Which park on which day?

[jothp]

Hi, I am trying to work out a rough plan of which park on which day so I can start fitting in our meals ready for ADRs mid Feb.

Our first day at Disney will be Mon 17th August and I really want to spend our first day at MK but according to crowd calendars that is the worst park we could visit that day. Do you think it matters? I was planning on trying for CP breakfast as near to 8am as possible and then staying in the park until lunchtime ish.

More generally is it worth going to morning EMH or should we just stick to the recommended parks? My current thoughts are that most days we will arrive at a park early and stay for the morning (maybe + lunch) then go back to OKW for the afternoon to swim/rest/sleep then go out again to a different park or for dinner early evening.

 

[CAL2]

hi, i think that would be fine, i would plan your fast pass early and one after the other, then if you want to go over to the recommended park later that day you will hopefully be able to get a few more fast passes.
cal

 

[peajay18]

The single best thing you can do to avoid crowds at any time is show up early, leave around lunchtime and come back in the evening so you're already off to a good start with your plan.
Morning EMHs are much quieter than evening EMHs - the majority of people don't want to get up on vacation - but I wouldn't base any plans around them unless I was going during a peak period.

 

[joolz1910]

We are there at roughly the same time. My plan is to go early to the Parks in the first week, return to OKW and then back out in the evening. My pace will slow by week 2, so will take it easier. I am going to MK for a CP breakfast on our first day and I am going to ignore the high crowd prediction because it is what I want to do lol. My thinking is that we can always leave at lunchtime if it is too rammed

 

[Portugal1000]

I have always stuck to a few rules. Never go to a park with early magic hours. Go to a park that had evening magic hours the night before. Get there before park opening. Leave before everyone is too hot and fed up.
I always found www.touringplans.com and www.easywdw.com very helpful.

 

[hm1975]

We do use the early extra magic hours for Animal Kingdom. We went on Everest 4 times and then the Safari. All within an hour.

 

[DLPdaft]

I have always stuck to a few rules. Never go to a park with early magic hours. Go to a park that had evening magic hours the night before. Get there before park opening. Leave before everyone is too hot and fed up.
I always found www.touringplans.com and www.easywdw.com very helpful.

you might be able to help me Portugal - I'm planning on doing one night onsite at WDW to get magicbands/EMHs included for 2 days. So, when I'm planning my one onsite night, should I be looking at checking in on a day where there is evening magic hours available, and that we'd be able to use that day? And I want to avoid early magic hours altogether the next morning? Or should I do early magic hours both of our onsite days, leave the parks before lunch, and then visit a different park later in the day on both days?

I'm confusing myself!

 

[jothp]

hi, i think that would be fine, i would plan your fast pass early and one after the other, then if you want to go over to the recommended park later that day you will hopefully be able to get a few more fast passes.
cal

We are there at roughly the same time. My plan is to go early to the Parks in the first week, return to OKW and then back out in the evening. My pace will slow by week 2, so will take it easier. I am going to MK for a CP breakfast on our first day and I am going to ignore the high crowd prediction because it is what I want to do lol. My thinking is that we can always leave at lunchtime if it is too rammed

Thanks, I think we are there around the same time. I am going to go with the plan that I want for our first Disney morning too. It is our first visit and I think the girls would be disappointed to visit any park other than MK first

The single best thing you can do to avoid crowds at any time is show up early, leave around lunchtime and come back in the evening so you're already off to a good start with your plan.
Morning EMHs are much quieter than evening EMHs - the majority of people don't want to get up on vacation - but I wouldn't base any plans around them unless I was going during a peak period.

We do use the early extra magic hours for Animal Kingdom. We went on Everest 4 times and then the Safari. All within an hour.

Thanks - glad to hear that I'm along the right lines, I think we'll use the early EMH if it is convenient but not worry about planning around them. It sounds like the AK might be a good one to try and make though.

I have always stuck to a few rules. Never go to a park with early magic hours. Go to a park that had evening magic hours the night before. Get there before park opening. Leave before everyone is too hot and fed up.
I always found www.touringplans.com and www.easywdw.com very helpful.

