Another Disney World question - which park would you skip?

ShanJosh777 · December 2011

We are only doing two days w/ park hopper. I am planning on Magic Kingdom for a full day, then want to split the other day between two of the others. I'm leaning toward Animal Kingdom and Epcot, unless someone can tell me why Hollywood Studios would be better than one of those.

DS will be a couple months shy of 4 at the time of the trip in March. It's tough because I think there are things he would like at each. What do you think?

bride2be79 · December 2011

Personally, I would skip Hollywood Studios. Animal Kingdom is awesome IMO, I would start there in case you decide you want to stay for the entire day and skip Epcot. I feel like older kids get more out of Epcot. If your DS likes animals/zoos he will be enthralled by AK.

In the interest of full disclosure, we haven't taken DD to Disney yet, this is just my opinion based on my experiences at the parks (both as a kid and as an adult). Have fun!

ashg8r · December 2011

For our recent 2 day trip we did EPCOT and DHS in 1 day, MK on the full day. My reasons - they are right by each other, so we walked from 1 park to the other, DD LOVES Disney Jr right now, and DHS has a cute show, Toy Story ride (but the line gets really long and fastpasses can run out early, but we get there early, ride with a short wait, then pick up FP for later), and I think the design of the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground is easier to keep track of kiddos than the Boneyard at AK.

I like AK, but unless your son LOVES animals and/or dinos, I'd pick DHS, just for convenience sake.

JenPett · December 2011

We just took DS for the first time in October. He is 2. We skipped Animal Kingdom only because it poured the entire time we were there. (Literally, 14 inches of rain in one day...but we stayed out all day!) DS loved DHS because of the Disney Junior characters in the Art of Animation, watching Beauty and the Beast on stage, Disney Junior character meal at Hollywood and Vine, Toy Story ride and characters, etc. He really liked the Great Movie Ride (he loves the Wizard of Oz...)

EPCOT is great too for seeing characters, Finding Nemo ride...

I have nothing aganist AK, I just didn't want to spend 2 days outside in the rain.

Tough choice!

la79al · December 2011

Hands down, I would skip HS. There was not a lot for DD1 to do there when she was 2 and there was not a lot for my stepdaughter to do there the month after she turned 4. If you are only doing 2 days and doing them back to back, I would only do AK or Epcot the second day. MK is going to be a lot for one day. I personally would do the second day solely at AK. There is more to do there for kids than at Epcot. Between my stepkids and my LOs, we have pretty much taken kids of every age and AK is always the second favorite park after MK. The only time, since kids, that I have really been able to enjoy Epcot was when we took DD1 at 10 months and she was content in the stroller. Also keep in mind that Epcot is a big park and the things he might enjoy are spread out. Trying to time it out might be very exhausting after a full MK day.

MrsCripe10 · December 2011

Hollywood studios, not much to actually do but shop.

CountryMile · December 2011

We were just there. It was my first time. I wish we went to AK more than just the one day we went. (it was the last day!) I would totally skip HS.

momtoRaegan041008 · December 2011

I would do Magic Kindom and Animal Kingdom and skip the other 2. Epcot is really an all day park if you want to go through each country. If you were going at Christmas I would say you need to to Hollywood Studios at night for The Osbourne lights, but since you're not the only thing really there is the Toy Story ride. I would also suggest staying or coming back for Wishes. At Animal Kingdom make sure you get to the Safari in the morning so the animals are up and moving. Have fun!

shopgirl78 · December 2011

Wow! I'd skip Epcot and plan to skip it next time we go in March. It just isn't the park for little kids and was a ton of walking. They only thing we will miss is the Princess breakfast (but are doing 1900 Park Fare and Royal Table this time) and Nemo--that was pretty cool. Were we missing something else? We saw a lot of the characters in the various countries and did a kid craft or two-- but crafts at disney, no need... It was so hot in August. My kids have no clue who Honey I shrunk the kids were and very thing else seemed too grown. I do think this will be our fav in the future and if we brought more adults...

On the other hand we enjoyed HS. We liked the shows and it was a nice down day esp in the AUgust heat. They kids loved seeing the playhouse disney characters! We loved that we got to see some boy stuff (Cars, power rangers, handy manny)and step away from the princesses. Toy Story was by far DS's fav ride.

I'd split AK and HS, send on parent to HS to get a FP for Toy Story and get an AM FP for the safari : )

ShanJosh777 · December 2011

shopgirl78:
Wow! I'd skip Epcot and plan to skip it next time we go in March. It just isn't the park for little kids and was a ton of walking. They only thing we will miss is the Princess breakfast (but are doing 1900 Park Fare and Royal Table this time) and Nemo--that was pretty cool. Were we missing something else? We saw a lot of the characters in the various countries and did a kid craft or two-- but crafts at disney, no need... It was so hot in August. My kids have no clue who Honey I shrunk the kids were and very thing else seemed too grown. I do think this will be our fav in the future and if we brought more adults...
On the other hand we enjoyed HS. We liked the shows and it was a nice down day esp in the AUgust heat. They kids loved seeing the playhouse disney characters! We loved that we got to see some boy stuff (Cars, power rangers, handy manny)and step away from the princesses. Toy Story was by far DS's fav ride.
I'd split AK and HS, send on parent to HS to get a FP for Toy Story and get an AM FP for the safari : )

