Which parks to revisit?

[MelissaS8]

We love Touring Plans! Have you played around yet with some personalized plans? After you sit down with the girls and pick all the things you want to do and see, you might be surprised by which parks you'll need a second day in. For my family, with 6 1/2 single park days we would spend 2 in MK, 1.5 in Epcot, 2 in AK and 1 in HS. This might be completely different for your family. I would arrange my park days based upon crowd calendars, but with a good touring plan even a 10 level day can be manageable. You have plenty of time to plan an awesome trip for you and your girls!

I am about to start playing with it. I was going to start with having my family pick attractions. I just need to figure out which I should make "Two Day Plans" and which to make single day plans. We are going with mostly 5s.

 

[MelissaS8]

As others have mentioned, this is really a personal decision. If you haven't been before, look at what each park has to offer and then make a best guess based on that. You won't get to see everything in a week, so don't even worry about that. Just see what interests you and the girls most. There's really no "right or wrong". For me, I would do things very differently than what you've listed so far, but that's just me. For example.

I completely disagree with the notion of not starting at MK. For me, that's the heart of WDW and pretty much the only place to start every trip. There is nothing in the world like walking under the train station and coming out onto Main Street. I don't know how many times I've done it now, and it still wows me every time. I would definitely start at MK.

I would never use Touringplans, except for their crowd sourced wait times. Their "touring plans" are silly, IMO, I've seen some of the suggested plans it gives people. I think the "crowd calendars" are even worse...and are intentionally misleading. For me, I would just plan around attractions I want and parks I want.

Most importantly, just take time to soak it in, whatever you do. Enjoy it, it's a magical place.

Thank you for your input! I was concerned about pushing off MK because my girls are going to love it so much! I love the idea of starting and ending in MK, I just want them to enjoy the other parks too.

I completely understand not wanting a touring plan, but to each his own!

I need to keep my expectations at a good level and allow for mistakes, problems, and kids (and husband lol). You're right. I need to be in the moment and enjoy too!

 

[clutter]

Look at the rides, decide what is a must-do, and a wanna-do at each park. Do your first day at MK, because it's the Magic Kingdom. (And for first timers, I recommend Mickey's Philharmagic the first day - fastpasses aren't usually needed.) I always like to end there, too. Our tradition was to ride the LAST ride at closing at Space Mountain, then see if we could run around and get it one last time!

I'd plan the other days around what fastpasses and nighttime shows are important, and when when you can get them, at least for the major, and/ or Tier 1, rides. If your kids want RnR, and TT and TSL, you might need two Studios days. If not, you may only need one. Or none. All of the parks have great ways to spend time exploring without needing to do the Tier 1 rides, so you can't go wrong. But some rides are best getting fastpasses, bonus if you are able to catch a second ride on standby.

 

[KMarston]

Which parks we do first and last completely depends on which days we get there. Typically we do MK on Tuesday and Thursday, Epcot on Wednesday and AK on Monday, if we do HS it’s typically on Friday. Usually we have hoppers but if it’s us and our grandson and we’re not at a monorail hotel then we pass on them. MK is always a two day park! Epcot is our family’s second choice for two days or at least a day and a half.

 

[Quarky]

I'm in the camp of suggesting a build up to MK rather than doing it first! I think back to my 9-12 year old self, and it was all princesses, all the way for me, with thrill rides coming in as the next top priority-- MK absolutely has that sense of wonder/classic Disney feel for the first-time visitor, and it's possible that your children may end up disappointed in the other parks if they do MK first. IMO right now I would do DHS/Epcot first (as those parks have the most construction going on, and there's nothing magical about empty space and construction walls...), then AK (I think it may be my current favourite park, and has tons to do/see/experience/eat for all ages), then MK, then revisit whichever parks you liked most. But as others have said, there's absolutely no right/wrong and it's totally about what you feel like your family would enjoy best!

Anyways, most of my trips have been around 5-7 days as well, and we normally do 1 day DHS, 1 day AK, 2 days MK, 2 Epcot. This year we're switching things up a bit due to Pandora and Galaxy's Edge, so we'll do 1.5 days DHS, 1.5 days Epcot, 1.5 days AK, and 2 days MK, plus one non-park day. The park that stirs up the most dissent from us is definitely Epcot-- my parents could easily spend way more than 2 days there, but my generation of the family always gets bored by the second day and would much rather go to a park with more rides instead.

 

[Klayfish]

I completely understand not wanting a touring plan, but to each his own!

I'm not suggesting not to have a touring plan. If that's what works for you, by all means absolutely do it. Just a word of caution about relying on TP to make one for you. Sometimes people will post what it suggests and ask if that sounds "right", and, well... I use quotes for "right" because there really isn't a right or wrong way to do a park. However if you're looking to maximize efficiency and get on as many attractions as you can, not sure I'd trust TP. You're much better off getting advice from folks here.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

If info is out, check the calendar to see if there are any early closings or special events that would effect your trip. Barring that, and considering that it is a first trip, and the first day is a half-day, I'd do something like this:

	morning	afternoon	evening
Day 1 -	travel	AK	AK
Day 2 -	MK	MK	MK
Day 3 -	resort break	HS	HS
Day 4 -	Epcot	Epcot	Epcot
Day 5 -	AK	resort break	DS?
Day 6 -	MK	MK	MK
Day 7 -	return to HS	or Epcot	(or split up)

Trade around as needed to account for extra magic hours, etc. - or to put a mid-day break with the closest park to your resort. The point is to have them! - in whatever way fits your family best (sleep-in mornings, mid-day breaks, early-end days...) The point is not to go three full "rope-drop to fireworks" days in a row. (We call that the "day 3 curse" - and it's not pretty!)

