5 Days, Kids 4 and 6, which parks?

[Carla1183]

Doing our first trip to Disney in November 2017. We'll be looking to do it as budget friendly as possible, but likely won't be doing it again super soon like so many of you lucky ducks!
We're doing 6 nights/5 days, week before Thanksgiving. Was initially thinking MK 2 days, AK 1 day, trekking out to Universal for 1 day, then one down day somewhere in the middle.

Now I'm wondering if we should do HS instead of AK? I had marked that off my list but now that I'm hearing there is a Frozen singalong and a Disney Jr show there, I'm torn! Disney Jr is definitely my kids fave now (Lion Guard 24/7!), but we are starting to introduce all the full length ones, so I'm sure they'll be brushed up by next year!

I love, loved Epcot as an older child and teen, but wondering if it's worth doing one of only 3 or 4 park days there with our kids so young.
And I could be swayed against Universal, which is really for ME, since I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. I'll have to find a young-kid friendly way to intro it to them in the next year if we do it.

Sorry for the long post by a newbie! I'm sure you get this same question 1000x per week and I'm browsing, but thought I'd ask! Thank you!

 

[Hikergirl]

If its your kids first trip I would do them all, with 2 days for MK.

 

[stobaugh6]

If it were me I would skip universal, add another day of disney, and do MK twice and the other three parks once. In my opinion, all of the disney parks will have more for your little ones verses Universal. Have fun!!

 

[Carla1183]

With kids this age you don't think we need one down day? So many of the reviews I've read said we'd need it. Just to do hotel pool, (although Nov weather could be hit or miss), and relax?
We've done six flags and cabin lake trips with them, but nothing that asked 5 consecutive days of "go go!", so I really have no idea if they are troopers or not!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

out theme park junkies loved all the parks. we did 6 days and wish we could have done a down day but e\with your short trip I would try for all parks. plus with young kids not sire how universal will go over. unless they make height it could be a lot of waiting while you enjoy. our 4 year old loved the booklet and getting the stamps at AK.

 

[Hikergirl]

With kids this age you don't think we need one down day? So many of the reviews I've read said we'd need it. Just to do hotel pool, (although Nov weather could be hit or miss), and relax?
We've done six flags and cabin lake trips with them, but nothing that asked 5 consecutive days of "go go!", so I really have no idea if they are troopers or not!

I think it just depends, when my kids were little we never really had a down day because we weren't commando style. We'd head to the parks a little later, use the pool in the morning. We'd stay until the park closed, but my kids have always been night owls. The older they got, we would take a day to hang out at the resort and hit Downtown Disney at night. They just weren't into the parks like when they were small.
You could always do afternoon breaks every day if its not too much of a hassle.

 

[HeatherL1985]

We spend 2 days in MK and one day each for the other parks. Our favorite touring style is a rope drop morning, mid-day break, and close it down in the evening. With this type of touring we definitely wouldn't need an off day for a 5 day trip.

From a budget standpoint, I would stick with Disney since the price of admission for the fourth day is about half of the price of a one day ticket to Universal. If your family is super stoked to try both, then I would suggest hopper passes and do two days at MK, a split day (AK morning / HS evening) and one (or two) days at Universal.

 

[Princess Pea]

We went last when my kids were 6 and almost 3 and did 5 park days with no rest day. We did MK twice and each of the other parks once. We also did MNSSHP the night of our AK day. They both did great with the exception of one meltdown from my daughter on the last day at HS. We had the stroller for my daughter but my 6 year old son walked the whole time without complaint.

 

[Thing 1]

No universal. Two days at MK and one at each of the other parks. No off days. If you are on site, do a afternoon break, if not plan a sit down meal as a break. We followed this plan when mine were preschool and it worked well! We do hoppers so we do sometimes do evenings in different parks.

 

[Carla1183]

Thanks guys, this does help!
If no park hopper, can we still come and go to same park same day? Take a break at resort then go back at night? im pretty sure yes, but just checking!

Sounds like i need to save my harry potter trip for when they are bigger!

 

[Calee]

We just did our first trip with our 8, 6 and 4 year olds. I almost skipped epcot thinking there was not enough, and it ended up being everyone's favorite lark. Don't skip it! Skip universal for now. And yes you can do breaks and return to the same park later.

 

[roseaster]

Thanks guys, this does help!
If no park hopper, can we still come and go to same park same day? Take a break at resort then go back at night? im pretty sure yes, but just checking!

Sounds like i need to save my harry potter trip for when they are bigger!

Yes, you can.

We did wait util out kids were bigger to do Universal. We are glad we did because they could ride more things.

When my kids were little they really enjoyed HS. There are a lot of great shows there, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney, and hopefully by next fall some of the expansions will be complete (fingers crossed)

 

[scrapquitler]

With kids this age you don't think we need one down day? So many of the reviews I've read said we'd need it. Just to do hotel pool, (although Nov weather could be hit or miss), and relax?
We've done six flags and cabin lake trips with them, but nothing that asked 5 consecutive days of "go go!", so I really have no idea if they are troopers or not!

Actually the mid-day break is probably a better strategy (at least for my gang) than a day off. We all get restless on an off day...we just want to be in the park! What we do is go to a park in the morning, leave at lunch time and then go back to the room for a nap and return to the parks for dinner and evening fun.

 

[Kerriowl]

I agree with two days at MK, with one each at the other three. I would do midday breaks over a down day since the cost for day 5 of tickets in so minimal. We did 7 days with no down day with my two kids twice, ages 2 and 5, and again at 4 and 7. This year we plan to do 7 Disney days followed by 3 Universal days at ages 6 and 9. This might do us in.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'm going to agree with the other PP's. My DS has been to WDW multiple times, yearly, since he was one. With the age of your children, I would buy a 5-day, base tickets and do 2 MK days plus 1 day at each of the other parks. Yes, with the base, you can go in the morning, leave and then go back to the same park in the evening. We've done this a lot. We would even just do rope drop until about 3 pm and then call it quits for the day OR pool in the morning with a later start in the parks. Especially with younger kids when you aren't doing bigger rides, you really don't have to go commando at all. For the sake of your budget, I would skip Universal on this trip as adding on that ticket is going to cost you hundreds of dollars. I didn't do WWOHP at Uni until my DS was 7 and even then he was too young. He enjoyed it, but didn't really know what he was looking at plus he didn't want to ride the bigger rides. IMHO, I would save Uni until your kids are at least 8 or 9.

 

[Carla1183]

Thank yall for so much help!