How do you start each park..?

[CaroM8]

To make this easier, let's assume you have zero pre-booked rides, how do you physically roam/visit each park?
Do you usually start at a specific point and follow the parks natural "flow"?
Do you hit your favorite spots, or must do rides first?
Do you bounce around to whichever ride/attraction has the lowest wait time?

We've never been to Disney and our first trip is in September with our 6 year old.

MK: Planning on walking straight to the back of castle then looping around (either side) to be back near the main entrance by midday in case we need a hotel break, then do the other side
HS: Make our way to Toy Story Land first thing, then loop around the Star Wars area, towards main entrance again in case we need break, then Sunset Blvd.
EPCOT: This one is hard for me. We will be coming in through the Skyliner entrance. Thinking of heading towards the side where Moana, Nemo and the Aquarium etc. But if we want to leave the park, there's no other than to back track...?
AK: Thinking of starting in the Dinosaur area, then following the park around counterclockwise..

Am I overthinking this? Thanks everyone!!

 

[dez1978]

We usually bounce around hitting our fav rides, or the ones with the lowest wait time. Or at least thats what we did in 2021 when there were no LL or Genie. I am horrible about backtracking and criss crossing. Drives my husband batty.

 

[C.Witch]

The "best" strategy will first depend on whether you're using Lightning Lane or not. If you are, a logical circuit of the park is usually not in the cards, as you'll be back and forth to take advantage of booking LLs.

If you're not using LL, it will depend on your priorities. If you want to rope drop and get the jump on higher demand rides, you'll start in areas of each park with the most headliners/in demand attractions. For MK that will likely be Fantasyland, EP will be World Showcase for Frozen/Remy, DHS will be Galaxy's Edge or Toy Story Land, and AK will be Pandora.

If you're not fussed about getting on all the rides, want to avoid crowds and enjoy a more leisurely pace, plan the opposite of above and choose quieter lands to start your day.

 

[Lesverts]

Depends on goals and to be honest how tall and adventurous your 6 y/o is.

Personally:

Magic Kingdom; I am a complete oddball here. I do not rush to Fantasyland for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I go get a Main Street Bakerybucks and sit and have some fun with the Adventureland CM while I enjoy my drink and wait for 9am. I do jungle cruise, pirates, Big Thunder, Tiana's if arranged and Haunted Mansion. I check what the wait times are and usually hit the low wait Fantasyland rides and shows and go for a break.
Animal Kingdom: Straight with the horde to flight of passage. Followed by Navi River Journey and into Africa for the safari and usually some form of Tusker House breakfast/lunch. Asia is next followed by a drink at Nomad Lounge and break.
DHS: I have 2 here. Either head straight for TSL and ride those 3 rides straight away, followed by Mickey and Minnie's and Rock'n'Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror or I head to RnRC and ToT first, followed by Mickey and Minnies and finish with shows/characters/snacks before break
Epcot: I enter at International Gateway as well usually. I go straight to Remy followed by Frozen and work through Mission Space/Guardians/Connections Cafebucks followed by Soarin' and Living with the Land before either in park lunch or break.

 

[beccasmom]

For the MK, for many years we first headed left to Adventureland, but lately - for no particular reason - we head to Tomorrowland first. I do enjoy Carousel of Progress and the PeopleMover and try not to miss them. Then we loop around and visit attractions as we go along.

For Epcot we try to enter through the International Gateway. I enjoy visiting the countries and try to end the visit in France so that we don’t miss seeing Impressions de France, my favorite attraction, now relegated to a few shows per day. And we love eating in France as well, even if just stopping for ice cream. We do enter Epcot through the main entrance sometimes, but all the construction there over the past few years has been annoying (although it was not as bad on our last trip).

 

[ShannyMcB]

We try to plan our day around the weather. Since you are going in Sept heat (and rain?) will be factors. Try to hit rides with outdoor queues early or late in the day. We are willing to wait in a longer indoor queue midday if it means avoiding it in the heat…so for HS for example def start with slinky/alien swirling saucers and wait until later for all things Star Wars and run away railway since a lot of that is indoors. Same with muppets or any other indoor show for a break.

