First trip in 11 years! Suggestions and advice needed! How to spend 8 days in WDW?

[hayleyjane1313]

Hi all,

My mother and I will be going on our first trip to Universal and WDW in 11 years (13 years for mum). We are from Australia so regular trips are a lot harder for us. We will be going from December 7th - 18th 2023. We will be staying at Portofino Bay from December 7th - 10th, Coronado Springs from Dec 10th - 14th and finishing at Beach Club from 14th - 18th. I didn't realise that you could already book park reservations. Is this needed so far in advance and if not when would you suggesting making the park reservations? We do have park hopper tickets. I am not sure how this works with the park reservations. Do you need another reservation for the second park you want to go to?

We haven't really thought about exactly how we will split the 8 park days in WDW (we won't be going to the parks on our check out day). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to allocate these park days? I should mention a few things:
- We love EPCOT and want to make the most of being so close to it when we are at Beach Club.
- I think we also want to spend our last day or at least the night at Magic Kingdom

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hayley

 

[Marionnette]

Hi all,

My mother and I will be going on our first trip to Universal and WDW in 11 years (13 years for mum). We are from Australia so regular trips are a lot harder for us. We will be going from December 7th - 18th 2023. We will be staying at Portofino Bay from December 7th - 10th, Coronado Springs from Dec 10th - 14th and finishing at Beach Club from 14th - 18th. I didn't realise that you could already book park reservations. Is this needed so far in advance and if not when would you suggesting making the park reservations? We do have park hopper tickets. I am not sure how this works with the park reservations. Do you need another reservation for the second park you want to go to?

We haven't really thought about exactly how we will split the 8 park days in WDW (we won't be going to the parks on our check out day). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to allocate these park days? I should mention a few things:
- We love EPCOT and want to make the most of being so close to it when we are at Beach Club.
- I think we also want to spend our last day or at least the night at Magic Kingdom

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hayley

A lot can change between now and December of 2023. There is no harm in booking your park reservations now because you can always change them (assuming there is availability). However, I don't think there is any urgency at this time.

Once the Christmas festivity dates are published for 2023, you'll have a better idea as to which days will be better for the MK (party nights) or Epcot (CP narrators). For instance, the MVMCP is being held on Dec 18 this year, which would mean the only way for anyone departing on 12/19/22 to be in the MK on their last night would be to purchase a party ticket.

 

[Nabas]

Coronado Springs from Dec 10th - 14th and finishing at Beach Club from 14th - 18th

Is this needed so far in advance and if not when would you suggesting making the park reservations? We do have park hopper tickets. I am not sure how this works with the park reservations. Do you need another reservation for the second park you want to go to?

We haven't really thought about exactly how we will split the 8 park days in WDW (we won't be going to the parks on our check out day). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to allocate these park days? I should mention a few things:
- We love EPCOT and want to make the most of being so close to it when we are at Beach Club.
- I think we also want to spend our last day or at least the night at Magic Kingdom

Since you have hoppers, you should take advantage of them. This typically means going to one park in the morning, heading back to the hotel to relax poolside in the afternoon, and heading to a second park at night.

It's unclear how much you want to do the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster. You'll need to book Epcot in the morning to do that. It's about as intense as Space Mountain. Is this something you and your mother want to try?

If not, then don't book any mornings at Epcot while you are at the Beach Club. Epcot is a great second park to do in December (cooler weather and Christmas decorations) while you are at the Beach Club.

Disney's Animal Kingdom is more traditionally a morning park because the animals on the Safari are more active in the morning and the park typically closes earlier than the other three.

With hoppers, we like to mix it up a bit, making sure that we visit each park at least twice.

I suggest start to write it down, "morning at X, evening at Y", and then just play around with it a bit to find the combination that works best for you.