In which order should we see the Parks?

[ramee]

The first park on our first trip (with a 4yo and 1yo) was AK (on a Monday). I thought it was nice ease-in and build up to MK.

Arrival day was BB on Sunday with Ohana dinner. Stayed at the Poly.

MK on Tuesday when EMM was offered. Unfortunately we were tired even with the midday break and left around 6pm. But got a fair amount done. At least 9 rides and some meets.

Epcot whole day Wednesday when we decided we didn’t care for the travel to take a midday break. Turned out to be our favorite day of the trip.

1/2 day HS Thursday on our travel day home.

That’s what worked out for us. Happy planning. Enjoy your trip!

ETA: epcot will be our first park this time to catch the end of flower and garden.

 

[crazylady]

When we first took our little kids, someone suggested not starting with MK because most little kids love MK and if you do that first, the other parks are kind of a let down.

 

[mdsouth]

First family visit, hands down MK. That is quintessential Disney.

If it wasn't your first visit then I would say anything goes, but first visit, no doubt MK. JMHO.

Exactly! Magic Kingdom first and last day for sure!

We never start with MK. It’s a long flight with a time change that means by the time we get in the parks arrival day they have been open for some hours. 100% more magic to take everyone to MK for rope drop the next day. Less chaotic first view of the castle, that first rush of a walk down Main Street, and they get the welcome show to kick things off!

This is a good point. If you arrival in the afternoon, I would suggest just spending that day getting settled into the resort, swimming, and riding the monorail around the loop. This way you get a feel for Disney but are not exhausted for your first full day in the parks. You can pick a spot to eat dinner at one of the resorts along the monorail, or Disney Springs as someone suggested or your home resort.

 

[Donzie]

First visit? Start with MK. It kind of sets the tone. Watch the welcome show at the castle and let it all sink in. Other parks may seem strange without the context that MK provides, or at least I think so.

Absolutely this! Spot on.

 

[Nick6300]

Congrats on having such a long stay at WDW! With 9 days, you'll be able to see all 4 twice, and I'd probably pick MK 3x (and we often end at MK). We almost always park hop so usually hit all of the EMHs by going in the am, leaving around lunch time to 2nd park that we thought would be the least busy. Or going to the perceived least busy park and park hopping to the late EMH park in the evenings. Since you aren't park hopping, we'd personally avoid most EMH parks, generally picking the park that had EMH the day before. Such as going to EP on a wed (late hrs on Tue) or MK on Thurs (late hrs on Wed). If you compare many crowd calendars, while they do differ, you'll notice that EMH parks are going to be more crowded. Sat at MK is typically a no for us.

We're not always comfortable doing this plan - which is a lack of a daily plan going into FP picking am 60/30 days out. We pick our parks based on where we're able to hit Flight of Passage, Slinky Dog, and then Seven Dwarfs. Generally, we expect to not hit on Flight of Passage until day 4, so don't anticipate going to AK until then, for instance. We've done this before, when FoP first opened, and our goal was to obtain about 4-5 FoP FP. So one of started at the last day, and the other around day 3 to see which FoPs we could get, then filled in the other days, typically EP and MK earlier in the trip because of easier availability of premium FPs. With so many days, you have the luxury of knowing that you will probably see and do everything ok though, even in the summer.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We always start with MK on arrival day (we arrive around 11 am), even if it's late. I'm not in WDW until I set foot in the MK and see the castle! With FP+ it makes it so much easier!!! We used to end with MK but my kids like to do DHS on check out day now so MK is now our last full day park. With FP+ we get an extra ride on a hard to get FP+ since we stay for 9-10 days. Last trip we did DHS for a few hours on check out day before our flight. It gave us a second ride on SDD for the our trip.

 

[HuskieJohn]

For your DAH MK comment there is a Villains After Hours event at MK on the 12th from 10pm - 1am.

 

[MinnierellaMama]

Odd woman out over here ... We do six days and always start and end our trip with Epcot — mainly bc we stay at an Epcot area resort and enjoy the laid back Epcot-vibe to start and end our vacation. MK is always day 2 and 5 for us and we do one day each at AK and HS mid-week. However, given that it’s a first trip — I agree with other posters and say start at Magic Kingdom! If you’ve never been before, that’s the way to do it

 

[marjorieeeee]

I vote for Magic Kingdom last. The other parks won’t quite match its ride-after-ride magic, but will be amazing on their own.

But I think my perspective is skewed because I had been to Disneyland dozens of times before I first went to Florida, and all first-time visitors I’ve taken with me since then have been to Disneyland (we are west-coasters). So I wanted to present the whole world to them, rather than wear them out on the first day with an action-packed magic kingdom day. Epcot is a rough first day choice too, because it’s a longer, slower pace.

 

[MulanMom]

We used to start our WDW trip with Epcot. Arriving about 3pm or so, we would do the Future World section easily as most parkgoers have already done that portion earlier in the day. Also, when kids were little, it was a good park to start with before being mesmerized with Magic Kingdom. Now it depends on a variety of factors, when we arrive in Orlando, what hotel we are staying, day of the week, availability of FPs, TS ADRs. Kids are now young adults and have their say as well! All that being said, usually our last full park day/night is spent at MK.

 

[sapphirerose915]

I love ending my trip with MK and Ohana for dinner watching fireworks on the beach... the rest of the trip days I check crowd calendars and avoid any EMH days

 

[epcotty]

Magic Kingdom, Studios, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, after that repeat as you want

 

[RedsDrew]

Start with MK, followed by EPCOT, followed by HS, and lastly AK. I like the nostalgia of visiting them in the order they were built to see the progression.

 

[midnight star]

We started at Magic Kingdom.

 

[Afabena]

Hello!

Our first family visit to WDW is coming up in June! We will be arriving the 7th and leaving the 17th. I have base tickets for nine days starting on the 8th and could really use some help on how to choose which park to go to on each day. The only thing set in stone right now is Thursday the 11th in MK as I have signed us up for EMM. I am actually hoping that they decide to do DAH MK for one of the days that we'll be there as I would sign up for that instead, but I'll have to wait and see what happens with that. I also don't think that we will be doing emh in an effort to avoid extra crowds.

Any advice is much appreciated!

I like to start and end in MK and then go back somewhere in the middle of the trip , then fill in the other parks as you see fit. Remember hard to get fast passes should be booked towards the end of your trip. Have fun!

 

[VandVsmama]

Start and end with MK for a first family vacation to WDW.

**Edited to add**
Similar advice if you're going to DL. Always go down Main Street first and end the last part of your last day in DL itself.