I’m planning a short trip to Disney and would appreciate some advice regarding park days.
Originally, we were only going to do 2 park days. We are primarily interested in visiting Magic Kingdom and Epcot (Flower and Garden Festival). I’m considering adding a half day at parks on our arrival day or resort day (possibly AK or another trip to MK/EP). Do you think it would be worth the expense? If we add another park day, which park would you recommend?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Day 1- Arrival @ 12/Check In
Day 2- Epcot (RD, Break, EEH until 11 PM)
Day 3- Resort Day
Day 4- MK (RD, Break, EEH until 1AM)
Day 5- Check Out/Departure @ 2 PM
If it were me, I’d find it worth the expense, but everyone’s budget is different. Why not hang out at the resort on your arrival day/departure day and go to a park for a full day on your currently planned resort day? Resort days are great for long trips, but we never plan a resort day when our trip is only 4 or 5 nights.
What resort are you staying at? That would probably decide for me how much time I would spend on a resort day. Plus the weather. If it’s not pool weather, I wouldn’t be likely to devote a full day to the resort. A half day with a late start after your EEH the night before might be nice.
If I were adding a park it would be AK. There’s a lot to do there based on what I see of the days you have planned.
In May my sister and I split up for our AK morning as we had different goals in mind. Her intent was to watch the gorillas for as long as she wanted. What she wound up doing was meandering around Discovery Island the entire nearly 3 hours she had to herself. Very happy camper.
Personally I would find it worth the ticket price even if you only spent half a day at the park. However, if you’re rope dropping and going to EEH, that can be a long day, even if you have mid-day breaks, so it might depend on who is going and their ages/stamina levels.
AK is more relaxing than HS and has better food. HS is less walking and has better rides, but those rides are also desirable, making lines long. If you have any interest in Star Wars, HS is a no-brainer.
An alternative is spending some time at Disney Springs. We dont really care about shopping but we do like the food and the Drawn to Life show.
We just did a half day on arrival at HS a bit over a week ago. we arrived later than expected at around 3pm and still managed to squeeze in quite a lot.
So I would definitely do it and I’d rather keep Day 3 as an off-day, exactly like you’ve planned, if you are indeed willing to skip a park. I’ve learned over the past few years (and was reminded again last week ) that a no-park day would be good for us even on shorter trips, 3 or more intensive park days in a row is heavy.