2 Day Park Hopper. Suggestions on how to hit all of the highlights?

[1-2-3-kiddos for me]

We leave next week for a 4 day 3 night stay at the Yacht Club. We have 2 day Park Hopper passes. I was planning on Thursday and Friday for park days. Kids are 11, 8, & 6. The 8 year old hates rides. The other two LOVE them. I’ve been to MK & AK but it will be our first time at Epcot and HS. Should we do MK and then Epcot one day and then AK & HS the next? All 4 in one day? A different mix? What is realistically doable? Last time we took a midday break back at the pool and went back for parades/fireworks. I want to do that again. I’m just not a great planner (as in I just booked this trip yesterday!!).

 

[Remy is Up]

Based on EMH hours, I would do Epcot EMH Thursday and then close the day With Studios and do MK EMH Friday and close the day with AK. Using Refresh, you can pick up Fps for the afternoon parks. Ill say this though, youll need to temper your expectations because using refresh later in the day it is harder to pull tier 1 stuff. So you may want to decide which parks you feel offer the best return for ride time and do those in the morning at RD or using EMH. We only do 3-4 hour park/ break/ dinner and park evening on any given day but we also all know how to manage refresh and max it out. Again, will all depend on what you want to accomplish in each park. a half day in each park isnt a lot without understanding Refresh and FPs. Especially first time visits. Decide your priorities and just have fun.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

I'd rope drop at one park and then hop to another with my FP+ at the second park. With that, you go and do as many headliners as you can at rope drop and then hop over to the 2nd park and do your headliners with your FP's. I'd look at park hours closely and see where you can hop to get the best bang for your passes. Just a thought, what is the price difference between 2 day hoppers and 4 day passes? Unless you don't want to go to the parks on all 4 days of your stay? That would solve a lot of your issues and the cost difference may not be as much as you think as the cost of adding hoppers to a 2 day ticket is pricey unto itself.

 

[1-2-3-kiddos for me]

Thanks for the replies! You both added stuff I didn’t think of. We only bought 2 days of passes due to wanting to spend a lot of time at the pool (hence the more expensive hotel) because we don’t swim a lot where we live. I know my kids will want to hang out there a lot once they see it.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

If that is the case, really look at the EMH times and take advantage of them. We have went to MK in the evening and have literally done half the park in 2-3 hours with no waits, taking advantage of FP+ where we can. Rope drop is key, you are going to have to get going if you want to make your plan work on your 2 park days. It is possible and I'd play around with how FP+ will help you too, as it may determine which park you go to along with park hours and EMH. It may even be worth it on your two park days to do a Minnie Van or Uber/Lyft/Cab to get to the next park to save time. My last hint, don't do table service meals that day, they eat up a lot of time that you need to have for touring. Think quick breaks, but don't let them linger on. Finally, the weather could change your plans in an heartbeat. If anything, if you see weather coming, use it as your transportation time to get to another park. If that is the case, at least the weather will chase people out earlier than they would have usually stayed.

 

[Nick6300]

There are good suggestions here. We tend to pair MK with EP because of being able to take the monorail between these 2 parks. Anywhere but between MK and EP you can take a bus from park to park. I'm not sure it always saves time vs. taking a bus between parks, but at the very least, we like riding the monorail a few times per trip, something that we associate with being at WDW. And with that, I would go to EP in the am to rope drop the 3 main attractions, round out the other few Future World attractions, walk around World Showcase, eat lunch, then head to MK in the afternoon. While rope drop is more effective at MK with its many attractions in close proximity (esp. Fri am with EMH - early), with only 2 park days... I'd want to finish at MK so you can experience Happily Ever After fireworks. You can allocate more time towards MK though by leaving EP right after lunch or earlier in the afternoon since there is a lot more to do at MK.

Hence on Thurs., I'd try rope drop AK which would have EMH early and finish at HS. And if you're not going after Flight of Passage because of your kids there'd be less pressure to show up the standard 1.5 hrs before AK opening, which happens to be 7am with EMH for your stay. That's pretty early. You could either start at river journey first or Safari with minimal waiting. You'd have to plan the shows (Nemo, Lion King, and the bird show) in order to get to them early enough to leave for HS at a decent time and probably have to skip some of the AK/HS shows.

When we were taking just Sat single day trips, we always went to either AK or HS first followed by EP in the afternoon, monorail to MK at night... and got to all of the main attractions. But we also don't have kids yet and run everywhere. We once ran into a guy who was trying to be 7th person, at the time, to hit all of the WDW rides (excluding shows) in 1 day. He was rope dropping Slinky Dog on an early HS day and I think he was finishing at MK.