See, my original thought was to skip Epcot, but I really want to see the Flower and Garden Festival. So then I start to wonder if I should just do all three. With an almost-4yo that is insane, right?

shopgirl78 · December 2011

It would be insane--doing all 3 in ONE day right?!?! We got there at 7pm the first night went to MK (did the night time stuff) went back to MK the next day and did a park per day for the next 3 days (we actually wished we had another day for MK), we couldn't see it all in 41/2 days, so 2 would be tough. We sure tried and were exhausted--no going back to the hotel during the day. It was nothing short of magical or exhausting. Loved it! Can you buy more time? To me, one almost 4 year old would be easy : )

ShanJosh777 · December 2011

shopgirl78:
Can you buy more time? To me, one almost 4 year old would be easy : )

Now I'm really considering adding an extra day to our park hopper. I was hesitant to spend the $100 extra per person, because we are getting in on Wednesday, supposed to be around 10am I believe. But I was just afraid with a flight delay (not uncommon from PIT in the winter) or delays at the airport or with transportation, it could be much later by the time we get to our resort and stuff. I hate to spend the money if we may only have half a day or less. But maybe if I did that we could do one of the parks that afternoon/evening.

The other option would be Saturday, but my husband is leaving and my parents are coming in and we are going with them to spend another week in Tampa (which is why we're only doing a short stay at Disney), so that would also not be a full day. We could maybe change my husband to a later flight... I will have to look into it.

I think I need to get out of the mindset of wanting to do/see everything he would possibly be interested in on this one trip. This is not (hopefully) going to be a once in a lifetime thing. When he is a little older, we definitely want to do a longer trip and do all of Disney. But I just feel like this age is so "magical" I want to do as much as we can in our short time.

shopgirl78 · December 2011

I will agree with you: 1. You can't do it all and the maitre d at the hotel stated that up from when I was booking and trying to fit it all in our first trip. 2. 4 was a completely magical age for DD. It was so magical that I worry about this trip. She's into the princesses but its not the same. She's started to move on. I have no regrets taking her at age 4. It was awesome. I am not so sure for a boy because my son was 2 when we went (and I was pregnant). He really liked it though. It will be interesting to see how it changes for him and her.

We get in (granted from DFW) Orlando at 11am and have 2pm reservations at MK. I was told it would be tight but doable by a reservations specialist : ) We are staying at the polynesian hotel on the monorail and will use the free transport from the airport to the hotel.

With that said, I can tell you that during our first trip when we went to MK for just that night, we had a quick meal, watched the Wishes Parade (so sad its gone) and Fireworks (3 hours top) that counted for a whole day but it was so worth seeing.

Not sure if its possible but my mom gets tickets cheap through the military, not sure if you know someone in the service maybe they could hook you up. They are something like 60% off.

Go ahead and book where you want to eat if you do character meals. We had to take some not so good times for reservations we wanted.

jymers · December 2011

I used to work at WDW. And I would skip Epcot and Hollywood Studios. They are for older people and will not interest young kids very much. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kindgom are where I will be taking my kids when they are older.

DarcyLongfellow · December 2011

No way is adding one more day an extra $100 per person. $100 total maybe. The per day price gets cheaper the more days you add.

I'd skip Hollywood Studios. Not much for a toddler to do. I think Epcot is great for little kids. Tons of character opportunities, plus DD loves the rides there.

Stellar1 · December 2011

I live in Orlando and we have taken our daughter to most of the parks except Epcot. If I was going to do three I would go to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. My daughter loved all three of those! Epcot is awesome but I think it is more for older kids so they appreciate it more.

ShanJosh777 · December 2011

DarcyLongfellow:
No way is adding one more day an extra $100 per person. $100 total maybe. The per day price gets cheaper the more days you add.

I'd skip Hollywood Studios. Not much for a toddler to do. I think Epcot is great for little kids. Tons of character opportunities, plus DD loves the rides there.

The 2-day with park hopper tickets are $111.50 per person per day and a 3-day park hopper is $95.67 per person, per day. It will be slightly cheaper for my 3 year old, but not a lot. And my teenage sister is also going along, so it would be close to $400 to add the day.

ETA: OK I just realized that it would bring the price of the other two days down as well, so it would be a little over $250 difference for all of us to add a day. I guess that is worth considering. I'm not really on a strict budget, it's Disney after all so I'm expecting to spend a lot, but don't want to waste money either.

anonsouthernbell · December 2011

ShanJosh777:
DarcyLongfellow:
No way is adding one more day an extra $100 per person. $100 total maybe. The per day price gets cheaper the more days you add.

I'd skip Hollywood Studios. Not much for a toddler to do. I think Epcot is great for little kids. Tons of character opportunities, plus DD loves the rides there.
The 2-day with park hopper tickets are $111.50 per person per day and a 3-day park hopper is $95.67 per person, per day. It will be slightly cheaper for my 3 year old, but not a lot. And my teenage sister is also going along, so it would be close to $400 to add the day.
ETA: OK I just realized that it would bring the price of the other two days down as well, so it would be a little over $250 difference for all of us to add a day. I guess that is worth considering. I'm not really on a strict budget, it's Disney after all so I'm expecting to spend a lot, but don't want to waste money either.

I bought my tickets from Undercover Tourist. (It is contracted, licensed, and authorized by Walt Disney World and you can save a lot of money on tickets that way). If you sign up for Mousesavers' newsletter you can get a discount code and save even more. Plus, they have free shipping

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