Upcoming trip during Marathon Weekend

[nlenguyen]

My family is going to WDW the second week of January and it happens to fall on Marathon Weekend. We will be going to the parks Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. We are going with two other families besides me and my parents, total 7 people. 5 of us are going to do 3 day park hopper and 2 are just doing 2 day park hopper. We are wanting to try and do all the parks in 2 days, then the attractions we cannot do in 2 days, we will have an extra day to complete.
So far our plan is the following. If you have any trips about Park hopping please let me know, this will be the first time we have ever tried park hopping at WDW, usually we go to DL and park hop.
Sunday: Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. HS to start and then moving to MK around 5 or 6 to do SDMT and Enchantment among others
Monday: Animal Kingdom and Epcot: AK to start and then go to EP around 2 or 3. We want to try to get to AK early so we can get most of the rides done by noon, don't know if this is possible but that is the plan. EP typically has extra evening hours this day so we will try to do a couple big rides during that time. We are planning to do ILL for GOTG.
Wednesday: EP and Magic Kingdom: This is the day I don't have solid ideas yet. I know MK typically has extra evening hours this day so I know we want to end that MK. I was thinking EP so we can try for a virtual queue GOTG instead of paying again for one. We could also do HS.
I recently watched a video about doing HS and EP with Genie+ and it seems likes it can work, but AK/EP makes more sense because it is the earliest park to open to the park latest to close.

The family knows we won't be able to ride every attraction, we have a list of the ones we want to do, just asking for help in terms of logistics with busses between AK and EP seems like far and few between. Are there even busses that go from one park to another?

The couple coming that is only doing 2 days will be first timers. I want them to ride SDMT, Splash Mountain. but is enchantment something we should go out of the way for? I know there is mixed reviews, but getting opinions to share with them. Since they said Tron with Spring opening date, January looks slim but we are holding out they might have preview days during our trip.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Are you starting your trip on the 8th? If so, you should see crowds start to drop since the holidays will be over and the marathon is Sunday.

Just a few thoughts:

1. Hopping at WDW starts at 2:00 as opposed to 1:00 at Disneyland - just so you know.
2. There is transportation between parks - either bus, monorail, boat or skyliner, depending on the parks.
3. I would get an ILL for Rise so you can start elsewhere in Hollywood Studios. There is a lot to do in HS and it's hard to get everything done in one partial day. Be there early and either start at ToT/RNRC or start at Slinky if you want to do that. Lightning lanes for Slinky (if you are getting G+) go very quickly, so you might not get one early in the day.
4. It will be hard to get AK done by noon, especially if you want to see Festival of the Lion King (highly recommended, especially for first-timers, but we see it every trip). I would plan to be there 30 minutes before early entry and hit Flight of Passage first, unless you plan to buy ILL for FOP. Follow-up with the safari then Everest then FOTLK, then do what you have time for. But you can't hop until 2:00 anyway. There is a virtual queue drop at 6:00 for evening hours at Epcot - you could try for that and/or get ILL for Guardians. If you get ILL and VQ, you can ride it twice.
5. My family would choose extra time at HS instead of Epcot, and reservations for HS go faster. But if you want to spend time in World Showcase, you might prefer the second Epcot day.
6. Enchantment is ok - I don't think the fireworks portion is as good as Wishes, and the projections are not really my thing after seeing it once. But first-timers might want to see it. I don't know that I would stake out a space for an hour to see it, but I'd probably try to be around the hub to catch some of it. Just my preference, though
7. I think Tron is very unlikely for January, unfortunately.

Hope you have a great trip! We'll be there the week before for the half-marathon.

 

[nlenguyen]

Are you starting your trip on the 8th? If so, you should see crowds start to drop since the holidays will be over and the marathon is Sunday.

Just a few thoughts:

1. Hopping at WDW starts at 2:00 as opposed to 1:00 at Disneyland - just so you know.
2. There is transportation between parks - either bus, monorail, boat or skyliner, depending on the parks.
3. I would get an ILL for Rise so you can start elsewhere in Hollywood Studios. There is a lot to do in HS and it's hard to get everything done in one partial day. Be there early and either start at ToT/RNRC or start at Slinky if you want to do that. Lightning lanes for Slinky (if you are getting G+) go very quickly, so you might not get one early in the day.
4. It will be hard to get AK done by noon, especially if you want to see Festival of the Lion King (highly recommended, especially for first-timers, but we see it every trip). I would plan to be there 30 minutes before early entry and hit Flight of Passage first, unless you plan to buy ILL for FOP. Follow-up with the safari then Everest then FOTLK, then do what you have time for. But you can't hop until 2:00 anyway. There is a virtual queue drop at 6:00 for evening hours at Epcot - you could try for that and/or get ILL for Guardians. If you get ILL and VQ, you can ride it twice.
5. My family would choose extra time at HS instead of Epcot, and reservations for HS go faster. But if you want to spend time in World Showcase, you might prefer the second Epcot day.
6. Enchantment is ok - I don't think the fireworks portion is as good as Wishes, and the projections are not really my thing after seeing it once. But first-timers might want to see it. I don't know that I would stake out a space for an hour to see it, but I'd probably try to be around the hub to catch some of it. Just my preference, though
7. I think Tron is very unlikely for January, unfortunately.

Hope you have a great trip! We'll be there the week before for the half-marathon.

Thank you for your tips. We will be arriving the day before we start the parks to settle in.
I do like the idea of reserving HS on our second because that has a lot of rides we like to do as well
Bummer Tron will not be opened