"Selective" must-dos in each park

[singingpixie]

My boyfriend and I are looking to take a trip during Columbus day week this year (arriving on Columbus day itself, but most likely not doing parks till Tuesday). The plan is to visit each park for one rope drop, touring pretty efficiently till 2pm or so, and then take the evenings to relax- visit the F&WF, have some nice dinners, do MNSSHP, etc. Here's what I have as "must-dos" for each park, hopefully fitting in the 9a-2p range. Realistic? Anything I can whittle out? Anything I'm missing?

MK: Splash Mountain, BTMRR, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Buzz, Peter Pan, Its a Small World, Mickey's Philharmagic, Jungle Cruise (if there's time)

Epcot: Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas, Turtle Talk (if there's time), Maelstrom, wander World Showcase and hopefully catch all the movies and some of the shows (I expect World Showcase to overlap w/ the F&WF evenings a bit, so this all doesn't have to be on the one day)

DHS: TSM, Tower of Terror, RnRC, Indiana Jones, Lights Motors Action, Muppets, Backlot Tour, Star Tours (if there's time), Great Movie Ride (if there's time)

AK: Kilimanjaro Safaris, Everest, Its Tough to be a Bug (If there's time), Festival of the Lion King, Nemo, Dinosaur, both walking trails.

I've done a couple trips recently, but my boyfriend hasn't been since high school. We'll be 25 and 30.

 

[ToddyLu]

If I had to pick, I would do Space Mountain over Jungle cruise--if he likes roller coasters.

 

[singingpixie]

If I had to pick, I would do Space Mountain over Jungle cruise--if he likes roller coasters.

Oh, that would totally be on the list if I expected it to be open in October. I'm guessing finishing it's rehab over a month ahead of schedule is a bit unlikely though.

 

[AJKMOM]

Space Mountain is supposed to be down until Nov. 21 or so.

 

[kellypooh]

Epcot: Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas, Turtle Talk (if there's time), Maelstrom, wander World Showcase and hopefully catch all the movies and some of the shows (I expect World Showcase to overlap w/ the F&WF evenings a bit, so this all doesn't have to be on the one day)

2 of my Epcot "must sees": Off Kilter (Canada) and the World Showcase Players (UK)

 

[ToddyLu]

Dang guess I will miss SM this year--didn't realize that, thanks for preparing me ahead of time.

 

[Flanigan]

You have some very good choices there in your Must Do list. One thing I would have to add if it were me going would be Carousel of Progress in MK. DW & I really enjoy that attraction.

 

[disneychic]

For your MK day, the Monsters Inc. LF, is actually a very cute & funny attraction. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a try.

For DHS I would put LMA on my to do list before Indiana Jones, but that's just my personal preferance.

Have a great trip!

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

I think if you plan on rope drop, you will be in fine shape to do all of the attractions you have listed. For a 9AM opening, I plan to arrive by 8:15. I am usually first at the turnstiles and the crowds stay behind me all morning.

One thing I will suggest about Epcot... Do Test Track first, then FP Soarin'. Usually you can kill time at either Nemo or Figment until the Soarin time comes up. Cross back over to FP Mission Space, then maybe the single rider line for Test Track while you wait for the MS FP...

 

[KSDisneyDad]

At Epcot, it may be hard to catch all of the shows in one day....I'd pick one circle-vision (Canada or China) and definitely see the American Adventure.

I would also add the evening fireworks/shows to your must see's. In particular, Illuminations at Epcot, Wishes and Spectromagic at MK and if time, Fantasmic at DHS.

 

[singingpixie]

At Epcot, it may be hard to catch all of the shows in one day....I'd pick one circle-vision (Canada or China) and definitely see the American Adventure.

I would also add the evening fireworks/shows to your must see's. In particular, Illuminations at Epcot, Wishes and Spectromagic at MK and if time, Fantasmic at DHS.

I'd be ok catching a movie or two in the evening when we're mostly focusing on the F&WF, so that would break things up a bit. I'm totally ok with missing the American Adventure, since I've been there/done that.

I should have been clearer in my OP- I'm counting on the fireworks in my evening plans- Hallowishes during the party, Wishes from the California Grill, Illuminations (preferably with a margarita in hand ;-)). Fantasmic is up in the air for the minute- I want to wait until dates are released, and if I can squeeze it in without too much extra running around, we will see it, but I'm prepared to miss it if it would involve too much crazy-ness.

 

[Technosavant]

Since you'll be there for a week, you'll have NO problem riding everything you want to ride. A week is longer than you think- a couple years ago we went for a week and I worried that we wouldn't get everything done that we wanted to do. By the end of day 4 we'd pretty well hit most things. If you have park hopper it makes it easier to get things done- AK won't take up an entire day, and unless you two have health problems you won't want to spend every afternoon and evening at the resort. You may find yourself heading back to Epcot in the evenings (we sure did- even now we still find ourselves back there for supper).

As said, add the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor to the MK must do list.

You'll have a good time and realize about halfway through that there's plenty of time, you'll relax, and you'll have a great time.

 

[singingpixie]

Since you'll be there for a week, you'll have NO problem riding everything you want to ride. A week is longer than you think- a couple years ago we went for a week and I worried that we wouldn't get everything done that we wanted to do. By the end of day 4 we'd pretty well hit most things. If you have park hopper it makes it easier to get things done- AK won't take up an entire day, and unless you two have health problems you won't want to spend every afternoon and evening at the resort. You may find yourself heading back to Epcot in the evenings (we sure did- even now we still find ourselves back there for supper).

