Help four adult first timers pick the best days for each park please!

[NuMystic]

Alright ADR's are in, though I think I may need to adjust for travel times if I haven't given myself enough leeway. We'll be using Disney Transport and are staying at POFQ.

Wed Night We've got a 9:15 reservation at Sanaa. (only other time free is 8:45) Is that enough time to get there from MK if we ended the evening with 7:45 Celebrate the Magic and Wishes at 8pm? You did suggest doing those on Friday instead though, can you share your thinking on that? Being that we're only going to have a couple of hours at MK on our first night I thought it might be nice to end it with a literal "bang" for my wife's first visit to Disney. Of course I imagine there are plenty of attractions that may do that as well?

Thursday we'll be finishing HS with the 7pm Fantasmic. How long will it take to get to Boma following that? Current reservation is 8:30 at Boma. (7:45, 8:20, 8:45 still open)

Friday with the super long day at MK from starting with Rope Drop and ending with MSEP at 11p the plan is to head back to the resort to rest/sleep through some of the afternoon high crowd hours and then eat before heading back to the park for the evening. Our reservation right now is at Trail's End at 4:30 but every 15 min. slot is free all the way up through 7:30pm if that's too early. 5-5:30 might be a bit more appealing but wasn't sure what the ideal time to aim for being back at MK is touring plan wise. Also can you give me advice on how much time to budget for getting from POFQ to Trail's End via Disney transport? I've heard that it can take much longer between Resorts than between Resort and Park?

Saturday at Epccot where we will get a later start due to the very late night before we've got a 4:35 reservation at Coral Reef with the only other time free being 8:05pm with nothing left in between. Early dinner was the plan in any case since we’re heading straight to sleep after Epcot for EMH rope drop the next morning at AK on our last half day.

We're quite committed to Boma, Sanaa and Chef TJ at Trail's End though the days and times could be shuffled. We figured that HS being the earliest night would be a good fit for a leisurely buffet dinner afterwards.

Sanaa and Trail's end could easily swapped if it made more sense time or travel wise. ADR's are available every 15 mins at Trail's end on Wed night following MK so that's easy, and Sanaa has a 5:10 available on Friday which we could do during our MK break.

The Coral Reef veg entree has good reviews and the atmosphere sounds appealing but we'd definitely consider swapping this one out if there's a superior 1 credit TS meal we're missing out on Saturday. (Which is Epcot, though I suppose we could hit an out of park restaurant for an early dinner during the peak Afternoon crowd time)

 

[I M Fearless]

Getting to Sanaa and Boma may take a while. They are far away from MK as you can get.

I would advise getting the 8:45pm reservation for Boma after Fantasmic as the show starts at 7pm and lasts 23 minutes, but the problem comes when trying to exit with thousands of others. It takes about 20 minutes to get out of the park and then there could be a brief wait for the bus. In all likelihood you would probably get to Animal Kingdom Lodge by 8:30pm - you just can't ever guarantee it. 20:45pm would be safer. You can always check in early if you arrive early.

I would personally swap the Sanaa and Trails End over. Trail's End is really easy to get to after Magic Kingdom. You can just take a boat right to Fort Wilderness from outside the park, you'd get there in 20 mins. So maybe get a reservation for 9pm if Wishes is at 8pm.

That allows you more time to head down to Sanaa on the Friday, it is far away from everything - it's at Animal Kingdom Village (part of the resort but not at the main lodge).

Personally I would recommend getting a late lunch reservation and heading there straight from MK (allow an 45 minutes to an hour from leaving the park). Several reasons: 1.) It will still be light and you will have a great view of the animals which you would miss if you went in the dark. 2.) After the meal you can take the bus back to AK, Epcot or Hollywood Studios as a transfer point (whichever bus comes first) and then change to your POFQ resort bus. The buses only go between parks and resorts (not resort to resort) you therefore can never predict exact journey time. 3.) Once back at your resort you can then decide how long you want to rest before returning to MK - you won't HAVE to leave to soon or be hanging around waiting if you're done, you can just head back to MK for the evening when you're ready.

It's all coming together really well. Great restaurant choices. Trail's End is a hidden gem.

 

[NuMystic]

As ever, thanks so much.

So one major update is that we will now have a car to get around with. This will solve a number of timing issues while raising a few others (parking).

So with a car do you still recommend pushing back the Boma reservation? Swapping Trail's End and Sanaa Wed/Fri?

