another mountain day of if we don't want to ride it again)

Thursday, Sept 4...MK: Anna & Elsa, Big Thunder, Peter Pan's Flight

Friday, Sept 5...DHS: Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Voyage of the LM

Saturday, Sept 6...DHS: Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Star Tours

Tower of Terror has always been a Tier 2 attraction, it was never a Tier 1 even when the tiering first was introduced.

According to TouringPlans.com, the current tiers are:

Epcot...Tier 1: IllumiNations, Living with the Land, Soarin', Test Track
Epcot...Tier 2: Captain EO, Journey Into Imagination With Figment, Maelstrom, Epcot Character Spot, Mission: SPACE Green, Mission: SPACE Orange, Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush

DHS...Tier 1: Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage, Fantasmic!, Premiere Theater, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, The Great Movie Ride, Toy Story Midway Mania!
DHS...Tier 2: Disney Junior, Indiana Jones, Lights, Motors, Action!, Muppet*Vision 3D, Star Tours, The American Idol Experience, The Comedy Warehouse Holiday Special, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Your upcoming trip looks great Allie

I was just picking FP+ a few minutes ago and this is almost correct. The only differences are that at Epcot, there is no
differentiation between Mission Space Green and Mission Space Orange. There is only one option and it says Mission Space. I found this strange since MS green and orange are quite different experiences. We haven't used a FP+ at MS yet, I have to assume you pick which side once you're in the FP+ line.

The only other difference is that the Comedy Warehouse Holiday Special is no longer on at HS, although I do hope they bring it back this year too. Other than those two minor differences, Touring plans is up to date.

Oh, good to know! I get a little iffy even on Green but i know my sisters are going to try and talk DH and I into doing Orange with them so that's nice to know I don't need to decide 60 days in advance. If I'm feeling brave that day, maybe I'll do Orange but it's nice to be able to keep Green as a backup.

I just chose our FP+ choices for our August/September trip and what I like about the system is once you have chosen your 3 rides, you can go back and fine tune the times. That way you can get them right after each other or spread them more apart. We have FP+ for 5 of our 8 days since we still like to wing it and we can always choose those last minute if we want (knowing that some rides like TSM will probably not be available last minute). I love the new system!

Once you get to 60 days oldtink, and get access to the system, you will find it easy to use!

For DHS I agree with TSM and star tours but try to do ToT instead of muppets because muppets is not needed for fastpass

Hi oldtink - I know Allie posted them on here somewhere, but here they are again.

Epcot:
Tier 1 = Illuminations, Living with the Land, Soarin' and Test Track
all others are Tier 2

DHS
Tier 1 = Beauty & the Beast, Fantasmic, TSMM, Great Movie Ride and Rock n Roller Coaster
all others are Tier 2

Have fun!!

edited to add - these are right from the MDE site.