Help With Itinerary

[arich35]

Okay so below is the plan so far (no fast passes yet). My wife and I (26) are going on December 3rd-8th for our first time at Disney World. I am kind of all over the place trying to figure out what to do. I feel like HS will be the park we spend the least amount of time in (we wont do the Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror) but we want to make sure we do all of the Toy Story stuff and my wife will at least want to check out the Star Wars Land. Besides MK I think Animal Kingdom will be a favorite. I also feel like we dont have enough time scheduled for Epcot. The day before we leave (Saturday) is pretty wide open but we will want to go back to MK for the last evening/night. Please give any advice, critiques, etc of the plan so far. We are open to moving things around! The only thing we want to do is MK on Wednesday for a full day.

Tuesday (3rd)

• Flight @ 9:55 AM
• Check In/Drop Bags around 11
• Explore Resort/Get Lunch around Noon
• Animal Kingdom
• Epcot Extra Magic Hours (Fireworks)

Wednesday (4th)

• Magic Kingdom (Extra Magic Hours)

Thursday (5th)

• Breakfast
• Hollywood Studios
• Disney Springs

Friday (6th)

• Animal Kingdom
• Dinner at Epcot 6:15

Saturday (7th)

• Magic Kingdom
• Parks we want to revisit
• End trip with MK fireworks

 

[Hcalvert]

December 5th is when the second SW ride opens (Rise of the Resistance). Most likely, it will be crazy busy at DHS. I was visiting when Pandora opened and CMs lined us up based on intention (Pandora or anything else). The rest of the park was no wait to minimal wait for riding everything else for a few hours at least.

 

[larryz]

Just be ready to share your space Tuesday and Wednesday... traditionally, the EMH days in each park are some of the busiest. Most "pros" avoid them just to preclude dealing with crowds.

Since both of those are Evening EMHs, it will be crowded. Yes. Crowded.

 

[ctcdisneymama]

no whole day at epcot? for us epcot takes us a whole day and sometimes we like to go back again - but it is also our favorite park.

 

[Legendary]

Park hopping can take some time using Disney Transportation. Allow at the very minimum 1 hour (Disney recommends 2 hours), and that’s if you catch the bus as it pulls up. Park hopping sounds great in theory but we always found it to be too exhausting. Something to think about.

 

[nlandy555]

This is your first trip to WDW? I think your plan might be a little over ambitious, but not saying it couldn't be done.

Are you taking the Magical Express to your resort? And are you using Disney buses for transport to/from parks or do you have a rental car? If you have a rental car I think it is less time consuming going park-to-park-to park. Bus transport is going to slow you down.

Tuesday: maybe pick just Epcot for the evening, Epcot for dinner, and Epcot Forever? Get your FP for that park. (especially with EMH)

Wednesday: MK - stick with it and do this park all day. FP for this park. Can always take a break by visiting one of the monorail resorts for dinner.

Thursday: IF you really want to do HS on the opening date of Rise of the Resistance, is it because you want to ride this on opening day, or can you perhaps do HS on Friday instead? Just keep in mind it is going to be especially busy on this date. I would personally switch to Animal Kingdom on this day. Get breakfast at Tusker House, FP for this day. And then do Disney Springs for dinner.

Friday: I would switch this to the HS day - still going to be busy, but you could get your FP to TSL rides and then leave park earlier in afternoon. If you stick with the park hopper - then you can do Epcot for dinner again, OR if you don't stick with hopper - dinner at one of the resort restaurants.

Saturday: If you want to see Fireworks at MK, I would rope drop the other park you want to see more of (AK?) and then MK fast passes and fireworks that night.


Just my personal thoughts and am I am sure 100 other people would have other suggestions nothing like mine!!!

 

[DryerLintFan]

Keep in mind that rope drops are going to be super early during your trip for all parks except EPCOT. So if you're hoping to do TSL at 9 am or something, other people would have been in the park for 3 hours already.

Unless your plan is to stand in line on opening day for the full SWL experience for a few hours, I'd recommend moving your HS day. I would personally move it to earlier and skip the second ride, but where's the fun in that, right? Either way, be ready to be at the park at 5 am latest if you're going to rope drop SWGE on opening day. Maybe earlier.

