# of Days @ Each Park - Need Help!

MickeyFan!

Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
I would LOVE to get some advice! Our trip details:

11/10/18 - 11/18/18 (Sat - Sun)
Park days: 7, NON park-hoppers (Sun - Sat)
Resort: Art of Animation
Meals: mostly quick-service with a few sit downs

I'm stuck on which days to do which parks! My current plan:

Sun - Epcot or HS
Mon - AK
Tues - MK (early night, will close at 6:00)
Wed - Epcot or HS
Thurs - MK + MVMCP
Fri - MK (early night, will close at 6:00)
Sat - Epcot or HS

So I can do either Epcot or HS 2 days. Everything I've read says HS without Toy Story isn't worth a whole day. That said, Toy Story will be open when we go, and the planner I'm working with disagrees that it's not worth a whole day. Is strongly suggesting 2 days for it.

I have 3 boys, ages 9,8 and 5 at time of travel. Very into Toy Story and Star Wars, so I think they'll like HS a lot. But should I visit Epcot or HS twice?

Lastly,all of our MK days are party days so that crowds are less. But that means the only time we see fireworks at MK is at the MVMCP. Is that a mistake? Should I be planning around seeing Happily Ever After fireworks show?

Also, any general thoughts on what days to do parks would be appreciated!

Thank you!!! :)
 
Personally, I wouldn’t choose going to MK on party days. Also since MVMCP is a hard ticketed event, I would do a morning at a different park to get some more things accomplished at them then get into MK at 4 with your party tickets.
 
The HEA fireworks are different from the ones during the parties, so you might want to go during a non-party day. I think it is worth seeing. You might also want to do AK later in your trip to get a FOP fastpass.

You might want to do HS twice to make sure you get FP for all the rides there, as well as seeing both fantastic and the Star Wars fireworks - although Jingle Bam might be on instead.
 
While the mornings at MK may be lighter due to the party realize that party guests are allowed in at 4pm so it may not be as quiet as you think. Are your first and last days also travel days? I would also consider not doing MK the morning of your party. Party day is a long day and you may miss out on the some of the magical feeling doing MK and party in one day. Maybe switch it to Epcot in the morning then "hop" to the party at 4pm with your party ticket to break up the day. By switching that way you could do a full day with HEA.
 


I'd probably do 2 days MK, 2 HS, 2 AK, & 1 Epcot.
I don't mind doing MK on a party day...I think it's a good way to do it without it being too crazy. Non-party days will be extremely crowded.
 
I would do one MK non-party day to see Happily Ever After and then your second MK day on a party day.

I feel HS is pretty much worth a full day as it is anyway, so with Toy Story open it'll definitely be worth spending some time there. The problem is Epcot is so big and really needs multiple days too, however, HS has two nighttime shows that are hard to see on the same night. Since you don't have Park Hoppers, my recommendation is two HS days one ending with Star Wars and the other with Fantasmic! Are you certain you need 3 MK days, including the party on one of them? I might consider swapping. You have a lot of park time with 7 day tickets.
 
Party days at MK are the lowest MK crowds you’ll see nowadays IMO. We did 2 of them this past Nov/dec and loved it. We had hoppers though and hopped to another park before party crowds came. I would try to see HEA also.
 


Definitely two full days at AK. With Pandora, Tree of Life Awakenings and ROL, one day is just not enough for AK, particularly since you can only book FPs for one Pandora ride per day. With kids, I would do Epcot in one day, just hitting the more kid-friendly attractions, like Soarin' and FEA (with fast passes).

Two full days at DHS are highly recommended, with kids that are heavily into Toy Story and Star Wars.

Also, if you want to see HEA, I would arrive for that in the evening. That way, you avoid the most crowded days at MK. So yes, that would necessitate spending a little more for park hoppers.
 
Last edited:
Thank you everyone! So, instead of 3 full MK days, now I'm leaning toward:

MK = 1 non-party day, 1 party day, MVMCP
AK = 1
HS = 2
Epcot = 1 1/2 (leaving @ 3:00 for MVMCP)

I don't know why I'm hung up on Epcot for more than one day. I think it's my sister (granted, her trip was 10 years ago but her kids were close in age to mine) said that she wished they had more time in Epcot. DJII - I've never heard before that AK warrants more than 1 day. Sheesh - i thought my trip was pretty long, but it feels like we're going for 7 park days and still won't get it all in. (Half joking half not)

I really appreciate the advice - keep it coming!
 
