8 nights - help with which parks!

[tarablymurray]

First visit with 8yo, 6yo and 4yo and after changing my mind a million times, split stay between Contemporary and Beach Club. Need advice on which resort to stay at first and then which parks. This is what I came up with but I'm not sure about it and appreciate any help! Going from May 6- 14.

• Saturday - arrive and stay at Contemporary, maybe do Chef Mickey
• Sunday - MK
• Monday - Epcot
• Tuesday - No park day
• Wednesday - MK
• Thursday - checkout of Contemporary and go to Epcot then check-in later at Beach Club
• Friday - AK
• Saturday - HS
• Sunday - leave

We do plan on some character dining and BBB so not sure if you do those after park days or during.

I'm open to any changes on resort stay and which parks. Thanks for your help!

 

[Cinderella94]

One suggestion -

Switch your Epcot and Animal Kingdom days. Walking or taking the boat from Beach Club to Epcot is extremely convenient and doesn't take long. Even if some of your other days change, I would save Epcot for when you can get there most easily. For Animal Kingdom, you're taking a bus no matter what, so it can be a bus from Contemporary.

I love the idea of doing Contemporary first and Beach Club second. Contemporary is great too, but we looove the Beach Club, and we like to end and split stays at our favorite resort!

 

[Klayfish]

Sounds like a fine plan. But why the no park day? Unless your ticket is only for 6 days, I'd recommend doing something that day. If your ticket is for 6 days, it's not all that much more money to add a 7th day, or add the water park option. Maybe do a water park on Tuesday or another AK day.

If this is your first visit, my best advice is to not get too hung up on trying to see everything or plan perfectly. It's not gonna happen. Use FP+ to the best you can, and just enjoy.

 

[GaryDis]

But why the no park day?

There's nothing wrong with taking a break day. But I'd move it to be during the Beach Club stay because of the pool there.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Check Parksavers.com for discounted 7-day park hoppers. You may want to hop between Epcot and DHS during your Beach Club stay - you'll be so close to both parks.

 

[tarablymurray]

One suggestion -

Switch your Epcot and Animal Kingdom days. Walking or taking the boat from Beach Club to Epcot is extremely convenient and doesn't take long. Even if some of your other days change, I would save Epcot for when you can get there most easily. For Animal Kingdom, you're taking a bus no matter what, so it can be a bus from Contemporary.

I love the idea of doing Contemporary first and Beach Club second. Contemporary is great too, but we looove the Beach Club, and we like to end and split stays at our favorite resort!

That makes sense, I will switch the Epcot days. Thanks!

Yes that Beach Club pool area just sounded amazing and my kids will love it!

 

[tarablymurray]

Sounds like a fine plan. But why the no park day? Unless your ticket is only for 6 days, I'd recommend doing something that day. If your ticket is for 6 days, it's not all that much more money to add a 7th day, or add the water park option. Maybe do a water park on Tuesday or another AK day.

If this is your first visit, my best advice is to not get too hung up on trying to see everything or plan perfectly. It's not gonna happen. Use FP+ to the best you can, and just enjoy.

The only reason I did that is because I read a lot how if going with kids to have a rest day. I would actually prefer going somewhere but then not sure how kids will be.

 

[tarablymurray]

There's nothing wrong with taking a break day. But I'd move it to be during the Beach Club stay because of the pool there.

Thanks I will do that!

 

[tarablymurray]

Check Parksavers.com for discounted 7-day park hoppers. You may want to hop between Epcot and DHS during your Beach Club stay - you'll be so close to both parks.

Thanks for the tip, I will check it!

 

[Gorechick]

Keep your rest day. When I took my 7 year old twins, they wanted pool time. Spend a day at the resort swimming and exploring then maybe go over to Disney Springs for shopping and dining in the evening.

 

[Cinderella94]

You can easily spend a whole day by the Beach Club pool! Whenever we do a split stay, we make the day that we change resorts our no-park day. I would wake up, check out of the contemporary, and go spend all day at the beach club pool.

 

[tarablymurray]

Keep your rest day. When I took my 7 year old twins, they wanted pool time. Spend a day at the resort swimming and exploring then maybe go over to Disney Springs for shopping and dining in the evening.

Yes I could see my kids wanting to do that too! I'll have too check out Disney Springs thanks!

 

[tarablymurray]

You can easily spend a whole day by the Beach Club pool! Whenever we do a split stay, we make the day that we change resorts our no-park day. I would wake up, check out of the contemporary, and go spend all day at the beach club pool.

