Selecting Which Park to Go to on What Day!?

I am having a really difficult time deciding which park to go to on what days for our next visit. This will be our 3rd time at WDW. We are going in November from the 12-16. We will be visiting Universal Orlando for the first time the two days before that. We are a family of 4 with a 7 year old boy obsessed with Star Wars and a 9 year old girl who still likes princesses but is also into Star Wars. I am planning to go to MBBQ Saturday night the 12th, MVMCP that Sunday night the 13th, and the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise Wednesday night the 15th. (My daughter turns 10 on the 15th and my birthday is the 16th.) Here is what parks I tentatively have planned. If your have any helpful suggestions I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Sat., November 12th- 1st choice: AK, 2nd choice: EP, 3rd choice: HS
Sun., November 13th- 1st choice EP, 2nd choice MK, 3rd choice AK- We also plan to go to MVMCP
Mon., November 14th- HS
Tues., November 15th- MK
Wed., November 16th- ?

I assume you do not have park hopper tickets? Will you plan on seeing any of the night time shows?

We do not have park hoppers. I have debated getting them on this trip however I don’t think we would use them much. That is what happened on a previous trip.
We are planning on seeing Fantasmic Monday night the 14th at HS. We will see MK fireworks on Wednesday the 15th from the Pirates and Pals Voyage.
We leave the night of the 16th. Our flight is at 7:30.

Then I would stay away from EP on Saturday (food and wine) and stick with AK. I would go to EP early on Sunday so that you are getting the park hopper advantage of the party ticket and MK the morning of your cruise.

We will be at MMBQ on the 12th as well! Hope to see you there! :slight_smile:

Have you checked the crowd calendars for those dates for each park? That may help you in deciding which ones you would like to do on each day. Also, have you made any ADRs? That will also determine which parks you will be in if you don’t have park hoppers.

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I typically use the crowd calendar and EMH schedule to plan my days. Where you’re staying and whether or not you’ll be driving or taking Disney transportation are pretty important factors in making a recommendation.

With three PM activities planned, and going under the assumption that the SW fireworks at DHS are a “must-do” on your 4th night, that will leave no evenings for either EP or AK. Given that you can’t stay for the evening anyway, I would probably do AK on your party day as you can get pretty much everything done by 3 or 4 PM.

FW is kind of a pain to get to using Disney transportation from just about anywhere except MK (which is why I virtually never go there). The most “logical” choice for your BBQ night would be MK, but you already have a full day and a party planned there, and for as short a trip as this is, you don’t need an additional day there at the expense of a different park. So… I would probably choose EP for that day, and allow 60-90 minutes to get to the BBQ.

As I believe that EP requires more than a half day to see (especially with the tiered FPPs), I would recommend returning to EP for the first portion of the day (if you’re taking MDE, you’ll have to be ready to leave the resort at 4:30, and allow at least an hour to get back from the park.

So taking all of that into account, this is what I come up with:

Sat, 12th - EP and MBBQ
Sun, 13th - AK and MVMCP
Mon, 14th - DHS all day/evening
Tues, 15th - MK and FW Cruise
Wed, 16th - EP and flight home

Hope this helps…

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Saturday at Epcot during Food and Wine with children? Do you think it would be ok before 3:00?

Never been, so no first hand experience, but I’ve read more “not an issue” stories than I have “problem” stories. If WS did become “inappropriate”, then they could always go back to FW. Another option would be to do primarily FW on the Saturday and then do primarily WS on their second day.

I have had two bad experiences at EPCOT during food and wine. I have written WDW twice about the drunks I have seen. One person called me about the letter I sent , this was 2014 and she admitted the had recieved a lot of complaints that year. My 15 year old nephew and I got the pleasure of watching a 20 something throw up in the bushes. I refuse to take a minor to EPCOT during the food and wine. It’s a shame since you can take the Monorail to EPCOT and then to MK without having the hassel of moving your car. I don’t understand Disney risking its reputation for this during the holiday season of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Xmas. Have a magical time.

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You sound like us! We’ll be there Nov 11-18, DD9 and DS7’s interests exactly mirror yours! They (and I) also love HP so I’m jealous you can take yours to UO! They claim to not be happy we are doing Legoland, but we also have a DS2.9 and DS1 so the big kids have to deal. And they both still do Legos also. Anyway, currently we will be at
Legoland Sat 11/12
Epcot Sun 11/13 Akershus dinner
MK/float Mon 11/14 Ohana dinner
HS Tue 11/15 50s Cafe dinner
MK Wed 11/16 BOG dinner
Float/kid’s choice Thur 11/17 MBYBBQ

We do have park hoppers, partly because between MVMCP, F&W, EMH, and crowd levels it was so hard to choose! And I looked at 3 different crowd calendars and of course they don’t exactly agree on the best park per day. I finally decided TP has the system that makes the most sense to me so am following that one. They do all agree should be low-ish that week, so we should be good regardless, right? Although it sounds like I should carefully plan my Epcot day, or leave after Akershus and come back another evening! Yikes!

Good luck choosing Odycat and maybe we’ll see you there!

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Because food and wine is a huge moneymaker for them. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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If we decide to get a park hopper we may go to HS that Saturday the first half of the day in order to do Jedi Training in the morning. Then Epcot in the afternoon before going to Fort Wilderness. Then the only other day we would possibly use the park hopper is Wednesday the 16th. We could go to Epcot and then possibly another park. So that is why I am not sure if the park hopper is worth it.

Are you taking any breaks, or RD to park close?

I am hoping to take breaks especially on the days the kids will be up later. Otherwise there may be some meltdowns. We arrive at our resort POR the night before (the 11th).

Please stay away from World Showcase on Saturday. Maybe it will not be as bad but I too was there on a Saturday during Food and Wine in 2014.

I edited because I realized I made a blanket statement about EP based on WS drinking games. To me, EP is WS but not everyone so I changed my answer :grinning:

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