Would love to know opinions on my plans for this trip. It’s for myself and 4 friends, no children. This was originally scheduled during cooler temps but now we are going mid-May, I’m so nervous about the heat and hoping the breaks are enough to wind down.
Saturday
Land at MCO - 9am
HS- 1130am
Hotel break (GF) 3pm-6pm
MK- 7pm-9pm
Sunday
MK- 830am- 1pm
Hotel Break- 2pm-4pm
EP- 430pm-9pm (is this enough time for Epcot? too scared of heat to start earlier)
Monday
AK- 830am-1pm
Hang at GF/Enchanted Rose -2pm
Head to Airport- 4pm
Flight home- 7pm
It looks doable with the understanding that you can’t do everything. Plan ahead and do the things that are most important to you and your group.
I’m going in July, and I’m purposely choosing indoor attractions for a good bit of my choices, very few outdoor things due to the heat and my inability to handle it.
Agree with above, this is not enough park time. Personally I would only take breaks if you can add multiple days to the trip (and I hate the heat/humidity with a passion, it is work just to stay alive when I am there most months). I’m afraid you will only see a small amount of each park with these hours. Epcot for me is a 2 day park, 1 day from open to close if cannot do 2. But 4.5 hours is not enough to see much, unfortunately.
My goal is just 2-3 rides in each park (will likely purchase G+). Epcot is my worry- I just hope we can somewhat make it around world showcase. I dont think we have the “must conquer WDW” mentality on this trip lol.
I totally understand, the weather is tough. Instead of a break at the hotel (which takes a lot of time from the parks), how about a table service meal scheduled during that time so you can enjoy the a/c while also enjoying a good meal?
With how short the trip is, I was nervous reserving any table service meals, wanted to be able to pivot plans fast. Maybe we can just do indoor shows and shop instead of a break at the hotel. Half the group isn’t as Disney obsessed so lets see how they’ll fare lol.
Your schedule has almost the same amount of park time as I had on my trip last week. Instead of breaks at the hotel, I had work conferences. I basically had one extra evening when I spent a couple extra hours at Epcot and MK to repeat and see a few things I missed.
As a WDW veteran, I thought it was plenty of time. I knew what I wanted to do and was ok if I missed out on a lot. But I ended up accomplishing all of my high priority items plus many of my second and third tier proprieties. It was a great time.
So if you are patient, use Genie+ effectively, and/or are ok to just focus on 2-3 priorities per park and will be happy with anything else on top, your plan is great.
However, I agree you would maybe feel more satisfied if you cut out one or two hotel breaks. On the Epcot day, you may want to spend the afternoon in Future World, where you can be inside most of the time. You may need extra time at HS, too, but in that case you will probably not be able to avoid the outdoors. Just do a late lunch at Sci-Fi or something.
I personally wouldn’t spend so much time in the afternoon at a hotel. I rarely do hotel breaks even with my kids, I wouldn’t do them myself / with adults only. why not rather stay in the parks but take it easy if needed, have a longer meal etc.
I would probably group the parks more by location (MK/EP; HS/AK) and do hotel breaks at one of those area resorts with a TS meal involved and shorten the breaks up some.
Seems fine to me, since you’re just hitting the highlights and don’t feel you need to do “everything”.
Saturday- easy to stay at HS as long as you want. Why do you want MK at night- is it for fireworks? I guess my concern is that you won’t get much done at HS from 11:30 AM-3PM. I’d rather do 3PM- close and stack Genie+ all day so you have a bunch (not sure if you’re getting them though).
Sunday- Sounds like a good amount of time at MK, then easy to go back to the GF for a pool break, then Epcot whenever you want.
Monday- Again sounds like a good amount of time for AK.
Another thought is to make your arrival day your Epcot day- stay as long as you wish, then back to the GF at night (could see the fireworks from there). Then Sunday could be HS in the evening.
I’m local so can’t say much about the plans because we tour a lot differently but just wanted to let you know that Enchanted Rose doesn’t open until 3:30 and doesn’t serve food until 5:00.
Our early July 2018 trip we had to spend a couple hours midday each day in our resort room or melt. It was so warm, we even skipped the pool, opting for the a.c. instead. And feet up.
We went back out to a park at about 4 pm. Refreshed.
I’d do a touring plan for your Epcot evening, sticking in what you hope to do and see what results you get.
We’ve tried to do around the world several trips and so far haven’t managed it all. It’s fun to keep trying, tho. Let’s see, 11 countries, 4.5 hours - should be doable. But that’s what we usually figure. On paper it should be doable. I never can recall why we run out of time.
Epcot tho doesn’t seem as hot to me as AK.
Really, you should try it. Post back here your thoughts on your plan. And next time, readjust, if necessary. Or try something else.
That’s the nice thing about WDW. Experiments and trying new plans are allowed.
Well this is very good information. Thank you! I didnt even bother checking hours lol. I was hoping the tea party would be back and we could do that before we headed home.
I have MK in the evening the first day because on Sunday MK closes at 4pm, so no chance of fireworks, and on Monday we leave before fireworks. Its the only day we can go.
