How do you plan your park days?

ELG13

ELG13

Well-Known Member
This will be our first trip for more than 2 days with the crowd cap in place. We will have 5 park days, monday-friday, one of which we will use for blizzard beach in the middle of the week for a break (we usually go on Wednesday). We have kids so we usually do 2 magic kingdom days. I'll be honest, we haven't been to HS in several years and Epcot is generally a place we go for dinner and will catch a few rides before or after. AK we usually plan a late start for because we tend to run out of things to do before our dinner reservation. That is all with normal, precovid Disney. But I'm wondering with crowds low, if we should plan on half days for AK, HS, and Epcot. I'm just trying to figure out our park reservations and how we should plan to park hop. For example, would MK in the evening after HS be doable? We don't really meander well lol. The kids like to go go go as do my husband and myself. I know crowds can fluctuate and in the current situation, anything is possible. We were just there for a quick trip and we did 2 days of MK....12 hours to be exact (we got severely delayed on the interstate) but we still ended up doing every single thing we wanted, even some bucket list things we really never thought we'd get to do for a while, and we left the park at 6 (closing at7) so the kids could swim for a bit before dinner. Essentially, we ran out of stuff to do. I'm not complaining, I was actually very happy with how it went. We got to do it all and never felt rushed. So I'm wondering how that will work in the other parks. I know it's a bit of a rambling post. Lol. I apologize. I'm just trying to get a general idea of how to plan a longer trip and how to split our days. We are staying at ft wilderness cabins so there is plenty to do there as well!!
 
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JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
We have always included and utilized our PH passes. I'm trying to decide if PH will even be needed for our coming trip. So many people are reporting that despite the lines for distancing, they are getting everything done and with limited entry, the parks are very manageable. Disney is saying they may increase numbers but I doubt they will get to the numbers we had seen in the past for the foreseeable future. Weve hopped to break up the day, to dine at a different park, to get away from a heavily crowded park and to get more things done in a day. But this year we may enjoy just as much staying in one park a day. Still weighing in my mind what to do.

When we did PH, we would choose a morning park by the crowd calendars numbers and typical better day of the week. Then make our ADR's for an evening park that we wanted to dine at and then linger in the evening. MK usually was our AM park, arriving early to knock out the primary attractions. DHS would now be AM to try getting RoR in. EP isnt so crowded and with it being in construction phase I'd do it PM. AK can be either, but by doing it in PM youre possibly missing out on some animal interactions. AK, DHS and EP would be my preferred PM parks in the past. Utilizing the PH passes are best by doing it so you get the most out of your time and day, so you can structure the days depending on how and what you want to accomplish. Nothing is set in stone that one way is better than another way. Do what will work best for you.
 
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T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
I really enjoy park hopping midday it really helps shake things up, and provide a break midday. In Covid times, I find I want to change out my mask midday and grab a quick drink in my room before heading out.

DHS is the park with the longest lines currently, you definitely want to rope drop that park. Also, due to restrictions, ToT is the slowest moving line so I suggest starting there and doing RnRC first before moving on. I usually get an early Rise BG so after I do that ride I hit MFSR, and TSMM before those lines balloon, and SDD is usually my first 20ish min wait. MMRR is a capacity champ, that rides line will move very fast and be less then 30 min throughout the day, save that for later, ditto with Star Tours.

Epcot and MK are great places to hop in the evening lines remain maniagble (<30 min) outside of SDMT. AK closes too early, and DHS remains a zoo. If you are going to park hop my suggestion would be to book 1 AK day, 1 DHS day, 2 MK days and plan on hopping to MK or Epcot every afternoon.
 
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ELG13

ELG13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Touchdown said:
I really enjoy park hopping midday it really helps shake things up, and provide a break midday. In Covid times, I find I want to change out my mask midday and grab a quick drink in my room before heading out.

DHS is the park with the longest lines currently, you definitely want to rope drop that park. Also, due to restrictions, ToT is the slowest moving line so I suggest starting there and doing RnRC first before moving on. I usually get an early Rise BG so after I do that ride I hit MFSR, and TSMM before those lines balloon, and SDD is usually my first 20ish min wait. MMRR is a capacity champ, that rides line will move very fast and be less then 30 min throughout the day, save that for later, ditto with Star Tours.

Epcot and MK are great places to hop in the evening lines remain maniagble (<30 min) outside of SDMT. AK closes too early, and DHS remains a zoo. If you are going to park hop my suggestion would be to book 1 AK day, 1 DHS day, 2 MK days and plan on hopping to MK or Epcot every afternoon.
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Ok that sounds close to what I was imagining. We are excited to get to HS just because we haven't been in a long time. I've never been a big Epcot gal aside from going to eat and getting in what rides we can. We've always lived AK at night because of pandora and we always do a Safari around sunset to see all the animals so we may do that day with a later than normal start. Maybe hit the pool at the resort in the morning, lunch at the cabins then head over there.
 
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ELG13

ELG13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
JIMINYCR said:
We have always included and utilized our PH passes. I'm trying to decide if PH will even be needed for our coming trip. So many people are reporting that despite the lines for distancing, they are getting everything done and with limited entry, the parks are very manageable. Disney is saying they may increase numbers but I doubt they will get to the numbers we had seen in the past for the foreseeable future. Weve hopped to break up the day, to dine at a different park, to get away from a heavily crowded park and to get more things done in a day. But this year we may enjoy just as much staying in one park a day. Still weighing in my mind what to do.

When we did PH, we would choose a morning park by the crowd calendars numbers and typical better day of the week. Then make our ADR's for an evening park that we wanted to dine at and then linger in the evening. MK usually was our AM park, arriving early to knock out the primary attractions. DHS would now be AM to try getting RoR in. EP isnt so crowded and with it being in construction phase I'd do it PM. AK can be either, but by doing it in PM youre possibly missing out on some animal interactions. AK, DHS and EP would be my preferred PM parks in the past. Utilizing the PH passes are best by doing it so you get the most out of your time and day, so you can structure the days depending on how and what you want to accomplish. Nothing is set in stone that one way is better than another way. Do what will work best for you.
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I think what makes it hard (ok not hard, but hard for ME to decide lol) is that we always planned our days around our fast passes so without those our day is kind of wide open. I think HS as a rope drop will be smart for us so we can get in and get some rides in early.
 
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NelleBelle

NelleBelle

Well-Known Member
Touchdown said:
I was ready to leave DHS at 2ish both days I was there, it just gets too crowded.
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Good to know--we planned that park for basically mornings and then break at the hotel (YC so thankfully can walk or use the Skyliner). We plan to hop to MK or EP in the evening. Fingers crossed for a little longer hours than what's posted in April, but will make do.
 
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ELG13

ELG13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
NelleBelle said:
Good to know--we planned that park for basically mornings and then break at the hotel (YC so thankfully can walk or use the Skyliner). We plan to hop to MK or EP in the evening. Fingers crossed for a little longer hours than what's posted in April, but will make do.
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Same. We had longer park hours in January than what are posted now. Only an hour difference for MK but still....an hour lol
 
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