You may or may not know that I am a Communication Arts professor. One of the Comm. Theories I teach is part of what is called Serial Position Effect. Specifically we study two effects within that called primacy and recency. To put this in layman’s terms these effects mean that the ORDER in which you do things (start and finish) is how people remember the entire experience.

So if you apply this to a Walt Disney World Trip then that means that the way you START your trip and the way you END your trip is how your family is going to remember the entire experience. This makes park decisions pretty important then, eh?

So what’s the Diva’s solution? uhhhhh I don’t have one.

You see, your family is different than mine and so what is important to your family is not necessarily important to mine. But I do have a few things for you to think about before you pick which park you’re going to on your first day in the parks and your last day in the parks.

1. Have you checked touring plans crowd calendar? If its someone’s first time to go to Disney World its very important that they don’t get so completely overwhelmed with the crowds that they never come back. Knowing which park is a “Best park” and which park is a “park to avoid” on that day will help. Also, please realize that if you choose to go to Disney World on a holiday that Magic Kingdom will be completely out of control busy!! All the parks will be more full on holidays, but MK is usually nutso. So make sure you know which is a best park for the day.

2. Interest Level – Ok lets be honest. If you give your young kids Magic Kingdom on the first day the rest of the parks *may* seem like a bit of a let down. Just think of it as like giving your kids their favorite ice cream before you serve them their favorite spaghetti and meatballs. Likewise if you have roller-coaster addicts and you go to Hollywood Studios on day one then the rest of the trip may feel like a let down. Its not because all of the parks aren’t great, they are. They just have DIFFERENT levels of “great” dependent on what things your individual family is interested in.  Example: For us if it’s a 7 day trip we go to Animal Kingdom first, we enjoy it, but its not our favorite.

For your first park you want to pick the park that the “second choice” for your family. Which means you’re excited about going to that one, but its not the one you’re most excited about. You can only do this by doing research on the parks and asking your family what they’re most excited about. Then you want to make sure that your last day (or half-day) in the park is at the “FAVORITE park”. Usually this is a re-peat park. (for us it is ALWAYS Magic Kingdom).

So I hope you’ll think about Primacy- Recency when you plan your next park order for your WDW trip. The way you START and the way you END is how people will recall the entire experience. Always stick the park/parks you think is/are most boring in the MIDDLE of the other parks. You should ABSOLUTELY talk to your family and have them rank their excitement about the parks from most excited to least excited and then go from that.

Good luck and happy planning!