If so what would be the ideal reservation time for Trail's End after MK on Wed night? I know the car isn't going to necessarily speed things up dramatically there since since we still have to get to the TCC right? (though I have heard some people staying at other resorts just park at Contemporary and say they're using Valet even if they don't?)

Oh! And for Wed night does it even matter? Even officially we're allowed three hour parking in any other resort parking lot right? Well we're only going to have 2-3 hours in MK on Friday anyway that night! So is parking in Contemporary viable for us at least that night then?

Sanaa has a 5pm on Friday now. We're really much bigger dinner people than lunch and prefer having our biggest meal later, but there are 1pm, 1:30 and 2pm reservations available. The other issue is we're on the Dining plan and foregoing their bigger Dinner Entree choices for sandwiches seems a terrible waste.

Using our own car what time should we be planning on being out of our room door at POFQ in the mornings for rope drop at the respective parks? I'm guessing MK in particular we'll need more time than the others.

 

[NuMystic]

If you got to AK in time for EMH in the morning on the Sunday you'd have success by heading to Expedition Everest and Kali Rapids in the first hour, and then head over to Kilimanjaro Safari about ten minutes before the park opens to everyone. You would still have your 3 Fastpasses which you could use 9am - 12pm and be back by 2pm to leave POFQ on DME.

Working out my AK Touring Plan and hitting a roadblock in this suggested itinerary.

Looks like Kali Rapids isn't open until 9am so there's no way to hit that during EMH. Kilimanjaro and Everest are. So just tackle Kilimanjaro and Everest during EMH and then head to Kali after?

Also what would you suggest as the best uses of the FP for later. Dinosaur seems and perhaps Primeval Whirl. What about the third? Is it really worth FastPassing the scheduled shows? TouringPlans seems to suggest that just arriving 15 minutes early for any of them is enough even without FP.

We'll have our own rental now so that should also buy us a bit more time in the park. We'll likely depart at 3pm to catch our 6pm flight.

 

[I M Fearless]

A car will cut down your journey time to all three parks with the exception of Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is easier to get to by bus most of the time.

That being said it will make getting to Sanaa far easier as you can park right under the building at AKL and take an elevator up. This would make swapping the reservations much less important. It is still easier to get to Fort Wilderness by boat from Magic Kingdom, particularly if you are already coming or going to MK.

You will have free parking everywhere on site, but only for 3 hours at any resort you are not staying in. Depending on how busy Contemporary is they may ask you if you have a dining reservation there. To be honest, to just nip into Magic Kingdom the bus is the easiest option, but if you want to get from MK to Sanaa parking at the Contemporary would be the fastest way.

It is certainly faster to drive to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Studios, than relying on buses, particularly if you are going on to another resort from there to eat. Where a car REALLY saves a lot of time is if you are going from one resort to another.

MK to contemporary is a 5 minute walk, and then to drive to Sanaa it would be 20 minutes tops. If you park at the TTC I would add on 20 minutes to allow for the monorail/tram journey to your car.

With regards to EMH at AK I would say that Fastpasses for Everest, Kali and Safari would save the most time and then possibly Dinosaur.

If you aim to do Everest, Triceratop Spin, Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur early on (whatever you can get done) but then head over to the Safari Ride about 8:45am before the park gets too busy that still leaves you a fairly good amount of time to see everything else, or to re-ride anything with fastpasses.

Show wise, a fast pass saves you little time as you still have to arrive early in any case. Festival of the Lion king is brilliant but if you aim to see an earlier or later show rather than ones in the middle of the day you will get in, there isn't really a bad seat in there either, wherever you are you see something different. Nemo is a huge theater and rarely fills to capacity, arrive 25 minutes before and you're unlikely to be turned away.

It's Tough to Be A Bug loads almost continuously, with 12 minute show cycles, so no need for Fastpass there.

Flights of Wonder is supposed to be really good, but I've never actually got around to seeing it. Heard lots of good things about it though.

Definitely make the effort to get out to Trail's End, that's one place I would definitely pay to eat if I wasn't on a dining plan.

Hope you have a great time. I have just done my fastpasses for my next trip. 60 days out today. Getting excited.

 

[NuMystic]

Now that we're driving, for Sat. Epcot is it worth the extra walk from the Boardwalk parking lot to save time getting out and on the road after Illuminations? (via the international gateway)

With a speedy exit in mind (we're doing EMH the following day at AK) what would be our best bet for a viewing spot that doesn't require staking it out more than 45 min in advance?