To continue the planning for our first trip to Walt Disney World, I now held the information containing the days we had available, the times each day we had available and the order of must see’s for our son.
Since his original favorite ride, ‘it’s a small world’ is currently closed at Disneyland and he was unable to ride on our trip there in April, he will be champing at the bit to ride the Walt Disney World version of this ride.
This attraction happens to be in the MagicKingdomPark, it is very evident that we need to plan on going there before any other park. I have planned on spending our first half day at the Magic Kingdom, getting to know the lay of the land and checking out what this much larger resort has to offer.*
After decided this I did research to discover the hours of operation for the Magic Kingdom on our first day, and then I even went one step further and checked to see if there were evening Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom on the day we arrive.
It did not take me long to realize that there would be no Extra Magic Hours on our first night. Instead I found that the extra hours would be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. For us, this was perfect! If we can figure out a way to get from park to park, then we can ride Star Tours as well on our first day at the Walt Disney World Resort!
In the past two days I have since printed out all of the Extra Magic Hours for the time period covering our trip. This information was on our website, so very easy for me to find. The operation hours of each of the four Walt Disney World Resorts (not including the Water Parks) has also been printed. I did laughingly tell my husband last night that by the time I get on the plane I will probably have several inches worth of paper printed out with information! This first trip is very important after all!
Armed with the hours and the Extra Magic Hours I can now plan which park we will be at during the day, and which one we will be at after hours. We are not planning to take advantage of many of the morning Extra Magic Hours during our four days because we come from the west, and will be losing two hours due to time zones. Getting up super early when it is two hours earlier than we are used to will not be easy, so we are not planning on doing that. That also means that the evening Extra Magic Hours are perfectly suited to us because of the time difference. It is important for you to take that into consideration when you begin planning your days. You do not want to plan something that will be very hard to do because that could lead to things not working out the way you wanted. Going to a Disney Resort is supposed to be fun, so don’t set yourself and your family up for ‘failure’ because of time change issues.
While most people do hate to over plan, having a schedule such as what day and what time you will be at a park makes it easier for you in the long run. Each night before sleeping you can look at your own planning pages to find out where you will be going the next day, and if you are going to a different park for Extra Magic Hours.
Right now, this is where I am at in my planning. My next step will be to find out more information about getting from park to park. Look for that information in Part III of this article!
* It is important to note that I did find the location of his favorite rides in my pre-planning stages, doing general work for our website, and in my years as a travel agent. For someone who has no knowledge of what rides they will like or not, you can either play it by ear when you arrive, or spend some time reading about each of the many parks at the Walt Disney World Resort.