Which parks for 2 days?

[goodeats]

We are West Coast Disneyland fans and my family will make their first visit next August. I've been to the World six times, but the rest of my family has never been. We will be staying 8 nights at WL and tentatively will have 6 day non-hoppers plus one day at a waterpark. My DH will want to take it "easy" and not go rope drop to close, plus I think the humidity will take its toll.

My first thought is we will visit all 4 parks and then revisit MK and Epcot. But now I'm not sure. The PH makes this decision easier, but saving $280 is appealing plus FP+ makes park hopping less desirable. I'm pretty sure there will be enough to do for us at MK that we will want two days even though there are a lot of DL repeats. Epcot is so big, but there seems to be more attractions at AK that appeal to my 6 and 9 yo. I can see my girls not loving World Showcase, but maybe they will?

I know I have a long time to plan, but I just booked and am excited. Lol. So any thoughts?

 

[Realfoodfans]

We didn't enjoy Epcot today - I'm putting that down to F&W festival - heavy crowds - didn't like the smell of food all the way round - didn't like the drinkers - totally spoilt the lovely country areas we've enjoyed in the past. I think we'll give it a miss if we are on our own but DGD loved FEA and the Character Spot, Nemo, Turtle so your little ones would probably enjoy those too!

 

[srwarden1928]

I think planning two days at MK and Epcot, one day at HS and AK makes sense. Of course once you are there, if you finish Epcot in one day and want more AK time you can adjust that then.

 

[Hopefully]

We didn't enjoy Epcot today - I'm putting that down to F&W festival - heavy crowds - didn't like the smell of food all the way round - didn't like the drinkers - totally spoilt the lovely country areas we've enjoyed in the past. I think we'll give it a miss if we are on our own but DGD loved FEA and the Character Spot, Nemo, Turtle so your little ones would probably enjoy those too!

As with everything, different strokes for different folks.
We totally enjoyed Epcot today. I loved the sparkling, crisp clear weather. I love the various food aromas. There were crowds but the food lines at the booths were not backed up at all. The only person who I felt had too much to drink was a young lady IN the Rose And CrownPub. For us, it was a wonderful day.

 

[kat.tolle]

We are also Disneyland/West Coast people. We are planning on 1 day at MK (because of it's similarity to Disneyland) and 1 day at DHS. We will do 2 days at EPCOT & AK. We have people in our party who will not have park hopper tickets so we also want to be very thoughtful about how we spend our days.

 

[TG_WDW]

You could just play it by ear. Go to all 4 in the first 4 days of your stay then let the group help decide which to revisit with the other 2 days. one will inevitably be MK, but they may want more AK or HS rather than Epcot. That's how I'd do it

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

The two parks that are unlike anything you have at Disneyland...EPCOT and Animal Kingdom of course!

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

From most to do to least to do: MK ---> EPCOT ----> AK -------> HS

 

[Hawkeyejedi]

As a Disneyland family, my kids always want to spend more time at AK and Epcot, because they are less familiar than MK and HS. The one caveat is they don't like character meets so that doesn't play into their favorite parks. So I would try and be flexible with my last 2 days.

 

[Rowlf the Dog]

Another vote for AK. Also without the rides (I love EE) there is so much to do and discover
Keep in mind, that at the time of your visit Toystory-Land at HS is perhaps already open. If this appeals to your kids perhaps it's worth a second day. Or you decide to take the Hoppers and use at least for a split day with EP and DHS.
I usually enjoy on my last full day visiting all 4 parks and reride my favourites (mostly the thrill rides).

 

[LSUfan4444]

The PH makes this decision easier,

There is no question about it..PH's make planning much easier and offers alot more flexibility and FP+ makes park hopping even easier. Whetehr you tart your morning in one park without FP+ and hop to a park later in the day and then use your FP+ OR line them up at Magic Kingdom from 9-10, 10-11 and 11-12 and book as many as you can after that you can find a strategy that works but keeps you flexible. Well worth the money IMO. Id downgrade my resort from WL before I considered not getting hoppers.

Thats being said, the world showcase has things for the kids to do (activities, meet and greets) but it is not designed for them. Alot of walking, very few "rides", etc. Our 7 year old enjoys it but if I gave her the option of a night there or a night at another park she would probably prefer another park. At that age with no previous trips to Disney World Id probably opt for another trip to Magic Kingdom. To us, Epcot is at best two 1/2 day parks. We will do one half day in world showcase and one half day in future world and thats it. We can almost do the same at Hollywood Studios....we love the attractions there but there arent that many.

