Which are the best days to do for each park?

[spacemouseneer]

Hello all,

I am trying to put together a schedule for our two week vacation and I am wondering what are the best days to visit each park? I have heard that it is best to go to the park the day after that park has had extra magic hours. Is this a good rule of thumb?

Thanks in advance,

Spacemouseneer

 

[AngiTN]

Whatever ones are shown as the least crowded on the crowded calendar.

 

[Disney44please]

There are a number of "rules" you can follow. Avoiding EMH parks is one of them, and going to the park that has just seen the late night hours (or nighttime entertainment, etc) is another. YOu should google "Disney crowd calendars" and a couple sites should come up.

 

[spacemouseneer]

Awesome. Thanks.

 

[Mikie]

I like to use both EasyWDW crowd calendar (free) and Touring Plans (I know you can use some of this site free, but can't remember whether the crowd calendar is exclusive to paid membership)

Personally, with the ages of my kids on prior trips (not old enough to stay for late EMH hours) and our unwillingness to get up in time for morning EMH, we have always used the advice to avoid the EMH parks. It has worked well for us to have more manageable crowds. However, lots of people love EMH and as long as you will fully take advantage of the extra time, it's good to use them. Basically, go ahead and use them if you like extra early or extra late hours, but avoid that park at all costs if you'll only be there during mid-day dealing with bigger crowds but not getting any of the perk.

 

[Lavitz]

EasyWDW, Undercover Tourist and Kennythepirate all have free calendars you can use. They are really helpful to plan which parks to go to.

 

[Rosebud123]

I would agree to check easywdw best days. In general, I avoid EMH days (although we're going to an evening EMH at MK in August because we're meeting friends that night) all together, and I never go to MK on a Monday!

 

[Rosebud123]

Oh, but if I was going during a "10" week (Christmas or Easter, for example) or a time when the MK opens at 8, I'd go for 7:00 a.m. EMH's!

 

[gellar]

Our last trip, DH and I used AM EMH and then hopped to a recommended park on easywdw. We were able to accomplish so much in the first two hours and sometimes longer. When everyone started showing up for the day, we'd grab a bite to eat and hop to our next park laughing as we passed the long wait times. If you will use EMH, they can really work to your advantage!

Easywdw breaks down their recommendations per day in detail. I love that aspect. I use their site, touringplans, and my own preferences combined to choose.

 

[Nancyg56]

I use Touring Plans and EasyWDW as my guide, but we generally hit each park on the same days each trip. This year I did swap my DHS and AK days because the crowd predictions in DHS on our preferred day jumped a lot, due to Frozen Fun I guess.

I don't know if you are planning meal ADR's but I suggest that if you are, plan your park days first and then plan your meals around your schedule. There are so many restaurants to choose from, so trying to make park days work around ADR's makes no sense to me.

 

[Minnie-Maniac]

My family and I have been to WDW 12 times in the past from when I was 1 years old to my most recent trip at age 16 last August 2014. We always have a similar but not exact schedule for each trip. When we get they we first check the evening Fantasmic is going to be on in Hollywood Studios and that becomes a day at DHS. The Magic Kingdom is always our 1st and Last day into the parks because it is my families favorites. We always go into the Animal Kingdom if we have a reservation at Yak & Yeti or some other restaurant that evening close to the Animal Kingdom like Boma at the AKL. And Epcot we usually fill in the other days and we always make lunch and dinner reservations at 2 of the World Showcase Restaurants. Our last trip we ate at Via Napoli and Le Cellier in Epcot.

 

[Nancyg56]

My family and I have been to WDW 12 times in the past from when I was 1 years old to my most recent trip at age 16 last August 2014. We always have a similar but not exact schedule for each trip. When we get they we first check the evening Fantasmic is going to be on in Hollywood Studios and that becomes a day at DHS. The Magic Kingdom is always our 1st and Last day into the parks because it is my families favorites. We always go into the Animal Kingdom if we have a reservation at Yak & Yeti or some other restaurant that evening close to the Animal Kingdom like Boma at the AKL. And Epcot we usually fill in the other days and we always make lunch and dinner reservations at 2 of the World Showcase Restaurants. Our last trip we ate at Via Napoli and Le Cellier in Epcot.

We usually arive on a Sunday, and always like to visit MK on Tuesday and Friday. This is the first tieme we schedule a TS lunch in Epcot and in DHS. We plan dinners, but this time we want to know that we have a, AC spot that we can relax and cool off during the day. Funny how so many of us are creatures of habit!

 

[Lucius Best]

I am trying to put together a schedule for our two week vacation and I am wondering what are the best days to visit each park? I have heard that it is best to go to the park the day after that park has had extra magic hours. Is this a good rule of thumb?

We always look at the easywdw crowd calendars. You can clearly see it does not recommend the parks with EMH, but you can certainly go to EMH with the right plan/expectations. It's also important to read the detailed descriptions of why and how highly a park is recommended or not.

On our most recent trips (all during low crowd times when school is in session), we felt that the crowd predictors understated the increase in crowds on weekends, i.e. a recommended park on a weekend day might be more crowded than on a non-recommended weekday. Our plan on last trip was to avoid MK&HS on the weekends. We felt that at Epcot&AK there are more shows/non-ride activities that you can easily do no matter how crowded the park gets.

Having said that, every trip we try to come up with a perfect plan based on the crowd calendars, but there's always at least one or two days where it is shocking how unexpectedly busy or empty a park is.

 

[Dan Murphy]

http://www.easywdw.com/

http://www.kennythepirate.com/crowd-calendars/

http://touringplans.com/walt-disney..._referrer=http://touringplans.com/users/10151

 

[Minnie-Maniac]

We usually arive on a Sunday, and always like to visit MK on Tuesday and Friday. This is the first tieme we schedule a TS lunch in Epcot and in DHS. We plan dinners, but this time we want to know that we have a, AC spot that we can relax and cool off during the day. Funny how so many of us are creatures of habit!

It is crazy that families do develop habits when going on trips to WDW. A lot of these habits my parents came up with even when my older sister was tiny and I was really tiny and my little brother wasn't even born yet.

 

[MrInfinity]

It just depends on you and your trip! For example if you have 5 park days, 2 of which are for the MK, then I would plan an MK toward the beginning (maybe on day 2) and then again on day 5. Then you have to consider EMH... Do you want to use EMH? Is there a day you want to stay late at Epcot, or would you rather go in earlier to the parks?

Take the crowd calendars w a grain of salt. They try to say one day is officially best, which tends to mean lowest crowds... but lowest crowds are lower on those days for a reason. The parks might close earlier those days, or there might be less going on. And that's if they're lower at all. In many cases one crowd calendar will recommend a park that is not recommended by another crowd calendar.

It just comes down to what's in your plan. If you're early risers and staying onsite, hit EMH mornings. If you're late arrivers then plan on days after EMH days. If the park is open late, factor in how late you'd even stay. Share your dates and goals out here and you'll get lots of good recommendations.