Half Day Parks

[Doug Means]

I am very confused. i am also not very bright. I feel like I've done my share of visiting WDW, even having FL annual passes one year and going ALOT. With that being said i still feel like i have not done everything i could have. to the point that there has never been a day or park that i thought somewhere around 1, "i've done everything here and need to go!" AK and HS are said to be 1/2 day parks but i always find ways to fill an entire day there, and always want more. Please weigh in on your thoughts about Y or Y not half day parks. no need for heated discussions just really wanting some friendly opinions about this.

 

[J_Carioca]

I'm with you re: AK - I always want to spend two days there as part of a week long vacation. For me, half a day at HS is enough.

 

[sshindel]

Epcot - 1/2 day. Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, a loop around World Showcase, and done.
DAK - Full Day
DHS - 3/4 day-ish, depending on how the kids are feeling
MK - 3 day park

 

[Doug Means]

Epcot - 1/2 day. Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, a loop around World Showcase, and done.
DAK - Full Day
DHS - 3/4 day-ish, depending on how the kids are feeling
MK - 3 day park

but why are those parks not full day to you, do you not like shows or any of the other stuff? even when i loop around the world show case, i like going into every nook and cranny, getting a bite of something for here and there, and its not quick at all for us. i guess i worried a little when i was first going to make sure i got my moneys worth but that turned into just liking it all too much not to try and do it all again? does that make sense? lol

 

[righttrack]

If it's E ticket rides you're looking for, those parks are definitely half day parks. There is more to offer. For me, both AK and HS can be offensively hot with not as many opportunities, along the way. I tend to motor through them rather than stop and smell the roses. The animal trails in AK being the exception. There just aren't enough stops between the long intercontinental walks there. HS just is too sunny, not enough shade.

 

[sshindel]

but why are those parks not full day to you, do you not like shows or any of the other stuff? even when i loop around the world show case, i like going into every nook and cranny, getting a bite of something for here and there, and its not quick at all for us. i guess i worried a little when i was first going to make sure i got my moneys worth but that turned into just liking it all too much not to try and do it all again? does that make sense? lol

Epcot is personal taste + kids.
Epcot used to be a park I could have spent a full week in happily, but today, Future World is a complete waste of the space it takes up (IMO). If I were going by myself, I'd hit SSE, then Living with the Land, wander WS, and be done. With the kids, I might get forced onto Nemo or Imagination as well, but both of those attractions don't take much time at all.
While I might be able to spend more time in World Showcase (depending on how much I want to spend on food and drink), the kids want no part of it unless they are playing Perry, which while entertaining for them, is not quite the way to really "see" each pavilion, so it typically turns into a bargain with them. We'll do 2 countries of Perry, then we'll see a few more without and we'll call it a day.

DHS it really depends on the kids moods. I could likely spend a full day there myself, maybe, but again, I'm not getting anywhere near ToT or RnRC with the kids (my oldest tried ToT once... once), and they typically don't want to sit through more than 1 of the shows. I can get good mileage out of TSMM, Star Tours, and Muppetvision 3D, but that ends up being a vast majority of it for us.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I posted this in another thread but it applies here:

Beauty and the Beast - 25 minutes
Citizens of Hollywood - 10 minutes
Disney Junior - 25 minutes
Fantasmic - 30 minutes
Frozen - 30 minutes
Indiana Jones - 30 minutes
LMA - 45 minutes
Mulch, Sweat & Shears - 30 minutes
Voyage of the Little Mermaid - 15 minutes

That's four hours of just shows. Assuming you'll be at Fantasmic about an hour early to get a good seat and at least a few minutes early for the other ones, that's another two hours. So six hours total. An average DHS operating day is twelve hours. You're already at 1/2 day and you haven't experienced Muppets, Star Tours, Tower, RnRC, Toy Story, or One Man's Dream yet.

Yeah, DHS is only a 1/2 day park when you skip half of the park. That's like complaining that a baseball game is only 90 minutes long because you left in the fifth inning.

 

[TXDisney]

For us with no kids, we like doing MK 2 days, Epcot 2 days. HS and Ak are 1/2 day parks for us. We do 1/2 day at DTD every trip as well. The reason for the 1/2 days at those 2 parks for us is bc we don't have kids there's only a handful of rides/shows we like at each park. So if we get there early we can do everything we like in a few hrs. For instance at Ak we always do Kilamajaro safari, lion king show, bugs life, Mt Everest and dinosaur. That's really it that only takes a few hours to do all that. Now when they add Avatarland I think it'll become a full day park.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

So if we get there early we can do everything we like in a few hrs.

