What Strategy for Deciding What Parks on Which Days?

[SaintsManiac]

I have not been in 4 years, so I’m reading up on everything I can for a trip NEXT summer. We’ve always used the best park websites and mostly stayed away from EMH parks. Although, as my kids got older, we did enjoy EMEH because they could stay up later.

I am surprised by the number of people who are saying they are going to the DAH and the morning pay ones (sorry I forget what they are called.) And just one time... multiple days... I’m not judging at all... I’m just trying to wrap my head around the cost for my family of 5. Not sure how I would convince DH to cough up the $$$ for this!

We wouldn't go if we couldn't afford to do the extra events. I'd rather do those than a bunch of table service meals and shopping and staying at deluxe resorts. We are only a party of 3, too.

 

[3smithboys]

We wouldn't go if we couldn't afford to do the extra events. I'd rather do those than a bunch of table service meals and shopping and staying at deluxe resorts. We are only a party of 3, too.

I guess when you think about the cost of table service meals vs the extra events, I would be willing to trade off. I didn’t think about it in that way. My kids are older... 21, 17, 17, so I would have to think carefully as to which ones would be worth it to us. If a Star Wars one opens up, we’d be all over it. I wonder if they are too old for the Toy Story or MK one to be worth the extra $$$. I didn’t see anything for AK either... Would love one for Pandora.

 

[cakebaker]

Disney’s schedule usually dictates our schedule. I pay zero attention to crowd calendars. We park hop so we don’t skip parks that have emh’s Because we’ll leave by noon anyway. We don’t have a tradition of any particular park to start, but I like to end with the MK. Other than that, it’s completely dependent on when DAH’s are scheduled and when we’re able to get FP’s for FOP, SDD and SDMT.

 

[evlaina]

Quick question: Last time we went we bought hopper tickets because we (at least half of us) planned on going back to MK most nights to watch fireworks. But that only panned out once.

So you can buy a 10 day single park/day ticket for ~$40 cheaper than a 7day hopper.

Can you burn 2 tickets (2 parks) in one day with the single park ticket?

No, you need to buy hoppers to go to more than 1 park per day. Unless you're doing a hard ticketed item like a party or DAH.

 

[andyw715]

No, you need to buy hoppers to go to more than 1 park per day. Unless you're doing a hard ticketed item like a party or DAH.

Yeah I see...the other alternative would be to buy a single day ticket, which could be more expensive than the hopper option.

 

[fla4fun]

I do some planning around when I can get the harder to book FP. Since I am not looking to book the really difficult dining reservations, it’s more important to me to get my FP set, and then work the ADRs around them. You may only be able to get SDD or FOP on a particular day, and it’s kind of a pain if you’ve got two MK ADRs set up for the only day you can get either of those. I don’t do rope drop very often, so EMH doesn’t affect my choices as much as it might others.

I would recommend booking the few, very hard to get, ADRs at 180, and as early in your trip as possible. Keep the later days of your trip open for working on the hard to get FP. Once you have your FP set, fill in the remaining dining slots with ADRs.

 

[Rach3975]

Thanks, Rach3975. That's a good point about the MK possibly closing at 4:30 on Monday, Nov. 4. I saw that in Touring Plans, but was hoping it was just left in from last year. And, a good reason not to go to Epcot on Monday as we have in years past. Yes, we will have hoppers.

So something interesting...last week, Touring Plans was showing MK as closing at 4:30 that Monday. I just checked again, and now they're showing a 10 pm closure. Unfortunately, I don't think their next big crowd level update will happen before our ADR day. I'm going to be a little disappointed if crowd level predictions go up a lot, but it would make my planning a lot easier if they're open a full day on Monday. We might drop our hoppers if that happens, since that was the main reason we needed them.

 

[marie8461]

So something interesting...last week, Touring Plans was showing MK as closing at 4:30 that Monday. I just checked again, and now they're showing a 10 pm closure. Unfortunately, I don't think their next big crowd level update will happen before our ADR day. I'm going to be a little disappointed if crowd level predictions go up a lot, but it would make my planning a lot easier if they're open a full day on Monday. We might drop our hoppers if that happens, since that was the main reason we needed them.

Thanks for the update, RAch 3975. This is giving me a very big headache! It seems like it's all just a guess with this ADR's and if we have to change them, we will!

 

[disneysteve]

This is giving me a very big headache! It seems like it's all just a guess with this ADR's and if we have to change them, we will!

Disney really makes the whole planning process unnecessarily complex. By opening ADRs at 180 days but not opening FPs until 60 days (or 30 days) and not having park hours set when the ADR window opens, it just makes it all a crap shoot. They really need to standardize everything. Post park hours at more than 60 days out and shorten the ADR window to match the FP window so that folks can plan everything at one time. Otherwise you end up making ADRs only to find out 120 days later that the available FPs conflict with your ADRs.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We were there in 2018 during that time frame.
Since we always have hoppers, and we always try to avoid crowds to maximize what we do in the parks by avoiding lines, we TARGETED MK that day, since most ppl are not going to pay 100 bones to go to a park that closes at 4:30 (unless they have hoppers.)

