1 Day -- 3-park plan, is this itinerary feasible?

[mel2014]

We're planning to carve out two days of our Universal vacation for some Disney time and of course my family members all want to go to different parks. Two single-day tickets are above what I want to pay and still wouldn't get us to 3 parks, so I was considering a 1-day ticket with Park Hopper Plus, spending 1 day at Blizzard Beach and one day park blitzing from rope drop to close. Kids are 8 and 10.

The day would be Tuesday August 20. Epcot has evening magic hours that day until 11 pm. We are staying at the Best Western in Disney Springs starting Saturday August 17, so we'd be making FP reservations at 60+4.

My "must dos" would be the following:

Arrive AK 7:30-7:45 am for 9:00 opening
Rope drop FOP
NRJ
Dinosaur
EE (single rider)

Lunch at Flame Tree or Satu'li Canteen

Head to HS
RRC (FP)
TOT (FP)
SDD (if FP available)
RRC (single rider)
(ideally I would like to set FP for 2, 3, and 4 pm roughly, but I recognize SDD availability is going to be the driving factor)

Arrive at Epcot by 7 pm, walking to International Gateway and starting with World Showcase
Agent P Missions (end at 8:15)
Mission Space
Spaceship Earth
Test Track (single rider if needed)

We would obviously try to pick up 4+ FP as they are available, maybe a TSM or Star Tours at HS. Just based on timing I'm thinking we'd end up doing the Epcot rides standby, since we would be starting from World Showcase and my kids are probably more interested in Agent P than rides. Looking at wait times from the same day last year, the waits drop precipitously during Epcot EMH.

If time permits, we'd like to do the following that we missed from our 2017 trip -- Finding Nemo musical, Beauty and the Beast, Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Nemo and Little Mermaid have the added benefit of getting us into air conditioning for a while.

The obvious downside to this plan is that we miss seeing Pandora at night and none of us like Illuminations, so we'd be skipping evening shows entirely (but we saw ROL and Star Wars Galactic Spectacular during our 2017 visit and have seen Fantasmic multiple times at Disneyland and I saw it recently at Tokyo Disneyland -- best version IMHO).

 

[sharonabe]

The obvious downside to this plan is that we miss seeing Pandora at night and none of us like Illuminations, so we'd be skipping evening shows entirely

But this also works in your favor. You should be able to do TT and/or Soarin' with little to no wait while everyone else is watching Illuminations.

If you catch the first Nemo show at 11:00, that will put you at prime lunch time and could mean more of a wait than you want. Satu'li is also all the way across the park; Flame Tree would be easier on the feet AND closer to the exit. This should still get you to HS by 2:00. You'll probably have to decide between Beauty and Mermaid. Mermaid is easier since it is a continuous running show and you don't have to wait for showtimes, but Beauty is the better show. Don't forget you have to eat dinner somewhere. Agent P will be the most difficult to fit in. If that is THE priority for the kids, I'd skip the HS shows and just do the rides. OH, and I'd pass on RNR single rider. That line often takes longer than the standby.

 

[mel2014]

But this also works in your favor. You should be able to do TT and/or Soarin' with little to no wait while everyone else is watching Illuminations.

If you catch the first Nemo show at 11:00, that will put you at prime lunch time and could mean more of a wait than you want. Satu'li is also all the way across the park; Flame Tree would be easier on the feet AND closer to the exit. This should still get you to HS by 2:00. You'll probably have to decide between Beauty and Mermaid. Mermaid is easier since it is a continuous running show and you don't have to wait for showtimes, but Beauty is the better show. Don't forget you have to eat dinner somewhere. Agent P will be the most difficult to fit in. If that is THE priority for the kids, I'd skip the HS shows and just do the rides. OH, and I'd pass on RNR single rider. That line often takes longer than the standby.

Thanks for the feedback. In looking at the show schedules, I'm thinking maybe we could do early lunch around 11:00 (and I'm all about the mobile ordering to save time), since we will have had an early morning start, and then try to catch the 12:00 Nemo show and head to HS after that. Depending on how the FP+ times work out at HS, I think we could make either the 4:00 or 5:00 Beauty show work -- I still remember seeing it in 1993 on a trip with my mom and I know my daughter would love it -- the men in the family might want to see Indiana Jones again.