Help! Do we need a rest day and other planning ?'s

[Whistlebee]

OP, since money isn't an object, how about a VIP tour for one of your days?

I actually did consider this, but I am a frugal person at heart and I think I would get more value with having Premiere Pass for 3 days as opposed to a VIP tour on 1 day. I'm hoping PP makes for easier more relaxing days, where with a 1 day VIP tour we'd be running all over the place park hopping to try and get "our moneys worth". 3 days of PP and 1 day of VIP would be about the same cost per family. And there is no way I'm paying for multiple days of VIP tours!

 

[Whistlebee]

Just finishing up a trip staying at the Swan, and I have to say the food in this area is really good!

This trip we ate at Flying Fish and Bourbon Steakhouse and while both were delicious, BS wins for just a smidge better food and much better/friendlier service.

In the past we’ve been to BlueZoo multiple times and keep going back, and to Rosa Mexicano (for breakfast) and both were amazing!

The only place I haven’t seen mentioned here and would highly recommend is Jiko on your Animal Kingdom day. Since AK closes so early, go to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner. Jiko is the best food on property imo. And Sanaa is delicious there as well.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I'm actually most excited about Animal Kingdom and I've heard the food is very good over there, so I love the suggestion to have dinner over there too!

 

[glocon]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I'm actually most excited about Animal Kingdom and I've heard the food is very good over there, so I love the suggestion to have dinner over there too!

Tiffins in the park is really good as well!

 

[pixiedust2u]

Your plans are doable without a full rest day. When at Epcot or HS it’s very easy and convenient to do a mid day break at Swan. Maybe offer to husbands that they can choose whether or not to return as the same time with you to allow them more built in down time should they need a break.

For planning I highly recommend Mammoth club videos on YouTube.

If you are only planning on hopping the last day I’d by a 5 day base ticket, and then just upgrade your last day to a hopper. I’m pretty sure you can still do this, call to confirm. But seems silly to pay for hopper on all days inf you’re only hopping your last day.

 

[MikeF;NJ]

Your plans are doable without a full rest day. When at Epcot or HS it’s very easy and convenient to do a mid day break at Swan. Maybe offer to husbands that they can choose whether or not to return as the same time with you to allow them more built in down time should they need a break.

For planning I highly recommend Mammoth club videos on YouTube.

If you are only planning on hopping the last day I’d by a 5 day base ticket, and then just upgrade your last day to a hopper. I’m pretty sure you can still do this, call to confirm. But seems silly to pay for hopper on all days inf you’re only hopping your last day.

I could be wrong, and things may have changed, but, IIRC, whether they buy the hoppers ahead or pay on the last day to upgrade, the cost should be the same. At least that's the way I remember it working. Disney will charge to upgrade all 5 days from base to hopper, whether or not you already used the first 4.

 

[Miffy]

I could be wrong, and things may have changed, but, IIRC, whether they buy the hoppers ahead or pay on the last day to upgrade, the cost should be the same. At least that's the way I remember it working. Disney will charge to upgrade all 5 days from base to hopper, whether or not you already used the first 4.

This is my understanding as well, but, OP, ask on the dedicated ticket info thread here for the definitive answer. The ticket thread people know their stuff--more than the CMs at WDW do, and that's not an exaggeration.

OP, if what your two reluctant parkgoers don't like is waiting in line, then the PP is a good idea. But if they just don't like going to or being in a park, then you are about to throw a tremendous amount of $ at something that might not even be of help. PPs for 3 parks for 2 people, depending on when you're going, could cost as much as $1,200 for each person.

These are 2 adults who can fend for themselves. Maybe they'd rather do something not in a park while you're doing the parks.

But, whatever you decide, I'd love to see the results after your trip, and I bet everyone else on this thread would enjoy that too. And it'd be of great help to anyone else with a similar situation.

