Hi, Tricia!
Wow! Your first trip to Walt Disney World! You must be so excited! (Heck, I'm excited
for you!)
If fireworks and parades are your main focus, and you have a smartphone, download the complimentary app
My Disney Experience. This will ensure that you'll have all of the parade and nighttime extravaganza times right there in the palm of your hand. We've used that app on several WDW trips this year, and I can't imagine navigating the parks without it.
Enjoy each park on days when park hours are their longest. This will help you enjoy more attractions while seeking out entertainment options such as parades and fireworks.On 10/30/13 and 11/2/13, for example, Magic Kingdom is open until 9 p.m. (It closes at 7 on the other days of your stay.) Head there on your arrival day, and return, perhaps, on Saturday night. Check out this
WDW daily schedule for October 30th so that you can plan your day around two parades and Wishes nighttime spectacular. It will be a fabulous start to your stay!
On Halloween, if you don't have tickets to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, head to Epcot, where you'll enjoy IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, at 9 p.m. On 11/1, check out Animal Kingdom and Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade (3:45) or Disney's Hollywood Studios for Fantasmic! (7:30).
Return to MK on 11/2 or head to either AK or DHS, whichever you did not visit on 11/1. Keep in mind that because you have the Park Hopper Option, you can head to any other park on an evening when you've finished up early elsewhere. Seeing Wishes a second time (or seeing it for the first time if your little one couldn't stay up the first day) is a wonderful perk of the Park Hopper.
Send more questions as you think of them, Tricia; we love to help!