Help Me Plan 5 park days!

Walt Disney World
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Will you PLEASE look at my lineup and offer suggestions/concerns/additions? I’ve been over on chat and not on the forum in a long time and excited to get your thoughts/expertise! Feel nervous about planning the best trip (maybe obsessed is the more accurate word Haha!). While TP predicts low crowd levels for my end of April trip, I know enough to know that all bets are off.

Goals

  • Show our family newbies why WDW is special

  • Don’t be so exhausted that it ruins the fun

  • Have some great meals

  • Get on RotR

Day 1 Tuesday: Arrive in the evening, staying at Swan. Party of 3 adults, two teenagers in 2 rooms. One family liners and the other mom/teen daughter are newbies.

Day 2 Wednesday: HS morning with afternoon break, dinner and late after hours at MK

EE HS / Walk and be FRONT of RD / Purchase G+ to get an early morning time for SDD. RD MMRR then to RR then ToT. Then TSMM, hopefully SDD comes then and then get a LL for return for MFSR.
Food: Docking Bay 7
Depart HS in early afternoon

Rest for the afternoon.
Dinner at Bluezoo

Go to MK around 7pm, maybe have stacked a G+LL for the evening there, but the goal is to see the Fireworks show from a position where we can either head to Fronteirland or over to 7DMT when fireworks are coming to an end. Then, spend the rest of the evening in those after hours.

Day 3 Thursday: AK
Sleep in a bit; buy G+ or ILL for FoP
Breakfast: Ale and Compass
AK arrival maybe 11:30am?

Take it slower, but do what we can like all the main attractions, but esp EE (yes, should be open), Dinosaur, ITTBB, FoLK, birds in flight, Divine…if time, the drawing experience. I’m torn on KS cuz I use to live in Africa, so this experience doesn’t impress me (sorry) and takes a lot of time so will do only if no wait.

Food: Nomad Lounge for either afternoon or dinner, sharing apps/items; and Satuli for either lunch or dinner.

Tree of Life is my top priority (one of my most favorite things in all the world)
NRJ and FoP at end of park day.

Day 4 Friday: MK morning and Epcot afternoon/end of day
Buy G+ and stack for Epcot, using early entry at MK to do whatever is our fancy, given we had extended hours the previous Wednesday night. Buy ILL for Remi?

Lunch: probably Sleepy Hallow or grab something at Main Street Bakery? Lighter stuff so that we can snack in Epcot

Dinner: Hoping for Topolino’s at 5 or 6pm!

Evening: Harmonious

Day 5 Saturday: Epcot afternoon, HS evening
G+ to stack for HS; purchase ILL for RotR for late afternoon/evening.
As needed, sleep in then over to EPCOT for snacking/touring.
Over to HS for end of day (hopefully SDD LL at night)

Dinner: Topolinos if we didn’t manage it for Friday.

Day 6 Sunday: AK morning, Brunch DS, evening Firework Pontoon Cruise
Those who want to get up early, will and head to RD for AK (FoP)
Noon brunch at Homecomin’; Gideons and Ganachery for treats.
Afternoon - go with the flow/whatever people feel like.

Evening: Fireworks Cruise.

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You absolutely cannot take newbies to AK and not do KS. That is just sacrilege. Don’t forget about the trails there. They are far more crucial to the experience than Dinosaur (which I would not even bother going to that area at all personally).

Friday is way too much with Topolinos in there too. Hopefully you can do that Saturday.

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With first timers, I honestly don’t know that I would park hop. I think it’s a lot of wasted travel time that they could spend on attractions.

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Ok!-will do KS with them. AK is my favorite park but KS is not my favorite attraction. Feels a bit like a zoo and that depresses me. Once you’ve experienced animals in their natural habit it’s very hard to see them outside it (though I think Disney does it as good as one can!)

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I felt the same except that, given we are getting after hours at MK and given we are staying next to Epcot, and given predicted crowds, I was trying to hedge my bets for least time in lines. Will keep thinking about it-thank you. What would you do for our first full day, given we want to do MK evening hours?

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Take advantage of staying at the Swan Reserve by only hopping to DHS/EP in the evenings by walking/boating. That’s a big perk of a Crescent Lake hotel.

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Thank you! Good advice.

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I agree with what @MeetMeAtThePoly said. If you hop, make it DHS/Epcot since it’s next to you hotel.

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Because your hop to MK is on an evening hours day and you start at a resort near you (HS) I think this day is fine. I would make sure that you leave HS by 1:00 to give some time to really relax before your nice dinner and then get to MK.

On that first day if you cant get the early SDD I think its okay. Maybe get something for 9:00 and then you could roll through more LLs. Sounds like a great trip!

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Thanks @heahternoel! That’s reassuring and yes, that was my goal to get back to the hotel at the 1ish hour to truely rest (hopefully get us all to take a nap).

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I think it’s likely that your 2 hours after park opening window would roll around before your LL for SDD, so you’d make your 2nd G+ booking then.

Unless your Disney newbies have lived in Africa too, I would do KS. Even with a wait (you’ll never get no wait for KS, so pick a limit to how long you’re willing to wait, sure, but don’t have that limit be 5 minutes.) (just read the rest of the thread and saw that you have decided to do so :blush:)

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Thanks @Broph1988 , I actually have had no wait for KS in my last two visits (going in the afternoon, there was no wait)…but I’ll use G+ to ensure no wait!

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Were those recent visits? Wait was up to 115 minutes yesterday, but that was with EE closed, which makes a difference, of course.

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Not too recently…Sept 2021 was last time.

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I completely agree - I just did a trip with a friend who hasn’t been since she was a little kid, and KS was a jaw-dropping experience for her. It may be boring for you, but it’s really fun to see someone experience WDW for the first time (in her case, her first time as a grown-up, so really it’s the first time she’ll be able to remember) - I’ve been maybe 16 times, so I’ve kind forgotten just how magical it can be!

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Hi-It isn’t that it is boring. AK is my favorite park! And, it isn’t that the safari is boring. I think they do a nice job. It’s simply that it is nothing like a real safari:-) We’ll see what my niece thinks of it.