First time WDW visitor. Critique my trip.

[stsomewhere]

I would get tickets for everyday that you are there. You can sleep in and go to parks later or go to parks early and leave early to hang out at pool or hit Disney Spring s for evening. I know a lot of people love DS but to us it is just an outdoor mall. We would rather spend extra time in the parks. You have a lot of Epcot days. I would stay at one park because hopping takes a long time.

 

[vinotinto]

You have gotten *excellent* advice here. I just want to echo a few of the points made above:

• You will be in CA time. Which means that if you plan to to the morning EMH, you would need to be at the bus stop/Skyliner Station by 7ish am (4am CA time). Otherwise, you will not be through security before 8 am to use the 8-9am to your full advantage. When I stayed at AoA in February (President's Day weekend), the Skyliner started running at 7:30 am and at that time the line was pretty long. So, you definitely want to be in the front part of that line.
• If you do EMH from 8-9am, by the time you exit the park, wait for transportation to the next park, get through security at the next park and enter the next park, you are looking at no earlier than 10-10:30 am. I have waited 45 minutes for a bus at DHS to hop over to AK, after doing the DHS AM EMH (back when they had those). And that does not include the time on the bus, the time to walk from the bus to the front of the park, and then the time to go through security and entry.
• If you want to hop, especially coming from CA, I would recommend evening hopping. It will be cooler without the sun on you.
• Get a ticket for each day that you are there. You can use it in the morning and then relax the rest of the day, or in the evening. The most expensive cost is for the first 4 days. After that, the price per day is significantly reduced.

 

[YawningDodo]

Just a quick suggestion:
With the crew you have going, and if you are hopping, you might wanna consider an Epcot Resort.
I believe POP is on the skyliner, which might completely negate my reasoning, but I'm not sure when it starts running in the am, or what the lines are like:

Epcot area resorts negate travel time to (and from) two parks. In Wallyworld - time is money. It might be worth the uptick in price from Pop, it might not. But it's nice to know you can leave your room at 7:45 am and be at the Epcot IG before 8am. It's nice to know when you leave Epcot you can be in the pool at your resort before most people are in a line for a bus. Hollyweird will be a little bit longer of a walk, but not by much. You'll also have the Friendship boats for the EP resorts.

Along those lines - Ep resorts are built for hoppers (IMO.) Tt's nice to know that if you are up and at em early at some park, you can come to the resort for a mid day break, but then you already know you can hop over to EP or HS in a matter of minutes. No wait for a bus.

Those travel times really do add up.

For the (huge) price difference, I'd personally take POP and the Skyliner over an Epcot resort. I did AoA this January and adored the Skyliner; it cuts what would be an hour allowance to get to those two parks by half (though you'll still want to leave extra cushion if you've got a pressing need to be there at a specific time). Like the buses, though, you'll want to time your exit from the park at the end of the day. On the first evening of my trip I made the mistake of leaving Epcot right at closing time and waited in a massive line at the Skyliner station. Next evening I was leaving DHS at closing time and stopped in a gift shop to browse instead. Spent half an hour waiting before getting on transportation both times, but looking at pins in a shop is a lot more enjoyable than shuffling along in a giant herd.

Re: starting time for the Skyliner, I don't remember the official starting time off the top of my head, but it started early enough to get to a regular park opening. Did not start running early enough to rope drop DHS for a RotR boarding pass [edit: this refers to when DHS was opening at 7:00; I don't have info on how it lines up now] . The buses to DHS from Skyliner resorts do run that early, though; I hopped on the first bus of the morning around 5:00 AM both times I went for a boarding pass.

I would not have any free days for such a short stay unless there is a specific reason... Universal is very different in Orlando than in California. It deserves 2 days and is best to visit with express passes. You can stay one night at a Universal deluxe hotel and get free express passes for 2 days. We often take an overnight bag and do 2 Universal days and one night while keeping our Disney hotel, using Lyft to back and forth. Actually saves money as the express passes cost more than the hotel room.

Agreed re: free days. Like others have suggested, I'd upgrade the tickets to allow entry every day you're there and just plan on doing some days where you don't show up to the parks until afternoon or evening instead of taking full rest days. Honestly, I'd rebalance the whole trip in that direction--take more breaks, more late mornings, and spread both the park time and the rest time out more evenly.

