Would you plan this different?

DarthMommy05

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
We are planning a trip that will include 2 water park visits (want to try both water parks). I’m wondering if there is enough for a full day at the each water park and if so will our water park days be to exhausting for a visit to the main parks? My question is will a 3 day hopper plus be enough, or should we get more days for late visits to the main parks?


Here is our plan, please let me know if you would do it different:


Day 1 – Friday – Arrive - Stay low key and enjoy resort

Day 2 – Saturday – Water Park Day

Day 3 – Sunday – Disney Springs - Dinner at O’hanna

Day 4 – Monday – Water Park Day

Day 5 – Tuesday – MK in the a.m. / EP in the p.m (EMH till 11 p.m.)

Day 6 – Wednesday – AK in a.m. / MK in p.m. (EMH till 12a.m.)

Day 7 – Thursday – One of the parks for a.m / HS in p.m.

Day 8 – Friday – Use of last Hopper Plus option

Day 9 – Saturday – Check out

Note – I placed the water parks in the beginning of the trip because I was trying to hit the main parks in middle of the week rather than on the weekend and take advantage of EMH at EP and MK.

Thank you in advance for any responses.
 
It would drive me crazy to wait until day 5 for a park. I would absolutely get more than 3 day park ticket if you're there for 8+ days.

The late EMH parks will be busier, so while they may have later hours, that comes with more crowds.

At the very least, I would enjoy MK all day on Sunday before Ohana, either making your way back for HEA, or watching them from the Poly beach.

EDIT: If it's literally Easter Sunday, I no longer recommend MK on that day.
 
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During our July trip, the water parks were fairly crowded. We arrived at opening and found that a few hours was enough. We did all of the major slides first thing before it got too crowded. Once the lines got long, we were all ready to leave. It was great having the park hopper so that we could go home, rest for a bit, and go to a park for the evening. With fp+, we were able to hit our favorite rides in the evening and see the fireworks. I really think it depends on what time of year you are going and the ages of the people going. My kids are older, so after a short rest, they are able to go all night in the park. We probably couldn't have done that when they were younger because the sun and water would have worn them out.
 


Thank you so much! This is the feedback I was hoping for. We are traveling in April, I know there will be high crowds. We are a group of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids - 11 & 13). I did wonder how the crowds would be during EMH, so thank you so much for that info. I’ll try and rework to avoid those. I also did consider going to MK before and after Ohana on Sunday, but I was nervous since it will be Easter. Do you think crowds would be crazy? I would like to catch HEA.

I also did wonder is only a few hours at the water Park would be plenty in the morning. I was afraid by blocking out the full day for that it would leave us bored at night without having additional park tickets.
 
Thank you so much! This is the feedback I was hoping for. We are traveling in April, I know there will be high crowds. We are a group of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids - 11 & 13). I did wonder how the crowds would be during EMH, so thank you so much for that info. I’ll try and rework to avoid those. I also did consider going to MK before and after Ohana on Sunday, but I was nervous since it will be Easter. Do you think crowds would be crazy? I would like to catch HEA.

I also did wonder is only a few hours at the water Park would be plenty in the morning. I was afraid by blocking out the full day for that it would leave us bored at night without having additional park tickets.

Easter week is one of the busiest weeks of the year, so you're going to have crowds no matter what you do or when you go where. Plan for what makes most sense for YOUR family.

One thing you may want to keep in mind is they will probably do early EMH at MK every day that week, and they could be as early as 7:00 a.m. If you can plan at least one MK morning when you can get up early and do the early EMH, you'll get a lot done on that morning. Then you can hop to another park or do a rest day after that early morning.
 
Thank you so much! This is the feedback I was hoping for. We are traveling in April, I know there will be high crowds. We are a group of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids - 11 & 13). I did wonder how the crowds would be during EMH, so thank you so much for that info. I’ll try and rework to avoid those. I also did consider going to MK before and after Ohana on Sunday, but I was nervous since it will be Easter. Do you think crowds would be crazy? I would like to catch HEA.

I also did wonder is only a few hours at the water Park would be plenty in the morning. I was afraid by blocking out the full day for that it would leave us bored at night without having additional park tickets.

