Hi all. I’m having a tough time figuring out what days to go to which parks for our upcoming trip and was hoping I could solicit some help.
Group is 5 people: me, my wife, our 4 year old son, our infant son (7 months at time of trip), and my wife’s sister.
Other than a 1-night visit to Magic Kingdom for MNSSHP when our older son was an infant, none of us have been to Disney World in many many years.
We fly in early on Dec 2nd and leave on the 10th. We’d like to make a schedule based on planning to go to a park every day except the 10th (we can always skip a day if we think the kids aren’t handling it well).
We are not getting park hoppers. We are not doing MVMCP.
We’re planning to do 2 days each in Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom, 1 day in Hollywood Studios, and 1 day at Universal (my wife and her sister are big Harry Potter fans).
It seems to me that its a no brainer for us to go to Magic Kingdom on the 5th and the 7th to take advantage of the lower crowds on MVMCP days and since we have little kids the park closing early isn’t really a big deal. Also thinking Epcot on arrival day (the 2nd); our only other option that day would be Animal Kingdom and we’d rather give Epcot the shortened second day since we suspect our 4 year old will enjoy Animal Kingdom more than Epcot. Beyond that, I’m having trouble deciding which parks on which days? Does anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks!
Will you be staying on site? I usually try to take advantage of EMH. I also plan around any must-do dining or any must-do shows. Otherwise, I’m not sure it really matters. Check the crowd calendar, just pick something, and go with a good touring plan, and you’ll have fun!
Thanks for the response! We are staying offsite so no EMH. I’ve looked at the crowd calendars but felt like I wasn’t quite “solving the puzzle” so that’s why I posted. It makes me feel better when you say that it doesn’t really matter!
You won’t get to be in MK for fireworks and how it looks after dark, with your plan. I would go to MK on one of the non-party days, just for the nighttime experience. Maybe 12/4?
A few comments…
On party days the park “officially” closes at 7:00, but they start “encouraging” people to leave starting at 6:00 After 4:00 the crowds increase markedly, and by 6:00 it’s just plain unpleasant.
Epcot is HUGE; easily the size of any other two parks combined. During the Christmas season, all of the countries in WS have special events going on. As much as I LOVE AK, if I had to choose between it and EP for a few extra hours, I would give them to EP.
CLs are guides, but not statements of fact. They change all the time, and a predicted CL may be 1 or 2 levels off of the actual. The difference between a 3 and a 9 is significant. The difference between a 5 and a 6 or a 5 and a 7 is relatively minor.
Also remember that you have 3 adults on the trip. It’s your vacation too; you shouldn’t have to plan everything around “what DS4 might like”. (The DS7m won’t know the difference between WDW and a shopping mall.)
I haven’t pulled up the schedule so I can’t give you exact recommendations, but if you are staying off site, AVOID any park with EMH - especially AM EMH. If staying on-site, EMH can be a two edged sword. IF you make it there right at EMH RD, there are definite advantages in shorter lines - but it may get more crowded as the day progresses.
That for the suggestions mkmuzzy and bswan26. I understand where you guys are coming from and I definitely think we will avoid EMH. We’re not too worried about seeing MK at night, we were there at night for MNSSHP in 2013.
bswan, I think you may be missing a couple factors that we considered when deciding to do Epcot versus AK on arrival day. With the hours as currently listed, AK closes 2.5 hours earlier than Epcot (7pm vs 9:30pm). So given that its arrival day, we really wouldn’t get a whole lot of time in AK for the short day. We may not stay at Epcot until 9:30pm, but I bet we’ll stay later than 7. Plus that day is EMH at AK.
Here’s where I am currently leaning for our schedule.
Sat 12/2 - EP, arrival day
Sun 12/3 - AK
Mon 12/4 - EP
Tue 12/5 - MK
Wed 12/6 - Universal
Thu 12/7 - MK
Fri 12/8 - AK
Sat 12/9 - HS
Sun 12/10 - no park, departure day
Any thoughts on this more fleshed out idea?
Follow up post: We had decided on the following schedule…
Sat 12/2 - EP, arrival day
Sun 12/3 - AK
Mon 12/4 - EP
Tue 12/5 - MK
Wed 12/6 - AK
Thu 12/7 - MK
Fri 12/8 - Universal
Sat 12/9 - HS
Sun 12/10 - no park, departure day
…but now are second guessing (not a good thing the day before we start ADRs) whether we should remove the 2nd day at AK in favor of a 3rd day at MK since it has so many more attractions (would probably do 3rd day of MK on Monday to see fireworks, and move that Epcot day to Wednesday). Does anybody have any thoughts on this?