Thanks for your help - I have been looking at both those websites and all the information gets a bit overwhelming. I will look at how it would work with our plans to visit a park the morning after the evening EMH. Do you usually stay away from parks in the evening?

you might be able to help me Portugal - I'm planning on doing one night onsite at WDW to get magicbands/EMHs included for 2 days. So, when I'm planning my one onsite night, should I be looking at checking in on a day where there is evening magic hours available, and that we'd be able to use that day? And I want to avoid early magic hours altogether the next morning? Or should I do early magic hours both of our onsite days, leave the parks before lunch, and then visit a different park later in the day on both days?

I'm confusing myself!

I haven't totally got my head around planning myself yet but I believe that the idea is that the parks with EMH that day are busier than other parks because many of the onsite guests will automatically visit that park. Therefore many people recommend avoiding the park with EMH altogether even if you are entitled to use them. Please somebody correct me if I am wrong.

 

[dixonsontour]

I use touring plans for our trips and usually go for the park with the lowest crowd each day.

We avoid emh.

For day 1 your plan of crystal palace then leave at lunch sounds good. Even if park is busy with use of fp+ you will be fine.

We do the park morning, swim then back for evening. I'd plan fireworks for later in the hol. First few days you will be up early and flagging in the evening.

 

[DLPDreams]

I've found Touring Plans helpful however, I might be the only one, but I find it a bit cumbersome (perhaps I am not using it properly?). It's taken me ages to do plans for 18 nights!

It does give an indication of crowds for each day, but tbh, for early August (we go 9/8), the parks are all about the same. And while, I know they are good at predicting, they do sometimes get it wrong, so I'm not going to worry too much.

Like PP says, by the time you've done your 3 FPs (if you choose to use them in the morning), and made your way to your lunch venue, your morning will nearly be over anyway.

Our plan is to arrive early and then head back after lunch for a quick swim and then naps - meaning the children can then stay up later in the evening. We have done this on holidays for the last 2 years or so and it works really well for us as a family. I sometimes find the first day or two, the children don't really want to take a nap, but by day 3, they are asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow .

Seems there are a few of us here who have migrated from the DLRP area for trips this year .

 

[chmurf]

I haven't totally got my head around planning myself yet but I believe that the idea is that the parks with EMH that day are busier than other parks because many of the onsite guests will automatically visit that park. Therefore many people recommend avoiding the park with EMH altogether even if you are entitled to use them. Please somebody correct me if I am wrong.

plaaning sites and crowd calendars are made for everyone

but not everyone stay onsite, and you don't want to enter a park when hundreds of guests have a one hour headstart

offsiters can't use EMH therefore crowd calendars say to avoid EMH parks because they only offer 1 advisory for everyone, not just onsiters

the second aspect is that EMH will see a more crowded park after the emh are over
so if you play with emh you need a hopper or an ultimate ticket and you need to be ready to switch parks after lunch

it's perfect for those who do midday breaks at the hotel

but for other guests what needs to be considered is wether the emh benefits outweigh the time wasted in changing parks or in staying inside a more crowded park

most of the time a guest who's not driving and who doesn't take afternoon breaks will prefer to skip emh altogether


but at the end of the day it's all down to personnal preference, and there is no rule of thumb
it's not no-emh vs. all-emh it's a bit of both worlds

 

[Shazzie B]

I'm going to every park for the afternoon if you're all going back to hotel for a swim

I use Touring Plans and find they are pretty accurate, but I also don't worry too much if we have to deviate. OP, I'd do MK on 1st day too, you'll be up early and tired by lunchtime anyway, nothing beats 1st day at MK in my opinion, if it's busy enjoy the atmosphere

 

[stephensmum]

We always like cp 8.05 breakfast on our first day. This year we are spending our first 4 nights offsite. Our first day will be a Tuesday too and we will go ahead with the plan, the challenge will be getting our ds17 out off bed!
You can't beat first morning at mk

 

[Shazzie B]

We always like cp 8.05 breakfast on our first day. This year we are spending our first 4 nights offsite. Our first day will be a Tuesday too and we will go ahead with the plan, the challenge will be getting our ds17 out off bed!
You can't beat first morning at mk

I have exactly the same dilemma, would love to do early breakfast at CP but travelling with 3 young adults, and 1st 4 nights off site so it'll probably be more stress than it's worth

Hopefully two nice early starts to do Universal & IOA before we adjust to USA time though

 

[jothp]

I use touring plans for our trips and usually go for the park with the lowest crowd each day.

