Half day at AK or HS?

[SFMommy]

I thought I had our park days planned for our trip over Thanksgiving (Saturday - Sunday). We are spending the first 3 nights at The Poly and the last 5 nights at The Swan. We have 7 park days (Sunday - Saturday) with no hopping.

Sunday and Monday will be at MK because we are staying at The Poly and that is the whole point of staying there.

I thought that we would spend our "half" day (Tuesday afternoon after we transfer from The Poly to The Swan) at HS. I thought we would walk over to HS after lunch and do 3 FP+ and maybe a show or 2. But now that MMRR might not be open, and we still have another full day for HS, I'm wondering if we should spend that afternoon at AK instead.

We already have a full AK day planned for Saturday. But it will be an early EMH (hopefully) and I know that we won't last past 2-3 PM. And we probably won't make it back that night. I've heard that AK is beautiful at night, so now I'm thinking that maybe we should do a late-afternoon at AK on the Tuesday.

Sun - MK
Mon - MK
Tues - HS (afternoon) or AK (evening)
Wed - EP
Thurs - EP (AM EMH)
Fri - HS
Sat - AK (AM EMH)

Would you spend an extra afternoon/evening in HS or AK?

PS - We are probably going to skip the SWGE stuff. We have only been to WDW once and it was May 2016. So Pandora and TSL are both new to us and those are a priority, in addition to shows and attractions that we don't have in DLR. We will hold off and see SWGE in 2020/2021 at DLR.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I think the answer to this depends on the make up and likes of your party. Into Thrill rides? DHS all day. Could watch animals for hours? AK Like a slower pace, enjoy the scenery, the "little touches"? Again, AK. That would be my choice, I could spend 2 full days at AK in a visit-and I have. And I rarely go to DHS because I don't do thrill rides. But I suppose it just isn't thrill rides. For small children, I wouldn't necessarily choose AK. They'd probably get bored with the pace I want to go. So it all goes back to my original statement-it depends on the make up of your party.

 

[SFMommy]

I think the answer to this depends on the make up and likes of your party. Into Thrill rides? DHS all day. Could watch animals for hours? AK Like a slower pace, enjoy the scenery, the "little touches"? Again, AK. That would be my choice, I could spend 2 full days at AK in a visit-and I have. And I rarely go to DHS because I don't do thrill rides. But I suppose it just isn't thrill rides. For small children, I wouldn't necessarily choose AK. They'd probably get bored with the pace I want to go. So it all goes back to my original statement-it depends on the make up of your party.

Me, DH and DD13. My DH and DD13 do some thrill rides together. But each one only once. This will be there first time that they do Rock N Rollercoaster and Everest. My DD13 says that AK is her favorite park. Last trip, we did HS for 1 day and we thought it was just OK. I'm leaning towards AK too. Thank you!

 

[MooseBucks]

AK simply because we personally don’t spend enough time to truly enjoy it there... usually do just one day and fill it with all our favorite things but an extra half day would mean we could really enjoy things more and take our time to do things we don’t normally do (I usually feel rushed and there are so many awesome things to see!)

 

[Disneypro1]

Cant see AK a half day park. HS YES, until Star wars....then there will be half day parks.

 

[reisdawg]

With SWGE opening, you might want to avoid HS simply because of the potential crowds. I love thrill rides but even then HS is a half day park at best. We've seen all the shows multiple times so missing out on Beauty and the Beast or Indiana Jones is not a big deal for us. AK has different things to look at and we can wander in that park better than HS.

 

[DisneyMomma930]

I vote AK. Like PP said, avoiding HS is in your best interest if you're not there for SWGE. AK is bigger and more to see. Your 1/2 day at AK could be just to do a couple rides and see it at night. Then your full day can be to do everything else. To me, HS is never a full day park. Its always been my least favorite. This year we are doing EMM for TSL then ToT, RnRc....then were done with HS early in the day and don't plan to go back. We aren't really show people either. I was hoping MMRR would be open by August but its looking like it won't be so we won't spend much time at HS.

 

[SFMommy]

Cant see AK a half day park. HS YES, until Star wars....then there will be half day parks.

I should have clarified that this would be an additional half day. Already have a full day at both AK and HS that week. 2 MK, 2 EP, 1 AK, 1 HS and one additional half day for either AK OR HS.

 

[gharter]

HS - it depends how bad the SWGE crowd is.
AK - I much prefer this to HS. Maybe HS will be better once it is completed.
Really depends what your group likes. For us, we can easily spend a full day and more at AK. Difficult to spend that kind of time at HS for us currently.

 

[CynBeth]

AK.

 

[cadawson]

If it was my family -considering you’ll probably want to linger at Poly - I would do Tues at EP and the Boardwalk area bc of ease of getting there from Swan/Dolphin. It could easily be 3/4 day at EP if you eat lunch there. Then that will give you Wed to use as a full day either at AK or HS. HS bc of SWGE is going to be hectic that week and I fear not the easiest to visit for a late 1/2 day unless you luck out with FP. AK is difficult to make 1/2 day bc of the transit time. You are already going to be spending time getting your room transfer settled. Sounds like a fun week!

 

[J and R's mom]

AK--especially if you have not seen it at night yet and have an extra half day in which to do that.

 

[yorkieteacher]

As far as things to do and see-AK has more, and as the park is so large, it takes longer. Hollywood Studios, until Galaxy's Edge, can be done quickly as far as the rides go with good rope drop and fast passes. And all of the shows don't appeal to all audiences, so you can pick and choose there. It's always the park where we leave after lunch and don't come back until the nighttime showing of Fantasmic.