Yeah, if it’s Easter week especially I think you’re going to want more Park days because it may be hard to get a lot done some days. Your kids are old enough that the early morning strategy could be tough, but agree with above, if you can do a few mornings then you can pack stuff in while crowds are moderate instead of insane. Or if that’s not going to happen, definitely get park tickets for the water park days, then book FPs so even if it’s a zoo you have 3 guaranteed rides wherever you go in the afternoon/evening,

If you’re interested in HEA that week it might be worth considering whether the dessert party is in the budget. I know it’s not for everyone, but it is awfully nice to not stake a spot out ahead ahead of time only to then be crammed in like sardines.
 


What I'm seeing is a very casual first half of the trip and then go go go the second half.
Personally I'd break it up a bit. Do theme parks one day then water park the next then theme parks then Disney Springs then theme parks then water park.
 
Thank you so much! This is the feedback I was hoping for. We are traveling in April, I know there will be high crowds. We are a group of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids - 11 & 13). I did wonder how the crowds would be during EMH, so thank you so much for that info. I’ll try and rework to avoid those. I also did consider going to MK before and after Ohana on Sunday, but I was nervous since it will be Easter. Do you think crowds would be crazy? I would like to catch HEA.

I also did wonder is only a few hours at the water Park would be plenty in the morning. I was afraid by blocking out the full day for that it would leave us bored at night without having additional park tickets.
I've been to Disney World over Easter a few years in a row now and have always find it very manageable and if you plan correctly you can go during times when crowds aren't heavy at all. I've been to MK the last two years on Easter Sunday as well as multiple times over Easter week. I have always found Saturday and Sunday to be better than the weekdays for MK. If you make it at rope drop the first few hours are bliss. That said the crowd level is bonkers from 1pm-5pm (seriously, I could have body surfed to the exit at 2pm) which is why we try to leave before that time and enjoy the resort pool and relax for a few hours.

I'm not sure why you want so many water park days. Makes sense I guess if you love them but MK is amazing. If it was my trip I would have a 5 day pass no hoppers and do MK twice, then epcot, HS and AK a day each and skip the water parks all together having two rest days (we generally treat our resort days as water park/pool days). If I had to go to water parks because my family insisted, I'd get a 5 day pass with hopper/water parks and do the parks in the morning and water parks a few afternoons. with two rest days.
 
I use to take my kids and their visiting cousins to the water parks for Easter break. The water parks were pretty crowded that week. We'd stay all day. I was exhausted by the end of the day with all the steps up to the slides. The kids were like energizer bunnies and could keep going.

Best to hit the big slides at opening when crowds we're low. We saved wave pool for later. And took the laxy river as transportation to each area. Often there weren't enough tubes. But we just got in there anyway to next point.
 
Either stick your waterpark days in b/t your regular park days (get a larger amount of park days on your ticket) or take one day out and split it between water parks.
 
We are planning a trip that will include 2 water park visits (want to try both water parks). I’m wondering if there is enough for a full day at the each water park and if so will our water park days be to exhausting for a visit to the main parks? My question is will a 3 day hopper plus be enough, or should we get more days for late visits to the main parks?


Here is our plan, please let me know if you would do it different:


Day 1 – Friday – Arrive - Stay low key and enjoy resort

Day 2 – Saturday – Water Park Day

Day 3 – Sunday – Disney Springs - Dinner at O’hanna

Day 4 – Monday – Water Park Day

Day 5 – Tuesday – MK in the a.m. / EP in the p.m (EMH till 11 p.m.)

Day 6 – Wednesday – AK in a.m. / MK in p.m. (EMH till 12a.m.)

Day 7 – Thursday – One of the parks for a.m / HS in p.m.

Day 8 – Friday – Use of last Hopper Plus option

Day 9 – Saturday – Check out

Note – I placed the water parks in the beginning of the trip because I was trying to hit the main parks in middle of the week rather than on the weekend and take advantage of EMH at EP and MK.

Thank you in advance for any responses.

Water parks are half-days for us. Particularly during busier times. The water parks do not have FP+, so, we have found, it's best to get to them as soon as they open and do the bigger slides before the lines build significantly. We then grab QS lunch early afternoon and get the heck out of dodge. If we are at BB, we sometimes play a round of mini-golf at WinterSummerland (which you could do to extend your time there and use either a Plus option or your resort package entitlements if you are staying onsite).

I would actually put Disney Springs in the evening of one of your water park days. DS is also, IMHO, not a whole day event. If you put DS after a water park, you then open up that entire Sunday to go to a park before your O'hana reservation. MK would be most convenient for that, but EP is also convenient by monorail.

