How do you pick which parks to do on what days?

[NatashaAudrey]

I'm currently trying to come up with a plan for our trip in September so that I can book some ADR in 15 days and have an idea on which parks we will be in on certain days. There is so much to see and do and it's all a little bit overwhelming. We are going for two weeks, staying onsite at Disney and also have a flexi Universal ticket. Any hints or tips would be great

[GenoviaPrincess]

I primarily did our itinerary by looking at a crowd calendar and scheduling in parks on the days they are predicted to be most quiet. But I will follow this thread with interest to see what others say!

[jpy10]

we have always found the busy day guide to be a real help

Jason

[7SeasSailor]

Some parks are open later than others so I work out the late evenings with the busy day guide.

[Procrastinator]

A lot depends if you do or dont want to use emh.

If you do, schedule park days to use them. If not schedule park days to avoid them. But using that in conjunction with the crowd calendar.

Also think about the harder to get rides. Dont plan AK or HS for day 1 or 2 if you want SDD or FOP. They need to be a bit later.

We have day 1 in mk, then water parks day 2, kennedy day 3, then day 4 onwards in the parks. Doing this as it will be easier to get the fp we want as booking further out.

[NatashaAudrey]

I have looked at the crowd calendar on here and on undercover tourist but they are completely different, which has thrown me off a little. On here it says that MK is the LEAST recommended park for our first day and on undercover tourist it says it's the MOST recommended park. I'm a massive wimp so not so keen on rides but my husband loves them so need to also try and split time so we can make the most of our holiday and fast passes

[Squidgyness]

Things that decide what I'm doing on what day during a september trip:

No EPCOT at weekends (food and wine festival = nuts with locals there on a weekend)

No Disney on weekends if I can help it (fp+ less efficient than Express pass at Universal, makes more sense to do Universal on a weekend.)

Rest day somewhere in the middle of the two weeks

Universal at the start and end of the trip (more relaxing)

At least 2, preferably 3 EPCOT days, 1 (or 0) MK, 1 HS, 2 AK. That is my preferred disney split.MK and HS next to each other (can be very high paced/stressful and like to get them done ASAP and out of the way)

[Burgmeister]

We are planning on following the EMH around. Do the mornings, leave around lunchtime and then check which park is the quietest or which parks we can get a FP for and do that one in the evening.

[scoobydooby]

I plan in a number of stages. Have worked up to this strategy over many trips and it works best for me.

1- decide how many mornings we can get up early and how many we need to sleep in. This has changed with the ages of the kids. We now tend towards two early starts followed by a later start.

2- Now I know how many early/late starts I have I plan EMH mornings x4, one for each WDW Park.

3 - Water parks x2 take up two further early (but not as early) starts.

4 - if not going to Universal I’ll choose what will probably be the last two early starts for AK and MK but not with EMH. Will probably switch these parks to DHS and AK once Star Wars Land is open as MK is easier to tour.

5- I plan x4 nighttime fireworks visits on the second day of a 2 days run of early starts so that we can sleep in the following day.

6 - then I plan our sleep in day activities. Shopping, Disney Springs, cinema, parks with x3 FPP and large capacity shows.

7 - slide in down and swimming time.

8 - re shuffle park days as necessary when EMH are released.

9 - plan meals around our plans. I always plan food around activities, not the other way around.

10 - design touring plans.

[kazzykay]

We decide the night before, after looking at busy day guide and last years numbers.