Originally Posted By Moon Waffle Hi everyone, I'm a regular DLR visitor (at least one or two multi-day trips/year since I was a 7 years old). Now I have a family of my own and this year we've decided to take our first trip ever to WDW during the last week of September. We will have 7 full vacation days in Florida. Our priorities would be first: the 4 Disney Theme Parks and Universal IOA, second, the 2 Disney water parks, third Universal Studios/Sea World/Busch Gardens. I realize we likely won't make it to all of these which is why I have prioritized. I am curious how much time we need at each park and how much we could reasonably get done in 7 days. We generally vision DLR for 5-7 days and like to go, go, go, so we would not plan any days to rest while at WDW. Also, we'll be there Sunday through Saturday. Any "best days" to hit certain parks on our itinerary? Thanks ahead of time for the help!
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Generally speaking it takes 2 days to see most if not all of the Magic Kingdom. EPCOT is definately a 2 day park. DHS can be done in one day. DAK is a one day park also. My advise is to spend one day at each park then decide which parks you want to visit again. Please also check the hours that each park stays open because they varry. The World Showcase in EPCOT ( it's the areas with all the different pavillions from various countries in the back of the park) doesn't open till 11 AM. So if you get to EPCOT first thing in the morning and expect to hit the World Showcase you can not enter that area till 11 AM as it is closed. We WDW diehards can easily do 1-2 parks in a day since we have all been on the rides/ attractions millions of times ( literally). So don't be intimidated by us. My advise is take your time. Don't feel like you have to see each and every ride/ attraction in each park because your just not going to be able to do that and you will be all bummed out if a specific ride is closed. You always want to keep in your mind you can always return. September is going to be fairly hot so I would advise drinking lots of water to keep hydrated. Oh and pack comfortable sneakers or shoes.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Touringplans.com has crowd calendars for, I think, $10 a year. That's your very best resource for what days are most crowded. They are the people who put out the Unofficial Guides to Walt Disney World. I'm a seasoned WDW visitor and I still consult it. I am planning our first non-Disney trip to Central Florida myself so don't know how many days you will need for the Universal and Sea World parks. I got us 3 day passes to Uni and have a Platinum Passport for the Sea World parks. There is so much to do that I would have a very difficult time trying to more than WDW on a first trip myself. One major way WDW differs from DLR is sheer size. Where you can park hop in a few short minutes in California, it can take you up to an hour in Florida. Magic Kingdom has fewer attractions than Disneyland, but can still be a full day park, EPCOT is a 2 day park, Animal Kingdom can be a 1/2 to 3/4 day park if you don't do the shows or animal trails, Hollywood Studios is a 1/2 to 3/4 day park. The longest line there is Toy Story. The line is more highly themed than DCA's but the ride is the same, so you can skip it if the line is too huge. Let me know if you have specific questions.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb For a DLR regular my recommended skips (unless you have extra time) and don't miss attractions. Magic Kingdom Skip: Space Mountain, Pirates, Stitch, Aladdin's Carpets, and everything in Fantasyland except Snow White, Pooh and Philharmagic. MK Don't miss: Hall of Presidents and Philharmagic. I also like Swiss Family Tree House and both Jungle Cruise and HM are different enough to be woth a visit. EPCOT skip: Soarin' is exactly the same at DCA and has the longest line in the park. There isn't any real don't miss attractions but everything is worth a visit, even Journey into Imagination because the line is always short. Animal Kingdom skip: Anything in the Chester and Hester area. Don't miss: The Safari or Everest. Dinosaur is similar, but not as visually interesting as Indy, I would only ride if the line isn't long. Hollywood Studios skip: Toy Story and Muppets are the same at DCA. The Backstage Tour is pretty pathetic too. Don't miss the Rockin' Roller Coater, Tower of Terror or The Great Movie Ride.
