I'd appreciate your thoughts on a first timer's plan

[fortheloveofchocolate]

My husband(40) and I(39) are going on our first and possibly only trip to Disney World! It'll just be the 2 of us. We've been to Disneyland 5 times in the last 20 years so we know we like rides and shows but we're not interested in Characters or parades. We're staying at Pop and we have 7 day park hoppers. The flights are also booked so we can't change those. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Mon. June 5th - Flight lands 11:30pm
Tue. June 6th - Late Morning HS. Lunch Sci Fi 1:00. Afternoon Break. Evening Wishes Dessert Party
Wed. June 7th - RD Epcot. Lunch San Angel 1:20. Afternoon Break. Evening AK.
Thu. June 8th - Kona Cafe 8:25. After breakfast MK. Afternoon Break. Evening HS. SW Dessert Party
Fri. June 9th - RD AK. Lunch Yak&Yeti 1:00. Afternoon Break. Evening Epcot. Illuminations
Sat. June 10th - RD MK. Lunch BeOurGuest 12:10. Afternoon Break. Evening Open.
Sun. June 11th - Sleep in. Breakfast Boma 9:30. Afternoon Church. Evening Disney Springs.
Mon. June 12th - RD Epcot. Lunch Via Napoli 1:25. Afternoon Break. Evening Open.
Tue. June 13th - No plans. Should we book FPs somewhere? Evening Dinner California Grill 9:00
Wed. June 14th - Fly out early. 6:00am

Thanks Again!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

You are doing an awful lot of park hopping which adds at least an hour (usually more) of bus time to your schedule every day.
I don't know if all your plans are set in stone yet, but I would probably make the SW dessert party on my HS day and the Wishes dessert party on my MK day.
WDW is huge, about twice the size of Manhatten (43 square miles) Disneyland is much much smaller and more manageable (only 500 acres)...
Also as of yet, there are no evening hours for AK, so hopping there for evening is probably not a great plan, UNLESS Pandora is open by then...
And I would definately take advantage of FPs my last day. You can always cancel them if not using, but certain.ones can be tough to get...
Also, don't miss Fantasmic! It's an amazing amazing show!
Hope I'm not bursting your bubble...

 

[Accident]

Wed. June 7th - RD Epcot. Lunch San Angel 1:20. Afternoon Break. Evening AK.

this one you'll have to see if you need to adjust closer to your trip, evenings at ak is a newer thing and with ROL still not running nobody really knows if the hours are gonig to go back up as the sun stays out later. I see you have another day at ak so you'll be good there for stuff not opened at night (very little is opened at night). There is also a good chance pandora will be opened by your trip so this is probably a mute point and it will be opened late and pandora sounds like an area of the park you want to see in day and night.

Tue. June 13th - No plans. Should we book FPs somewhere? Evening Dinner California Grill 9:00

you would need a ticket in order to get fp for that day. If you have a ticket then just, randomly pick somewhere you think yo might want to head back too and get some fastpasses. You can remove or change them if you change your mind that day. same day fastpasses in the afternoon have been fairly easy to get. I"d probably get them for pandora rides in AK if they are being offered as AK might be a little packed if it did just opened and you'll might want another partial day if your other day in ak was too packed to finish or do what you wanted. pandora are going to be really hard to get fastpasses the first few weeks and just hard to get after that.

In general, the biggest mistake many first timers take is park hopping. Even rides with same names, very few are the same rides as in disneyland. MK is probably gong to take 2 full days. the rest 1 full day.. To hop just to eat will be 4-5 hours of you rtime including eating. if your going elsewhere after that meal then add an hour to get there at minimum.

I'm not a fan of desert parties, especially for a first trip. It really messes up when you need to eat but still leave room to get your money worth. Keep the star wars one though as it's rough to get an ok spot let alone a great spot to watch.

 

[fortheloveofchocolate]

Ok it sounds like I'm doing too much Park Hopping...
So how do you pace yourself for a 7 day trip if you don't take afternoon breaks?
At Disneyland we normally go for 3 days. First day RD to Fireworks. Second day we start to get tired so we take an afternoon break. Third day I'm beat, we show up late and leave early. Fourth day I'm on a beach

 

[BalooFan]

Your plan is similar to the way I plan my trips, with a park in the morning, a table service meal each day, a different park in the evening, afternoon breaks, and periodic unscheduled time. If travel time bothers you, then this might not be a good plan for you. It doesn't bother me. Also, the times I have stayed at Pop I have found the bus transportation to be fairly good. I do recommend booking FP on 6/13 just to get something "on the books." You can always change or cancel them. I might also schedule another half day at MK. I have done both the Wishes and Star Wars dessert parties and enjoyed them both.

