WWYD w/ 3 day PH tickets??

[Christinaxo]

Hi all!

Our FP+ date is coming soon and I am starting to freak out a little
This year will be our shortest trip and shortest number of park visits.
We are staying 7 nights and have 3 day PH w/ one complimentary water park visit.
So 4 days total. We are staying at Beach Club so excited to have some downtime but now I'm thinking how am I going to manage visiting all 4 parks at least once in the end of July?
We've never had ph tix before but do most people RD one park and then make FPs in the evening for another? My worry is being able to experience both AK and MK morning and night (which we love). We were going to skip HS this trip but my dad and his family will be joining us and it is there first time so we have to do at least a half day there. Would it be more worth it to take off the PH option and add a day or two? Or will it be possible to experience all 4 parks reasonably in 3 days w/ hoppers? I'm getting those over planning jitters now that we are so close!

Any advice? TIA!

 

[DisneyAnytime]

It CAN be done. But you will most likely feel rushed. My advice is to pick your absolute MUST DO favorites at each park. Use EMH to your advantage. You may want to hit AK early one day, spend the middle of the day at HS or Epcot and back to AK at night for all of the new experiences there. In my opinion, MK and Epcot are all day, open to close parks. HS is a half day and AK was a half day but this will be our first visit with all the nighttime additions.

Perhaps hit AK for the Safari in the early morning and then spend most of the day at HS and come back to AK in the afternoon/evening? Of course this would mean you'd have to get lucky with same day FP or use some very strategic planning if you want to do all the headliners in both parks. That would leave a full day for MK and Epcot.

However, this is totally subject to your "Favorite Park Order".

As far as hoppers -- we have always gotten them and typically split one day between AK and HS and also use them to fit in dining reservations and nighttime shows without having to be tied to one park per day (Especially since I've always LOVED Wishes and tend to view it a couple of times per trip). It's more about having flexibility for us and just makes planning easier.

Just scale back your expectations and try to manage Dad and family's expectations as well. You won't be able to do EVERYTHING but you can most likely do the most important things.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

With three day parkhoppers it would be pretty easy for our family. Start one day at Epcot and ride Soarin, Test Track and FEA, shop at Mitsusoki, eat at Yorkshire County Fish Shoppe and be out of there by 1. Walk to DHS for ToT, ST and Midway Mania, hit the launch bay for some pics with Chewie and Kylo Ren, catch the Frozen Sing Along, RNR single rider if possible, ToT some more, catch Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular and walk back to the Beach Club. The other two park days would be as early as possible at AK and MK with both being til park close.

 

[Christinaxo]

It CAN be done. But you will most likely feel rushed. My advice is to pick your absolute MUST DO favorites at each park. Use EMH to your advantage. You may want to hit AK early one day, spend the middle of the day at HS or Epcot and back to AK at night for all of the new experiences there. In my opinion, MK and Epcot are all day, open to close parks. HS is a half day and AK was a half day but this will be our first visit with all the nighttime additions.

Perhaps hit AK for the Safari in the early morning and then spend most of the day at HS and come back to AK in the afternoon/evening? Of course this would mean you'd have to get lucky with same day FP or use some very strategic planning if you want to do all the headliners in both parks. That would leave a full day for MK and Epcot.

However, this is totally subject to your "Favorite Park Order".

As far as hoppers -- we have always gotten them and typically split one day between AK and HS and also use them to fit in dining reservations and nighttime shows without having to be tied to one park per day (Especially since I've always LOVED Wishes and tend to view it a couple of times per trip). It's more about having flexibility for us and just makes planning easier.

Just scale back your expectations and try to manage Dad and family's expectations as well. You won't be able to do EVERYTHING but you can most likely do the most important things.

Thanks so much! We always do more than one day at MK and a full day at each of the other parks because we didn't have hoppers. Now I am think we can do morning EMH's at HS, and MK w/ FP in another park in the evening. My daughter's birthday will be while we are there and we have a pre park opening at Epcot so that might be the one day that we use the fastpasses in the morning, because we want to go to MK for nighttime that night. This is way more stressful now that I am thinking out loud but I definitely do think it will be manageable. With the price increase I really don't want to add a day if I don't have to, but we might just skip HS this trip. Aside from TSMM and star tours there isn't anything we MUST do there.

 

[CarrieR]

Since you're staying plenty of nights, I'd add a couple of days per ticket. $30/person on top of seven nights at Beach Club is pretty minimal cost.

I just did 2.5 days solo as a very experienced AP holder. I missed a lot. I was okay with that, but for example all I did at AK was Dino (2x,) Everest & RoL. DHS I did ToT x3, TSMM x2 and GMR. I totally screwed up my Epcot touring plan and only did Soarin, TT, M:S & SSE. I got better coverage at MK (over two evenings) but still only hit about half the rides, only mountain was BTMRR (with no repeats except Peoplemover.

None of those were long waits - 15-20 mins tops. I did no shows, no character greets, no TS. Used advance FP & SDFP (with pretty good SDFP availability since I was solo.) AM at one park (DHS/Epcot,) PM at another (AK/MK x2).

Hope that helps!

