Disneyland veteran WDW Newbie…Which park on which day?

[sandgrace]

Planning to visit May 24-27 one park a day base ticket. Deciding park reservations…what order/day should I make park reservations for? Are there certain shows or other issues to consider when making park reservations?

 

[HydroGuy]

As DLR vet myself, I am not sure it makes a whole lot of difference in today's WDW.

What I would mostly check is late night extra park hours for Deluxe hotel guests. If you are in a Deluxe and want to use those, then plan your days for that. If you are not, you may want to avoid the park with with late extra hours.

If you try to do 4 straight days in parks it will get a little tiring. The park that closes earliest and is easiest to tour and finish early is usually AK. I would plan that for day 2 or 3 so you can get back to your hotel and rest. MK is usually open the longest and the latest. Maybe plan that the day after AK? DHS is the most competitive right now and hardest to tour.

There are no big shows that are operating at this time that would sway the above thinking.

Hope that helps.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I'm another DLR regular who is returning to WDW for the first time since 2005. I did a lot of research to see if crowds are different on various days of the week, and here's a summary of what I found online:

• Locals go on the weekends, especially if there's a festival going. Epcot can get especially busy during the evenings on weekends as people come for dinner, while HS is busier mid-day on weekends. I saw a lot of "avoid MK on the weekends at all costs" posts.
• Most people go to MK for their first park of their trip, making it busier on weekends (especially Sunday) and Monday.
• Wait times are pretty consistent over the whole week at HS, with the biggest factor being if Rise goes down. If you're using G+ and ILL, HS can be do-able if you have a strategy.
• AK is the easiest park to handle when it's crowded, especially if you're willing to get there at rope drop, take an afternoon break, and then head back to the park in the evening after the crowds drop off. Note that it does close earlier than the other parks, however.
• Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days for all the parks.

I definitely agree with the need to pace yourself at WDW - I think DLR regulars are spoiled by how compact it is and how easy it is to get around there. The heat and humidity also sap energy faster than the fairly mild weather in Anaheim. I'm going with a group of DLR experts who are WDW newbies, and we've prioritized the attractions that are unique to WDW, followed by the ones that are different between the two parks. Anything else we've put on a "nice if we have time" list.

Hope this helps!

 

[sandgrace]

As of now we’re staying at Disney’s All Star Sports so we won’t be able to take advantage of the late night extra park hours. We’ll be renting a car so hopefully that will help us save some time.

We are doing a Carnival Cruise after we leave WDW…so hopefully we’ll be able to relax after 4 straight park days! At least this momma is going to relax, don’t know about the rest of my family!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

As of now we’re staying at Disney’s All Star Sports so we won’t be able to take advantage of the late night extra park hours. We’ll be renting a car so hopefully that will help us save some time.

One note with the car - it can help for 3 of the parks, but at MK you have to park at the Ticket & Transportation Center (TTC) and then take the monorail or ferry over to MK. If you take the resort bus, it drops you right by MK, skipping the TTC. Past experience (1988-2005 trips to WDW), when we drove it was fun to take the monorail/ferry over, but we were still behind the resort guests who arrived via bus.

I have to keep reminding my group for our June trip that it takes much more time to get anywhere at WDW than it does at DLR! I finally showed them a map overlay of WDW over our city so they could see the size comparison. We're so used to dashing from Pixar Pier to New Orleans Square without a thought, so WDW is going to be a very different trip than our DLR adventures. But we decided to stay at CBR to be on the skyliner, since Epcot has a lot of our "must do" stuff (and great food), so I'm looking forward to trying that out.

 

[sandgrace]

Oh yes! Thanks for the reminder now I remember the MK situation! WDW is so much more Disney and so much more everything else too!

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm another DLR regular who is returning to WDW for the first time since 2005. I did a lot of research to see if crowds are different on various days of the week, and here's a summary of what I found online:

• Locals go on the weekends, especially if there's a festival going. Epcot can get especially busy during the evenings on weekends as people come for dinner, while HS is busier mid-day on weekends. I saw a lot of "avoid MK on the weekends at all costs" posts.
• Most people go to MK for their first park of their trip, making it busier on weekends (especially Sunday) and Monday.
• Wait times are pretty consistent over the whole week at HS, with the biggest factor being if Rise goes down. If you're using G+ and ILL, HS can be do-able if you have a strategy.
• AK is the easiest park to handle when it's crowded, especially if you're willing to get there at rope drop, take an afternoon break, and then head back to the park in the evening after the crowds drop off. Note that it does close earlier than the other parks, however.
• Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days for all the parks.

I am going next Friday and the parks are "sold out" this week (except for Epcot on some days). If they are sold out I am not sure it matters which day you go where.

Who knows what if it will be sold out when the OP goes? Over Memorial Day weekend I would guess it will be.