Planning thread: Typhoon Lagoon + 4P1D in July

Walt Disney World
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I’ve managed to line up our summer travel so that we’ll have two days in WDW after our first DCL cruise on the Magic!

I’ll be traveling with DD10 and DD8, who have not done a full WDW trip since December 2022 (I’ve managed to sneak in a few solo visits linked to work trips since then, and as a family we also had a chance to visit DLR in 2024 and DLP in 2023, in addition to a quick but magical evening at MK last August 2024). The kids can’t wait to ride some of their WDW favorites, and I’m just excited because I get to go to Disney again!

The general plan:
Wed 2 July: disembark in Port Canaveral, Disney transport to resort to drop bags, ride share to Typhoon Lagoon and back, dinner at resort (and maybe pool time??? See below)
Thurs 3 July: 4P1D from RD to close
Fri 4 July: early breakfast at resort, Uber to MCO around 8am

I’m excited about a few firsts on this trip.

We’ve never visited a Disney water park before, though I’m learning a lot from @ChallahMonster’s Water Park Prep thread! My aim is to relax: have a fun/easy day enjoying a few slides, the lazy river and maybe the wave pool if we are brave enough. Since we’ll be arriving around lunchtime and won’t have a chance to secure the best shady spots, I considered renting a cabana for about 5 minutes, looked into pricing and availability and then decided that the $400 price tag was not worth it for us, since we’ll only have around 5hrs total and the kids will have zero interest in sitting around on sun loungers when they could be in the water/riding slides/eating ice cream. I definitely have the Sand Pail Sundaes and mini donuts on my radar. Open to good lunch suggestions or advice on the most convenient locations to leave our clothes/towels (we’ll be arriving in water shoes and with only a phone/credit card in waterproof case so we can be highly mobile).

We’ve also never done 4 Parks in 1 Day (in fact we’ve never done more than two in one day, though we did once hop from Epcot to AK and back, setting the family record for most steps ever done on a Disney trip - something like 36,000). We’re mainly doing this because we only have one day, and our dream trip would include one must-do in each park: GotG, FoP, SDD, TBA.

While I’ve loved taking things at a slower pace and focusing on theming/entertainment/dining on recent solo adventures, my kids are very ride-focused and pretty much in go-go-go mode whenever we hit the parks. So we’re not planning for any shows, just a walk-through of Moana - Journey of Water (the kids have never seen it). And a snack/meal in each park. Besides these must-dos, we would really LOVE to ride NRJ at AK, Remy and Soarin at Epcot, and finally 7DMT, Pirates and maybe PPF at MK if we don’t run out of time. Bonuses (but no regrets if we need to drop them) would be KS and either EE or KRR in AK, MMRR/TSMM/ToT in DHS, and maybe FEA in Epcot.

Keeping these priorities in mind, I decided that the best order of parks would be AK (to RD FoP and because it opens first), then DHS and Epcot, and finish in MK (which closes latest and has a preview of 4th July fireworks!) I figured this gives me a pretty fail-safe path to three of my four must-dos, leaving only TBA for a LLMP drop (which shouldn’t be too hard to get?) The main drawback of my plan, I think, is that it means I won’t tap into LLs and unlock tiers until around 11am. Is that a mistake? Here the detailed plan that I’ve plugged into TPs. It works out timewise (if everything runs perfectly, which I realize may not happen):

AK: take the first bus from resort (around 6.30am) to rope drop FoP/NRJ, head to KS, followed by breakfast at Y&Y Local Foods Cafe. Ride either EE or KRR (or walk an animal trail) and leave park by 10.30 (by ride share or bus) to head to…
DHS: tap in around 11am, use pre-booked LLMPs for ToT, SDD and TSMM. Once tiers are unblocked, try to grab MMRR for a return time within the next three hrs (or see if FEA is still available - otherwise go straight for Soarin). Have lunch at Sci Fi Dine In (first time for us! I have an ADR for 12.50pm) Ride MMRR on way out if we managed to grab an LL, then Skyliner (while hunting for Epcot and MK LLs) to…
Epcot: arrive at IG around 2.30pm. Ride Remy with Single Rider, then FEA and/or Soarin (if we got LL). Walk through Moana, drinks/carrot cake at Space 220 Lounge (I have an ADR for 4.40pm, snagged just this morning when my ADR window opened!) GotG with LLSP, monorail to…
MK: arrive around 6pm. Ride TBA (with LLMP grabbed on a drop), and any other LL we managed to grab (ideally PotC and/or PPF). Maybe Tiki Room? QS dinner from Pecos Bill, and sit on Main St curb waiting for 9.20pm Independence Day Fireworks. After firewords, ride 7DMT with LLSP, hop in line for PPF (or TBA again) before park closes. Bus back to resort, collapse.

