Any difference in navigating MK, EP, HS and AK on CL 9 days?

Hey all - I’m starting to try to plan which parks we’ll go to on which days of our trip next March. I know the CL now are best guesses and are subject to change, but I’m at least using them as a preliminary guide and will set our agenda more in place when our ADR date opens up.

I plant to have a good touring plan when we go to the parks. We plan to hit MK twice, AK once, Epcot once and HS twice.

Several of the days of our trip are CL 9 or 10 across the board. I’m not too worried about it right now as having a plan will help and given that we are doing two days at MK and HS we won’t need to cram everything into a short period of time. That said, I’m wondering if there is a difference b/w a CL 9 day at MK, versus a CL 9 day at AK, EP or HS? In other words, is there one park that is considerably worse than others on comparable CL days? One that is easier to navigate on high CL days than others? Any insight from the more experienced travelers? Thanks so much!

MK is the easiest park on high CL days. HS is mich smaller so more sardine can feeling. EP is large in size but fewer attractions. CL is based on wait times so longer waits maybe there isnt a sardine feeling. Havent done EP at that level. AK has a lot to look at outside of rides. Med size park but theres a lot of “funnels” for walking around. Will be an in between experience. Havent done a high CL day since pandora opened, so really cant say how thats affected it.

Both of our trips were on high crowd times (Thanksgiving week) and I found that having set FP and ADRs meant that we could do everything we wanted. We rarely walked onto a ride without a FP. We were not trying to do everything, however, just would make us happy at the moment.

Oh, and this was for all of the parks.

I visited MK and EP on CL10 days.

Advice–

  • Get PPO reservations if you can
  • Keep an eye out for last minute park hours changes
  • Take advantage of EMM
  • Make a touring plan and stick with it but …
  • Don’t be afraid to leave the park if the crowds are getting to you

Epcot at CL10 was busy, but didn’t feel super crowded. We left the hotel at 7am. Tried to arrive early, but barely made it through the check point in time for our 8:25 PPO at GG because of long lines. Still got our early start on Soarin and did the aquarium next. Hit 9am 10am fast passes back to back and then got the 11:30 am fast pass for FEA right before it expired. Probably tried to do to much in a single day, but that was more of a problem with the size of the park and the heat, not the crowds. Left the park by 4:30 pm feeling sweaty and spent, but we did complete the Easter egg scavenger hunt. We all sat and stared at our metal and enamel “reward” eggs on the ride back to the hotel without talking, amazed and exhausted.

When I was at MK on a CL10. Park hours shifted 1 hour early the day before, so we adjusted and arrived at 6am & Got some great “empty park golden hour” sunrise photos on memory maker. Got a lot of things done before hitting 9am, 10am and 11am fast passes. We had 11:15 reservations at BOG, took advantage of on line ordering, and everything was going well. After lunch it was a good day for Tom Sawyer island. By the time we got off Tom Sawyer island, intersections were packed with visitors shoulder to shoulder, and cast members were lined up in the middle of most roads with signs pointing to the right, chanting “move forward and keep to the right”. It was a little claustrophobic and I’m not really prone to that. After losing DS7 in the crowds for a few minutes, we decided it was a great time for hotel pool time by 1:30 and we were happier for it. Skipped out on the adventure land scavenger hunt.

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