How do I pick which park to visit on each day?

[Burgermom]

Hi, I am planning a WDW trip from Sunday Feb 4th to Friday Feb 9th
Friday Feb 9th is a write off because we will be traveling, Sunday we have decided to do Epcot in the afternoon after we arrive knowing that we will just do a couple rides with fastpasses and then return to the hotel.
I am struggling with how to organize the Monday-Thursday.
I want to do 2 days Mk and 1 day each of HS and AK
We have a 5 year old so we are planning to RD and then head back to the hotel by 3 most days because I think that's all the energy we will have so we are most concerned about wait times from opening to about 3pm.
I was thinking:
mon Feb 6: HS
Tues: MK
Wed: AK
Thurs: MK (we will stay later that night and do the fireworks)

Does this make sense? Are crowds at a certain park busier on one day of the week vs another? I can't seem to find much consensus on this anywhere so wanted to get a sense from people...
Thanks in advance

 

[Mal6586]

The only tip I really have, you're already doing, which is to do something besides MK on a Monday. Generally people travel in on Sunday then the first park they hit Monday is MK so it can be more crowded on a Monday than other days. Also keep an eye on the park hours for those days, especially since you're looking at doing more morning time than evening time. Parks that are having morning extra magic hours tend to be more crowded than they would on a non-extra magic hour day.

 

[christianweecare]

We have been doing the Disney parks for decades. I would suggest checking out the crowd calendars on easywdw.com as a guideline. Know that circumstances can always change but it will give you an idea. Have fun!

 

[Burgermom]

Thank you christianweecare. I'm just confused because I thought that they were no longer doing crowd calendars at easywdw.com. If they are would you be able to provide a link? Maybe I am just having trouble navigating the site.

 

[Accidental Magpie]

Remember the 4th is also Super Bowl Sunday. Excellent chance for a slightly smaller crowd than usual.

 

[wdw&sonny]

Are you staying on site or off site? That may affect your decision based on attending or avoiding EMH.
You should also consider which evening shows you want to see. Not all shows are every night.
Your ADRs may also determine which park you would rather be in...based on proximity to the restaurant.

 

[GillianP1301]

I took a quick peek at the touringplans crowd calendar and I'm not seeing any major differences in projected crowd levels across those days, except for AK that is showing higher than the other days on Sunday the 4th. So for that reason, I would really just pick the order of days in which you want to enjoy the parks taking into consideration any dining you plan to book so that it's in proximity to where you are that day to cut down on transportation time.

If it were me personally, I would want more than a few hours in EP, so I would opt for MK on my arrival day for late afternoon/evening touring and do EP on the Tuesday and leaving everything else the same. The last day at MK is a good plan, I always like to end my trips with MK.

 

[christianweecare]

Burgermom, go to easywdw.com. On the home page you will see a tab for crowd calendars. Click on that & scroll down to the month you want. Remember, you're looking at last year but it will give you a good idea.

 

[Coral Reef Diver]

One strategy with younger kids is to gradually ease them into Disney. See Epcot first, then AK, HS and finally MK. The thought here is that seeing MK first will set-up a big letdown when they visit the other less intense parks.

 

[AllieBoo]

You can also go to kennythepirate.com and check crowd predictions there.​

 

[DisneyWishes14]

One thing I learned this morning when booking our FP+ for August - if you want to ride Flights of Passage, put AK as far into your trip as you possibly can to try to get a FP+. I was so excited to see Pandora, I scheduled AK for our first and second day (and have made other reservations that I can't change, at this point for our later days). There was not a single FP+ for Flights of Passage until the 4th day of our trip and they were in the afternoon. If FoP is important to you, plan to do it at RD or be flexible to be able to switch those last two AK and MK days.

 

[Danimal]

My suggestion would be to hit up HS on the day you arrive. Depending on how the 5 year old handles sitting down for a show, there can be very little for them to do there. Star Tours, Toy Story, and the Great Movie Ride and that's about it. Depending on when you arrive, you can knock those out with 2 shows (Muppets and Mermaid or Frozen?) and be done in 3-4 hours. My kids loved AK and I agree with the poster who said to put it later in your trip for FP purposes. My itinerary would look like Sunday- HS, Monday - Epcot, Tuesday - MK, Wednesday - AK, and finish off with another MK day on Thursday. Best of luck!

 

[mco65]

Our park days are determined by where our ADRs (if we have one that day) are. Otherwise we hit the parks with extra magic (morning) hours. I know those parks are typically more crowded but if you get there early, you can hit most of the headliner rides (without using fast passes) and by the time it starts to get really crowded.. early lunch. We then use our fast passes after lunch... once those are gone we typically ride the less popular rides that offer a chance to rest.. ie. people mover, hall of presidents, and my all time favorite carousel of progress. By then its dinner time and if we have an ADR, great.. otherwise we hit a counter service somewhere and hopefully find a spot to sit. After which we typically ride a few more semi popular rides and are typically gone before the fireworks. Everybody has their routines but this one works well even on very busy days.

 

[DekrRini]

I stay onsite so I typically go to the park with EMH and then hop to a different park when it starts getting busy.