30th anniversary trip/

[mickey+minnie91]

Hubby and I are planning on taking the leap over to Florida to visit WDW for the first time. We live in CA and are DL vets. We also are spoiled by going to Huntington Beach during our trips and for use Disney and beach go hand in hand. I looked up beaches close to Orlando and have fallen in love with clearwater beach. We are thinking of doing three days in WDW so we can drive to Clearwater for a day and night before heading home out of Tampa. Which Parks do you think we should prioritize? We regularly park hop at DL and are not opposed at doing this in WDW. Looking for your not to miss, must see items and what parks are doable in a day with park hopping? Is Disney Springs just like Downtown Disney and worth making time for? We have a bunch of Hilton points and are thinking of staying at one, how are the shuttles or is uber/lyft better for getting to parks for rope drop?

 

[GBRforWDW]

Hubby and I are planning on taking the leap over to Florida to visit WDW for the first time. We live in CA and are DL vets. We also are spoiled by going to Huntington Beach during our trips and for use Disney and beach go hand in hand. I looked up beaches close to Orlando and have fallen in love with clearwater beach. We are thinking of doing three days in WDW so we can drive to Clearwater for a day and night before heading home out of Tampa. Which Parks do you think we should prioritize? We regularly park hop at DL and are not opposed at doing this in WDW. Looking for your not to miss, must see items and what parks are doable in a day with park hopping? Is Disney Springs just like Downtown Disney and worth making time for? We have a bunch of Hilton points and are thinking of staying at one, how are the shuttles or is uber/lyft better for getting to parks for rope drop?

Lots of fun questions! Exciting trip planning ahead. I can’t answer all your questions, but I’ll try to answer a few:

Which Parks do you think we should prioritize? We regularly park hop at DL and are not opposed at doing this in WDW. Looking for your not to miss, must see items and what parks are doable in a day with park hopping? There is a lot to do in every park. As a new visitor to Walt Disney World, you could spend all day in each park. It really just depends on what you plan on doing in each park. That being said, if you want to visit all the parks, you could see and do a lot in Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios in the morning and give you time to hop over to Epcot in the afternoon. If you plan to go to Magic Kingdom, you’ll probably want to stay the full day there.

Is Disney Springs just like Downtown Disney and worth making time for? Its a similar concept. I’ve not gone during my trips and I don’t feel like I’ve missed out. I’m sure there’s a lot to do there, but if you’re doing parks sun up to sun down, do you really want to spend more time walking around? Lol. Some people will say yes, others no. The good thing is it doesn’t cost you extra to go or not go.

congrats on the anniversary and happy planning!

 

[disneytraveltales]

Disneyland AP (I guess we are legacy pass holders now haha) and Disney World AP here. I would prioritize Animal Kingdom and EPCOT since there’s really nothing like it over in California. But like previous post has said, with all the constructions going on at EPCOT and it staying open later, you could easily park hop once you wrap up your day at each park.

Also, I don’t think Downtown Disney is anything close to Disney Springs. While I love the small scale shopping district in California, Disney springs is such an experience on its own. So many dining and shopping options so if you have time, I would definitely swing by!

 

[Shellyred8]

Any chance you can make your trip longer so you have one day for each park, one day for Disney Springs and then one day for the beach? So, 6 days for playing?
It's so hard to recommend which park to "skip". If you are limited to 3 park days, I would vote for making park reservations at MK, HS and AK. Then plan to hop to EP in the late afternoon/evening after one of the other parks.
Disney Springs is sooooo much more than Downtown Disney. Similar concept in that it's a shopping and eating venue, but like the rest of WDW, DS is just so much larger. There are some amazing places to eat there, so if you are a foodie, this would be a must.

Happy planning!

 

[CynBeth]

Any chance you can make your trip longer so you have one day for each park, one day for Disney Springs and then one day for the beach? So, 6 days for playing?
It's so hard to recommend which park to "skip". If you are limited to 3 park days, I would vote for making park reservations at MK, HS and AK. Then plan to hop to EP in the late afternoon/evening after one of the other parks.
Disney Springs is sooooo much more than Downtown Disney. Similar concept in that it's a shopping and eating venue, but like the rest of WDW, DS is just so much larger. There are some amazing places to eat there, so if you are a foodie, this would be a must.