And that's a fair point about Universal. I personally chose to spend only one day at Universal on my trip this year, but I'd been there multiple times and knew exactly what I liked, and decided in advance that I was okay with doing only one of their two main parks. I'd say you can cover one of their parks pretty well in one day, but if you want to hop back and forth between both of them (which is much more akin to the distance/time required for park hopping at DLR), you need to either give yourself two days or go in with clear priorities and be prepared to miss things. It'd be like trying to do both Disneyland and DCA in one day.

You have gotten *excellent* advice here. I just want to echo a few of the points made above:

• You will be in CA time. Which means that if you plan to to the morning EMH, you would need to be at the bus stop/Skyliner Station by 7ish am (4am CA time). Otherwise, you will not be through security before 8 am to use the 8-9am to your full advantage. When I stayed at AoA in February (President's Day weekend), the Skyliner started running at 7:30 am and at that time the line was pretty long. So, you definitely want to be in the front part of that line.
• If you do EMH from 8-9am, by the time you exit the park, wait for transportation to the next park, get through security at the next park and enter the next park, you are looking at no earlier than 10-10:30 am. I have waited 45 minutes for a bus at DHS to hop over to AK, after doing the DHS AM EMH (back when they had those). And that does not include the time on the bus, the time to walk from the bus to the front of the park, and then the time to go through security and entry.
• If you want to hop, especially coming from CA, I would recommend evening hopping. It will be cooler without the sun on you.
• Get a ticket for each day that you are there. You can use it in the morning and then relax the rest of the day, or in the evening. The most expensive cost is for the first 4 days. After that, the price per day is significantly reduced.

The early morning for DHS is worse than that--if you want to get a boarding group for RotR and you're going by bus, you need to be at the bus stop by 5:00 local time (2:00 AM CA time!!). And it does need to be the bus stop, not the Skyliner, as I noted above. It's doable for a morning or two--I come in from the mountain time zone and in January I managed two of those extra-early mornings for boarding groups, but I balanced it by taking afternoon breaks and skipping rope drop altogether on about half my days to sleep in and start late. [edit: I stand corrected; I forgot that DHS doesn't open at 7:00 AM anymore ]

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

So, this is my first trip to WDW, and it's not even a definite. We are currently scheduled for DLR as that is our home park, but with FL making more progress than CA, we are thinking the parks might not be open in CA for our trip so are planning WDW as the fallback.
First ever siblings trip. Two adults, 2 preteens. All 4 of us love thrill rides.
First week of August. None of us have been to FL before, so are planning on hot and humid. We will bring our mini fans, cooling rags, and refillable waterbottles to the park. And bring ponchos just in case. We are planning on a table service for lunch each day to get out of the heat and already have reservations for the one mentioned below.
We are planning on park hopping. I know it can take a significant amount of time and not like DLR, but enough people told me about taking advantage of magic morning, than park hopping to another park as the one with magic morning tends to be the busy park.
I'm still figuring out the fastpass system, but I have listed the ones I will TRY and get when our window opens up.

We are thrill ride people, so let me know if one I selected for FP would be better to do standby and swwap it for something else.

Sat.- arrive. Check in at probably POP
Sun- Hollywood Studios magic morning, hopefully get ROTR BG, Ogas at 11, Hop to AK depending on BG time. Pngu or Yak for breakfast, Tusker for lunch, dinner either flame tree or satu'li. FP hope for: Avatar, Kahli river, expedition Everest
Mon- Free day. Breakfast Kona Cafe. Lunch Sanaa
Tues- Epcot magic morning. Breakfast Sleepy Hollow. Lunch BOG. Dinner. Pecos Billl, Columbia House, or Cosmic Rays. FP: Splash, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarfs. (Peter Pan is a household favorite which is why it was picked over thrill ride, unless it is usually not as long as thrill ride queues.)
Wed- Universal
Thurs- Epcot magic morning Maybe.?? Hop or Start at Hollywood Studios. Breakfast Woody's lunch box. Lunch 50's prime. Dinner either Ronto Roaster, Woody's, or Fairfax faire,. FP: MFSR, rockin coaster, TOT.
Fri- Free day. Maybe Disney Springs?
Sat- AK magic morning. Hop to Epcot. breakfast Les Halles Boulangerie. Lunch Garden Grill, Dinner either regal eagle, tangierine, or sunshine. FP: test tracks, and no idea for the other 2.
Sun - Departure.

