Help me Plan my First WDW trip... I think its really happening this time...three's a charm.

[mickEblu]

I think it’s a reasonable time and crowd levels look reasonable. Weather is going to be hot, but not deadly. There may be further pre epic suppression (particularly Universal), though I imagine some sort of previews will be ongoing by then, maybe media? But that’s not really going to impair your core Universal parks.

Really the only thing you are really ceding is Epic, but with the current WDW pipeline I think that gives you a good excuse to return in 4-5 years. There’s always more things, but delaying to Fall gives you particularly more things this year.

I’m a fan of split stays, not quite explained but you can use luggage services for free on your split stay day. Pack up your stuff, give it all to bell services at your first hotel and then it will be shipped over and available in the afternoon at your new hotel. I used it 3x on my last trip and it was a smooth process. With the new waterpark promotion I’d go to Typhoon lagoon for the morning of your transfer after a leisurely breakfast, then you can take advantage of storm along bay if you need to wait on your room being ready.

POP is the better location now with Skyliner. Riverside is the much nicer ambience hotel. The one thing though is since you are committed to beach club, somewhere animal kingdom and magic kingdom need to fit so you are going to not utilize either the walk or the Skyliner to their fullest, which maybe is a slight nod to Riverside. It’s out of the way for everything but Spring, but I do think first time visitors should wander through Springs at least once. It’s like Downtown Disney x5 and mostly updated.

The one way I’d prune your trip if you are open to suggestions is simply to forgo Universal entirely. I can’t recall your daughter’s age (?4), but Universal is a better return pilgrimage and you won’t feel like you’ve overdone things. I think you’d really enjoy the lesser militant aspects of WDW. Merely hopping on the Monorail and checking out the resorts, then taking the boat to Wilderness lodge, spending time at Disney Springs, maybe even making your way over to see animal kingdom lodge. I think you’ll find you could do two days at Epcot as well.

I agree. I'm ok not seeing EPIC this time. I'll be seeing 4-6 other parks for the first time and to be honest outside of the new Potter ride and Dark Universe ride (which im sure will both be top of the line) I'm not dying to do anything else there.

My kids are 9 and 4 so I'm thinking we'll be back to WDW again in 4-5 years so my daughter can enjoy at a more prime age and we can enjoy some of the newer offerings. On this trip there are a solid 8 rides or so we'll need to rider switch as my daughter isn't tall enough but it'll never be more than 2 or 3 a day so I guess thats fine. Gets time consuming though as even the ride switcher has to go back in the Lightning Lane which could be another 20+ minutes.

I didn't realize they still offer the luggage service until I read some of everyones responses today. Sounds ike you had a good experience but it can be slow? I guess it doesn't matter if you have a small bag for the day and you're going to be at a park anyway? For the transfer day do you think Typhoon Lagoon would be better than doing DHS, going back to the hotel for some swimming and back to DHS at night? From what I understand they have a nice pool area.

What you say about Universal makes sense. I jus really want to ride Hagrid's! lol. still on the fence about Universal though. Definitely don't want the trip to feel militant. Thats why im including one down day when I'm at Riverside and then a sort of chiller half down day' half DHS day when I'm at Beach Club. Only thing is I feel kind off silly not making the full down day on a day where Im at the deluxe hotel but its just kind of the way it works out I think. Want to take advantage of the good transportation options when Im at Beach too and Id also be there for fewer nights.

Thank for the advice!

 

[BrianLo]

I agree. I'm ok not seeing EPIC this time. I'll be seeing 4-6 other parks for the first time and to be honest outside of the new Potter ride and Dark Universe ride (which im sure will both be top of the line) I'm not dying to do anything else there.

My kids are 9 and 4 so I'm thinking we'll be back to WDW again in 4-5 years so my daughter can enjoy at a more prime age and we can enjoy some of the newer offerings. On this trip there are a solid 8 rides or so we'll need to rider switch as my daughter isn't tall enough but it'll never be more than 2 or 3 a day so I guess thats fine. Gets time consuming though as even the ride switcher has to go back in the Lightning Lane which could be another 20+ minutes.

I didn't realize they still offer the luggage service until I read some of everyones responses today. Sounds ike you had a good experience but it can be slow? I guess it doesn't matter if you have a small bag for the day and you're going to be at a park anyway? For the transfer day do you think Typhoon Lagoon would be better than doing DHS, going back to the hotel for some swimming and back to DHS at night? From what I understand they have a nice pool area.

