Park Plan, What do you think?

[PoohBearFriends]

I am trying to decide the best order to see the parks. We have the 7 day pass but only have 6 days. We are going Feb 5-10

Option 1:
Thurs: Epcot
Fri: Hollywood
Sat: Break day/ Animal Kingdom?
Sun: Magic Kingdom (EM hours)
Mon: Epcot
Tues: Magic Kingdom

Option 2:
Thurs: Magic Kingdom (EM hours)
Fri: Epcot
Sat: Hollywood
Sun: Break/Animal Kingdom?
Mon: Magic Kingdom
Tue: Epcot (EM hours)

I heard that it was best not to use Hollywood EM hours that it was too crowded.

Thanks for all your help

 

[Disnutty]

You did not tell us if you are staying in a Disney resort hotel or if you are staying in a non Disney hotel. It will make a difference to your plan as the extra magic hour is well worth the hassle of getting up early to be there before it gets crowded, but if you are not staying at a Disney resort then you should avoid the Park that is opening early as it will have more people there than the other parks. Where are you staying? and how many will be in your party will help people to answer your question a little better.

 

[PoohBearFriends]

We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside. Sorry I forgot to put that in the original post. So that does allow us EM I believe. Thanks again for any suggestions.

 

[Disnutty]

Yes staying on Disney property gives you the right to both Early Morning hour and to extra evening hours if there are any planned for when you stay. The early morning is a great bonus if you can get your troops up to take advantage of the extra morning hour. I don't know if your family are morning people or if they would rather sleep in. My suggestion is that you pick two days that you get everyone up early and try to make the morning extra hour. Plan on being at the park at the 8:00 extra morning hour opening time so you must leave Port Orleans between 7:00 and 7:15. That means getting everyone up and ready to leave before then. It is not always easy but it is great way to see all of the must see attractions. I would rearrange your plan so that you take advantage of the early morning hour on the day that Magic Kingdom opens early (typically Thursday) and also on the day you want to go to EPCOT (Typically Tuesday). Also check for the evening hours and plan accordingly

The reason is that you will be able to get you two DDs to ride two or three of the most popular exhibits before the park gets crowed. It makes a big difference when for example you visit EPCOT and you can knock out Soaring and Test Track and maybe even Mission Space (or what ever attraction DD ers have their hearts set on) before the park is crowded with wait lines. Conversely you should avoid the park that has the extra morning hour if you can not get there for the early opening because you will find that park to be more crowded than the other three options.

Base your visits on if you can make early morning extra hour, if you can, then go. If you can not get there then pick one of the other parks to visit to avoid the crowd. You can look up the extra magic morning hour and extra magic evening hour for February 09 in DIS or All Ears then set your schedule accordingly. It will make a difference. I like Nunber 2 better only if you can get to the extra magic hour. If you can not get to MK on Thursday then switch it for EPCOT. Be prepared to swithc Parks if there is extra hours and you will not be able to make use of it. Avoid a park with extra hours if you can not take avantage of the hours yourself.

 

[PoohBearFriends]

Thanks for the info. We always made it to the park early at DLR and we found we could get in 6-8 rides in the first EE hour. I think the kids would be disappointed that we didn't match that here. We can get in 25 rides at DLR in a day with a break on EE days.

That said we are going to have a time change issue with a challenge getting up a few hours early. We live in Washington state. I guess it will depend if we get into the hotel and to bed on time, we are suppose to arrive at 5:30 pm.

 

[PoohBearFriends]

On opt. 2 - I just noticed that I mislabeled the Epcot day it is the EM for pm. I don't think we will stay that late. Would it be better to switch it to Sat and move Hollywood to Friday?

Next Question my kids have always park hopped at DLR btw the 2 parks and been able to go on the "rides" every day. Would it be disappointing if we did start with Magic Kingdom and then they find out the other parks are not as fast paced? My kids are into rides? I hate to give up the MK EM for am. We are able to utilize that sooooo much and get in so much before the park fills up.

 

[Disnutty]

Early morning extra hours are great and you can get a lot of rides done if you make a plan. Just remember (as I am sure you know since you have been there before) that WDW is so much bigger than DL it will just take you longer to get the same amount of rides done in Fla just because of the size (extra walking) difference.

One other thing to remember is that Grandma and Grandpa will probably not be able to keep up the pace like they use to, so my suggestion is to plan on meeting them at a specific time and place in the park and do just a few of the attractions with them so they can sleep in if they want to, or go watch a show at EPCOT or Disney Studios and then meet you for lunch or Dinner or a specific attraction or they can head back to the hotel and sit and relax by the pool. I am sure they want to see the DDs faces as they go on each attraction but sometimes it is nice to know that they can go off on their own and you will meet up with them later in the day. Make sure you talk to them about this issue ahead of time so there are no misunderstandings once you get to WDW. My advise is to plan on being separated for some of the day so you and DH and DDs can attack the rides. If they can stay with your pace then just remember to send DH ahead with your room keys to get six Fast Passes for the next ride. Fast Pass will make a big difference for a group of six

I am sure others will have great suggestions as to how Grand Ma and Grand Pa can stay busy yet be part of the vacation without slowing the group down. Hopefully they will be able to keep up but having a plan to give them their "own schedule" is much better than finding out that they just can not get from one attraction to the other as fast as you, DH and DDs can.