Disneyland Veteran Takes on WDW — Feb. 24, 2022

[Magical Corn]

Hi everyone! This is my first post on DISboards and I just wanted to reach out for some help. I understand that WDW is a completely different beast than the Disneyland Resort, so I will need all of the help I can get

This was a last minute/surprise decision for me since it’s been a dream of mine to see WDW. The thing that sucks is that I only have one day to see everything (well as much as I can). I don’t care for Galaxy’s Edge or any other attractions that can be found in Disneyland. I have a park hopper ticket and have made a park reservation for Magic Kingdom, but now I’m second guessing myself. I originally was thinking about starting in Animal Kingdom and just working my way to HS, Epcot, and MK but I’m worried about the park capacity at 2pm.

Feb. 24th is the start of Marathon Weekend. Do the crowd levels increase during this time? I know WDW has already seen a rise in crowds already :/

I also want to make some time to see either The Enchantment fireworks or Harmonious. If you can only see one, which is better?

Has anyone successfully done the 4 Parks Challenge with the new Covid park hopping rules and shortened park hours?

Please let me know of any “Must Haves,” Must Try’s” or even “the best places to eat”…truly any suggestions will be great and much appreciated!

To all who read this, thank you and I hope you can help this WDW first-timer navigate this wild ride

 

[scrappinginontario]

Welcome to the DIS and how exciting that you're going to visit WDW for the first time!!

Just a quick bit of clarification, by the '4 Parks Challenge' do you mean going to all 4 parks the same day? If so, yes, many have done this since the new 2PM park hopping rule was put in place but, it doesn't leave time to do much in any of the parks except the first one.

While I admire your desire to visit all 4 parks, I'm concerned that in the end you'll spend a great portion of your day on transportation and not much in the parks. Unlike DL, it can easily take an hour or so to move from park to park by the time you leave 1 park, make your way to transportation, wait for transportation to arrive, ride and then re-enter a second park. While visiting all 4 is great, personally it's not something I would advise a first timer to do if they only have 1 day to get the most out of the parks. My daughter have done this on more than one occasion (pre-2:00 park hopping restriction) and we didn't get much done at the parks.

 

[Magical Corn]

Thank you for responding Scrappinginontario!

Yeah that’s what I was worried about as well. I understand the fastest way to get out of the parks is to drive or take an Uber rather than any Disney transportation.

If you could only visit two parks, which one would you go to? Also, which nighttime show would you see?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hmmm....

Only 2 parks would probably be MK (depending on how much overlap there is with DL as I haven't been there yet) and Epcot. After that, possibly AK? Pandora is beautiful and if you're a coaster fan, Expedition Everest is a great one!

Something to consider if you're driving is that parking trams are only running at MK. We find using Disney transportation to be a great option!

 

[mouschievous]

Ok, hear me out...

We are DL people, just did our first trip to WDW in January. I agree with Scrappinginontario that trying to cram it all into one day is a lot, but if you're willing to just get the essence of a lot of the parks, what we did one day might work for you.

First, buy Genie+. It has the most value if you're park hopping.

Start your day at AK. There is nothing at DL like it. At 7 am, buy an ILL for Flight of Passage. Seriously, it was the favorite ride for 3/4 of us, and DL has absolutely nothing to compare it to.

At 7 am you have a few options with your G+. If there is a hard to get LL (one that sells out quickly) that you want to go on, use it for that. For example, Slinky Dog Dash at HS. G+ will automatically only offer you options after 2 pm if you're trying to book in a park that isn't the one you have reservations for, so you're good there.

Rope drop AK and go on either the Safari or Navi River, depending on your priorities. We skipped Navi River because it wasn't important to us. 2 hours after park open, you can book another LL. Again, you can either use it for something in AK, or you can use it to get something in another park for the evening. (BTW, if you want to see the Lion King show, I highly recommend using a G+ for it).

While you're at AK, watch the Kite Tails show, go see Feathered Friends in Flight, watch Bugs Life, grab a mobile order lunch. All the while you can be stacking G+ rides for later in the day. When we did this, we used G+ for safari, then started booking things at MK. We only used it for Safari at AK, but it came in handy for later in the day.

We ended up leaving and taking a rest from about1:30 to 5:30ish. Instead of doing that, you could use the time to go to HS. I don't think there are a ton of rides there that you can't do in California, but the theming in Toy Story Land is my absolute favorite. If you got a LL for Slinky Dog, then that's perfect. If you have time, catch the Indiana Jones stunt show, it's fantastic.

Then off to MK. Hopefully you've been stacking your LLs for MK. We did Monsters Inc, Carousel of Progress, Big Thunder and Jungle Cruise in about an hour, plus grabbed our dinner (mobile order from Peco's Bills). We planned it all so that we got to a spot on Main Street at 7:55 to see the fireworks at 8. Watched fireworks then left just before it ended (we missed TinkerBell). We hopped a bus to Beach Club then walked down to Epcot.

At this point we met family and had ice cream at Beaches & Cream, but we could have easily gone in to Epcot and seen Harmonious. We were at Epcot by 8:30. So, if you really want an epic day with all 4 parks, do that! It starts at 9, so you have a little time when you get there, and it ends about 9:15.

Two alternatives - skip MK fireworks and spend more time at Epcot (it closes at 9) OR skip Epcot all together and close down the night at MK since it closes at 10 that night.