What makes the most sense for a one-day plan?

[CarrieR]

Hoping someone who likes strategizing wants to help me think this through.

I'm in Orlando for one day next week - I have a conference nearby and tacked a day on to hit the parks. I really just want to spend the evening at MK; my original plan was to either a) do a party or b) do an after-5 conference ticket... but there's no party that night and my conference isn't offering tickets. So, I am doing a one-day hopper instead.

For background:

• Frequent visitor; on-and-off AP holder with lots of park time over the last decade
• Most recent visit 8/2019 (5-days)
• Next visit 8/2020 (10 days)
• Starting the day solo; may have local friend join but will not know until day of. Maybe hour of. LOL.

All of which is to say, there's very little I "need" to do or won't have the opportunity to do in the near future.

Priorities for the day (in order of importance):

• Evening at MK (must-do)
• Ride SSE (must-do)
• Lunch (or dinner) at Satuli (must-do)
• Ride ToT, ideally also TSMM; DHS is the park I feel like I didn't get quite enough time in on the last trip (really like to do, but not 100% must)
• Probably also grab meal/snack at F&G booths
• Ride Dino while at AK... since I have a weird love for it and it seems odd to go just for Satuli

Staying on-site at a bus-only resort.

I don't have any FPs made yet; I'm pretty good at willing whatever I want into existence, and especially since I'm solo for the day, I'm going to assume I can get pretty much whatever between now and then (with the exception of the biggies - MFSR, MMRR, FoP, SDD - which I don't really need to do anyways).

Thinking of this as a plan...

• Rope drop DHS - ride ToT and TSMM. Hoping I can do both without too much difficulty - hit TSMM first? I'm not sure how things look there since my last trip, given the three new rides, but I'm hoping that will draw enough crowds away to hit both of these relatively efficiently at RD. Or is it a terrible idea and I should just attempt to FP those two and hit somewhere else for rope drop?
• I'm torn between popping over to Epcot or going to AK next. Epcot makes sense from a transportation perspective, since I can just ride the Skyliner - I could run up front for SSE and then probably wander the park for a while (may or may not bring my big camera and shutterbug) - probably grab snack/lunch at food booths on the way out. But AK also kinda makes sense since I could do Dino and then grab lunch at Satuli before moving back to Epcot (on the way to MK.)
• Whichever food option I didn't do for lunch I'll do for early dinner before heading to MK.

So... DHS at rope drop or hit something else (which?) and FP ToT/TSMM? Which order for the other two? Where does it make the most sense to use my FPs? (I ride pretty much everything, and will probably just grab whatever FPs are convenient/interesting/available to round out my day. I probably won't wait in anything that's not a super-short standby line.)

Any suggestions/thoughts/feedback appreciated!

 

[sapphirerose915]

What is SSE???
I personally would RD AK and do dino... but since you want satuli for lunch then that wont work

So I guess you kind of have to start at HS
Get your 2 fp for TOT and TSMM. Then get a 3rd throw away if those are only 2 you want to ride. Aee if you can get a 4th FP dino at AK.
From there I would hop on skyliner to Epcot. It drops you off at World Showcase so you can have a few snacks at the booths.

Then maybe walk over to boardwalk and hop on a bus to AK.. fo ride Dino and then have a late lunch at Satuli.
Head out and catch the bus for your evening at MK.
Sounds like an awesome day and totally doable!!
Have fun!!

 

[sapphirerose915]

Duh.. just realized its Spaceship earth..
So only a slight change
Try to get SSE as your 4th FP and ride after doing booths, or go for standby.. then instead of walking to boardwalk resort to catch AK bus, take it from front of Epcot.. then see if you can get dino as a 5th fp.. otherwise I dont think the standby line is THAT long!! Have fun!

 

[JETSDAD]

I'll just add to the above that there's no need for a throwaway FP when park hopping. Just make 1 or 2 for your first park and then add at the 2nd as soon as you tap your first FP.

 

[sapphirerose915]

I'll just add to the above that there's no need for a throwaway FP when park hopping. Just make 1 or 2 for your first park and then add at the 2nd as soon as you tap your first FP.

Nice!! I didnt know that!!!!

 

[CJGamer]

before buying a one day hopper, does it make sense to buy an annual pass because of your later summer trip?

snacking around epcot messes it up (although I'd want to do that as well.) I say that because I think it would work best to book your FP for HS. You can rope drop epcot off the skyliner- and do SSE and one other if you please, then skyliner to HS (maybe grab breakfast in the france bakery first?)
Then do your FP's at HS. From there to AK where you should have been able to grab a FP for dino, eat- and take your time and get to MK whenever you want....
I'm assuming you can bus from HS to AK now? Been a while since I've tried that....

I think the problem is you should want the HS rides to both be fast passes. You can walk on SSE or Dino easier...or grab them after the other. Doing the meals at Epcot and AK makes it not exactly simple- but I agree with your meal choices...

 

[Remy is Up]

Cant take the skyline from studios to epcot walk or boat

 

[eliseisawkward]

I would RD HS, depending on what FP you can get I would RD TSMM over ToT, since that line gets longer faster.
I would then head over to AK. I know the skyliner is tempting because it's easy, but I think being able to do lunch at Satuli would be good and you can probably grab a Dino FP during the day.
Epcot next, for SSE and snacks/whatever else.
End in the day in MK.

I know that's a lot of busses, and you wouldn't use the skyliner or boats or anything, but it's what makes sense to me given your goals.

 

[eliseisawkward]

Cant take the skyline from studios to epcot walk or boat

Would like to point out that you can Skyliner between these two parks. You just switch lines partway through.