I have been trying to plan my trip for close to six months now. I keep changing my mind. This is my fourth trip, but the first two were when I was a littlun’ so I have no planning experience from those trips and my trip one and a half years ago was with my older sister who did most of the planning. I am taking my best friend (we will both be 25yo) for her first trip to any sort of large amusement park/magical world experience so she is no help. Help me, please!!!
Our dates are May 25th to June 4th. The 25th we are flying in and having supper at Raglan Road with an ADR for 8pm. We fly out the 4th, so no park that day. We have 8 day park hoppers, so hoping to take advantage of EMH if possible and then get the heck out of Dodge when it gets busy. The 28th we are going to UOR. We want to see each night time show once and will probably start the trip and finish the trip with the HEA fireworks our first and last day. Would also like to see Epcot fireworks during supper at Rose and Crown or Spice Road Table. These are the ADRs I have so far, but I have no idea how to plan the rest of the parks.
May 25-Raglan Road 8pm
May 26th-Be Our Guest 6:25pm
May 29th- 'Ohana 9am
Wine Bar George 6:30pm
June 1st-Garden Grill 8am
That was a lot of information, but you guys are absolutely awesome and experienced, so any suggestions are appreciated!!!
There are basic questions that you have to answer first.
(1) How many days do you want to spend at each park?
(2) How many hours out of any given day do you want to spend in the parks/resort.
(3) On days when you leave early, will you be returning to a park after your break?
(4) Will you be hopping?
(5) Are you staying on-site or off-site?
(6) If staying on-site, are you able/willing to get up early for EMH?
(7) How important is “doing as many rides as possible” compared to a more leisurely approach enjoying atmosphere, shops, shows/parades, food and drink, etc.?
Not until you have relatively solid answers to these questions can you really start to play “the tile game” to figure out which parks on which days.
In addition to @bswan26’s questions, consider the following:
Pay close attention to park hours. You don’t want to be out really late at Park A on Monday and then try to hit mEMH at Park B on Tuesday.
On mEMH days don’t automatically assume that you should hop to another park. It takes time to leave the first park, get to the second, get through security, and enter the park, which all adds up. On top of that, sometimes you can be jumping out of the pan and into the fire.
Once you have come up with an initial schedule of park days, make personalized touring plans and optimize them to be sure that you can reasonably do what you intend to do.
Like PP said, a couple questions still to answer, but here’s what I see so far:
S May 26 - ; BoG 6:25 pm and HEA
M May 27 - Memorial Day so this might be a busy one
T May 28 - UOR
W May 29 - ‘Ohana 9 am; MK for 3 FP since you’re already there; Wine Bar George 6:30
TH May 30 - Maybe this night for Illuminations and start the next morning a little late?
F May 31 -
S June 1 - Epcot Garden Grill 8 am PPO and RD; then I’d go to HS since AK has EMH and do your 3 FP and Fantasmic
S June 2 -
M June 3 - MK for HEA
HEA is going to be at 10 pm while you’re there, so I don’t think I’d be able to do EMH in combination with that.
Thanks for your suggestions! This is kind of my tentative plan; do you all mind looking over it and giving thoughts? I have changed days around soooo many times. I wasn’t thinking as much about expediting travel between parks (putting Epcot and HS on same day), but I am keeping that more in mind now.
S May 26 - RD MK and 3 FPs; BoG 6:25 pm and HEA
M May 27 - AK at RD and 3FP; leave after lunch-ish for HS and Fantasmic
T May 28 - UOR
W May 29 - ‘Ohana 9 am; MK for 3 FP; Wine Bar George 6:30; return MK until 12am?!?!
TH May 30 - HS at RD/sleep in? and 3FP; Epcot for La Hacienda de San Angel/Illuminations 7:30pm
F May 31 - RD/sleep in AK or MK/partial resort day or Disney Springs at night?
S June 1 - Epcot Garden Grill 8 am PPO and RD; HS if we want or Disney Springs again
S June 2 - AK at 12pm for 3FPs; Rivers of Light
M June 3 - MK for HEA
M May 27 - What are you planning to do at HS? Most hopping advice that I’ve seen is to save your 3 FP for the 2nd park. But in HS, you could focus on shows, so that wouldn’t be as important. On day 2 of your trip, you might have a hard time getting either FOP or SDD.
W May 29 - I like the option to go back to MK for PM EMH but I would be wary to jeopardize your HS morning, since you’ll be hitting all your rides that day.
You’ve got a RD at each park and all the evening shows. I think the rest of the tweaking is going to depend on where you want your FP to be.
*Full disclosure: we’re about to go on our first trip, so I’m not speaking from park experience. Just what I’ve learned here.
We have done late nights and then RD the next morning, but we almost always take a break midday in the heat to nap and refresh. If you aren’t going to take a break each day, you might be super exhausted! I am planning my 3rd trip for this summer and it is our first time with park hoppers, so it’s very cool to see your schedule and thinking on how to plan out your days. I did have AK as my second day park but switched it to further into my trip after reading that it might be hard to get FP for FOP, but since you have it listed both Monday, possibly Friday, and Sunday, you should be fine!
Sunday, May 26th - EMH at HS morning, then over to MK (Be Our Guest) for HEA
Monday, May 27th - Epcot
Tuesday, May 28th - UOR
Wednesday, May 29th - HS in morning, then to MK for later hours/EMH.
Thursday, May 30th - MK
Friday, May 31st - AK (Try for FOP FPP).
Saturday, June 1st - Epcot (Garden Grill) although AK has EMH, so you might swap your ADR?
Sunday, June 2nd - AK (unless you swap, then your ADR on June 1, then do Epcot this day instead and do Illuminations)