Spring break park hopping help - what would you do?

[maui2k5]

We are a family of 4 with girls 12/14 staying at the Poly for 5 nights (plus 3 at UNI) during Spring Break in March. We are debating on our parks schedule and when to visit which parks. The parks we are a little stuck on are DHS and EP. The choice we need help on is this…

2 EP mornings + 1 evening & 1 DHS morning + 2 evenings
OR
1 EP morning + 2 evenings & 2 DHS mornings & 1 evening?

We already know we plan on 1 AK morning & 1 MK morning 2 MK evenings.

Thanks!

 

[DaniPoppins]

That's a tough one! So many factors to consider!! Lol!

I have a 13 yo daughter, and she would probably opt for the 2 HS mornings. Only because she loves the rides there (ToT, RRC, SSD, etc...) and being there early means shorter waits! But... she also loves EP!

I would look at the park closing times. See which park you can maximize your time in the evenings. And also consider how late you all want to stay in the parks. Staying until closing can also have much shorter waits if the park is open late.

 

[maui2k5]

That's a tough one! So many factors to consider!! Lol!

I have a 13 yo daughter, and she would probably opt for the 2 HS mornings. Only because she loves the rides there (ToT, RRC, SSD, etc...) and being there early means shorter waits! But... she also loves EP!

I would look at the park closing times. See which park you can maximize your time in the evenings. And also consider how late you all want to stay in the parks. Staying until closing can also have much shorter waits if the park is open late.

Thanks for the reply! Both parks have the same hours (as of now). The whole park reservation thing throws a monkey wrench into the spontaneity of the trip. Especially the not allowing park hopping until 2pm.

 

[dmetcalfrn]

The Extended Evening hours helped us plan our evenings and park hopping.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/extended-evening/

 

[maui2k5]

The Extended Evening hours helped us plan our evenings and park hopping.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/extended-evening/

Yes, we will be taking advantage of the Extended Evening Hours at both MK and EPCOT. The challenge is how to align with time at the other parks along the 5 days. We like to hop and I am not sure with G+ at Spring Break if mornings or evenings are a better strategy at EPCOT vs DHS?

 

[MickeyMice]

i personally prefer RD at MK over DHS - you can really get a lot done early at MK, while at DHS, i feel like at least 2 big attractions are usually down first thing in the AM. and then you can use G+ to stack rides for later at DHS.

just my preference though, and obviously depends on what rides/shows you value most.

 

[maui2k5]

i personally prefer RD at MK over DHS - you can really get a lot done early at MK, while at DHS, i feel like at least 2 big attractions are usually down first thing in the AM. and then you can use G+ to stack rides for later at DHS.

just my preference though, and obviously depends on what rides/shows you value most.

What about Rope Drop at DHS vs EPCOT? I know TT is often down first thing, but then again they now have 2 new attractions (GotG & Remy) which we have not yet been on.

 

[dez1978]

The Extended Evening hours helped us plan our evenings and park hopping.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/extended-evening/

Weren't the dates listed on this page before? I can't find them now. It will take you to the park hours calendar, but that doesn't go as far as my dates yet

 

[MickeyMice]

What about Rope Drop at DHS vs EPCOT? I know TT is often down first thing, but then again they now have 2 new attractions (GotG & Remy) which we have not yet been on.

remy is a good candidate for RD if you are coming in thru international gateway because you are right there. you may still wait a bit, but if you are an onsite guest and can get on before official park open, that first 1/2 hour moves pretty quickly without LL riders slowing down the standby queue (which is true for most attractions).

you can't walk onto GotG right now - you have to get on the virtual queue or purchase ILL$ to ride. so i would prioritize getting a VQ slot any morning you're at epcot. i suppose this could change once tron opens at MK on 4/4 - historically only one attraction across all WDW has utilized VQ at any given time.

the thing with early morning epcot (and animal kingdom) is that a lot of things are not open until later and the high value attractions that are open tend to be a fair distance apart.

 

[maui2k5]

remy is a good candidate for RD if you are coming in thru international gateway because you are right there. you may still wait a bit, but if you are an onsite guest and can get on before official park open, that first 1/2 hour moves pretty quickly without LL riders slowing down the standby queue (which is true for most attractions).

you can't walk onto GotG right now - you have to get on the virtual queue or purchase ILL$ to ride. so i would prioritize getting a VQ slot any morning you're at epcot. i suppose this could change once tron opens at MK on 4/4 - historically only one attraction across all WDW has utilized VQ at any given time.

the thing with early morning epcot (and animal kingdom) is that a lot of things are not open until later and the high value attractions that are open tend to be a fair distance apart.

We are staying at the Polynesian so we will not be at IG. So we have to figure out what our RD strategy will be at EPCOT and if we RD it twice with one hopper evening or RD once and two hopper evenings.

 

[NMK62303]

Right now with Guardians being VQ or ILL purchase only, to do VQ you need the Epcot reservation which means EP morning. For the 7AM queue you have to have park reservation linked and be up at 7 and for the 1PM queue you have to be in the park - and over spring Break that will likely give out long before park hopping opens up at 2PM!
Now, if park hopping was allowed before the 1PM queue that changes things significantly!