My sis and I are going on a Disney/Universal split trip from April 27-May 6. We already have EMM scheduled for MK on Apr 28 and HS on Apr 29, so we are getting exclusive access to TSL and Fantasyland rides already. We had two rest days built into our schedule, but really wanted to use one of them to add an extra Disney day. We were going to add it to Fri May 3 and likely use it in MK. But now Disney just opened up DAH in early May, so I’m conflicted.
What would you do if your focus was to get as many rides as possible? Would you add the extra regular park day (MK with no access to EMH and CL 4 predicted) on Fri May 3, and have a whole day available for rides? Or would you take the DAH for MK on Thurs May 2 (we would leave Universal early to head to Disney for the evening) and keep the full rest day after that? We really want to take advantage of the rides more than anything (we love the “mountains”). And we are definitely park troopers with no small kids, meaning we can handle the long days. I’m not sure how many rides we could potentially get in for a DAH night vs. a CL 4 Friday in MK.
Since you’ve already got a day at MK, I’d add DAH. It’s phenomenal, especially if you want to pack in rides. We did 7DMT 4 times with zero wait (could have done way more). Some rides let you stay on for another go-round (7DMT they made us get on, so we did have to walk out and back up the queue).
DAH just misses out on the ambience of MK - which you’ll get any way, so I’d use it to just ride ride ride!
Maybe I should lay out the week and someone can tell me I’m crazy for even thinking of doing this.
April 27 - Arrival Day (land at 6 pm, so no parks)
April 28 - EMM at MK (MK all day)
April 29 - EMM at HS, morning at HS, hop to EP for afternoon/evening
April 30 - RD AK, morning at AK, hop to EP for afternoon/evening
May 1 - Check out of Disney and moving to Universal, Universal park day
May 2 - Universal park day, POTENTIAL for MK DAH
May 3 - Either a full rest day or added Disney day (MK would be where we end up)
May 4 - Disney Springs day
May 5 - Universal day
May 6 - Universal day with flight leaving at 6 pm
Well, not sure how your budget is, but you could just do both. Adding an extra day to a 4-day ticket is only about $15/ticket. DAH is $125 (?) per person. So, you are talking about spending an extra $30 to have the “protection” of another day at Disney. If you do DAH, you could still use that extra day (part of a day) at one of the other parks (half day on the “rest” day, or Disney Springs day, etc). Just an idea.
I did think of that, and budget isn’t an issue for this trip. But I’m afraid if we decide to do DAH on Thursday, we will be dead (exhausted) by Friday and will need that full rest day. I would LOVE to have another park day on Friday, but think I would have to not push a DAH into the schedule for our sanity.
I should specify that Thursday morning, we will be at Universal for RD, and likely be leaving that park and driving directly to MK for DAH ( if we go that route). Even for some heavy duty park troopers, that’s a long day.
Do you think you’ll need a full day at Disney Springs? I mean, we love Disney Springs at all…but we’d never spend a full day there. You could still leave a full rest day and add a half day to your Disney Springs day in one of the parks.
Your plan doesn’t currently give you full days at any park other than MK.
Our Disney Springs day is a secretly disguised second rest day. I don’t anticipate we will need the entire day either.
I suppose that this type of plan might work. I would have to look at the wait time predictors to see if a Saturday in the parks would be manageable. Thanks for the suggestion!
The only DAH available during our trip is May 2 for MK. There are some at HS during our time there, but we have EMM for TSL, so don’t think we will need it.
Come to think of it, you have a lot of time at Universal. We did four days at Universal last year in February, and could easily get through everything (no Express Pass) in two days. We did 1 day devoted to HP (both parks) and was out by 3. Then, days 2 and 3 were devoted to the rest of the rides in each respective park. We were out by 3. Fourth day, we just went back and did all our favorites again from the previous days. We were out by…you guessed it…3.
So, you might find having another Disney day and spend less time at Universal is a better option.
We did Universal last year as well in only 2 days. We already bought tickets for 4 days this year, and I can’t change them at this point (I don’t think, unless someone knows of something I don’t). I agree that Universal doesn’t need 4 full days, but we planned to show up late for the first one (changing hotels that morning), leave early for the last one (flight to catch), and now potentially leave early for the second one (for DAH). So they aren’t 100% full Universal days.
But I do like the idea of Saturday (Disney Springs Day) as an alternate Disney park day. I’m looking at wait time data for that day, and it’s not as bas as I expected for a Saturday. We might go that route, just so we still get that full Friday rest day to recover.
Well, most of the time 2 days at Universal cost the same price as 4 days, so there would be no point in trying to change them even if you could! But you are under no obligation to USE 4 days.
I’m not saying you couldn’t fill 5 days. But honestly, if you don’t have Express Pass and you are going during a slower time period (which this is), 3 days is plenty of time to get through everything. (Probably could be done in 2 days, honestly.) After that, it is just luxury.
And yes, you can do it all in three days. I personally think two is pushing it, but I admit I am in the minority of people who want to do all my favorites multiple times and the more time, the better!
That’s true. We don’t have to use them all. But I’m not one to give up something I’ve paid for. Seeing those who post on here that they missed their DAH or changed their mind about a park day make me cringe. We are spending a lot of money on extras this trip, but I’m still a penny pincher at heart.
Normally, I’m like that. For our May 2020 trip, however, I’m paying for 4 days at Universal, but only planning two days (because, if you buy two days, you get 4 for the same price). It does leave us open to the idea of maybe hopping into Universal on a third day for part of one our rest days if we want. But we expect only to want/need 2 days. We’re planning 5 days at Disney, but I’m buying six day tickets just so we have options there as well (since going from 5 to 6 days is minimal in extra cost).
We did it in 2 last year, but felt that we cut it a tad short. To be honest, that was likely due to the torrential downpour at 5 pm that gave us a push out the door on our second day. If we had those last few hours back, I think we would have been satisfied with 2 days. But I completely understand your wanting more. We LOVE LOVE LOVE Universal just as much as Disney.
I don’t anticipate we will need the entire day either.
We are spending a lot of money on extras this trip, but I’m still a penny pincher at heart.