I will be with as part of a group of 10 at WDW on Sunday, March 23 and Friday, March 28.
Most of the group, including 4 kids between the ages 8-17 have not been to WDW in 3+ years, so we’re trying to get on all of the major attractions on those dates.
We’re staying at one of the All-Star resorts on Saturday, March 22 and will be there through the night of the 23rd, so we can be at the parks all day on the 23rd.
On the 28th, we get off a cruise ship that morning and am staying off-site that night, so we’re projecting to arrive in the 10am-11am range. We should be able to stay through closing.
We are going to buy LLMP and LLSP (as needed) for both days. We have the ability to use up to 3 LLSP in a day…
With this in mind, how should we divvy up the time in each park?
Please comment below, and feel free to ask more questions.
Our current plan is probably doing just Hollywood Studios on Day 2, with the other three parks on Day 1. Unless Magic Kingdom opens at 8am that day, we would likely get to Animal Kingdom before Early Entry and leave at around 9am. Then do Magic Kingdom and Epcot (in either order), with MPLL set for the earlier park and about 3 hours at Epcot. Also LLSP for the 2 MK rides and GotG.
So…that’s a lot. I would not attempt to herd 10 people all over 3 parks in one day.
I agree that Hollywood Studios is a good choice for a post-cruise disembarkation day park. We’re doing the same after our May cruise. With LLMP, that’s probably doable.
But I really question trying to shoehorn all three other parks into one day.
One potential alternative - you mention you’re getting off a cruise on 3/28, so I presume that means you’re getting ON a cruise on 3/24. Most of the cruise lines won’t even LET you board until 11am or so at the earliest, and you can choose to board usually through about 3-4pm (check with your individual cruise line.) Is there anything preventing you from adding a park that morning? Possibly Epcot, if you are primarly focused on rides? With early entry (to knock out Frozen, and possibly Soarin or Mission Space) and a LLSP (to knock out Guardians), that should be fairly doable. You could leave Epcot by noon, and then still be to your cruise port (assuming you’re headed to either Port Canaveral or Tampa) and onboard by 2-ish.
Then, you would only have to do AK and MK on your “long day” and if you plan to use LLMP on MK and LLSP on both, I think you’d definitely be able to see all the big attractions.
For me, it’s the cost of the extra day on already highly priced 1 or 2 day tickets (with short trips around cruises the price of those few days is so high but we always feel like we’ve already come out all this way, we may as well see the parks too). If I had a Magic Key or it were a longer trip where the extra day would be a minimal cost, then maybe I would go to a park on embarkation day, until 10 or 11am. I would also not push it past 11:30am though, because, especially if all 10 of you are going on the cruise, you now have to get that group to the car/ride share/etc and anything later than 11:30am, I’d be getting antsy about the drive to the port & getting us all through, luggage drop-off, check-in, security and then boarding, plus wanting some buffer time between leaving WDW and all-aboard in case there is something that delays me at any point. And lunch on the ship is part of the included price I already paid for it, so you better believe I’m making the most of that cost!!! But this is all just me. It might be just fine to push it a little and arrive a little later on the ship, but still in time.
I do agree that 3 parks with 10 people in one day is a lot though. It is doable if the group is willing to I would make sure the group is down for a long day from early entry of the earliest park, to closing of the latest.
HS is a good option for debarkation day, if you go straight from Port Canaveral to the parks, that 10am-11am range is a good estimate of arrival. If you do express walk-off, it could be even a bit sooner. We’ve done HS on a debarkation day and it was a good time. We didn’t get the LLMP (then Genie+) but did enjoy a lot of the shows and F! especially and did
We’ve also done (and really liked) AK on debarkation day even if it’s an earlier closing park because it’s a chill park and it tends to clear out by 3pm so it’s even more relaxing and we’ve had some awesome ending nights there staying until as late as we can in it. But that is if I’m looking for a more relaxed vibe and not trying to get all the parks in all 4 days. But it could be an option and you could still hop to a later closing park for a few hours. And then you can focus on the 2 other parks on your earlier day before the cruise.
You can only buy two LLSP per day per person, so if you’re doing GotG on a three-park day, you would only be able to book one other among 7DMT, Tron, and FoP.
