Help with first day / week strategy?!

[Lmans77]

First off disclaimer: Contrary to how this plea for help may seen, DH and I are pretty flexible people. I am trying to maximize fun without being held to the "schedule" too much.

Family of 4. Kids are 6 and 4 years old.

Trip Details: Check in early Sunday 6/8 (we are driving in and will be staying Saturday night in the Orlando area), check out early Saturday 6/14 (Not a park day) Staying at Wilderness Lodge in a bunk room.
We have a dining plan.

Using Easy WDW park suggestions, and what we want to do, this is my proposed list.

Sun: Animal Kingdom. Then 6:15 ADR for Hoop De Doo, but might change it to 8:15.
Mon: Epcot
Tue: Magic Kingdom. Chef Mickey breakfast at 7:40am. Liberty Tree at 6:35 pm
Wed: Magic Kingdom, CRT at 8:05
Thur: One of the water parks and maybe hop back to Epcot
Fri: HS
Sat: Leave.

Obviously, we are using 4 dining credits between HDD and CRT. We so enjoyed them last time (on a deluxe plan) and want to do them again.
I'm kind of glad we don't have a deluxe plan this time and don't have as many ADRs. We were very very tied to our ADRs last time.

My #1 question is do you think AK on Sun is enough? We liked AK but it's not #1 or anything. Want to do Kilimanjaro, maybe Everest if DH and I can squeeze it in. We saw Nemo last time, don't need to see it again. Did not do Dinosaurs, but I think my kids might be scared from what I've seen?

Another issue is that we did HS last on the last trip too, and by that day, we were really tired and cranky. We didn't get to do a lot of HS that we wanted to do...DH didn't get to ride RnR, neither of us got to ride ToT, and didn't see the car stunt show. Should I switch it with another day?

Or should I throw the recommended park stuff out the window and go where I want to go and when??
Is there anything else that sticks out to you?

 

[mrsmorrow]

First off disclaimer: Contrary to how this plea for help may seen, DH and I are pretty flexible people. I am trying to maximize fun without being held to the "schedule" too much.

Family of 4. Kids are 6 and 4 years old.

Trip Details: Check in early Sunday 6/8 (we are driving in and will be staying Saturday night in the Orlando area), check out early Saturday 6/14 (Not a park day) Staying at Wilderness Lodge in a bunk room.
We have a dining plan.

Using Easy WDW park suggestions, and what we want to do, this is my proposed list.

Sun: Animal Kingdom. Then 6:15 ADR for Hoop De Doo, but might change it to 8:15.
Mon: Epcot
Tue: Magic Kingdom. Chef Mickey breakfast at 7:40am. Liberty Tree at 6:35 pm
Wed: Magic Kingdom, CRT at 8:05
Thur: One of the water parks and maybe hop back to Epcot
Fri: HS
Sat: Leave.

Obviously, we are using 4 dining credits between HDD and CRT. We so enjoyed them last time (on a deluxe plan) and want to do them again.
I'm kind of glad we don't have a deluxe plan this time and don't have as many ADRs. We were very very tied to our ADRs last time.

My #1 question is do you think AK on Sun is enough? We liked AK but it's not #1 or anything. Want to do Kilimanjaro, maybe Everest if DH and I can squeeze it in. We saw Nemo last time, don't need to see it again. Did not do Dinosaurs, but I think my kids might be scared from what I've seen?

Another issue is that we did HS last on the last trip too, and by that day, we were really tired and cranky. We didn't get to do a lot of HS that we wanted to do...DH didn't get to ride RnR, neither of us got to ride ToT, and didn't see the car stunt show. Should I switch it with another day?

Or should I throw the recommended park stuff out the window and go where I want to go and when??
Is there anything else that sticks out to you?

When are you going exactly and what type of tickets do you have?

 

[Lmans77]

Parks June 8-13. 7 day park hopper.

 

[mrsmorrow]

I think AK on Sunday will be perfect. Maybe you could do Epcot first half of day on Monday, then late afternoon/evening spend a little time at HS? Then on Friday, you won't feel pressured to get it all done at that park and maybe after an afternoon rest you could go to MK for a little bit. Lots of kids ride Dinosaur, mine have been since they were around 5, but I personally think its scary!! It's super fun and we ride it multiple times when it's slow, but it is loud and dark and bumpy and, well, there's dinosaurs! Just make sure you FP Toy Story mania - your kids will probably love it! And do child swap if your 6 year old could handle ToT or some other bigger things

 

[sharonabe]

Could you switch it up and do HS on Tues and your 2nd MK day on Fri? Those are still good days for both on easywdw's calendar.

The way you have it right now, you're not hopping. Going to a water park and then a theme park is not hopping. Do you have WP&M option or are you paying OOP for that one day at the water park? I think I would drop the hoppers and then you can always add it back once you're at the parks if you need it.

 

[Lmans77]

Yes, we did have the WP&M tickets. I realize we're not hopping very much. Not intentionally or unintentionally.

Honestly, we made our reservations pretty recently. Then I immediately booked CRT and HDD. (made them with not much forethought). And only after that, did I try and start planning park strategies etc.

So maybe I should plan my parks and then switch my ADRs except for CRT? Or is that too much trouble?

Also, which water park for a 6 year and 4 year old. 6 yo is a great swimmer, 4 year old cannot.

 

[Princess Michele]

I don't know if you have made any changes to your park days yet or not. If I were going the same week as you I would stick with the schedule you have. You can make Thursday an early night so everyone gets a good nights sleep and is ready for HS the next day. With FP+ you can schedule TSMM if your family wants to ride it and your husband can do Rock N' Roller Coaster early before the lines get long.

If you really only want to ride the Safari and Everest at AK and not do much of anything else there and spend more time at Epcot there are two ways I would change things. 1. You could do Epcot and Hoop De Doo on Sunday and then on Thursday after the water park you could go to AK. It will be open until 7:00pm but you would need to know what time the last safari would be so you don't miss it. You could FP+ the safari and Everest and still have an early night to be rested for HS. 2. The other way would be to move Hoop De Doo to Thursday at 6:15pm and go to Epcot on Sunday after AK in the morning. You don't say if you will take breaks each day or not so you could go straight to Epcot from AK or after taking a break go to Epcot for dinner and attractions. If you can get to AK for rope drop you could save your FP+ selections for Epcot that evening.

I can't answer your water park question from experience but I have been trying to decide the same thing for our next trip. I have been seeing others say that Blizzard Beach is the better park for younger or inexperienced swimmers. They are saying that the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon is too strong and knocks kids down.