Can you help me plan my park visits....

sara969

My Little Tinkerbell
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
655
6 adults 2 kids 12yrs and 4yrs travelling 1st time to WDW staying 2 weeks.
I think i have our 1st weekend there sorted, just need help with the parks.


Arrive: Friday 30th April ...
Explore our villa and do a shopping trip to Wallmart to get food in.
Evening walk around a Mall if we have time and dinner out.

Saturday 1st May:
(We want to avoid Disney Parks at Weekend if we can cus of crowds)
Eat breakfast at home and then Visit a Shopping Mall, grab some bargains and have a meal out.
Maybe go to the Disney Park (If we have time) to watch the Firework Display.

Sunday 2nd May:
No Disney Park, maybe go to Typhoon Water Park for the day??

Is it possible to do half a day at Typhoon and other half at Blizzard Beach? Or will we need a whole day in each??

Monday 3rd May:

Go to the Disney park :yay:
Starting with MAGIC Kingdom

What i need help with is, how many days do you think we will need in each park to see it all, go on most rides, see parades and shows.


1) Magic Kingdom: ------------- days?

2) Epcot:----------------------- days?

3) Animal Kingdom -------------- days?

4) Disney's Hollywood Studios -----------days?

5) MGM Universal Studios --------------- days?

5) Seaworld -------------------days?

6) Discovery Cove ------------- days?

7) Aquatica -------------------days?

8) Bucsh Gardens --------------days?

9) Typhoon Lagoon --------------days?

10) Blizzard Beach ---------------- days?

Once i know how many days all these things can be done then i can choose which ones we would most like to do and leave the others for another visit... or perhaps extend our holiday to 21 days instead of 14days :lmao::lmao::lmao:
 
I always do three weeks and would do four if I could!

But two weeks will be great. This is what I would do.

Park day, park day, rest day, park day, park day, rest day... (Repeat pattern until you start running out of days!!!!!!)

I would say 3 days Magic Kingdom, 2 days Epcot, 1 day MGM, 1 day at each water park (could be a rest day??), 1 day Animal Kingdom, 1 Busch Gardens.

So thats at least ten days!! But generally, as a rule, you need more time at Epcot and Magic Kingdom as there are more attractions.

Have fun planning!!

Oh, and do loads of character meals-- the best fun!!! (I often plan my meals first then choose handy parks!!)
 
Saturday 1st May:
(We want to avoid Disney Parks at Weekend if we can cus of crowds)
Eat breakfast at home and then Visit a Shopping Mall, grab some bargains and have a meal out.
Maybe go to the Disney Park (If we have time) to watch the Firework Display.

I wouldn't waste a whole 'day' of your Disney pass (eg 7 day ticket etc) by only going to see the fireworks at night.

Different aspects of each park appeal to different people, write a list of all the things you would like to do / see at each park and work from that :)

As the PP says we found we spent more days at MK and Epcot. AK we did in half a day, but we were just two adults and had the benefit of EMH too. I also try and use water parks as rest days :)
 
6 adults 2 kids 12yrs and 4yrs travelling 1st time to WDW staying 2 weeks.
I think i have our 1st weekend there sorted, just need help with the parks.


Arrive: Friday 30th April ...
Explore our villa and do a shopping trip to Wallmart to get food in.
Evening walk around a Mall if we have time and dinner out.

Saturday 1st May:
(We want to avoid Disney Parks at Weekend if we can cus of crowds)
Eat breakfast at home and then Visit a Shopping Mall, grab some bargains and have a meal out.
First of all what Disney tickets are you planning - I think the 14 day Ultimates might be your best bet are you are free to come & go as you please.

We have also never found the parks that much busier on weekends with the exception of Epcot during food & wine in September.

I would think the following days:
MK - 3
Epcot - 2 minimum
Studios - 1
Animal Kingdom - 1
Universal - 1
Islands of adventure - 1
Seaworld - 1 (maybe 2 depending on what shows you want to see and the schedule)
Bushe Gardens - 1
Typhoon - 1 (use as a rest day)
Blizzard - 1 (use as a rest day)

You might want to leave Discovery cove this time as it is a whole day and your 4 year old wouldn't be able to do the dolphin swim and it is a lot money just to look at them when you can see them over at Seaworld!