 

[Christinaxo]

With three day parkhoppers it would be pretty easy for our family. Start one day at Epcot and ride Soarin, Test Track and FEA, shop at Mitsusoki, eat at Yorkshire County Fish Shoppe and be out of there by 1. Walk to DHS for ToT, ST and Midway Mania, hit the launch bay for some pics with Chewie and Kylo Ren, catch the Frozen Sing Along, RNR single rider if possible, ToT some more, catch Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular and walk back to the Beach Club. The other two park days would be as early as possible at AK and MK with both being til park close.

I can see us doing Epcot and HS easily in the same day. Kids don't do TOT (chickens) but we do like the shows. How would we swing that though? Are all those rides at Epcot manageable just with stand by? In our 4 years 30 minutes has been our longest wait and that was standby for TT. But we always had so many days I think that's why it worked out that way. I need to lower my expectations a bit lol

 

[Christinaxo]

Since you're staying plenty of nights, I'd add a couple of days per ticket. $30/person on top of seven nights at Beach Club is pretty minimal cost.

I just did 2.5 days solo as a very experienced AP holder. I missed a lot. I was okay with that, but for example all I did at AK was Dino (2x,) Everest & RoL. DHS I did ToT x3, TSMM x2 and GMR. I totally screwed up my Epcot touring plan and only did Soarin, TT, M:S & SSE. I got better coverage at MK (over two evenings) but still only hit about half the rides, only mountain was BTMRR (with no repeats except Peoplemover.

None of those were long waits - 15-20 mins tops. I did no shows, no character greets, no TS. Used advance FP & SDFP (with pretty good SDFP availability since I was solo.) AM at one park (DHS/Epcot,) PM at another (AK/MK x2).

Hope that helps!

Two years ago we did almost no characters and shows and we got so much done! That was our last July trip and why I think we did so well. I need to figure out how to get my hands on some SDFP!

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

I can see us doing Epcot and HS easily in the same day. Kids don't do TOT (chickens) but we do like the shows. How would we swing that though? Are all those rides at Epcot manageable just with stand by? In our 4 years 30 minutes has been our longest wait and that was standby for TT. But we always had so many days I think that's why it worked out that way. I need to lower my expectations a bit lol

In January (I know...slower time) but my niece and I got there for rope drop and went straight to Soarin' then walked across the park to Test Track. After that she rode Mission Space. Then we walked to Japan (whoops...we were busy rooting on marathon runners) and back to Norway for FEA with a 20 minute wait. We were off the ferry boat at the MK by 11:30 or so.

 

[scrapquitler]

Hi all!

Our FP+ date is coming soon and I am starting to freak out a little
This year will be our shortest trip and shortest number of park visits.
We are staying 7 nights and have 3 day PH w/ one complimentary water park visit.
So 4 days total. We are staying at Beach Club so excited to have some downtime but now I'm thinking how am I going to manage visiting all 4 parks at least once in the end of July?
We've never had ph tix before but do most people RD one park and then make FPs in the evening for another? My worry is being able to experience both AK and MK morning and night (which we love). We were going to skip HS this trip but my dad and his family will be joining us and it is there first time so we have to do at least a half day there. Would it be more worth it to take off the PH option and add a day or two? Or will it be possible to experience all 4 parks reasonably in 3 days w/ hoppers? I'm getting those over planning jitters now that we are so close!

Any advice? TIA!

If this were my family and those were the tickets we had, we'd spend half of each day in MK (once in the morning and twice at night, because we LOVE MK at night), and half a day at each of the other three parks. We would likely do Epcot for the night when we do MK int he morning. So something like this: day 1: MK AM, EP PM, day 2: AK AM, MK PM, Day 3: HS AM MK PM, which would also achieve another of our normal things which is to visit MK first and last.

 

[GPC0321]

If this were my family and those were the tickets we had, we'd spend half of each day in MK (once in the morning and twice at night, because we LOVE MK at night), and half a day at each of the other three parks. We would likely do Epcot for the night when we do MK int he morning. So something like this: day 1: MK AM, EP PM, day 2: AK AM, MK PM, Day 3: HS AM MK PM, which would also achieve another of our normal things which is to visit MK first and last.

I'm the same about MK. I get hoppers because I cannot handle there being a day that I can't go to MK if the mood strikes me. I also like knowing that if MK gets nuts, I can hop out of it.

 

[Christinaxo]

In January (I know...slower time) but my niece and I got there for rope drop and went straight to Soarin' then walked across the park to Test Track. After that she rode Mission Space. Then we walked to Japan (whoops...we were busy rooting on marathon runners) and back to Norway for FEA with a 20 minute wait. We were off the ferry boat at the MK by 11:30 or so.

Wow, that's like a dream come true! I wish

 

[Christinaxo]

If this were my family and those were the tickets we had, we'd spend half of each day in MK (once in the morning and twice at night, because we LOVE MK at night), and half a day at each of the other three parks. We would likely do Epcot for the night when we do MK int he morning. So something like this: day 1: MK AM, EP PM, day 2: AK AM, MK PM, Day 3: HS AM MK PM, which would also achieve another of our normal things which is to visit MK first and last.

This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you! I think AK and Pandora opening is what is throwing my planning off, because aside from MK all the other parks have always been half day parks for us. Now that AK will have nighttime offerings, we definitely want to experience it so might do that when we have our MK morning. I will try to use all the morning EMH's at each park except one of the nights at MK because we love night EMH there.
Thanks again!!