3 day hoppers but 4 parks what to do?

[djm99]

This is my third trip to Disney. Once when I was a teenager, and last year. Both times only visiting Magic Kingdom. I have gone to Disneyland/Epcot several times in my childhood and adult life. Well, this year I have 3 day hopper passes and I'm kind of torn with what park strategy to use. It doesn't seem that I want to spend so much time in Epcot (because of the countries) - which doesn't sound too interesting to children. Did I mention that I'm kind of the "tour guide" for 4 families joining us this year. The families consist of late twenties - early thirties. The children are boys ages 9,6, and 10. Girls ages 22 months, 4, 4, and 11.


Do you think these children will find Epcot interesting? or boring?

Which parks would you choose? and why?

Or should I do half day in Magic Kingdom or maybe Animal Kingdom? Help me please - I'm working on my schedule.

 

[mmeb144]

Animal Kingdom can be a half day park real easy. Take them to see Festival of the Lion King, for sure. At EPCOT, there are stops at each of the countries for the kids to make a mask. The girls would probably really enjoy this; the boys might, too. I would have MK be an all day park because there is so much to experience. MGM is a toss-up, about half day vs whole day. You could pair this up with the AK day to see Fantasmic at the end of the day. For my kids, Fantasmic is a must see. You definitely need to find out what the must sees are with your group.

Marie

 

[decker96]

We had a similar situation when we were there last. We only had 3 full days and one late afternoon and evening in the parks. Since we went in the off-season, we had some of our choices made for us because of the hours the parks were open. Our first afternoon and evening we went to Epcot because it was open later than the other parks. The next day we went to MK all day and Epcot at night. Next day was AK until lunch (we met my grandparents for lunch so we had to leave but would have loved to spend more time here) then back to Epcot for the evening. The last day we went to MGM during the day and then MK at night for Spectro (this was the only night MK was open late).
Are all of you touring together all the time? If you are, given the ages of the kids and the fact that you are going in the summer, I wouldn't only spend a half day in MK. Our kids then 5 and 2 loved Epcot. Their favorites were The Living Seas, Imagination Pavillion, the boat ride in the Mexico pavillion and playing on the Viking ship outside the Norway pavillion.
It's hard to pick a park to skip. I would decide on your must-do attractions at each park and make sure you do those. If your staying on-site take advantage of EMH and use Fastpass for sure!

 

[Disneyland_emily]

I agree alot of it should be dependant on hours but my advice-

Day 1- MK all day (with little kids unless you get out to DL much then MK is a must-)
Day 2- Studios till lunch then Epcot (Get a few things out of the way at Studios then over to Epcot for the afternoon/night when its all in full swing)
Day 3- DAK till afternoon then Studios (DAK's highlights can be hit pretty good in the morning/early afternoon then hit back to Studios to finish up and see F!-)

-em

 

[DCSingle]

You have a fairly wide range of ages with the kids so it's a little tough. I do think there's a lot at MK for all of these ages so I would say maybe a day and a half there and half a day at each of the other three parks. That way you can pretty much do everything everyone wants at MK and plan more of a "hit the highlights" tour of the other three parks. You can save the second half day at MK for your last day so that if there's another park that really catches everyone's interest you could spend a full day there instead.

 

[Dopey Sharon]

Originally posted by DCSingle
You have a fairly wide range of ages with the kids so it's a little tough. I do think there's a lot at MK for all of these ages so I would say maybe a day and a half there and half a day at each of the other three parks. That way you can pretty much do everything everyone wants at MK and plan more of a "hit the highlights" tour of the other three parks. You can save the second half day at MK for your last day so that if there's another park that really catches everyone's interest you could spend a full day there instead.

 

[LuvTigger]

I once did all four parks in two days! (But it was only myself and a friend, and it was during a slow time of year.)

Do you have enough time to "survey" your companions ahead of time? What I'm thinking is to find out now what their general interests are. Figure out who is and isn't interested in riding roller coasters, tower of terror, etc. And also find out if there are any "must dos" for anyone. To keep it under control, maybe you could limit each person to one "must do."

I think you could do all of the parks, but you'll need to have a good idea of what's in each park, and what each child is able to ride because of height restrictions. I would make a list of "must dos" for each park, and be sure you include something for all ages (maybe Dumbo for the little ones, Space Mountain for the adults, etc.).

You could also mix it up a bit and spend one day doing two parks, even if you plan to return to one of those parks again. It will allow a bit of time to rest if you're on a monorail from MK to EPCOT, etc. I think spending the first day at MK, at least in the morning and early afternoon, then go to another park like EPCOT or MGM. The next day you could go to AK first thing (to see the animals while they're active), do whatever you can there since most kids are fascinated by animals, then you could spend that night at EPCOT or MGM (whichever one you didn't go to the first night). The third day you can go back to whatever park your travel companions enjoyed the most, and end your last night with the fireworks at MK (if they're showing).

Let us know how it works! Sounds like it's going to be interesting!