How do I know which parks to go to on which days? - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hello... this is our first trip to WDW and I don't know how to decide what parks to go to on which days! We are going to arrive on March 10th at around 11 am and we are leaving the evening of the 15th. We are driving so no flights to catch and we are able to time our arrival.
So, my ??? for all you DW experts, what do you recommend?
* We are staying on property so we have Extra Magic Hours access.
* It is me and my husband and our 2 kids (8 and 10)... we like adventure more than the shows but do want to watch at least one while there
* On Saturday and Sunday we will have to spend about 3-4 hours at Hollywood Studios for my DD to compete at the UCA Nationals.
*We opted for the Quick Service Dining b/c I didn't want to rush around for dinner reservations my first trip there
PLEASE HELP B/C I AM SORTA OVERWHELMED WITH ALL THE PLANNING
Do you have hopper tickets and are early risers? If so, then I highly recommend EMH mornings. Get to the park 10 minutes before opening, having already eaten something, and with a gameplan of what's open for EMH and what you'd like to get done. Prepped like that, EMH's are wonderful. Around 11AM, when the park swells with guests, hop to another park.
Personally, I can't plan without going to the crowd calendars at TouringPlans.com (a subscription of about $12) -- except for a weird blip this February, they've been spot on with their predictions and recommendations.
I start by making a calendar and pencil in which are the recommended parks each day. Then I mark in which shows/special events are playing each night (fireworks, parades, Fantasmic, etc). I make sure we hit each park at least once, and see each of the special events. Then, I pencil in the list of restaurants we'd like to try -- according to which park we'll be in that day.
Since we can hop, we also like to do one park in the afternoon and one park in the evening.
For our last trip, we bought a subscription to TouringPlans.com and TourGuideMike.com -- they both had excellent suggestions based on past crowd levels. TouringPlans is a little easier to understand, in my opinion, but we really liked TGM's advice. I would highly recommend purchasing a subscription to one of them and using their suggestions regarding which park to visit. It made a HUGE difference for our trip -- the days we followed their advice, we felt like we had the parks to ourselves!
Good luck and have fun! And welcome to the boards!!
I wouldn't make crowd projections my only determining factor. Park operating hours (including EMH) are also considerations, as is your need to be at Studios two of those days. Whenever you consider a recommended "optimal" touring strategy, take "optimal" with a grain of salt. It makes little sense to focus on the least-crowded park if the park doesn't offer what you desire. Sometimes second-best will turn out to be best for your needs.
Fortunately, your schedule already helps you avoid what is most likely the worst crowd of your visit - Magic Kingdom on the weekends. Friday night at MK is also often quite busy, too. Plan for MK on a weekday to avoid the worst crowds, and try to coordinate that with an EMH morning and/or evening to get the most bang.
For a relatively short stay (four parks in 4.5 days), be careful about doing too much park hopping, as that cuts into your park time. However, what does work well is starting your day at a park that closes relatively early (like Animal Kingdom) and hopping over to a park that is open late.
Since you'll be in Studios on Saturday and Sunday, make one of those your Studios day, and plan to park hop the other day. On the day you hop, I'd suggest either taking the boat between Studios and Epcot, or the bus between Studios and Animal Kingdom.
The live shows cater to various tastes. Lights, Motors, Action! at Studios is going to have a very different appeal than Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo the Musical tell the story of the movie, while Festival of the Lion King is more like a circus set to the music from Lion King. I'd worry less about the category (show, ride, meet-and-greet, parade...), and more about what appeals to you and the family. Along those lines, I suggest you get each member of the family to select one "must-do" for each park. Presuming everyone selects something different, that gives you four things to do in each park, and a framework for your overall day plan. When everyone perceives their desires are being met, everyone has a more satisfying day in the park. In the end, satisfaction is more important than how many rides you manage to cram in.
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We usually try to take advantage of all EMH at night. However, on our last trip we avoided EMH except for one day at MK and DHS. (We spend two days in each park.) It felt a little weird leaving at regular closing time, but the crowds seemed lower. For instance, AK will sometimes close early, so we usually do EMH to get more time in the park. On this trip we didn't, and we were still able to get the same amount of stuff done because the crowds seemed a little lighter.
We tried park hopping on a couple of trips. One park the first half of the day and another for the second half. We felt we were waisting park time transferring between parks. So for us one park each day is better. However, since you guys only have 6 days and part of that is already taken, I think the park hopper will work to your advantage. Once you do everything you want in that park, your not stuck there the rest of the day.
Find out what's important to you and your kids. If its characters, try Character Spot at Epcot first thing in the morning. Fast passes for TSMM at DHS go quickly. We make that our first stop on our DHS days.
If your not much on shows, I would avoid DHS when Fastasmic is showing. The crowds seem larger on those days.
If you like BBQ, I would try Flametree BBQ at AK. It is one of my favorite places in the "world". Flametree, Cosmic Rays at MK, and Wolfgang puck express at DTD are all great values for the QSDP. We usually do QS.
Hope this helps. Happy planning!
We usually try to take advantage of all EMH at night. However, on our last trip we avoided EMH except for one day at MK and DHS. (We spend two days in each park.) It felt a little weird leaving at regular closing time, but the crowds seemed lower. For instance, AK will sometimes close early, so we usually do EMH to get more time in the park. On this trip we didn't, and we were still able to get the same amount of stuff done because the crowds seemed a little lighter.
We tried park hopping on a couple of trips. One park the first half of the day and another for the second half. We felt we were waisting park time transferring between parks. So for us one park each day is better. However, since you guys only have 6 days and part of that is already taken, I think the park hopper will work to your advantage. Once you do everything you want in that park, your not stuck there the rest of the day.
Find out what's important to you and your kids. If its characters, try Character Spot at Epcot first thing in the morning. Fast passes for TSMM at DHS go quickly. We make that our first stop on our DHS days.
If your not much on shows, I would avoid DHS when Fastasmic is showing. The crowds seem larger on those days.
If you like BBQ, I would try Flametree BBQ at AK. It is one of my favorite places in the "world". Flametree, Cosmic Rays at MK, and Wolfgang puck express at DTD are all great values for the QSDP. We usually do QS.
Hope this helps. Happy planning!
Here are my basic park-avoidance days:
Magic Kingdom - Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon
Hollywood Studios - Sat/Sun/Wed
Animal Kingdom - Thu/Fri
Epcot - Tue/Wed
I don't treat this list as "gospel", I use it more like a rule-of-thumb... I've experience bigger crowds at the "thrill ride" parks on the weekends, and bigger crowds at the "walking" parks towards the middle/end of the week.
we usually take advantage of the nightly EMH. Cause by this time it has cooled down some and we have gone and had a break and had dinner and can relax and get on rides that are still open.
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