 

[arich35]

December 5th is when the second SW ride opens (Rise of the Resistance). Most likely, it will be crazy busy at DHS. I was visiting when Pandora opened and CMs lined us up based on intention (Pandora or anything else). The rest of the park was no wait to minimal wait for riding everything else for a few hours at least.

Honestly I don't like Star Wars at all but my wife does. I figured we would go on that day so lines for the Toy Story rides would be less but I could be wrong on that. We will want to at least walk through the land then maybe try to ride something on Saturday depending on the lines and also if fast passes will be available by that time.

Just be ready to share your space Tuesday and Wednesday... traditionally, the EMH days in each park are some of the busiest. Most "pros" avoid them just to preclude dealing with crowds.

Since both of those are Evening EMHs, it will be crowded. Yes. Crowded.

With the Mickey Christmas party at MK Wednesday is really the only day we can do a full day at MK, I am sure we will go back and take a break in the afternoon. We wanted to see fireworks the first night we get there and Epcot had a show plus EMH so I thought it was a good idea at the time. AK closed at 8 so I figured we would be there from 2-8 then head over to Epcot for the fireworks and hopefully jump on a couple rides before it closes.

no whole day at epcot? for us epcot takes us a whole day and sometimes we like to go back again - but it is also our favorite park.

Yeah this is where I am stuck, I was trying to find more time for Epcot. We aren't drinkers so we wouldn't do the drink around the world stuff and I am not sure how many rides/shows interest us there. I was thinking we would go back Saturday if we wanted. I also was thinking about trying to change the dinner reservation to Thursday and do half day at HS and the other half at Epcot. Then have Disney Springs on Friday evening.

Park hopping can take some time using Disney Transportation. Allow at the very minimum 1 hour (Disney recommends 2 hours), and that’s if you catch the bus as it pulls up. Park hopping sounds great in theory but we always found it to be too exhausting. Something to think about.

Yeah we will be using the buses but I wouldn't be against using Uber/Lyft to get around a couple days if it isn't too expensive and will save us 30 min-1 hour. We are staying at Port Orleans- FQ.

This is your first trip to WDW? I think your plan might be a little over ambitious, but not saying it couldn't be done.

Are you taking the Magical Express to your resort? And are you using Disney buses for transport to/from parks or do you have a rental car? If you have a rental car I think it is less time consuming going park-to-park-to park. Bus transport is going to slow you down.

Tuesday: maybe pick just Epcot for the evening, Epcot for dinner, and Epcot Forever? Get your FP for that park. (especially with EMH)

Wednesday: MK - stick with it and do this park all day. FP for this park. Can always take a break by visiting one of the monorail resorts for dinner.

Thursday: IF you really want to do HS on the opening date of Rise of the Resistance, is it because you want to ride this on opening day, or can you perhaps do HS on Friday instead? Just keep in mind it is going to be especially busy on this date. I would personally switch to Animal Kingdom on this day. Get breakfast at Tusker House, FP for this day. And then do Disney Springs for dinner.

Friday: I would switch this to the HS day - still going to be busy, but you could get your FP to TSL rides and then leave park earlier in afternoon. If you stick with the park hopper - then you can do Epcot for dinner again, OR if you don't stick with hopper - dinner at one of the resort restaurants.

Saturday: If you want to see Fireworks at MK, I would rope drop the other park you want to see more of (AK?) and then MK fast passes and fireworks that night.


Just my personal thoughts and am I am sure 100 other people would have other suggestions nothing like mine!!!

This is very helpful. On Monday I was thinking about just doing Epcot, would make it easier. I just have a feeling AK might be our favorite park but would save us time for later in our trip if I could find a dinner reservation the first night to Via Napoli. As far as Thursday, we are flexible. I would rather try to avoid the big crowd at HS for the Star Wars ride opening but part of me is very interest to see how many people lol. But I think you are probably right to switch HS and AK around.

Keep in mind that rope drops are going to be super early during your trip for all parks except EPCOT. So if you're hoping to do TSL at 9 am or something, other people would have been in the park for 3 hours already.

Unless your plan is to stand in line on opening day for the full SWL experience for a few hours, I'd recommend moving your HS day. I would personally move it to earlier and skip the second ride, but where's the fun in that, right? Either way, be ready to be at the park at 5 am latest if you're going to rope drop SWGE on opening day. Maybe earlier.

