3-Park Day Advice

[Brandonius]

Hi all -

Will be in Orlando for work, have 1 day to go to the parks. (Thursday, March 20)

Willing to buy 2 single lls, and the multi pass. Staying on site at one of the all star resorts.

At Disneyland, I go SUPER HARD. Like waiting for rope drop at 6:30 AM, leave the parks at 12:30 AM kind of hard. I've been to WDW once before, I just want to hit the highlights, not "soak in the magic". The only priority is getting on the rides, I don't care about shows, food, atmosphere, etc. (I do, but not on this particular day lol)

Would like to do Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, and Magic Kingdom. Specifically:
- Animal Kingdom: Both Pandora Rides, Safari, Everest
- EPCOT: Guardians, Test Track, Remy, Soarin'
- Magic Kingdom: TRON, Space Mountain, maybe more stuff but not fussed. Peoplemover, dark rides, etc, are fine, but not a must-do.

How would you recommend I tackle this, especially the lightning lane bit? I was guessing the optimal move would be:
- Rope Drop Animal Kingdom super aggressively, clear the 4 rides we care about and be out by like 10 AM. Tap into random LL's along the way, then try to book any of the remaining major rides we care about (prioritize space mountain)
- Then go to Magic Kingdom, TRON via single LL, Space mountain via genie, maybe peoplemover, maybe also pirates or something.
- Then go to EPCOT. Guardians via single LL, single rider Test Track, LL Soarin if possible, single rider Remy. Other filler rides if desired. End the night on Guardians with all the drunk ppl from world showcase lol.

Bus transportation between all 3 parks and to/from the hotel.

Please let me know what itinerary you would recommend instead.

Will the lightning lanes we need be available considering we're staying at the hotel the night before a single day? This will be spring break, how horrible will the crowds be?

All advice appreciated.

Thx.
- Brandon

 

[gottalovepluto]

Too ambitious at EP. Even at Spring break EP will close at 9, maybe 9:30. Also- this ain’t DL. You can just pop from Guardians to Remy and back to Guardians, especially battling fireworks crowds. All of DL & DCA minus SWGE would fit inside EP. I cannot emphasize enough how much walking you will do at each of these parks. You can’t just pop into pirates or HM from Space Mtn without a 10-15 min walk one way. And tap into random rides at AK? What are you even talking about? From pandora to safari is not a short distance and there isn’t even anything to tap into first thing in the morning lol.

I don’t think you’ll be able to get early morning for all your AK LLs. I would LL your second park. I think your plan is doable if you are at your bus stop 90 mins before AK EE, SR Everest, trim down your EP expectations to 1 GOTG (thing takes like 25 mins with all the darn pre-shows even without the actual line) end the night at MK instead of EP.

If you’re used to Zoos skip the safari. I love both but you aren’t looking at rolling in with nearly enough time to appreciate AK in that area so it will just end up being a time suck for you.

Consider swapping EP and MK since MK will likely be open noticeably later.

 

[Brandonius]

A few takeaways:
1. I can book LLs NOT at my starting park. That's huge! I was expecting to have to book like, kali/zootopia as early as possible, tap into them even without riding them then modify everything else, to the next park.
2. EPCOT and MK both have fireworks. I'm dumb, but I forgot this. I thought do EPCOT last so we don't have to fight the MK crowds at night, but since they both have fireworks, it makes way more sense to capitalize on the slightly later MK hours.

A few other things
1. I remember the walking lol. I was planning on 25 minutes to get from test track to Remy. EPCOT was huge xd - we just walk fast/a lot. Good reminder though.
2. If we do AK -> EPCOT -> MK, definitely 1 run on Guardians. Since we won't need to loop back to the front, is it feasible to exit out the back and take a bus from the boardwalk resort?
3. If I book my 3 lightning lanes at EPCOT, what are the odds I manage to pull Space Mountain after booking our first EPCOT LL?