Originally Posted By darcy-becker We will be at WDW for five days. Which park would you recommend visiting twice? We will not be getting park hoppers. We have been to Disneyland several times but never WDW. It will be me age 35, my Mom age 70 and my niece age 12. Also I noticed that somedays one park will have morning extra hours and another evening. Which is better?
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 I really enjoy Epcot. Some people think that it is an adult park but I bet your 12 year old niece will enjoy it.
Originally Posted By RockyMtnMinnie I would spend two days at Epcot. You can't really appreciate it in just one day. There's too much to linger over and enjoy.
Originally Posted By RockyMtnMinnie I prefer the extra morning hours. There seems to be fewer people. Evening extra hours seem to be pretty crowded. It's nice to have the parkhop option so you can go to the extra morning hours and then hop from that park to another because the extra hour park will usually get more crowded that day.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Add me as another who says go for Epcot. We have spent 4 days here before and still not particiapted in everything we would have liked to.
Originally Posted By Mr X Epcot, definitely (though I would also recommend maxing out your Animal Kingdom day by showing up early and staying til closing which is usually pretty early...a good night to enjoy downtown Disney or some other nighttime destination if you wish).
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Great advice from Mr X there. DAK is pretty awesome, and the animals are most active 1st thing in the morning. Prioritise them, then the other attractions later in the day.
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun I'd also say EPCOT for 2 days and get to DAK as they open. FP KS as soon as you get in. That line just seems so long. EE doesn't seem as bad as there is alot of stuff to see in the line area. AK usually closes early so that is a good evening to check out DTD or just relax by the pool.
Originally Posted By DOGWITKEYS hi Darcy, The first thing you are going to want to do is add the park hopper option, simply because this is your first trip to WDW and you are doing it in five days, this is not disneyland. You are going to want the option of hitting a theme park first thing in the morning, and taking advantage of the evening extra magic hours in another theme park at night. Since the youngest member of your party is 12, you can probably tackle the magic kingdom in one day; there are a couple of attractions that MK has that disney land does not; Stitch's Great Escape, Monsters INC laugh floor comedy club, Mickey's philharmagic 3d show, tiki room under new management, ect. Animal kingdom you can do in one day, make sure you take time to see the animals, there is the maharajah jungle trek tucked neatly away in ASIA where you can see komondo dragons, tigers, and fruit bats, you cannot see these animals on the safari, there is also the pangini exploration trail where you can see exotic birds and gorillas. As far as the attractions your best bet is to get there at park opening, head towards the right and follow the crowd, at the tree of life there will be a rope and there will be an opening show featuring classic Disney characters. Once that's over follow the crowd to the right towards the giant snow-capped mountain 'Expedition Everest'. Grab a fast pass for that and head back to Africa, ride the kilimanjaro Safari's, as some of the other's said, the most animals are always out early in the morning. When thats over, if it is not time for everest yeat, head to dinoland and ride dinosaur and then primeval whirl (crazy mouse coaster) if you want to. Then go to Everest, next to that is Kali River Rapids, you will get soaked. Have a times guide, the 2 NOT-TO-MISS shows are festival of the lion king in camp minnie-Mickey and the Finding Nemo Musical in dino land. One of the last things you could do is watch its tough to be a bug inside the tree of life (same film as the one in california adventure, but a much cooler theatre). They have two sit down restaurants. Yak and Yeti which is very decent chinese food and Tusker house restaurant which is buffet, they offer a character breakfast with donald and at lunch they serve the food form 'BOMA' at the animal kingdom lodge, there parade is at 4:00. The disney Hollywood studios is a great park with two thrill rides and a bunch of dining options. If you get there when the park is open your best is to run to toy story mania, ride it and then go and grab a fastpass for rock and rolla coaster and then ride tower of terror. After that there are a bunch a other atttactions and shows which are similar to the ones in california. Muppets 3D, STAR TOURS, Voyage of the little mermaid stage show, the indiana jones stunt show, the great movie ride (don't miss it!) and the backlot studio tour (you could miss it! unless you really like Michael Bay!). At night thery have Fantasmic, the one in california is better, but this one has stadium seating!!! There fine dining is hollywood and vine, its really nice and the cobb salad is amazing. They also have the sci-fi drive-in and the 50's prime-time cafe which both have great