# of days at each park??

[seasidespences]

First let me preface this thread by saying that I realize you can never see it all on one trip...there will be many more magical visits in our future, I hope!

We are taking our first "real" family trip soon, staying on site for 9 days. Not planing at this point to do the park hoppers (although that may change). Our family consists of myself, DH, DD8, and DS6.

For the first five days we already know that we wil be going to HS, MK, AK, EP and HK again, probably in that order. We also know that we are going to spend our last day at MK. With that said, what do you think we should plan to do on the other days? Which parks would you return to and why?

Also, we want to fit in a visit to both DTD and the boardwalk but I'm thinking that we could do those in one afternoon/evening each. What are your thoughts on this? Do we need to plan more than one afternoon or evening at each?

I realize everyone vacations differently so I welcome varied responses here.

As a side note..the main reason I'm trying to figure all of this out is b/c we are going to do the dining plan and I want to go ahead and make a plan as to where we will be each day so that my reservation plans make sense.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Skip2MyLou]

I think your plan sounds good already, and leaving a few open days for some spontaneity.

Our last trip was 9 days, which I thought was perfect amount of time for us. We had my 3 yr old DD and 5 yr old niece.

I did 3 MK days, 2 Epcot Days, 1 day each for AK & HS. That left 2 days open and we let the girls decide what to do. We did some resort hopping one day along with DTD and had a pool day. It was nice to have a small break in the middle of all those busy days.

You may not NEED 3 MK days. We did because DD was still napping, so our touring plans were slower than yours might be.

 

[Kellykins1218]

1/2 day Epcot
1/2 day AK
1 day HS
7 days MK

 

[FiggieFan]

Looks good. You can easily fit the Boardwalk in - it is a quick walk from both HS and Epcot so it would probably be best to slide over from one of those parks. From Epcot, you leave through the International Gate instead of the front gate. I really don't see the need for more than one day in either HS or AK. We hit AK a few times with park hopper passes but only to redo the rapids ride and dinosaur ride (which can be a bit too much for some kids). You are right - this is our fifth trip and we still haven't seen it all!

 

[SolitaryPhoenix]

I'd definitely say a day each for AK and HS (I love AK, so I could wander around for awhile! ), 2 days for Epcot; to really see Future World and World Showcase, a day for each. 2 days for Magic Kingdom (when I can, I love beginning and ending my vacations at MK too!). Boardwalk, DTD, pool time, and do some of the 'free' things like resort hopping and taking the monorail and boats. Nine days should be perfect! You'll have a great time this stay and many more!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Do each park once, and decide the rest after you've done that. The park you assume will be your favorite may not be. The park you assume will be your least favorite may be the one you end up loving the most.

 

[jennykay]

Yay! Your kids are at great ages for a first trip!
My first recommendation is to look at a crowd calendar to choose which park for which day. I found easywdw to be spot on and being in the less crowded park really makes my vacay better.
For my family, we like to schedule a down day, and maybe a half day as well. My kids love to swim, but on our park days we don't have much time or energy for it. So on our down day we swim, relax, maybe hit dtd or play mini-golf. When we did a half day, we swam all morning then went to the park for lunch and stayed until it closed.
My kids' favorite parks are mk and epcot. We can never get through all of epcot in one trip, even though we spend 2 days there every time. But all kids are different, so ymmv.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We have a 9-night trip coming up in June. We're planning 2 days for MK, Epcot, and DHS, one day for AK, one full day for a water park, and the other day is open. It will probably be Epcot, but we'll see. We do Downtown Disney in the evenings, and we will be able to go on our departure day if we want.

 

[DisNikki]

We're planning a 10 night trip in May/June. At the moment we're planning basically 3 MK days, 2 EP days, 2 HS days, 1 AK, 1 Typhoon Lagoon. we're still undecided on a few days so that's why it's not adding up to 11 We might decide ahead of time or we might let the boys take the lead those days...who knows. It is nice to have some time that's not so scheduled!

