Overthinking days to visit each park?

[maybethisyear]

I can't decide if I'm doing this right. This is our first trip to Disney....ever. We're going December 8th-14th. With so many resources online, it is hard to determine which "direction" to go in. Some say that utilizing EMH is best, others say to avoid those parks at all cost. Meanwhile, I'm seeing a lot of feedback here that says it is getting so busy at Disney that you should just do what you want.

Our goal is to minimize wait times, even if it means skipping rides. We are not great at prolonged waits as we have two amusement parks within 20 minutes of us and can do rides whenever we want (HELLO storyland NH). I'm also realistic that we will wait while at Disney and I will have to just suck it up. I'm considering touring plans subscription.

Anyway....is it possible to overthink which parks to hit on which day?

First draft:
Saturday (arrival) - Epcot in a leisurely way and see the fireworks
Sunday - Hollywood studios for EMH and a few shows, then resort hopping for Christmas décor and/or Disney Springs
Monday - Epcot
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Hollywood studios in the p.m. only
Thursday - Animal Kingdom
Friday (departure later in the day) - Magic Kingdom EMH

We have a 6 year old that barely sleeps, so we're not worried about late nights/early mornings/long days.

 

[ErinTwinmom]

Ok I can’t answer all of your questions but EMH I got. EMH can help you avoid lines IF you can be at the park in line at least 30min prior to opening and IF you have hoppers so you can leave your EMH park at 11ish and go somewhere else. If you are not planning on hopping or can’t get there that early you avoid morning EMH. Evening EMH I feel like can been fun but is over all less good and makes it harder to do the mornings.

 

[maybethisyear]

Ok I can’t answer all of your questions but EMH I got. EMH can help you avoid lines IF you can be at the park in line at least 30min prior to opening and IF you have hoppers so you can leave your EMH park at 11ish and go somewhere else. If you are not planning on hopping or can’t get there that early you avoid morning EMH. Evening EMH I feel like can been fun but is over all less good and makes it harder to do the mornings.

Thanks. Yes, we have park hopper. I've read similar to your suggestion, to go morning only for EMH and then ditch that park. I figured that's why we could get away with a few hours at Hollywood Studios on a Sunday morning.

 

[SplashMo]

Thoughts:

Saturday (arrival) - Epcot in a leisurely way and see the fireworks (FP SOARIN for 2-3 hours after you expect to arrive at Epcot)
Sunday - Magic Kingdom
Monday - Epcot (Use FP)
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Hollywood studios in the p.m. only
Thursday - Animal Kingdom
Friday (departure later in the day) - Magic Kingdom EMH

Touring plans is great. Also use easywdw.com (I recomend both).

I skip EMH. TOuring plans will help you pick the best days for each park. I like the arrival at epcot.

 

[Greenfield1984]

I can't decide if I'm doing this right. This is our first trip to Disney....ever. We're going December 8th-14th. With so many resources online, it is hard to determine which "direction" to go in. Some say that utilizing EMH is best, others say to avoid those parks at all cost. Meanwhile, I'm seeing a lot of feedback here that says it is getting so busy at Disney that you should just do what you want.

Our goal is to minimize wait times, even if it means skipping rides. We are not great at prolonged waits as we have two amusement parks within 20 minutes of us and can do rides whenever we want (HELLO storyland NH). I'm also realistic that we will wait while at Disney and I will have to just suck it up. I'm considering touring plans subscription.

Anyway....is it possible to overthink which parks to hit on which day?

First draft:
Saturday (arrival) - Epcot in a leisurely way and see the fireworks
Sunday - Hollywood studios for EMH and a few shows, then resort hopping for Christmas décor and/or Disney Springs
Monday - Epcot
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Hollywood studios in the p.m. only
Thursday - Animal Kingdom
Friday (departure later in the day) - Magic Kingdom EMH

We have a 6 year old that barely sleeps, so we're not worried about late nights/early mornings/long days.

So couple things i noticed.

First off it is busy pretty well all year round now but your dates are decent crowd wise. Plus xmas decorations are great and the weather is very comfortable as long as you dont intend on swimming.

Now as for parks.

Skip the emh and the park hopping. Its not necessary and involves lots of transfering time from park to park. This would be ok if you planned on afternoon breaks anyway but it does not seem you are.

Roughly just hit the park that had emh the day b4. So if magic kingdom had emh tuesday then visit wednesday since the resort guests already did it the day b4.

Speaking of mk. Its a beast. Tons of attractions. And the best park for ur 6 yo. You only have 1 full day there. It requires 2.

Also habe your fp reserved and done by 12 or 1 pm. Then use your my disney experience app and get a 4th 5th etc fp as the day progresses.

If you want low lines learn the fp and get to park early. Like pre park open early.

Also be aware mk closes early on many days for xmas party. Plan accordingly.

