Epcot- Final Plan Opinions Needed

[jretzlaff22]

DH and I are taking DD 4 and DS 2 to Disney mid March. I'm wanting thoughts about my Epcot plan. We will be there for rope drop

9-10
1. Test Trackinnoventions
2. Kids play at/ImageWork
3. Seas w/ Nemo
4. Turtle Talk w/ Crush

10-11

5. Journey into Imagination (is this too much for 4/2 yr olds?0
6. Flex: Living the Land, Circle of Life, or play w/ water in fountains

11-11:45

World Showcase: hope for Belle and Jasmine

12:00: ADR at Coral Reef

1-2:
Spaceship Earth
Flex Fountains


A different evening we will return around 4 ish and then finish taking in WSC. I know not ideal, but the kids will need a break after two longer days before this!

Thoughts? My struggle is with Journey, Living the Land, and Circle of Life. I'm not sure which one to do- we are skipping Soarin' do to motion sickness

 

[TXPyroMom]

I'm not a seasoned veteran yet, so I can't comment on your whole plan, but I can offer some advice.

I think going to the WS from 11-11:45 might be a bit tough. It is such a huge place. Two weeks ago I went to EPCOT for the first time as an adult and I was amazed at the size of WS, it's pretty massive. Even if you aren't trying to see all of it, it still takes a good amount of time to get over to the start of the countries. If I were you, I wouldn't venture into WS until after your lunch at Coral Reef. We had lunch there and the food was fine but DD5 loved the view!

Have a fun trip!

 

[BrettS]

DH and I are taking DD 4 and DS 2 to Disney mid March. I'm wanting thoughts about my Epcot plan. We will be there for rope drop

9-10
1. Test Trackinnoventions
2. Kids play at/ImageWork
3. Seas w/ Nemo
4. Turtle Talk w/ Crush

10-11

5. Journey into Imagination (is this too much for 4/2 yr olds?0
6. Flex: Living the Land, Circle of Life, or play w/ water in fountains

11-11:45

World Showcase: hope for Belle and Jasmine

12:00: ADR at Coral Reef

1-2:
Spaceship Earth
Flex Fountains


A different evening we will return around 4 ish and then finish taking in WSC. I know not ideal, but the kids will need a break after two longer days before this!

Thoughts? My struggle is with Journey, Living the Land, and Circle of Life. I'm not sure which one to do- we are skipping Soarin' do to motion sickness

I'm not sure what "1. Test Trackinnoventions" means, but I'm also not sure you really have time for Test Track or Innoventions, plus the others you have listed for the first hour in the first hour. Just Nemo, the Seas, and Turtle talk will be a good hour, I think. Innoventions by itself is probably an hour or more too, depending on how much you do.

Test Track will be less than an hour, but it's not really close to any of the other stuff you have listed for 9-10.

I'd do the Imageworks stuff during the time you do Journey, since they're in the same building.

You also may want to move nemo, the seas, and turtle talk to later in the day so you'll be there for your coral reef reservation since they're all in the same building. That'll be less walking and none of the attractions there really gets much of a line so I don't think it's important to do those early.

Journey is a cute ride and your kids might like it... circle of life isn't much more than a glorified movie and I've never been really impressed with it. A lot of kids really like living with the land, and as an adult I think that's the best of the three options, so I would recommend that.

 

[BrettS]

As I think about it more, if you're planning to come back on another evening for WSC, I might skip the WSC entirely on this day and just focus on future world.

Maybe do test track, space ship earth and the fountains for the first hour, then move to the seas and nemo and crush for the second hour. Do your lunch at noon, then get living with the land, journey, imageworks, and innoventions in before you leave at 2.

 

[DsnyMama]

As I think about it more, if you're planning to come back on another evening for WSC, I might skip the WSC entirely on this day and just focus on future world.

Maybe do test track, space ship earch and the fountains for the first hour, then move to the seas and nemo and crush for the second hour. Do your lunch at noon, then get living with the land, journey, imageworks, and innoventions in before you leave at 2.

^ this. This is a good idea. We are going to break EPCOT up into two days I think - or two 1/2-3/4 days. Future World one day, WSC the other. We will have a 2.5 and 4 yr old.

 

[winthropf]

11-11:45

World Showcase: hope for Belle and Jasmine

With little ones, it will probably take you 20-25 minutes to walk each way from the Land/Seas area in FW to France/Morocco area for Belle and Jasmine. Add to that the wait in line for the character and this becomes not possible. I would save that for later. The times guide will tell you when the characters will be appearing. You may just want to adjust the time for your break and return to have a better chance of catching the characters.

 

[happypaws]

As I think about it more, if you're planning to come back on another evening for WSC, I might skip the WSC entirely on this day and just focus on future world.

Maybe do test track, space ship earth and the fountains for the first hour, then move to the seas and nemo and crush for the second hour. Do your lunch at noon, then get living with the land, journey, imageworks, and innoventions in before you leave at 2.

I agree with this as well. Epcot is a fairly large park and even if you don't plan on going to a lot of the attractions, it can take awhile to walk from different areas. We recently split up our visit to Epcot and did most of the world showcase in the evening, to catch illuminations after. Then did most of future world another day in the morning, with going back to see some characters in the early afternoon in the world showcase that we didn't see the first day.

With little ones, it will probably take you 20-25 minutes to walk each way from the Land/Seas area in FW to France/Morocco area for Belle and Jasmine. Add to that the wait in line for the character and this becomes not possible. I would save that for later. The times guide will tell you when the characters will be appearing. You may just want to adjust the time for your break and return to have a better chance of catching the characters.

