Which Parks are best to repeat?

[tralin]

I have not been to Disneyworld since 2012 so needless to say, a LOT has changed. I am going with my DD12 and my sister and two nieces. (All adults) This will be all of their first trips. We are going December 10 - 20, 2020. I have most of the days planned to visit each day once, hit a water park (DD's only insistence, we are from Canada so we can brave it) and of course Universal one day. This leaves me with 3 open days. My question is which parks a worth seeing twice? I plan on choosing 2 for the group for reservation purposes, but the last one will be their choice after seeing everything.

In my last experience, DHS was not a full day, nor was Animal Kingdom. Things have changed so what parks are worthy of a second visit? We have Star Wars fans, Avatar Fans, Classic Disney Fans, Foodie Fans....... We are ALL Christmas fans. So need some help. Lastly, it the Christmas party worth the extra money?

 

[Boopuff]

Just for the food - EPCOT. We always plan a few meals there, lots of choices, plus we take our EPCOT days nice and slow. No rushing. Enjoy!

 

[hopemax]

Will you have hopper tickets? With the Skyliner, it's so easy now to start a day at DHS (with FPs) and then pop over to Epcot around lunch time to start partaking in Festival food.

 

[Ensusieasm]

I have not been to Disneyworld since 2012 so needless to say, a LOT has changed. I am going with my DD12 and my sister and two nieces. (All adults) This will be all of their first trips. We are going December 10 - 20, 2020. I have most of the days planned to visit each day once, hit a water park (DD's only insistence, we are from Canada so we can brave it) and of course Universal one day. This leaves me with 3 open days. My question is which parks a worth seeing twice? I plan on choosing 2 for the group for reservation purposes, but the last one will be their choice after seeing everything.

In my last experience, DHS was not a full day, nor was Animal Kingdom. Things have changed so what parks are worthy of a second visit? We have Star Wars fans, Avatar Fans, Classic Disney Fans, Foodie Fans....... We are ALL Christmas fans. So need some help. Lastly, it the Christmas party worth the extra money?

You will need 2 days at Magic Kingdom.

 

[spiders]

Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. I still don't really think Animal Kingdom or Hollywood are full day parks. They're great parks to visit when you have park hopper. I could probably even do Animal Kingdom for a full day but I don't think I could do Hollywood.

 

[loves to dive]

It is very subjective and you will get different answers from different people. We spend a part of every day at Epcot and HS. You will be there while the parks are all decorated up and I love HS at Christmas, they do a retro type theme and it's so pretty. MK at night during Christmas is beautiful. All the parks have special things going on during the holidays, storytelling at Epcot, different puppets wandering around at AK, projections on ToT at HS, parties at MK.

I would suggest taking at least a half day to resort hop around the monorail resorts and the Epcot resorts. The decorations are beautiful at all of them. WL and AKL also get all spiffed up for the holidays so maybe one day is just doing that.

I know you want to pick two to plan for but I really would just play it by ear on the entire 3 extra days. Say you visit MK on day one and all of you say, yep that wasn't enough time, go ahead and jump on MDE and make plans for that park later on. For us, and this is just us, mother and adult son - MK is a half day park. I would suggest if you don't have plans for park hoppers you consider that. That way if at any time, the park you are is just too crowded for words you just hop on over to a different park. Or, if you don't want to get hoppers, consider maybe party tickets for one night at MK - that way you can do MK one full day, party a different night and still do another park with a one day ticket the day of the party. I'm not a fan of the parties so never spend the extra money on them but we aren't huge parade fans and always have park hoppers.

 

[tinkerhon]

Just for the food - EPCOT. We always plan a few meals there, lots of choices, plus we take our EPCOT days nice and slow. No rushing. Enjoy!

Agree ! I could live in World Showcase !

 

[KayaWildfire]

Just so you know, they close the waterparks if it gets too cold, I think something like the forecast is below 65-70 degrees. So it might be good to flexible in case it's cold that day.

 

[BobbyDukes]

We always repeat Magic Kingdom. Theres just soo much to see and do (not just rides) at MK that we always end up going there twice. WE like to Bookend our vacation at MK, First park and Last park

 

[tinkerjo]

Our family picks AK hands down, every time, since it opened. It is only about a 3/4 day park but it has most of their favorite rides and attractions. FOP is the best ride I have EVER been on and well worth doing a second day. I do agree if you can swing the park hoppers to do that. It gives everyone flexibility in the afternoons to switch to a different park if they want. We took a friend last time who LOVED HS (pre toy story and Star Wars). It was a 1/2 day park for us but she loved it so you just never know. Other than food, Epcot has little to offer us too and is only a 1/2 day park. To me world showcase is mostly shopping and eating = spending way to much money. We will have hoppers this time so we are excited to have that flexibility to eat in Epcot even if we weren’t there that day. MK has a lot and we love it. We always start off our trip here but we are guilty of hitting what we want and being done and really should take more time and slow it down more. I have never done a paid event and refuse to. I’m spending enough money!!!!!

 

[olecow]

My family loves to visit all of the parks more than once if our trip length allows. Hollywood Studios is the only non-repeater for us, but we have our first trip there since 2015 coming up so we'll see if Galaxy's Edge or Toy Story land make us want to visit more than once.

 

[Pesky]

Yep, I would repeat MK. That's my only definite. As the kids have aged and know Avatar and Star Wars more now, not sure how it may change their outlook on AK or DHS. DD last time wrinkled her nose and declared Epcot too "educational" for her tastes but I love the WS.

