Should we add a third park day?

[persimmondeb]

We're a party of three adults. This is a two week trip (with a bunch of other Orlando things) and we are spending five nights on property (two at Saratoga Springs, three at All Star Music). We have two park days scheduled, for July 17th and 18th, and our reservations are for DHS (17th) and AK (18th), plus hopping. Some of the point is to do Food & Wine, but we're figuring to hop in for dinner at least on the 17th, and possibly on the 18th.

My DS wistfully remarked on the absence of a dedicated Epcot day. We do like Epcot, but there's not that much to ride, plus it's kind of under construction. Worth it, or not? If I were adding a day, it would be the 16th.

 

[The WDW 3]

Epcot always worth it IMO

 

[kanerf]

I agree. Epcot is my favorite park.

 

[OpieDoodle]

I'd be bummed to miss Epcot personally. It and AK are my favorite parks. Honestly we usually end up at Epcot twice every trip we like it so much. I've been there many times during various construction (sometimes bigger than others) and generally you won't notice it all that much if at all. There is still tons to do and see.

Personally, I'd drop HS or AK either one for a day at Epcot.

 

[Southernmiss]

If you have hoppers, you can easily hop to Epcot at 2 pm on one of your days (they'll let you in at 1:50).

We did this on Thursday last week. We rope dropped AK, hopped at 1:30 and stayed at Epcot until close and did everything at both parks. It was like 2 full park days in one. Exhausting, but fun and worth it.

I wanted to hit Epcot again on Friday, but after 100,000 park steps from Sunday to Friday (with a break on Tuesday) and another 25,000 steps to go on Saturday, my feet wouldn't let me! Lol

Our 2 sons and dil did go to Epcot that night.

 

[persimmondeb]

We usually do open to close, which might be a reason not to have a third day of that.

We're definitely hopping to Epcot from DHS, and possibly from AK (we might do MK instead), but it's mostly to eat at Food & Wine, not necessarily do a lot of rides, etc.

I'm a little on the fence with the third day. We do love Epcot (and could hop to something else if we wanted), but that's a lot of park days on top of each other, and I definitely don't want to do a park day while we're at Saratoga Springs (that's for Disney Springs, swimming, maybe some random exploration around the world). Also this trip has cost me a lot already, so it's one more expense.

One of things that has me tempted is concern that Epcot will be so crowded Saturday night that hopping into it may be an issue, and even if it's not, we'd have difficulty in getting at the booths. My son particularly has a heavy investment in Food & Wine.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I would so add a day, each of those 3 parks are unique.... something for everyone

 

[Skippyboo]

Saturday night at Epcot will definitely be crowded with long lines for the F&W booths. I would adjust your schedule to go to Epcot at a different time. More days you add the cheaper it becomes. Day 3 isn’t $140 like Day 1 is. I would look into how much more an extra day would be and if it’s doable for your budget. With a 3rd day you don’t have to do 12 hour park days if you don’t want to.

 

[persimmondeb]

I'm figuring around a hundred per ticket to add the day (I should probably ask the mouse).

More days does not mean fewer hours in the park per day. We're all really horrified by the idea that we're paying for time that we're not using, especially on relatively short ticket lengths. Since Epcot seems to still be opening at 11am, that is a little bit of a break, but we're probably not going to be out of there before close (if we hopped to MK it might be a slightly earlier night).

 

[TaraWasHere]

Epcot during the F&W Festival is my favorite place in all of Disney. Man, I could easily spend the whole day wandering around the showcase snacking from the booths and people watching. With the occasional slip into a ride to "cool off" in the warmer months. *Snapping out of my daydream* If you are just looking to ride rides then yeah...I can see Epcot not being a big draw worthy of a dedicated day. But personal opinion, I could dedicate the entire trip to that park alone.

 

[persimmondeb]

[/QUOTE]

Epcot during the F&W Festival is my favorite place in all of Disney. Man, I could easily spend the whole day wandering around the showcase snacking from the booths and people watching. With the occasional slip into a ride to "cool off" in the warmer months. *Snapping out of my daydream* If you are just looking to ride rides then yeah...I can see Epcot not being a big draw worthy of a dedicated day. But personal opinion, I could dedicate the entire trip to that park alone.

My kid and I could too. It does a bit less for my husband, and we're definitely hitting Epcot for a few hours, so I'm still really on the fence.

 

[KittyKitty]

Worth it, or not? If I were adding a day, it would be the 16th.

Always.

 

[TaraWasHere]

My kid and I could too. It does a bit less for my husband, and we're definitely hitting Epcot for a few hours, so I'm still really on the fence.

LOL well my husband is a beer drinker and loves trying the different beers in the booths so he's pretty easy to convince. Also likes to swap Spaceship earth to a foreign language to annoy his co-rider sooo....

 

[wdw71]

1000% worth it

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Worth it, totally subjective but for such a short trip, yes having hoppers will help you squeeze "more" in. If a full day at Epcot isn't on the agenda, I think you'd still be fine doing DHS and AK and squeeze in an Epcot evening easily. I personally have never felt DHS and AK are full day parks so I think leaving and heading to Epcot would be easy to do, especially as early as AK closes right now.

 

[persimmondeb]

We took the plunge. Hopefully it'll seem sensible (and not like too much park all in a row), but I was having visions of not being able to get into Epcot on Saturday night, or not be able to get near any booths, or trying to juggle an ROTR boarding pass with our other plans.

 

[Heather07438]

We took the plunge. Hopefully it'll seem sensible (and not like too much park all in a row), but I was having visions of not being able to get into Epcot on Saturday night, or not be able to get near any booths, or trying to juggle an ROTR boarding pass with our other plans.

Sounds good! And Monday is often the best day of the week for Epcot.

HS Sat, then AK on Sun. One of those nights you can go see MK fireworks too.

 

[persimmondeb]

Sounds good! And Monday is often the best day of the week for Epcot.

HS Sat, then AK on Sun. One of those nights you can go see MK fireworks too.

It'll actually be Friday, since we're going to Sea World on Monday, but I figure it'll be way easier if we can start at opening time, rather than trying to fight our way in when everyone's trying to get dinner.