There seems to always be long waits for these characters, even on days that aren't busy. We were at Epcot yesterday, which was a very light crowd (likely due to the post Superbowl parade at MK), and the lines for both Jasmine and Belle were easily 20 minutes each. Factoring wait times with the walking times, I would definitely give yourself more time to go around the world showcase.

 

[ktlm]

We've taken DD to WDW at age 2, 3, 4, and 5. She loves Epcot (much more than DHS or AK). We have spent 2 days there when she was age 3, 4, and 5, and we are there popen to close. Let me give you a typical idea of how our 1st day goes.

Epcot at, or soon after, rope drop. I head to Soarin for FPs (I know you said you are not riding due to motion sickness issues, but I will tell you that my MIL gets motion sickness really easily and she loves Soarin). DH and DD head to the Character Connection to see Mickey and the Gang- usually stopping by to visit Stitch and Daisy at the front of the park on the way (DD loves characters). I meet them there. We go from there to Nemo, then look through the aquarium section, then do Turtle Talk with Crush. From there we go over to the Land and if our Fast Pass has kicked in do Soarin, and if not do Living with the Land (a huge hit with every 5 and under kid I know- something about those greenhouses!), after which time our FP will have kicked in. From there, we are usually almost running to make it to our probably 12:00 or 12:30 ADR at either Biergarten or Akershus. After eating, we start at Mexico (well a couple of months ago, backed up to Duffy meet and greet just before world showcase starts as DD wanted to see him) and start working our way through World Showcase. The boat ride in Mexico is an absolute must for your age group. It is usually a multiple time ride for DD. By they time we get from Mexico to the other end of world showcase- stopping for meet and greets with all the characters along the way and watching some of the entertainers put on their shows, it is generally just about time for Illuminations! When DD was 3, she napped in the middle of the day in WS. Now, she just keeps going.

Day 2, we come back and do all the rest of FW. We eat a meal in WS. Sometimes DD will want to repeat things in WS- i.e. the boat ride in Mexico.

I don't think there is any way that you can get everything that you have listed done between 9-10 a.m.

Also as far as picking up both Belle and Jasmine between 11 and 11:45- those are the longest character lines in WS. You can expect 20-30 minutes each more often than not. Unless the schedule has changed (which it certainly can) Belle usually comes out at around 11:15 for her first meet and greet, and Jasmine (and possibly Aladdin) usually doesn't come out until around 11:45. There will probably be several people that go straight to get in line for Jasmine and Aladdin when WS opens even though they don't come out until 11:45. Even if you were one of the first in line for Belle, by the time you visited with her and moved over to Jasmine's line, you definitely won't be at the front of the line, and I don't think there is any way you will have time to see her and get to your noon ADR in time.

 

[ktlm]

Also, if you are wanting to see Beast with Belle, he usually isn't there on her first meet and greet. Usually you can catch him in some of the afternoon ones.

To give you an idea of the distances you are dealing with to walk from one end of WS to the other end is about a mile walk. I think from Mexico to Canada (on the path, not walking back through any of the countries themselves) is .81 miles.

 

[Alby]

I would do something like this:
9-10
1. Test Track
2. Seas w/ Nemo
3. Turtle Talk w/ Crush (notice the first show is usually at 9.40)

10-11
4. Journey into Imagination (is this too much for 4/2 yr olds?) This is not too much for your kids, but Test Track could be – your 2 yo is probably too short anyway
5. Kids play at/ImageWork
6. Flex: Living the Land, Circle of Life

11-11:45
Spaceship Earth
Flex Fountains

12:00: ADR at Coral Reef

1-2:
Innoventions OR World Showcase: Belle and Jasmine

Epcot is huge, so I’d try to minimize switching between pavillions and I’d definitely avoid going to and fro between FW and WS (it would not be possible at all to do it before your reservation, as a PP has pointed out).
I have kept the Seas and Crush in the early morning because this would probably minimize waits, while not minimizing walking. If walking is more of a trouble, you could do the Seas at 11, right before your ADR.

 

[casper_jj11]

We've gone often with kids this age. Easy to do Test Track, Nemo and Crush by 10am. DD did Test track at age 2. Your little one just needs to be 40in. Head there first tho, otherwise long lines. Journey into your Imagination is a favourite for all my kids. We do it many times. They'll love it. I'd do it and the fountains after Crush. Now, we always do the princesses in WS and we never have a line. The key is to know when they're first arriving and be there 10min beforehand waiting. Its easy to see Jasmine, Belle, Beauty, Marie, Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland between noon and 1pm. The problem with your schedule is that Jasmine is the first to arrive and when we visited last, her first outing wasn't until around 12:15. Its unlikely you'll see the princesses before your ADR. And after your ADR, there will be long lines for them. One other thing, don't save it for an evening. In my past experience (and it could have changed), the characters don't come out after 530 or so. Key time to visit them is early afternoon.

Oh, as for Living with the Land, allm y kids love it. Its a nice boat ride. They also like the Mexico ride. We've never done Circle movie as I"ve heard there's not much to it.

Where are you staying? Leaving at 2pm and returning at 4pm isn't much of a break when you consider the time to get back to the room and actually relax. For us, rope drop until 3to4pm works best. We just then leave for the day and swim or relax.

 

[jretzlaff22]

You are all amazing and so helpful! I have changed our ADRs to 1:15 hoping that we can get to Jasmine at least before our ADRS now! I appreciate all the suggestions!