4-Day Ticket - Best Park Order?

[DisneyinApril2019]

Hello, I am taking my wife and son to Walt Disney World the second week of April. We have four day Park Hopper tickets. Any recommendations on a park order? Also, which parks are a must to get there early?

 

[donalds friend]

It will depend on your days of the week you are going. There are several places that have crowd calendars. If you want to ride Slinky at Hollywood Studios or Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom you will definitely want to get there an hour before opening. I like getting to all the parks early, but if you are happy with the fastpasses you get and have a touring plan you can get plenty done.

 

[DisneyinApril2019]

Our first day at the parks will be Sunday, then Monday, then take a break Tuesday, then do Wednesday and Thursday.

 

[FCDub]

Are you staying on property?

 

[DisneyinApril2019]

No, at a resort just on the other side of I-4.

 

[Klayfish]

The order of parks should be whatever you want it to be, there is no right or wrong. Generally speaking, the parks are busier on the weekends and MK is the busiest of the 4 parks. But do whatever order you see fit. We always start in MK because to us it's the heart of WDW and it's tradition. Many others do to, but you absolutely don't have to. If I had to pick, I'd go MK, HS, Epcot, AK but I would be happy with any other combo...as long as MK is first.

If you're going in mid-April and haven't made FP+ yet, you may be a bit behind in trying to get them ahead of time for the most popular attractions, namely Flight of Passage (FoP), Slinkly Dog Dash (SDD), 7 Dwarfs Mine Train (7DMT). I'd strongly suggest reading the FP+ FAQ here. Getting to the parks early will definitely allow you to get on some of the biggest attractions without a wait if you don't have a FP+ for them. All 4 of the parks have attractions that are super popular, so it's hard to say which one you'd want to be early for as you can make an argument for any of them. We never show up to parks early, but we're lucky enough to be veterans and fully understand the FP+ system.

EDIT: I see you wrote you're offsite. OK, so you're going to have a 30 day window for your FP+. The attractions I mentioned above may be hard to get at 30 days. So your choices to avoid really long lines at the big attractions will either be rope drop (i.e. show up at the park 60 minutes early) or learn the FP+ system, specifically "refresh". We stay off property too, so I can tell you from experience that you can still get a ton done.

 

[DisneyinApril2019]

Ok, thanks for the advice, Klayfish. Here's another fastpass question that I can't seem to get an answer for. I've received my tickets for myself, my wife and my son, and am going to link them to my "My Disney Experience" account. What if my son and I want to do a roller coaster and my wife doesn't; instead she wants to do another ride. Does she need a separate account so she can control her fastpass rides, or can I do it for her using my app? Also could we both have access to a "joint" account?

 

[David Gardner]

My experience, when I've been there with kids, is that I save the Magic Kingdom for last and do Epcot first.

Even though they're trying to reverse this, Epcot was designed to be educational, and in the early years it was pretty boring all around. They have Soarin' and the Frozen ride now, which helps. If your son is interested in other cultures he'll dig the World Showcase, but if he's not it'll be a yawnfest, except for the street performers at the various pavilions.

Magic Kingdom was specifically designed to thrill kids, and they love it. The problem with going there first is that they then expect that from the remaining three. The other parks have many more rides that younger kids can't experience, and things they won't get, like some of the streetmosphere performers. LEaving MK to last usually results in a good finish.

All that being said, you do have to look at things like expected crowds, if, when and where you have booked dining, etc. Since you're staying offsite, it's best to avoid parks with Extra Magic Hours, because they'll have more guests with non-hopper tickets throughout the day, making them more packed.

 

[greg9x]

Ok, thanks for the advice, Klayfish. Here's another fastpass question that I can't seem to get an answer for. I've received my tickets for myself, my wife and my son, and am going to link them to my "My Disney Experience" account. What if my son and I want to do a roller coaster and my wife doesn't; instead she wants to do another ride. Does she need a separate account so she can control her fastpass rides, or can I do it for her using my app? Also could we both have access to a "joint" account?

You can schedule FP+ however you want for your party depending on availability, initial 3 limit, and any tiering. So, yes, you can schedule your wife a different FP+ than you and your son.. but the ride she want's may not have an availability time that is the same as you and your son's ride, so her's may be earlier or later.

Just share the account login between you, you both can view/make changes if on different devices.


As to park order...pretty much what you want, but pay attention to hours and events at the park for the day. Like Extra Magic Hours.. since you are off site you won't be able to get in early those days like the Disney Resort guest can.. so the park will already have quite a few people in it by the time you can get in. Most say the park with EMH will be busier than normal later in the day.
Also look at closing times, sometimes a park has an evening event and closes earlier than normal, so make sure that doesn't interfere with your schedule if going to that park that day.