Asking for help planning my park days in December

[smelton521]

We will be going to WDW for the 2nd time ever Nov 29-Dec 5. Our last trip was May 2014. We are renting DVC for the first time ever and staying at Poly. Kids will be 12 (daughter), 11 (son), 6 (daughter, first trip, Disney-obsessed and has been begging to go to Disney World for 3. years). I have booked park passes for our 7 days but am not sure if I should change anything. I have no idea what to expect for crowds, which parks are generally most crowded on Fridays and Saturdays in December, etc. Here is what I have booked:

Sunday Nov 29 - Magic Kingdom (afternoon)
Monday Nov 30 - Hollywood Studios
Tuesday Dec 1 - Epcot
Wednesday Dec 2 - Magic Kingdom
Thursday Dec 3 - Animal Kingdom
Friday Dec 4 - Hollywood Studios
Saturday Dec 5 - Magic Kingdom (morning)

We will not get to a park until the afternoon on Sunday Nov 29 and will leave early afternoon on Saturday December 5 to head home. I have us going to MK those 2 days because we will probably only get in a 1/2 day or less, plus I think that is where my kids will want to go first at least. I also wanted to space them out around our full day. But then I realized that MK may be really crowded on a Saturday, even in the morning? I don't know. I also figured we would want to do HS twice and it would be good to space out those days, but will it be more crowded on a Friday? Should I switch it to Thursday and do AK or Epcot on Friday?

Any advice from more experienced Disney travelers would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!

 

[North of Mouse]

My personal opinion, your 6 yr. old will want to 'live' at MK as this is her first trip. I would have at least one full day there, plus one partial, and make either AK or Epcot the other partial day. Even though my children are now grown, MK is still my favorite park, and definitely the childrens. The hours are now very limited as it is.

 

[DYNSC]

We’ve stayed in WDW more than 30 vacations & generally try to avoid MK & Hollywood on weekend crowds (Sat & Sun) When park hoping was allowed sometimes did MK early am & park hop late morning. Many people like to sleep late on vaca & parks usually less crowed in am. But no matter which park you go parks are less crowded in early am. We have Dec WDW trip & I just changed park day reservation because 14 yr old wanted more time in spcertiN parks after I already made plans. I had no problem canceling park reservation and getting different park so you shouldn’t have issue if you decide to switch up anything.
We also like to get close to park closing dinner reservations to not use up prime park time and very different park experience when leaving restaurant to almost empty park.
Hope this helps in your planning an hope you have a great time. With limited capacity I’m sure whatever you do will work out. another little tip, decide which are your kids top must do attraction, get those done first and rest of day will be more relaxed experience.

 

[Tom_E_D]

Your schedule looks good. Easywdw.com has recent articles that, among other topics, list the wait times at AK, MK and HS since reopening. HS has a lower average on Fridays than Thursday; AK is the opposite, so it seems like you shouldn't flip those two.

Here's a link to the latest article. The tables are further down in the article.

https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-wait-times-and-news-for-9-11-20/

 

[dachsie]

To be honest - I think you should drop one of the HS and add MK back in. There are way more rides in MK and some of the ones in HS your little one may not enjoy. Also, I would do Saturday morn at AK if you are leaving early afternoon. With no shows, you should be able to get everything in. Then use that AK day at MK if you want to keep 2 HS days

 

[SugarSweetLee]

We will be going to WDW for the 2nd time ever Nov 29-Dec 5. Our last trip was May 2014. We are renting DVC for the first time ever and staying at Poly. Kids will be 12 (daughter), 11 (son), 6 (daughter, first trip, Disney-obsessed and has been begging to go to Disney World for 3. years). I have booked park passes for our 7 days but am not sure if I should change anything. I have no idea what to expect for crowds, which parks are generally most crowded on Fridays and Saturdays in December, etc. Here is what I have booked:

Sunday Nov 29 - Magic Kingdom (afternoon)
Monday Nov 30 - Hollywood Studios
Tuesday Dec 1 - Epcot
Wednesday Dec 2 - Magic Kingdom
Thursday Dec 3 - Animal Kingdom
Friday Dec 4 - Hollywood Studios
Saturday Dec 5 - Magic Kingdom (morning)

We will not get to a park until the afternoon on Sunday Nov 29 and will leave early afternoon on Saturday December 5 to head home. I have us going to MK those 2 days because we will probably only get in a 1/2 day or less, plus I think that is where my kids will want to go first at least. I also wanted to space them out around our full day. But then I realized that MK may be really crowded on a Saturday, even in the morning? I don't know. I also figured we would want to do HS twice and it would be good to space out those days, but will it be more crowded on a Friday? Should I switch it to Thursday and do AK or Epcot on Friday?

Any advice from more experienced Disney travelers would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!

I think you could do Epcot in the afternoon on your arrival day and dedicate the full Tuesday to another park that might have more to appeal to the kiddos. I personally love Epcot, but ride options are limited and the littles do tend to get more bored there.

 

[Ksquared]

I think you could do Epcot in the afternoon on your arrival day and dedicate the full Tuesday to another park that might have more to appeal to the kiddos. I personally love Epcot, but ride options are limited and the littles do tend to get more bored there.

This, I would use your arrival day at Epcot esp since it opens the latest. You should be able to get everything done and ease into your first day there. So I'd suggest the following:

Sunday Nov 29 - Epcot (afternoon)
Monday Nov 30 - MK
Tuesday Dec 1 -Hollywood Studios
Wednesday Dec 2 - Magic Kingdom
Thursday Dec 3 - Animal Kingdom
Friday Dec 4 - Hollywood Studios
Saturday Dec 5 - Magic Kingdom (morning)

 

[Amunet]

Hey, you are going the same time frame as me!
I am also trying to decide if doing MK or Epcot first would be the best or not.
For you, I think that first day should be Epcot because the park doesn't open until afternoon anyways. With all the rides MK has open, I would do at least one full day to make sure you have time to ride the rides you/your family wants