HTH

BTW There is no way you would keep from MK the first morning I got there!! :rotfl:
 

As I mentioned on your other thread, it's a myth that the Disney parks are busier at weekends. The opposite is true of the shops and water parks (when the locals are out in full force). Also, once you arrive in Orlando, you'll be itching to get to a park and, for the first few days when the jetlag will have you awake at the crack of dawn, it's a great opportunity to get there early and fly through the attractions before the crowds roll in. I'd suggest a major re-think. :)
 
As I mentioned on your other thread, it's a myth that the Disney parks are busier at weekends. The opposite is true of the shops and water parks (when the locals are out in full force). Also, once you arrive in Orlando, you'll be itching to get to a park and, for the first few days when the jetlag will have you awake at the crack of dawn, it's a great opportunity to get there early and fly through the attractions before the crowds roll in. I'd suggest a major re-think. :)

I completly agree with Debbie - you can go shopping in the afternoons while taking a break from the parks as it is a good way to get out of the heat :thumbsup2

Best park plan is to get there early for park opening stay till lunch then take a break and go back for the nighttime stuff fireworks parades & shows. IMO none of them are miss-able
 
Number of days at each park is probably relative to our own preferences.

Magic Kingdom is easily our favourite disney park and Hollywood Studios our least, it would shock many when I say we didn't go to HS at all this April, and to be honest in writing this kind of has me puzzled too. :rolleyes:

I would suggest minimum 2 days at MK, one day at the other Disney parks with a view to return to any you really take a shine to more than once.
Also don't necessarily have to set out all your days before you go, have some flexibility in your plans. Planning is fun, but you can change and adapt when you get out there.

Water parks in our experience can be slightly busier at weekends, and I wouldn't (again just my opinion) for a 2 week holiday plan trips to Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach and Aquatica, I would drop one of the WDW one's....shock horror, we didn't go to ANY of these this year either - must be wondering did we actually go on holiday now. :)

Universal a 2 day ticket should be plenty.
 
As you will be awake at 4am on the first day I would definitely go to a park, for a first visit for me it would have to be MK. I would aim to do about 3 park days followed by a rest day. :goodvibes
 
We also do 2 parks days then a rest day, saying that a rest day to me is a water park or shopping mall and by the afternoon I am back in a Disney park for the remainder of the day/night.
You could get away with 1 day at AK and HS at least 2 days in MK and Epcot.
You could get both Universal parks done a one very packed day, one day at Seaword and one day at Busch(not my favorite place but some good coasters).
Never really noticed a difference in the crowds at W/End to W/days so would not worry about that.
 
I also like to do Mk on the 1st day. for me it is disney :thumbsup2

As far as the water parks go i personally prefer BB to TL and i would think one day would be enough.

I too think you should skip discovery cove and possibly aquatica
 
Unless you are able to take advantage of emh I would avoid parks on the days they have emh. I always plan which parks to go to by avoiding emh and then look at the busy days guide. On a two week hol we would do 3 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 2 days HS, 2 days AK, 1 day typhoon lagoon and maybe 1 day blizzard beach - that way we don't need to rush around to fit all the shows in. We only do universal if we are staying there for a couple of nights after disney.
 
Do you know what flight you are going on and when it will arrive.
The reason I ask is that, from experience, by the time you get to the villa remember your bodies will be telling you that it is 5 hours later than the clock is showing you - so going shopping around a mall might not be the best idea, especially with kids in tow.
Instead I would take advantage of the early morning that you will be having (excitiement, messed up body clock etc.) and do MK for the first time that day.
As has already been said the 14 day ultimate ticket is likely to be your best option as it will allow you to go to numerous Disney parks in one day. As the holiday draws to a close, and different members of your party have different things that they want to do again (rides, attractions, night time parades or fireworks), you will find that you will want to 'hop' a lot more. The Ultimate also includes all the water parks and Disney Quest as well.
 
we go to the disney parks every day of our trip, regardless of how long we're there (we've been there for as long as 28 days once)..

we usually go for a few hours in the morning, leaving by about 1 in the afternoon at the latest...

in the afternoon we either swim, shop, bike, boat, fish, etc.

in the later afternoon we'll sometimes go to either disneyquest or typhoon lagoon...

in the evening we'll pop into one of the parks for a few more hours...

if you have the 14 day umlimited pass you can pop in and our of parks at will...something we usually do....for example, we'll never go to disneyquest for more than 1 or 2 hours at a time..
and when we go to typhoon lagoon in the afternoon it's only for 2 hours..

when we go to the water parks in the morning, we're there for rope drop and always leave by noon...

the advantage of going to orlando for a long time, you can limit each park visit to something manageable since you'll be there for so many days...too many hours in any of the parks at a time takes its toll...especially on a 4 year old...
 
A Monday at MK will likely be busier than a weekend - as everyone else has the exact same idea as you too! Same goes for Epcot on a Tuesday! ;)

You'll need to wait to plan your parks days until the EMH times are out, as you'll really want to avoid those days if you're staying off site.
 








Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom