Help on picking park days

[Nick6300]

We have 5.5 park days, with flight day with 2:05pm ME pickup. Initially thinking HS on arrival (Thurs), MK (Fri), EP (Sat), HS (Sun), MK (Mon), and AK (Tue). AK is on the short day because it's open earlier, and Lion King/Nemo are closed. After hearing how much more popular/crowded HS is, I'm thinking about swapping the Sun HS to AK or possibly even a 3rd MK day. The thought was, we may never see as low wait times at AK/MK as it is now and we'd be back to HS next yr, and every yr after that. But some people are reporting that evening wait times and crowds are lower at HS, but still more than the other 3. We had HS on Thurs because we figured it would be less appealing for local APs, just in case, even though the limited capacity may cap how much impact a wknd park visit vs. weekday visit would have. It always boils down to personal choice, but do you like the original plan or would you consider dropping a HS day in some fashion? Thanks for your input.

At AK we would do Fop (possibly multiple), Navi, Safari, EE, Kali, Dino, and maybe Bugs and Up without the Up (skipping Conservation station, 2 trails). That's only 6 attractions, but wife's fav. when shows are avail.

HS we would do RotR, SR, MMRR (haven't been), SDD, TSM, ToT, RnR, maybe ST once, skipping Muppets and Alien. That's only 7 attractions, and we may not get RotR between the BGs gone within 15 sec and the breakdowns. Wife's not a fan of ToT, TSM is my favorite. Like AK, the lack of shows hurts.

EP we would do Soarin, LwtL, Nemo, the Seas, TT, Frozen, Spaceship, 3 Amigos, Canada film (haven't seen), American Adventure, Shorts, Figment, skipping Mission Space, China/France films, maybe the one in Land Pav... that's surprisingly like 9, even if you don't count the Seas and Canada/American films. And then you have WS (albeit without most shows), but food/wine booths. We haven't tried the Smokehouse yet, and there are more dining options. Not counting on Remi opening.

MK - too many to count.

 

[Wild4Walt]

I wasn't sure if on your arrival day you'll be arriving at 205p or if that was your flight home.

From everything I've seen Vlog-wise Hollywood Studios may be an all day park if you are wanting to go on RotR. You'd have to be in the park no later than 10a ( and also ready at 10a exact to try for a boarding group ), then the only other chance is to try at 2p. If you can't get it at 2p then you won't get on. ( No standby lines ).

If your arrival is 205p then I'd plan Epcot for your arrival day as that park is open later as well.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I wasn't sure if on your arrival day you'll be arriving at 205p or if that was your flight home.

From everything I've seen Vlog-wise Hollywood Studios may be an all day park if you are wanting to go on RotR. You'd have to be in the park no later than 10a ( and also ready at 10a exact to try for a boarding group ), then the only other chance is to try at 2p. If you can't get it at 2p then you won't get on. ( No standby lines ).

If your arrival is 205p then I'd plan Epcot for your arrival day as that park is open later as well.

I was going to say the same thing.. with HS being the only park to sell out and Disney is adding more days for cast members/ pass holders. People are reporting 45 min waits for MMRR and SDD ( even though thats half the norm) Epcot is a wise choice.

 

[Nick6300]

I wasn't sure if on your arrival day you'll be arriving at 205p or if that was your flight home.

From everything I've seen Vlog-wise Hollywood Studios may be an all day park if you are wanting to go on RotR. You'd have to be in the park no later than 10a ( and also ready at 10a exact to try for a boarding group ), then the only other chance is to try at 2p. If you can't get it at 2p then you won't get on. ( No standby lines ).

If your arrival is 205p then I'd plan Epcot for your arrival day as that park is open later as well.

Thanks for the reply... I really didn’t think anyone would.
2pm if my magical express ride for flight home, so we’d likely have to start heading out of AK by 1245 or so. We thought AK since it opens the earliest. I agree, if we were arriving at 2pm, EP makes sense. The half day at AK, and it’s status as the least crowded park, is being considered to replace one of the HS days, the most crowded/popular park right now. And it may get more and more crowded as we head into my early Sept trip with silver passes online 8/08. It’s a tough call. We may not get a BG for RotR on our 1 day, should we go down to one day HS. Sunday before Labor Day, our current HS 2nd day, is booked up for resort guests... no other day is. As an indicator of how busy it might be there that day. On the other hand, riding FoP 5x in a day might help calm down any feeling of regret over being at HS a second time. I’ve also considered replacing the Sun HS with AK, and making the Tue flight day be MK instead of AK. You’d lose an hr on a short day, but being MK, you could still do quite a bit in 4 hrs.

 

[Nick6300]

I was going to say the same thing.. with HS being the only park to sell out and Disney is adding more days for cast members/ pass holders. People are reporting 45 min waits for MMRR and SDD ( even though thats half the norm) Epcot is a wise choice.

