Buster and the Banshee thought that it would be interesting to walk through our trip planning process with our audience. As part of this series, we will address many of the aspects of WDW trip planning that all families go through.
In our previous article in this series, we discussed the different types of WDW park tickets, and how we decided on the right tickets for our family. In this article, we will talk about how we chose our park reservations.
I know that park reservations is a controversial topic among WDW fans. However, in the spirit of not worrying about things that we can’t control, we haven’t let it bothered us that much. Even before there was a park reservation system, we would still plan out what days we would visit each park very far in advance. This is so that we could be ready to make FastPass+ reservations and in-park dining reservations when those opportunities opened up. The park reservation system simply formalized this process for us.
If you recall from our previous articles, we will have 10 day tickets which are good from June 26th-July 9th. However, we are leaving from home on the morning of the 8th, so we really only have until the 7th to use our 10 day ticket. We essentially have to select park reservations for 10 days within this 12 day window.
As of the time of the publishing of this article, all parks have availability for the entirety of our trip, so we have no restrictions. Of course, we are six months out from our trip. As it gets closer, I imagine that many of those dates will start to fill up.
What Parks To Visit on July 3rd and 4th?
The first decision we have to make is what to do on July 3rd and 4th. Even though we have never visited the parks on these days, it doesn’t take a PhD to realize that these likely are some of the most popular and busiest days. Therefore, we wanted to make sure we locked in these reservations as early as possible. Our choice of parks is primarily based upon one thing: fireworks! It wouldn’t be a Fourth of July without fireworks, so we wanted to make sure to maximize our opportunity to see any special nighttime add-ons for the holiday.
According to the Disney website, it appears as if Magic Kingdom and Epcot both have special Fourth of July firework shows. So that narrows it down. Our first choice would be the Magic Kingdom. Who wouldn’t want to see a once-a-year fireworks event over the Castle? Although details haven’t been announced, in 2022, the Magic Kingdom held their special show both on July 3rd and 4th, so that gives us two potential days to choose from. On the other hand, the Epcot Fourth of July show was only held on the 4th in 2022. Therefore, we decided to reserve the MK on the 3rd and Epcot on the 4th. That gives us the opportunity to see both shows, assuming 2023 dates are similar to 2022.
With that out of the way, that leaves us with 8 more days of park reservations to make.
How Many Days Should We Reserve For Each Park?
Our next step is to figure out how many days we want to spend at each park. Generally, with a 10 day ticket, here is our suggestion:
- Magic Kingdom: 3 days
- Epcot: 2 or 3 days
- Hollywood Studios: 2 or 3 days
- Animal Kingdom: 2 days
Magic Kingdom
The reason why we suggest reserving MK for 3 days is that there are so many more rides here than at the other parks. You can probably hit most of the highlights in a day if you arrive at dawn and leave at closing, but that sort of touring plan isn’t something we recommend on what is supposed to be a ‘fun’ vacation. Two days is probably enough to see everything if you plan your days out right. However, 3 days gives you enough time to see everything at a leisurely pace, accounting for mid-day breaks, meals, and stopping to “smell the roses”.
Epcot and Hollywood Studios
We suggest 2 or 3 days at Epcot and at Hollywood Studios. Epcot does not have nearly as many rides as MK. However, Epcot is one of those parks that is about more than just the rides. You can probably hit all of the rides in a day, but that doesn’t allow for time to explore the different pavilions, watch the shows, visit the shops, sample the food and drink, and savor the little details that make Epcot special. An ideal visit to Epcot would consist of one day to ride the rides and do all of the theme park-y stuff, and one day to tour and explore. The third day would be there to revisit some of your favorite rides, foods, and shows.
Prior to the opening of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, we considered 2 days to be more than enough for Hollywood Studios. However, now that park is in the running for a third day. The main reason to consider a third day here is to give you another opportunity to ride Rise of the Resistance, which is arguably one of Disney’s finest experience. While the ride is absolutely amazing, it seems to break down quite frequently, much to our dismay. So having an extra reservation at this park gives you an extra chance to experience it in case you miss it on your first two days.
Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference on whether to give Epcot or Hollywood Studios that third reservation day. For us, the winner is Hollywood Studios. Since we are big Star Wars fans, we really value that third opportunity to ride Rise. Besides, since we have Park Hopper tickets, we can always split the difference. We can go to HS in the morning and then hop to Epcot in the afternoon – best of both worlds!
Animal Kingdom
That leaves 2 days for Animal Kingdom. As much as our family loves Animal Kingdom, there just isn’t enough there to justify more than 2 days of park reservations. We can usually see everything at a leisurely pace in 2 days.
Assign Park Reservations
Now that we know how many days we want to spend at each park, we can make our reservations. Here are some other considerations:
- We prefer not to go to the parks on the weekend, since they are usually more crowded. I’m guessing that Fourth of July weekend will be especially crowded! However, we might use one of those weekend days to visit Sea World. Banshee has been lobbying for a trip there, so this year we are going to try to make that happen!
- While dates have not been announced for the 2023 edition of the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, 2022’s edition went through July 4th. Therefore, we want to reserve Epcot for the first week so we possibly can catch the tail end of this event.
- Magic Kingdom generally seems to be most busy (relatively speaking) early in the week (Sun – Tues). This is because most people start their WDW vacation on those days and want MK to be their first park. Therefore, it makes sense to go against the grain!
- Generally, we would prefer not to reserve the same park on consecutive days. Variety is the spice of life!
Based upon that, here is what we are going with:
Obviously, as we start to layer in dining reservations, special events, etc, we might need to move some of these around. However, this gives us a starting point for our trip.
So there you go… our park reservations! Hopefully walking through our process is helpful to you as you make your own reservations. Feel free to add your comment on how you think we might improve upon our plan.
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