First time to Disney World...Need advice

[SpainJ]

First off, hello and thank you for any reponses.

My family and I are visiting Walt Disney World for the first time in October! Everyone is so excited! Everyone includes:
Myself (Dad)
My wife (Mom)
Son #1 (10)
Son #2 (9)
My mom (Nana 62)...Nana has been to WDW many moons ago
My sister (42)
Niece #1 (15)
Niece #2 (9)

I'm trying to get an itenaray put together so we can get the most out of our trip. We are arriving on a Tuesday and leaving on Sunday.

My preliminary 5 day itinerary:

Tuesday
Arrive in Orlando at 3:10pm from Chicago (2.5hr flight)
Check in at All-Star Sports
7:00 P.M. - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom (We already have the hard tickets)

Wednesday
Magic Kindom (Extra Magic hours until Midnight)

Thursday
Animal Kingdom A.M.
Epcot P.M. (Extra Magic hours until 11:00pm)

Friday...This is where I can use some help
Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios A.M.
Magic Kingdom P.M.

Saturday (Halloween)
Hollywood Studios (Extra Magic hour 8:00 A.M.)
Possibly Epcot after Hollywood Studios closes at 7:00 P.M. to see Illuminations...or...get the tickets to the MNSSHP at Magic Kingdom again...It is Halloween after all.

Sunday
Depart for Chicago 10:30 A.M. flight

Some notes about us:
We are a high energy family and I believe everyone in the group should be able to keep up...even Nana. We are definately more about attractions than shows. We also all love fireworks. We are planning to go back to the resort for a couple hours every day to unwind. We'll need it with the late nights.

What are your thoughts? Anything you would do different?

So I would like the expert opinions on:

Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios on Friday?

If you would suggest one show to see, what would it be?

Thanks again for the responses!

 

[Farps]

Go to easyWDW and Allears.net lots of great info on those two sites, along with all the info that you will pick up on here.

 

[Farps]

Oh yes and Welcome aboard !!!

 

[Hootch]

Do you and/or your kids like thrill rides? I'm specifically looking at Friday. Tower of Terror (TOT) is possibly the best themed attraction at WDW. Rockin' Roller Coaster goes from 0 to 60 in about three seconds. Toy Story Mania is a fun attraction where you compete on 3D carnival games. Star Tours is a great simulation ride with multiple scenes for the different parts. The Indiana Jones Stunt spectacular is really good show.

DHS is maligned for some solid reasons. There are too few attractions to make it a full day park. Some of the attractions, Indiana Jones and, to some degree, Great Movie Ride I'm looking at you, have not been updated for some time.

These are not issues for you since you haven't been and you plan to park hop. I would go to DHS that Friday. It is worthwhile and since you have hoppers, you can jump when you are done. And the MK is the best place to get additional FPs.

One note: expect to drop the luggage and run on your arrival day. ME can take, and may not take, up to three hours to get to your resort and the bus drive from All Stars can be long.

 

[Alesia]

I have to be honest, I would have recommended against doing the Halloween party on arrival day. There are just too many possible delays and that's a whole lot of money to throw away if you miss it.

Keep in mind that the parks with EMH will be significantly busier by around noon than those without. If you're going to morning EMH, I'd plan on hopping to another one around lunch time.

 

[SpainJ]

Do you and/or your kids like thrill rides? I'm specifically looking at Friday. Tower of Terror (TOT) is possibly the best themed attraction at WDW. Rockin' Roller Coaster goes from 0 to 60 in about three seconds. Toy Story Mania is a fun attraction where you compete on 3D carnival games. Star Tours is a great simulation ride with multiple scenes for the different parts. The Indiana Jones Stunt spectacular is really good show.

DHS is maligned for some solid reasons. There are too few attractions to make it a full day park. Some of the attractions, Indiana Jones and, to some degree, Great Movie Ride I'm looking at you, have not been updated for some time.

