WDW: The Basics of the Parks and our plans...

Growing up in the West, Disneyland was far closer to us and we went there often. Wes and I did go to Disney World's Magic Kingdom on our Honeymoon one day. It was a lot of fun, but not the whole Disney World experience we were going to have this time! For those familiar with Disneyland and not WDW, there are 4 amusement parks at WDW (plus a few water parks). We were able to go to whatever park we wanted to each day for 7 days, but only one park per day (as we did NOT get park hopper passes which allows you to "hop" park to park within the same day). We also could not go to water parks as we chose not to add the water parks option either. We figured there was plenty to do in the 4 amusement parks.
The 4 parks are: The Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. During this time of year when it is off season, the hours are really short. The latest closing time was 10PM the whole week, with most parks closing between 5 and 7 pm most nights. However, for guests staying at a Disney property resort, there are Extra Magical Hours that only resort guests can use to ride rides and stuff. These magical hours are either an hour before the parks open for the early risers, or up to 3 hours after the park closes.

I had read advice saying to AVOID the parks with the magical hours as they will be busier (because people will pick that park for the day to get the extra time-to get the most bang for their buck). But our friends at church has just returned from WDW a month or so ago and they told us that they did not notice much of a difference in the crowds when the went whether it was the magical hours or not. (Granted they went during the very busy season)

So, our first day was Sunday 9/11/11, and The Magic Kingdom was the park with the Magical Hours. Park was closing at 9PM (right after the fireworks) then it was going to have extra hours from 9-midnight. We had also read advice that we ought to save The Magic Kingdom for the last park to see as it will be the most exciting for the kids. So, if you do it first, everything else is a let down.

We bucked the advice I had read and went ahead and started out at the Magic Kingdom the first day with the Extra Magic Hours! We figured we could go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a while to swim and come back and stay up late the first night.

Even with the Magic Hours, the lines were not bad at all-we did Fast Pass a few rides and learned that Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh are really popular with the kids...REALLY popular. Those 2 rides did get lines up to 70 minutes, as did Splash Mountain, but we never were in a line longer than 20 minutes at The Magic Kingdom, and walked right on to most rides. Apparently the off season is really not so bad!

Well, so we thought...Day 2, September 12, we went to Hollywood Studios as it also had the Magical Hours that night from 10pm-1am. We did not plan to be out that late, but I wanted to do this park this day so we could see Fantasmic! It was playing at 8:30 and 10pm. I had read that the 10pm show is usually easier to get into and had a few employees (excuse me...cast members) tell me that they had never seen a 10 pm show fill in the 4-6 months they had been working there. SO, we planned to go there. There are not as many attractions in this park, and the Back Lot Tour was closed. Toy Story Mania was the big deal there. We went straight to that ride when we arrived (we did not get there at opening time) and there was already a super long wait so we did a fast pass (for WAY later in the day). It was a busy crowded day. More details later...

We HAD planned on spending my birthday, Tuesday September 13, at Epcot. They had the Extra Hours early. However, after Hollywood Studios being so crowded, and after having very little sleep (and a sick kid at that point), we chose to sleep in and avoid the Extra Magic Hours of Epcot that day, so we went to Animal Kingdom which was open from 9am-5pm that day. Animal Kingdom always closes early-FYI.

That meant that we were moving out Epcot day to Wednesday September 14th. It was opened from 9am-9pm that night, and did not have magical hours.

We had thought that we would spend our last 2 days at Epcot and Magic Kingdom, but after experiencing all the parks, we realized there was much more our family could enjoy together (with big AND little kids) at Magic Kingdom, so we opted to spend our last 2 days both at Magic Kingdom. Which turned out to be the perfect plan for our family!

I will just post a day by day play by play for you if you are interested!! And away we go... (to quote Peter Pan)