Need help planning with park hoppers!

[Tink112]

Hi all! Looking to get some opinions on our upcoming trip! Myself, my husband and 6yr old grandson will be visiting Disney for 3 days early December. We will be staying at Wilderness Lodge. I have a 2 day park hopper and 1 day ticket to MVMCP. I think we will be skipping Epcot but would like to do Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Our party day is on a Sunday and we don't plan on visiting any other parks that day until the party. I need some advice and opinions on the other 2 days (Monday and Tuesday). Also the Tuesday is another party day at MK which we don't have tickets for so MK will be closing at 6pm. We would like to somehow work fantasmic in also. And we do have dining reservations for Ohana which we can do either Monday or Tuesday evening. Trying to decide how to do all 3 parks with hoppers for those 2 days. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[loves to dive]

It is easy enough to do AK/HS in one day, especially if your little one doesn't like shows. I would book you FPs for later in the day at HS then you can fit Fantastmic in there. If you don't plan on doing Epcot, you can do MK on your other free day or do a MK split with either AK or HS if you feel you missed something at either park. It should be cool weather in December but early in the month the crowds shouldn't be too bad. I'd do AK/HS on Monday that way you can do MK the morning of Tuesday and will know if there is something else at AK or HS that you want to see. Despite what lots of folks will say, park hopping is not that bad with kids,heck when my son was little we would sometimes easily hit 3 parks in a day and not run around and just kind of be slow and lazy.

 

[Danimal]

My two cents here. I disagree with the idea that AK is a half day park these days. There is SO much to do especially with the Pandora addition that I think it's become a full day park. I'd hit your party on Sunday, and then plan on spending most of your day at AK on Monday. FOP, Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest (if he's tall enough!) are all must dos. Grab lunch at Satuli Canteen or Flame Tree BBQ if you can. They're the two best QS restaurants in Disney. You can leave to grab your dinner at Ohana when you're done. On Tuesday, hopefully crowds at MK won't be terrible as it's a party day. Use the early part of the day to hit anything you missed at the party and grab a lunch. Come 3 o'clock or so (just before the party crowd hits), you can head over to Hollywood Studios. Hit Star Tours, Toy Story, maybe Indiana Jones and meet some Star Wars characters, see Fantasmic and call it a trip. Hope you have fun!!!!

 

[Haley R]

My two cents here. I disagree with the idea that AK is a half day park these days. There is SO much to do especially with the Pandora addition that I think it's become a full day park. I'd hit your party on Sunday, and then plan on spending most of your day at AK on Monday. FOP, Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest (if he's tall enough!) are all must dos. Grab lunch at Satuli Canteen or Flame Tree BBQ if you can. They're the two best QS restaurants in Disney. You can leave to grab your dinner at Ohana when you're done. On Tuesday, hopefully crowds at MK won't be terrible as it's a party day. Use the early part of the day to hit anything you missed at the party and grab a lunch. Come 3 o'clock or so (just before the party crowd hits), you can head over to Hollywood Studios. Hit Star Tours, Toy Story, maybe Indiana Jones and meet some Star Wars characters, see Fantasmic and call it a trip. Hope you have fun!!!!

I think this is a great plan

 

[Tink112]

My two cents here. I disagree with the idea that AK is a half day park these days. There is SO much to do especially with the Pandora addition that I think it's become a full day park. I'd hit your party on Sunday, and then plan on spending most of your day at AK on Monday. FOP, Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest (if he's tall enough!) are all must dos. Grab lunch at Satuli Canteen or Flame Tree BBQ if you can. They're the two best QS restaurants in Disney. You can leave to grab your dinner at Ohana when you're done. On Tuesday, hopefully crowds at MK won't be terrible as it's a party day. Use the early part of the day to hit anything you missed at the party and grab a lunch. Come 3 o'clock or so (just before the party crowd hits), you can head over to Hollywood Studios. Hit Star Tours, Toy Story, maybe Indiana Jones and meet some Star Wars characters, see Fantasmic and call it a trip. Hope you have fun!!!!

Thank you so much! This sounds great! i think this will work out great for us. Just one question. Is it impossible to get same day fast passes for Toy Story Mania and Star Wars at DHS? I plan on doing one of the fantasmic dining packages so that will take care of fantasmic. Just wondering if I should do fast passes for MK for earlier in the day or make them now for DHS for later in the day Tuesday.

 

[sharonabe]

Thank you so much! This sounds great! i think this will work out great for us. Just one question. Is it impossible to get same day fast passes for Toy Story Mania and Star Wars at DHS? I plan on doing one of the fantasmic dining packages so that will take care of fantasmic. Just wondering if I should do fast passes for MK for earlier in the day or make them now for DHS for later in the day Tuesday.

I would make them for later in the day at HS, but that does mean you'll want to be at MK for rope drop to get 7DMT and Peter Pan done without too much of a wait. Even on party days, those two will build to their 45 min- an hour wait.

 

[peg2001]

... but that does mean you'll want to be at MK for rope drop to get 7DMT and Peter Pan done without too much of a wait. Even on party days, those two will build to their 45 min- an hour wait.

While I completely agree with this from an effective touring point of view, keep in mind that the night before may be a late night with a 6yo in tow at the MVMCP. Rope dropping MK very early the next morning may be a challenge.

 

[sharonabe]

While I completely agree with this from an effective touring point of view, keep in mind that the night before may be a late night with a 6yo in tow at the MVMCP. Rope dropping MK very early the next morning may be a challenge.

Their party is on Sunday night. The MK/HS day is on Tuesday after a day at AK.

 

[Danimal]

Thank you so much! This sounds great! i think this will work out great for us. Just one question. Is it impossible to get same day fast passes for Toy Story Mania and Star Wars at DHS? I plan on doing one of the fantasmic dining packages so that will take care of fantasmic. Just wondering if I should do fast passes for MK for earlier in the day or make them now for DHS for later in the day Tuesday.

Same day FP for Toy Story will be a bit of a challenge, but wait times can vary during slow weeks (and really, there's not a ton else to do at HS so that it might not be a dealbreaker.) You should be able to get on Star Tours really easily. As another poster suggested, your other option is to use your FP for HS that day and ride what you want at MK as a standby. If you've already hit 7DMT and Peter Pan at the party, it might not be the end of the world to skip those on Tuesday. You know best which rides will be most important for your family. As another thought, we had great luck with our 4th, 5th, (and sometimes even 6th!) FP when we were there in October. If you set your 3 FP for early in the day at MK, once you've used all 3 use the Disney app to keep checking for available Toy Story FP for later in the afternoon that same day. Just refresh it regularly and I'd be surprised if something didn't pop up. Riskier than getting the FP outright, but you'll get more mileage out of your day if you can make it happen