Which parks do you NEED to start at?

Good (fill in time of day) everyone!

So, family of 3, all aduts in Disney’s weirdo eyes, and probably the last family run I’d imagine.

I have 7 usable FULL days in Orlando, staying at AKL. Trip dates are 6/13-21/25. 3 days will be devoted to Universal, as I have Epic Universe tickets. I don’t feel like repacking bags to go over there, so here we are. I will likely be on Disney grounds around 4pm on arrival day, need to leave for MCO in early morning on departure, so maybe a half day if we are feeling crazy.

I have embraced I have 3 days to visit 4 parks at Disney. I’m going to get a 3 day parkhopper for the family, as I want some flexibility there. I also want a “resort day” before doing 3 days at Universal so the family’s feet recover. But the question is, which parks should I start at?

In asking that, here are the parks/rides I’m prioritizing and order of importance for each park for us based on prior trips / family ride interest

MK: Space, Tron, Tiana’s. Haunted Mansion, Tiki Room, Buzz Lightyear
Epcot: Swim with Dolphins (going to buy this), Test Track, Grand Fiesta, Soarin, Guardians, Spaceship Earth
DHS: Slinky, Tower, Smuggler’s Run, ROTR, Runaway, Indiana Jones
AK: Everest, FOP, Dinosaur

My gut is that, based on all this, and staying where I am, is that Epcot and DHS need to be “day leaders” where I could hop to AKL/MK later for those. I could also see MK being a 3rd day trip starter. The only advantage to starting at AKL on any given day, is that my kid loved being able to ride Everest like 5 times in a row at park opening and so repeating that might be fun. So I could always start there, do that and Flight of Passage, skip Dinosaur and its broken animatronics, and go elsewhere to any of the other parks. I’d almost prefer to do MK at night, to be honest, for Tron. But I’ve no idea how popular that is. And, yes, I’m familiar with all the tricks to getting on rides and what not and will use them!

So, long story short (too late): you’ve got 3 days, you can park hop, where you starting at each of those days?

Like i said, I THINK I know but I also feel llike I’m leaving something out so I need 3rd party advice?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the dolphins moved out of Epcot in September, permanently. And Test Track is under construction for a major redesign, with a reopening maybe in 2025 or later.

Pay attention to park hours. Typically AK will open earlier and close earlier than all the other parks, so it makes sense to pick that park as a rope drop park, get through things early, then hop over to another park.

I can’t speak to you dates, but MK is often open the latest, which makes it a good park to end at if you don’t do a full day.

Since you don’t list a lot at Epcot to do (two of those aren’t even available), I would do AK in the morning and EP later in the day.

Then devote a day to MK and a day to HS.

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When I was there in September, the ONLY animatronic not working was the pteradon didn’t fly at you. Everything else appeared to be working as far as I could tell.

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No need to hate being the bearer: i’m glad to know the dolphins are rehoming (we missed doing this on a cruise, and so that was the impetus for wanting to do it. If they’re in a better place my kid will love that). Looks like TT MIGHT be open for the summer, we shall see!

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Thanks!

With your list of priorities, I’d think I’d start a day at AK and then hop to EP. That gives you a full day at HS and a full day at MK.

I read they went to the Gulfarium. I don’t know if this is true. But if it is true; not a better place.

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Based on what your wanting to do, I’d probably plant to land at mk for the evening on arrival day.
Rd AK and jump to EP for day 2
Make HS a full day for day 3 as it has the most activities to check off. The other parks should be able to be done in a half day easily.

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You could look into Discovery Cove if you want to swim with dolphins.

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HS is the only “must rope drop” to me. Especially with the rides you want.

Normally I would mention that EE is great to ride in the evening. You can ride it over and over again in the last hour with no wait. BUT I had a trip this year, on almost the same dates, and staying at AKL and we were never able to ride anything ar AK in the evening because of afternoon storms. If I could plan again, AK would definitely be a rope drop park.

For similar reasons, MK being open late, gives you more flexibility, should there be storms.

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