Advice on my plan and park hopping? Please and Thank you :)

[AthenaBolina]

We're visiting WDW in late May of this year, and originally I based my plan on non park hoppers. Now that we decided to get park hoppers, I have no idea how to rework my plan or if I should even bother. I also planned it by all the days that easy wdw recommended for our trip.

We arrive at MCO late on the 24th, so we'll go straight to the hotel and sleep pretty much.

Day 1: may 25th Animal Kingdom, Y&Y adr at 2PM

* this day we planned to get there at RD and do our favorite rides, wander around, see a show and then have lunch. After lunch at Y&Y we planned to do our FP+ for EE, Safari and KRR. Then we'd head to the MK as that's their evening EMH

* wasn't sure if I should skip the FP+ for AK and switch them to MK for the evening because we have two days planned for MK later in the week

Day 2: Epcot May 26th

*Since we plan to stay up for EMH, this will be our sleep in day and we'll get FP+ for Soarin and ??, also wanted to do TT, Mission Space and Spaceship Earth. We'll find lunch somewhere, do some shopping in the world showcase or lunch if we don't eat it at Sunshine Seasons. Then I thought we'd head to DTD for the christmas shop, lego, disney quest (only my hubs and our son will go) and dinner.

Day 3: Hollywood Studios

* be there at RD and get to TSMM, RNR, TOT and Star Tours. We skipped RNR on our last trip in 2010, so I promised the kids the next time we went we'd make sure to ride it. We'll also try to meet Sorcerer Mickey, do the backlot tour, The Great Movie Ride. I planned to get FP+ for RNR, Star Tours and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. This is our only day at HS, and I am a little unsure how to arrange it.

* We have a Fantasmic Dinner pkg lunch at Mama Melrose at 3:35. The show isn't till 9PM, so I wasn't sure if we should park hop somewhere, or just get back to our hotel (AOA) to swim for a bit and eat a snack before we head back to HS for the show. What time should we be back?

Day 4: Magic Kingdom at RD May 29th

* Wasn't sure if we'd PH this day or not, maybe in the evening because we aren't sure if we'll stay for MSEP as it's nightmarish getting out of the park after that. Where would be a good place to PH after MK? Not sure if we should come back here in the evening with FP+ instead of doing them early afternoon. My kids don't have too much patience with parades, so it's something we'd be able to skip.

Day 5: MK again, EMH

If we don't park hop the previous day, this will be our park hopping evening or afternoon. MK is our favorite park, so this will technically be our 3d day there, if we count the 1st days PM EMH

Day 6: Probably animal Kingdom. Epcot is our least favorite park, and HS will be packed due to SWW, so we will definitely skip that. Not sure what to do the whole day though after we're done at Animal Kingdom

Day 7: Typhoon Lagoon..we got free passes through our Small World Vacations TA!! We'll probably sleep in and have a slow morning. We only have 6 day park hoppers. After typhoon lagoon, we have a dinner res at Raglan in DTD. We have to get to bed on time because our flight leaves super early the last day.

I want to keep the days situated where they are, but guess my questions are...1) Should I switch the FP+ to the early afternoon or evening?
2) Will AK be doable on a "green day" if we arrive at RD and skip the FP+ selections and save our FP+ for the evenings?
3) How awful is HS during SWW?

thanks

eta: my kids will be 8, 11, 13 and 13, so a lot more stamina in them then little ones.

 

[AthenaBolina]

Anyone?

 

[Sheaboys]

My thought is if you are planning on Rope Drop mornings, then schedule FP+ for evening park.

 

[AthenaBolina]

I guess that means we absolutely have to make RD then...I was just concerned that AK especially would be crowded even on a "green" day.

 

[sharonabe]

I think it depends on what you're wanting to do in each park.

On your first day it looks like you're hopping for the nighttime entertainment at MK, so I'd use FP+ at AK just as you have planned.

I think I would pick either day 4 or day 5 as an all day MK day so you can maximize your FP+ there. Use the other one as a hop day back to HS. If you know you want to do some of the headliners at HS, use the FP+ there. If you need more at MK, use them there.

As for your last AK day, I think I'd be hopping back to MK afterwards (actually we would do EP again, but you said you guys don't like it). I'd probably use the FP+ at MK to ride favorites one last time.

 

[AthenaBolina]

I think it depends on what you're wanting to do in each park. On your first day it looks like you're hopping for the nighttime entertainment at MK, so I'd use FP+ at AK just as you have planned. I think I would pick either day 4 or day 5 as an all day MK day so you can maximize your FP+ there. Use the other one as a hop day back to HS. If you know you want to do some of the headliners at HS, use the FP+ there. If you need more at MK, use them there. As for your last AK day, I think I'd be hopping back to MK afterwards (actually we would do EP again, but you said you guys don't like it). I'd probably use the FP+ at MK to ride favorites one last time.

You have a point our first day we want evening emh at MK, so I'm not even sure we'll need the FP+ for that as it will be late. Day 4&5 are all day MK days, but if we maximize rd and morning emh on the 5th day, it's possible we can skip FP+ at MK that day, and hop to HS. The last day I was actually considering doing three parks lol... AK first thing, then either MK or HS (but seeing that it's SWW, that doesn't make sense. It will be TOO crowded). So maybe AK, then a combo of EP & MK. But deciding between which of those parks to use the FP+ is difficult lol. After thinking about it, I thought we'd go to EP because I want to pick up some caramel corn from Germany for my mom, and I'd be afraid it would get stale if I bought it earlier in the week. Or maybe AK in the morning, MK in afternoon and EP evening. Honestly., we've done soarin' at DL and at WDW, and it's not a must repeat ride for us, so I'm not too concerned if we skip it compared to say BTMRR OR SM.

