Quick Trip Suggestions

[ckrisie]

My DH and I are going to WDW for a quick trip April 22-25th. We will have 3 1/2 days in the parks. We are doing our first AP trip!
I did a CP back in 2009 and our honeymoon was for 2 weeks.
I am not sure how to do a quick trip.
How do you priorities, this is not a once in a lifetime trip but how do you pick what to do?
We want to go to AK on Earth Day, (maybe river of lights)
See Flower and Garen so EPCOT
DH is a big Starwars fan so HS
and I love the MK

HELP!
TIA

 

[monkyby87]

You'll be limited to hit all of the parks with that amount of time. Coincidently, that's how long our trip will be here in February. One day should be MK alone. If you want to do River of Lights, which nobody still knows about, do HS that morning and AK that evening. HS, even with Star Wars, likely won't keep you there for more than half a day. If the Star Wars fireworks are still going, you may have to sacrifice them to see Rivers of Light. But that's too far out to know yet. The other day you could leave for Epcot. It will also depend on what you want to do during the Flower and Garden festival. If you don't care about the demonstrations or concerts, your EPCOT plans shouldn't change as there isn't anything else special about F&G aside from topiaries. That last half-day then could be whatever. I personally would do MK again.

However you plan it, AK and HS could be done in half days in my opinion and MK needs at least one full day to properly enjoy. EPCOT too, depending on how much of World Showcase you want to do.

 

[loves to dive]

Park hoppers are your friend for short trips. You could do a morning at AK, then hop over to Epcot for F&G. A morning at HS and hop over to Epcot for F&G and even hop over MK after that if they are having late EMH hours (I didn't look at the calendar to see). Morning and afternoon at MK and hop over to Epcot for F&G for the evening. 1/2 day the day you leave at whatever park you felt like you didn't get enough of. For me and my grown son, MK is a half day park so a short trip like that we would do a morning there and then hop to F&G. I think we are probably the only people who frequent the parks that feel that way.

 

[kayemgi]

We are doing what will essentially be a three day trip in March. Two full days, 1/2 day on arrival day and 1/2 day on departure day. We plan to do all four parks plus Disney Springs! It can be done, but you can't do everything in each park, of course. It helps a lot if it's not a "once in a lifetime" trip like you said. Here's our rough plan, if it helps:

Arrival day (arriving in the afternoon):

• Bus to Epcot, FP+ for Test Track, do a little World Showcase
• Bus to Disney Springs for drinks/snacks at Jock Lindsey's and Morimoto Asia, plus shopping.

Full day 1:

• Bus to EP, ride Nemo, ride Living with the Land, ride Spaceship Earth.
• Hit up any of World Showcase that we still want to do.
• Boat to HS
• FP+ for RNR
• FP+ for TOT
• Star Wars Launch Bay
• See Voyage of the Little Mermaid
• See Indiana Jones
• FP+ for Star Tours
• See Muppet Vision
• Symphony in the Stars Fireworks

Full day 2:

• Bus to AK for rope drop
• Ride Safari
• Ride Everest
• Ride Dinosaur
• See FOTLK
• See Finding Nemo
• Lunch at Harambe Market or Yak & Yeti QS
• Bus to MK
• FP+ rides: BTMR, Splash, 7DMT
• Put our name in for dinner at Skipper Canteen
• Enjoy nighttime stuff (MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes)

On our departure day we only have the morning so we will go to whatever park we feel we want to see more of, or we will hang out at our resort and pack before getting onto the Magical Express.

The best tip I have is to make a list of three priorities for each park. Get into the mindset that if you only do those three things, it's ok. You'll almost certainly always get to exceed those three things, and then each day feels like a success. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Hootch]

I think you can do a lot in 3.5 days. I've never been to Flower and Garden, but it seems reasonable that you could combine that with DHS for one day. Hit DAK for a good part of the day and hop to the MK for the evening. You could easily visit DHS early a second morning and head to the MK for most of the day.

You won't be able to hit everything, but with judicious scheduling of FP+ you can hit the highlights. We have had luck at the MK of getting additional FPs.

 

[jade1]

Stay at an EPCOT resort (even if S&D) to eliminate buses to DHS and EPCOT. Plus you can pop over to EPCOT any time for F&G.

Get a hopper.

Reserve late afternoon or evening FP+ (change of scenery is nice so a different park than AM IMO).

Decide each AM with a clean slate which park to open, and knock out attractions with RD lines. If its EM make sure you indeed are there at RD, if you can't make RD-go to a different park that AM. Check "recommended" parks for AM and PM. Same with PM EMH-if you do not want to stay late-avoid that park.

Take each afternoon off at the resort (April is magnificent), rest or swim or lunch or drink.


Off the top example:

The half day do MK with FP+

Day 1

Open DHS without FP+, break, evening dinner/FP+/Illuminations.

Day 2

Open AK without FP+, break, do MK with FP+/Wishes.

Day 3

Open EPCOT, break, evening DHS with FP+/Fantasmic.

If ROL and Night Safari is open-prob do AK one afternoon with FP+ and stay for that-sounds awesome.

FYI, last March we were near the front at DHS at RD, straight to TSM-then RNR then TOT in less than one hour. Went to EPCOT after that on the boat and it had just opened.