Hi all, I’m new to this community and this is my first post, so please bear with me…
Our family of 4 (2 adults, one 7yo and one 5yo) is doing two days at Disney at the end of the month and staying off site. We’re going to MK one day, and then after a break day, I’d really love to combine AK with DHS in one day. I know this has been done before, but my Star Wars fans are adding a complicated twist. I’d really like to be at DHS for rope drop to sign up for Jedi Training and hopefully get a morning spot for the kids. Then I want to use our FPs at DHS and do the main attractions/shows that the kids will like. Than I want to try to do AK in about 4 hours after lunch, and, here’s the crazy part, back to DHS for Fantasmic and the Galactic Spectacular.
Am I crazy? Is this too much to attempt in one day? We’ve never visited before so I’m not sure if I’m being too ambitious. I did a custom DHS touring plan with a 4 hour break from 1 to 5pm that makes it seem doable and hits all of our must-sees at DHS, but am I going overboard? Any feedback, encouragement (or discouragement!), or advice is much appreciated.
That will be a very long day but with a car I think it will be possible. Just know that traveling anywhere takes twice as long as you think. Even with a car I would give myself 90 minutes to leave AK and find a spot for the fireworks.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that hopping takes time. Gate-to-gate, once you include time to get to your car, the actual drive, and the time it takes to get to the gate at the second park from your car is at very best case 30 min. If using Disney transportation most people plan for an hour to hop and hope it doesn’t take that long. So your 4 hour break will give you, at best 3 hours in AK. I don’t know what you expectations for AK are, but without FPPs I thinking you’ll be able to do KS, EE, and maybe another ride or show. I LOVE AK (it’s becoming my favorite park), but I don’t think I would hop there for 3 hours.
I’m not sure how much of a “must do” JTA is at DHS, but my recommendation would be to RD at AK, hit the major rides and perhaps one of the shows and then mid-afternoon hop to DHS and use your FPPs to hit the headliners and fill the rest of the day in with SW stuff. For me, AK really takes a full day to appreciate all of the details, live entertainment, etc while DHS has become a “half-day” park for me
Thanks all! The date we’re visiting is 2/1, hours are 9-7:30 at AK and 9-8 at DHS, We will have a car. I’ve heard that that is the fastest option for traveling between parks. I think the down time in the car will probably be okay with the kids, it will give them some time to rest.
We would need to add park hoppers, but haven’t bought them yet. I’m the one who really feels the need to go to AK…the kids would probably be fine without it. I want the kids to see Lion King and go on the safari. I think if we could fit in the Nemo show, that would be great too. I should do a touring plan for 2-5pm at AK and see if we would be able to fit in any of this.
You said you were going to MK and then skipping a day and then to HS/AK. Is there anyway you could use the “break day” to go to AK–maybe for a short park day? It is hard to cram AK into a couple hours especially if you have to hurry due to travel between parks. 2-d park hoppers are only a bit more inexpensive than 3-d tickets (maybe about $100 cheaper than 3-d tix for all 4 of you put together). But from others, it sounds like you could do, Good luck
That would certainly be a good place to start. There are limited showing of FotLK and Nemo and each will eat up about 45 min of your time (waiting plus show duration), and mid-day, with no FPPs, I would have to imagine allowing the same amount of time (or more) for KS - I think it will be really tight. Especially if you want to see two shows, you might need to let the show times “drive” the timing of your break vice an arbitrary selection of clock times…
We just returned from our first trip to Disney and had only planned to spend a morning at AK and another morning at DHS. We ended up extending our trip by two days and all 5 of us (DD10, DS7, and DS5) wanted to go back to AK and DHS for those extra days. Going into the trip I had heard a lot about how AK and DHS are half day parks. For my crew we found that there was so much to enjoy between shows, rides, character interactions, etc. that we wanted more time in those parks that I originally anticipated. My youngest kiddos played for over an hour in Dinoland and we had to pull them out. They loved it. We were able to see all the shows except Frozen Sing-along in DHS. I’m still bummed about missing it. Honestly, my biggest surprise from our trip was how much we all loved AK and wished we had planned more time there. I think DHS to AK to DHS would be tough, but not impossible, to do. You might miss out on some things because you are in a rush, but it will be hard to see everything as is. Tough call.
If you attempt this, you might want to take advantage of the Express Transportation between the parks. For $15 a person, you can get on a bus inside one park and go straight inside another park and not having to go through security again. And since it’s a day pass, you can do it for the return trip.
I personally think your plan is too ambitious. If it were 2 adults, MAYBE. But not with 2 kids. I wouldn’t attempt it with just my one kid. My DD6 who is not an animal lover enjoyed one full day at AK and asked for more (which I couldn’t squeeze into the plan last minute!). AK warrants a full day. DHS is still a full day in my opinion. MK warrants at least 1 FULL day (open to close) - 2 is better, 3 is best.