Welcome to planDisney, Edna! I'm super excited to chat with you today and to help you finalize your plans for your first visit to the Walt Disney World Resort! Soon you'll be surrounded by magic, hugging your favorite characters, and enjoying all the Mickey-shaped snacks you can handle!
Edna, with your 2-Day Park Hopper ticket, you've got a great itinerary in mind to experience a little bit of everything that each of the four theme parks has to offer! Choosing to stay at a Disney Resort hotel and utilizing
Early Theme Park Entry will give you a head start on the fun!
Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is usually the earliest park to open, and my plan of action is to always arrive at least 45 minutes before early entry time and head straight to
Avatar Flight of Passage as soon as the park opens! Next, we usually head to Navi River Journey and then over to Expedition Everest, followed by Dinosaur! We find that the early morning wait times for these attractions are usually pretty manageable, so with your plan to park hop over to Disney's Hollywood Studios, I'd recommend purchasing
Lightning Lane Multi Pass for Hollywood Studios and choosing return times for your top attractions after lunch. Your other option would be to purchase Multi Pass and choose early return times at Animal Kingdom and then pick up additional times at Hollywood Studios as you redeem your initial selections, but you might find some popular attractions (like Slinky Dog Dash) to be unavailable if you do this.
Bonus tip: When you're getting ready for your day, you can check under the Hotel Reservations tab in the
My Disney Experience mobile app to see Bus Wait Times. Here you'll see the expected time for the next bus to be at your resort and its anticipated arrival time at your destination. This helps us to stay on track to be out the door in time to catch an early bus with less waiting!
While we're chatting about Lightning Lane Passes, Edna, you'll be eligible to book your passes 7 days in advance of your check-in date at your Disney Resort hotel for both days, so mark your calendar now and check out the
included attractions so you'll be ready to go at 7 AM on the day you become eligible to get the best selections! My recommendation would be to purchase Multi Pass for Magic Kingdom for your second day, but also remember that with your park hopper ticket, once you redeem your initial selections at Magic Kingdom, you can then check for available attractions at EPCOT for the same day at no additional cost! This is a great way to maximize the value of the product and use it at both of your destinations!
Since you'll be splitting time between Magic Kingdom and EPCOT (yes, you can re-enter Magic Kingdom), it's worth noting that in addition to Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you can purchase two Lightning Lane Single Passes for the same day (this includes Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON at Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT). Keep this in mind if you're looking to experience any of these popular thrill rides!
I hope this helps, Edna! If you have any other questions or need any other recommendations choosing your attractions,
come see me again, and I'd be happy to help you choose! You're going to have a magical vacation!
See you real soon,
Alison