2 Trips, 1 on site, 1 off -- skip 1 park each trip, which one?

[Lalalyn]

We are going the end of October and staying off site at Wyndham bonnet Creek for six nights. I have 3 girls under the age of 7.

We are going again in January, staying at Poly for seven nights. (Long story how these two trips came together. My parents are coming on one - and paying. I'm doing all the planning. We have APs so I said "why not?!"

We need at least one day with the option of doing nothing. So we would have 4 park days in October and 5 in January. We always do at least 2 at MK so I figure on each trip we will skip one park.

I was thinking Epcot in October and AK in January. Girls love HS! The Frozen show, meeting Darth Vader, TSMM!

Which would you skip and for which trip?

 

[HopperFan]

If you have plans to enjoy Pandora at AK, I would suggest doing that the trip you are onsite and would hopefully have EMH.

 

[minniegirl19]

when in January are you going? If it's not during the first week/ marathon weekend I would skip animal kingdom the first trip and Epcot the second. With lower crowds in January and it being 7 months since Pandora opened compared to 4 you'll probably have less crowds there in January vs October

 

[JerseyJanice]

To me, the Studios is the easiest one to pass on, but it sounds like you're going there.

I would not skip Epcot in October because of the Food & Wine Festival as that is something I greatly enjoy. YMMV

 

[bootlord9000]

• Epcot's Food and Wine Festival - If you want to go, you should go to Epcot in October. If you don't want to go, I advise skipping Epcot if that day falls on a weekend.
• Weather: Epcot has more A/C areas (I'm not 100% sure on this), so I'd choose that for October.
• Rides: As PP said, you can use EMH to ride any Pandora rides when you stay on-site. The flip side of that is that Epcot has 3 tier-1 FP attractions that could also be easier with EMH.
• Transportation: You get to ride the monorail to Epcot if you go when staying at the Poly.

If I didn't want to ride FOP, I'd probably choose to visit Epcot in October. We travel as 2 adults though, so someone probably has a better answer for kids.

 

[jsmla]

If our are interested in the rides in Pandora I would save AK for the onsite trip. You'll have a much better shot at obtaining Flight of Passage FPs at the 60 day mark. Then, again, Frozen Ever After in Epcot is still a hot FP as well.

The Food and Wine Festival at Epcot (October) is really fun if ou have even semi-adventurous esters. F&W is very popular with locals and weekdays are usually much quieter.

 

[Corbie]

I'm a first-timer, so take my suggestion with a grain of salt. My family and I will be there in October also. I would make sure to hit Epcot in October because of Food & Wine, especially if that's the trip your parents come on with you. I think they'd enjoy F&W a lot.

 

[DisMommyTX]

When we stayed at Poly, we enjoyed the 10 minute walk to TTC to take the monorail to EPCOT whereas the bus ride to AK seemed to take forever. That being said, I would not skip any parks in advance, at least plan multiple half days. 6 nights off-site means 5 full days to play with. 7 nights on site = 6 full days plus check-in and check-out days. Instead of trying to pack it all in to fewer days, embrace the AP lifestyle with multiple shorter days!! We plan for at least a half day of park time each day, then decide during the trip if we want to skip a day based on how everyone is feeling, weather, etc. It's much easier to skip a day of FP than to try to book them at the last minute.