Park planning...

[chrissyc72]

How do you all decide which parks to do what days? We get to start picking our fast passes at midnight & I'm trying to see where I go when. Help! It is sept 10-17. I know we have extra hours on sat in mk till 1 am! Whoohoo so I'll be there for that but no clue how to plan other days!

 

[Airship Ariadne]

Everyone has different styles, some people specifically avoid EMH parks (I avoid morning EMH since it just fills up the park earlier). Others claim that you will want to avoid MK on Mondays as that is often the 1st day of a stay and most hit MK 1st.

I weigh all options and if I know I want two days in one park (MK and Epcot each) I try to do another park between days in those.

My plan two days in MK, two in EPCOT and 1 each iin HS and AK:
MK first and last days...yeah, traditionalist here...then I look for evening EMH to hit HS or EPCOT (AK didn't have any in my week this time but did in 2010), then fill in from there the other days.

 

[Luv2Run]

I plan my park visits around EMH (late, not early, since we're night owls). If I have the DDP, then I try to plan the park visits around those, as well. ADRs trump EMHs for me, for example if MK has EMH on Monday, but I can only get an ADR to BOG on Tuesday, then it's Tuesday for us, even though the park will close at regular time.

(sorry if all those acronyms sound confusing!!)

 

[minnie mum]

How do you all decide which parks to do what days? We get to start picking our fast passes at midnight & I'm trying to see where I go when. Help! It is sept 10-17. I know we have extra hours on sat in mk till 1 am! Whoohoo so I'll be there for that but no clue how to plan other days!

Most pick their park days either around those parks with EMH (going to the park or specifically avoiding them), or around the parks recommended on crowd calendar sites like easywdw.com.

I use easywdw to plan my parks. Josh gives you the estimated crowd levels and then recommends which parks to go to and which ones to avoid. And then in his detailed explanation for each day, explains WHY each park is recommended or not. I also like his cheat sheets for touring plans, which also recommend what to FP and when.

 

[Hopefully]

I always plan which park which day based on crowd calendar recommendations from touringplans.com or easywdw.com.
Once I pick the recommended park I make my ADR's in or near that park. WDW is enormous and it is a waste of time and energy to be traveling near and far to get to an ADR.
Once I have planned my parks, we talk about what is our must do's for each park. I do not plan attraction to attraction, but more generic and go with the flow of the park.

 

[jiminykrikkit]

I use EasyWDW and Touring Plans to pick my park days. I try to get the lowest crowds possible for each day. And then I use that info to pick my ADRs. If there's a restaurant in a park that we really want and I can only get one on a day we're not in that park, I consider hopping or re-evaluate the park day with those sites listed above. We might be willing to change to a slightly higher crowd level if it makes the schedule work better. Most of the time, we just break up park days and hop because we take a mid-day break anyways. So maybe Epcot in the morning and then MK that evening, etc.

 

[chrissyc72]

Thanks! Going to check out those sites now!

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

We are going to be there the same dates (10-16).

Here is our plan (hope to snag an A&E tonight )

Wed, Sept 10: Magic Kingdom
Thur, Sept 11: Epcot
Fri, Sept 12: Magic Kingdom & MNSSHP
Sat, Sept 13: Animal Kingdom & DTD
Sun, Sept 14: Hollywood Studios
Mon, Sept 15: Epcot
Tue, Sept 16: Magic Kingdom