help with planning
 

What order would you do the disney parks in?
Trying to work out what parks to do when so I can book my adrs its extra morning hours all week so should I just go with which ever park they are at?
We are only there for a week but as its over memorial weekend I assume it is probably going to be really busy

It depends I guess. Everyone is different. Last time we did Epcot first, the next time I've planned in for Animal Kingdom. If you are there for a week, maybe do Magic Kindgom first, and then you can still go again towards the end of the week

I just base park order by looking at park hours or busy day guide.

If you're going to be there in time for EMH, given that it's a busy week, I would go with those parks. If not, use the Busy Day Guide. If none of the parks are recommended on a particular day (which can happen) just pick the one that fits in your schedule best.

I like to space out my visits to the same park (I don't like heading to the same park immediately, prefer a change of scenery) so I tend to start with a spreadsheet of the days I'm there, and work out an order that feels comfortable to me. Then I cross-check it against crowd predictors and EMH, tweaking where necessary.

Managed to get all my ADRs on days that suited, but bear in mind that you may need to tweak again if you're after a certain ADR (e.g. a BoG dinner) as you may not necessarily be able to get it on the day you're in that area.

Are you staying onsite at Disney? If you are I would use the parks that have EMH.
If you're staying offsite I would avoid EMH parks as they'll already be busy by the time you get there!
Check out the park hours and busy day guide on this site :)

I know everyone had their own little ways to plan but we like to always go to MK on our first full day, it starts the magic for us :grin:

Then after that we think about how many days we want to spend in each park. Then slot parks in using the busy day guide / EMH to choose best days.

We often park hop for example do morning EMH in one park then after lunch go to another park.

We also never plan an early morning after a late night :grin:

Think seriously about how many consecutive days you can get up early and plan accordingly. Me. I’d do morning EMH every day. My DH and DD can manage every other day. DS can only do every third day. Sleep deprived people are horrible though so it’s an important consideration. I’ve been taking my kids, now 15 and 18 since they were toddlers and just starting school respectively and my planning has changed in line with their sleep needs. Next trip they will be 16 and 19 and will be the hardest yet to plan due to their needy sleeping habits 😂 The current FPP system will help us but not sure it would help a first timer so much. I’ll get up and do EMH every day anyway and just meet them on their sleep in days when they emerge. A mini solo trip within a trip!

We do the Disney parks in whichever order we feel like. Sometimes we use the busy day guide, sometimes not. Although when staying offsite we tend to avoid parks that are not recommended. Looking at our last 4 visits we've visited the parks in the following order:

2010: AK-MK-EP-HS, 2012: EP-HS-MK-AK, 2014: AK-EP-HS-MK, 2016: MK-AK-HS-EP

So the order that we tackle the parks has always been a bit random.

Some people like to visit MK first and last because they find it the most "magical" and want to bookend their holiday with the "best" park. Personally, we've never felt that compulsion.

If you are staying onsite then that's one way of doing it (if you are staying offsite then avoid parks with EMH). Certainly it's a good idea to make use of EMH if you can. However, as scoobydooby says, you may find it difficult to get up early every day (or even most days) to get to morning EMH. And you may want to park hop at midday to a different park or head back to your room for a rest.

Hi,

Is this your 1st trip? If so, I would always say Magic Kingdom is the best to do first! This is such a magical park and I feel sets you up for the rest of your trip. When I say first, what I mean is your first full day at Disney... not straight off the plane, as you will be jet lagged etc.

If this is not your first time at WDW, I would defiantly use the Busy day guide (on the Dibb menu), I use this all the time when planning, as this gives you a very good idea on which parks you should do on specific days, as it confirms how busy each park was on that day last year. So again, this is just a guide, but I love it and swear by it.


Happy planning! :wave:

On our first trip we didn't do MK first on purpose, and I'm so glad. We only managed half a day, we were jet lagged, we were learning how everything worked ; magic bands, qsdp, etc.

We did half a day at Epcot to find our feet. We then did MK on our 2nd day and enjoyed it as felt more relaxed in our knowledge. xx