Advice for April Plans

[Twinkbelle]

In April I will be going on a Disney Cruise then have 5 nights in WDW. I will be going with a friend who has never been to WDW before. 5 nights I know isn't long enough to see/do everything so trying to work out what we will have time to fit in! Still in the early stages of planning (I know I need to get my act together)

Day 1 - Transfer from the cruise - I think we should be back in Orlando by 10/11am hopefully go check in at pop then go to disney springs to collect our tickets/magic bands from a 3rd party and quickly check out World of Disney. Around 1pm (hopefully) get a bus form there to the contemporay then get a monorail to the TTC, and from there get the ferry to MK. My friend has been told the only way to see the castle for the first time is from the ferry and anything else won't be as special. I've tried to sway them otherwise but they're set on having this moment as they've imagined it so I feel like I can't take that away.

Day 2 - Hollywood Studios - Up early, RD for ROTR and if I'm lukcy also get ILL for later in the day or SDD not decided on which exactly.

Day 3 - AK then park hopping to Epcot for the fireworks

Day 4 - Epcot all day

Day 5 - MK

Day 6 - Epcot or HS for a few hours in the am then we will need to leave by 1pm to get across to the airport for our flight home

 

[sarac87]

How about bus to Poly and then walk to TTC for ferry? Or take boat from Wilderness Lodge/Poly/Grand Flo, whichever bus is there first.

 

[Jen81NYC]

Following because doing almost the same trip! 3-night cruise in April and then 5 nights at WDW. It’s our first trip so feeling super anxious about crowds, lines, heat, genie stuff, etc!

 

[Twinkbelle]

How about bus to Poly and then walk to TTC for ferry? Or take boat from Wilderness Lodge/Poly/Grand Flo, whichever bus is there first.

Thank you soooo much for the suggestion, I don't know why but I totally forgot that the Poly was an option, and that might even be slightly quicker/more straight fowrard.

Following because doing almost the same trip! 3-night cruise in April and then 5 nights at WDW. It’s our first trip so feeling super anxious about crowds, lines, heat, genie stuff, etc!

That all soudns so exciting! I hope you have an amazing time on time, I can relate to what you mean, it is all a bit much to take in, but it will be worth it in the end when you're having the best time. It will be both our first time on Cruise from the US and visitng Castaway, which I'm really excited for that place has been bucket list for me since I first made one up.

I'm anixous about the testing, I live in the UK, so I have to test negative before I get on the plane out. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

 

[MouseMapper]

How about bus to Poly and then walk to TTC for ferry? Or take boat from Wilderness Lodge/Poly/Grand Flo, whichever bus is there first.

I agree that it would be more efficient to take a bus from Disney Springs to the Polynesian Village Resort. There is a walking trail there, which would bring you to the Transportation and Ticket Center, and you could then take the ferry to Magic Kingdom. However, there are also smaller boats from Wilderness Lodge, the Polynesian Village, and the Grand Floridian that take you across Seven Seas Lagoon to the Magic Kingdom. In my opinion those boats would provide more or less the same view of the castle from the water as the ferry from the TTC would.

 

[MouseMapper]

Day 2 - Hollywood Studios - Up early, RD for ROTR and if I'm lukcy also get ILL for later in the day or SDD not decided on which exactly.

Day 3 - AK then park hopping to Epcot for the fireworks

Day 4 - Epcot all day

Day 5 - MK

Day 6 - Epcot or HS for a few hours in the am then we will need to leave by 1pm to get across to the airport for our flight home

For Day #2: Since you are travelling with a friend, I suggest that you both download the My Disney Experience app and be logged in and ready to go for 7am. When reservations open for the day, one of you should focus on getting Slinky Dog Dash, while the other focuses on getting Rise of the Resistance. If you are interested and your budget allows for it, I'd also get the Individual Lightning for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, which is a great experience of classic Disney whimsy, especially for a first-time park goer.

For Day #6: I'd recommend Hollywood Studios (or even Magic Kingdom). One full day should be plenty of time to see all the attractions in EPCOT at this point. Hollywood Studios has more headliners, and Magic Kingdom has the most attractions of all the parks.

 

[MMSM]

My family is staying at boardwalk for one night and heading to HS in morning. Bell services to take luggage. We then plan to hop to Epcot. We then are heading to MK but was hoping to check into Poly (our next stay) before we go in for evening. My question is what is best and quickest way to get from Epcot to Poly. Monorail? Bus to poly? Or bus to MK from Epcot? Are we better going back to Boardwalk and then doing a bus? Much advice needed. Thanks.

