Park Hopping Plan Help?

[WDWRook]

Looking for a gut check here. We are going for one day on Wednesday March 25th with a Park Hopper. I got a date specific ticket and are only doing one day at the parks this trip. I'm not sure if I can change the date or not, but this date worked for the rest of our plans and has MK with extra evening hours to 1:00am. Four of us including a 19 and 15 year old and we have been to WDW maybe a dozen plus times, plus recently went to Disney Paris. We have done just about every ride except Tiana's, and seen every show except the new nighttime parade at MK and the new Villians show at HWS; I think.

Can some of you give me guidance on my current plan as we have never park hopped, but we are using it as something different to see how much we can do in one long day. My only "request" from tWife was to go to Fantasmic since we have not seen that since I first visit many years ago. My current plan isn't ideal for easiest movement between parks. FYI - we are staying at OKW.

My plan thus is to :
Start at AK early hours (Avatar and Everest must dos) - move around 10am -
Go to Epcot (our unanimous fav - Guardians and World Showcase must dos) - move around 4:30pm -
Hollywood studios (Galaxy's Edge, Brown Derby dinner, Fantasmic must dos) - move right after Fantasmic 9:30ish) -
MK until close at 1:00am (Tron, Tiana's, Parade must dos)

It would be easier to go HWS - Epcot - MK for travel ease, but then we can't to Fantasmic (hopefully we still love it as it's been a while). Obviously we want to keep it as flexible as possible and depends on LL bookings, so this is just a rough guide.

 

[Dave006]

Start at AK early hours (Avatar and Everest must dos) - move around 10am -

Park to park buses don't start until 10 AM so no need to rush out if you are using the buses.

It would be easier to go HWS - Epcot - MK for travel ease,

Not really and Epcot tends to be busier later in the day / evening. Not much difference taking a direct bus from HS to MK or the Epcot Monorail to MK since you would need to transfer at TTC.

Dave

 

[disneyfan150]

Where are you staying? Booking LLs may be a problem due to this being spring break season. We have a short trip planned Sat. March 21 - Wed. March 25. I was checking availability today. Competition for LLs is going to be tough.

 

[WDWRook]

Where are you staying? Booking LLs may be a problem due to this being spring break season. We have a short trip planned Sat. March 21 - Wed. March 25. I was checking availability today. Competition for LLs is going to be tough.

We are staying at OKW so we will get to book LL's early, but I'm not terribly worried about LL.

 

[BoilerBob]

We did a four park day on Jan 2nd (which was rammed) but had different priorities and swapped HS and Epcot from your plan. We did early entry at AK and of course everyone was running to FoP and the line built quickly. We had our 5yr old so just did River Journey a few times but by the time the park opened, the line for FoP stretched out of the Pandora area. Our first LL (booked 7 days out) were early morning for the Safari, EE, and then Dinosaur (which I guess dates this plan already). As soon as we hit the safari, I started booking things for the next park while looking for maybe harder rides at future parks. We did pre-puchase GotG and you might want to do Rise too if you are set on riding that without a huge wait or are unwilling to do single rider. We didn't have the benefit of extra hours at MK, so I did have to spend some LL for the things we absolutely wanted by the end of the night at MK. We basically only waited in line in HS for MMRR which was about an hour. Things we didn't wait for were ToT, SDD, or Rise at HS at TT or Soarin' at Epcot. It was a very full day from 7:30AM - 11PM at the parks and we hit about 40k steps.

 

[Djm_in_buffalo]

This seems way too ambitious… for me. But you are not me.

Early entry at AK starts at 7:30am. Presumably you’d want to get there earlier than that. After hoping the parks, you’re looking to end at MK to close out the night at 1:00am. Even if you don’t make it to 1:00am, that’s roughly 17 straight hours of parks and park hoping, followed by +/- 30 or more minutes to get back to OKW. But if doing early “right” and doing extended evening “right”, that’s more like 19 or so hours. Again, for me, that’s just way too many consecutive hours to be enjoyable. All the power to you if you do make it and are content at the end of the day. Hopefully it doesn’t erode the following day’s plans due to fatigue.

I think LL will be your friend if used at from 1-2, at most 3 parks. Since you’re only going the one day, you don’t get the benefit of booking LL 7+ days in advance, just the 7 days. Which means by the time you can book LL the 7 days in advance, many other people already had access to booking LL for March 25th, days prior to you being able to do so. (Premier pass would obviously help tremendously at 1 park, but with a hefty price tag.)

