AK/MGM - which order?

[threeboysmom]

We would like to ride a couple of the rides at AK - mainly Dinosaur, PW, & Kali; then hop to MGM for the remainder of the day to ride ToT & R&R (we're planning on having a marathon - how many times can we ride in a row) - with 3 thrill-seeking boys, you do what you have to do Anyways, my original plan was to visit AK in the a.m., then head to MGM around lunch time, spend the afternoon riding those 2 attractions, then finishing the day off with Fantasmic. Makes sense doing it this way. But knowing that afternoons are always more crowded than mornings, are we better off riding ToT & R&R first thing in the morning until noon time, then heading to AK for those couple of attractions there, then heading back to MGM for Fantasmic? But doing it this way, we would lose a lot of "park time" by traveling back & forth. On the other hand, I'm afraid of having long waits in the afternoon - and the boys are really hoping to ride Tot & R&R over & over again - like 20 times!!

Which plan is more feasible - what would you do??

Thanks!!

 

[B'rer Karen]

Hi threeboysmom. Based on your countdown, it looks like you're going to be there at the end of April. You may still run into sizeable crowds from Easter vacation, so you'll need to take that into consideration. What day of the week will you be doing this AK/MGM? This might help you decide because if one of those parks has EE, you would get more out of your day. I generally would say do AK first because A) it is the hottest park so you want to go early when it's cool and B) if you do the safari more animals are out (but I don't see that on your list). One thing to note, riding ToT and RnR 20 times in a row is probably a little unrealistic. I was at the Annual Passholder event on Saturday night where we could ride those two rides as much as we wanted for 2 hours. By the time we got on the first ride it was 8:15 and it ended at 10. The lines were non-existent (there couldn't have been more than 400-500 people there). We rode ToT twice, then RnR twice, then ToT twice, then RnR twice, then ToT once more. That was 9 rides total in a little less than two hours with absolutely no crowd.

I guess if I were you what I would say is how badly do you want to do the rides at AK? If you really want to do them, then I would go over to AK first and do them. Because then they could go over to MGM and ride as many times as they want until it's time for Fantasmic without having to worry about what time it was and making sure you make it back in time for Fantasmic. Also, AK closes early so you don't want to get there so late you can't do the things you want to do. Finally, you're correct, you're going to lose another 20-30 min making the extra trip.

 

[donna in Oz]

Here's another vote for doing AK first. True, you'd have smaller lines at MGM if you hit it early in the morning, but I think any time saved would be lost in the process of hopping over to AK later.

If they're hoping to ride 20 times in a row, I think it's inevitable that they're going to encounter some wait times whatever time you go (Unfortunately! )

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Voting for AK in the morning simply because it is cooler in the morning and afternoons get really steamy there.