Which Park Which Day

pixieduststeveo

New Member
This is the first time I am in charge of planning the Disney trip. AAA travel agent last time did not impress me. I am looking for advice on help deciding which park which day of a 6 day visit with 5 day tickets in early Nov.
I know we want to do 2 days in MK and 1 day at EP,AK,HS,DtD. I also know we will want to do MVMCP. Do most people use crowd calenders to determine which park? Planning 7 months out I will be able to make ADR's easily. I want to know which parks to visit each day so I can plan any ADR's I want. Any advice on the sequence of planning is much appreciated.
 

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
I generally look at which parks have extra magic hours as well as the crowd calendars, but also just the plain ol' park hours. Extra magic hours will generally trump what the crowd calendars say. But you have to decide for yourself what is most important. If one park is staying open longer than normal that will also go into consideration (Example, last month, DHS was only generally open til 7 but one night it was open til 10). And just know whatever you plan will probably always end up changing a bit.

My trip went like this:

Arrival day: Epcot
Day 1: DHS/MK
Day 2: Islands of Adventure/Epcot
Day 3: Universal/Rest and Pool night
Day 4: MK
Leaving day: AK

You have a bit more time so you can space things out. Any of the parks will be more crowded on weekends but MK in particular. If you care about EHM, def look at that. They are more crowded than they used to be and sadly hours have been cut but I still find them valuable. Ride times reduce by a lot.

Also, I guess I have to ask, do you want to spend a full day on DTD? What are you planning to do there? Guess I've never found it to be a place I could ever spend a full day.
 
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BoarderPhreak

Well-Known Member
I plan my days where the park is open longest, crowds be darned! You can always duck back to the resort for a little midday R&R or use your Park Hopper to hit a quieter park for a while. The parks are often quieter after 4pm or so, so that's good time to come back - and stay until closing.

Once you've survived a few holiday seasons between Christmas and New Year's - you can take anything! :D
 
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rsoxguy

Well-Known Member
Day:
1. MK
2. DAK
3. EPCOT
4. DHS
5. DTD
6. MK

My reasoning is this; MK is a classic start, DAK is mellower after a day at the premier park, EPCOT allows for diversity between large attractions and strolling through World Showcase, DHS gets back in the swing of things with "big" rides, DTD gives you a break from the parks after going to all four, and MK allows you to end with the premier park. I do not use crowd calendars because I don't really care to allow others to dictate my schedule or my enjoyment. I do sometimes schedule according to EMH, but the hours have not been great the past months, and often do not justify altering a desired schedule. You should make your ADR's as soon as you determine your schedule.
 
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bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
I've always heard for some reason that MK was most crowded on Mondays.:confused:
Wouldn't surprise me that Mondays are the weekday the MK is most busy though I'd guess Saturdays are more crowded overall. There is a huge turnover in guests on Sundays. Lot of people arriving and obviously not everyone makes it to a park on arrival day. As someone said above, MK is a "classic start."
 
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Susan Savia

Well-Known Member
Our trips begin and end at Epcot. Second day is always MK, third is always HS and going to DTD, 4th is AK and Epcot and then it repeats depending on who opens early in the moring (we avoid). Being that we go for two weeks at a time, theres plenty of time to visit them all.
 
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Poofiesdream

Well-Known Member
Mondays are most crowded at MK because people arrive on the weekend and that's the first place they want to go. Wednesdays are the least crowded. Epcot is next crowded on Tues. and Wed. AK and HS are most crowded the end of the week since that's were people go after they've been to MK and Epcot. So AK and HS should be done early in the week, MK on Wed., Epcot on Thursday. Friday is open.
 
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cowanfamily

Well-Known Member
I plan my days where the park is open longest, crowds be darned! You can always duck back to the resort for a little midday R&R or use your Park Hopper to hit a quieter park for a while. The parks are often quieter after 4pm or so, so that's good time to come back - and stay until closing.

Once you've survived a few holiday seasons between Christmas and New Year's - you can take anything! :D

DITTO!
 
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RedDad

Smitty Werben JagerManJensen
We live and die by the touring plans crowd calendar and park recommendations, and have rarely been disappointed. It depends on what type of person you are - if you don't mind crowds and want to get the most out of each park day, go for the EMH days. We personally avoid EMH day parks because the crowds overall are larger there during the normal hours.
 
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SAV

Well-Known Member
There's a free crowd calendar at easywdw.com. I used that last trip and it was right on.

I generally avoid the EMH parks, look at operating hours for the day and the crowd calendar to make the decision. We don't hop, so I really need to make sure I make the right choice or we're out of luck.
 
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luv

Well-Known Member
I avoided EMH parks like the plague. When I could, I'd use the touringplans.com recommended park, but it didn't always fit my schedule. Even the UG people will tell you that a good plan is much more important than this "least crowded park" stuff. It really isn't all that important.

Since moving to Orlando, I pay no heed to which park is busiest, etc. I wonder why I ever did, honestly.
 
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JillC LI

Well-Known Member
Last trip we went for only 4 days commando style and it about killed us.

Well we check the park hours and extra magic hours and special events, and then work from there. For example, for our trip last December, we were only at WDW for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of those days, MVMCP was held on Friday and Sunday which meant that the MK would close early those days, so we planned to spend Saturday at the MK even though the crowds were higher so we could stay late for parades and fireworks, etc. We decided to start our day at EPCOT on Friday because it had early EMH, and we never miss those; we spent the latter part of Friday at DHS until late closing. Sunday we hit AK at rope drop to round out our trip. So park hours and special events are really the determinative factors for us but we like to maximize every moment in the parks. However, given what you said above about not wanting to visit commando style again, perhaps it is less important to you to go to the parks that open early on EMH days, etc. Maybe crowd levels will be more important to you (check touringplans.com).
 
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ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
This is the first time I am in charge of planning the Disney trip. AAA travel agent last time did not impress me. I am looking for advice on help deciding which park which day of a 6 day visit with 5 day tickets in early Nov.
I know we want to do 2 days in MK and 1 day at EP,AK,HS,DtD. I also know we will want to do MVMCP. Do most people use crowd calenders to determine which park? Planning 7 months out I will be able to make ADR's easily. I want to know which parks to visit each day so I can plan any ADR's I want. Any advice on the sequence of planning is much appreciated.
I have always heard that Monday is the best day to go to MK since they always have late hours on Sundays.
However, we always do MK on Thursdays for early hours and then at least one late hours day. I totally plan by which park has early hours. We do what we really want to do during the early hour, then around lunch, move to a non-extra hours park. This has always worked well for us. We always get to do everything we want to do this way. We love those quiet early hours so much. It's really a good thing many people prefer the late hours. This spreads the crowds out for everyone.
 
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