Keep in mind that multiple of your “must do” items are the most popular rides in the parks. Meaning: very long wait times, unsavory LL return times, no LL availability, or some combination thereof. Also keep in mind that rides go down. A lot. So 1 down ride on an already very rigid schedule may torpedo the remainder of the schedule.

In this vein, you will need to tap into a multi-pass LL at AK before being able to book another multi-pass LL at the second park. By that time, pickings may be slim to none, and get worse as the day goes on.

Having ten must-do items spread throughout all parks seems… optimistic. If it was me, I would stick close(ish) to the 3–2-1 method (3 must do rides, 2 attractions, 1 meal). Book 2 of the rides via single LL, book the meal, and backfill itinerary from there. It probably wouldn’t accomplish the entire “must do” list. But I’d rather hit stuff and not “waste” 45 - 180 minutes in line, each, to ride a 3 minute ride. So, I’d take full advantage of LL.

I would also consider nixing a park, and/or making Minnie Van / skyliner part of the thought process. Streamlined transportation alone could save you well more than an hour on the day.

Good luck.

 

[brockash]

Looking for a gut check here. We are going for one day on Wednesday March 25th with a Park Hopper. I got a date specific ticket and are only doing one day at the parks this trip. I'm not sure if I can change the date or not, but this date worked for the rest of our plans and has MK with extra evening hours to 1:00am. Four of us including a 19 and 15 year old and we have been to WDW maybe a dozen plus times, plus recently went to Disney Paris. We have done just about every ride except Tiana's, and seen every show except the new nighttime parade at MK and the new Villians show at HWS; I think.

Can some of you give me guidance on my current plan as we have never park hopped, but we are using it as something different to see how much we can do in one long day. My only "request" from tWife was to go to Fantasmic since we have not seen that since I first visit many years ago. My current plan isn't ideal for easiest movement between parks. FYI - we are staying at OKW.

My plan thus is to :
Start at AK early hours (Avatar and Everest must dos) - move around 10am -
Go to Epcot (our unanimous fav - Guardians and World Showcase must dos) - move around 4:30pm -
Hollywood studios (Galaxy's Edge, Brown Derby dinner, Fantasmic must dos) - move right after Fantasmic 9:30ish) -
MK until close at 1:00am (Tron, Tiana's, Parade must dos)

It would be easier to go HWS - Epcot - MK for travel ease, but then we can't to Fantasmic (hopefully we still love it as it's been a while). Obviously we want to keep it as flexible as possible and depends on LL bookings, so this is just a rough guide.

So you're doing 1st Fantasmic show? This all sounds doable. If you're done at AK earlier (if rope dropping and just doing those 2 you should be done much earlier than 10); you can always get a bus to BC and walk over to Epcot...or uber.

 

[WDWRook]

So you're doing 1st Fantasmic show? This all sounds doable. If you're done at AK earlier (if rope dropping and just doing those 2 you should be done much earlier than 10); you can always get a bus to BC and walk over to Epcot...or uber.

In order to make it to MK (and part of the fun of the idea is to make it to all four parks in one day) we would have to do the first Fantasmic. Bus to BC is a good idea. We will have a car too, but I think that would be worse as I'd have to get to car to MK then mono to Epcot, so that the car is where I need it at the end of the night (I'm assuming the mono from MK to Epcot ends after Epcot closes, and before MK would close.

 

[WDWRook]

This seems way too ambitious… for me. But you are not me.

Early entry at AK starts at 7:30am. Presumably you’d want to get there earlier than that. After hoping the parks, you’re looking to end at MK to close out the night at 1:00am. Even if you don’t make it to 1:00am, that’s roughly 17 straight hours of parks and park hoping, followed by +/- 30 or more minutes to get back to OKW. But if doing early “right” and doing extended evening “right”, that’s more like 19 or so hours. Again, for me, that’s just way too many consecutive hours to be enjoyable. All the power to you if you do make it and are content at the end of the day. Hopefully it doesn’t erode the following day’s plans due to fatigue.

I think LL will be your friend if used at from 1-2, at most 3 parks. Since you’re only going the one day, you don’t get the benefit of booking LL 7+ days in advance, just the 7 days. Which means by the time you can book LL the 7 days in advance, many other people already had access to booking LL for March 25th, days prior to you being able to do so. (Premier pass would obviously help tremendously at 1 park, but with a hefty price tag.)

Keep in mind that multiple of your “must do” items are the most popular rides in the parks. Meaning: very long wait times, unsavory LL return times, no LL availability, or some combination thereof. Also keep in mind that rides go down. A lot. So 1 down ride on an already very rigid schedule may torpedo the remainder of the schedule.

In this vein, you will need to tap into a multi-pass LL at AK before being able to book another multi-pass LL at the second park. By that time, pickings may be slim to none, and get worse as the day goes on.

