What to do which day?

[MelissaS8]

How do you decide what to do which day? We have park hoppers, so we will be doing one park in the morning and a different park after an afternoon break. So, here is how our days break down:

Saturday: Flight in + MK from noon until closing
Sunday: DHS morning, AK evening
Monday: MK morning, EP evening
Tuesday: off day
Wednesday: AK morning, DHS evening
Thursday: MK morning, EP evening
Friday: EP morning, MK evening

I have broken it down based on how much we want to see in each park, crowd calendar from Touring Plans, and other things.

My main question is: how do you break down all that I want to see in MK into which days so I can make a touring plan? Is it usually strictly based on location within the park? Or based around the FastPasses I get? I know how to evaluate my plan on touringplans.com, but I don't know how to decide what to do which day.

 

[maryj11]

It helps to look at park hours and check when extra magic hours are or special events. If your staying at a Disney resort go to the park that has morning extra magic hours. Get to that park at rope drop. When it starts to get crowded leave for a break. Usually around 11:00am crowds get heavier. Then look on a crowd calendar to decide what park in the evening. Evening extra magic hours are more crowded than morning ones. I would avoid evening extra magic hours unless you just like being in the park at night.
Make fastpasses for the most popular rides that usually have long waits. There is a list on here some where on what rides are top priority.
They have been having after hours at MK that we loved. Since you want more time at MK. You would have to buy tickets though. You get to stay in the park 3 hours after park closes with lower crowds.

 

[BobbyDukes]

Can I ask you a question??? Why are you hopping so much?? What are you trying to accomplish?

 

[wiggy500]

Some of this is going to depend on when you arrive to the park. When I arrived at Epcot at 9:12 for a 9 a.m. opening and went straight for the most popular ride there, Frozen Ever After, I had a 45 minute wait. If you can arrive to the parks 30 minutes before their scheduled opening many of the headliner rides you could have little to no wait once they open the park, which is often a little earlier than advertised.

So if you're able to be a little early, you'd want to start with a very popular ride when the park opens to avoid a longer wait, then continue to go rides that don't yet have bad waits until mid morning. As the park gets more crowded it's a good opportunity to check out a show or check out something less popular or just sit or walk around and take things in. And then the reverse would be true if you arrive mid afternoon. The closer you get to the beginning and the end of the day the less crowded everything will be, so those would be the times you'd have a better chance to have a shorter wait for a tier 1 attraction you don't have a fastpass for.

I think it'll be a combination of basing things on location within a park and what Fastpasses you can get. Say if you're doing a half day in Magic Kingdom it would be easier to skip tomorrowland and focus on the middle and left sides of the park or skip the left side and focus on Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The parks are big and for a lot of people the walking will be a lot for them. Bouncing from one end of the park to another can be okay a little bit, but if you can cut out some of that you'll appreciate it at the end of the day.

The newest attraction and from the sounds of it the greatest ride in the history of the universe is Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios. If they keep the current system going as I think most think they will, you need to be in the park when it opens to get into a virtual queue. At some point later in the day you will be informed when your turn to ride is. If you want to do that ride you may want to switch the plan that Sunday for all day there, or keep your plans a little tentative in case your turn to ride comes up in the p.m. hours.

If I were doing your plan I'd think about leaving the afternoon of the last day totally unplanned and return to whatever park you feel like you didn't get enough of.

As you get closer to your trip keep in mind that park hours can be extended, which is especially likely with Hollywood Studios with the new Star Wars area.

Your three fast passes per day that you start with have to all be in the same park. That can work with your schedule either in the morning or evening, but you won't be able to do one fastpass here and two there on the same day.

 

[maryj11]

Some of this is going to depend on when you arrive to the park. When I arrived at Epcot at 9:12 for a 9 a.m. opening and went straight for the most popular ride there, Frozen Ever After, I had a 45 minute wait. If you can arrive to the parks 30 minutes before their scheduled opening many of the headliner rides you could have little to no wait once they open the park, which is often a little earlier than advertised.