We generally prefer to park hop and do one park at rope drop until early afternoon, go back to the resort and rest/swim for a couple hours, and then return to a different park for the evening. So those numbers above are really two full days plus two 1/2 days at MK (I'm a sucker for the opening show), one full day plus two 1/2 days at EP, etc. This is our first time staying on site with kids so we'll do morning EMH when possible, then switch to another park in the afternoon. We mostly use the recommended parks (using touringplans.com but also consulting others...) for the afternoon parks. Though I should also say that our park choice is occasionally dictated by a meal we want to have. I know...you shouldn't plan a vacation around the restaurant but the way WDW works it makes it hard NOT to! Oh and our kids love Phineas and Ferb and want to do all the countries (we did KimPossible but this will be the first time with Agent P) so spending a couple of afternoons at EP makes sense for us. Since World Showcase doesn't open until 11 that means we can spend those mornings at other parks doing the headliners

I think your plan sounds good so far but I just wanted to point out that once you have a general idea of the ADRs you want to make you should do the math on the dining plan. See this thread for a great spreadsheet that helps you see if it's cost effective for your family and your plan: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3050182 . My DH was set on the dining plan until we actually did the math. If pre-payment is the draw then gift cards are the way to go! I know it sounds like I'm trying to talk you out of the DDP but I'm really just encouraging you to be sure it's right for you!

Have a great trip!

 

[ErinsMommy]

We're also going for 9 days and have this layout:

Day 1: HS
Day 2: Epcot
Day 3: MK
Day 4: Pool Day & HS
Day 5: MK
Day 6: Pool Day
Day 7: AK + DTD at nite
Day 8: Pool Day & MK
Day 9: MK

 

[seasidespences]

First I want to thank everyone for all of their responses...all of you have some really great points for us to consider. We will probably def do two says at HS, even if we only need one to cover it all b/c DH and DS are such Star Wars fans (will be doing JTA for sure)! I'm thinking that y'all are right in that we'll need to at least add one more Epcot day.
Otherwise I'm sure we'll probably leave the other days just open so we can do as we please. For those days I'm thinking I'll make my ADRs at a non-park restaurant. Will probably also take advantage of the early AM EMHs and then rotate back to the hotel/pool in the early afternoon.
If there are anymore suggestions...keep 'em comin!!

 

[JustMeFran]

We did 8 days in January- No park Hoppers, allowed us to stay an extra day money wise!
Day 1 Arrivial day - 1/2 day @ EPCOT
Day 2- MK
Day 3- HS
Day 4 - EPCOT
Day 5 - MK
Day 6 - AK
Day 7 - EPCOT
Day 8 - MK
Day 9 - fly home @ noon, no park

 

[seasidespences]

We're planning a 10 night trip in May/June. At the moment we're planning basically 3 MK days, 2 EP days, 2 HS days, 1 AK, 1 Typhoon Lagoon. we're still undecided on a few days so that's why it's not adding up to 11 We might decide ahead of time or we might let the boys take the lead those days...who knows. It is nice to have some time that's not so scheduled!

We generally prefer to park hop and do one park at rope drop until early afternoon, go back to the resort and rest/swim for a couple hours, and then return to a different park for the evening. So those numbers above are really two full days plus two 1/2 days at MK (I'm a sucker for the opening show), one full day plus two 1/2 days at EP, etc. This is our first time staying on site with kids so we'll do morning EMH when possible, then switch to another park in the afternoon. We mostly use the recommended parks (using touringplans.com but also consulting others...) for the afternoon parks. Though I should also say that our park choice is occasionally dictated by a meal we want to have. I know...you shouldn't plan a vacation around the restaurant but the way WDW works it makes it hard NOT to! Oh and our kids love Phineas and Ferb and want to do all the countries (we did KimPossible but this will be the first time with Agent P) so spending a couple of afternoons at EP makes sense for us. Since World Showcase doesn't open until 11 that means we can spend those mornings at other parks doing the headliners

I think your plan sounds good so far but I just wanted to point out that once you have a general idea of the ADRs you want to make you should do the math on the dining plan. See this thread for a great spreadsheet that helps you see if it's cost effective for your family and your plan: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3050182 . My DH was set on the dining plan until we actually did the math. If pre-payment is the draw then gift cards are the way to go! I know it sounds like I'm trying to talk you out of the DDP but I'm really just encouraging you to be sure it's right for you!