Overall thoughts and opinions?
This trip is dependent on another thing. I should be getting a bonus before the trip but because of COVID, who knows. If I do, we are going to VIP tour universal, and VIP tour on SAT. And maybe upgrade to a better resort. Maybe animal lodge or something? or the wilderness one? But because we won't be spending too much time at the resort, I don't know if it's worth it. At DLR we typically stay at the Best Westerns or if it's a special trip than the GCH.

Sorry if this is all over the place. None of us have ever been and it's potentially 3 months away, so trying to plan quickly. As we'll have to pull the trigger this month on hotel so we can get fastpasses on the 60 day mark.

Others have mentioned this, but park hopping is a pretty time consuming experience. The quickest way to do it is using Uber/Lyft/Minnie Vans, but even that can take close to an hour when you account for waiting for a car, drive, and getting through security. We do it every trip, and recommend it, but I don't think you should change parks until after 11 am or so. The first 3-4 hours of park open are probably the best touring time. So as a general matter, I'd show up about 30 minutes before park open, take advantage of (hopefully) low crowds during those first few hours, then go grab lunch somewhere and hang out at your resort pool for a few hours. Then hop to a different park in the late afternoon.

And I'd absolutely do Universal, especially if you like thrill rides. Personally think Universal's top 5 rides are significantly better than the top 5 at Disney.

 

[Princess2R]

magic hours are not everyday nor are they always mornings.

So much food and too much hopping. I would not even park hop as it takes quite a bit of time to hop. I feel like just walking out the park to get to a bus can take 20 minutes sometimes, and to wait for a bus could be another 20 min. Too time consuming to hop in your case if you want to do a bit more than just be on transportation.

august is very hot, and you will get tired! mid day breaks are where it is at.

peter pan always has a long line , you will want a fast pass because even if you rope drop it- so do a lot of other people and it can easily eat up over half an hour of your morning.

 

[MomOTwins]

For the (huge) price difference, I'd personally take POP and the Skyliner over an Epcot resort. I did AoA this January and adored the Skyliner; it cuts what would be an hour allowance to get to those two parks by half (though you'll still want to leave extra cushion if you've got a pressing need to be there at a specific time). Like the buses, though, you'll want to time your exit from the park at the end of the day. On the first evening of my trip I made the mistake of leaving Epcot right at closing time and waited in a massive line at the Skyliner station. Next evening I was leaving DHS at closing time and stopped in a gift shop to browse instead. Spent half an hour waiting before getting on transportation both times, but looking at pins in a shop is a lot more enjoyable than shuffling along in a giant herd.

Re: starting time for the Skyliner, I don't remember the official starting time off the top of my head, but it started early enough to get to a regular park opening. Did not start running early enough to rope drop DHS for a RotR boarding pass. The buses to DHS from Skyliner resorts do run that early, though; I hopped on the first bus of the morning around 5:00 AM both times I went for a boarding pass.


Agreed re: free days. Like others have suggested, I'd upgrade the tickets to allow entry every day you're there and just plan on doing some days where you don't show up to the parks until afternoon or evening instead of taking full rest days. Honestly, I'd rebalance the whole trip in that direction--take more breaks, more late mornings, and spread both the park time and the rest time out more evenly.

And that's a fair point about Universal. I personally chose to spend only one day at Universal on my trip this year, but I'd been there multiple times and knew exactly what I liked, and decided in advance that I was okay with doing only one of their two main parks. I'd say you can cover one of their parks pretty well in one day, but if you want to hop back and forth between both of them (which is much more akin to the distance/time required for park hopping at DLR), you need to either give yourself two days or go in with clear priorities and be prepared to miss things. It'd be like trying to do both Disneyland and DCA in one day.

The early morning for DHS is worse than that--if you want to get a boarding group for RotR and you're going by bus, you need to be at the bus stop by 5:00 local time (2:00 AM CA time!!). And it does need to be the bus stop, not the Skyliner, as I noted above. It's doable for a morning or two--I come in from the mountain time zone and in January I managed two of those extra-early mornings for boarding groups, but I balanced it by taking afternoon breaks and skipping rope drop altogether on about half my days to sleep in and start late.