Also i may be biased but maybe skip hollywood studios. Not much there for your 6yo.
Time best used with more magic kingdom or even animal kingdom. Ak is nice to take more relaxed. Take time on trails or hit the boneyard play area for however long yoir 6yo wants.

Check out easywdw.com for more detailed advice and keep posting on these boards. Tons of disney addicts here.

Gl new dizzer.
Welcome to our obsession.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Others have already given good advice regarding EMH. Overall I think it looks like a solid plan. It doesn't appear that you have much park hopping planned, so I wouldn't add that until when/if you decide you need it (this can be done at any point in the trip). Also, it's a good idea to plan an AK and DHS day toward the end of the trip as that will increase your chances of getting FP for FOP and SDD.

 

[KristiMc]

I would add more time at MK with a 6 year old.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Yes it's totally possible to overthink which Park on which day. I am guilty every year.

If you do get TP (which I really like having personally), keep two things in mind. 1) it's a forecast, 2) you probably aren't going to notice a difference between any two consecutive crowd levels. So don't sweat a 6 vs 7 day for a Park.

Your plan looks good. Keep some flexibility for the 6 yo though. With all the walking and excitement, Disney can really wear them out a lot more than normal. Late nights and early mornings may be fine at home but may be too much at Disney.

 

[jo-jo]

So couple things i noticed.

First off it is busy pretty well all year round now but your dates are decent crowd wise. Plus xmas decorations are great and the weather is very comfortable as long as you dont intend on swimming.

Now as for parks.

Skip the emh and the park hopping. Its not necessary and involves lots of transfering time from park to park. This would be ok if you planned on afternoon breaks anyway but it does not seem you are.

Roughly just hit the park that had emh the day b4. So if magic kingdom had emh tuesday then visit wednesday since the resort guests already did it the day b4.

Speaking of mk. Its a beast. Tons of attractions. And the best park for ur 6 yo. You only have 1 full day there. It requires 2.

Also habe your fp reserved and done by 12 or 1 pm. Then use your my disney experience app and get a 4th 5th etc fp as the day progresses.

If you want low lines learn the fp and get to park early. Like pre park open early.

Also be aware mk closes early on many days for xmas party. Plan accordingly.

Also i may be biased but maybe skip hollywood studios. Not much there for your 6yo.
Time best used with more magic kingdom or even animal kingdom. Ak is nice to take more relaxed. Take time on trails or hit the boneyard play area for however long yoir 6yo wants.

Check out easywdw.com for more detailed advice and keep posting on these boards. Tons of disney addicts here.

Gl new dizzer.
Welcome to our obsession.

Just to add to this....
But still bring a swim suit. We had both extremes of weather at that time.

MK - tons of rides and fairly close to each other, not a hike from one ride to another as in other parks.

Last year, Disney had Christmas parties just about every other day and on those days MK closed at 6 P.M.

 

[Klayfish]

You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any
You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any paid website to tell you that.

Another generalization, FP+ is a great way to avoid having to stand in lines. Learn how to use the system well and it truly won't matter what park you visit on what day. Just use FP+ and you'll never stand in an hour long line.

So for my $.02, your plan looks great. Go to whatever park you want on whatever day you want. It truly doesn't matter. Just enjoy and soak it in.

 

[Christine]

Haven't been in a while but agree with much of what is posted.

As others have said, absolutely become a MASTER of the FastPass system/app and use it. FastPass is your key to not waiting in line.

Other ways to avoid lines are very early morning arrivals. If a park has an EMH day and you can't make it at EMH, then don't go there. My son was not a resort guest last week and had to go to AK one morning to do a ride he missed. It was an EMH day so he arrived an hour after the resort guests. FoP had a 120 minute wait by the time his rope drop happened, but he had no choice. Wait time was much lower between 8-8:30.

I agree with more Magic Kingdom time due to your 6 year old.

 

[EdmondD]

we have two amusement parks within 20 minutes of us and can do rides whenever we want

That's cute! It's like me saying "I don't really want to stand in line to see the Grand Canyon cause I've got this perfectly good ditch in my backyard."

I think your plan looks good so far, and you've come to the right place for answers. I personally think if you can get people up and to the parks in time for morning EMH, do it.

You may already have some plans for what to do while in line (since you say you don't like waiting) but let me suggest the Heads Up app. It's a fun and mostly free trivia game that has the added bonus of when you're in the Disney Parks, the Disney "deck" is free. Appropriate for kids and adults.

 

[EdmondD]

You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any
You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any paid website to tell you that.

Another generalization, FP+ is a great way to avoid having to stand in lines. Learn how to use the system well and it truly won't matter what park you visit on what day. Just use FP+ and you'll never stand in an hour long line.

So for my $.02, your plan looks great. Go to whatever park you want on whatever day you want. It truly doesn't matter. Just enjoy and soak it in.

Exactly! Advice so nice she said it twice!

