First thing you will hear from anyone that has ever been to Disneyworld is "You will not see everything in just one trip to Disneyworld". There is some truth to that, but not entirely true for those who love to plan every detail. The key to planning a day for your family to maximize the enjoyment of the parks is to be flexible. Do not expect your plan will go off without a hitch or delay. It is necessary to plan ahead and have 2 plans on hand for every park. I would suggest 4 plans for Magic Kingdom and I will explain why later in this post.
First order of business is to decide which park you will visit on each day. The Disneyworld website (www.disneyworld.com) will give you a calendar up to a year ahead of time with park hours and extra magic hours for each of the 4 major parks as well as the two water parks. If you are staying in a resort hotel on Disney property (which also includes Shades of Green military only hotel) you are entitled to the benefit of Extra Magic Hours. Many plan their days around these hours, but not always the best choice to maximize your planned day. The exception would be Animal Kingdom in the morning. It can be a long wait to get on the Kilimanjaro Safari so using the extra magic hours on the Animal Kingdom morning is a good idea. Animal Kingdom also has the shortest park hours, so the earlier you can get in the better chance you have to see everything in that park.
Most days I plan outside of the Extra Magic hours to avoid following the crowd. There are many websites out there that will give you the park attendance averages for each day and line wait times. I personally use www.touringplans.com to get a feel for crowd levels. I don't mean to avoid the Extra Magic Hours at all, especially evening hours. We like to hit a less crowded park in the morning to maximize our rides with shorter wait times, then after lunch, transition to the park with the extra evening hours to get as much time in the fun as possible. This is the major benefit to the Park Hopper Option and helps you get the most of your Disney experience. When hopping parks, it is always a good idea to plan a late quick service lunch to get the most out of your morning. With that being said, make sure you obtain a later Dinner Reservation at your evening park choice since you will not be hungry if you eat the late lunch. I will post more detail to each park plan following this post. Please feel free to share your experiences because the more ideas the better.
Good Luck Mickey Fans!