I’m open to suggestions on improving this Touring Plan! I also have no doubt something will break down/go off the rails at some point, and that’s fine, I’m confident we’ll find a way to pivot and still hit most highlights.

Final question that I am throwing out here for advice: where to stay? When the summer 2025 discounts were first announced, I booked two possible rooms for this trip, one at All Star Movies (for $135/night) and one at Caribbean Beach Resort (for $237/night). I had pretty much decided that we would stay in the latter, because I had initially hoped that we could get an afternoon flight out of MCO and spend the morning at the resort having a leisurely breakfast and exploring the very cool-looking CBR pirate pool (Fuentes del Morro). Unfortunately, the only flight that works for us leaves MCO at 8am, meaning we’ll leave the resort between 8am and 9am (time for quick breakfast, but not more than that).

Rationally, it would seem to be a no brainer that I should therefore go with the ASMovies room: it’ll save me $220+ and is the perfect jump off point for our AK rope drop. However, the Disney fanatic in me is still stuck on CBR because we have never stayed there (while we have stayed in ASMovies before), and I’m more excited about Sebastian’s Bistro for dinner than AS food court (plus I am thinking that I can have a quick dip in the Fuentes del Morro pool after dinner to try to water slide/hot tub…which sounds ridiculous even as I type this since we’ll have already spent 5-6 hrs that day at a WATER PARK, and would probably be better off getting some sleep before our 4P1D early start). The FOMO is real. Advice/enabling welcome.

63 days to go! I can’t wait.

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While ride-share is potentially the quickest, if you don’t want to spring for the cost, you have options which will a little time, but not a lot. You can take a bus from AK to CBR, say, and get off at the Skyliner station and take the Skyliner to HS. Or you could take a bus to Boardwalk and then walk to DHS.

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That 4 park one day schedule seems a little tight near the end. I don’t think you’re getting to MK by 6 with a 4:40 ADR and a trip on Guardians.

I have found that in planning Disney Hofstadter’s law applies: it always takes longer than you expect even after taking into account Hofstadter’s law.

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This jumped out at me. Assuming MK arrival of 6pm, possibly on a monorail toward MK at 5:30, leaving Space 220 at 5:15 at the latest.

Which assumes no wait to be seated or served.

And no GotG

Quick service seems the ticket until one’s last park

Also, assuming FEA and then Space 220 and GotG walking thru Moana is out of the way.

Moana works if one is doing Soarin but not Space 220 or GotG.

Moana is a walk thru but there are interactive water things that maybe make this attraction more of a series of activities than a walk thru

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As others have said, the 6 pm arrival time at MK is likely in jeopardy with that Space 220 ressie. HOWEVER, if there is no explicit reason you have to be in MK at 6, then I might plan to treat your Space 220 Lounge as your dinner. You can get some food there (we got the sliders) which was kind of like getting a QS dinner. This would then save you from having to do the QS dinner in MK at Pecos Bill, and perhaps instead just grab a snack or something later.

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Good point, the ADR slot ended up being a bit later than wanted, and I agree 6pm isn’t realistic for MK - unless we don’t get FEA/Soarin LL and just ride GotG before we arrive at Space 220?

No reason…we can play this one by ear, arriving by 7 can also work.

Yes! Definitely planning to spend around 20 min here, and would prioritize it over Soarin or FEA even if we got LL.