 

[YawningDodo]

If AK was only a half day park for you previously, you'll probably still find it much the same. The addition of Pandora requires some strategizing if you want to ride FoP, but it's just one land. Personally I could spend entire multiple days in AK, but if you feel "done" with it after riding all the attractions it will not keep you occupied much longer now than it did in 2012.

DHS is a trickier one--I haven't been since the addition of the Toy Story and Star Wars land. With one or more Star Wars fans in tow you might want to consider DHS for a repeat, if only because Rise of the Resistance may still have enough guest demand to make it difficult or even impossible to ride more than once per day (right now you're only allowed one boarding group per day per person--that may change before your trip but there's no knowing what it'll look like by then).

And then with MK and Epcot it really depends on what you like doing in a theme park. MK has the most rides out of any of the four, so if you're a very rides-oriented group it's probably a good one to repeat. Epcot currently has a ton of construction going on in what was Future World; I don't remember the timeline for that offhand but I'm guessing it'll still be a lot of construction walls, and Spaceship Earth will be down for its long refurb. If you enjoy World Showcase there's still that, but if strolling the shops and eateries doesn't appeal, there may not be that much in Epcot to keep you there.

 

[tralin]

Will you have hopper tickets? With the Skyliner, it's so easy now to start a day at DHS (with FPs) and then pop over to Epcot around lunch time to start partaking in Festival food.

We will not have park hoppers. What is skyliner?

 

[tralin]

It is very subjective and you will get different answers from different people. We spend a part of every day at Epcot and HS. You will be there while the parks are all decorated up and I love HS at Christmas, they do a retro type theme and it's so pretty. MK at night during Christmas is beautiful. All the parks have special things going on during the holidays, storytelling at Epcot, different puppets wandering around at AK, projections on ToT at HS, parties at MK.

I would suggest taking at least a half day to resort hop around the monorail resorts and the Epcot resorts. The decorations are beautiful at all of them. WL and AKL also get all spiffed up for the holidays so maybe one day is just doing that.

I know you want to pick two to plan for but I really would just play it by ear on the entire 3 extra days. Say you visit MK on day one and all of you say, yep that wasn't enough time, go ahead and jump on MDE and make plans for that park later on. For us, and this is just us, mother and adult son - MK is a half day park. I would suggest if you don't have plans for park hoppers you consider that. That way if at any time, the park you are is just too crowded for words you just hop on over to a different park. Or, if you don't want to get hoppers, consider maybe party tickets for one night at MK - that way you can do MK one full day, party a different night and still do another park with a one day ticket the day of the party. I'm not a fan of the parties so never spend the extra money on them but we aren't huge parade fans and always have park hoppers.

I was trying to plan some Dinning Reservations but i think I can work it out that it won't matter on those three days. I like your idea of being more flexible. I don't want to spend the extra money on the party as I don't think we would find value in it. Thanks for the reminder to just enjoy and be flexible.

 

[tralin]

Just so you know, they close the waterparks if it gets too cold, I think something like the forecast is below 65-70 degrees. So it might be good to flexible in case it's cold that day.

Yes, it they close a park we can take a day off and enjoy the resorts or disney springs.

 

[DisLiss]

We like to hop, so we tend to repeat parks often. We might kit AK in the morning one day to see the animals that are out early in the day, and then return for an evening later on to see the animals at what is also typically a good time.

We also like to return to Epcot several nights, especially during Food & Wine.


We definitely find Epcot & MK parks where we can easily spend 2 full days, although with all of the construction in Epcot right now, things might be a bit different in that regard.

 

[emily nicole]

We always spend two days at MK and two days at Epcot. AK and DHS are both still one day parks for us... however, we aren't interested in Star Wars, so that might make a difference.

 

[Miffy]

You said that all the members of your party are adults. Are you all intent on staying together every day? Splitting up might alleviate some of the decision-making here.

Also, if you can swing the expense, I highly recommend park hoppers. It'll give all of you a freedom you don't currently have. If the boarding group situation for RotR at DHS remains as it is now--of course, your trip is a year away, so it's impossible to predict--but, if it does, then you would really want hoppers, since you could end up going to DHS to get on a boarding group and not get one. Then you're stuck there, without a hopper.

Everyone has different tastes. To me, DAK is an all-day, as many days as possible, park. If you have Avatar fans, they are going to want to experience Pandora at night, which is fabulous. If you have animal lovers in your group, they are going to want to ride the safari more than once. You could essentially do the safari continuously--assuming you wanted to keep standing in line in between rides--and see something different each time. Just walking around DAK is fantastic--the architecture and landscaping are excellent.

For me, MK has become a one-day park. But that's just me. As you can see, other people on this thread totally disagree!

As for the water park day . . . don't make set-in-stone plans about it. The water parks are closed when it's cold and it can get cold in Orlando in December, or it could be pouring rain all day. You might be better off using the water-park money to get hoppers instead.

And, while I'm here . . . unless you get free dining, are expecting to go to a lot of character meals or buffets, eat two large sit-down meals a day, or get a special deal on this, I recommend not getting the dining plan. But that's another discussion entirely.

 

[Carolyn Louise]

Epcot is a must-repeat for me, if I don't get there at least twice on a trip I'm just sad. I love the food and the whole aesthetic of the World Showcase so much.