 

[neverlandsky]

We have our family's maximum standby wait limit for a ride. For our family since everyone is now adults, it's 40 minutes standby. Anything longer than 40 minutes is a no go for us. When the kids were little, it was 20 minutes tops. We pick a land and go from there.

 

[CallCaedmon]

My daughter and I use a google spreadsheet for each day to make sure we hit our must dos. If standby is too long and we don’t get a LL, it’s on to the next on the list

 

[Disneylover99]

We decide the first ride or two that we want to go on as we enter a park, then we bounce.

 

[CaroM8]

Epcot: I enter at International Gateway as well usually. I go straight to Remy followed by Frozen and work through Mission Space/Guardians/Connections Cafebucks followed by Soarin' and Living with the Land before either in park lunch or break.

When taking a break (leaving the park) in the afternoon, there is no other way then to back track from where you came from, I guess? Epcot seems like a lot of walking in between attractions/rides compared to the others... We might even consider a stroller for this one...

 

[scrappinginontario]

We tend to bounce around, letting wait times and favourite attraction be our guide.

One thing to mention is that MK, especially for your first trip, has a lot to be and is a 2 day park for many. Will your 6yo wants to meet characters?

 

[CaroM8]

We tend to bounce around, letting wait times and favourite attraction be our guide.

One thing to mention is that MK, especially for your first trip, has a lot to be and is a 2 day park for many. Will your 6yo wants to meet characters?

Yes, we are doing 2 days in MK - one on a Halloween party day (not attending) with a CRT res around 5pm and the other is a non party day. We might do a few meets but we also booked some character meals for that purpose (CRT and Topolino's for now). So if we don't have time for the meets in the parks, at least we saw some at the restaurants. Is that a good strategy?

 

[Draco0801]

last trip we bounced around by wait times and 1st day in AK and we missed half of what we wanted to do. No LL or Genie due to friends meeting we just winged it. We regretted not planning in advance.
Next day in HS we did start with TOT no wait and RNRC then worked our way around Park checking times seemed 20 min most rides without using Genie we saved Star Wars for Last and only waited 30min for Rise

We go back in 2 weeks contemplating buying the Multipass or LL so I can get on rides I didn't get to do it will be hot so I really do not want to walk around hoping to get on rides or waiting in line in the heat

 

[zackiedawg]

Good news is that there's no bad way to do the parks - just whatever works best for you. Some people are there to prioritize rides above all, some are there for a particular section of the park, some are just at the parks for the atmosphere with no particular priority, and some are in full relax mode with no schedule or plan (I usually fall into that last category - but I live reasonably close to Disney and take trips there 4-5 times a year).

If entering Epcot through International Gateway and worried about taking a mid-day break - I'd suggest breaking it into two, or three, miniloops. Start by breaking left and heading to the central walkway (World Celebration), through the middle of the park, and then loop around to the left to hit Nemo, Moana, Land, and Journey (World Nature)...at the end of that loop, you'll be at Journey and closest to heading back to International Gateway if you decide you want the break - take the path from Journey to Canada, past England, and out the gate. If you don't feel the need for a break yet, start the next loop - circle back to the center area, then break right and hit the side (World Discovery) with Guardians, Space, Test Track...that will put you close to the center again, so you could opt back to International Gateway again if you wanted. Then for the last loop, head straight across to Mexico, and loop the World Showcase section clockwise...at the end of the loop, you're at France and right next to the International Gateway again.

Don't forget - depending on where you're staying, you may still have the option to return to your resort via the busses at the main entrance - so you could plan a walk from International Gateway through World Nature and/or Discovery, and end up around Spaceship Earth - then out the main entrance to the busses. That won't work if staying at one of the Skyliner resorts as they don't run busses (unless the Skyliner is down). I had a friend come with me who was deathly afraid of heights and could not ride the Skyliner from Caribbean Resort - which was a big problem. She ended up having to take a bus to Disney Springs, then a bus to Yacht/Beach/Boardwalk, to walk into Epcot or Hollywood Studios (or take their boat).

 

[wdw&sonny]

Well, I think you get this, but your question is what built this (any many other) website and for that matter, an entire industry of how to manage a WDW vacation.
But, like others have said, there's no wrong way. Since, this is your first trip, don't worry about doing it wrong. This will be your first of many WDW trips. Use this trip to learn what you would want to do differently next time.

