Hi,
I am looking for advice on the best way to structure our upcoming WDW vacation. We will have 3 adults and 3 children in our party - ages 11, 8 and 7. They are all pretty much pirate and animal fans - could care less about Dumbo, princesses and fairies. We have 5 day park hopper passes. We are not super early risers and running crazy tired on vacation makes me hyperventilate so I like the sleepyhead plans. Though, realistically, we can make it to the parks by 9-10. We will be going the first week of June. Right now we are only planning on visiting MK, AK and Epcot. I have made touring plans for all of those, basing the MK one off of the Pirate plan, that are pretty open so that we have plenty of time to not be rushed anywhere but none of them include meals or breaks to return to the hotel. Right now we are doing Epcot on Monday, MK on Tue and Wed and AK on Thursday. We’ll leave Friday open for anything we want to go back to or for just lounging at the pool. Here is our wish-list for everyone in our party for each park:
Epcot: Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Living With The Land, Soarin, Illuminations
MK: Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Monster’s Inc, Aladdin’s Magic Carpet, Meet Peter Pan, A Pirate’s Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas, Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial, Disney Castle, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Magic Kingdom Evening Parade
AK: Dinosaur, Kilimanjaro, Expedition Everest, Avatar, Meet King Louie, It’s Tough To Be A Bug, Kali River Rapids
My husband really wants to see fireworks, light shows and parades so we have FP+ Illuminations at Epcot. . I know. But we have decided that Epcot will be for the adults so I am trying to prioritize hubby’s requests at Epcot and he is all about the best seats and views for fireworks.
On Tuesday we are planning to see the nighttime parade at MK.
Questions:
- Realistically, is it possible to go back to the hotel mid-day and then return to the parks later in the evening and still get everything done? I am thinking that on Monday and Tuesday when we are staying for the parades that maybe we should take a mid-day break. But with travel time back to the hotel what does that leave us?
- Should we book a late lunch or early dinner at the parks where we will be staying for the evening shows? This would be Epcot on Monday and MK on Tuesday. Recommendations?
- We will be so close to AK. Any good nighttime shows for that park? Or recommendations for that park?
- Any parking advice at the parks? That looks like it is going to be a big expense.
- We arrive late Saturday and are planning on just relaxing and hanging out at the motel on Sunday. However, we do need to pick up our tickets so I was thinking we could go over to AK since it is so close and at least get those so we do not have to do it on Monday. Can we do this without activating the tickets for the first day? I don’t want our 5 days to start until Monday.
- Dining recommendations at each of the parks? We will have a big breakfast at our hotel so, with the exception of the 1 or 2 nights we do dinner in the parks we will probably just be having quick lunch/snacks or counter service food.
- Any other or better suggestions for fireworks/light shows and/or parades that I have not included? All of the plans and several posters have suggested Wishes at MK but I cannot even find that to add it to our plan. Where is Wishes?
Any other good tips or advice would be greatly appreciated! This is our first WDW trip.