How would you arrange your days?

[tink0412]

We have an upcoming trip and are a little overwhelmed with the park reservation system. We have a 3 and 4 yr. old DG staying at the Boardwalk and are there for 10 days

We were thinking 2 days at MK, 1 day at AK, 1 day at HS (which we are worried about as there is so much to do), and 1.5 days at Epcot, and 2 relaxing days. Plus arrival and departure days. The girls still nap so we have to return to the hotel each afternoon and we do have Park hopper.

Where would you start or plan your days?

 

[VandVsmama]

I'd probably do something like this:

• Arrival day - Day 1 - pool time, eat dinner @ Boardwalk or nearby, get kids to bed early.
• Day 2 - MK, arrive to park early. Leave right after lunch. Nap. Head back for dinner, do couple of hours' of rides, be back at room for kids' normal bed time.
• Day 3 - AK, arrive early, lunch or brunch at Tusker House, leave right after lunch time. Nap. After dinner, go to Epcot, but stay in Future World, focus on stuff like the aquarium, Nemo & Friends, Spaceship Earth, then back in time for normal bed time.
• Day 4 - rest day. No parks. Let everybody sleep in. Maybe go to Fort Wilderness to visit the horses, take the kids on a pony ride (not sure if you need to book this ahead of time). Back to room for nap. After nap, pool time. Maybe dinner @ Chef Mickey's. Back at room by normal bed time.
• Day 5 - HS - similar routine, get there early, lunch at Prime Time Cafe (indoors, air conditioned!) or Woody's Lunch Box (in Toy Story Land, but mobile order way ahead of time, you'll have to eat outside). Plan on going back to room for nap like usual. Don't miss the Frozen Sing-Along. If you miss it in the morning, head back to HS for the evening, but check what the last show time is for Frozen Sing Along before your trip. By this point in the trip, the kids might be really wiped out, so play it by ear in the evening.
• Day 6 - Epcot - goal to be there for your 30 min early entry if possible. I'd start at Remy's. And I'd pay for Genie+ on this day in order to get a return time/window for the Frozen ride. Be sure to hit up the ride in the Mexico pavilion. If the kids get tired/worn out, you can use the show in the American pavilion for down time. Repeat any favorites from Epcot from a couple of days' prior. Book an ADR for lunch at Via Napoli. See the strategy so far? Hit the park early, have an ADR in air conditioned space for lunch, then leave, then nap, then play it by ear in the evening. In this case, I'd go back to MK after dinner.
• Day 7 - rest day. This would be a good day to do a character breakfast at 1 of the resorts, like Chef Mickey's or Topolino's Terrace.
• Day 8 - Epcot in a.m., ADR @ Biergarten in Germany pavilion...because there's a band, it's fun, it's noisy (so when the kids are loud, nobody's going to care), then leave right after lunch. Maybe don't go back to a park in the evening. Pool time. QS dinner somewhere, early to bed.
• Day 9 - MK in a.m. and in evening. Leave MK for lunch...take boat to Wilderness Lodge & eat at Geyser Point. Then boat back to MK, then bus to Boardwalk, kids take nap, pool time, then bus back to MK. If it's in the budget, have dinner in Cinderella's Castle. Or if you can't get a dinner ADR, have lunch there instead. Or do Be Our Guest for dinner or lunch and Geyser Point for the other meal. Decide if you want to keep the kids up for fireworks or not.
• Day 10 - departure day. If your flight leaves in afternoon & you'll have time in the morning, do 1 more character breakfast if it's in the budget. If not in the budget, then just eat QS breakfast at Boardwalk & maybe 1 last swim in the pool before you finish packing and take the sad bus ride back to the airport.

If Hoop Dee Doo Revue reopens before your trip, then have dinner there for 1 of your evenings, preferably 1 of the rest days...otherwise, do it on a MK day.