My best advice: Go early. Make ADRs. Take a mid-day break.

 

[CaroM8]

Good news is that there's no bad way to do the parks - just whatever works best for you. Some people are there to prioritize rides above all, some are there for a particular section of the park, some are just at the parks for the atmosphere with no particular priority, and some are in full relax mode with no schedule or plan (I usually fall into that last category - but I live reasonably close to Disney and take trips there 4-5 times a year).

If entering Epcot through International Gateway and worried about taking a mid-day break - I'd suggest breaking it into two, or three, miniloops. Start by breaking left and heading to the central walkway (World Celebration), through the middle of the park, and then loop around to the left to hit Nemo, Moana, Land, and Journey (World Nature)...at the end of that loop, you'll be at Journey and closest to heading back to International Gateway if you decide you want the break - take the path from Journey to Canada, past England, and out the gate. If you don't feel the need for a break yet, start the next loop - circle back to the center area, then break right and hit the side (World Discovery) with Guardians, Space, Test Track...that will put you close to the center again, so you could opt back to International Gateway again if you wanted. Then for the last loop, head straight across to Mexico, and loop the World Showcase section clockwise...at the end of the loop, you're at France and right next to the International Gateway again.

Don't forget - depending on where you're staying, you may still have the option to return to your resort via the busses at the main entrance - so you could plan a walk from International Gateway through World Nature and/or Discovery, and end up around Spaceship Earth - then out the main entrance to the busses. That won't work if staying at one of the Skyliner resorts as they don't run busses (unless the Skyliner is down). I had a friend come with me who was deathly afraid of heights and could not ride the Skyliner from Caribbean Resort - which was a big problem. She ended up having to take a bus to Disney Springs, then a bus to Yacht/Beach/Boardwalk, to walk into Epcot or Hollywood Studios (or take their boat).

Thank you so much for explaining those loops for me, I can visualize it now

 

[Mouse Tracker]

first trip is in September with our 6 year old.

Is the focus of your trip experiences geared toward the 6 y/o? That would factor into how the group toured.

If not, seek out interests, hop on rides when convenient, snack - stroll.

Intensity of touring each park along with what is considered must do is what I base my strategy on.

 

[CaroM8]

Is the focus of your trip experiences geared toward the 6 y/o? That would factor into how the group toured.

Yes, her and I will mainly focus on what she wants to do. Hubby might branch out here and there to do the rides that we wont like Tron, the Roller Coaster in HS, GOTG etc..

 

[jimim]

We bounce. Lots of walking. If we walk by a shorter line we jump in if we were in route. Pretty much we plan as we go. We start each day in a park at rope drop and hit a headliner then go from there. It varies trip to trip a bit but in general we have “our” ride by ride route for each park which varies from day to day and trip to trip. We don’t do any lightening genie paid stuff. We can destroy a park by 12-1 pm then come back in at night. Night is your friend. I never stay in the park past 1. To me not worth it.

 

[loves to dive]

We are, and have always been, a seat of the pants Disney family. We never have a plan, although now that my son has a 3 yr. old little girl they do decide one or two rides in each park that are must dos. We just sort of wander around and if there is a ride we want to ride, we hop in line. We don't even look at wait times.

I would suggest with one that age, you maybe pick out two or three must do rides in each park and go from there. You hit those rides and everything else is gravy. As far as Epcot, yes, most of the rides are at the front of the park. One way to kind of cut down on the walking is to take the boat across the lake. You will get on it sort of before Canada and off at Morocco or reverse if you are starting in the countries. Epcot also has kidcot in each country which is fun for most kids and is inside. F&W will be happening so be prepared for it to start getting crowded toward evening.

Sept. is going to be hotter then the surface of the sun and it will rain every single day. That may be a quick 1/2 hour afternoon shower, an afternoon 2 hour gully washer or even a light on and off all day rain. But it will rain every day. I always have some sort of rain gear with me, either a disposable poncho, a real poncho, a longer rain coat that goes below my knees and some days one of those and an umbrella. I just put on my rain gear and go about my day, splashing in rain puddles and just enjoying it. Take more than one pair of shoes so when one gets wet you have another to change into while those dry. I always wear sandals but that is just because my feet don't like close toed shoes.