anything for 4 year old at other parks...

[laurafaith]

just wondering if there is anything my 4 year old would be interested in at the other parks besides MK and AK -- and if so top picks rides and attractions(and parks) thanks alot!!!

 

[RivaLJ]

I took my DS4 to WDW last August.
In AK he enjoyed Kali River Rapids, Killamanjaro Safaris and Dinosaur
In MGM-Great Movie Ride, STar Tours and the shows like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Muppets 3D, Lights Camera Action. There is a height requirement for Tower of Terror.
In Epcot- Soarin', Test Track, Journey into Imagination, Ellen's Energy Adventure, Spaceship Earth, Maelstrom/
There is so much for children to see at all the parks. give them a chance!

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

First of all, welcome to the boards! Secondly, oh my gosh, YES!!! We've been to the world twice with our kids. The first time, they were 4 & 1. The last time they were 6 & 3. There is so much in the Studios & Epcot they enjoyed. Here are our top picks:

Epcot Future World:
-- The Living Seas -- both kids LOVED seeing the fish, especially manatees, which we don't see in our local aquarium. We haven't seen Turtle Talk yet, but it's supposed to be awesome!
-- Soarin' - I can't wait for my kids to ride this in October!! It's amazing!
-- There are also other activities in The Land. My kids enjoyed the Circle of Life "movie" It's a minor attraction, though. Don't go if you're limited on time.
-- Journey Into Your Imagination with Figment is a really cute ride for little ones. And the Kodak sponsored activities at the end of the ride are fun as well. I would avoid the Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3-D movie, though. It has some special effects that are frightening for smaller children.
-- Spaceship Earth - both of my kids really enjoyed this ride. It's slow & calm. Nothing scary at all!
-- Universe of Energy - We didn't do this one last time, but when DD was 4-1/2, she was a little scared of the dinosaurs, but totally fascinated by the moving seats!
-- My kids also enjoyed watching the fountains behind Spaceship Earth and the jumping fountains outside Journey into Your Imagination.
-- There's also now a Character Connection meet & greet in Future World. I popped my head in in January, just to see who was there, as my kids weren't with me. I saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Donald, and I think Daisy.

Epcot World Showcase:
-- Rio del Tiempo in Mexico is fun. It gets bashed here on the boards sometimes, but my kids like it. There is one area that has a "It's a Small World" kind of display with dancing dolls.
-- Chinese acrobats
-- the train set up near Germany
-- dancing to Off Kilter in Canada
-- Kidcot stations, where kids can make masks in each country
-- Illuminations -- but my kids are fireworks junkies! They love them!

Disney - MGM Studios:
-- Playhouse Disney Live Onstage! -- This is a great show for little ones, as it's characters they know & love from Playhouse Disney shows.
-- Voyage of the Little Mermaid -- is a bit scary w/ huge Ursula
-- Beauty & the Beast show
-- Great Movie Ride -- I covered their eyes during the Aliens scene. But they adored the Wizard of Oz scenes, since that's one of their fav movies!
-- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground -- makes you feel just like you're in the movie!
-- Muppets 3-D. Nothing frightening in this 3-D - just fun!
-- Toy Story characters outside Al's Toy Barn
-- Lots of character meet & greets!


This is just off the top of my head. Hope it helps!

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

In MGM there is also the Disney Playhouse. And they also have a really fun playground for various ages, from toddler on up. It's the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie/Playground. It has sprays to cool off. It's so much fun, everything is so oversized so the kids feel like they are bug sized.

 

[laurafaith]

these boards are AWESOME -- i would have never thought so much to do with a 4 year at the other parks -- my son is very very short -- so rides with a height requirement wont work for him -- thanks a MILLION for helpful info --

 

[susykt4]

Do a lot of research on Epcot before you go. We went with DD (then 18 months) in 2001 and just wandered around, having no idea what to do. We totally felt like we wasted that day of our trip.

Fast forward to April, 2005... DD is now 4 1/2 and DS is 2. I did tons of Epcot research here on the DISboards and Epcot was both kids 2nd favorite park after Magic Kingdom. The last night of our trip we let DD decide which park she wanted to visit one more time and she chose Epcot.

We also took a January, 2006 trip (kids now 5 and 3) and both loved Epcot again. Probably DD's favorite thing at WDW this trip was the jumping fountain outside of the Imagination pavillion. We visited that thing several times. Other things my kids enjoyed were Turtle Talk, as well as the entire Living Seas, Soarin', Living with the Land, the Imagination ride and especially the "playground" afterward and Ellen's Energy Adventure. We met TONS of characters in World Showcase and even my impatient, easily bored DS3 enjoyed making the Kidcot mask. My favorite new thing we did at Epcot was Fantastic Plastics in Innoventions East. You design a computer robot and then race it against about 15 other people and then you get to build your own FREE plastic robot to take home. My kids loved this!

As far as MGM, that is my family's least favorite park. They have tons of characters, a great afternoon parade, the Honey, I Shrunk playground and Playhouse Disney. My kids don't like sitting through shows or loud noises so a lot of the attractions here are not for us.

Oh, one other thing my train-loving kids liked was the monorail ride between MK and Epcot. We did that several times even if we didn't actually go to the other park. (The monorail ride was the "ride.")

 

[BabyMo]

Does your son like Star Wars? If you say he's small, then he's probably not going to be able to ride Star Tours at MGM, but he might like seeing the big AT-AT out in front of the ride.