 

[Jacq7414]

How long did you get your tickets for? We have a 10 day/9 night stay as well and just ended up doing the 10 day tickets because it didn’t really cost that much more. We are doing a poly/BC split.

day 1: MK. I figured we’d just go at night and ride some rides during the fireworks
Day 2: AK we have a 2 pm Sanaa lunch and plan to go back to the hotel afterwards. Maybe will do MK at night again.
day 3: switching hotels. I have Epcot booked. Figured maybe go there at night. We have an 1130 am homecomin brunch.
day 4: (easter) we have CRT breakfast and have MK for the day.
day5: HS. We have 2 pm h&v lunch. Planned to go back to the hotel after. It’s Epcot late hours so we were going to go there at night.
day 6: AK. Probably will rope drop and only do a half day. Then go back to the hotel. We have 7 pm BOG dinner. So MK at night
Day 7: HS. Will go back to the hotel in the afternoon again. We have 645 pm storybook dining and it’s MK late night hours and we planned to do that.
day 8: Epcot. We will rope drop just for Remy & Frozen and then go to Topolino’s at 11:50 am. Will go back to the hotel after. I booked a fireworks desserts party at MK so guess we are going back to MK
Day 9: MK I always like spending the last full day at MK. We have space 220 dinner though at night.
day 10: HS.

our flight comes in at 930 am and we are flying out at 515 pm

we have a 5 year old. We plan to go back to the hotel for the hot/more crowded afternoon hours and then go back to the parks, more likely a different one at night

 

[Jacq7414]

I should also add my daughter is really flexible and fine with late night hours. we brought her 2 times already and we kept her at MK until after 11 pm

since you guys are staying at the boardwalk you do get the deluxe nighttime hours which I’d use if you think they’ll be up to it. Especially for magic kingdom.

 

[sponica]

It's weird how when you have MORE time to play with, you're baffled at how to plan.

I don't like the morning rush myself (I have a hard enough time getting a 5 year old out the door to get to before care at 645, I really don't want to do that EVERY morning while on vacation).

I'm not sure if I would do full rest days myself. Once you get to that range in tickets, adding the extra days isn't that much.
Maybe instead of a full rest day- hang out by the pool then go to Epcot in the PM, especially if there's a festival.

Since you have the extra time, I might try to break up HS into 2 separate visits so you don't feel overwhelmed by it all.

 

[sponica]

I should also add my daughter is really flexible and fine with late night hours. we brought her 2 times already and we kept her at MK until after 11 pm

since you guys are staying at the boardwalk you do get the deluxe nighttime hours which I’d use if you think they’ll be up to it. Especially for magic kingdom.

Jealous, mine are like gremlins after 7 PM....but they also get up at 530 (I keep trying for a firmware upgrade that installs the sleep later chip)

 

[Jacq7414]

I'm not sure if I would do full rest days myself. Once you get to that range in tickets, adding the extra days isn't that much.

For real! It wasn’t even an extra $40 TOTAL to add 2 extra days for the 3 of us (we were going to do 8). I was like yea. No brainer.

Jealous, mine are like gremlins after 7 PM....but they also get up at 530 (I keep trying for a firmware upgrade that installs the sleep later chip)

Oh she’d never wake up that early . It’s going to be hard to get her up for the trip. I figured we will have some days where we won’t rope drop. She likes to sleep in.

 

[Disturbia]

Frozen is back to being a LLIA$ now. Make sure you check the rides as those change constantly (Everest is now under refurbishment).

 

[mjkacmom]

It's weird how when you have MORE time to play with, you're baffled at how to plan.

I don't like the morning rush myself (I have a hard enough time getting a 5 year old out the door to get to before care at 645, I really don't want to do that EVERY morning while on vacation).

I'm not sure if I would do full rest days myself. Once you get to that range in tickets, adding the extra days isn't that much.
Maybe instead of a full rest day- hang out by the pool then go to Epcot in the PM, especially if there's a festival.

Since you have the extra time, I might try to break up HS into 2 separate visits so you don't feel overwhelmed by it all.

I would also get length of stay tickets being at the boardwalk. It’s just so easy to get to Epcot and DHS, even for just an hour or so.