So if you're able to be a little early, you'd want to start with a very popular ride when the park opens to avoid a longer wait, then continue to go rides that don't yet have bad waits until mid morning. As the park gets more crowded it's a good opportunity to check out a show or check out something less popular or just sit or walk around and take things in. And then the reverse would be true if you arrive mid afternoon. The closer you get to the beginning and the end of the day the less crowded everything will be, so those would be the times you'd have a better chance to have a shorter wait for a tier 1 attraction you don't have a fastpass for.

I think it'll be a combination of basing things on location within a park and what Fastpasses you can get. Say if you're doing a half day in Magic Kingdom it would be easier to skip tomorrowland and focus on the middle and left sides of the park or skip the left side and focus on Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The parks are big and for a lot of people the walking will be a lot for them. Bouncing from one end of the park to another can be okay a little bit, but if you can cut out some of that you'll appreciate it at the end of the day.

The newest attraction and from the sounds of it the greatest ride in the history of the universe is Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios. If they keep the current system going as I think most think they will, you need to be in the park when it opens to get into a virtual queue. At some point later in the day you will be informed when your turn to ride is. If you want to do that ride you may want to switch the plan that Sunday for all day there, or keep your plans a little tentative in case your turn to ride comes up in the p.m. hours.

If I were doing your plan I'd think about leaving the afternoon of the last day totally unplanned and return to whatever park you feel like you didn't get enough of.

As you get closer to your trip keep in mind that park hours can be extended, which is especially likely with Hollywood Studios with the new Star Wars area.

Your three fast passes per day that you start with have to all be in the same park. That can work with your schedule either in the morning or evening, but you won't be able to do one fastpass here and two there on the same day.

Speaking of Rise of Resistance, how would someone know when to make dining reservations if your waiting in a virtual queue?

 

[MomOTwins]

I try to pair HS/EP when hopping as much as possible because it's so easy to hop HS/EP due to boats and now gondola. I think Epcot is a great afternoon park because that way I can make FPs at another park in the morning and just enjoy world showcase, no FPs needed, in the afternoon--plus so many tasty places there to have dinner! In contrast, I prefer MK in the mornings because there are so many rides, you can get a lot done in the first couple of hours after park opening while everyone else is sleeping in.

Speaking of Rise of Resistance, how would someone know when to make dining reservations if your waiting in a virtual queue?

Nobody really knows how long virtual queue will remain in effect, but assuming it is still operating when you are there, you get 2 hours from the time your number is called to get to the ride. So even if you are in the middles of a meal, you should have time to get to the ride, as long as you stay in or reasonably close to Hollywood Studios.

 

[maryj11]

I try to pair HS/EP when hopping as much as possible because it's so easy to hop HS/EP due to boats and now gondola. I think Epcot is a great afternoon park because that way I can make FPs at another park in the morning and just enjoy world showcase, no FPs needed, in the afternoon--plus so many tasty places there to have dinner! In contrast, I prefer MK in the mornings because there are so many rides, you can get a lot done in the first couple of hours after park opening while everyone else is sleeping in.


Nobody really knows how long virtual queue will remain in effect, but assuming it is still operating when you are there, you get 2 hours from the time your number is called to get to the ride. So even if you are in the middles of a meal, you should have time to get to the ride, as long as you stay in or reasonably close to Hollywood Studios

Oh good two hours will work.

 

[Harambe]

I was going to say the same thing about hopping between Epcot and DHS - so easy!

Since you have a day off planned, maybe see which park has EMH the night before and do that? Then you can stay as late as you want and then sleep in. Make a nice dinner ADR at your resort on that day off. Really have a slow day that day, because it looks like you are making the most of your trip those other days.

 

[Krystal659]

Can I ask you a question??? Why are you hopping so much?? What are you trying to accomplish?

I wondered that too, I will hop if the crowds are unexpectedly high or after an afternoon break a highly desired fast pass shows up that I could not get. Otherwise, I find all the traveling between parks to take away a lot of time. However, I have not used the skyliners yet.