 

[spleuchan]

I like going to a park in the morning, going back to the hotel for a break in the peak heat and crowds of the day and then going back to a different (sometimes the same) park around dinner time. I like Fantasmic a lot. If you are only going once, I would make sure to see it.

 

[CarrieR]

FWIW, your schedule looks a lot like how I'd do mine - AM park, nap, different PM park. Granted, I'm a frequent flier/vet, but you couldn't pay me enough to spend all day in the same theme park. Others feel totally differently, so it is 100% a matter of personal preference

 

[Accident]

Ok it sounds like I'm doing too much Park Hopping...
So how do you pace yourself for a 7 day trip if you don't take afternoon breaks?
At Disneyland we normally go for 3 days. First day RD to Fireworks. Second day we start to get tired so we take an afternoon break. Third day I'm beat, we show up late and leave early. Fourth day I'm on a beach

Good description.

To give a little more comparison between the two so you can decide what will work for your visit. Disneyland has everything tighter and decorations are better thought out to fill in the little space. Rides at WDW are spaced out, ride queues are mostly indoors, not so many tiny walkways. It's just bigger both the park and the land between everything. some resorts are walking distance to 1 of the parks (sometimes 2 but it's a mile walk for those and the second park). Security is all over, there is no go through security once and your done so that's going to add a few minutes at every theme park.

Assuming your using the disney transportation. Getting anywhere will take 30-60 minutes depending on how long you waited for the boat/bus/monorail not counting the time to get to the stop to start the wait. If you need to transfer and take 2 forms of transportation, 60-90 minutes but certain times of year that could be 2 hours. again this is not counting getting to the transportation or security+time to walk over to what your heading to... Car you can generally get anywhere to anywhere in 15-20 minutes, 30 at the most with MK being the exception taking an extra 20 minutes because you have to take transportation across the lake as parking is not next to mk. (maybe uber/lyft/taxi for some of these hops, it's just faster to pay someone to take you direct but that's hard to know when you want to do that first time).

Where you need to transfer: resort to resort, springs to theme park, theme park to springs before 4pm, theme park and resort to/from water park. (they change this a lot so you'll want to learn what it is, sometimes you can go direct, sometimes direct is only certain hours of the day. depends on crowds and expected usage of the water parks).

 

[G719]

Ok it sounds like I'm doing too much Park Hopping...
So how do you pace yourself for a 7 day trip if you don't take afternoon breaks?
At Disneyland we normally go for 3 days. First day RD to Fireworks. Second day we start to get tired so we take an afternoon break. Third day I'm beat, we show up late and leave early. Fourth day I'm on a beach

You do what you want to do to make it the best trip for you. Everyone does the parks differently. We do a plan similar to yours with 2 kids. One park at rope drop, usually a different park in the evening with some resort relaxing in the middle. It's just how we enjoy doing our disney trips. There's no right or wrong way to vacation. Have a great trip!

 

[JennyMP03]

I stayed at Pop in early June just like you, and my schedule was very similar: rope drop at one park in the morning, back to Pop to swim/nap, and a different park in the evening. It worked beautifully for us (two adults, no kids). We were well-rested and refreshed following the afternoon break. So much more pleasant than trying to power through a full day in my opinion. The time spent on the bus was worth it to me.

 

[fortheloveofchocolate]

I'm definitely going to add Fantasmic to one of my free evenings. And I'll book some Magic Kingdom fastpasses for my last day since it seems like I'm going to need more time there.

I've lurked for a couple months and I really appreciate all those that post on here all the time. Thank you!

 

[Disfan5]

Considering it's just 2 adults, no parades or characters, and 7-day hoppers I think your plan sounds great! If you like to take an afternoon rest at the resort anyway then park hopping after is really no different than going back to the same park you went to in the morning.

 

[Accident]

You do what you want to do to make it the best trip for you. Everyone does the parks differently. We do a plan similar to yours with 2 kids. One park at rope drop, usually a different park in the evening with some resort relaxing in the middle. It's just how we enjoy doing our disney trips. There's no right or wrong way to vacation. Have a great trip!