If you don't want to mess with any ADR's you may currently have, I would upgrade to a 5-day park hopper plus ticket and do the following:

Friday - Arrive, enjoy resort
Saturday - go to a theme park
Sunday - theme park plus O'hana dinner
Monday - Water park day (BB plus WinterSummerland or TL plus Disney Springs)
Tuesday - as planned
Wednesday - as planned
Thursday - as planned
Friday - second water park day (BB plus WinterSummerland or TL plus DS)
Saturday - checkout
 
This is all wonderful and it’s looking like I will need the additional days on the ticket. The reason I’m trying to work in the water parks is because my husband can take or leave the main parks. But he really enjoys waters parks. So by working them into the plan everyone gets something they are looking forward to.

I think everyone is right about splitting up the water park days in between theme park days and I really like the plan that DisneyWishes14 suggested (thank you so very much).

Question - for Disney transportation to BB, do the buses stop at AK first and we would need to transfer buses? I’m wondering if this makes sense for a AK visit since we have to stop there anyway.
 
Also just be prepared that you're gonna spend A LOT of time transition between the parks when you hop.. using uber can save you a lot of valuable time

OH! and instead of bumping up the days on park hopper... if it financially works for you.. consider booking the night time hard ticket park hours for water park days. They are expensive, but parks are empty and you can accomplish more in 3-4 hours than you could for an entire day.... something to think about!
 
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IMHO, you’ve got way too many non-park days. As others have said, you’re going during a busy time, so it will be hard to get much done in (for example), just a half of a day. And an entire day at Disney Springs seems like a LOT to me. I would consider whether your kids will want to spend that much time there. I’ve got 2 boys about your kids’ age, and they’d be bored silly spending a whole day at DS when they could be riding rides.
 
Also, keep in mind that once you get beyond a 4-day ticket, the price to add extra park days is pretty nominal. So for maybe an extra $15 or $20, you could get an extra Park day, and then not feel like you’ve wasted the money if you only hit a park for a few hours in the evening.
 
This is all wonderful and it’s looking like I will need the additional days on the ticket. The reason I’m trying to work in the water parks is because my husband can take or leave the main parks. But he really enjoys waters parks. So by working them into the plan everyone gets something they are looking forward to.

I think everyone is right about splitting up the water park days in between theme park days and I really like the plan that DisneyWishes14 suggested (thank you so very much).

Question - for Disney transportation to BB, do the buses stop at AK first and we would need to transfer buses? I’m wondering if this makes sense for a AK visit since we have to stop there anyway.

Yes, to get to BB, you have to take a bus to AK and then transfer to a BB bus (you do the reverse when you are done at BB). If you were to combine BB and AK in one day, I would either still plan to go to BB in the morning to beat the lines and then spend the evening in AK (you could bring a change of clothes and shower/clean up at BB) or go to AK on a morning EMH day and still try to get to BB as close to opening as possible. In August, we did EMH at DHS at 7 am, got all of TSL in, plus a ride on Star Tours and still made it to TL for rope drop (we did use lyft for that, however). Or, to save time, if you feel like splurging a little, I would consider uber/lyft for your water park days.
 
Thank you for all the tips and feedback, I’ve revised my plan. I will most likely take advantage of Uber/lyft on water park days as it definitely seems less stressful since going there on disney transportation involves bus transfers. I think HEA dessert party will be out of budget. I think I would rather purchase the 4th day park ticket with that money, but I will say paying for a view in a less crowded area sounds mighty tempting.

Day 1 – Friday – Arrive - Stay low key and enjoy resort (we are driving in so a slow arrival day will be needed)

Day 2 – Saturday – BB / Mini Golf

Day 3 – Sunday – MK a.m.(leaving before noon/back to resort until dinner) - Dinner at Ohanna @ 6 - MK p.m.

Day 4 – Monday – EP

Day 5 – Tuesday – TL / Disney Springs p.m.

Day 6 – Wednesday – AK

Day 7 – Thursday – HS

Day 8 – Friday – Use of last Hopper Plus option (decide during the trip which activity to do)

Day 9 – Saturday – Check out
 
To me it seems like a lot of days to be there without visiting the parks. Only you know your families needs, but that would be a tough one for my crew.
 
Water parks are half-days for us. Particularly during busier times.

I would actually put Disney Springs in the evening of one of your water park days. DS is also, IMHO, not a whole day event. If you put DS after a water park, you then open up that entire Sunday to go to a park before your O'hana reservation. MK would be most convenient for that, but EP is also convenient by monorail.

I was coming to say exactly this!
 

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