Short Trip WWYD: MK or Water Park Day/Non-park evening?

Walt Disney World
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I am struggling with a new choice I’ve opened up for myself on our June trip that’s mostly for a cruise, but because we cannot resist the call of Epcot while in Florida, we’re also stopping by WDW after the cruise. So curious what Liner minds would do.

We get off the ship on Sat 6/14 at 9am-ish and have until Mon 6/16 at 3pm to enjoy what we want in Orlando. We decided to go ahead and book an onsite room this trip so we will be at All Star Sports for 2 nights.

We will have a rental car that we will pick up from MCO after the cruise, which we will get to by taking a 3rd party shuttle from the port to the airport. By my estimate that puts us at any fun destination we would want to be at around 12pm noon. Possibly a bit ahead of that if everything goes faster than planned.

Initially we were planning on 2 day 1 park/day convention tickets and doing:

  • 6/14 MK
  • 6/15 Epcot (it’s Father’s Day, our only full park day and Epcot is the main thing we love at WDW so no second thought here)
  • 6/16 non-park day to maybe swim, pack-up, check-out, make stops at the outlet stores & Disney Springs (Gideon’s and Amaretto’s)

We picked MK because we would want to see the new to us CBJ and try to fit in TBA. Other must do’s for us would include: Pirate Adventure in Adventureland, SDMT, Teacups, Peoplemover, and seeing the Rivers of America before they’re gone (but we don’t have a huge attachment to them in WDW, so it wouldn’t be nostalgic, but would be something we’d enjoy as we don’t dislike the RoA either).

Lunch would be CHH, dinner either be Cosmic Ray’s or a bunch of snacks we share ranging from Cheeseburger Rolls, Sleepy Hollow Waffles, Gaston Cinamon rolls, Turkey Leg, Aurora/Rapunzel Cone, Lava Floats & the customized popcorn on Main St and then getting late-night off site food (at whatever drive-thru we feel like not too far out of the bubble) if we’re still hungry after park close.

Now I am coming closer to finalizing the budget and it would be helpful to save so looked up the price difference for just a 1 day 1 park/day convention ticket and keep the full day at Epcot and it was enough that I’m now consider a new plan for 6/14.

Instead of MK, go to Typhoon Lagoon and use our included water park admission for check-in day. Stay until the park closes eating lunch there. Head back to All Star Sports to change/shower, hop in the car & park at MK, but walk to Poly for QS dinner at Captain Cook’s or do a monorail crawl to see each resort and snack. End up at Poly for FWs from the beach. Still have an amazing & fun-filled water park day while saving $700.

So what would you do?

  • Spend the $700, go to MK, you’ll never get a chance to do RoA again and it’s always a good time being people and being moved. Plus think of all the snacks you want.
  • Save the $700, the kids will have a blast in the water park with no extra charge, plus you still get a Disney evening with fireworks at the Poly beach. And riding the monorail for fun is something you don’t get often enough
0 voters
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There should be a choice for “other.” :laughing:
If the $700 isn’t going to make or break anything - my vote is option one. But if that $700 could be used for something else as far as the cruise, souvenirs, etc, my vote is the second option .

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This is exactly how I felt & why I picked option one.

You’ll have just been on a cruise. I’m assuming there will be a lot of swimming then. If you have the means go to WDW for a day of ridess and treats!

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I’m in almost exactly the same situation two weeks later, so I cast my vote for what I chose :slight_smile:

We’ve never been to a Disney water park, so the free arrival-day ticket (plus great summer deals on rooms, I got All Star Sports for $135 a night!) gave me a perfect excuse for Disney-mathing a couple of nights in WDW onto the back end of our DCL cruise before our flight out of Orlando. So the water park day was aways part of my plan. After a few weeks of research, I’m now really excited about both the thrill slides and also the theming/vibe in a totally new-to-me park.

My initial plan for the second day was also a one-park/afternoon conference ticket, but then I realized our WDW favorites are pretty spread out - so I bit the bullet and forked over $700 for park hoppers and started planning an all-out 4-parks-in-1-day - which I am now also super excited about.

I think you already know you can’t really go wrong with either option, so maybe it’s more of a question of what sounds more appealing - classics and favourites at MK, or trying something new (and totally different to MK)?

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The water parks are a lot of fun! You’ll have a great time!

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I haven’t been to a WDW water park since the early 80s when I went down a waterslide and wound up with a mouth full of water that included a guppy! (yes, I spit it out)

That was enough for me. Now I stick to the non-water WDW parks.

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Wow! You’re a vistor to the original Disney water park “River Country.” It’s been closed for many years…

It did use natural water… :rofl:

These are all “normal” water parks now

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Oops! I even wanted to put it but forget before I hit send. :woman_facepalming:t2:

It wouldn’t be used for this trip if saved, but would go towards helping get back to our home park DL sooner to see the 70th Celebration.

There will be at least some swimming, but my kids feel like they always want more time in the water because we work to juggle so many other fun activities on the ship.

And then just the way our planned beach time is already, I know they will feel like they got the less swimming time, especially without a competing activity. The water park could alleviate a lot of that feeling.

We’ve never done a Disney water park either! I didn’t figure in the water park initially in my costs because we were pretty set that we wanted time in Epcot and 1 other park. But the rate for All Star Sports was awesome for us too! And the more I think about how we could make use of that water park without adding any costs, the more enticing it sounds.

:no_mouth: :no_mouth: :no_mouth:

I would probably have similar feelings if that were my Disney water park experience.

Thank goodness! You couldn’t pay me to step in natural Florida water. :no_good_woman:t2:

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Then absolutely save it for DL. A trip to our beloved DL far outweighs a partial day at MK.

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So the water parks are great but does the cruise have a waterpark and you might feel you’re done with waterslides?

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The water parks are so much fun. And most kids never have enough water time.

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:scream:

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