Having ten must-do items spread throughout all parks seems… optimistic. If it was me, I would stick close(ish) to the 3–2-1 method (3 must do rides, 2 attractions, 1 meal). Book 2 of the rides via single LL, book the meal, and backfill itinerary from there. It probably wouldn’t accomplish the entire “must do” list. But I’d rather hit stuff and not “waste” 45 - 180 minutes in line, each, to ride a 3 minute ride. So, I’d take full advantage of LL.

I would also consider nixing a park, and/or making Minnie Van / skyliner part of the thought process. Streamlined transportation alone could save you well more than an hour on the day.

Good luck.

I thought you can book LL seven days prior to your first day when staying at a Deluxe resort; thus it is not based on the first park day. In our case that makes it 11 days prior to the park day.

For the rest, I might not have been clear what our plan is, but we have done Disney many many times. The point this time is to park hop, hit all four parks, and see what we can get done, purely for the sport of it. Rope dropping FOP and EE will be no problem; Single LL for Guardians, then chill in the world showcase should be easy; Single LL for GE, then booked dinner and Fantasmic will be fine, then chill and hit what we can at MK afterhours. Only sanfu will be if we cannot get the Single LLs, and if we don't we don't, we have been on all those rides several times before.

We have done open to close every visit, including when the kids were little. We also have nothing planned the day before or after besides relaxing at the pool. We will be fine, and if we get tired, we leave. My question was not really about ride plans, but about moving between parks efficiently and the rope drop tricks since that is the part new for us.

 

[brockash]

I thought you can book LL seven days prior to your first day when staying at a Deluxe resort; thus it is not based on the first park day. In our case that makes it 11 days prior to the park day.

For the rest, I might not have been clear what our plan is, but we have done Disney many many times. The point this time is to park hop, hit all four parks, and see what we can get done, purely for the sport of it. Rope dropping FOP and EE will be no problem; Single LL for Guardians, then chill in the world showcase should be easy; Single LL for GE, then booked dinner and Fantasmic will be fine, then chill and hit what we can at MK afterhours. Only sanfu will be if we cannot get the Single LLs, and if we don't we don't, we have been on all those rides several times before.

We have done open to close every visit, including when the kids were little. We also have nothing planned the day before or after besides relaxing at the pool. We will be fine, and if we get tired, we leave. My question was not really about ride plans, but about moving between parks efficiently and the rope drop tricks since that is the part new for us.

I'd definitely do Disney transportation and not deal with the car. In order to maximize rope drop, be at the bus stop 90 mins. prior to EE hours (so 6am for 730 park open...you'd probably still make the first bus if you got there at 615). This will set you up to be in the first group of rope droppers/FoP folks etc.

 

[Djm_in_buffalo]

Yes, I believe, but am not positive, that is accurate; from resort check-in day, not first park day. As worded, the initial post indicates ‘we are going for one day…’ and made no mention of staying at the resort for several days prior, so I interpreted that to mean at WDW for one day, 3/25. So it sounds like you get a few days of 7+, advance LL bookings. That should help a bit.

At minimum, I still think the variables will be when you can slot in the LLs, whether MP or SP. I was a bit surprised for our last visit, which was my first time using the new system. Even booking 7+7 days out, availability still went super quick. Day of, a lot of MP options were completely gone, even before park open, or at least shortly thereafter, while many of the “meh” rides in terms of general excitement / standby wait times were still late in the day (e.g., if checking the app at 9:30am, the earliest return time for Dumbo might be 3:30pm, Pooh might be 7:30pm sort of thing).

To the extent that there are “must-do” items, having 10 of them in fairly sequential order simply may not happen, again due to closures, lines, etc… Naturally, if the list of “must do” items really means “this is the list, we think it will take all day to accomplish, but we also don’t plan on adding to it, or at least not adding to it until later in the day when we can gauge our progress”, that would certainly make the planning a bit easier. The transportation is still a time suck. When we hopped, say wake up in morning, left WL to MK, then to WL to change and out to AK, I’d say easy, we spent 2.5 hours just walking to/from/waiting for the busses. Naturally eliminating the trip back to hotel would streamline a bit, as would being able to hop on the skyliner to go direct park-to-park. Driving a personal vehicle between parks doesn’t strike me as efficient, but I’ve never done it.

I love ribeye steaks, but would hate 19 hours of ribeye steaks. There’s a reason that there isn’t one set “right” way of doing it. Everybody has preferences. Going open to close isn’t for me, but it works for many, so hopefully 3/25 is a blast for you and your family!