If I didnt have hoppers and had to pick two parks I'd pick Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.

 

[goodeats]

I've only been to Disney once with FP + and we didn't need any additional fastpasses, so I don't know how many same day fast passes are available. So if you start in one park and use your 3 fastpasses you can use the app to get additional fastpasses in another park (or the same park)? We have been to DL before where my DH has been done by 2pm (and we spent $500 for his family to go with us!) so I can see him not wanting to hop to another park. $280 pays for a lot of mickey bars!

I think I'm too much of a planner to wait to pick which park later in the trip. I will have to research. We will see how hard a FOP FP is to get by next June. I'm kind of leaning toward AK, since we won't be doing Soarin or Mission Space at Epcot. We'll just do a full Epcot day that day.

 

[KenHutch]

Do they still do the passport thing at Epcot? My daughter did that for many years gettong stamps from each land. Then she discovered shopping ( around 9 ) and now Epcot is her favorite park for another reason.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'm a very frequent WDW visitor who went to DL a few years ago and was really surprised at how different the rides were, so, though you think you will be doing repeats - you really won't!

My advice, do one park per day for the first 4 days. I would do MK, EP, DHS, then AK (so you have the best shot at a FoP FP+). When making your FP+, take your best guess on where you would like to go those last 2 days and book FP+ for those parks. If after 4 days you find you want to revisit different parks, simply change your FP+ to the parks you actually want to visit. You may not get the most hard-to-get FP+ at that point, but, if you've spent full days in all of the parks prior to that, you probably won't need them.

 

[hllb]

We will also have 6 day PH tickets. Our plan is 2 days at MK (though I don't think the second will be a full day - we usually finish up early afternoon on the second day). One day at all the other parks. Our last day will be split between AK in the am (hoping to have FPs that last day) and probably EP in the afternoon. The afternoon will be up to the kids though so whatever they want to do again, we'll do. We also plan on leaving a couple of hours early for our dinner reservation and do some stuff at Fort Wilderness.

 

[DisneyFive]

Absolutely two days at MK.

...and I don't see a need for PH.

Perhaps you can leave the other "which park?" day open. After you've you've visited all four parks during your stay, then decide which one you'll want to go back to again.

Dan

 

[Owl X]

I recommend getting Park Hoppers so you have the option to go to a different park in a day.
Epcot, AK and DHS have their FP+ attractions divided into Tiers. You can only book one Tier 1 FP+ per day.
You may need 2 partial days at Epcot & Animal Kingdom just for the Tier 1 FP+ attractions.
DHS also has 2 night shows that you may want to see.

Example for a 6 day trip:

• Day 1: Epcot morning T1 FP+ (Frozen), DHS evening (Star Wars Galactic Spectacular)
• Day 2: MK morning, Epcot evening FP+ (Soarin or Test Track) & Illuminations
  
• Day 3: AK morning T1 FP+ (Flight of Passage), Magic Kingdom evening
• Day 4: MK morning, AK evening T1 FP+ (Na'vi River Journey) + Rivers of Light
  
• Day 5: MK morning, DHS evening T1 FP+ (TSMM or RRCA) & Fantasmic
• Day 6: Park Hop to catch any missed rides

 

[Shellyb84]

Do they still do the passport thing at Epcot? My daughter did that for many years gettong stamps from each land. Then she discovered shopping ( around 9 ) and now Epcot is her favorite park for another reason.

They do.

Ugh DD8 drags us around to all the stores too - she'll spend forever in the shops in China and Japan.

 

[DisneyFive]

I see almost NO reason for park hoppers in this case. The OP already plans a full day at each park, which makes total sense given that the rest of the family are first timers. The first time to ANY park will fill a day completely. The OP also plans to hit MK for one of the two remaining days, which IMO is a great call. MK has SO many attractions that a first timer will easily spend two days there and not do it all, let alone repeat their favorites.

This leaves ONE day that the park hoppers could be used on.

Is it worth $280 for the OP to get two parks in on that day? Everyone is different, but for us, absolutely not! There are drawbacks to park hopping too. It takes time to leave the park, wait for the bus, and enter the other park and can break up the flow of your day at a park.

Dan

 

[goodeats]

Yes, this was my thought process too DisneyFive.