themeing, then there is the HOLLYWOOD AND VINE buffet and Mama Melrose's Italian. Atlast there is Epcot, and I agree with everyone with saying that this is a 2 day park. simply because you have future world and the world showcase with the countries. If you are going between the end of September and the first week of November there is the food and wine festival at which you can sample food and drinks from over 20 countries and visit very interesting seminars. I f you get here first thing, the first thing you want to do is bear right and get to soarin (same movie form california) and ride it. When you are done, go across to test track and grab a fast pass, next top that is mission space (space flight simulation) there are two versions of this attraction, GREEN AND ORANGE the green version is calmer because it does not spin. depending on what time your test track fastpass is for you will have time to do the imagination pavillion with figment, HISTA, the seas with nemo and friends, turtle talk with crush, living with the lando boatride (see how disney grows its own vegetables, circle of life with timon and pumbaa, and if you are tired and want to nap, ELLENS ENERGY ADVENTURE, THIS ATTRACTION IS 45 MINUTES LONG. In world show case you have two rides, Maelstom, an exciting boat ride in Norway where you see trolls, and in Mexico you have a not-so-exciting boat ride where you see Donald. There are films in Canada, china, and France. And in America there is a show similar to Hall of presidents. At night there is ILLUMINATIONS. Dont miss it, it is at the world showcase lagoon every night at 9PM. Also Diney offers two water parks, downtown disney, minature golf, and much more. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Jon
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun I would disagree with the need for park hopping. On you first trip to WDW there is enough to see and do without worrying about changing parks. You can still leave, relax at you hotel for a while and return to the same park w/o a hopper (at least I believe you can). If after a day or 2 you decide it would be helpful, you can go to guest services and add it on to your remaining days. We almost always end up with hopper passes and rarely use it - next time we probably won't get them. Yes, it can be worth it, but it can also be an unnecesary expense.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 For a newbie, DOGWITKEYS has a great amount of info, were you previously someone else?
Originally Posted By DOGWITKEYS "There fine dining is hollywood and vine, its really nice and the cobb salad is amazing." I meant to say Hollywood Brown Derby, sorry! Jon
Originally Posted By Disney Joy DOGWITKEYS Thanks for sharing good tips. I have not been to the world since 98. This really helps. :O))
Originally Posted By finallygoing I've done WDW with and without park hoppers. One thing that people forget is that park hopping is exhausting. Since you pay so much for it, you force yourself to use it, even if you don't feel like it. Since this is your first time to WDW I wouldn't advise it. Relax and see what there is to see in each park...and it's a lot. Many a time we have gone back to our hotel room with the idea we were going to go use our park hopper and go to a different park in the evening. But we ended up staying relaxing at the pool for the rest of the night, going to a dinner show for the evening,or just falling asleep. Park hoppers are great for people who have been to the parks before and know exactly what they want to see and don't want to see. That's not you. In fact, I think your biggest problem is that you have people of three different age groups in your party. I'm sure your 12 year old feels it's worth an hour to stand in line for Expedition Everest, while your 70 year old would rather spend the day at World Showcase. These at things you should decide on before you get there. Bottom line, I think there's so much to do in each park, the park hopper isn't needed.
Originally Posted By judyf DOGWITKEYS I love the tour plans you posted. I have been to the parks several times since 1995 and I also do NOT suggest getting park hoppers. I did not add them to our tickets for Dec/Jan. I agree there's just so m uch to do in each park there's no need to waste time hopping from one park to another, which you will find out very quickly that it takes much longer then at DL. We are there the busiest week on the year and we have 6 days at Disney I plan to do Epcot 2 days and MK 2 days. If I had 5 days I would do either one 2 days depending what park you didn't get to do all the things you wanted to do. Another tip, due to AK closing early plan this park half way through like day 3 or 4 to break up the really long days, and it's a great day to go visit downtown Disney. Hope this helps.
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun Readin through this thread again I realized that although we usually get PH tix, we only use them the last 2 or 3 days. The first time we hit each park we savor and enjoy everything. The 2nd day, later in the vacation, we tend to hit what we love in one park during the am and in a different park in the pm. Can you get tix w/o the PH and after 4 or 5 days add the PH option onto your remaining days?
