Strategizing which park/which day

[KJay]

Upcoming visit this fall (mid-October) will be my first since Feb 2020. First time dealing with park reservations! I'm having a hard time strategizing which park/which day, when we'll only be there Friday to Monday. Friday we'll have a midday arrival, missing out on the benefits of a rope-drop arrival; Monday, we'll be leaving late afternoon (on Magical Express), so likely no hopping that day. Only full days will be Saturday and Sunday. Any tips on pros/cons for which park/which day? Hoppers, staying at Epcot area resort. I feel like this has probably been (over)analyzed already, but I can't seem to find relevant threads when I search...
Thanks for your tips and advice!

 

[loves to dive]

Depends on if you want to see all 4 parks and if you want to ride RoTR. Weekend nights can be a bit crowded at Epcot or I'd tell you to book a reservation for it on arrival day, you can tap in and if it's too crowded just hop to wherever you want to go from there.

If you want RoTR, make sure HS is one of your days and then you can hop after two to one of your non-priority parks. I would just make reservations for the parks you know you absolutely want to go to, rope drop those parks and if you are done by 2, hop over to another park. Right now who knows what the weekends are going to be like since they have probably increased capacity. F&W will be happening at Epcot in Oct. so I would really expect it to be busy. Right now it's not opening until 11, who knows what time it will open in Oct. You could still get some good time in if you hopped over there after 2 and only stayed a few hours before it got horrible busy.

 

[KJay]

Thanks! We did get to do RotR on our visit in Feb 2020, so while it would be great to do it again, it’s not going to ruin the trip if we can’t snag a boarding group. It’s so hard to predict what will be best, given the changes that will likely be coming in some manner over the next few months!

 

[Kerr84]

I would do Epcot on arrival day because it is open the latest. MK or AK on the day you leave because they open the earliest. Every park is filling up every day basically, so go whenever you want.

 

[KJay]

The only thing that will be new to us is Ratatouille— and we really want to do that! So if FP or ride reservation is not in place— I feel like we’d need one day to be at Epcot at opening in order to secure chance of getting on... or am Ioverlooking something here...?

 

[Kerr84]

The only thing that will be new to us is Ratatouille— and we really want to do that! So if FP or ride reservation is not in place— I feel like we’d need one day to be at Epcot at opening in order to secure chance of getting on... or am Ioverlooking something here...?

That or a lot of people get in line at the end of the night. As long as you are in the line before closing, you will get to ride no matter how long it takes.