How do YOU decide what parks to hit on different days?

[MeganMango]

I'll be in Disney from March 6th (I arrive in Orlando at 9:45am), and will be in the parks Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The last time I was there was a few years ago for Marathon weekend but didn't get a chance to do a lot.

Magic Kingdom has extra magic hours til 12am on Thursday, but I don't know if I can wait that long to be in MK. I dont want to spend extra on a park hopper, so can anyone assist with a plan of attack? I really don't know too much about Disney World, but know I want to be in Animal Kingdom on Tuesday for the extra magic morning hours. What's in Epcot and Hollywood studios? Worth spending a full day at either/or? I'll have a lot more time to explore and I'm SO excited!

 

[KatherineDisney]

Are you park hopping? The plus of FP+ allows you to build your days how you see fit. If you wanted to schedule FP+ for MK earlier in the trip one afternoon, you can always hop there after doing morning at DHS to hit the big rides. IMO Epcot is worth it right now to at least see the World Showcase, but keep in mind that opens later in the morning than the rest of the park. I basically look at EMH, if I want to take advantage of the early hours GREAT I chose that park. If I know I won't be waking up for EMH, I choose a different park for the day. Good luck and happy planning!

 

[MeganMango]

Are you park hopping? The plus of FP+ allows you to build your days how you see fit. If you wanted to schedule FP+ for MK earlier in the trip one afternoon, you can always hop there after doing morning at DHS to hit the big rides. IMO Epcot is worth it right now to at least see the World Showcase, but keep in mind that opens later in the morning than the rest of the park. I basically look at EMH, if I want to take advantage of the early hours GREAT I chose that park. If I know I won't be waking up for EMH, I choose a different park for the day. Good luck and happy planning!

No I don't plan on park hopping as of now! Although it's tempting... I haven't bought my tickets yet, I plan to tomorrow evening. Just booked my hotel and flight today. I'm staying at All Star Sports.

 

[luvgoing2disney]

The last two trips I followed the advice on easy wdw. His advice was spot on and being free did not hurt either!

 

[katt789]

In all honesty, I would splurge for Park Hopping. My very first trip we did not, but every trip since we have, if you can spare the extra change, it's worth it! If a park is too crowded, or you finish up super early, or you manage to get that tricky adr on a day you weren't planning for that park, it's easy to head somewhere different instead.

-Mk is a full day, if not 2 days to see as much as you can
-DAK, especially with EMH, you'll be able to do in one day, if even less.
Arrive at rope drop, go straight to Everest, ride it, ride Safari,depending on time, go back to Dinosaur, ride it, go the the 11 am FOLK, fp Nemo somewhere in the later morning/afternoon, check out some characters and get some food
-Dhs TO ME is a half day park, or at least a leave and have a nap & come back park. Rope drop, go straight to TSMM or ToT, whichever you DO NOT have fp for, ride it, head to say, RnR, ride it, go to Launch Bay, do star wars stuff, use fp for star tours, a second TSMM or beauty and the beast and say, great movie ride, aim to have everything done by around 2pm. Nap/swim for a few hours, eat dinner at the resort (qs food sucks at dhs) come back for SW fireworks and Fantasmic
-Epcot all depends on you. It can be a 1/4 day park or an entire full day park. Arrive at rope drop, do test track, mission space, anything else in future world that you want and spend the rest of the day wandering world showcase. Meet some characters (Belle & Mulan ONLY greet here) see what else is up. I usually find this doesn't take me long and depending on the group I'm with we'll hop somewhere else or we'll go to for a nap/swim and come back for Illuminations. If you plan on drinking through the world, then it will take all day(my advice for that is to do at least 2 laps around, and only get a drink every second country and take the time to check out the pavillions and the entertainment they have to offer. Don't miss American Music Machine in America!!)

 

[mzsarah10]

Def use easywdw. He will give you rationale for why you should go to what park. We tend to avoid EMH parks as it attracts more crowds; just our preference.

 

[MeganMango]

The last two trips I followed the advice on easy wdw. His advice was spot on and being free did not hurt either!

Any chance you have a link to that? I googled easywdw but can't find any strategy on parks

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Easy WDW is THE BEST planning site hands down in my opinion.

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/crowd-calendars/
http://www.easywdw.com/easy/

Even when not planning a Disney trip I visit his site multiple times each week to read the posts.