We did EMM at Hollyweird that day, then bugged out and hopped to MK. Got there at about 12:30, and we absolutely CRUSHED fast passes all day long. At one point, it was just us ping-ponging from splash to btmr one right after the other - tap in to splash, then grab a fp for btmr, tap into btmr, then grab a fp for splash. It was hilarious. We just burned thru fp after fp in each section of the park we wanted to. Since it was an early rising day for EMM, and the EMM breakfast is pig out central, we had a light meal at CHH, but planned to do HDDR 6:30 show, after 4:30 MK close. Best. Day. Ever. When everyone zigs, we zag. Early closure day? THAT'S the park we're going to. AM EMH? That's the park we're going to, then hopping to a different park. Staying at an Epcot resort makes hopping to and from 2 different parks only a few minutes, and is just awesome for getting to a park for rope drop, OR getting back to your room after those parks close in only a few minutes.

When you do AM EMH, you always have your FP+ waiting for you at the second park, correct? What time do you usually leave the first (EMH) park?

 

[Davey Jones II]

Quick question: Last time we went we bought hopper tickets because we (at least half of us) planned on going back to MK most nights to watch fireworks. But that only panned out once.

So you can buy a 10 day single park/day ticket for ~$40 cheaper than a 7day hopper.

Can you burn 2 tickets (2 parks) in one day with the single park ticket?

If your choice is between ten days without a hopper or 7 days with hopper, I would go with the former. Always better to have more park days.

However, the best is ten days WITH hopper, if you can afford it. You can`t use a lot of the strategies in this thread without hopping.

And yes, if you go to two parks in one day without hoppers, you have burned two park days. Highly disrecommended.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I think length of stay and how frequently you visit the parks are the most important factors. If you're there for a short stay I don't find much value in worrying about planning around crowds. For longer stays, though, I think if you get to a point on any day where you're tired or the crowds are too much it's a lot easier to just throw in the towel.

My strategy is solely based on what has worked well for us on prior trips. As I rethink things MK was our first park visit in the years 2011 and 2015. It was because we were arriving to the parks on Sunday and in 2011 and 2015, and if I'm remembering correctly Sunday was a MK EMH day and Monday was an AK EMH day. Actually, we drove in Saturday late afternoon and arrived at Disney around 11pm their time. So we'd do our first park visit Sunday. In 2011, we did MK, AK, and MK. At 3 years old, I didn't think my son would get much out of EPCOT so we didn't go. In 2015, we did MK, AK, EPCOT, and MK. This year, I've swapped AK and MK. I'm driving in on Sunday this time and don't want to lose a lot of time at MK so we are doing AK on our arrival day and MK the next, then EPCOT, and we'll close out our park visits with MK. I enjoy the EMH parks and usually leave around 1pm when it seems to get really busy. This year, no AM EMHs coincide with my park visits, so my son and I are going to take advantage of the evening ones at MK and EPCOT.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Can you burn 2 tickets (2 parks) in one day with the single park ticket?

I believe I've actually read to where Disney does not "encourage" this as it's cheaper than buying hoppers. Personally, I don't think it's best idea to use two entries to two different parks on the same day. You can always add the hopper option later, even if you only have the one day left on your ticket. If I'm wrong, someone correct me. I haven't purchased hoppers since 2000. I just don't like hopping....takes up too much park time even if I'm driving my own car to and from the parks.

 

[Davey Jones II]

Disney really makes the whole planning process unnecessarily complex. By opening ADRs at 180 days but not opening FPs until 60 days (or 30 days) and not having park hours set when the ADR window opens, it just makes it all a crap shoot. They really need to standardize everything. Post park hours at more than 60 days out and shorten the ADR window to match the FP window so that folks can plan everything at one time. Otherwise you end up making ADRs only to find out 120 days later that the available FPs conflict with your ADRs.

Good points. I booked our Rain Forest Cafe reservation for the fifth day of our trip, since I assume I won`t be able to get FOP FPs until then.

 

[chris benton]

When you do AM EMH, you always have your FP+ waiting for you at the second park, correct? What time do you usually leave the first (EMH) park?

Always? No. Definitely not always. I figure out what we want to do, then figure out the best way to make all we want to do happen, like a jigsaw puzzle. The am emh schedule guides our preliminary park day choices. Which park we have our three fps at, isn't ALWAYS the park we hop to after a rope drop, it depends what we want to do. Examples:

Since we stay at an ep resort, we might rope drop mk for am emh, then schedule 3 fp at mk starting at 9am, then burn thru 9 fps by noon, leave, go back to the resort, lunch/swim, then walk over to epcot for street shows and dinner. (More than likely, i'd also have a test track fp from hunting on our way back to the resort from mk)

On an epcot am emh day, we'd probably do soarin and test track 2x each during emh, and then schedule the 3 fp in a different park. I'd probably try to target whatever park had emh the previous day, assuming the others on vacation would have probably targeted that park the prev day, and crossed it off their list.

Some days, we'll do am emh, then sched the 3 fps for that same park, but then only plan shows and dinner for the pm park for a relaxed afternoon.

Do what makes sense for you.
My basic plan is to get up early, avoid crowds, and be in the pool when the parks are busiest, and to have relaxed afternoons/nights-we're not night owls, but that's a side effect of us being early birds. 8am emh is not even a tiny issue for us, we are ready to rock.