I haven’t been diligent about checking times regularly but I’ve heard that the wait times are Already higher than they were at re-opening a couple weeks ago. HS has been more crowded -both for its diminutive size and its popularity with the new rides. Like everyone else, I’m more excited about HS, but the lower waits at the other parks could be enticing given when is the next time MK is going to be this accessible or EP this empty. My ride count tally above was being used to help figure out which park had more to offer, after MK. And I thought it was surprising how thin the options are at HS without the shows. Which partially attributes to higher wait times. Now, there are more rides at HS that we’d go multiple times in a day vs EP, but AK has maybe close to as many quality attractions, for us personally.

 

[andy_dangg]

If you need some help re: DHS. I was there on Monday, July 20 and it was busy compared to Epcot, but the wait times posted were (for the most part) very inaccurate. We rode Smuggler's Run in the afternoon around maybe 3-4ish. The posted wait time was 25 minutes but it was essentially a walk on. Similarly RNRC was posted 30 minutes but was about ten, Star Tours said 25 but was a walk on. I forgot what ToT was posted, but we maybe waited 15 minutes. Our longest standby wait was about 30 minutes for MMRR, which would have been shorter if they didn't have to close the ride for cleaning.

In regards to ROTR, we got BG 4 at the 10a drop (we were there when they had 3 times). We were called 20 minutes later, and would have had a minimal wait if the ride didn't break down for 40 minutes.

Anyways. We arrived at opening, rode Slinky (x2), TS Midway Mania (x3), Alien swirling saucers, MMRR, Smuggler's Run (x2), Star Tours, ToT, RNRC, and Rise of the Resistance. We also had lunch at Docking Bay and had an extended snack break and Ronto Roasters. After some shopping we were out of the park around 6. We never felt rushed so I feel like DHS shouldn't be as stressful as you might think.

 

[Nick6300]

If you need some help re: DHS. I was there on Monday, July 20 and it was busy compared to Epcot, but the wait times posted were (for the most part) very inaccurate. We rode Smuggler's Run in the afternoon around maybe 3-4ish. The posted wait time was 25 minutes but it was essentially a walk on. Similarly RNRC was posted 30 minutes but was about ten, Star Tours said 25 but was a walk on. I forgot what ToT was posted, but we maybe waited 15 minutes. Our longest standby wait was about 30 minutes for MMRR, which would have been shorter if they didn't have to close the ride for cleaning.

In regards to ROTR, we got BG 4 at the 10a drop (we were there when they had 3 times). We were called 20 minutes later, and would have had a minimal wait if the ride didn't break down for 40 minutes.

Anyways. We arrived at opening, rode Slinky (x2), TS Midway Mania (x3), Alien swirling saucers, MMRR, Smuggler's Run (x2), Star Tours, ToT, RNRC, and Rise of the Resistance. We also had lunch at Docking Bay and had an extended snack break and Ronto Roasters. After some shopping we were out of the park around 6. We never felt rushed so I feel like DHS shouldn't be as stressful as you might think.

Thanks for your post. If arriving just before 10, would you agree with skipping MMRR first thing and going on SDD first? Thinking then TSM, and then either the shorter of Smugglers or RnR/ToT.

can 2 of go for the BG at once? I’m thinking of pre selecting your group and ready to hit submit at exactly 10, if that’s allowed.

 

[andy_dangg]

Thanks for your post. If arriving just before 10, would you agree with skipping MMRR first thing and going on SDD first? Thinking then TSM, and then either the shorter of Smugglers or RnR/ToT.

can 2 of go for the BG at once? I’m thinking of pre selecting your group and ready to hit submit at exactly 10, if that’s allowed.

1. Yes, I would definitely skip MMRR first thing. The line builds REALLY quickly. We were in the park around 9:30 and the line was long. It stays decent length but dies down for sure as the day goes on. We also went to SDD first. We got to the ride and it was already running 15ish minutes before opening with a ten minute wait but since we wanted ROTR we were worried we might miss the BG window. We just stood to the side of the entrance and got our BG, then rode with a 15ish minute wait for Slinky. TSM was a walk on pretty much all day, I wouldn't worry about riding it right away. I think RNRC and ToT will be the better second choice, the line for Smugglers was decent the first 2 hours but was practically a walk on after lunch.

2. We were logged in to the same account on five phones. I ended up getting the BG--I'm the one who practiced from home the most, so I definitely think it's worth practicing before your first time. If you do it at home and get the "is everyone in the park?" page, you would have gotten a BG if you were in the park. You can't preselect your group. The way I did it was closing out the app and reopening it at 9:58, then once it was 9:59, I started refreshing the virtual queue page by pulling down from the top. Right at ten I hit join and added my party. The easiest way is to have only your party on your family and friends list so you can just select all instead of scrolling through a cluttered list.