As said, add the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor to the MK must do list.

You'll have a good time and realize about halfway through that there's plenty of time, you'll relax, and you'll have a great time.

Sorry if I wasn't clear- we don't have quite a week, more like 4 full days, plus our arrival evening (which I'd rather just have a nice dinner and maybe see Fantasmic if that's the only time we could fit it in) and the morning of our departure day for any repeats/missed attractions.

I don't plan to spend late afternoons and evenings at the resort- maybe a couple afternoons at the pool, but mostly checking out the F&WF at Epcot (as well as any World Showcase performances we catch), having a couple nice dinners (rather than have a sit-down every day we've decided to do a couple signature restaurants and do just CS and the F&WF the other days), seeing fireworks and doing the Halloween Party. This plan is to force myself to slow down and have a semi "relaxing" vacation- I tend to be a theme park commando and that's not the kind of trip we want this time. So, I'm allowing myself 9a-2p or so to be "commando" and then the rest of the day to take a slower pace.

The point of this thread was to find out if I was being realistic in what I was planning for the "commando" parts of the day- I don't want to shoot for more than is realistic and end up eating into the "relaxing" time if that makes sense. I also don't want to leave anything out that would be worthwhile.

 

[redc]

MK: BTMRR, Pirates, Haunted Mansion (wish SMtn was open)

Epcot: Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space

DHS: Tower of Terror, RnRC (at least twice)

AK: Everest (at least twice), Its Tough to be a Bug, Dinosaur

And use Fast Pass smartly!!!!!

 

[SgtsWife]

You have some very good choices there in your Must Do list. One thing I would have to add if it were me going would be Carousel of Progress in MK. DW & I really enjoy that attraction.

Def. add Carousel of Progress. I have ALWAYS went there - and it's a nice sit down ride, take a load off for a bit on this one!!

 

[Technosavant]

Ah, OK, I get it now. If you plan to go commando style, you should still be fine. Maybe a little less on the shows and a little more focus on the rides to make sure you get done what you want. You should have no problem at all getting all the "major" attractions done at all the parks, and you will likely even have time for some minor ones (stuff like Journey Into Imagination isn't a must-do, but there's usually no line, so you aren't out much time).

FastPass is useful for stuff like the truly popular rides (TSM, Soarin'), but at that time of year it isn't mandatory for everything- stuff like Splash Mountain and BTMRR aren't likely to be in excess of 30 minute wait (to us, that's kind of the cutoff- more than that and we'll FP it, less and we'll just wait, since it's usually a shorter wait).

 

[rlovew]

My boyfriend and I are looking to take a trip during Columbus day week this year (arriving on Columbus day itself, but most likely not doing parks till Tuesday). The plan is to visit each park for one rope drop, touring pretty efficiently till 2pm or so, and then take the evenings to relax- visit the F&WF, have some nice dinners, do MNSSHP, etc. Here's what I have as "must-dos" for each park, hopefully fitting in the 9a-2p range. Realistic? Anything I can whittle out? Anything I'm missing?

MK: Splash Mountain, BTMRR, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Buzz, Peter Pan, Its a Small World, Mickey's Philharmagic, Jungle Cruise (if there's time)-
If you FP well then you can propabl easily finish all of these in a couple of hours.

Epcot: Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas, Turtle Talk (if there's time), Maelstrom, wander World Showcase and hopefully catch all the movies and some of the shows (I expect World Showcase to overlap w/ the F&WF evenings a bit, so this all doesn't have to be on the one day)You should easily finish your future world things by 11am if you use FP and then catch a couple of movies/shows on your Epcot day. You will have to use your afternoons at Food and Wine to get more in- many shows are only on certain days of the week. Most of the shows start after noon- many as late as 3 for the first showing.

DHS: TSM, Tower of Terror, RnRC, Indiana Jones, Lights Motors Action, Muppets, Backlot Tour, Star Tours (if there's time), Great Movie Ride (if there's time)
Again if you make good use of FP and are there at rope drop you can do the rides- the biggest problem may be getting in LMA and Indy- many times indy and the first LMA are at the same time and it may be close to 2 by the time you can get to the 2nd on of them.

AK: Kilimanjaro Safaris, Everest, Its Tough to be a Bug (If there's time), Festival of the Lion King, Nemo, Dinosaur, both walking trails. The biggest thing will be fitting in the shows here also- plan to be at the first Nemo show and plan the rest of your day around that and you should make it by 2- the parade here is really neat and different and our favorite show is the Bird Show not Nemo or Lion King.

I've done a couple trips recently, but my boyfriend hasn't been since high school. We'll be 25 and 30.

Your plans are doable- see red notes above.

 

[singingpixie]

Your plans are doable- see red notes above.

Thanks! Yeah, I plan to work around shows when necessary because I foresee that being our biggest challenge. I do like the bird show at AK (which is funny because I have a horrible fear of birds), but I didn't want to add to the list of shows to squeeze in. If we see a way to do it that won't have us in the park all day (that day will most likely be our MNSSHP night, so we do want to have a good break in between) we'll definitely do it.

 

[DaveStroem]

Singingpixie, Your trip looks like the perfect candidate for http://www.ridemax.com/ .

 

[singingpixie]

Singingpixie, Your trip looks like the perfect candidate for http://www.ridemax.com/ .

I've already downloaded it (I'm inpatient so I did the whole year rather than waiting till 3 months out), and have played with sample schedules during times of similar crowd levels. I love it! And I even thing I can get my boyfriend to go along with using it as long as I'm subtle!