 

[Krystal659]

I try to pair HS/EP when hopping as much as possible because it's so easy to hop HS/EP due to boats and now gondola. I think Epcot is a great afternoon park because that way I can make FPs at another park in the morning and just enjoy world showcase, no FPs needed, in the afternoon--plus so many tasty places there to have dinner! In contrast, I prefer MK in the mornings because there are so many rides, you can get a lot done in the first couple of hours after park opening while everyone else is sleeping in.


Nobody really knows how long virtual queue will remain in effect, but assuming it is still operating when you are there, you get 2 hours from the time your number is called to get to the ride. So even if you are in the middles of a meal, you should have time to get to the ride, as long as you stay in or reasonably close to Hollywood Studios.

I agree that Epcot in the evenings is nice and an easy park too, enjoy world showcase.

I agree that I probably get the most rides done at MK in the morning, but I do think it is very pretty at night and now that I have a teenager, we love riding some things in the evening (Jungle Cruise is just a little different at night). Seeing the castle lite up, riding SDMT, SM are a few of our favorite evening rides. However, as PP said, you do not get as many rides (due to crowds) in the evening at MK.

 

[csimon]

Can I ask you a question??? Why are you hopping so much?? What are you trying to accomplish?

On my last couple of trips, I've mostly done the same pattern. Rope-drop the park with morning extra magic hours then hop to another park at early afternoon. This is based on the theory that the morning extra hours park will be busier all day than other parks and it is still beneficial to go to another park even with an hour's travelling time. It also serves as a bit of a break.

However, the theory is just that - a theory. It's touted in many places but you never know if it actually works. Crowd calendars are another theory issue, they can never predict what is actually happening on the day and if you follow the guidance you'll not know if it has worked. Like cold remedies - how do you know that you've felt better after taking them than if you hadn't taken them!

If crowds are "unexpectedly high" at one park you might decide to cut your losses and go to another park, but how do you know that waits at that second park are not going to be higher when you arrive than the one you've just left (a lot of other people might be doing exactly the same thing as you), or they're not going to be higher than tomorrow when you originally planned to go to that second park?

 

[DrunkJam]

To be honest, I mostly don't.
I pick my dining at 180+10, then I fit the rest around that.
This time I have a couple tours and events, which help shape things too, but, generally, I find enough is enough with Disney Planning, so, I choose dining then within the park that puts me at or near I pick Fps that appeal to me (even without checking how close to each other they are!)

 

[evlaina]

How do you decide what to do which day? We have park hoppers, so we will be doing one park in the morning and a different park after an afternoon break. So, here is how our days break down:

Saturday: Flight in + MK from noon until closing
Sunday: DHS morning, AK evening
Monday: MK morning, EP evening
Tuesday: off day
Wednesday: AK morning, DHS evening
Thursday: MK morning, EP evening
Friday: EP morning, MK evening

I have broken it down based on how much we want to see in each park, crowd calendar from Touring Plans, and other things.

My main question is: how do you break down all that I want to see in MK into which days so I can make a touring plan? Is it usually strictly based on location within the park? Or based around the FastPasses I get? I know how to evaluate my plan on touringplans.com, but I don't know how to decide what to do which day.

Both. After choosing what park(s) we go to each day, I do my touring plans in an Excel doc and base what sections of each park we go to based on where and when my ADRS are, and for what rides I HOPE to get my Fastpasses for, then edit it again after 60 days to what I was actually able to book. So for your arrival day, I would book 12pm Splash, 1pm BTMRR, and 2pm Haunted Mansion, and do only the Frontierland/Adventureland/Liberty Square sections of the park, leave by 4:50pm to monorail to Contemporary, explore the resort for a bit, eat dinner, then expect to head back by say 7:30pm. I would grab a snack and a spot for HEA. Then for Monday I would do Tomorrowland in the morning and pick FP and tour based on that, then Fantasyland on Thursday, etc.