That's the operative phrase. There's enough to do to fill the day, but people who visit frequently (i.e. most of us on this board) tend to know what they like best and skip a bunch of things.

 

[Tom]

It can be correctly argued that DAK is NOT a half day park. If you want to do everything, it's actually more than a day given their short operating hours. But it's all based on personal preference.

These days, it would be difficult to argue that DHS can actually fill an entire day. The only way that can be said is if you see all the shows.....and only because the timing doesn't work out to see both stunt shows at convenient times, so you'd end up killing time between things.

MK is a multiple day park, hands down.

Epcot can be argued either way - again, it just depends on whether you enjoy meandering the countries, and seeing all the shows.

For ME, DAK is a "1/2 Day Park" simply because I'm just not into "animals" that much. We have a decent zoo here in Indy, and one visit there is enough animal exposure to satisfy me for a year.

DAK is a beautiful park, and I really enjoy the few major attractions (Safari, Dinosaur, Bugs Life - can't do EE because of motion sickness). But I'm also not a "show" person, in general. And I've always visited when it's hot, so walking the trails has been pretty much the worst thing in the world.

If I could visit when it's 70 degrees and breezy, I would have a vastly different opinion of the park. But with it being hotter than the other parks already, coupled with miserable Florida weather, it's just not a park I can enjoy.

DHS used to fill my day, but not anymore. A few headliner attractions and we're done. Before FP+ we could stretch the day out longer by getting multiple FPs for things like ToT (our favorite ride), but those days are over...so now we just leave after lunch. The hassle of Fantasmic isn't enough to keep us there, or bring us back.

We can make a day of Epcot. We'll finish FW in the morning, get lunch, and walk WS. We typically leave, refresh, and go back around dinner time, then hang out for Illuminations. So, not technically a full day of touring, but it consumes an entire day, whereas DHS and DAK do not.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

It's all personal preference, but none of the parks are 1/2 day parks. You can choose to skip half the park, but that is up to you. We love visiting the trails at AK, and seeing the shows at HS. We love walking around WS multiple times on multiple days. So none of them are 1/2 day for us if we choose to do more.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Here's my take: it all depends on how much time you have -- if you're visiting for less than a full week with parkhopper tickets and managing your time in the parks based on how many attractions/shows they offer, the math will have you spending less than a day in HS and AK every time. We generally spend the following percentages of time on each park (a rough number of the attractions each offers is included for reference, although we don't attempt to do every attraction on every visit): MK-40-45% (35+ attractions, not counting parades or M&Gs); Epcot-25-30% (~25 attractions, including each WS pavilion and the remaining Innoventions building, not counting M&Gs); HS-15% (~15 attractions, including shows but not M&Gs); AK-15% (~15 attractions, including shows and nature trails, but not M&Gs).

This means that when we visited and had 5 full days to tour, with each day split into two "touring blocs," we visited MK for 2 days, Epcot for 1 1/2 days, and spent just over a half-day each on HS and AK (leaving one final half-day for DTD, mini-golf, or pool time). It wasn't so much that we couldn't find more to do in HS or AK -- we just didn't have the time to do it. We hit the highlights in each one and called it a day.

When we upped our stay for our last visit and had 7 full days to tour (we spent 3 at MK, 1 1/2 again at Epcot, 1 each at the other parks, and again, took a half day "off"), we were able to spend full days in HS and AK, and do more than just the "highlights." We were pleasantly surprised by the AK's extra offerings that we hadn't been able to do before (e.g.., the Finding Nemo show), although we still ran out of things to do by mid-afternoon (thanks in part to some refurbs that had a couple of things shut down at the time). In HS though, the only worthwhile "extra" for us was the wonderful Walt exhibit and One Man's Dream movie. Everything else we did after the headliners to take advantage of our extra half-day at HS (the Back Lot Tour, the Little Mermaid show, Lights Motors Action, etc.) was a bit of a dud, and we wished we'd spent the extra time in a different park or even by the pool.

