We’re (family of 7: Grandpa, Grandma, Me, Wifey, DS9, DS7, DD5) doing 2 consecutive days at AK in December (CL8 with morning EMH, then CL7). We might be able to RD one of the days and leave the park for the pool in the afternoon and then sleep in on the other day and stay for ROL. I booked Tusker House RoL packages for both days and will cancel the one we don’t want.
Any thoughts on how to split the park between the two days? I’m kind of at a loss looking at how many different exhibits and diversions there are. We haven’t been to AK in over a decade. Also, Grandma and Grandpa are pretty slow walkers and don’t have that much endurance, so the initial TP suggestion, even with minimize walking, had us doubling back quite a few times and that didn’t seem like the best approach.
We’re in the same boat as you, just with my kids all being a year younger than yours. DD4, DD6, DD8, Grandma, Grandpa, DH, and myself. I think I’m going to split AK into “lands.” So we’ll do, for example, Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, and Pandora on one day, and Dinoland, Discovery Island, and Asia the second day. Once we get closer to time I’ll be able to get a better idea of estimated waits (and have FPP) and see if it might make sense to switch which lands we’re doing when. But that’s my general idea…I’m curious as to what others say. I haven’t been to AK since 2000 and DH has never been.
I’m not an expert, but it seems like all AK plans hinge on FoP. Do you want to do it? Will everyone in your party do it? And if so, do you think you will be able to get FPP for it?
We are also planning to do AK in 2 days as well. So far my thought has been a day of rides and a day of animals. But I’m interested in how others decide to do this. AK has always been a favorite of ours, although we haven’t been in 5-6 years. Also, we are just a family of 3, DH, me, and DD (9). FOP is a must do for us, but EE and Dinosaur may not be.
We always do AK on two days. We don’t have grandparents along but 4 kids ranged from 6-15 last trip. We do KS, EE, Dinosaur, and now FOP both days and then split up the remaining attractions across our two days–Nemo one day, FOTLK the other, some animal trails one day, some the other, etc. One ride on KRR, Nav’i, Triceratop, and PW are sufficient for us so we break those up. And we alwasys skip ITTBAB, YMMV. There are so many diversions–Rafiki, Wilderness Explorers, Boneyard, drummers, carnival games in Dinoland, etc. that 2 days is perfect. I definitely recommend doing the safari each day as they are always different.
We plan on getting 7 FP’s and using child swap since DD5 will probably not be tall enough. So some people will get 2 rides in one shot. We don’t need to do it more than that unless it’s super convenient. These are days 60+2 and 60+3 so I assume we’ll be able to get something. The other day we’ll FP NRJ. I don’t have a good plan for everything else.
We are doing 2 AK days and plan to mostly focus on rides the first day and then more on animals and shows the second day. That may not work for you guys since you need to limit your walking as much as possible.
I’m also planning two AK days for our trip at the end of August, but we’ll only have my parents with us for the second day.
If mobility is a bit of an issue and they’ll need to walk slowly, maybe consider not dragging the grandparents EVERYWHERE. I’m planning to start at 8am for EMH (it will be open, right??), but I think I will just send my parents to Starbucks and let them hang out for an hour (hopefully with my DD2 too) while the rest of us hit EE multiple times and Dinosaur. Then, we’ll pick them up and head to Africa for KS, Tusker House and then FotLK. After that I’m planning to hit Pandora, and then we’re off to Sanaa to explore. While my parents won’t see everything, I’m fairly certain they will be happy to see many of the highlights while having some downtime.
So, if you are parents are fine to hang out a bit on their own, maybe find an interesting place for them to sit/relax/explore for an hour or so while you and the kids run around?
Btw, on our other AK day, we’ll do a late start and then spend time in Asia, Dinoland and Pandora. We’ll skip Africa this day since we will hit it a few days later.
That’s a good idea. Are there good places to drop off the 2 grandparents and DD5 where they can be doing something fun and interesting while we do FoP, EE, KRR, Dino/PW, etc.
Yes! And only 1 exit! Nearby is the Triceratop Spin which is good for the littles and almost never a wait. And I think Donald et al. meet in dinoland now.