Have a great trip!

I just saw this calculator the other day and have been meaning to try it out! I'm not sure it'll sway us from the DP but I do really want to play around with it!

The main reason we are set on the DP (and toying w/the idea of the DxDP) is that we prefer to pay ahead and just enjoy it once we are there.

I'm sure we'd save $ if we just planned to pay OOP or did gift cards but there's something desirable about the dining plan to us...with it being pre-paid and all taken care of.

Plus we tend to want to splurge and eat a little heavier when on vacation and with the DP we feel like we will be more at liberty to do that. Our poor pants...we'll probably have to go up a size temporarily!

 

[Dr Ken]

We're planning 8 days as follows: MK, AK, HS, TL, AK, EP, BB, MK. We specifically planned two water park days to break up the theme park days. (6 days + water parks tickets are cheaper than 8 days without them.) We have two AK days but only because it closes early. On the other days we always plan down-time at our hotel in the afternoon (pool, nap, read, etc). Then, we return to the park in the evening (except AK). As others have said it's nice to start and end with MK.

I've seen way too many tired unhappy kids whose parents rush them from one activity to another. When my oldest was 2, he spent more than an hour jumping off a one-foot wall in Frontierland. He'd climb up, jump off, then climb up again. We abandoned our plans and just sat and watched him. For years, we'd tell our friends that his favorite attraction was the climbing wall. Of course, they had no idea what we were talking about!

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it's critical to have detailed Disney plans before you get there. But, plans are useless once you get there. Do whatever feels right. Don't be a slave to your plans. There's Plenty to see.

 

[allthingsmickey]

We tend to do at least 1 7-9 day trip a year and do the dining plan. I like to plan at least 1 day in each park and probably 2 at MK. I know on those days I can safely make an ADR in that park. For the remaining days, I tend to make dining reservations at the resort restaurants so that we can change our mind about what park to visit depending on what every one wants to do at that time.

 

[Timandalicia]

Doing each park once and then figuring it out is a great way to go. We do everything we want in 10 days and then some, because we know what we want. For example, we only do 2 half days at Animal Kingdom. That's all we care to do. Plan it all out, then adjust after those first days. I don't think that anyone has ever regretted park hopper, and since you are going so many days, it averages out to be pretty cheap per day.

 

[dlinne]

I know that a lot of people consider AK a 1 day park or even a 1/2 day park. For my family, we ended up needing 2 days at AK. It was my daughter's favorite park (she was 9) and she did all the stamps. Since it closes earlier those days we left at 5pm and did dinner at resort TS restaurants.

 

[SA mom]

The best piece of advice anyone gave me was to go to Epcot first. It is so different from the other parks. I've heard from many families that they didn't go to Epcot until several days into the trip and the kids are disappointed that it isn't like Magic Kingdom.

 

[seasidespences]

The best piece of advice anyone gave me was to go to Epcot first. It is so different from the other parks. I've heard from many families that they didn't go to Epcot until several days into the trip and the kids are disappointed that it isn't like Magic Kingdom.

That's interesting...something to think about for sure!

 

[Rivka]

We're planning 7 days in the park with kids 8 and 4. Here's our plan, in order:

Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
Magic Kingdom
Epcot (sleep in, half day of touring)
Magic Kingdom (morning and evening; afternoon at the pool)

The Unofficial Guide suggests that if you start kids out at the more "educational" parks, they'll like them more. That's partly why we're starting at Epcot.