I like that idea! We will do it on the day we change resorts.

 

[Gorechick]

Yes I could see my kids wanting to do that too! I'll have too check out Disney Springs thanks!

Rainforest Cafe and T Rex cafe are fun places to take kids for a meal. We ended up at Rainforest twice and T Rex once on that trip.

 

[Klayfish]

The only reason I did that is because I read a lot how if going with kids to have a rest day. I would actually prefer going somewhere but then not sure how kids will be.

Everyone has their own thoughts on that, and a lot of it depends on your style and your kids. We've got 3 kids also. They're now 12, 9, 9 (twins), but we've been brining them since they were 4, 1, 1. We would never try to do back to back to back, etc... days where we are in the parks from 8am until 10pm. That would be crazy, and we'd all collapse by day 4. At the same time, we're down there to see WDW, not the hotel room or pool. We stay off property and rent a townhouse, so we have full amenities of home and could easily take a day to relax and swim and chill. But to us, it would be a waste of a day. We just did a 17 day trip in June and went to WDW each day. I don't recall the exact schedule but it went something like this....

Day 1 - Park at night (maybe 4pm to 11pm)
Day 2 - sleep in and hit parks around noon. Noon-7pm ish
Day 3 - Park from 10am to 5pm
Day 4 - maybe this is a day where we need a break and others would take a full day off. We would do a water park maybe from 9am to noon, or maybe a regular park from 9am to 1pm. Then head back home...we get back to our house by 2pm. Spend the rest of the day relaxing, take a nap, eat a casual dinner, go out for dessert, etc...
Day 5 - back to a similar schedule to above

It worked fine for the entire 17 days. The kids LOVED the schedule. Plenty of full park days (to me, 7-8 hours in a park is a full day, so 4-11pm is a "full day" to me), mixed in with more relaxing days. The kids looked forward to both. The relaxed days were just as much fun, because they were thrilled to get into the parks, do a few of their favorite things, then head out and just go swimming, shopping, watch TV, etc...

There's nothing "wrong" with taking a day off. For me, it would just seem like a waste, especially if it's our first trip there. It's definitely possible to hit the parks every day without overdoing it.

 

[Easto]

My quick 2 cents:

I went with a 4 and 6 year old. Afternoon breaks were awesome. The 4 year old took a nap in the room and the 6 year old and I went swimming. It's a nice way to recharge and head back to the parks later in the day.

Rest days were also great because you aren't rushed. You don't have to get up early for Rope Drop or pre-park ADR. Book a later breakfast 9:00 or 10:00 and let your group sleep in a bit longer. Take advantage of the pool and other stuff to do around the resort. You can also hit up Disney Springs and take the day nice and slow.

We did 9 nights and 6 park days. We plan on going back again next year and doing 9 nights and 5 park days, but I'll add the Park Hopper

 

[Cinderella94]

It's interesting to see how different routines work for different people! Doing full days of a park (7-8 hours in a row) would totally exhaust us. Every day we get up to be at the park at rope drop, stay until lunch, and come home to swim until our dinner reservation. Then we spend the rest of the night in the park our restaurant was at (or the one nearby, if our dinner was at a resort). This is the strategy I suggest to people going on their first trip because we get to ride everything we want to and don't spend time waiting in lines, since we go early, and we love the pool and getting to recharge in the afternoon. Do whatever sounds like the most fun for you!

 

[tarablymurray]

Thanks, you all have given me a lot to think about! I may do a plan A and plan B as far as rest time and just see how the kids are doing and go with one or the other.

 

[Klayfish]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not of the mindset: a day in the parks = run 'til you drop. If you use FP+ and have a half way decent plan, you can accomplish a lot in just 3 hours or so. We have plenty of days where we are only in the park until lunch at the latest. We still get on at least 6 or 7 rides, and have the rest of the day to chill out.

 

[MrsJamesPSullivan]

I would suggest switching your resort stays, doing BC first then CR. The reason I suggest this is the age of your kids. Small kids a lot of times are disappointed with the other parks after doing MK. They aren't as bright and fun there aren't as many rides..if you do BC first you could do Epcot and DHS first and get them out of the way. When you go to CR you could do an AK day where the animals and really cool shows will help keep them occupied and happy then spend most of the rest of the time in MK.

You know your kids but in my head I'm hearing a lot of whining if you start at the gates if MK with little kids then move them away.

Have a great trip!