Thank you everyone! So, instead of 3 full MK days, now I'm leaning toward:

MK = 1 non-party day, 1 party day, MVMCP
AK = 1
HS = 2
Epcot = 1 1/2 (leaving @ 3:00 for MVMCP)

This is what I was going to suggest. Use your MVMCP as an opportunity to "park hop" since you won't have hoppers.

I would try to position your DHS days late in the trip, because those are going to be the hard to get FP. I'd probably aim for AK mid-trip, so you can get a FoP FP in the morning.

I do think you'll enjoy two days at DHS. With the new rides, having two days there will give you six FP, which will help a lot. And if you feel like it's too much time at that park, make one of the days a sleep in day with a late arrival or take a break mid-day or head to DS in the evening.

And you'll enjoy having two days at Epcot as well. Animal Kingdom is doable in one day.

And you will never do it all, so don't even try. There's always something new to look forward to the next visit.
 
I am going to be the oddball and say we love AK and can spend two days there. 1 day at Epcot is plenty for my kids. The countries get so crowded, it’s just not our fav park other than all the food options.

I think HS is probably 1 day as well. There’s a lot to do though. Fantastic is a must do for us but we also want to see the new Star Wars show. I’m thinking we may do a full day plus one evening there when we go.

All that said, I think you will need a little more down time. All my kids wanted to do on our first trip was swim. We went to Epcot our first day and all my youngest did was ask to go back to the pool. Leave the opportunity to be flexible and you will have a much better vacation. When we went last trip we had such a good time. I only booked a few dining reservations and we spent a lot of time at the pool. We would do rope drop, come back and hang out, then go for a few hours at night. It was our favorite way to do Disney! The campground is actually really fun too! We did Hoop dee do and wished we had more time to wander around and look at stuff, and it wasn’t even decorated. Maybe leave one of the days up in the air so everyone can decide what they want to go back to.

Have a great trip! The decorations are amazing.
 
I like your new plan, except I would consider doing 1.5 days at AK and only one at Epcot, especially with the age of your boys. Of course, whatever you decide, you may discover after 1 day at Epcot and 1 day at AK, you want your 1/2 day to be at AK but you planned Epcot or vice versa.

Do your boys want to do Jedi Training Academy? That will take a chunk of time out of one of your HS days, if so. If they are into Star Wars, they would love it.
 
Okay, here's my new working plan:

S - Epcot - 6
M - MK - 8
T - MK - 3 (early night)
W - HS - 3
Th - Epcot (3) or AK (4), then to MK @ 4:00 for the MVMCP
F - AK - 4
S - HS - 5

The # after each park is projected crowd level. How crazy will MK at an 8 be? This is nuts trying to figure this out. Thanks for the help so far!
 
I like your new plan. I'd probably do AK on Thursday. I think two days at HS with boys who love TS and SW is a great idea, especially if you want to do Jedi Training Academy (might suggest a PPO breakfast at H&V). There is a lot to do, and you won't be able to do everything. Having two chances at HS fastpasses and delaying AK til the end of your trip to get flights of passage fastpasses will help out immensely.

My kids are 7 & 5, and they love to just go to the pool and sometimes they need naps/time off. I'd recommend either taking a 4-5 hour break in the middle of the day or touring until 3ish and taking the rest of the day off. After the MVMCP, it's probably a good idea to plan to sleep in. Doing AK on Th & F will help avoid some of the pressure to get up early and do everything in one day.
 
Without looking at park hours, EMH and such, I would plan like this:

Day 1 - MK
Day 2 - AK
Day 3 - HS
Day 4 - MK
Day 5 - EP
Day 6 - HS
Day 7 - MK

We try to start and end with MK. Makes for a special start and end for us. We don't need more than one day at AK anymore. Between HS and EP, we would choose HS for two days over EP. You could flip day 4 and 5 if you want to attend the MVMCP

Dan
 
Okay, here's my new working plan:

S - Epcot - 6
M - MK - 8
T - MK - 3 (early night)
W - HS - 3
Th - Epcot (3) or AK (4), then to MK @ 4:00 for the MVMCP
F - AK - 4
S - HS - 5

The # after each park is projected crowd level. How crazy will MK at an 8 be? This is nuts trying to figure this out. Thanks for the help so far!
I like your plan. I wouldn't worry about crowd levels at all. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it these days. If your kids are tall enough and would be into FoP, I'd go ahead and make your FP there for that Thursday before MVMCP and that Friday.
You can switch that FoP to a Test Track easily, but not the other way around.
 

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