Now DH has said he doesn't want to do DTD on our EP day, and save that for our last day. So our last day looks to be typhoon lagoon first thing, and then back to AOA to freshen up, and then we'll do DTD for shopping and dinner. So we'll have an evening to park hop on our EP day. With it being Memorial Day though, I'm not sure where a good place to go would be lol.

 

[sharonabe]

Not sure what kind of eaters you are, but we never have enough time at EP to try all the restaurants we want to there. So hopping to EP just for dinner is always an option.

 

[AthenaBolina]

I think it depends on what you're wanting to do in each park.

On your first day it looks like you're hopping for the nighttime entertainment at MK, so I'd use FP+ at AK just as you have planned.

I think I would pick either day 4 or day 5 as an all day MK day so you can maximize your FP+ there. Use the other one as a hop day back to HS. If you know you want to do some of the headliners at HS, use the FP+ there. If you need more at MK, use them there.

As for your last AK day, I think I'd be hopping back to MK afterwards (actually we would do EP again, but you said you guys don't like it). I'd probably use the FP+ at MK to ride favorites one last time.

After looking through my notes, I think our FP+ would be best used at MK on the 5th day, however, I am concerned that if we hop to HS that afternoon/evening, we will get nothing as we will have no fast passes. So my plan for our actual HS day (day 3) is to FP+ TSMM, Star Tours and little Mermaid. We'll do RD and hit up TSMM, RNR, TOT. The problem with HS is that there just aren't enough attractions for me to want to FP+ them on a 2nd day, but at the same time, I don't want to miss out.

eta: I may have fixed my predicament somehow...is TOT a tier 2 ride? if so, then it isn't as bad as I was thinking. Still wouldn't know what to pick for our hop to HS on day 5 though lol

 

[amberpi]

I'm a park hopping addict so its not a huge deal to me to hit 3 parks in a day and still have some pool time (I nap by the pool). I think your plan is sound and sounds great, but I'd but those first day fps to work at Epcot. If you hit AK at RD, you can do everything in like 2 hours - including a couple of rides on EE if you're willing to do single rider. Then in the late afternoon, hit Epcot for some awesomeness, get a decent dinner and hop over and enjoy MK's EMHs, which as I type this sounds like a great day! I would do all this and have 3/4 hours at the hotel but my ideal day would mean dropping your Y&Y ADR for a regular dinner ADR in Epcot, which I would do in a heartbeat as we are continually disappointed by the food (not beverage) offerings at Y&Y, its a bit pedestrian for what you are paying - their bar is pretty amazing, but your kids might not agree or maybe they would but I don't recommend it!

 

[AthenaBolina]

Hmmmm that does sound like a plan, I'm just wondering what my kids will think lol. I was pretty sure they'd want pool time. But since we're also doing Epcot the day after, is it really worth it? The only ride we'd miss would be TT the next day. (And I thought test track was kind of lame lol). The whole only having three fast passes scares me and AK is a park we favor over EP, so I'd be worried we would miss something we want to do a few times. Are you sure AK can be done that fast?

Also if you don't recommend y&y, what's your place to eat in EP? Not le cellier, that's too expensive and we are paying oop

 

[amberpi]

Hmmmm that does sound like a plan, I'm just wondering what my kids will think lol. I was pretty sure they'd want pool time. But since we're also doing Epcot the day after, is it really worth it? The only ride we'd miss would be TT the next day. (And I thought test track was kind of lame lol). The whole only having three fast passes scares me and AK is a park we favor over EP, so I'd be worried we would miss something we want to do a few times. Are you sure AK can be done that fast?

Also if you don't recommend y&y, what's your place to eat in EP? Not le cellier, that's too expensive and we are paying oop

I enjoy Epcot way more than AK, so take all recommendations with a bit of salt (although I still love AK!), but we do the Safari, maybe KRR, EE a couple of times and maybe Dinosaur, if you get there at RD, you bet you can be heading out by 11-12ish, we've done that a number of times were we are by the pool at the Swan eating snacks and drinking for lunch However, we only have to worry about the 2 of us and we are almost always there a good bit before RD.

Epcot food - delicious and reasonable? Teppan Edo or Toyko Dining, Marrakesh (belly dancers!), either restaurant in Mexico (although we were disappointed in La Hacienda the last time, and the food can be hit or miss at San Angel Inn, but the atsmosphere - you can't get that at the local Mexican place), Rose and Crown, etc. There are tons of great places.

 

[AthenaBolina]

I enjoy Epcot way more than AK, so take all recommendations with a bit of salt (although I still love AK!), but we do the Safari, maybe KRR, EE a couple of times and maybe Dinosaur, if you get there at RD, you bet you can be heading out by 11-12ish, we've done that a number of times were we are by the pool at the Swan eating snacks and drinking for lunch However, we only have to worry about the 2 of us and we are almost always there a good bit before RD. Epcot food - delicious and reasonable? Teppan Edo or Toyko Dining, Marrakesh (belly dancers!), either restaurant in Mexico (although we were disappointed in La Hacienda the last time, and the food can be hit or miss at San Angel Inn, but the atsmosphere - you can't get that at the local Mexican place), Rose and Crown, etc. There are tons of great places.

See, animal kingdom is our 2nd favorite park lol. The kids were bummed out we only went once last time, hence us getting there twice this time and if we can, more. We're going to play this day by ear. If the kids want to hop to Epcot we can, and take out chances with rides lol, or we'll do swimming or something. Or even stay in AK longer. Hubby and I will look at the other restaurants and see if there's something else we would be interested in. Rose and crown looks awesome though!!