March, one day, off-site, hopping...how??

[Soupermom]

Being a planner who usually has an itinerary months in advance, I am becoming quite overwhelmed planning a one day trip during the last week of March. I'm hoping someone can take a look at this and help me sort it out.

Group will be DD, DS, DSis, and myself. We are used to going "flexible commando" and I usually use the UG to plan our 4-5 day trip. Since we will not be staying onsite, we cannot reserve FP ahead of time. We want to go to MK and/or EP. Because of DD's college course schedule, our options are visiting Tuesday the 25th or Thursday the 27th. (9,8 respectively on the easywdw website). I do not want to go to the park with EMH, especially in the morning, so that means we would have to go to MK on the 25th or EP on the 27th.

My first question is, with the opposite park having EMH mornings, would it be better to start at EP and hop to MK (EMH morning) later in the day, or start at MK and hop to EP (EMH morning)? It seems to be Epcot would be less crazy in the afternoon/evening since it is so big, but I'm not sure. There are more rides we would take advantage of at MK, so maybe a better use of the FP kiosk for us. The only "big" ride we love at Epcot is Soarin', and we can't get multiple FP for that anyway; would be able to ride it late in the afternoon/evening without waiting an hour? Am I crazy even considering hopping to an EMP park? Maybe I should just stick to one park?

Regarding the monorail/parking...we usually stay onsite so I'm not sure about the whole parking thing. If we park at MK (Transportation center, right?) and rode the monorail to Epcot later in the day, could we take the monorail back directly to the transportation center to go home, or would have to go to the MK first? What about if we start at Epcot?

I continue to search the websites and these boards, but I'm just confusing myself. Any time you have to help is greatly appreciated!!!!

 

[Robo]

Being a planner who usually has an itinerary months in advance, I am becoming quite overwhelmed planning a one day trip during the last week of March. I'm hoping someone can take a look at this and help me sort it out.

Group will be DD, DS, DSis, and myself. We are used to going "flexible commando" and I usually use the UG to plan our 4-5 day trip. Since we will not be staying onsite, we cannot reserve FP ahead of time. We want to go to MK and/or EP. Because of DD's college course schedule, our options are visiting Tuesday the 25th or Thursday the 27th. (9,8 respectively on the easywdw website). I do not want to go to the park with EMH, especially in the morning, so that means we would have to go to MK on the 25th or EP on the 27th.

1- My first question is, with the opposite park having EMH mornings, would it be better to start at EP and hop to MK (EMH morning) later in the day, or start at MK and hop to EP (EMH morning)?


It seems to be Epcot would be less crazy in the afternoon/evening since it is so big, but I'm not sure. There are more rides we would take advantage of at MK, so maybe a better use of the FP kiosk for us.


2- The only "big" ride we love at Epcot is Soarin', and we can't get multiple FP for that anyway; would be able to ride it late in the afternoon/evening without waiting an hour?

3- Am I crazy even considering hopping to an EMP park? Maybe I should just stick to one park?

Regarding the monorail/parking...we usually stay onsite so I'm not sure about the whole parking thing.

4- If we park at MK (Transportation center, right?) and rode the monorail to Epcot later in the day,

5- could we take the monorail back directly to the transportation center to go home, or would have to go to the MK first?

6- What about if we start at Epcot?

1- Off site stay: Start with Rope Drop at the non-EMH park.

2- Unlikely.

3- Up to you. Depends on which attractions at either/both parks are "must-do."

4- TTC, yes.

5- Yes. The monorail to/from Epcot terminates at TTC. A second monorail must be boarded to go to MK.

6- Monorail to TTC/ another Monorail to MK.
Coming back to Epcot: reverse the above.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Without the ability to pick FP+ prior to park entry, I wouldn't try to hop on a busy day, especially a 1-day visit. I'd just stick on 1 park, be there super-duper early so I was at the front of the front of the line, then do an attraction or 2 and hit a kiosk for FPs later in the day. That allows you to do the high-demand attractions early via standby before demand builds, then use your FP+s for later in the day.

As someone who stayed offsite in January and will be doing so again on our next visit, it's just 1 of the tradeoffs for staying offsite we have to deal with. Enjoy your day!

 

[Soupermom]

Thank you both for your input. Any suggestions on an itinerary for MK for the day? I've never been since the new FP+ system started, so I'm not sure how to plan for that. We will be driving from Tampa and I hope to be there for rope drop, but I'm also not sure how long to allow for parking/riding the monorail. To make 9am rope drop, what time should we plan on arriving in the parking lot; is it called the TTC parking lot?

I've ordered the UG from the library (didn't want to buy it for one day), so I will take a look at that, but how would you plan to hit the following rides?

COP
Buzz
Space Mountain (not a must-do)

Mickey's Philharmagic
HM
Splash Mt.
BTMRR
POTC


Do you think if we hit MK early, we would be able to go to Epcot for the evening and manage the countries okay? DD really wants to go to the countries.

 

[Robo]

Thank you both for your input. Any suggestions on an itinerary for MK for the day? I've never been since the new FP+ system started, so I'm not sure how to plan for that.

Click HERE.

 

[Becky925]

I would think you'd be okay doing the World Showcase in the evening. Not saying it won't be busy, but if you're just looking through the countries, the shops and so forth you can control how much time you devote to what. It's not like there is an actual line(generally speaking) to go into the shop at say Norway.