Early morning openings at DHS we’re temporary and have been discontinued. Now it is a regular 9am open. Getting there early gives you no boarding group advantage as you cannot request a boarding group until the regular opening time. You do want to be IN the gates by 9am though so be sure to arrive 45 mins-1 hr early for the tapstiles and security.

 

[YawningDodo]

Early morning openings at DHS we’re temporary and have been discontinued. Now it is a regular 9am open. Getting there early gives you no boarding group advantage as you cannot request a boarding group until the regular opening time. You do want to be IN the gates by 9am though so be sure to arrive 45 mins-1 hr early for the tapstiles and security.

Guess who's still operating on January 2020 info/logic. That's embarrassing; I should have remembered that it was set to change back to normal. I just got so used to the idea that DHS opens at 7:00.

At least at that point in time, though, being there more than an hour early did convey an advantage...not for RotR, but for getting on other rides. Smuggler's Run might not be as bad at rope drop as it was now that it takes FP+ reservations (it was still standby and single rider only when I was there), but the mass of people queing up to get into Galaxy's Edge in the morning was sure something.

 

[kwdw]

Okay - I'm so confused reading the OP plan - and all the suggestions......

OP - Just start over. Really.
1) Given your love of thrill rides - I'd suggest you start with 2 days at Universal. So - Arrive Sat - check in at a Universal hotel. Go to Citywalk for dinner.
2) Sunday and Monday at Universal. Buy a 2 day Park to Park ticket.
3) Switch to Disney hotel in morning. Go to a park. Don't stay out too late so you can settle into your room.
4) Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat - pick ONE park to focus on. Don't plan to hop. If you really want to park hop, add that during your trip. I'm suggesting you buy a 5 day base ticket. Plan ONE TS meal per day.
5)Sun - go home.

 

[Deadp00l]

Two things wrong:
1) Do not park-hop. This is your first trip; take the time to stay in one park and enjoy it. No need to stress yourself by having to park-hop (which as noted by others, takes a long time).
2) Do not go during August. Hot. Humid. Not cold. Not dry. It's like, hot and humid.

Kidding aside, in addition to what everyone is saying, I only have one advice:
1) Bring waterproof shoe covers. I used the PVC clear ones but the silicone ones look interesting. You keep your feet/SOCKS/shoe dry + get compliments. Boo-yah.

 

[p44nmun]

I completely agree with the masses, skip the park hopping. It was our biggest mistake the first time we went to Disney World. We have a teen, we love thrill rides. We now do one park all day/night (sometimes we leave in afternoon to swim and then go back).
It makes planning so easy, and it’s so much more relaxing! You won’t waste time hopping, and time getting into the park (bag search/etc).
Trust what everyone is saying. You won’t regret it. And you can save the money by not getting a park hopper to spend on all your dining.

 

[MrsPete]

We are thrill ride people, so let me know if one I selected for FP would be better to do standby and swwap it for something else.

You'll find that Universal has more thrill rides than Disney -- for teens, you might want two days at Universal.

Have you started looking at ticket pricing? You'll find that doing JUST Disney or JUST Universal is considerably more affordable than doing both in one trip.

Sat.- arrive. Check in at probably POP
Sun- Hollywood Studios magic morning, hopefully get ROTR BG, Ogas at 11, Hop to AK depending on BG time. Pngu or Yak for breakfast, Tusker for lunch, dinner either flame tree or satu'li. FP hope for: Avatar, Kahli river, expedition Everest
Mon- Free day. Breakfast Kona Cafe. Lunch Sanaa
Tues- Epcot magic morning. Breakfast Sleepy Hollow. Lunch BOG. Dinner. Pecos Billl, Columbia House, or Cosmic Rays. FP: Splash, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarfs. (Peter Pan is a household favorite which is why it was picked over thrill ride, unless it is usually not as long as thrill ride queues.)
Wed- Universal
Thurs- Epcot magic morning Maybe.?? Hop or Start at Hollywood Studios. Breakfast Woody's lunch box. Lunch 50's prime. Dinner either Ronto Roaster, Woody's, or Fairfax faire,. FP: MFSR, rockin coaster, TOT.
Fri- Free day. Maybe Disney Springs?
Sat- AK magic morning. Hop to Epcot. breakfast Les Halles Boulangerie. Lunch Garden Grill, Dinner either regal eagle, tangierine, or sunshine. FP: test tracks, and no idea for the other 2.
Sun - Departure.