And do be scared off by that "split up" thing on day 7 - you very well might find that the kids love different parks. While some "all together" time is important on vacation, it really is OK to split up for a little while! (Or to have one parent take the tired child(ren) back early and the others stay late on any day. - It's better to cut a day short than to ruin the next day!)

And my advice to all first-timers: For each park day, have each member of the party pick their #1 "must-do" and a couple of "like to"s, and prioritize accordingly. There is never time to do everything WDW has to offer, so do the most important things, and the rest is gravy!

I would agree with you, but OP said they do not have park hoppers.

 

[MelissaS8]

I would agree with you, but OP said they do not have park hoppers.

I don't, but most of that didn't include hopping. Thank you all so much!

 

[Jonfw2]

The wildcard here is Galaxy's Edge. Hard to know just yet how that might change the dynamic a bit. Several other new things may be open by then as well.

 

[KenHutch]

Well we always do 3 days at Magic Kingdom. We always do 2 days at Epcot because every since the 19 year old was 5 she has loved Epcot but she thinks that the place was made for girls and shopping. We usually do 8-10 days so we usually only do 1 day at Animal Kingdom which some on this board will totally disagree with but with girls Dinosaur and Everest they will not do.

 

[cgattis]

I agree with the others who would start and end at MK. The very first thing we did at MK on our first trip was get everyone personalized ears and take a pic in front of the castle

I didn’t see anyone mention it (although I could’ve missed it), but I think you should schedule a rest day—maybe sleep late, hit the pool, do some shopping, and turn in early—in the middle. Our first trip was seven days straight in parks and we were beat by the end. It’s hard to not want to fill up every single minute with park time, but 8+ miles of pounding per day is probably more than any of you are used to, and you will probably feel Berger with a recharge in between.

 

[raraavis]

Another vote for MK first and last day! We will have 6 day park hoppers and plan to do MK 3 times, HS twice-because of SWGE, 2 half day AKs, and 2 Epcot-with possible hops out for nighttime entertainment at other parks. Unfortunately, we won't get to do MK until our second day (just how it's working out with EMH and stuff), but we're definitely finishing up at MK.

 

[SaintsManiac]

For a first trip I would start and end with MK.

 

[MrsDuck]

I'd say 1 EPCOT, 1 DHS, 2 AK, and 2 MK then play around with the last day you have open based on what everyone wants! Start and end with MK!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I would agree with you, but OP said they do not have park hoppers.

I don't, but most of that didn't include hopping. Thank you all so much!

Actually, none of it requires hoppers. I have AK and DS on the same day - but DS (Disney Springs) does not require a ticket. And the last day is an either/or scenario (or possibly splitting the group).

You can leave and re-enter the same park on the same day (like when people fetch things from their cars or use the new smoking areas) without hoppers.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

MK x 3
EP x 2
AK x 1
HS x 1

 

[loves to dive]

I would plan one full day for each park, then (gasp here) play it by ear for the rest. Yes, I said play it by ear and yes you can be flexible. As far as your first half day park, again (gasp) play it by ear. We pick that first half day park strictly by where we are staying. If we are staying at an Epcot resort, it's easy, we just walk over to Epcot. If we are staying at a moderate or value, we go to the bus stop and hop on the first bus to arrive. While on the bus I'll look at FPs that are available and may (or may not) book one. Yes, I said one. We don't like to overplan (or plan at all) so we will book one if it's within 30 or 45 min. when we arrive at the park then check what's available after we ride that. For a half day after travel, it's nice to not even think about rides and just walk around and enjoy the park and maybe grab supper. Again, we don't book ADRs in advance either, we just look what's available that night and go for it.

As far as MK being the first park, that really depends on your group. For my adult son and I, MK is actually a half day park.

Now for the the parks to play it by ear. Maybe you really loved Epcot the day you went but felt like you didn't get everything done you wanted to, plan that for one of your non-scheduled days. Since you have already been to whatever park this is, I'm just using Epcot as an example, you've probably already done all your "must dos" so you can take your time on the second trip and enjoy the park. Every single WDW park has more than just rides and we love to actually go slow and look at the details while there.

 

[maranara]

When we went for my daughter's first trip (she was 7) we did 2 days at MK & Epcot and 1 day each at AK & DHS. We're going back in January - she's now 10 - and we're doing the same thing with a final day TBD. She's a Star Wars fan and we're not sure how that is going to play out. But she LOVED Epcot. She liked going to all the countries and we got her one of the passports to get stamped in each one which was a lot of fun. She's already asked if she can do that again.