BTW, Animal Kingdom is the food kingdom of the parks. Enjoy!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Your plans are doable without a full rest day. When at Epcot or HS it’s very easy and convenient to do a mid day break at Swan. Maybe offer to husbands that they can choose whether or not to return as the same time with you to allow them more built in down time should they need a break.

For planning I highly recommend Mammoth club videos on YouTube.

If you are only planning on hopping the last day I’d by a 5 day base ticket, and then just upgrade your last day to a hopper. I’m pretty sure you can still do this, call to confirm. But seems silly to pay for hopper on all days inf you’re only hopping your last day.

It will cost them the same to upgrade to park hopping on any day.

 

[_19disnA]

WDW parks involve MILES of walking often in hot weather with huge crowds, regardless of where you are staying. There isn't any Disney resort closest to every park, so transit time will also be a consideration. Some people who have never been to Disney before, often don't realize how HUGE the entire property is. I think planning for a rest day in the middle of your trip is a good idea so everyone isn't exhausted by the time your vacation ends.

 

[gottalovepluto]

WDW parks involve MILES of walking often in hot weather with huge crowds, regardless of where you are staying. There isn't any Disney resort closest to every park, so transit time will also be a consideration. Some people who have never been to Disney before, often don't realize how HUGE the entire property is. I think planning for a rest day in the middle of your trip is a good idea so everyone isn't exhausted by the time your vacation ends.

The challenge for OP is how exhausted would you be with that much Premier Pass? If I could sleep in, never back track and immediately move from LL to LL- that changes the equation for me (even as a DLR vet).

 

[Whistlebee]

This is my understanding as well, but, OP, ask on the dedicated ticket info thread here for the definitive answer. The ticket thread people know their stuff--more than the CMs at WDW do, and that's not an exaggeration.

OP, if what your two reluctant parkgoers don't like is waiting in line, then the PP is a good idea. But if they just don't like going to or being in a park, then you are about to throw a tremendous amount of $ at something that might not even be of help. PPs for 3 parks for 2 people, depending on when you're going, could cost as much as $1,200 for each person.

These are 2 adults who can fend for themselves. Maybe they'd rather do something not in a park while you're doing the parks.

But, whatever you decide, I'd love to see the results after your trip, and I bet everyone else on this thread would enjoy that too. And it'd be of great help to anyone else with a similar situation.

BTW, Animal Kingdom is the food kingdom of the parks. Enjoy!

My husband recently retired, and because he has more time now, he just wants to come with me and our daughter. He likely will not be in the parks with us the whole time. He is more of a nature/adrenaline sports type guy. I am very curious to see how the trip goes because I'd say he almost hates theme parks but he just wants to come and have fun with us. This is why I'm really trying to accommodate his needs as well. I know the PP will help a lot in him enjoying his time. The price is ridiculous, and I understand we don't NEED it to have a great day. It is more about the freedom it gives us to go at a relaxed pace. I mean half of the fun is almost playing the strategy game of how many rides you can get with LL. I play that game a lot and it's kind of addicting....but I'm also looking forward to not being on my phone so much.

 

[Whistlebee]

The challenge for OP is how exhausted would you be with that much Premier Pass? If I could sleep in, never back track and immediately move from LL to LL- that changes the equation for me (even as a DLR vet).

Yes, exactly!

 

[Whistlebee]