 

[mrzrich]

From easywdw:

 

[mrzrich]

To explain the calendar above, parks in green are recommended on that day. Parks in red are not. It really is best to go to the actual website easywdw to get the full explanation and rationale for the recommendations. He also has touring plans to help you plan your best experience

 

[MeganMango]

Thank you all!!!

 

[senadler]

If you are not planning on park hopping I would definitely avoid EMH. While they can be a good option for a few early hours or late hours, you do not want to be locked into that park for the full day. I agree with others, easywdw is the way to go.

 

[minnie mum]

I also use easywdw.com to plan which park to go to each day. When you go to the appropriate crowd calendar, scroll down for a detailed explanation of why each park is or isn't recommended.

For a relatively short visit for someone who hasn't visited before, or who hasn't visited a lot, I would not recommend a park Hopper. There is more than enough in each park to fill a day. The only reason to perhaps get one would be to go to an evening EMH park on an evening where the park you are in that day closes early, and you still have the energy for a few more hours. I'm too old for that.

I also use the cheat sheets from easywdw.com. These are simple touring plans that show how to plan your park day to minimize standing in long standby lines. They also give advise on prioritizing your FP choices.

 

[MataHari22]

I go for 8 nights, with 7 days in the parks and I do not park hop, and I basically go with easywdw for the majority of my days. Since I have been going during party season, I do end up having to do one or two days on a non recommended park day, so I can see the nightly entertainment at MK.

 

[aretha30]

We also use easywdw.com for our daily park recommendations. We do buy park hoppers. If a park is crowded or we decide that we want to see something again we are free to go back. We feel like they give us freedom and flexibility; we did one trip without them and it was awful. We felt so restrained.

 

[Parker Clan]

We have also bought Park hoppers every year the last five years and enjoy the flexibility, we hit a park in the morning, break during the day, then hit another park at night.
In my opinion, Epcot is a full day Park... Depending on what you want to see/accomplish... In fact we spend more than a day there because of the Hopper.
From what I'm hearing now, HS is not a full day Park. But it has the best ride (in my opinion ) Tower of Terror so we make sure to get that two to three times and definitely ride it at night for an extra thrill!

 

[geek+nerd]

We are morning people, so we always go with whatever park has early morning EMH.

 

[Disneylover99]

We generally avoid the EMH parks, especially when we don't have hoppers.

 

[mshanson3121]

For our last trip I went by the crowd calendar pretty much religiously, with the exception of two days which were due to necessity. Having done that once, next time, honestly (since we go at a busy time), we'll just base it off what works best for us. The "not recommended" day at MK because they had morning EMH (we were off site) ended up being one of our best days there. The "recommended" day at AK, was one of the worst (busiest) days. So... my theory is - just do what works best for you.

So for us, next time, I know that my son wants the very first park we go to, to be AK. So, it really won't matter one whit what the crowd calendar is, that's what we'll do. I like planning rest days immediately after nights when we would be out really late, so if we were at MK watching Wishes, the next day would be a rest day. The only thing I might possibly put into consideration is if we were going to do an evening in park, I might try to avoid the parks with evening magic hours (as typically I think they are busier than morning EMH, so have more of an impact).

 

[IndianaRRT]

I personally feel that park hopper tickets are a must. I don't know that I would pay for them if I had little ones, but we can hop without issue. I look at the crowd calendars and pay attention to any special events happening around WDW, but we tend to follow the same general outline. On arrival day, we try to mix a park, Disney Springs, and a dinner ADR at a resort. For instance, for our 2015 trip, we first went to Disney Springs, did a lap around the World Showcase at Epcot, had a FP+ for Soarin', and then hopped a boat for dinner at Trail's End, followed by watching Wishes from the FW beach. We like to use 1/2 day for AK (but that may change for our 2017 trip with all the AK additions), 1 and a 1/2 days minimum for Epcot and MK, and 1 day for DHS. Park order is determined by crowd expectations, EMH, how late we'll be out the night before, and any special things we can only do at a certain time--like ADRs. I also make a list with the family of 1 "must-do" for each day we're there. As long as our plans cover those and we leave at least a 1/2 day free, then I feel confident. In the end, as long as you have a good vacationing attitude, you'll enjoy your vacation--and that's the most important part!!