Happy planning!

I agree if you can spend more days at Disney I would try to do at least one day at each park but would recommend 1/2 or 2 at each since who knows when you will be back again being from the west coast would be better.

 

[StageTek]

DL vet, CA native here. My first trip to The World was 10 days. 2 days in each park and 2 days to explore The World. It wasn't enough for me.

We are thinking of doing three days in WDW so we can drive to Clearwater for a day and night before heading home out of Tampa.

Clearwater is beautiful but I would suggest missing it and spending one more day so you can visit all four parks. However...

I suggest you skip Hollywood Studios and don't park hop. One day each park will not be enough - even Magic Kingdom. You'll find so much different than DL that you'll be glad for the full day. I don't think you would regret not stopping by Disney Springs on this short trip. Maybe head over after a park day for dinner?

 

[holden]

When you are considering park hopping, keep in mind that WDW is a huge place. Disney recommends to allow 1.5hrs for transportation, and we have definitely taken that long to get to places. If you get off Expedition Everest and decide to hop to DHS, you could easily spend an hour from the time you exit EE to the time you are inside DHS. I’m not saying you shouldn’t hop. We love hopping! Just want to point that out since you have such a short amount of time in WDW and the park hours are much shorter than usual.

 

[LuvMyEAR]

When you are considering park hopping, keep in mind that WDW is a huge place. Disney recommends to allow 1.5hrs for transportation, and we have definitely taken that long to get to places. If you get off Expedition Everest and decide to hop to DHS, you could easily spend an hour from the time you exit EE to the time you are inside DHS. I’m not saying you shouldn’t hop. We love hopping! Just want to point that out since you have such a short amount of time in WDW and the park hours are much shorter than usual.

This is very well said! Park hopping in WDW is nothing like the quick & easy hop in DLR. We have done it both ways, and honestly, we find hopping only worth our while when we specifically want to rope-drop one park and experience the nighttime entertainment in another, when some shows are not available every night. This used to be the case with Fantasmic. Now that we are older and have send and done most things more than once, we tend to spend shorter hours in a theme park, and I could see us doing the midday break and hitting 2 parks on the same day since we would be leaving anyway, but otherwise, we don’t find it a worthwhile option. We are more likely to start out later if we want to catch fireworks, etc, or follow up and early park visit with an evening at Disney Springs, which we love.

Depending on your fitness level, and heat tolerance, it can be quite a hike into a park, plus security and COVID checking. It is an exercise we’d prefer to do only once per day.

 

[Timandalicia]

Hubby and I are planning on taking the leap over to Florida to visit WDW for the first time. We live in CA and are DL vets. We also are spoiled by going to Huntington Beach during our trips and for use Disney and beach go hand in hand. I looked up beaches close to Orlando and have fallen in love with clearwater beach. We are thinking of doing three days in WDW so we can drive to Clearwater for a day and night before heading home out of Tampa. Which Parks do you think we should prioritize? We regularly park hop at DL and are not opposed at doing this in WDW. Looking for your not to miss, must see items and what parks are doable in a day with park hopping? Is Disney Springs just like Downtown Disney and worth making time for? We have a bunch of Hilton points and are thinking of staying at one, how are the shuttles or is uber/lyft better for getting to parks for rope drop?

Take in everything above. It’s all important. As you may know, Disney World is about 100 times the size of Disneyland. You can fit all of Disneyland into Magic Kingdom’s parking lot (by no means do I imply size means better. Disneyland is Mecca).

The Hilton Disney Springs would be a great option for your Hilton points. Cross a bridge and you’re in Disney Springs. They typically have transportation to the parks but you’ll have to see what the Covid plan is.

Keep in mind, going to Clearwater is more like going from Disneyland to Pacific Beach then it is Huntington Beach. So that coupled with Disney World’s enormousness, some of the recommendations above might be considered about staying at Disney longer. But if you’re not cuckoo for Disney maybe you just want to “see it”.

If you are looking for a different experience than Disneyland, we consider Epcot our “Mecca” and it’ll have a feel like nothing at Disneyland or California Adventure. Animal Kingdom is themed differently too.