I agree with the majority here on this thread: Too much food, too much hopping.

Food: My family only visits Disney in hot-weather months (usually May or June), and we don't want all that much food. We tend to get up, eat a small breakfast in the room, then a sit-down meal at lunchtime -- a good long sit-down rest in air conditioning with plenty of drinks -- followed by a quick-service dinner (often shared) and a heavy snack (maybe a pizza) back in the room in the evening. In between, we have lots of drinks and sometimes snacks. In the Florida heat, this is a comfortable schedule for us.

Consider, too, that when you are sitting down eating all these meals, you aren't riding rides. What are your priorities for this trip?

Hopping: Others have pointed out that hopping "costs you" time. I won't explain it again, but I will say, Listen to what others have said. This isn't something for the trip you're laying out.

If you want to make hopping work for you, combine it with a mid-day rest. If you're getting up early for Early Morning Hours and/or Rope Drop, then by noon you'll be ready for a couple hours rest -- and this could coincide with a return to the room /dip in the pool /nap. If you've left the parks, then returning to a different park for the less crowded evening hours doesn't "cost" more time. It's not the same as hopping from park to park. But this is only if you're planning a mid-day rest.

You say you're planning to haul around fans and more -- I wouldn't. It's burdensome. Order free cups of ice water using the Disney App, walk right up and pick them up from any quick service counter. Less is more.

As for where to stay, I agree with another poster than an Epcot resort could be a good choice for you, as it allows you easy access to Epcot and also many restaurants. Since you have teens, I suggest you consider The Beach Club because of its superior pool. Wilderness Lodge is my personal favorite, and it makes for easy transportation to/from Magic Kingdom -- but the pool won't excite teens.

I would not have any free days for such a short stay unless there is a specific reason...

I think one free day mid-week is a good idea, but I think you've planned two? That's "two much".

Two-three days at the parks non-stop is an energy-sucker (even for teens and healthy young parents), and everyone will be happier /more ready to go if you have a mid-week sleep-in followed by a nice breakfast buffet at one of the resorts. You can do plenty of things on a no-park day that'll be fun but also allow you to "recharge your batteries".

 

[nkereina]

I'm in agreement with PPs. While some may recommend taking advantage of Extra Magic Hours, most crowd calendars will tell you to avoid the park with Extra Magic Hours. People flock to that park to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours and you're not gaining anything. And to hop to a different park after that would be way too time consuming and not at all worthwhile. IMO, its best to do rope drop (park opening) on a non-extra magic hours day at one park, have lunch there or at a nearby resort, take a break at your resort, then hop to a different park at night. Over the course of my trip, I like to make sure I have at least one park opening morning and one evening at each park.

I don't think there's anything wrong with rest days. You'll be adjusting to a time difference, it will be very hot, and you'll be doing a lot of walking over the course of your trip. I would suggest still buying park tickets for at least one of your rest days. If it ends pouring rain, you will likely not want to go to the pool or to Disney Springs and may find it easiest to go to a park instead. I personally wouldn't dedicate a full day to Disney Springs, but there is a lot to see and do there especially if you like shopping. Its also less busy during the day. But we usually will spend an evening or two there - usually arrival night and the night after our AK day, because that's the shortest park for us.

With regard to the meals, I would just recommend spacing them out well. The portions are large and walking around in that heat, you may not feel like eating big hearty meals. I would do an 8am breakfast, 1pm lunch, 8pm dinner type of spacing.

 

[clutter]

I would drop all of the park hopping. It takes up SO much time and it is so hot in August. Start with base tickets and plan to spend the day in one park. You may also want to consider mid-day breaks. I can't emphasize how hot it is in August. We've gone in late August for the past 9 years - I don't think we've ever made it through a whole day in the parks. Consider early mornings through lunch time, midday breaks and back in the early evenings (that's what we do).

