Park reservation advice

Walt Disney World
1

I’ve seen people say not to do Magic Kingdom on a Monday. For our early Dec trip, I was thinking:

  • Mon: MK
  • Tues: EP
  • Wed: HS
  • Thurs: MK
  • Fri: AK

Would this be better?:

  • Mon: AK
  • Tues: MK
  • Wed: HS
  • Thurs: EP
  • Fri: MK

Thanks for your advice!

2

IDK about MK on Mondays but I have noticed that MK seems less crowded on Fridays.

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3

I like your 2nd option better.

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4

What about MK on Monday and Friday. I may be biased but I always like to start and end in MK.

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5

That is why the general advice is to avoid MK on Monday since many people travel on the weekend, their first full day at WDW is Monday and they want MK first.

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6

We usually do that, but I noticed the crowd calendar had a significant change in projected crowd level. Like 7(monday) vs. 4(basically the rest of the week).

7

I would do the second one, but that is just me.

8

We generally arrive late morning/early afternoon, have lunch at our resort and head over to MK for a few hours. It is a soak it in and ride a few low wait time favorites (Small World, etc) time. We then eat a TS dinner at an MK resort. Depending on the timing, how tired we are, and park closing time … we either head back into MK for another hour or so, or go back and crash at the resort. Our first full day is then at a park with a manageable CL.

This strategy gives us some “OMG We Are Finally Here” time without worrying about the higher MK CL at the beginning of the week. :sunglasses:

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9

Often, adding a park day isn’t that expensive (in comparison), so even just a few unscripted end-of-arrival-day hours at MK is a great start to a trip for this very purpose.

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10

Some data to inform you from Thrill Data:

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Here is the best park for each day of the week on a relative basis:

  • Saturday: HS
  • Sunday: HS or MK
  • Monday: Epcot
  • Tuesday: Epcot
  • Wednesday: MK
  • Thursday: MK or Epcot
  • Friday: AK, HS, or Epcot

Here is the best day for each park:

  • MK: Wed
  • Epcot: Fri
  • HS: Fri
  • AK: Fri

In your example, if having the optimal crowd-to-day-of-the-week is your only criteria, I would maybe do this:

  • Monday: Epcot
  • Tuesday: AK
  • Wednesday: MK
  • Thursday: MK
  • Friday: HS

This assumes no holidays during your trip. You could do any order really, just be aware of the pros and cons.

4 Likes
11

That’s awesome! Thank you. I think I’ll swap some around. I was trying to use a later epcot opening as a mini break from early rope drop.

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12

I did MK on Monday and it was pretty crowded. Of course I am doing it Saturday so it probably will be as well. :rofl::rofl:

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13

That’s a valid reason to do Epcot a different day! Like I said, it’s not all about minimizing crowds. In some cases the differences between days is negligible or at least not worth giving up whatever your other priorities are.

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