5 Parks in (not full) 4 Days?!?

[boycom]

Hello all!

Happy to join you here on WDWmagic

Would be happy to get your opinions, thoughts, and tips on the following issue:

My friend and I (in our 20's) are going to Disney World next week, but It's going to be a very short trip for us this time: we land in MCO Sep 5th at 10:00 AM, and depart Sep 8th 5:30 PM. I am trying to figure these days what would be the best way to split our little time between the parks. Our only limitation in terms of which-park-goes-which-day is Fantasmic!, who only performs on Sep 6th. I know the general advice is to avoid EMH parks, but these might be useful here: Magic Kingdom, Sep 6th (10:00 PM-1:00 AM, some say during these hours it gets even more lines than regular hours, but will it really be that crowded on September?), and Animal Kingdom Sep 7th&8th (opens 8:00 AM).

So, considering all these, and the fact that we do want to squeeze few hours in Typhoon Lagoon somewhere (that's why to subject states "5 Parks") - what would you suggest? Apparently, we'll have to split at least one day between two parks (or arrive late to one park after visiting the water park in the morning). Which park do you believe must get a full day? which can fit in half a day? do you have some other original idea, like breaking in the middle of the day to the water park and get back later on? Considering our flight leaves on Tuesday at 5:30 PM (we'll be using magical express, and will do the flight check-in at the hotel in the morning), what do you think would be the net time we'll have at the parks that day?

Thanks again for any opinions or tips you may have on that matter.

Omri.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Welcome aboard :wave:

1) MK and EPCOT should have a minimum of a full day - many would say they need two full days to come close to considering them done.

2) AK is your closest to a half day park (to share with a water park) but you'll be looking at nearer 3/4 of a day to do it justice

3) DHS is a second "nearly full day park"

My advice, do AK on your arrival day (5th), do Typhoon Lagoon and DHS on the 6th and then a day each at EPCOT and MK on your last two days

 

[boycom]

Hey! thanks for the reply

Problem is - flight leaves on last day at 5:30 PM. I still don't know how early you should arrive at the airport after making the check-in to the flight at the hotel, but even if that's an hour before, and another hour for the Magical Express to get us there - it mean that about 2:00 PM we'll need to leave the park - which is far from being a "full" day...

 

[mickey7879]

I think your schedule is all going to depend on what rides/shows are on your "must do" list, what your favorite/least favorite park is, etc.

 

[corey154]

i'd go over the park maps now and decide what you really want to do on this trip and save the rest for next trip. You gotta remember, park hopping can take a good hour or more out of your day so if there's alot of "must do" this trip, make a plan.

 

[OneLuckyMom]

I'd drop your plans down to just 2 or 3 parks. Otherwise it will seem like most of your vacation will be spent waiting for busses! Plus the best part of Disney is enjoying the atmosphere. I'm afraid in all the running between parks to hit ride x, y and z, you'd miss a lot of that feeling.

To give you perspective: My daughter and I are going for only 6 days this year, with the first and last days being only partial days. Given our experience the last few years on longer trips, we've decide to keep it to just 3 parks for those 6 days. (And I was going to keep it to only 2 parks - MK and Epcot - but because of a twist in our schedule I agreed to add a half day at DHS.)

But, that said, if you insist on trying to hit all 5 parks, I suggest you rent a car so you could at least get from place to place more quickly....

 

[OneLuckyMom]

Hey! thanks for the reply

Problem is - flight leaves on last day at 5:30 PM. I still don't know how early you should arrive at the airport after making the check-in to the flight at the hotel, but even if that's an hour before, and another hour for the Magical Express to get us there - it mean that about 2:00 PM we'll need to leave the park - which is far from being a "full" day...

If you are taking Magical Express, they will schedule your pick you for 3 hours before your flight (remember the bus may stop at other resorts before actually taking you to the airport). So you will need to be back at your hotel no later than 2:30, and should probably plan to be back by 2:00 to allow for delays with the park busses.

 

[Philo]

With fairly small crowds I think you could blast round AK and DHS in half a day each although you will be missing attractions. MK and EPCOT really need at least a full day each - I would normally want 2 days for MK and at least 1.5 for EPCOT.

Unless your really set on typhoon lagoon I probably wouldn't bother - but that's just me.

 

[fosse76]

I completely disagree with OneLuckyMom.

What you can do is upon arrival go to the Magic Kingdom. Crowds should be light, but skip any attractions that you may not feel like visiting or have no interest in. You should be able to get everything done by 5pm at the latest. Using judicious use of FastPass will help immensely. Then head on over to Epcot; Future World will have very little crowds, and it is early enough to visit the smaller attractions that close at 7pm. The only wait you'll really have is for Soarin'. If Test Track has a wait, use the single rider line unless you and your friend insist on riding together. Then head over to World Showcase...but skip any countries you don't want to visit. And take your time, it's only your first day and you can always come back.

On your second day you should make Animal Kingdom your morning park. Go to Kilimanjaro Safaris first...not Everest. If it has a line I usually grab a FP and wait it out in the Pangani Trail. The last couple of times I've been to DAK Kali River Rapids was not issuing FPs. The only real problem with managing DAK is the show schedules and how spread out the park is. But you should still be able to get through most everything by 3pm at the latest. So at that point you could head to the studios.

Your third day you could go to the waterpark in the morning and then go back to any one of the parks you didn't get enough of yet...same with your fourth day. It actualy sounds a lot more daunting than it is. Just don't rush! You'll be surprised how quickly you can get through a park without rushing.

 

[boycom]

For now it seems we are going to attend MK on our arrival day (Sep 5th), DHS on our second day (and hop to the MK after Fantasmic! for the evening EMH), Epcot on our third day (and break to the water park for a few hours sometime in the middle), and Animal Kingdom on our last day, as it has the least attractions we would want to ride more than once, and we can probably make it all by 2pm (the time we have to leave). I withdraw from my initial intention of doing a lot of "park hopping", as it seems to take too much of our time (too bad I can't get a refund on the hopper option on our tickets, though).

Whay do you say? does anyone have any remarks I may have missed?

 

[KYfriedPanda]

I've done exactly what you're planning to do before (large amount of things in a relatively small amount of time), and in much larger crowds than what you're going to see... I think the "must do" list, as noted before, is essential to having a good time... Judging by what you said about the animal kingdom, I imagine you've already done that, or at least something similar... I will also say that the MK EMH were not bad at all when we went the last time (Pres. Day break in February)... Not sure if that's a fluke and that what everyone else says about them being crowded is more the "usual" case, but if you're not planning on doing much in fantasyland, the EMH after midnight is well worth it!