As a many-augusts veteran, I'm going to respectfully disagree. IF you plan is to take an afternoon break, hopping takes no longer than returning to the same park. If you're not going back to the hotel (we rarely did), than that change of parks can be a nice break in lieu of going back to the hotel. Unless you try to take the boat between Epcot and DHS on a really hot day, lol.

I agree about not taking a down day. Make any ADRs you think you will do (only one sit down meal per day, they are time consuming and you don't want to eat too much in the heat), pick you must dos for the FastPasses. In normal times (I can't say what it will be like once open this year), its the things you do to fill in your time that tend to make the trip memorable. I agree about doing Universal at the beginning or end of the trip and staying at a hotel that gives you express pass. We also love thrill rides, but we didn't enjoy Universal that much, so we were glad we only had a one-day hopper. Most like it more than WDW though, so you will see. But definitely do the on-site hotel with the express pass.

Good luck!

 

[MomOTwins]

As a many-augusts veteran, I'm going to respectfully disagree. IF you plan is to take an afternoon break, hopping takes no longer than returning to the same park. If you're not going back to the hotel (we rarely did), than that change of parks can be a nice break in lieu of going back to the hotel. Unless you try to take the boat between Epcot and DHS on a really hot day, lol.

True, but what people here are reacting to is OP's plan to go to a park JUST for EMH (for the parks that have it in the morning), and then hop to another park and have breakfast at the second park. So between the hop and breakfast, they will have completely knocked out the morning with its cooler temps and lower crowds.

I agree with you a park hop would make much more sense if they were staying through lunchtime at one park and then hopping in the peak heat/crowds of the afternoon. But there's a reason that people who do hotel breaks do mid-afternoon breaks and not mid-morning breaks, and for the same reason, you shouldn't try to hop parks mid-morning.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

That schedule made me tired looking at it...
Im not a huge fan of hopping unless i have a lot of days to fill.
I have no problems filling my day with one park
I try and stay away from Mk and HS on weekends/mondays there are a lot of people in those parks on weekends. I do two days of MK..
Universal is my DS and one of my boys favorite.. it was fustrating that one day park to park was more expensive than 3 days

 

[butterscotchcollins]

I'm going to give some completely opposite advice that is going to shock and appall people:

It is possible to enjoy your trip without scheduling out every minute of every day in advance.

You don't need FPs and ADRs in order to have a good trip - they make some things more convenient, and save time if you have an idea of "must dos", but if what appeals to you about Hopping is the freedom to kind of go wherever the mood takes you for the day then that's just as valid and enjoyable a plan! Especially with teenagers, and the Florida heat, having flexibility to change plans day-of may prove invaluable. We always get Hoppers, even when we know that we're likely to spend 1 full day at MK or HS, just in case we change our minds or get through everything we wanted to do in that park earlier than anticipated and want to Hop over to another park for one last ride on a favorite, or a different fireworks show. I say this with love because the obsessive shell game of making plans isn't for everyone (unless you really love puzzles and brainteasers) and sometimes the stress of feeling like you "have" to do it this way sucks the actual joy out of it. Just know there are many, many different ways to enjoy a week-long trip to Disney/Universal.

That being said I agree with PPs that adding the 2 additional days to your tickets is a cost-effective move and will also give you more of that freedom to see/do more in case there are things you don't get to during your first trip to any specific park. Also 2 days in UO is more than sufficient - if you want to save some $ you can do US one day and IOA another rather than getting 2-day 2-park passes, the only thing you're missing is the Hogwarts Express so unless you're huge HP fans that's really what you're paying for.

 

[tguz]

We do not take free days or some call them resort days at WDW. We do take mid afternoon breaks to rest a little or use the pool. We do park hop on some of the days so we go to the second park after the mid afternoon break. We like Disney Springs but usually only check it out after our park closes, sometimes at 9pm. It is open for several hours after that. We just like the atmosphere there after dark.

 

[shoegal9]

"And bring ponchos just in case?" Not just in case. It will rain. Every single day. For at least 30 minutes in the afternoon, usually right around 3:30 pm.

Keep in mind that the parks that have extra magic hours in the morning are often the busiest; and those with extra magic hours at night are usually the busiest at night. Some like to do the opposite and never attend EMH.