Always good advice, your not going crazy but some information on how long certain things really take at WDW is just information to help plan how they want to take the trip.

 

[sharonabe]

Tue. June 13th - No plans. Should we book FPs somewhere? Evening Dinner California Grill 9:00
Wed. June 14th - Fly out early. 6:00am

This has me just a little concerned. Is your flight at 6:00 a.m? Are you using Disney transportation back to the airport? If so, they will be picking you up around 3:00 a.m. With a 9:00 p.m. dinner, you're not going to get much sleep that night.

 

[fortheloveofchocolate]

Thanks for your concern but I got a sweet deal on the flights and I have plans for a long nap in my own bed when I get home. Vacationing at Disney is hard work!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Vacationing at Disney is hard work

True that!!! LOL

 

[tlmadden73]

The only days I would hop are days you are leaving the parks for either:
1) a meal
2) you are just "done" with a short park like HS or AK or Epcot.
3) You want to enjoy the transporation between two parks (Epcot to DHS) or Epcot to MK.

I personally don't see a reason to hop from MK to go to Epcot to see Illuminations. Why not just stay at MK the whole day? Rest in the park and see Wishes that night.
Why start the day at HS just to go to MK for Wishes when you have a MK day already planned?

Don't get me wrong .. park hopping is fun, but planning it EVERY day may be a bit much (even for just two people).

 

[loves to dive]

I'm another one that doesn't see any problems with your plans. You aren't park hopping in the traditional sense of going from one park to another since you plan on going back to your room and taking it easy, even if you go back to your original park, you are going to have to factor in Disney transportation time. I've found the buses in the afternoon aren't that bad since most people have either settled into the park they are going to or are on the way back to the resort, going from resort to park they aren't that crowded. We almost always go to a different park in the evening than the one we started with in the morning and since you aren't interested in parades are shows, it is all doable. Actually sounds like a nice restful plan to me, no hurries and no worries. Enjoy.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I'm a big believer in taking a midday break and heading back to the resort to lounge in the room or hang out at the pool so I think your plan looks good. If you rope drop in June and stayed straight through closing you'd be looking at 12+ hours at the park in potentially 90+ degree heat. That just isn't that appealing to me anymore. My wife and I did an adults only trip 2 years ago and did something similar to what you have planned -- early morning at the parks, lunch reservations in the park or a close-by resort (though we usually ate earlier than what you appear to have planned -- around 11:30 or so since that is when the parks start getting busy), then back to our resort for a few hours before heading out for the evening.

With respect to time to spend in each park, there are some differences between the rides that are at both Disneyland and Disney World but those differences aren't necessarily showstoppers. Off the top of my head, I'd certainly recommend doing Tower of Terror at Disney World since it is significantly better than the (now closed) TOT at Disneyland, while several other rides are somewhat better at Disney World -- Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion come to mind. Disneyland doesn't really have anything similar to Animal Kingdom so I would want to spend the equivalent of a full day there, and Epcot is very fund to walk around in, even if it doesn't have that many rides that I think are outstanding. Test Track isn't as fun as Radiator Springs and I believe Soarin' is pretty similar at both parks. Living with the Land is fun and I haven't been on the Frozen ride.

With respect to transportation, we almost always take a cab/Uber from the resort to the parks or a dinner reservation. That way you don't have to wait for a bus to arrive and (depending on resort) ride the bus to other resorts to pick up guests before going to the park. A cab would cost about $20 each trip (including tip) and Uber would be significantly less. Cab/Uber can get you from your resort to anywhere on property in less than 20 minutes.

Your schedule includes several rope drop days which I think is important. You'll get a lot more done in 2 hours first thing in the morning than you will in 5 hours late morning/afternoon.

 

[Pmlocke]

You are doing jsut fine. The afternoon break is something I suggest for anyone who wants to truly enjoy a full day at the parks. I also applaud your choice of using the park hopper to see one park in the AM and a different one in the PM. It mixes up the day and you don't tend to get tired of the parks that way. This itenerary looks like the one my wife and I use every year when we visit. As for your fly out at 6 AM, I hope that meant what time you are leaving the resort, not the time the flight leaves. You may as well plan on staying up all night as you are catching the ME bus at 3 AM. Hopefully the parks are open late that night.