 

[epcotisbest]

There is no such thing as a half day park. It is what you make of it. It always confuses me when I see that term. If you choose to do only a few things, or think AK or DHS, or even Epcot (wow) is all about rides, yes, you can visit for only a half day, but you have missed very much. Heck, you could go through the turnstiles, turn around and go back out...that would make it a half minute park. But, I'm guessing you would miss out on a few things.
Rushing through any park, hitting a few rides and calling it a day does not mean there is not more there to enjoy, it means you chose to skip what others enjoy.

 

[epcotisbest]

I posted this in another thread but it applies here:

Beauty and the Beast - 25 minutes
Citizens of Hollywood - 10 minutes
Disney Junior - 25 minutes
Fantasmic - 30 minutes
Frozen - 30 minutes
Indiana Jones - 30 minutes
LMA - 45 minutes
Mulch, Sweat & Shears - 30 minutes
Voyage of the Little Mermaid - 15 minutes

That's four hours of just shows. Assuming you'll be at Fantasmic about an hour early to get a good seat and at least a few minutes early for the other ones, that's another two hours. So six hours total. An average DHS operating day is twelve hours. You're already at 1/2 day and you haven't experienced Muppets, Star Tours, Tower, RnRC, Toy Story, or One Man's Dream yet.

Yeah, DHS is only a 1/2 day park when you skip half of the park. That's like complaining that a baseball game is only 90 minutes long because you left in the fifth inning.

And the same breakdown can be made for each park. Good post. You left out dining, snacks, just strolling the grounds, taking in the scenery and the general joy of escapism from the real world.

 

[marni1971]

Everyone's different.

A park can be a half day in the eye of the beholder.

 

[DisDadWoz]

Full day, 1/2 day, 1/4 day...it's all perspective based on what you're looking to do. For the first time visitor they could all be full day parks. When we plan our trips at this point it's based on what we want to do that trip. We've skipped MK, DAK, HS and Epcot at different times because it just wasn't in our plans to do them. We've had trips where we've spent an hour or two in HS to ride Toy Story & Rockin' RollerCoaster, passed through Epcot to go on Spaceship Earth on our way to see Wishes. So do what you want to do and not worry about if it's a full day or 1/2 day or whatever!!

 

[epcotisbest]

Everyone's different.

A park can be a half day in the eye of the beholder.

Only if the beholder chooses to make it that way and chooses to skip stuff or rush through. Again, it can be a half minute park if the beholder so chooses. The great thing about it is we all have the freedom to choose how long we spend in each park.

 

[epcotisbest]

Full day, 1/2 day, 1/4 day...it's all perspective based on what you're looking to do. For the first time visitor they could all be full day parks. When we plan our trips at this point it's based on what we want to do that trip. We've skipped MK, DAK, HS and Epcot at different times because it just wasn't in our plans to do them. We've had trips where we've spent an hour or two in HS to ride Toy Story & Rockin' RollerCoaster, passed through Epcot to go on Spaceship Earth on our way to see Wishes. So do what you want to do and not worry about if it's a full day or 1/2 day or whatever!!

Yeah, we have done the same. We have skipped MK or only went a half day on several trips because there were other things we wanted to do, especially during Flower and Garden Festival. That did not make MK a no or half day park, we just chose something else that day.

 

[sxeensweet]

That's the operative phrase. There's enough to do to fill the day, but people who visit frequently (i.e. most of us on this board) tend to know what they like best and skip a bunch of things.

Not true for a lot of us frequenters in my opinion. Sorry can't agree with this one Captain. We always go now almost 2 weeks and still spend all day numerous days at each of the parks. Never can finish all we want in a half day much less in 1 day at any of them.
In my opinion there is a lot of people that go rarely or only once that assume they can do what they want in half a day at certain parks and miss a lot of things or don't even know what all each park really has.
Us personally going more have learned how much there is to do in all the main parks and after all our trips and long trips still have lots we have never done.
Just our personal experience and opinion. We don't even have kids that would slow us down for lots of things that come up etc.
We always leave feeling we missed things and it was not enough time spent in each park even after 13 days! Lol.

 

[bethymouse]

We sometimes even skip AK and HS all together! We prefer MK and EPCOT ( Test Track/Soarin). So we can take 2 days each for those parks sometimes. If we do AK, then we do it right! We visit all of the exhibits, and take our time. When we do HS, we usually see all of the shows, and end the day with Fantasmic! Otherwise, we just ride Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster and Toy Story Midway Mania and call it a day ( that's what park hoppers are for, but they can get quite tiring to us "old" folks!). As many have said, there really are no 1/2 day parks. It's all in how you look at it.