Upcoming January Trip Strategy

[nlenguyen]

Hello! I am needing some advice about my family's upcoming trip in January. We will be going the 2nd week, the first day will be the last day of the marathon (the 8th) so I thought to change our park reservations. We are doing a 2 day park hopper. Sunday is Animal Kingdom with Magic Kingdom. We are an older party (youngest traveler is 13) so we are not doing many rides in MK. One of my family members and I would like to see Pandora lit up at night but not sure what they they usually start. I think if we leave AK around 5 that should get us enough time to get to MK for about 5 hours to get the rides we want done, but not sure if this is possible. The other idea I had would be to leave AK at 1:30 get to MK then around 4/5 head back to AK for a couple hours then head back to MK when AK closes. In the back of my mind the back-and-forth could just eat too much time. We will have a rental car but with 8 people traveling we would like to utilize the busses as best as we can. Maybe taken a bus from AK to BLT/CR.

Second day is HS/EP because of their proximity and with Extended Evening Hours, I thought that this combination would be better.

Any thoughts? Should I change the park combinations at all? I am trying to best utilize park hours with early park openings and late park closings on the specific days

 

[scrappinginontario]

What are the park hours of your dates? That would be helpful information.

On Day 1, if you chose the second option you would use up a lot of time in both transportation as well as just entering and exiting the parks. I would not recommend going with the AK MK AK MK route.

What time does MK close on this day?

Is MK AK MK an option for that day to be able to see Pandora after dark? It truly is worth seeing, I feel.

 

[mom2rtk]

Just know that first day will potentially have transportation delays because of the marathon. Not sure of the route this year, but we got stuck near the MK for 45 minutes on a Disney bus waiting for roads to open back up.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just know that first day will potentially have transportation delays because of the marathon. Not sure of the route this year, but we got stuck near the MK for 45 minutes on a Disney bus waiting for roads to open back up.

This is a great point. I wonder if it would be better to do the DHS EP portion on Day 1 so that transportation between parks is Skyliner/boat/walking?

 

[mom2rtk]

This is a great point. I wonder if it would be better to do the DHS EP portion on Day 1 so that transportation between parks is Skyliner/boat/walking?

We purposely chose to stay at Pop to use the Skyliner to access the parks that day. Looks like OP is staying at SSR so will not have it available to arrive that morning. But it might be great for later in the day travel. I think things are impacted until early afternoon. Maybe someone familiar with the marathon route this year will chime in.

 

[nlenguyen]

What are the park hours of your dates? That would be helpful information.

On Day 1, if you chose the second option you would use up a lot of time in both transportation as well as just entering and exiting the parks. I would not recommend going with the AK MK AK MK route.

What time does MK close on this day?

Is MK AK MK an option for that day to be able to see Pandora after dark? It truly is worth seeing, I feel.

Sun
MK 9-11
AL 8-7

Mon
HS 8:30-9
EP 9-11

 

[nlenguyen]

We purposely chose to stay at Pop to use the Skyliner to access the parks that day. Looks like OP is staying at SSR so will not have it available to arrive that morning. But it might be great for later in the day travel. I think things are impacted until early afternoon. Maybe someone familiar with the marathon route this year will chime in.

Yes that is why we thought of MK later in the day for park hopping because bus problems