How Do I Plan My Park Days?

I mentioned in my post about making dining reservations that part of my process is to know which park we are going to on which days.  I thought it might be helpful if I explained this in a little more detail.

There are a number of factors that play into our decision about which park we will visit on a particular day.  The first thing I do is a little research on the park hours and events during our visit.  You can get this information from the Disney World site. Use the calendar on the right of the pane to select the first day when you will be at the parks. With this selection, you should see the park hour information update on this page. 

Your first question might be "What are Extra Magic Hours?" These are extra hours the park is open and available for guests staying at the Walt Disney World Resort hotels.  In order to be in the parks during these extra hours, you have to provide proof that you are staying on resort property.  Not all attractions within the park will be open, but those that are most popular will certainly be available. 
One important note...The park that offers Extra Magic Hours on a particular day will be the busiest park on that day.  Therefore, there are two different plans of attack.  You could either spend the day in the Extra Magic Hours park to partake in the extra time, or you might want to avoid that park and enjoy another park with fewer people.  As a third alternative, you could enjoy one park during regular park hours then enjoy only the Extra Magic Hours in the other park.  However, if you plan to do this, you need to have the "Park Hopper" option on your park passes so that you can visit two different parks on the same day.

Now that you have a feel for Extra Magic Hours, let's get into some of the other details available elsewhere.  I typically like to visit the parks during off-peak times.  During these times, things like the fireworks do not run every night.  I use this link to find information about fireworks, parades, and other events.  Just select the month for your trip and review the calendar.  For example, if you look at December 5- 9, 2012 you will see that Illuminations will be performed at Epcot each night at 9:30.  However, Wishes will be performed at Magic Kingdom only twice during that window.  One performance on 12/5 at 8pm and a second on 12/8 at 10pm. 

Once I have this information collected, then I start the planning process.  I put together several lists:

• A "Must Do" list for each park we plan to visit including rides, events, activities, entertainment, or other items we want to see and do in that park
• A "Desired Restaurants" list for each park we plan to visit.  This list is only for table service restaurants where I might like to get reservations. 
• A list of the dates we will be there, including the details of our partial travel days (arrival time, departure times, etc.)

Next put together a single piece of paper for each day we will be in the parks.  We were in-park for seven days, so I started with seven sheets of paper. The paper is not titled with the date, but rather with the name of a park.  For example, on our last trip we had a 4 1/2 year old, so we knew we would be spending plenty of time at Magic Kingdom.   Of my original seven pieces of paper, three were titled "Magic Kingdom." I also knew that we wanted to do a Princess Character Meal at the Norway Pavilion at Epcot (from the "Must Do" list), so I entitled one sheet "Epcot." I continued to title sheets based on the parks we wanted to visit and the items on the "Must Do" list.  Allocate days based on the length of your "Must Do" list at that park. 

Once this work is done, then I start to fill in some of the date details (be sure to use pencil, because they may need to change a few times as you work through the details).  Using the fireworks example above, I know that one of the "Magic Kingdom" sheets need to be assigned to December 5th or 8th if the Wishes fireworks are on our "Must Do" list.  If I want to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours, then I can assign those parks to those dates. Finally, fill in the remainder of the dates to fill in the remainder of your trip.

Using my real-trip example, our day at Epcot wasn't dependent on Extra Magic Hours or the Illuminations fireworks performance.  Instead, it was dependent on being able to get a reservation for the Princess Character Meal.  Because we are not early risers, I wanted either a lunch or dinner meal. I went to the online reservation site to make a reservation, but I could not find one to suit my family on the day I had originally planned for Epcot.  When I swapped the dates for our visits to Animal Kingdom and Epcot, I was able to find a lunch reservation that worked for us.

Once I have pinned down which parks we will visit on which days, then I make all the table service reservations using the "Desired Restaurants" list.  This list contains several different options for each park, so that when I go to book the reservations if one restaurant isn't available I can just move to the next on the list. I write down the restaurant, reservation time, and confirmation number on the appropriate sheet so that the information for a particular day stays in one place.

After all the planning and reservations have been made, I put together a spreadsheet that contains all the information we will need for the trip.  All of our flight information, confirmation numbers (flight, hotel, dining, etc), and park plans (day-by-day including dining details) are placed into this single document.  I print this document for myself, but I also email it to a web-accessible email account.  That way if I lose my original copy I just need to get online to retrieve another.

I hope these details help you understand how I go about planning my park days.  I can't say my method is perfect, but it certainly helps me to make sure that we make the most of our time inside Walt Disney World.


Let me know if you have a special way that you plan your in-park time.