I’m hoping someone might be willing to take a look at the days and dates of my plan below and let me know if I’m missing something major in my daily park choices. This will be our first visit to Epic, which is at a Crowd Level 6 every day of my stay; I don’t know if the weekday will make much of a difference for how crowded that park “feels”. I plan to spend 1.5 or 2 days at Epic given the ongoing operational challenges, ride downtime, etc.
We are staying at Surfside Inn starting Tuesday August 4, switching over to WDW the afternoon of Saturday August 8. I want to use Early Park Admission for two different mornings at Epic (to hit Battle at the Ministry), and at least one EPA at Islands (for Hagrid & Velocicoaster). I’m not planning on purchasing Express passes. Thank you in advance for any of your thoughts.
Here is my game plan based on the TP Crowd Levels for each day:
Tues Aug 4 (Crowd levels: USF 6; IOA 3; Epic 6): check into hotel and spend afternoon at IOA &/or USF
Wed Aug 5 (USF 3; IOA 3; Epic 6): early entry Epic; all day at Epic
Thurs Aug 6 (USF 2; IOA 2; Epic 6): early entry IOA; split day between IOA & USF
Fri Aug 7 (USF 2; IOA 2; Epic 6): early entry Epic; maybe all day at Epic
Sat Aug 8 (USF 3; IOA 4; Epic 6): early entry IOA, split morning between IOA & USF; head to WDW late afternoon
I wouldn’t put too much credence into relative crowd levels at each park. The patterns are not particularly strong, IME. Instead I would put the parks in the order / days that makes the most sense for your time.
I assume you have park-to-park tickets for all days? If so I think having one full dedicated day to Epic is a great idea, plus at least another half day. But you may want to hop there a third day depending on how you like it compared to the other parks. I would keep this open as an option.
I like the idea of doing IoA / USF on your first partial day and then dedicating your first full day to Epic. You will want to have that first full day to poke around in the different lands and really get into the details, in addition to riding each of the rides.
Here is a link to my June trip report where we did a similar plan for the first 3 days of our Orlando vacation, although we had EP, which helped us streamline our time but I think it’s doable without.
I would consider breaking up some of your days between the north and south campus.
Epic Universe is best after 4pm. The waits drop because many of the young families with kids get tired out and leave. Epic at Rope Drop is fine, but by 10/11am the park is hopping.
Epic at night is special, with all the cool lighting, etc. Yes you’ll want to make sure to close it out twice. But if you have a full day there, it may be hard to do that and/or enjoy it because of fatigue. (BatM usually has low waits right before close).
Traveling between parks mid day is a nice break as well, gets you off of your feet and maybe cooled down too. You could combine it with a short hotel break and/or a late lunch, especially if it’s really hot.