These are not issues for you since you haven't been and you plan to park hop. I would go to DHS that Friday. It is worthwhile and since you have hoppers, you can jump when you are done. And the MK is the best place to get additional FPs.

One note: expect to drop the luggage and run on your arrival day. ME can take, and may not take, up to three hours to get to your resort and the bus drive from All Stars can be long.

I was kinda leaning towards DHS. The entire family will enjoy the high thrill attractions.

Thank you so much for the tip on arrival day. I had no idea it could take that long. The good thing is that the MNSSHP lasts until Midnight, so we should get plenty of fun in that day.

 

[cindersmella]

I tend to be in the minority, but I would add a watermark trip. Maybe do a couple of hours at one park, then waterpark until 5pm, dinner then into another park until close. I think the waterparks are incredibly fun and relaxing and too often, overlooked. If I was planning to relax for a couple of hours each day, I sure as heck would rather do it in the lazy river than in the pool at the hotel.

 

[SpainJ]

I have to be honest, I would have recommended against doing the Halloween party on arrival day. There are just too many possible delays and that's a whole lot of money to throw away if you miss it.

Keep in mind that the parks with EMH will be significantly busier by around noon than those without. If you're going to morning EMH, I'd plan on hopping to another one around lunch time.

Thanks for reply. I was hoping the four hour buffer on arrival day would be ok. Although I did not know it takes a long time to get from the airport to the resort. I knew it could take an hour to get from All Star Sports to MK.

 

[soniam]

Barring crowd calendar info, I would consider doing DHS in the AM on Thurs and hopping to Epcot in the afternoon. It's really easy to hop between those two, because there's a boat. Hopping between the other parks, except maybe MK and Epcot can take a while if you have to wait for a bus. Otherwise, it looks good.

As for Friday, assuming you do AK on Thurs AM, it's better to do DHS in the AM. You can't get a fast pass for both Toy Story (TSMM) and Rock n Roller Coaster (RNRC). RNRC does have a single rider line though. You can do Tower of Terror and TSMM with FP though. We usually head to RNRC at rope drop (RD), then use FP for the other two. We have done AK during Spring Break and in the summer as our PM park without FP+. We have usually been able to get FP for the things we wanted at AK when we got to the park after lunch; however, Safari can be a harder. Whereas, it's really hard to get the good rides at DHS by showing up in the afternoon and trying to get them at a kiosk. Plus, we like the headliners at DHS better than AK, so we like to do repeats, if we can.

 

[casey10]

So you have a 4 day hopper ticket and a hard party ticket on arrival day if I am reading this correctly. Do you have any ADRs?

You also mentioned party days possibly a second one and going at 7:00. You know you can go early and get in at 4:00 on your arrival day to the party?

Either way enjoy your trip

 

[Madteaparty001]

If your family is as high energy as you say it is I would go with Halloween party on both nights, that week's parties are going to be really crowded anyways so it will be harder to do everything you want. Plus a lot of the rides are walk ons during the party. DHS will keep the big headliners open but not much else during your trip, there are rumors of more ride closures coming up in September. Epcot will be doing Yelloween on Halloween so not sure if that would make it slower or more crowded. The resorts usually get into the festivities that day as well.

 

[BlackMagicWoman]

My advice is to have fun and enjoy time with your family. You will probably get conflicting advice on this thread because people have different touring styles so just make having fun your priority every day.

 

[karly05]

Thanks for reply. I was hoping the four hour buffer on arrival day would be ok. Although I did not know it takes a long time to get from the airport to the resort. I knew it could take an hour to get from All Star Sports to MK.

All I can offer is my experience, but in 4 trips using Magical Express to the resort, it has always taken right around 90 minutes from coming off the jet into the gate area to getting off the bus at my resort. (That's once to BC and 3 times to POFQ.) I know delays are possible, but the majority of posts I've read on the DIS have said that DME should talke on average 70-90 minutes from gate to resort. Disney will tell you it can take up to 3 hours for your luggage to reach your room if Disney is handling it, but you should have carry ons with whatever you need for the first 24 hours.