First time trip to WDC with DS10 and DD8… We are there 7 days in late Aug 2016. Planning two days each for MKand EP. 1 day each in HS and AK. Which park should we spend an extra day in?
We are staying at FW cabin.
Depends on your kids and their interests. My 12 years old son would pick MK since it has the most rides. My 10 year old daughter would pick AK since she loves animals and it would give her time to actually wander around and explore a bit of the animals. They both loved the roller coaster at AK too. It’s one of the best rides in any of the parks. If your kids are in love with exhibits/museums then maybe Epcot would hold their interest. It was my kids’ least favorite of the parks because they were more focused on rides/thrills. Even though my son loves Star Wars, he’d still pick MK over HS since there is just the most on offer at MK. I suppose that if you’ve already done 2 days at Epcot and MK, then maybe go for AK? Good luck. If you could wait to chose until you are there, that might work best for you all. You can see what your kids want to see again.
My kids (DD10, DS5, DD3) would probably pick MK. There are so many attractions and things to explore there. However, I think a second day at AK could also be a great idea with the newer offerings in the evenings, and my kids loved doing the Wilderness Explorers there.
Thankyou. I am also wondering ifI should plan our “down time day” in the middle of the 7 days ? We will be there Wed-Wed. Maybe the Saturday? Or save our option for a downtime day after we have been to all of the parks.
The cost for an extra park day is not terrifically high compared to two character meals, so you may want to pay for extra day in park, with breaks, if you look at numbers comparing those two things. Or could do a day with character breakfast at some hotel, late morning maybe DS and lunch there, then break hotel pool, evening HDD or Ohana. That’d be a good day. Or could explore some of the events at your own hotel.
We would pick HS for the SW stuff and for RnRC/ToT. It was DS7’s favourite park by miles on our last trip.
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I would be prepared to change any park you decide on. With the new offerings at AK I think it will be more than a month until any of us really have any idea what that park or TP will be like in August. Have you created an EP TP? Are you planning on trying to do the Frozen attractions?
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We have already booked a 7 day Magic your way ticket with water parks and Fort Wilderness stay. No Park hopper. I have TPs for each Park and day except day 7. We leave in the am the next day. We have reservations for lunch at Akershus on day 1 in EP and at Be Our Guest on day 2 in MK.
I chose Park days based on the predicted crowd levels, aiming for levels at or below a 4.
I would vote for the rest day in the middle. There is little as exhausting as a Disney trip lol. We walk over 10 miles a day on average in the parks and a day off helps so much. If you get bored there is plenty to do outside the park. As for your extra park days you’ll get answers for all of them lol. Everyone loves a different park. We’re big Epcot people because we love world showcase. But I would guess MK is probably the most popular answer, which is why it’s usually the busiest park.
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I agree with having a rest day in the middle. You could use that day to visit one or both of the water parks, since you already have the ticket that includes them. You could spend the evening in one of the parks to repeat favorite rides, or to do things that are only (or better) in the evening.
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This is great feedback. Thank you! My husband and I haven’t been to WDW since we were 12-13 years old in the late 80’s. It will be a whole new world for us im sure!
I like to treat DAK as my down time day. Something about that place just makes it easy to relax in. You can still work in a few rides, but if you just stroll around taking in the atmosphere and the shows, it can serve as that second day in the park, and a relax/refresh in the middle of your trip.
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I’d go with 3 MK days, with some or all being part-days to give you rest time at the hotel or time at the water parks or Disney Springs. This also gives you 9 FPs to use at MK, which is a huge advantage.
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HAHA! I just booked a 7-day late August trip at the cabins too! I specifically chose the dates (8/29-9/4) because we’ve gone the week before Labor Day the past two years and the crowds were great (last summer we had a little help in the form of a tropical storm threat that kept people away, but fell apart before reaching us… we had ZERO waiting for anything except Soarin, Expedition Everest, and Toy Story on the weekdays of the trip) both times. Fastpasses have been largely unneeded. We’ve found that we had plenty of time to do some rides in the morning, head back to the hotel for a longish rest/pool break (necessary for us northerners in the FL heat), then spend the evenings seeing shows and maybe riding some things a second time. We use the military 4-day hopper, with water parks added on and we usually will spend the morning thru early afternoon at a waterpark one or 2 days and then head to Disney Springs for dinner and have an early evening in, so that gives us 6 days in parks on the 4 day ticket.
It’s our first time staying at Fort Wilderness, and we’re looking forward to maybe spending an afternoon doing a trail ride and the evening campfire with Chip & Dale on this trip… my niece (9) always wants to ride the horses when we’ve gone to Mickey’s Backyard BBQ (which we may do again, because she loves the show and it’s all of her favorite foods) in the past.
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Play it by ear. Our last trip we even split up. My son and I wanted to do Epcot - wife and daughter wanted to do AK. So we split up. All of us had a GREAT time. It gave us each a bit of “daddy and me / mommy and me” time. We made no reservations until that day and it all worked out great.
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We will be there 8/24-8/31, so we are hoping that we miss the big crowds. I am thinking we should keep day 4 (Saturday) open and play it by ear. I can see us splitting up since my kids make a point to not agree on what they want to do the most. Our only issue with that is we don’t have the park hopper so we can only go to one Park per day. Though we always have the water parks as an option. I have to say, these are nice ‘problems’ to have!
we honestly had a great time splitting up. It was a fun change for everyone - it was at the end of the week too - so I think a bit of separation was nice. HA. It was only for a 1/2 day (until around 3) and then we left for the airport
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I do have a TP for EP and do plan on Frozen attractions though may not try to wait around for the Elsa and Anna meet + greet because we will end up missing out on other stuff. Crowd levels are predicted at 3 that day (Wed).
@Nikkipoooo We will have to look eachother up when we are both in the FW 'hood! I drove myself nuts the other night trying to decide on which loop was the best. Still thinking it’s 2100,2300,or 2500 but I’m sure I will find out it doesn’t actually matter that much…we will be thrilled and exhausted the whole time.
I was thinking 2100, but then someone here said they heard reports that 2100 is no longer cabins.