This is a really good idea! I was thinking more like a margarita (and those drinks with the pop rocks for the kids) with a carrot cake, but I think if we’re not still stuffed from SciFi, that could be a nice time saver. And we can always get confectionary snacks at MK at the end of the night if we get hungry again. Will play this one by ear too.

Thanks everyone! This is why I always ask Liners :slight_smile:

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Yay! I hope you’ll do a trip report on both the cruise and your park time!

I’m so excited for another Liner Meet! My boys are 7 & 9, so they’re all about the same age. :slight_smile:

Hmmm… Now you’ve got me thinking about it too – for all the same reasons.

This will be such a fun adventure!

Omg, so much FOMO! I upgraded from Pop to CSR because CSR is new to us. I think no matter what you choose, it will be ok, but… I would say remind yourself that you’re already trying something new. You don’t need everything to be a new experience. What will you be able to try that’s new and still have the time to enjoy and appreciate? (I struggle with this, myself. I want to do it all.)

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I upgraded from ASSp to CSR last time I came for a short trip (just one night) with the girls! Here was my conclusion on that decision at the time:

  • Was the $50 upgrade from All Stars Sports to Coronado Springs worth it? Probably not, though I also don’t regret it. I upgraded because I thought we might want fancier breakfast options than Mikey waffles (we didn’t), because I thought it would be faster to get to/from MK from there (it wasn’t on the way in due to the internal bus stops, and probably only a few minutes faster on the way out), and finally because I wanted a pool with a water slide. That last one we got, and very much enjoyed – so I’ll call that a win and look forward to trying out ASSp another time when they’ve got fantastic rates that allow me to Disney math a bit more.

One year later, I would further nuance that “probably not”, to “not objectively worth it - but worth it to me!” I’m glad I got to experience CSR and besides our lovely morning in the pool, our character interactions at check in and check out were priceless. That may have been lucky timing, or it may be that moderates have more frequent character appearances than values? I don’t know. But yeah, zero regrets on that choice :slight_smile:

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You should be able to do this if you unblock it around 11. That’s exactly what we did last weekend!

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The lounge or restaurant? Space 220 restaurant is a long 2.5 hr “experience”. Not sure you want that on your 4P1D….

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I love Backlot express for a quick lunch, but your plan for YY sounds great!

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I hear you!! Go for it.
This will be a fantastic trip.
So happy for you!

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Lounge! My initial plan was just having one drink (and maybe a dessert), primarily for the experience of going up and down the elevator. I’ve done it once solo, but my kids have never been and I know they’ll love it.

Thanks to @ryan1 I’m now going to stay open-minded about possibly making it an early dinner, with lounge bites like sliders (which might take longer but will mean we can skip QS meal in MK two hours later). Let’s see how hungry we are.

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Ah, I actually meant lunch suggestions in Typhoon Lagoon :slight_smile: Seems the options are pretty limited in any case, but I figured someone may have thoughts on the best thing to order.

I’ve never tried Backlot, so that’ll have to go on the list for future trips! I have an ADR for SciFi this time, which I had tentatively included in several past touring plans but never managed to time right. Very excited it lined up this time, and think a 1-hr a/c break with some burgers and milkshakes will be perfect at this point of the day.

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Oops, read too fast. Typhoon lagoon has (or used to have) a place that served a sort of Cuban chicken rice dish that was so good. That was back in 2019 though, so who knows…

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Glad it worked for you - your trip looked like so much fun!

Unfortunately DHS is predicted as CL8 on our day (highest CL of all parks), whereas last Sunday (which I think is went you went?) turned out to be CL3.

I’ve been lucky getting LLs by refreshing in BG1, so will keep my fingers crossed - but if it doesn’t work out we’ll be fine too. We rode MMRR in DLR last June, which is more recent than most of the other rides we’re going for.

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Just a heads up- Sometimes these take a while to get seated and served and could end up being more time than you want to spend during a 4 parks day.

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Thanks, good to know! I’ll make sure to ask when I check in, and can then reassess if they expect a longer wait. I don’t mind a 60-75 min experience total, as we’ll be hot and a bit tired at this point and I see an indoor TS lunch as a kind of midday break. But if the wait for the table is 30 min or more, we can also cool off and rest at a nearby QS.

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