 

[MelissaS8]

Can I ask you a question??? Why are you hopping so much?? What are you trying to accomplish?

We aren't trying to accomplish anything necessarily. We have park hoppers and don't mind going somewhere different after our afternoon break. This is just how I broke it down.

 

[MelissaS8]

Both. After choosing what park(s) we go to each day, I do my touring plans in an Excel doc and base what sections of each park we go to based on where and when my ADRS are, and for what rides I HOPE to get my Fastpasses for, then edit it again after 60 days to what I was actually able to book. So for your arrival day, I would book 12pm Splash, 1pm BTMRR, and 2pm Haunted Mansion, and do only the Frontierland/Adventureland/Liberty Square sections of the park, leave by 4:50pm to monorail to Contemporary, explore the resort for a bit, eat dinner, then expect to head back by say 7:30pm. I would grab a snack and a spot for HEA. Then for Monday I would do Tomorrowland in the morning and pick FP and tour based on that, then Fantasyland on Thursday, etc.

This is EXACTLY the kind of advice I was looking for evlaina! Thank you so much! So basically overall, break it down by park vicinity. Can do. You are amazing!

 

[ArielSRL]

We aren't trying to accomplish anything necessarily. We have park hoppers and don't mind going somewhere different after our afternoon break. This is just how I broke it down.

It is definitely easy to hop if you take a midday break. We do the same.

 

[DisLiss]

Our way of planning makes many hard-core Disney planners break into a sweat, LOL. We don't plan around ADRs, because we make only 1-2 per trip. We don't plan around getting FPs, because we never have any do or die attractions or rides. We make a very loose plan and we are very, very apt to change it or toss it out completely once we get there.

For our next trip we're starting off with a non-park day (Friday). That wasn't our original plan, but Free Dining changed the way our first day is going to go. And then we plug in magic Kingdom for the day we think we'll be hitting the Halloween party, which is Tuesday. Because we'll be there so darn late, the next day we'll start with a water park, so we can sleep in. When we're done at the water park, we'll probably hit AK, because we like to break AK into 2 days to see the animals early in the morning and late at night, for the best chances of them being out and about. So those are our starting points and we go from there.

Epcot is DH's favorite and typically we arrive at WDW and go straight there, but now the earliest we can go is Saturday. Not the day people recommend to go, especially during Food & Wine, but DH will be curled up and crying someplace if we make him wait more time before taking him to his beloved Epcot.

Because MK can be pretty overwhelming in terms of things to do, we think we'll do another half day there prior to our all day MK day. Just to let the kids not feel pressured to fit everything in on such a long, long day. So we might split our first park day between those two--Epcot & MK.

And that's how we do it---it's all about what feels right for us and that's why it often changes. If we're at a halfway point one day and the kids want a pool break, we go. And then if they want to go back to AK for a 3rd or 4th time, we do that. DH will have us at Epcot every day if we let him, so many days we do get in at least a little Epcot time. We have no issues with hopping. I know people see it as a waste of time. We see Disney transportation as better than half of what we do at home (yardwork, housework, homework, going to work! ugh! )so let's go for it--hop away!

 

[yorkieteacher]

If you are park hopping this much, I would try to get all three fast passes in the park I was spending the most time in, so probably my second park. This is not the popular opinion as you can't do the "get three FP for as early as possible and add to them after that" , but here is how it works for us. Afternoon fast passes are easier to get for headliner rides, mainly FLight of Passage, Slinky Dog and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. You would not be able to get fast passes for your morning park, but by rope dropping or using EMH, you could get one or two headliners you were not able to get a FP for, and several other good rides by 11 or so when the parks get the most crowded. We would take a lunch break at 11, and leave the parks after lunch until about 3. Our fast passes in our second park were from 3-4,4-5, 5-6, and we added one 7-8 after a nice dinner reservation at 6. We never have hopped every day like you plan, though. I don't feel it is as efficient to hop that much, but I am a planner. You do have a morning and an afternoon in every park though, so this could work for you.