To be honest I am not sure if we will rope drop any day. We are not big morning people but we might end up doing it one day depending on how we feel but no 5 AM park for us. We will either stand in the line for Star Wars or not ride it this time, we will see how we feel.

 

[arich35]

I changed it up a bit based on advice here so thank you! We might switch around when we go to Disney Springs by eliminating Rainforest Café on Thursday since AK closes at 8 then maybe head back to Epcot on Friday after HS if we have time.

Tuesday:
Epcot after check in
Via Napoli @ 4:55
Epcot EMH

Wednesday:
Magic Kingdom

Thursday:
Animal Kingdom
Rainforest Café (7:30)***

Friday:
Breakfast
Hollywood Studios
Disney Springs***

Saturday:
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom

 

[Janir]

Just be ready to share your space Tuesday and Wednesday... traditionally, the EMH days in each park are some of the busiest. Most "pros" avoid them just to preclude dealing with crowds.

Since both of those are Evening EMHs, it will be crowded. Yes. Crowded.

I fact on EMH days, look and plan the last park to get the EMH and go there. Especially if its was just "yesterday". The masses went to the EMH there the day before and it slightly less crowded by that point as those EMH crowds are now at the park with the EMH today.

 

[nlandy555]

I changed it up a bit based on advice here so thank you! We might switch around when we go to Disney Springs by eliminating Rainforest Café on Thursday since AK closes at 8 then maybe head back to Epcot on Friday after HS if we have time.

Tuesday:
Epcot after check in
Via Napoli @ 4:55
Epcot EMH

Wednesday:
Magic Kingdom

Thursday:
Animal Kingdom
Rainforest Café (7:30)***

Friday:
Breakfast
Hollywood Studios
Disney Springs***

Saturday:
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom

YES! Although I highly recommend Tusker House for breakfast at AK (but if you aren't a fan of character breakfasts then it is not for you!). Rainforest Cafe is nice - but I feel like they aren't really "Disney" - they are more of a national chain. Especially if you can get pre-park ADR at Tusker, then you aren't taking time away from park touring.

 

[Janir]

I changed it up a bit based on advice here so thank you! We might switch around when we go to Disney Springs by eliminating Rainforest Café on Thursday since AK closes at 8 then maybe head back to Epcot on Friday after HS if we have time.

Tuesday:
Epcot after check in
Via Napoli @ 4:55
Epcot EMH

Wednesday:
Magic Kingdom

Thursday:
Animal Kingdom
Rainforest Café (7:30)***

Friday:
Breakfast
Hollywood Studios
Disney Springs***

Saturday:
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom

Something to consider, you might want to move your Disney Springs visit earlier so that if you plan on shopping, you can have your purchases delivered to your resort for you vs having to carry around everything that day.

 

[arich35]

YES! Although I highly recommend Tusker House for breakfast at AK (but if you aren't a fan of character breakfasts then it is not for you!). Rainforest Cafe is nice - but I feel like they aren't really "Disney" - they are more of a national chain. Especially if you can get pre-park ADR at Tusker, then you aren't taking time away from park touring.

We aren't big breakfast people so not sure we want to spend $30+ a person at a sit down restaurant. My wife just wants Mickey waffles so we will try to find a place to go that is quicker so we don't spend a bunch of time.

 

[arich35]

I fact on EMH days, look and plan the last park to get the EMH and go there. Especially if its was just "yesterday". The masses went to the EMH there the day before and it slightly less crowded by that point as those EMH crowds are now at the park with the EMH today.

So your saying Thursday would be less busy at MK because Wednesday had EMH? The whole Mickey Christmas throws it all off so we only have really 1 day we can go to get a full day. If we are going to be there from 9 or 10 AM to 11 PM (with a break during the day) then going back for half day on Saturday I am fine with the crowds.

 

[nlandy555]

So your saying Thursday would be less busy at MK because Wednesday had EMH? The whole Mickey Christmas throws it all off so we only have really 1 day we can go to get a full day. If we are going to be there from 9 or 10 AM to 11 PM (with a break during the day) then going back for half day on Saturday I am fine with the crowds.

Thursday, Dec 5th is MVMCP - that is going to cut into your all day at MK. I personally would stick with Wednesday. EMH from 9pm-11pm. In December on a night that early in December, I would risk it.