Since we will be there for 4 days and it's all of our (me, DW, nieces age 12 & 13) first trip to DLR, I don't want us to be rushing from park to park, ride to ride. I want us to be able to enjoy our days and not feel rushed. At the same time, I don't want to not be able to ride something because the wait is 90 minutes and there are no FP left. My plan is (for the most part) to stay at each park try to ensure we hit all the major rides the first day and then the second day to hit anything we missed, do the smaller rides and re-ride any 1st day favorites. I'm leaving the option open to park hop if need be but for the most part it will one park per day.
Well I'm going to chime in here and say while I definitely agree with others that park hopping on the first day is fine, there is really nothing wrong with your plan either! In fact, for the Tokyo parks, thats how its tickets are designed. There are two parks there like in California, but if you buy a 3 or 4 day pass, you
can't park hop the first two days! You have to pick, in advance, which park you want to do, TDL or TDS! You can pick in any order or do one both days, etc, but you cant park hop until your third day. The reason is what you plan to do, ie, give people time to really see and do one park and by the 3rd or 4th day, to give them a chance to just do stuff they missed or be able to hit all their favorites in both. I done it many times and it works well! Of course TDS is basically the size of AK WITH 5 times the shows and attractions, so its a full day park along with TDL of course!
But that said, the beauty of DLR is things are REALLY close! It takes minutes to get from one park to the other! DL is the smallest MK park (NOT counting HKDL) and so walking from one end to the other is faster than MK! And DCA, while bigger, and its going to get much bigger soon, is still tiny for the most part. The layout makes it a pain in the butt though! But yeah, the beauty is the area is so compact, you can easily go and get a TOT FP, walk over to DL for lunch, hit a ride there and then quickly walk back to do just TOT! And yes, as others stated, you can just get a 'runner' during a down time while you wait for a parade and have someone grab FPs for a ride to do later that night! Its soooo convient!
And yeah, thats really the beauty of FP for me because with two parks so close to each other you can rotate FPs all day AND time manage your day well with both of them unlike WDW and TDR where you have to take a bus or monorail to get back to another park!
People have given you iteneraries, but you can start your morning grabbing FPs and when you gotten a few for DL and done some morning stuff, then hit DCA for a few hours, grab a few FPs of those and do stuff inbetween like shows, other rides, etc. Then head back to DL in the evening and use a few of those OR grab a few more for the rest of the night! Honestly IF you decide to do both parks together, you can have a FP for nearly every hour your entire day and can space them out so you dont feel like you are rushing. And then you will have time to park hop to see all the shows, food stops and window shopping you want since the biggest line eaters will be covered!
But your plan sounds fine! You got four days, you are seeing DL, not trying to see half of France lol! Best advice is what you already know doing WDW: Start early and stay late and you will see basically everything no matter how you strategize!
). Sometimes, DH will run over to DCA in the morning to grab Soarin' FP's so that we can use it during our afternoon jaunt over there, but not always.