We avoid emh.

For day 1 your plan of crystal palace then leave at lunch sounds good. Even if park is busy with use of fp+ you will be fine.

We do the park morning, swim then back for evening. I'd plan fireworks for later in the hol. First few days you will be up early and flagging in the evening.

Thanks, I will definitely leave the later nights until the end of our holiday. We have a few days at universal before we get to Disney but the girls are generally early risers so we should be ok.

I've found Touring Plans helpful however, I might be the only one, but I find it a bit cumbersome (perhaps I am not using it properly?). It's taken me ages to do plans for 18 nights!

It does give an indication of crowds for each day, but tbh, for early August (we go 9/8), the parks are all about the same. And while, I know they are good at predicting, they do sometimes get it wrong, so I'm not going to worry too much.

Like PP says, by the time you've done your 3 FPs (if you choose to use them in the morning), and made your way to your lunch venue, your morning will nearly be over anyway.

Our plan is to arrive early and then head back after lunch for a quick swim and then naps - meaning the children can then stay up later in the evening. We have done this on holidays for the last 2 years or so and it works really well for us as a family. I sometimes find the first day or two, the children don't really want to take a nap, but by day 3, they are asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow .

Seems there are a few of us here who have migrated from the DLRP area for trips this year .

Yes there does seem to be a lot of people from the dlp board here at the moment We did early mornings and late nights with afternoon naps on our last trip to DLP and it worked well so hoping to do the same on this trip.

I agree that looking on touring plans for our dates on most days there is at most a difference of 2 in the crowd predictions from best to worst park and for a lot of days the difference is only 1 so I think if we go prepared we will be ok whichever park we choose.

plaaning sites and crowd calendars are made for everyone

but not everyone stay onsite, and you don't want to enter a park when hundreds of guests have a one hour headstart

offsiters can't use EMH therefore crowd calendars say to avoid EMH parks because they only offer 1 advisory for everyone, not just onsiters

the second aspect is that EMH will see a more crowded park after the emh are over
so if you play with emh you need a hopper or an ultimate ticket and you need to be ready to switch parks after lunch

it's perfect for those who do midday breaks at the hotel

but for other guests what needs to be considered is wether the emh benefits outweigh the time wasted in changing parks or in staying inside a more crowded park

most of the time a guest who's not driving and who doesn't take afternoon breaks will prefer to skip emh altogether


but at the end of the day it's all down to personnal preference, and there is no rule of thumb
it's not no-emh vs. all-emh it's a bit of both worlds

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense. Our girls are generally up early every morning so I think we will take advantage of some of the early EMH, especially as we are already planning to leave the parks at lunchtime most days.

I'm going to every park for the afternoon if you're all going back to hotel for a swim

I use Touring Plans and find they are pretty accurate, but I also don't worry too much if we have to deviate. OP, I'd do MK on 1st day too, you'll be up early and tired by lunchtime anyway, nothing beats 1st day at MK in my opinion, if it's busy enjoy the atmosphere

Good idea about going for the afternoon! We are at universal for a few days before we get to Disney but hoping if we get earlyish nights while we are there we will still be waking up early.

We always like cp 8.05 breakfast on our first day. This year we are spending our first 4 nights offsite. Our first day will be a Tuesday too and we will go ahead with the plan, the challenge will be getting our ds17 out off bed!
You can't beat first morning at mk

I have exactly the same dilemma, would love to do early breakfast at CP but travelling with 3 young adults, and 1st 4 nights off site so it'll probably be more stress than it's worth

Hopefully two nice early starts to do Universal & IOA before we adjust to USA time though

My oldest dd will be 12 when we go and has just started to show signs of wanting to lay in. I've already told her it won't be an option on holiday!