POP Century has some of the longest bus lines at WDW. So, if going to MK or AK, plan to wait 2-3 buses if you are trying to make park open. EP and DHS have the Skyliner, so less of an issue there. But POP is huge. So depending on where you are at on property- add time just to get to the Skyliner station.

Sun- Hollywood Studios magic morning, hopefully get ROTR BG, Ogas at 11, Hop to AK depending on BG time. Pngu or Yak for breakfast, Tusker for lunch, dinner either flame tree or satu'li. FP hope for: Avatar, Kahli river, expedition Everest. I would allow more time at DHS, but if you do hop to AK, Pongu only has 2 breakfast items on the menu. And i would NOT go to AK without doing the Kilamanjaro Safari. Kali River Rapids never has a long line so dont use a FP on that. The is short because YOU GET SOAKED. This is not like that Grizzly thing at DCA. Bring extra clothes, shoes, everything. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Mon- Free day. Breakfast Kona Cafe. Lunch Sanaa. Take time to resort hop- especially around MK (Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge) and the Boardwalk.
Tues- Epcot magic morning. What are you planning to do in such a short time to allow you to get to MK after EPCOT? World Showcase is closed until 11, so maybe you get in Frozen or Soarin? Breakfast Sleepy Hollow. Lunch BOG. Dinner. Pecos Billl, Columbia House, or Cosmic Rays. Def Columbia Harbour House FP: Splash, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarfs. (Peter Pan is a household favorite which is why it was picked over thrill ride, unless it is usually not as long as thrill ride queues.)
Wed- Universal I am a Disney person, but was open to Universal since i hadn't been since i was a teenager. I am in my 30s now. One day at Universal was enough for us to do nearly everything we wanted to at both Universal parks. (this was last January before Hagrids- so if that is on your list... idk)
Thurs- Epcot magic morning Maybe.?? Hop or Start at Hollywood Studios. Breakfast Woody's lunch box. Yes! Get the tots! Lunch 50's prime. Dinner either Ronto Roaster, Woody's, or Fairfax faire,. FP: MFSR, rockin coaster, TOT. If you go to DHS first. and succeeded at ROTR BG on Day 1. maybe rope drop Slinky Dog. It's more thrilling than it looks!
Fri- Free day. Maybe Disney Springs?
Sat- AK magic morning. Hard to get a FP for the first day of your trip, I would not count on a FLight of Passage FP for Day 1. So use this morning to rope drop AK and get in the FOP line an hour or so before the official open time. Hop to Epcot. breakfast Les Halles Boulangerie. Lunch Garden Grill, Dinner either regal eagle, tangierine, or sunshine. FP: test tracks, and no idea for the other 2. Mission Space makes a lot of people ill. Just a warning.
Sun - Departure.

Overall thoughts and opinions?
This trip is dependent on another thing. I should be getting a bonus before the trip but because of COVID, who knows. If I do, we are going to VIP tour universal, and VIP tour on SAT. And maybe upgrade to a better resort. Maybe animal lodge or something? or the wilderness one? But because we won't be spending too much time at the resort, I don't know if it's worth it. At DLR we typically stay at the Best Westerns or if it's a special trip than the GCH. Pop is okay, but if you've never been to Disney, I would at least upgrade to a moderate. The difference between POP and Coronado Springs is night and day, and not much more expensive. I would say the same for Caribbean Beach or the Port Orleans resorts! And Port Orleans is great for the boat access to Disney Springs. If you want to go Deluxe, Animal Kingdom Lodge is typically on the cheaper end for a Deluxe.

This was fun. thanks for the mid-day distraction. I will say that I have been to WDW 40+ times and just did DL for the first time last year. I was SHOCKED at how small it is. So be ready for the flip side of that!

 

[Davey Jones II]

O.P., you mentioned that all four of you love thrill rides. In that case, I would consider adding Universal Orlando to your plans (if they're open when you go) because they have a LOT more thrill rides than all of WDW.

Don't get me wrong, WDW is wonderful and you'll love it. But if thrill rides are your favorites, then Universal is a must (and, with two parks and both Harry Potter lands, it has a lot more attractions than Universal Hollywood).