Looking for advice on park selection

[surran12]

We (ME 32, DW 32, DS 8, DD will be 4 days shy of 5) will be traveling from January 23-31 staying at the Polynesian. We have never had a big vacation to Disney World yet this is our first one. We took our son to MK for 1 day for his 5th birthday and we have been to AK for 2 days. Here is what I currently have planned:

Sunday 24th: MK ADR 8:10 at Crystal Palace, BOG adr at 12:30 and Dinner back at Kona Kafe
@6:30

Monday 25th: HS 8:00 ADR @ Hollywood & Vine (this is mainly so we can book it to Jedi Academy) and Hollywood Brown & Derby @ 5:10 and possibly Fantasmic if the kids want to stay longer

Tuesday 26th: resort day. 8:30 ADR @ Ohana, and Dinner at Trails End @ 6:00 with the rest of the day to relax and maybe get some boats on the Lagoon

Wednesday 27th: Epcot. Akershus ADR @ 8:20 and Monseiur Paul ADR @ 5:30

Thursday 28th: MK. BOG ADR@ 8:00, Liberty Tree Tavern ADR @ 1:05, Kona Kafe ADR @ 6:30

Friday 29th: This is the day I am looking for some advice. We did 3 nights at AK lodge with 2 days @ AK this past April after our cruise so my wife and I were thinking to skip AK this time. The kids would probably prefer to go though if I asked them. Should I suck it up and go to AK or do a 3rd day at MK or would either Epcot or HS be worth a second day with kids this age?

Saturday 30th: Resort day. 8:45 ADR @ Kona Kafe and 6:30 ADR at Ohana

Sunday 31st: 745 ADR @ Kona Kafe and leave for airport after.

Any advice for Friday mostly but any part of this plan would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Baklava]

Give them one AK day.

 

[soniam]

DHS will probably be doing Season of the Force on weekends (Fri-Sun) while you are there. Dates have not been officially announced yet. During the week, there will be the Star Wars Launch Bay (games, Chewie/Darth Vader meet & greet), and they are adding a new scene to Star Tours. On the weekends, there will be a Star Wars fireworks show at night. Not sure if there will be a parade during the day or not. So, you might consider doing DHS on a weekend or at least going over for the fireworks one weekend night. I don't know if there will be enough for a whole extra day there, but the fireworks are supposed to be spectacular. Posts #10 and #11 on the following page should have more info.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/of...w-launch-bay-and-season-of-the-force.3439569/

 

[nherbert]

I would vote for a DHS mid-afternoon and fireworks on the Friday, particularly if season of the force is on.

I would do an AK morning on one of the resort days, change one of the Kona Kafe to Tusker House.

The poly is on the monorail, so you could venture further for some of your meals as you have a lot at Kona Kafe and ohana and for me once at both would be enough.

 

[surran12]

Oh I haven't heard of this season of the Force. Thank you so very much for the information. We will definitely make it a DHS evening

 

[LJSquishy]

Your plan looks good as far as which parks you're doing on specific days. I'd definitely do AK on the 29th. If they love it, why wouldn't you do it? We spent 2 almost full days at AK this trip to make sure we did all of the trails, shows, etc. It's easily our favorite park. If for whatever reason you decide against AK, Epcot is the next best choice for the crowd calendar but with kids their age I'm not sure if you'd need 2 full Epcot days. What about a day at Disney Springs? I don't find it very exciting because I don't like shopping for Disney things but they do have Splitsville bowling alley and an AMC Fork & Screen theatre as well as Cirque du Soliel.

You have a LOT of time booked for table service restaurants...your first MK day would make a lot of kids upset, I think...you won't be done with breakfast until 9am, then have 3hrs to ride things before having to have lunch, leaving about 4hrs (or a little more) after lunch to do more attractions before having to make your way over to Kona Café. I'd cut out BOG personally. The same goes for your other days with 3 table service restaurants...it just eats up a LOT of time.

 

[surran12]

Your plan looks good as far as which parks you're doing on specific days. I'd definitely do AK on the 29th. If they love it, why wouldn't you do it? We spent 2 almost full days at AK this trip to make sure we did all of the trails, shows, etc. It's easily our favorite park. If for whatever reason you decide against AK, Epcot is the next best choice for the crowd calendar but with kids their age I'm not sure if you'd need 2 full Epcot days. What about a day at Disney Springs? I don't find it very exciting because I don't like shopping for Disney things but they do have Splitsville bowling alley and an AMC Fork & Screen theatre as well as Cirque du Soliel.

You have a LOT of time booked for table service restaurants...your first MK day would make a lot of kids upset, I think...you won't be done with breakfast until 9am, then have 3hrs to ride things before having to have lunch, leaving about 4hrs (or a little more) after lunch to do more attractions before having to make your way over to Kona Café. I'd cut out BOG personally. The same goes for your other days with 3 table service restaurants...it just eats up a LOT of time.

Yeah I have been worried about having too many. I will probably cut some of them out. I appreciate the feed back.