For that reason, I might consider doing a split EP-HS day on the end. Also Epcot to HS is an easy Skyliner transfer. I’d forego any other LL at Epcot and focus LLMP on HS.
MK is my favorite, so I’d do the first day opening at AK and then spend most of the day at MK.
You are correct that we are getting on the cruise on 3/24. We intend to board at 11am, and we already have 2-day tickets (allowed to use these up to 14 days apart) linked for part of the party, so this day is off-limits for park visiting. I agree that a 3rd day (even a part day) would have been really nice though with your reasoning.
I do agree that having more time in the parks and doing AK would be really nice, and still quite simple, even with the late start and 3-day lightning lane booking window. I have thought about doing AK-Epcot on that date.
I will note that not everyone in the party will be getting up for early entry at 7:30am. I definitely do not want to drag anyone to the park that early who is not motivated. Probably anywhere from 4-8 people would be going. The group that didn’t go would meet at the next park at around 10am. It is also anticipated that some people will want to return to the hotel sooner, and the group can easily split in that case.
Regarding the LLSP, we have enough members of the party not interested in some of those rides to make it work.
In this scenario, we would be rope dropping one of those too.
A EP-HS day would be nice, I just felt that may be somewhat risky with the disadvantages we’ll have that day for HS.
Not sure how you swung a 2 day ticket with a 14 day window… But nice!
Since you are onsite early on your first day, I would start that day at AK. It opens the earliest so you can get a good bit accomplished. LLMP return times are decent so with a good plan you should be able to get it all done by mid day and move on to your next park. My recommendation for your next park will depend on what exactly your party deems as “must do’s and not willing to wait more than 25-30 mins for”. I’m specifically thinking of these attractions:
FEA, PPF, JC MMRR, RRC.
These can be some of the hardest to get same day LL availability for. Standby and end of night entry is always an option.
RnRC is a big priority, we will definetely end up with lightning lanes for that ride at some point.
We probably will all ride MMRR as well.
FEA is pretty much completely off the radar. Nobody in our group appreciates Frozen enough that the ride would be worth the commitment for in these circumstances.
PPF and JC are unlikely as well, except potentially to pair with a thrill ride as the MK tier 1 or if the group cares about one of them more than I expect (probably JC).
Ok. This is helpful. If FEA is off the list I would suggest Epcot is your hop to park after AK. Most of the rides will be fairly easy to get LLs for. The most challenging will be Soarin and Remy. Remy has drops and Soarin availability can be had throughout the day. The good thing is once you tap into one ride at AK you can book at Epcot and AK for following LLs. So you could grab the Soarin and Remy LLs throughout the day even at AK.
For the second day I would suggest heading to HS first so you can prebook your priority LLs. MMRR can be found earlier in the day. There isn’t a ton at HS is you aren’t planning on hitting all the shows. Then mid afternoon you can hop to MK. Same as the first day, you can grab MK LLs and HS LLs at the same time. So a good plan could help balance what to get when. I would definitely buy all the SP LLs you can.
That would be my game plan.
I like the idea of going to Epcot from Animal Kingdom a lot. In that case, we could just prebook the lightning lanes for Epcot (including Ratatouille) and rely on RD for Animal Kingdom, picking up Soarin’ after using the first lightning lane.
This is a tough one, but sounds like you’ve got some ideas. I thought of a few things:
You’ll have the on-site advantage booking LL’s for Day 1, but not for Day 2. For that 2nd day, you’ll be booking 3 days beforehand from the cruise and can only get what’s still left. I think HS will still work since you want RNRC rather than SDD. You may have to be flexible on Tier 2’s though, since more popular ones may only be available in the evening.
Remy has single rider, so if the 8 year old is comfortable, that could be a good option if you don’t end up getting advance LLMP for Epcot.
If Tiana is a priority, I suggest LLMP in advance for Magic Kingdom.
If you want to try 3 parks the first day, you could play it by ear and see how it goes. You’ll still have Day 2 to compensate for anything you miss. You could even do Magic Kingdom both evenings.
Also, something good to note. There’s been talk about inventory added morning of. 6am if I remember correctly. So that could yield some good modifications. Booking in the ocean is HARD. If you’re in port it’s not so bad.
But this is all just me. It might be just fine to push it a little and arrive a little later on the ship, but still in time.
nice!