 

[sarac87]

My family is staying at boardwalk for one night and heading to HS in morning. Bell services to take luggage. We then plan to hop to Epcot. We then are heading to MK but was hoping to check into Poly (our next stay) before we go in for evening. My question is what is best and quickest way to get from Epcot to Poly. Monorail? Bus to poly? Or bus to MK from Epcot? Are we better going back to Boardwalk and then doing a bus? Much advice needed. Thanks.

Monorail to TTC and then walk to the Poly. Then from Poly, either take the monorail or a boat to MK. You can only use busses to get from a resort to a park, so going back to Boardwalk wouldn't make sense, and would require a transfer at MK. If you're already in Epcot, just go out the main entrance instead of the International Gateway, and take the monorail.

 

[MMSM]

Monorail to TTC and then walk to the Poly. Then from Poly, either take the monorail or a boat to MK. You can only use busses to get from a resort to a park, so going back to Boardwalk wouldn't make sense, and would require a transfer at MK. If you're already in Epcot, just go out the main entrance instead of the International Gateway, and take the monorail.

How long is this monorail ride (looking for quickest way) and will Epcot to poly bus be quicker?

 

[sarac87]

The absolute quickest would be an Uber, maybe. I don't think there's a bus from Epcot to Poly unless the Monorail is down.

 

[MMSM]

The absolute quickest would be an Uber, maybe. I don't think there's a bus from Epcot to Poly unless the Monorail is down.

Oh. I thought all parks had buses back to resorts. So all the MK resorts have to walk or figure it out from TTC? Also if I take a bus from Epcot to Mk does it drop you right outside the entrance in or TTC?

 

[sarac87]

Yeah, resorts on the monorail or the sky liner don't have buses to those parks unless those options are down. You have to transfer monorail lines from Epcot to the MK line, but it's literally right next to the Poly, so it's quicker to walk there from the TTC station than to transfer monorail and go one stop to the Poly station.

The bus to MK drops you off at the MK gate.

 

[Twinkbelle]

For Day #2: Since you are travelling with a friend, I suggest that you both download the My Disney Experience app and be logged in and ready to go for 7am. When reservations open for the day, one of you should focus on getting Slinky Dog Dash, while the other focuses on getting Rise of the Resistance. If you are interested and your budget allows for it, I'd also get the Individual Lightning for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, which is a great experience of classic Disney whimsy, especially for a first-time park goer.

For Day #6: I'd recommend Hollywood Studios (or even Magic Kingdom). One full day should be plenty of time to see all the attractions in EPCOT at this point. Hollywood Studios has more headliners, and Magic Kingdom has the most attractions of all the parks.

Firstly apologies for the slow reply been super busy with work recently so falling even further behind with the trip planning. Thank your the suggestions we've both already downloaded the app/linked each other. We were going to decide on an as and when basis on crowd levels whether or not to do ILL but it looks like we will need to make this call of a morning before going to the park each day dependign on what we want to do. I totally forgot about Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway! I see it's no longer an ILL pick so may be worth paying for a pass for the day for HS so we can get this and MFSR, although we could always do this single rider, my friend is not fussed on star wars and I have been lucky enough to get pilot twice in a row when I went to Disneyland in 2019. I doubt that I could get that lucky again, ever. I was talking to someone in the line, and when we got to the mixing point they shouted to the CM 'this girl has come all the way from England and it's going to be her first ever ride in Disneyland you gotta giver her pilot man' next thing the CM smiles and says is this true I say 'yes I've just got here today and it's my first ride I would love to get pilot I've come a long way for this ride' and he hands me the card I'm nearly crying and people around me are cheering it was a great moment. Then we went back later that night just before park closing cos the queue was short and the same CM was there and said 'pilot again?'

We've changed our park pass for our last day from Epcot to HS, mainly cos I managed to get a reservation for Oga's on that day. It's going to be tight with getting back to the airport but we should have enough time for one drink. I also have Oga's on our HS day, but it's not til 9:20pm. With the rummours of Fantasmic coming back it might clash with that so if needs be I can cancel that one. If not then maybe we go twice whilst my friend doesn't like star wars they do like cocktails so I'm sure they'll be happy enough with that.