AK or DHS for last night of trip

[Mermando]

Brief background - Staying in Crescent Lake area during holiday party season. Have 5 day Park Hoppers. Kids are 7 and 11.

I'm open to feedback on entire plan (too many early mornings or moving around), but I feel most unsure about the last two days of trip.

Tuesday: rope drop MK - resort rest - Epcot. This is an MVMCP day. Try for Tron VQ, Genie+ for MK and ILL for 7DMT and Guardians. Epcot will otherwise be exploring/shows.
Wednesday: rope drop Epcot - resort rest - MK. ILL Guardians and Tron. Multipark Genie+
Thursday: MK (maybe rope drop but it's an earlier opening than day 1. Also an MVMCP day) - resort rest - HS. I'm hoping that we're successful enough with the other two partial days at MK that we can just stack LLs for DHS. ILL ROTR for sure, then either Tron (unless get VQ) or 7DMT depending on which one kids liked most.

Friday is a predicted crowd level 5 at AK and 8 at HS. Saturday is a 6 at AK and 9 at HS. My inclination is to do AK on Friday and DHS Saturday, despite being busier that day. Reasoning being that we could probably use an easier day and an earlier night Friday and HS feels like a better bookend to a trip. Should I reconsider anything in my plan? Switch the last two days?

 

[sponica]

I have younger kids, but by day 4, they're tapped out. AK might be a nice low key day, as long as you're fine with using the ILL on Pandora. And if you're ok with Genie+, it's a nice stacking park if you want a later start. I booked Navi and just kept moving it, and then booked Safari and also had everest stacked as my husband was playing golf on our AK day.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Brief background - Staying in Crescent Lake area during holiday party season. Have 5 day Park Hoppers. Kids are 7 and 11.

I'm open to feedback on entire plan (too many early mornings or moving around), but I feel most unsure about the last two days of trip.

Tuesday: rope drop MK - resort rest - Epcot. This is an MVMCP day. Try for Tron VQ, Genie+ for MK and ILL for 7DMT and Guardians. Epcot will otherwise be exploring/shows.
Wednesday: rope drop Epcot - resort rest - MK. ILL Guardians and Tron. Multipark Genie+
Thursday: MK (maybe rope drop but it's an earlier opening than day 1. Also an MVMCP day) - resort rest - HS. I'm hoping that we're successful enough with the other two partial days at MK that we can just stack LLs for DHS. ILL ROTR for sure, then either Tron (unless get VQ) or 7DMT depending on which one kids liked most.

Friday is a predicted crowd level 5 at AK and 8 at HS. Saturday is a 6 at AK and 9 at HS. My inclination is to do AK on Friday and DHS Saturday, despite being busier that day. Reasoning being that we could probably use an easier day and an earlier night Friday and HS feels like a better bookend to a trip. Should I reconsider anything in my plan? Switch the last two days?

That's a lot of park time for anyone, not just kids so I tend to agree with @sponica and that AK could be a more chill day for your last day especially with AK closing at 7. It's good that you have rests planned midday but it's still 5 days of being in the parks and that will take its toll on anyone, especially with the 3 first days slated as rope drop-YIKES. I know everyone is totally different but there's no way I'd be able to get my family up early 3 days in a row after being in the parks two days prior.

Also, I would not put too much stock in crowd calendars. Holiday season crowds are usually pretty high with some lower crowd periods so it really will just depend on the actual dates you're in WDW. I'd say DHS will always be crowded and it really won't make a lick of difference what day you choose to visit that park, whereas AK will likely be the least crowded of the parks so it's also not so critical to pick based on a particular day of the week.

 

[Mermando]

That's a lot of park time for anyone, not just kids so I tend to agree with @sponica and that AK could be a more chill day for your last day especially with AK closing at 7. It's good that you have rests planned midday but it's still 5 days of being in the parks and that will take its toll on anyone, especially with the 3 first days slated as rope drop-YIKES. I know everyone is totally different but there's no way I'd be able to get my family up early 3 days in a row after being in the parks two days prior.

Also, I would not put too much stock in crowd calendars. Holiday season crowds are usually pretty high with some lower crowd periods so it really will just depend on the actual dates you're in WDW. I'd say DHS will always be crowded and it really won't make a lick of difference what day you choose to visit that park, whereas AK will likely be the least crowded of the parks so it's also not so critical to pick based on a particular day of the week.

Oh, I had read it the opposite and that by day 4 a chill day would be needed by day 4 rather than wait until day 5. We’re going to skip a few days of school so fortunately the trip won’t be at the height of holiday crowds. So long as I don’t need to drastically change up park reservations (and I have plenty of time to change it up) I’ll stay with my original plan while keeping in mind we may bail on some early mornings. My oldest and I are early risers and my spouse and youngest are definitely not so some compromise may be in order I can still be up at 7 to snag VQs, etc.

ETA - I appreciate the feedback. The last thing I want is overextended and cranky kids.

 

[erinch]

When mine were 7 and 11, they were theme park commandos and wanted to squeeze out every possible minute. Is this a first visit?

 

[Mermando]

When mine were 7 and 11, they were theme park commandos and wanted to squeeze out every possible minute. Is this a first visit?

First time at WDW for the kids. Us adults haven’t been there in a while. They’ve done other theme parks but not multi-day, multi-park ones.