A parks WWYD? with Poll

[bumbershoot]

There isn't going to be another trip. This is it. I have to laugh sometimes, how people always assume that people have the money/ability to do more than one Disney trip, lol. (Not just your comment, I see that a lot on the Disney boards "Just save that for another trip!"). But at any rate, we already have tickets bought for SW and DC. My son is fanatic about ocean animals, so... these two places will probably rank as high for him, as Disney.

We do definitely plan on doing a full day at AK and HS. I agree - I think they are more than half day parks.

But we're also not people who are concerned with seeing every little thing there is to see at these parks. We are perfectly happy just being able to experience them - so anything we get to see is great. If we don't see it all - who cares? At least we got to go.

A big tour guide, Rick Steves, for Europe says, no matter what you think before your trip, to assume you'll be back. Don't torture yourself.

For me, Discovery Cove is a HUGE amount of money, and I'd never do that. I literally would save that money for airfare for a future trip. So you laugh about people talking about another trip, and I feel the same about DC.

Since the deed is done, forget resting.

You say you don't want to see everything, but from what you've written, you DO. Your family wants to see and do EVERYTHING at AK, basically, or at least the things that take huge amounts of time. And that is awesome. Fabulous. Other people experiencing what *they* want to do at AK in half a day is great; but that's not you. (it's not me, either)

All the shows at DHS is going to take the whole day unless you are incredibly lucky with your timing.

YOu have a lot on your plate at Epcot too.

You're going to be spending whole days at those parks.

Then do a whole day at SW (trust me...you can...you can spend open to close at the San Diego park, so you're definitely going to take some time in Orlando) and a whole day at DC.

This is your only trip (or so you assume at this time...not sure where you are flying from, but airfares are crazy and wild, I mean SW just had a day of $50 fares to Orlando), so do it up. No rest. Little sleep. Exhaust yourselves. Why rest when you won't be back?

Your current plans have you there for full days, IMO there's no two ways about it. So just accept it, do it, enjoy it.

 

[lustergirl]

I'm not much help about Sea World or Universal, never been there. Me personally I would skip HS. Again I said me personally as I don't find it interesting anymore. I would divide my time up between MK, EPCOT, or AK.

 

[mshanson3121]

A big tour guide, Rick Steves, for Europe says, no matter what you think before your trip, to assume you'll be back. Don't torture yourself.

For me, Discovery Cove is a HUGE amount of money, and I'd never do that. I literally would save that money for airfare for a future trip. So you laugh about people talking about another trip, and I feel the same about DC.

Since the deed is done, forget resting.

You say you don't want to see everything, but from what you've written, you DO. Your family wants to see and do EVERYTHING at AK, basically, or at least the things that take huge amounts of time. And that is awesome. Fabulous. Other people experiencing what *they* want to do at AK in half a day is great; but that's not you. (it's not me, either)

All the shows at DHS is going to take the whole day unless you are incredibly lucky with your timing.

YOu have a lot on your plate at Epcot too.

You're going to be spending whole days at those parks.

Then do a whole day at SW (trust me...you can...you can spend open to close at the San Diego park, so you're definitely going to take some time in Orlando) and a whole day at DC.

This is your only trip (or so you assume at this time...not sure where you are flying from, but airfares are crazy and wild, I mean SW just had a day of $50 fares to Orlando), so do it up. No rest. Little sleep. Exhaust yourselves. Why rest when you won't be back?

Your current plans have you there for full days, IMO there's no two ways about it. So just accept it, do it, enjoy it.

Ah, you misunderstand, or perhaps did not see one of my other posts. Just because those are things we want to do, in no way means, we intend to do them all. They are things my kids would like to do - doesn't mean we're going to do them all or even attempt to. We have NO intention, whatsoever, of staying from open to close. None. We are being extremely realistic about the fact that we will not see everything. Yes, we want to experience all 6 parks, but we in no way think we're going to experience EVERYTHING in the parks. That's just not who we are, or how our children - both of whom have special needs, are capable of traveling.


When I say spend a "full" day, that basically just means we will either do a 9-4ish type thing, or do the morning, go back to the house for a rest in the afternoon, then go back after an early supper. To us that is a "full" day. Should have clarified that in my first post. We are specifically planning several hours of down time, every single day, whether it's in the evening or afternoon.

 

[mshanson3121]

Can you add hoppers? AK closes a few hours earlier than the other parks, so on your AK day, you could then go over to Epcot or HS and get some things done.

We weren't crazy about AK or epcot. We are huge animal lovers, we go to the local zoo at least 6 x a year, make donations to various animal organizations, and make a point to stop at a new zoo on every vacation. AK didn't have the wow factor I was hoping for. Aside from the safari, we really didn't see many animals.

Our epcot day was drizzly and chilly, so we may have just had a bad day to go, but there were very few characters and shows, and we were a little bored with Illuminations. Had it not been for the candlelight processional reservations, we would have left epcot early on.

Interesting to hear. Have others experienced this at AK as well (not seeing many animals)? The closest zoo to us is about 3.5 hours away, and don't get me wrong, it's nice, but it's just a small zoo. So, we were really hoping for a bit "more" out of AK.

We're not going to be doing the Illuminations at all. Both of my children have special needs, so pretty well anything we're going to be doing - shows, rides etc... I'll be previewing for them on YouTube, so they can see what it's like, and we can try and gauge their reaction to see if we want to try it or not. I previewed the Illuminations on YouTube one day as we were going to book the dinner package, and my ASD child especially was terrified by them. I would love to see them, but... just not going to try anything with them, that I think might upset them. Not worth it. We're at least going to do the Pirates & Pals cruise so we can see the wishes (the would be too loud in the actual park for my son).

 

[ZoZo]

Every family is different. But if you've never been to WDW before, I would definitely recommend spending at least one full day in each park.

When people say, "XXX is a half-day park" that means "XXX ix a half-day park FOR ME." Usually it means that they've been to WDW before, and it only takes them a half-day to do the attractions they want to see again, because they've already experienced many of the attractions before and don't want to repeat them. That's my personal situation with DHS - I'm not into the shows there, and the rides only take up the morning. So, (again), FOR ME, DHS is a half-day park. but some folks spend a full day there, because they are more interested in the attractions there than I am.

For newcomers, it would take a full day to see all of the attractions at any of the parks. Some parks can take more than one day!

So take "half day" with a grain of salt. Sure, if you're not interested in animals, AK can be a half-day park if you only ride the rides and don't do any of the other attractions, animal trails, etc. But there are so many things to see and do there, AK is a two-day park for me!!

 

[Nicoleclaw]

Even if you find that you dont spend a whole day in a park, you will get some rest time built in. For 5 days I would do one at each park and an extra at MK, but then I would add a 6 day and do 2 Epcot and 2 MK days

I agree. You can do Agent P's mission in the world showcase which my kids loved and you get to see more of the countries.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I went with the no spare day because IMO, AK is a half day park.

 

[disney debi]

I would do two days in magic kingdom and one day everywhere else. We love animal kingdom and it is definitely a full day park for us as is the studios. SeaWorld is a full day as far as I am concerned as well and I am sure that the cove needs a full day to explore. I would just forgo the "rest" day or make the second magic kingdom day shorter if you feel like you need a break.

 

[crazylady]

I voted for 2 days at mk and one day at everything else. However, I would put epcot right in the middle of the week and if everyone was too tired or cranky, I'd skip it altogether. My kids were 5 and 8 on our last trip and it didn't do much for us. Alternatively, you could always reevaluate after your mk day and decide for the second mk day to be a skip day. I think in my family, I'd have a mutiny if I tried to make them do 6 longish days in a row.