What you say about Universal makes sense. I jus really want to ride Hagrid's! lol. still on the fence about Universal though. Definitely don't want the trip to feel militant. Thats why im including one down day when I'm at Riverside and then a sort of chiller half down day' half DHS day when I'm at Beach Club. Only thing is I feel kind off silly not making the full down day on a day where Im at the deluxe hotel but its just kind of the way it works out I think. Want to take advantage of the good transportation options when Im at Beach too and Id also be there for fewer nights.

Thank for the advice!

It seems counter intuitive, you really shouldn’t make the transfer days down days. Send all your stuff off to beach club, hit a park hard and come back from said park… Epcot works best. It won’t feel like you transferred hotels. Instead you have a less arduous journey at the end of your park day than your arrival. It also allows that park day to enter the front gate (riverside) and exit the back. I treated luggage service this way, let the hotels move essentially without your involvement and use mobile check in. I really didn’t care about baggage arrival and it was always there more or less when you had your room.

Then you can actually enjoy beach club on another day. If it was me I’d do this… I actually don’t really like park hopping at WDW or yoyo-ing around the complex.

Fri - Arrive
Sat - AK
Sun- Magic Kingdom
Mon - Magic Kingdom + Seven Seas Resorts
Tues- Transfer to Beach Club - Epcot
Wed - Down Day + Night Epcot
Thursday - DHS

I realize this is a six day ticket but I’d forgo park hoppers.

 

[dmw]

@mickEblu Have you considered POFQ instead of PO Riverside? They are sister resorts, and you can use the amenities at either. POFQ is much smaller and everything is close, including the Beignets. POFQ is one of our favorite resorts.
That said, we really enjoy POP because of the Skyliner.

 

[mlayton144]

Food for thought - skip Uni and use that savings to stay at Disney a few extra days so you can take your time, your tickets at Disney will be almost be the same price as your 6 day, and do your resort hop with a little more time at BC , maybe even Uber over to IOA for 1 day if you are dying to see IOA , at least you don’t need to pack pack/unpack again

I wouldn’t sweat MK either weekend day (but Sunday is better) esp that time of year. MK does extended evening hours for deluxe resort guests only on Wednesday's too.

 

[mickEblu]

It seems counter intuitive, you really shouldn’t make the transfer days down days. Send all your stuff off to beach club, hit a park hard and come back from said park… Epcot works best. It won’t feel like you transferred hotels. Instead you have a less arduous journey at the end of your park day than your arrival. It also allows that park day to enter the front gate (riverside) and exit the back. I treated luggage service this way, let the hotels move essentially without your involvement and use mobile check in. I really didn’t care about baggage arrival and it was always there more or less when you had your room.

Then you can actually enjoy beach club on another day. If it was me I’d do this… I actually don’t really like park hopping at WDW or yoyo-ing around the complex.

Fri - Arrive
Sat - AK
Sun- Magic Kingdom
Mon - Magic Kingdom + Seven Seas Resorts
Tues- Transfer to Beach Club - Epcot
Wed - Down Day + Night Epcot
Thursday - DHS

I realize this is a six day ticket but I’d forgo park hoppers.

I knew you'd have the answer! lol I really like what you did here. Particularly making Epcot the park of choice on the transfer day and just being posted in the Epcot resorts area for my three days at Beach Club. With the young ones that sounds great! With everything im trying to accomplish something had to give and I think that something in this case was just biting the bullet and doing MK on the busier days of the week.

Just a few concerns - As I mentioned above, others have said that Weekends and Monday are the worst days for MK. I'm thinking between Lightning Lanes and all the stuff I can skip I might be Ok? Especially if I do 1.5 days there?

Will three park days in a row after traveling leave us wrecked? Im thinking AK might not be too hard of a day and we might be back by 5pm or so at the hotel to relax for the rest of the day? Sunday MK day we'd go hard and then Monday we'd probably head over there a little later in the afternoon or evening.

Lastly, leaving DHS for dead last scares me just a bit especially without park hoppers as TOT might be at the very top of my priority list. If it goes down on the last day of my trip I'm done for and with the way things are going who knows if it'll even be around (as currently constructed) in 5 years. Some of my motivation to do this trip this year instead of 2026 is to get in some classic WDW that is or may be going away soon like the ROA, Mv3d, Dinosaur and TOT. With that said, 6 day park hoppers sound like overkill.

