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?

 

[holden]

My recommendations:

1. Buy Single LL for Tron, Guardians and Flight of Passage. You can use your Multi Pass at both EP and MK. You'll have to decide which park to purchase it for (might have to pay a few bucks to "upgrade" the MP for use at MK if originally bought for EP).
2. At AK: Single LL pass for Flight of Passage; Rope drop Navii River and then hoof it to Everest (use single rider lane there). I'd skip the safari unless you really want to do it.
3. Get an Uber/Lyft from AK to EP. Pickup is close to the park entrance.
4. At EP do Guardians with Single LL, Test Track single rider, Remy and Soarin with Multi Pass (not necessarily in that order). Also get another MP in Epcot that you want or to use or get one as a throwaway. As soon as you use tap into Remy, get Space Mountain LL. Be sure Remy LL is early in the day (based on when you think you can get to EP). Grab another MK LL after you tap into Soarin or other EP attraction. You can hold 3 Multi pass LL at a time. They do not have to all be at the same park.
5. At MK do Tron with Single LL, Space Mountain with Multi pass and other attractions with Multi pass. Keep getting more Multi pass LL after you tap into attractions.
6. At the end of the night walk over to The Contemporary Resort and get an Uber/Lyft back to your resort if bus lines are long.
7. You can keep checking for better LL times throughout the day. They sometimes drop more availability.
8. Bring a portable charger. The app drains phone batteries.

To answer your questions above:

You can walk to Boardwalk or Beach Club and get a bus to any park. You can also get an Uber/Lyft from any resort to any park.

You can get your Space Mountain LL after you tap into your first tier 1 attraction Multi pass LL of the day. I suspect your Space Mtn LL will be for later in the day/evening or it might be unavailable.

Enjoy!

 

[gottalovepluto]

You can only buy 2 SPLL/day @holden

OP, Yes you can bus from BWI or BC to MK. Booking doesn’t have much to do with pulling the Space Mtn FP. You can try for SM as soon as you tap into your first LL. Can’t tell you the odds, try playing around with LL availability on Thrill Data for SM if it’s back up to get a feel for it.