Need some thoughts on this, what would you do?

[mhp8982]

I'm probably thinking too much and need to leave things alone... But since planning is done and we are 4 days from leaving... Can't stop thinking about the trip. So we are there now 7 nights 8 days.. Right now we have it-

Wednesday-arrival, dinner, sleep
Thursday-Epcot
Friday-MK
Saturday-off day-beach during the day, DTD in evening
Sunday-HS
Monday-Epcot
Tuesday-MK
Wednesday-animal kingdom/depart for home

However I'm going back and forth thinking about switching AK and beach day... Because we could make the beach part of our drive.. And we won't be so pressed for time. We will be more relaxed at AK without worrying about leaving on time to start our drive..
But on the other side...do we need that relax/beach day earlier on? And I'm not sure when we would fit in DTD if we switched.

What are your thoughts? What would you do?

 

[cathyce2]

I'm probably thinking too much and need to leave things alone... But since planning is done and we are 4 days from leaving... Can't stop thinking about the trip. So we are there now 7 nights 8 days.. Right now we have it-

Wednesday-arrival, dinner, sleep
Thursday-Epcot
Friday-MK
Saturday-off day-beach during the day, DTD in evening
Sunday-HS
Monday-Epcot
Tuesday-MK
Wednesday-animal kingdom/depart for home

However I'm going back and forth thinking about switching AK and beach day... Because we could make the beach part of our drive.. And we won't be so pressed for time. We will be more relaxed at AK without worrying about leaving on time to start our drive..
But on the other side...do we need that relax/beach day earlier on? And I'm not sure when we would fit in DTD if we switched.

What are your thoughts? What would you do?

I would switch Monday-Epcot with Wednesday - Animal kingdom.
IMHO you don't need 2 full days for Epcot. You can do most of it the first day, then hit whatever you missed or want to repeat on the second day and still head out at a reasonable time. Just be sure to catch Illuminations on your first Epcot day.
Then you can give Animal Kingdom the full day it deserves and since it closes earlier than the other parks you'll have an early evening to rest up for the last two full days of the trip.
Not sure how that will mess with your ADRs and FP's, but that's my opinion.
HTH

 

[LeslieLou]

I'm not sure what ages your party is made up of, but we usually need a break every few days in the parks.

You could consider going to DTD after AK

Or, we have little guys and can't spend 2 full days in Epcot - you could make time on one of those days to go to DTD

Breaking up your drive, especially since it's not out of the way is a nice idea assuming your drive isn't super long. I don't know how far your drive is...ours is 16 hours or so. That last day we just itch to get home quick, so I would not want to make a stop. However, if my drive was only 6 hours, I'd strongly consider it.

Have you been to Disney before?

 

[tigerbelly]

We are park hounds so wouldn't take a day in the middle for the beach. But then again we live on the coast of Maine so beaching it is a way of life.

We did the same amount of days with no full days off, we took mid afternoons off between 1-4 and that worked well for us. Pooltime, drinks, and naps.

I don't know what the park hours look like next week but some of them close on the early side and DTD is open late so if you are done at the parks you could head over to dtd for some nightlife. Do you have hoppers?

 

[amg35]

I'm probably thinking too much and need to leave things alone... But since planning is done and we are 4 days from leaving... Can't stop thinking about the trip. So we are there now 7 nights 8 days.. Right now we have it-

Wednesday-arrival, dinner, sleep
Thursday-Epcot
Friday-MK
Saturday-off day-beach during the day, DTD in evening
Sunday-HS
Monday-Epcot
Tuesday-MK
Wednesday-animal kingdom/depart for home

However I'm going back and forth thinking about switching AK and beach day... Because we could make the beach part of our drive.. And we won't be so pressed for time. We will be more relaxed at AK without worrying about leaving on time to start our drive..
But on the other side...do we need that relax/beach day earlier on? And I'm not sure when we would fit in DTD if we switched.

What are your thoughts? What would you do?

I think you should do your beach day last. It will be relaxing, and you don't have to worry about lines. A nice end to the trip.

Maybe switch Sunday and Monday (do Epcot Sunday and HS Monday). That way since you've already done Epcot once, you can possibly do a half day, then use the rest of the day to relax.

Have a great time!

 

[mhp8982]

I would switch Monday-Epcot with Wednesday - Animal kingdom.
IMHO you don't need 2 full days for Epcot. You can do most of it the first day, then hit whatever you missed or want to repeat on the second day and still head out at a reasonable time. Just be sure to catch Illuminations on your first Epcot day.
Then you can give Animal Kingdom the full day it deserves and since it closes earlier than the other parks you'll have an early evening to rest up for the last two full days of the trip.
Not sure how that will mess with your ADRs and FP's, but that's my opinion.
HTH

This idea may work well! We actually were originally getting to Disney Thursday afternoon.. so we were only going to have half day at Epcot.. but now we are coming in the night before.. so we will have the whole Thursday at Epcot. We don't have any ADR's for our 2nd Epcot Day, so it would probably work fine. As long as Sanaa has an opening on Monday.

My son turns 2 tomorrow. Then it's just my husband and I.

 

[mhp8982]

I'm not sure what ages your party is made up of, but we usually need a break every few days in the parks.

You could consider going to DTD after AK

Or, we have little guys and can't spend 2 full days in Epcot - you could make time on one of those days to go to DTD

Breaking up your drive, especially since it's not out of the way is a nice idea assuming your drive isn't super long. I don't know how far your drive is...ours is 16 hours or so. That last day we just itch to get home quick, so I would not want to make a stop. However, if my drive was only 6 hours, I'd strongly consider it.

Have you been to Disney before?

Ours is 16 hours as well. We are breaking up the drive on the way home.. but not on the way there. We are driving overnight and letting our son sleep.

 

[mhp8982]

We are park hounds so wouldn't take a day in the middle for the beach. But then again we live on the coast of Maine so beaching it is a way of life.

We did the same amount of days with no full days off, we took mid afternoons off between 1-4 and that worked well for us. Pooltime, drinks, and naps.

I don't know what the park hours look like next week but some of them close on the early side and DTD is open late so if you are done at the parks you could head over to dtd for some nightlife. Do you have hoppers?

We don't have hoppers and are not nightlife people at all. We just want to go do some shopping. It looks like Saturday is the hottest day so the beach might feel nice.

 

[TinkerBella17]

I would NOT recommend going to DTD on a Friday/Saturday night.. it gets verrry crowded

 

[HookdonWDW]

I wouldn't want to go to the beach on my last day. I'd want to make sure that I had a room to shower and change in after getting all salty and sandy.

 

[Delirium]

If you move beach day, and you're going to a park on a Saturday, Animal Kingdom would be the best choice by far.

Otherwise, without hoppers, I would keep beach day on Saturday due to crowds at the parks. ONe reason we usually do AK on Saturday is that we hop to MK for what is normally a late, late, closing. Otherwise, Saturday is the perfect 'rest' day. We would not even think of doing MK during the day on Saturday.

Bottom line is I recommend leaving your schedule as/is, but if you change, move AK to Saturday. One other suggestions is that you will want to make rope drop at AK, so you'll want to be packed up and ready the night before if you keep AK on your last day.