Epcot for a 3 year old?

A 3 year old girl would love pick a pearl at the Japan pavilion. It was one of the highlights of the trip for my daughters, age 8 and 5. Buy a pearl cage necklace on ebay or etsy before you go to save a bunch of cash.
 
I think Epcot is a great place to spend a day with a 3-year old. There are so many places in Future World where you can spend half the day completely indoors. World Showcase gets to be a bit much for them, but my (at the time) 3 & 5 yo loved getting/coloring the Kidcot stop fans and finding the Kidcot stops around WS. We did not try Kidcot "collecting" prior to age 3.
 
A 3 year old girl would love pick a pearl at the Japan pavilion. It was one of the highlights of the trip for my daughters, age 8 and 5. Buy a pearl cage necklace on ebay or etsy before you go to save a bunch of cash.
Wow! I Love this idea - thank you so much! It will be her birthday so I think the Cinderella cage necklace would be a great gift idea. Thank you for posting!
 
I think EPCOT would be much more enjoyable to a 3-year old than Downtown Disney! Both have fountains to play in if its hot. (Remember to take dry clothes!). Finding nemo ride and Turtle Talk with Crush would be fun. Then I would go to Figment and the ride in Mexico. In France you can watch a nice movie with great music in air-conditioning and comfy seats in anyone needs a little nap. When my girls were small, they loved doing the coloring at the Kidcot spots. It was hard to drag them away! My suggestion would be to find the spot and have one adult wait with your daughter while the rest of you explore that country. Plan for about 30 minutes per country. Have fun!
 

Obviously every kid is different, but at three and half my son:
1) had no interest in character meets
2) liked all of the rides he went on, especially The Seas with Nemo & Friends
3) Turtle Talk with Crush bored him after a few minutes
4) he loved Agent P
5) he loved the musical entertainment (British Revolution, The Hat Lady, Oktoberfest Musikaten)
6) and possibly his favorite thing in all of WDW was the hedge maze in the UK Pavilion, he could have easily spent an hour every day just running around there.
 
EPCOT has always been my son's favorite park, he is 8 now and still picks EPCOT to go to.
 
Epcot has been my son's favorite park since he was 3 and we usually spend at least 2 days there. Nemo (and the Seas), Figment, The Land, Spaceship Earth, Character Meet & Greets, meeting Chip & Dale and Duffy... and then in World Showcase, there's the Mexico boat ride, watching the trains in Germany, having a sweet treat in one of the countries... so much fun for kids! And when he would nap in his stroller, we adults could hang out in World Showcase.
 
For a three year old I would think MK or AK would be better than Epcot or HS but I think there are parts of Epcot they would enjoy (Figment, Nemo, etc.) but I think the countries would bore the kid. While I think Epcot can be enjoyed by all I view it as more of a theme park for adults or older kids than young ones.
 
Since you already have two days at MK I think adding arrival day at Epcot is a good pick. Some things that haven't been mentioned yet - the drummers in Japan, juggler in Italy and acrobats in China he might find fascinating. My kids LOVED getting snacks around the world showcase and randomly really liked the red phone booth in the UK because they've never seen a phone booth before! lol
 
My kids love Epcot. Our first trip the oldest was just 3, and we spent our first day in Epcot. I agree with a lot of the previous posters that it is really fun to just be spontaneous there, let your child take the lead, if they want to ride Nemo 5 times, do that. We ate at the TS restaurant in Morocco that first trip, and the three year old loved getting out on the dance floor with the belly dancer while we enjoyed the meal. My daughter's favorite ride is Spaceship Earth. Our past trip, we left the final day open, and both kids voted to return to Epcot.
 
When DD was 2 we took her first trip. We were at EPCOT a full day from open to close and wished we had 2 days there. It was by far her favorite park other than MK. DD could have ridden the boat ride in Mexico around in circles all day and had great day. She also loved the Living with the Land ride (something about those greenhouses that every preschool I know who has been on it has loved), the Nemo ride, Turtle Talk with Crush, Journey into Imagination, Spaceship Earth, the Aquariums after the Nemo ride, and the play areas after some of the rides (mission space has a fun play area- where someone can take them while others ride). She loved meeting the tons of characters, watching the entertainment like the juggler, acrobats, bands, drummers. She liked exploring the countries, watching the trains in Germany, looking at the fish in the pond in Japan, banging the drums at the outpost, and the hedge maze in UK. She loved the Kidcot stations where she could color and get stamps from each country. If you are looking for an ADR, Biergarten is a lot of fun for that age with the German band and a dance floor where they can go out and dance. EPCOT is a really good park for that age because there are plenty of areas and play areas for them to walk around and explore, if you just take the time to smell the roses! All the grandparents loved EPCOT too.

As far as the other parks, DD did not like AK at age 2. It was not enough of a Princess presence for her (basically there is none), and she pretty much equated it to the zoo at home. I really enjoy AK, but she was begging to go back to MK or EPCOT. As far as DHS, she has always loved shows and would sit through them from an early age. As a result, she liked DHS, which is show heavy. If your 2 year old won't sit through shows, you might run out of things to do at that park after a while. Also, if your DD is sensitive at all to loud noise and villain stuff, be a little wary about Fantasmic. You might try sitting towards the back if you are going to do it, where it is not as loud and where you can make an exit if need be. Fantasmic really scared DD when she was 2. I had seen it before and watched it online again before taking her and thought it would be fine for her, but it is quite a bit more intense in person than online, especially if you are sitting closer to the front.

Have a great trip! DD was 2 months short of age 3, when she had that first trip, and I think it was my favorite WDW trip ever. Everything was new, wonderful and magical to her.
 
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My kids love EPCOT and would never accept skipping it. They love love love "Spacious Earth" and "the plant boat ride" and "the three caberellos". And they also enjoyed the "hunt" of trying to hit every KIDcot stop. I agree with a PP who said there's more to do at EPCOT for a 3 year old than DHS.
 

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