Originally Posted By gardenrooms Deb's list is great. I will say, if you like TSMM, the nice thing about WDW is you can get fastpasses. (And the line is cute.) And I would strongly recommend "The Unofficial Guide to WDW" which has had some great suggestions for each of my all too few trips to WDW, including info on crowds that has proved to be pretty reliable, plus a lot of other great tidbits, too, that I'm sure people here could answer but you might not think to ask. I am also a go-go-go person but as I have only gotten to go to WDW 3 or 4 times, it still takes me 10 days (repeating my favorite parks) do do everything I want to do at WDW with only 1 water park (we've only gone to Blizzard Beach, which is very cleverly themed) and Universal/IOA (pre-HP). Don't know what the weather is like in Sept. (we've gone in August - phew!), but if it is still the rainy season, be sure at Universal to go on the tall rides before the thunder and lightening comes in or you may have an impossibly long wait. Have a wonderful time. WDW is great fun!
Originally Posted By WDWdreamin I've only been to WDW once, DLR regular here too. I think Deb's info is great and my favorite resource is the Unofficial Guide. We went in October and thought it was too hot, so good luck with the weather. For us, two adults, we thought DHS and MK were one day parks easily. (Ooh, don't miss Splash either). EPCOT was definitely two days. We went to AK two days but one would be plenty for most people. We went to NASA one day for DH (I would've done IOA). I can't imagine fitting in more than that in 7 days although it would leave one day for maybe a water park? Sounds exhausting to me. Have fun!
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle Thanks so much for your comments everyone. I am starting to get (I think) a bit better feel for what I want to do. Let me run another scenario by you and tell me if this is do-able: 1 day at each of the 4 Disney Parks, 1 day at one of the water parks, and 1 day at IOA. That's 6 days total, leaving one "floater" day for whatever park I feel like I need to see more of (sounds like EPCOT is the one or possibly IOA?) Does that sound feasible? Will I be frustrated I'm missing too much, even if I skip the cloned DLR rides?
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb It's feasible, and you won't be too frustrated if you know you can't possibly do it all and make peace with that. Consider going to the water park in the middle of a long park day. Blizzard Beach is very close to AK. I have done AK in the AM, bringing swim gear, hopped to Blizzard Beach then finished the day at EPCOT. That works pretty well, especially if you are staying on property and can take advantage of evening Extra Magic hous at EPCOT.
Originally Posted By WDWdreamin We felt that we maximized time by not park hopping. The travel times are overwhelming. But I can see the attractions of that plan.
Originally Posted By goodgirl I won a trip to WDW earlier this year. Based on the advice in these threads and the Unofficial Guide to WDW and the things I knew I wanted to do I made a list of the attractions I definitely wanted to do in each park. I printed a small list for each park and sized them so they fit easily in my pocket. I was surprised when we walked into a park and didn't know where to go. LOL! A park map and my list got us moving. Get there at rope drop and hit the most popular attraction first. Get the touring plan app like Deb suggested! It is truly awesome.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby <<We felt that we maximized time by not park hopping. The travel times are overwhelming.>> Strongly agree with this approach. Hopping at DL is fun and easy. Hopping at WDW is a near-ordeal for this DL regular (except perhaps between MK and Epcot).
Originally Posted By DyGDisney We are also regular DLR guests and went to WDW last year for the first time. As others have said, I would avoid park hopping. Check out the WDW website and look at the days when they have early morning, or evening extended hours, then AVOID the parks with those hours on the days they have them! It makes the park so much more crowded because people don't do as much park hopping. We spent 1 1/2 days at EPCOT, but I would have preferred 2. At least 1 day at MK is appropriate. A full day at DAK for sure as well. When we went, DAK closed at 6:00, which was nice because my kids swam at the resort that night. We only spent 1/2 day at HS, but it was really only enough to see half the park. We also went to IOA, and spent most of the day in WWOHP! You may be able to sneak in a day at a water park, but if I could go back and add an extra day, I would love to check out some of the resorts.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Also, I bought a WDW planner. It was called PassPorter's Walt Disney World. You can get it from Amazon or a large bookstore. It's great because is has descriptions for all of the rides, plus ratings for them. Lastly, I wouldn't necessarily avoid rides they have at DLR because, for the most part, they aren't exact clones. Peter Pan and Space Mtn were not near as good as Disneyland, so you could probably skip those. But Jungle Cruise to me is a must do, as well as Snow White, Splash Mtn., TOT.
Originally Posted By goodgirl Haunted Mansion is good too. Slightly different. I wish we would have done it twice. Winne the Pooh. Don't laugh. Ursula had advise me to go on this and she was right: this is how they should have done Disneylands.