I think what I’ll do is keep most of your changes to itinerary but still undecided if I want to do 5 day parkhoppers or 6 day non hoppers. But ya know at a certain point though what’s a few hundy more for the 6 day hoppers? lol


5 day hopper itinerary:

Fri - Arrive
Sat - AK
Sun- Magic Kingdom
Mon - 1/2 Down Day / MK Leftovers and/or repeats
Tues- Transfer to Beach Club - Epcot + insurance nighttime ride on TOT
Wed - Down Day
Thursday - DHS / Epcot


6 day single park itinerary:

Fri - Arrive
Sat - AK
Sun- Magic Kingdom
Mon - 1/2 Down Day / MK
Tues- Transfer to Beach Club - Epcot
Wed - Down Day + Night DHS
Thursday - DHS or Epcot

Is there any chance I knock out MK in one day? If so I could do a half day at DHS on Monday instead and no need for my insurance nighttime ride on TOT on Epcot day.

I guess what I need to learn next is how the lightning lanes would work on some of these half days. Can I schedule my selections all for the later afternoon/ evening?

 

[mickEblu]

Food for thought - skip Uni and use that savings to stay at Disney a few extra days so you can take your time, your tickets at Disney will be almost be the same price as your 6 day, and do your resort hop with a little more time at BC , maybe even Uber over to IOA for 1 day if you are dying to see IOA , at least you don’t need to pack pack/unpack again

I wouldn’t sweat MK either weekend day (but Sunday is better) esp that time of year. MK does extended evening hours for deluxe resort guests only on Wednesday's too.

Good food for thought, thank you! The second hotel transfer sounds ridiculous especially for just one night. It’s also sounding like another night at WDW might solve some of my issues. A fifth night at Riverside might be in order

 

[mlayton144]

Good food for thought, thank you! The second hotel transfer sounds ridiculous especially for just one night. It’s also sounding like another night at WDW might solve some of my issues. A fifth night at Riverside might be in order

You can ditch the park hopper and save there since you’d have an extra day

 

[BrianLo]

I knew you'd have the answer! lol I really like what you did here. Particularly making Epcot the park of choice on the transfer day and just being posted in the Epcot resorts area for my three days at Beach Club. With the young ones that sounds great! With everything im trying to accomplish something had to give and I think that something in this case was just biting the bullet and doing MK on the busier days of the week.

Just a few concerns - As I mentioned above, others have said that Weekends and Monday are the worst days for MK. I'm thinking between Lightning Lanes and all the stuff I can skip I might be Ok? Especially if I do 1.5 days there?

Will three park days in a row after traveling leave us wrecked? Im thinking AK might not be too hard of a day and we might be back by 5pm or so at the hotel to relax for the rest of the day? Sunday MK day we'd go hard and then Monday we'd probably head over there a little later in the afternoon or evening.

Lastly, leaving DHS for dead last scares me just a bit especially without park hoppers as TOT might be at the very top of my priority list. If it goes down on the last day of my trip I'm done for and with the way things are going who knows if it'll even be around (as currently constructed) in 5 years. Some of my motivation to do this trip this year instead of 2026 is to get in some classic WDW that is or may be going away soon like the ROA, Mv3d, Dinosaur and TOT. With that said, 6 day park hoppers sound like overkill.

I think what I’ll do is keep most of your changes to itinerary but still undecided if I want to do 5 day parkhoppers or 6 day non hoppers. But ya know at a certain point though what’s a few hundy more for the 6 day hoppers? lol


5 day hopper itinerary:

Fri - Arrive
Sat - AK
Sun- Magic Kingdom
Mon - 1/2 Down Day / MK Leftovers and/or repeats
Tues- Transfer to Beach Club - Epcot + insurance nighttime ride on TOT
Wed - Down Day
Thursday - DHS / Epcot


6 day single park itinerary:

Fri - Arrive
Sat - AK
Sun- Magic Kingdom
Mon - 1/2 Down Day / MK
Tues- Transfer to Beach Club - Epcot
Wed - Down Day + Night DHS
Thursday - DHS or Epcot

Is there any chance I knock out MK in one day? If so I could do a half day at DHS on Monday instead and no need for my insurance nighttime ride on TOT on Epcot day.

I guess what I need to learn next is how the lightning lanes would work on some of these half days. Can I schedule my selections all for the later afternoon/ evening?