Hi everyone, I thought I'd report back post-trip. We ended up changing our trip 2 weeks before we left. We were in the parks Monday 3/2 at Animal Kingdom and we hopped at night to Epcot and enjoyed the Extended Evening Hours there. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent with my brother and sister in law who live on the Gulf Coast. We went to Gatorland, Top Golf and Disney Springs with them. 3/5 we spent the entire day at Epcot. 3/6 we spent the morning at AK and hopped to MK at 12:30, and 3/7 we did HS during the day and hopped to MK around 5pm. We used Premier passes at Epcot, MK, and HS. We had a great trip and definitely enjoyed the ease of PP. We took it very easy, arriving to the parks around 10AM. We mostly stayed until closing each day. We used MP at AK and our evening at MK and SP for all of those rides. We ended up having 2 "rest days" on Tuesday and Wednesday hanging out with my brother. Then we did 3 park days in a row. That was ok, but honestly we would've enjoyed a rest day instead of a 3rd straight day in the parks more. But, we also didn't want to have a longer trip so it also worked out fine for us. The two husbands were a little worn out by the 3rd day in a row, the rest of us were ok still. My husband loved having the premiere passes and kept saying how great it was and that it made the trip so much more enjoyable for him. We absolutely loved the Swan Reserve! We had a 2 bedroom suite because we ended up bringing our nieces with us too, and needed a bigger room. Our room was spacious and gorgeous with amazing views. The restaurant Amare was great too. We walked to both Epcot and HS and also rode the friendship boats. So easy!

Even with the PP I think we would've benefited from spending more time in the parks, or at least more time doing the rides. Our friends that we traveled with prefer having 2 table service meals a day and it does cut into your ride time. We ended up kind of rushing from ride to ride on our MK day (this was my fault because we didn't arrive until 12:30 as I wanted to go back to AK because I loved it so much). I wasn't expecting to love MK as much as I did, but I loved it too! I figured it'd be so much like Disneyland that we wouldn't need much time there. But, we actually really enjoyed it, and we enjoyed riding the rides that are duplicates from Disneyland. It was fun to see the differences both big and small. So that's why we came back on Saturday night to get to enjoy more of MK.

If we were to do it all over again, I would do what it seems most people recommend and do 2 park days and then a rest day and then 2 more park days. I did really enjoy going to each park twice (except HS). So I am glad we went with the park hoppers.
I don't see coming back to WDW, at least not for a very long time. I enjoyed it and I'm glad we came, but Disneyland is so close for us and so much cheaper it is just the logical choice for us. I feel like a luxury style trip to DL is way cheaper than a luxury style trip to WDW. Part of that is because you need more time at WDW, resulting in a longer trip, resulting in more expense. Sometimes we stay at the resort hotels at DL and sometimes we just stay at a cheap hotel nearby. Either of these options are just so much cheaper for us since we live a 6 hour drive from DL. WDW is definitely more of a theme park vacation destination and DL is great for a 2 or 3 day theme park trip and I think I am more of a 2 or 3 day theme park trip person. But we enjoyed so many things about WDW:

-Your security is amazing and far superior
-Animal Kingdom is amazing, I loved it! Pandora is perfection in theming.
-LL lines in every park except HS, were insanely fast compared to LL's at DL. HS felt similar to DL's LL, where you are still waiting 10 -20 minutes in line. All the other parks we practically walked on with our LL's. That was awesome!
-I personally felt that your Peter Pan and Tiana's are better than our versions.
-Guardians blew my mind! So much fun!
-Tron was a clear favorite in our group
-I really enjoyed Magic Kingdom, much more than I was expecting too.
-You still have the People Mover...so happy we got to ride it!
-The Pineapple Crisp Sundae at Tamu Tamu in AK was crazy good. I actually might come back just for that! It was my favorite thing I ate all week!

Thanks again to everyone that helped us plan our trip!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We’ve used 5 day park hoppers with one free day for years. This year, we mixed things up for the very first time and just did 4 day park hoppers with two free days at the resort (Shades of Green). Since then, those free days have been mentioned almost as much as the park days.

We found that doing our favorites 2, 3 or even 4 times each was much more enjoyable that trying to do everything that moves just once.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Gawrsh

It’s been a while, but a former poster here Robo would post a single dot as a reply so that he could come back later and complete his response. That way his post would be at or near the top of the list.

I’m not that clever.

 

[hardcorestitch]

It’s been a while, but a former poster here Robo would post a single dot as a reply so that he could come back later and complete his response. That way his post would be at or near the top of the list.

I’m not that clever.

Ah gotcha