 

[The Sweetness]

My dd14 was fascinated with the boat ride in The land at EPCOT when she was a shorty

 

[tommygirl79]

I second the idea of taking them to ALL the parks. We went twice in the last year or so with girls (almost 5 NOW and 2 1/2 now).

MK and AK are more obvious with kids stuff, but like the FP said, EPCOT was their second favorite park after MK as well. We really did our research with EPCOT and my DD almost chose to go back to EPCOT our last day instead of MK!!! The world showcase was great!! She did all the Kidcot stations and thought that was cool (a couple of the CM wrote her name in the their language on the mask she made and it makes an excellent souvenir from her younger days). They love the toy store in England where the Pooh characters hang out (we saw Mary Poppins there once too), in Morocco they wrote her name and the word "Princess" on her mask and as we toured around most of the CMs called her Princess Aubrey which was cool!! Plus, you can find Aladdin and Jasmin in the area quite often. In France, we had usually skipped the movie there (I can't remember what's it called) but we went ahead in as they were starting a show and we all actually found it pretty good and just a nice relaxing family time. Belle and Aurora were also found there.

In Japan we made sure to be at Myuki's (the candy lady's) stand 15 minutes ahead of time and ended up with these handmade candy. It's amazing to watch and a highlight of our trip.

In the American Pavilion we love to watch the accapella group in there (is it Voices of Liberty or something?) DD got pulled from the crowd and sang to and we like the show in there.

In Italy, they have the very entertaining mime/juggler/comedian that we watched and DDs loved! In Germany they like the train setup and the German toy shop. In China they loved the Acrobats and saw Mulan and Mushu and she chose a beautiful chinese umbrella that they wrote her name on for a souvenir.

She loved Rio Del Tiempo ride in Mexico and Maelstrom ride in Norway and she always have to try on the Viking hats they have there.

In future world she LOVED Soarin' and rode it 4 times in one day (twice with each me and DH). We took DD2 on The Land ride which is right next to Soarin' and she loved that (especially the Mickey shaped pumpkins). They also love Imagination with Figment, Turtle Talk with Crush (a MUST SEE!!!), and that's just the stuff off the top of my head.

We finished off the day with Le Cellier and you can tell what DD2 though of it!

As you can tell, we all loved it and it proved to be one of our best days there.


As far as MGM goes, we went there our first full day and spent the entire day there without any problem. They loved Playhouse Disney, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, The Tribute to Walt Disney walk through and movie, The Great Movie Ride (can be scary for some kids), The Muppet Movie, Lights Motor Action!, The Stars and Motor Cars Parade. They also saw a bunch of characters including Tigger, Chicken Little, Abby Mallard, Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie. DD loved sitting on Herbie for a picture.

And don't forget Fantasmic! We all loved it. Since it was January when we were there last, we only had to come in about 30 minutes ahead of time and got a good seat. Both the girls loved this!!!


As you can tell, they had a blast at both parks. Like another poster said, just do your homework before hand and don't miss the small stuff that can be sooo fun!!!! We had the best family vacation in January because I did research and knew what to expect!!! Have a great day!

 

[Wendy31]

If you have the time, I say definitely go to all 4 parks!

Our favorite parks would probably be in order - MK, EPCOT, AK, & MGM.

We had so much fun at EPCOT!

In Future World, they enjoyed "Spaceship Earth" (our DS still talks about riding in the huge ball), "Soarin'" (this was our family's favorite ride!), The Land ride, Innoventions, Turtle Talk w/ Crush, the Nestle Cooking Class at the Land, the "jumping" water fountains, taste-testing all the different cokes (especially fun since they normally don't get to drink cokes), sending picture e-mails home to their grandparents,... This year, we also plan to try Test Track & we have a lunch scheduled at the Garden Grill (a restaurant which slowly revolves throughout the course of your meal) w/ Mickey & Friends.

In the World Showcase, they enjoyed El Rio de Tiempo & Illuminations. They also loved all the Kidcot stops in the countries. They both had autograph books, so, at each Kidcot stop, in addition to getting their mask stamped, the CM also stamped & signed their autograph books in their language.

We saw Mary Poppins & Alice in Wonderland at the United Kingdom showcase & ate dinner w/ the princesses at Akershus in Norway.

MGM was probably our least favorite park but that's just because there aren't as many things for kids here. They enjoyed the Beauty & the Beast & The Little Mermaid shows. They enjoyed eating at Toy Story Pizza Planet & the meet & greet w/ the Toy Story characters outside of Al's Toy Barn. After resting in the afternoon, we came back for the Motorcars & Stars Parade which they really liked. They also liked "Fantasmic" (although our DD did get a bit scared during some of the parts.) This year, we also plan to try The Great Movie Ride & the Backlot Tour Ride & the Muppets 3-D show & the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playground, if it's not too crowded.

At AK, they loved the Kali River Rapids, the Safari Ride, the Pocahontas & Lion King shows, & playing in the Boneyard Playground. The Happy Meals at Restaurantasauras come w/ special dinosaur toys - a dinosaur-shaped watergun - which they had lots of fun w/. While we ate lunch at Flame Tree, the character boat came by which they enjoyed. This year, we're going to try to see the Jammin' Jungle Parade which we missed last year.

 

[tommygirl79]

bumpity bump bump

 

[WendyMichaelJohn]

DD's favorite park was Epcot. She loved getting her mask stamped at each country. That was just positively brilliant. Instead of her getting tired of yet another country (I don't think she would have anyway because she's really into geography and other cultures) she just refused to skip a single country because she wanted her stamp.

She was 4.5 on our trip, btw.

Shel