I can’t speak to it for sure, but tower of terror has multiple shafts, I’m not sure if it’s ever gone offline for an entire day? Maybe someone else can attest, but it feels like a reliable attraction, especially since you’ll probably pre select it with lightening lane. DHS in a day is tight. Frankly if you are interacting at all with entertainment (which you should), every park but DAK in one day is tight.

I personally wouldn’t be that worried about crowds, but I just came off low ones. My experience with WDW in December was to the point I didn’t even feel like LLMP was worth it, I see LLMP as your insurance hedge already. I only used it like 3 days out of two weeks and I really only felt it was needed at Magic Kingdom. Hollywood studios falls closely behind but I did the party as well so it proved redundant.

Can you knock out Magic Kingdom in one day? Not really, yes if you forgo things. Because you are going to want to do a lot of the unique stuff anyways that just takes time. The river if it’s open, carousel of progress, enchanted tales with Belle is great for a four year old, peoplemover, Country Bears, Tron for the older one…. It starts to compile before you’ve stepped foot onto most of the major attractions.

Only one WDW park can really be ‘done’ in one day, DAK. Even still if you interact with the shows and the trails (which you should) it starts to take more time than you think. But that’s a great first day park because you have to face the sunset closure time and leave to recover from your travel day.

Ironically I feel I can whip through the Universal parks easier because there isn’t a whole lot there beyond rides. Particularly IOA.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

I always stay at more than one resort area, it gives your trip a totally different feel moving and beach club is a reasonable deluxe resort by parks.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Maybe you should do both UO parks in one day and spend the rest of your trip at WDW, so you don’t have to leave property multiple times.

 

[mickEblu]

Maybe you should do both UO parks in one day and spend the rest of your trip at WDW, so you don’t have to leave property multiple times.

That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I might add a fifth night to Riverside and do a one day Universal hopper while I’m there. My one concern is just getting burnt out with so many parks days in a row. As it stand I only really have about 1.5 down days out of 8

 

[Centauri Space Station]

That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I might add a fifth night to Riverside and do a one day Universal hopper while I’m there. My one concern is just getting burnt out with so many parks days in a row. As it stand I only really have about 1.5 down days out of 8

Understandable! Spending time at the resorts are always a must, plus you can hop to other resorts easily like boardwalk and swolphin from the beach club, Riviera or carribbean beach from pop or Disney springs from port orleans.

 

[mickEblu]

@mickEblu Have you considered POFQ instead of PO Riverside? They are sister resorts, and you can use the amenities at either. POFQ is much smaller and everything is close, including the Beignets. POFQ is one of our favorite resorts.
That said, we really enjoy POP because of the Skyliner.

I did consider it but as I did my research it seemed like Riverside had the better reviews overall. But the fact that FQ is more compact and transpo is easier is appealing. How’s the bus if I stay near Aligator Bayou at Riverside? I read that it’s the most ideal location to catch a bus at Riverside? Also they are doing construction at the Magnolia Bend area of Riverside wherever that is. Is that near Aligator Bayou?

 

[mlayton144]

I did consider it but as I did my research it seemed like Riverside had the better reviews overall. But the fact that FQ is more compact and transpo is easier is appealing. How’s the bus if I stay near Aligator Bayou at Riverside? I read that it’s the most ideal location to catch a bus at Riverside? Also they are doing construction at the Magnolia Bend area of Riverside wherever that is. Is that near Aligator Bayou?

The mansions are a completely separate section with just room refurbs planned so I wouldn’t expect to see bulldozers or anything there. In most parts of AB , you can’t even see the mansions anyway. I wouldn’t worry too much about the buses , but yes the buses from what I remember go clockwise around the resort so AB would be first. See picture below , AB are the small buildings on left/top and mansions are larger H shaped buildings on right. Good luck. One more thing - make sure you login 60 days before to get your preferred dining reservations

 

[mickEblu]

The mansions are a completely separate section with just room refurbs planned so I wouldn’t expect to see bulldozers or anything there. In most parts of AB , you can’t even see the mansions anyway. I wouldn’t worry too much about the buses , but yes the buses from what I remember go clockwise around the resort so AB would be first. See picture below , AB are the small buildings on left/top and mansions are larger H shaped buildings on right. Good luck. One more thing - make sure you login 60 days before to get your preferred dining reservations

Thank you for this! Doesn’t sound like it would really impact my vacation at all. Especially if it’s just room refurbs. Thanks for the reminder on dining! So far I just know I want Sci Fi for sure. Maybe some other fun dining too like that place at Wilderness Lodge or Biergarten at Epcot.