 

[PSUGuy]

Without going into particulars, here's my thinking. Since 2005 we've avoided EMH parks preferring to get the extra hour of sleep and on the theory that the EMH park will be more crowded even if the hours are in the evening. I consult one of several park crowd calendars out there and go for the least crowded park even if we visited that park 2 or 3 days ago, we go for 9 - 10 park days and don't rotate the parks evenly, it's all based on crowd levels. The only exception this year is we'll hit AK on a 'Moderate' crowd level day to get a FoP FP+ at our day 67, a pretty certain bet.

We hit a non-EMH park at RD every day and as we're there for Food&Wine we hop to WS every afternoon except Sat., crazy crowded then, tht will be our Pool/Raglan Road day.

Bill From PA

 

[GADisneyDad14]

You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any
You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any paid website to tell you that.

Another generalization, FP+ is a great way to avoid having to stand in lines. Learn how to use the system well and it truly won't matter what park you visit on what day. Just use FP+ and you'll never stand in an hour long line.

So for my $.02, your plan looks great. Go to whatever park you want on whatever day you want. It truly doesn't matter. Just enjoy and soak it in.

Will your plan cost $0.01 if I take out the the 3 repeated sections?

 

[loves to dive]

You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any
You'll get all kinds of advice, but here's the best I can offer for my $.02....

Ditch all the resources and do what you want for your family. Don't bother with crowd calendars, suggested plans from some website, "only go to park A if it had EMH the day before" stuff. Personally, I think a lot of it is nonsense, and since you're a first timer it wouldn't mean much to you anyway even if it had any truth to it.

Yes, WDW is busy. Always is. But there's no need to wait in long lines, regardless of what parks you visit on what days.

Generally speaking, parks are least crowded first thing in the morning and at the very end of the night. That's true whether you're talking about MK, Epcot, Six Flags or your local small town amusement park. That's simple and you don't need any paid website to tell you that.

Another generalization, FP+ is a great way to avoid having to stand in lines. Learn how to use the system well and it truly won't matter what park you visit on what day. Just use FP+ and you'll never stand in an hour long line.

So for my $.02, your plan looks great. Go to whatever park you want on whatever day you want. It truly doesn't matter. Just enjoy and soak it in.

This is spot on advice, even the repeated part. I would add don't over plan. Disney is huge and there is no way to see and do it all, I've been going for over 30 years and still haven't. If we book FPs we book them fairly early in the day and then play it by ear from there. You just can't plan for what mood you are going to be in or for those occasions when you walk by something and think it might be interesting and get caught up in the moment.

 

[Klayfish]

Will your plan cost $0.01 if I take out the the 3 repeated sections?

Sigh...darn computer crash...it literally froze up on me mid-typing. I rebooted and I guess I never noticed it did that. Oh well, it's what I get for multi-tasking.

And in case I didn't mention it, ditch the resources and do what you want.

 

[Tksolomom]

I can't decide if I'm doing this right. This is our first trip to Disney....ever. We're going December 8th-14th. With so many resources online, it is hard to determine which "direction" to go in. Some say that utilizing EMH is best, others say to avoid those parks at all cost. Meanwhile, I'm seeing a lot of feedback here that says it is getting so busy at Disney that you should just do what you want.

Our goal is to minimize wait times, even if it means skipping rides. We are not great at prolonged waits as we have two amusement parks within 20 minutes of us and can do rides whenever we want (HELLO storyland NH). I'm also realistic that we will wait while at Disney and I will have to just suck it up. I'm considering touring plans subscription.

Anyway....is it possible to overthink which parks to hit on which day?

First draft:
Saturday (arrival) - Epcot in a leisurely way and see the fireworks
Sunday - Hollywood studios for EMH and a few shows, then resort hopping for Christmas décor and/or Disney Springs
Monday - Epcot
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Hollywood studios in the p.m. only
Thursday - Animal Kingdom
Friday (departure later in the day) - Magic Kingdom EMH

We have a 6 year old that barely sleeps, so we're not worried about late nights/early mornings/long days.

I see Tuesday is the only day you have for MK. The park will close at 6 for the Christmas party. It won’t be as busy during the day, but you will mis HEA fireworks.

 

[ashleyr409]

Ok I can’t answer all of your questions but EMH I got. EMH can help you avoid lines IF you can be at the park in line at least 30min prior to opening and IF you have hoppers so you can leave your EMH park at 11ish and go somewhere else. If you are not planning on hopping or can’t get there that early you avoid morning EMH. Evening EMH I feel like can been fun but is over all less good and makes it harder to do the mornings.

What if you don't have Park hopper? Do you still recommend EMH if you can get there 30 minutes prior to opening?

 

[piratepride]

As an earlier posted wrote...we always avoid the park w/EMH and visit that park the day after their EMH. We have found that to be very helpful in avoiding long wait times due to the fact that most people were at that park the night before to take part in EMH. We will be there December 12-16th, 2018 and I have planned our park days to avoid all EMH again this trip.