It has been 2 years too long since our last trip down to Orlando, and your insights were invaluable for a question I posed back then, so here I am again - seeking your sage advice!
We are planning to head back down at the end of the month (nothing booked yet) for a combo Disney/Universal trip. We can only squeeze in 2 days at each, so we are leaning towards purchasing 2-Day Park Hopper tickets in hopes of hitting some of the headliners at each of the 4 parks.
We are planning for our park days to be Saturday/Sunday, and the posted hours for those days are (Sat/Sun)…
AK: 8-7 / 9-7
HS: 9-9 (both)
EP: 9-9 (both)
MK: 9-10 / 9-6
Any thoughts or suggestions you have would be most appreciated as it relates to which parks to hit up on which days, strategies for getting all the “big ones” in, etc. (e.g., could I just hit up Epcot at the very end of an evening for Guardians and Soarin?).
Generally, Saturday and Sunday are the least crowded days at WDW. This is often due to AP blockouts, and also due to generally patterns of when people come to WDW. So that’s good considering your plans!
Normally I would say to do this differently, but given the specific park hours on your days (including what appears to be a party or event at MK on Sunday?), I would do AK morning + MK afternoon / evening on Saturday (since those will give you the max hours at each park).
By process of elimination, I would recommend EP + HS on Sunday.
Probably the best way to get everything done is to do HS in the morning using Genie+ to try to get SDD plus two or three other LL attractions, then standby for everything else.
Get ILL for GotG for the evening at EP and then when you’ve churned through as many LLs as you want for HS, try to get a few for EP (there will be slim pickings – Soarin’, LwtL, Spaceship Earth, the Seas, Imagination). Use single rider at Test Track. You will either need a drop or standby for Frozen.
DW and I just did similar two day trip with park hoppers. Friday: rope dropped FoP, Navi River, EEx4!, $LL FoP, FotLK plus walked the trails; hopped to HS and rode $LL RotR, MFSR, SDD, TSM, MMRR, ToT, Fantasmic!
Saturday: strolled into MK around 9 and got PM, $LL Tron, BTM, HM, PotC, IASW; hopped to Epcot and rode GotGx2, FEA, Remy, Soarin, GFT and were at MCO by 7pm I believe.
We used G+ heavily and got great results and actually got to take our time not have to run from place to place. Could have rope dropped SDMT and got SM G+ but we don’t care for it that much.
So yes, you can totally do all the headliners in two days if you plan correctly. Jeff has some great tips about the days - MK on a party day is breezy!
This is a good point! It might be worth doing MK on Sunday morning in order to take advantage of lower crowds during the morning, then hop to Epcot in the evening with ILL and Genie+ for a few hours. You lose a couple of operating hours that way but possibly more done in less time.
In that case you’d want to do AK + HS on Saturday. I would forego getting LLs at AK (other than ILL for FoP) and immediately start stacking LLs for the afternoon / evening at HS. You can likely get all the major ones that way.
I’ve done multiple 1n trips trying to hit most headliners in all 4 parks in 1.5 days… taking first timers to give them a taste. It’s possible esp w genie and ILL use and MK party!
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences! Did you stay on-site and have Early Entry for Rope Drop? Trying to decide where to put the money. By the time I add up the difference for staying onsite (vs. off) + Genie + ILL - it makes me wonder if we should just try to squeeze in an extra day…
Thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions! The last time we went, we were in that interim period where FP+ had been discontinued but they hadn’t yet rolled out Genie/LLs. All I did was use the TP app to track wait times and it was one of our best Disney trips. I’m going to try and sit down and come up with a plan of attack to figure out how I can best use Genie/$LL without breaking the bank.
Yes, two nights at Pop. 9pm arrival Thursday 9pm departure on Saturday. We used EE at AK, but if you want TRON, SDMT and another $LL then EE rope drop at MK or another park would be super beneficial.
@Jeff_AZ@SamRothstein I had the Fast Pass system down to a science (21 rides at MK between 9-5 on a CL 5 day). Having said that, our crew has never utilized Park Hoppers and we haven’t been there since they rolled out G+, so this is all new to me.
In the past few days, I have watched tons of videos and read numerous blogs, and I definitely agree that what y’all mentioned is the best strategy and the one that I am planning to use.
We are planning to stay at a Good Neighbor hotel so we can get Early Entry and Rope Drop at AK and MK.
Let me know if you have any suggestions on G+ strategy and if I should buy an ILL for any ride(s). Thanks!
Eggcellent! You can clear a lot of ground in those early hours!
For me, the cost of the $LL (as I like to call it) is baked into my budget and a necessity. You can only buy two per day, so a day hopping to/from MK presents a choice as there is 7DMT and Tron to buy. Tron has the VQ and 7DMT can be rope dropped so…
FoP and GotG are my two favorite rides, so rope dropping FoP and VQing GotG plus $LL gives a low stress/low effort way to ride both.
Yes! Planning to ride 7DMT at Rope Drop and hope to get Tron via VQ since it’s a predicted CL 3 day. Do you think GotG will still have a VQs left when I hop over at 2 PM (Sunday, 10/1, predicted CL 6)?
For my Saturday 9/30 AK to HS day, HS is predicted CL 6. I’m planning to stack a bunch of G+ for a lot of HS rides. Will I need $LL for RotR?
Also, any thoughts on G+ strategies for park hopping? Should I only stack for the 2nd park since I’m Rope Dropping the first, or do some form of alternating between the two?
Planning to Rope Drop FoP in hopes of not having to purchase ILL for that.
Since I’ll be doing MK early on the party day, we may try and Rope Drop 7DMT that day.
Planning to do AK-HS on Saturday 9/30 and MK-EP on Sunday 10/1. Do you think GotG will still have a VQs left when I hop over at 2 PM (Sunday, 10/1, predicted CL 6)?
Also, any thoughts on G+ strategies for park hopping? Should I only stack for the 2nd park since I’m Rope Dropping the first, or do some form of alternating between the two?
Possibly, but get the 7am BG and you can report back any time that day after your group is called — no penalty for being late. (This is NOT the case with Tron, where you need to report within 2 hours of being called.)
Both approaches work and there are pros and cons to each. I would prioritize the 3 headliner rides between the two parks that you most want to skip the line for, make a realistic plan to get those, and then try to work in additional LLs as you can.
On Sat, I think you should stack at HS. EE at AK is very early and you have a quiet time of year. I suspect you’ll be able to do everything you want before crowds build.
On Sun, I think a combo approach might be better since MK has so many rides with G+ and EP has fewer headliners. You can start with whatever is highest priority for you that you wouldn’t want to miss.
For VQs - I was under the impression that you can only book a VQ if you are actually starting (have a reservation) at that park for the ride you are trying to get the VQ for, or once you have tapped into the park later in the day? For example, on my MK-EP day, I can get try to get a boarding group for Tron in the AM, but couldn’t get one for GotG until I tapped into EP that afternoon. Is that not the case?
By the time I add up the difference for staying onsite (vs. off) + Genie + ILL - it makes me wonder if we should just try to squeeze in an extra day…