How does this plan look?

[sanibellife]

We have not been to WDW in a while and we are planning a Labor Day weekend trip. Arriving Thursday evening. Plan to be in the parks Friday-Monday. Leaving WDW Monday evening for flights home. We are family of 4 with 2 older teen & adult children.
We have park hoppers and our plan is to start early hopefully rope drops(this is hit or miss for us), head back to the hotel in the afternoon for a swim or nap, and then back to a park for dinner and the rest of the night. I know SWGE is opening and of course we would love to see as much as we can! We have also never seen Pandora or been on either ride. So here was my gameplan and I would love to hear the experts thoughts and any suggestions.

Friday Day - Animal Kingdom EMH 7:00 am
Friday Night - Magic Kingdom - We are also doing MNSSHP this night

Saturday Day - Epcot 9:00 am
Saturday Night - Hollywood Studios

Sunday Day - Hollywood Studios EMH 6:00 am
Sunday Night - Animal Kingdom

Monday - Have open to do which ever parks we want

Would love to hear suggestions if I should move days/parks around. Also we will have the dining plan so any table service and counter service suggestions are welcome too! Like I said it has been several years since we have been and there are so many new places! We are foodies so any suggestions are welcome. No picky eaters in our group!
Thanks for your help!

 

[caylene44]

I am going the same time frame as you are so I have a couple questions:

• Are you planning on booking dining reservations? The window opened up in February so there might not be availability every place you want to eat (although people cancel all the time). I would get together with your family to choose restaurants that look interesting to you/suit your tastes and then see if you can get reservations. If there are any "must dos", that might help dictate where you are on any given day. Plus, this will help you ensure that you will maximize the dining plan and use all of your table service credits.
• Are you staying on property? I'm assuming so based on the fact that you're trying to utilize EEMHs. Your FP+ day is coming up this weekend (I actually think we arrive the same day so it's this coming Sunday at 7 am EST). I highly recommend narrowing down your park strategy and choosing the "must have" FP+ so you can book them on Sunday. For instance, if you are really hoping to get FP for Pandora, you gotta be up and ready to book Sunday morning. This will also help dictate which park you are in on any given day.

Generically, your schedule looks fine to me but I know the above are things that I consider when scheduling my park days.

 

[sanibellife]

Hi Caylene
Thank you for your message! I am working on dining selections now. We are flexible on when/where we eat so I am hoping we find some availability.
Yes we are staying on site.
FP day is fast approaching! Setting my alarm so I am up bright and early! I have narrowed down our FP selections so fingers crossed we get some. Have to say the new Tier systems at HS is a complete bummer!

 

[Daisy7425]

It is very, very easy to underestimate the amount of time transportation takes. From the middle of a park to your hotel room door can often take a very long time. For that reason, I would avoid splitting days into two parks. I would do this if I were you:

Friday Day - Animal Kingdom EMH
Friday Night - Magic Kingdom - MNSSHP

Saturday Day - Epcot 9:00 am
Saturday Night - Animal Kingdom

Sunday Day - Hollywood Studios EMH 6:00 am and all day

Monday -Magic Kingdom all day

If you can't find the availability in dining restaurants, look at Mouse Dining .com. It is free and you can set alerts to let you know as soon as a reservation you want opens up. We set two for our trip in February for meals that we really wanted and I got alerts in the following weeks when they opened up. Have a great time!

 

[lorilclevelandrn]

Agree w/ @Daisy7425.

General rule of thumb for my family is no park hopping if trip is less than 4 days. Primary reason is the time it takes to transfer from park to park often ranges btn 45-60 mts.

 

[sanibellife]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. Very much appreciated.
We are used to park hopping. We have done it every trip in the past. We like to go back to the hotel during the hot afternoons and take a break. So heading to a different park is not an issue. We have no problem Ubering too if wait times are crazy for busses. We stay at Poly so it is easy fo us to get to MK & Epcot.

We might try to hang at HS all day Sunday! Not a bad plan either!

 

[Timhags]

Family agreed plan? I would say let young adults do what they want. fP and parks. Dinner is family time. And enjoy some park time without them. Just you and dh, kids will love it

 

[caylene44]

Hi Caylene
Thank you for your message! I am working on dining selections now. We are flexible on when/where we eat so I am hoping we find some availability.
Yes we are staying on site.
FP day is fast approaching! Setting my alarm so I am up bright and early! I have narrowed down our FP selections so fingers crossed we get some. Have to say the new Tier systems at HS is a complete bummer!

You'll definitely be able to find availability if you're flexible! I've even heard of people finding same-day/day before reservations for some hard to get ADRs. People are cancelling their plans all the time, especially within 24 hours of reservation time to avoid the fees.

Same here! I'm on PST so I'll be up at the crack of dawn Same thing with ADRs, you'll definitely be able to get FPs, just might not be your preferred rides/times. But you can also switch them around while at the parks! Yes, I was definitely a little peeved about the new tier system but TSM was the priority ride for my BF so that solved that dilemma.

 

[TarHeel66]

I think you’d get more out of Epcot by flipping it to the evening on the day you’re going there. With older kids, the country pavilions may be more interesting. My $0.02 enjoy!!

 

[Nolefan1984]

Sounds busy for sure. we always just do 1 park per day.