Epcot or not in December

[Twilight Sparkle]

This is our first time to visit in Dec. My teen daughter and I are planning a shorter-than-usual-for-our-family trip to experience Christmas in WDW. Our usual trips include two days at three parks and one day at HS, so I'm having doubts about how to plan for this short of a trip - especially arrival and departure days. We were initially planning on taking it easy on arrival and departure days and only spending three days in the parks. Our park days were going to be MK, HS, and AK. We will have base tickets only. Normally, we would choose Epcot over HS, but we'd like to see Toy Story Land since we won't be back to WDW after this until at least 2020. Now I'm reading about all of the holiday fun at Epcot and second guessing our plans. Please help me think through these options:

Arrival Day:
1) original plan - arrive at Saratoga Springs Resort about 1pm on 12/3. Planned to spend the day at the pool and a couple of hours at Disney Springs. Easy day to recover from early morning flight.

or

2) thinking about ditching original plan and heading to Epcot after checking in at resort. Goals would be Soarin', SE, and Pixar short film fest plus World Showcase for holiday storytellers, Gran Fiesta, Candlelight Processional (hopefully via Chefs de France dinner pkg), and Illuminations.

Departure Day:
1) Check out of SSR by 11am (not early birds so will likely be in room until nearly last minute) - hang out at pool if there are locker rooms with showers at SSR, maybe have lunch at Disney Springs; 7:15 return home flight so need to be done by ? to catch ME (first time using - not sure how much time to allow)

or

2) Check out and uber to monorail resorts to view Christmas lobbies, have lunch somewhere, head back to SSR in time to catch ME

or

3) choose option #1 for arrival day and instead hit Epcot for just a few hours on departure day. We would miss Candlelight Processional and Illuminations. Would focus on Soarin', SE, Pixar, and storytellers. Lunch at Chefs. This might feel like a very rushed day plus we would miss the two nighttime highlights at Epcot.

Obviously, three park day tickets would be cheaper than four, but if Epcot is really fabulous at Christmas and we have enough time to enjoy it, maybe it would be worth it? I suppose a final, less appealing option would be to skip the HS new land craziness and instead visit Epcot. Help me think this through, please. Thank you!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Epcot is great at Christmas. It has more special Christmas activities going on than all the other parks added together. I would plan on spending a good bit of time at Epcot, so I wouldn't do it on departure day.

 

[Disneylover99]

I would go to Epcot on arrival day. On departure day I'd go to DS for lunch. I'd maybe try to squeeze in the monorail resorts on my MK day.

 

[pixiegoose]

Epcot is our favorite park at Christmas time. Definitely don’t skip it. I’d go on arrival day so then you don’t feel rushed to get back to SSR to catch DME. And DME usually picks up 3 hours before flight departure but can be 4 hours during busier times.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Thank you all very much for your help. Sounds like Epcot on arrival day is the winner. I didn’t even think about doing the monorail resorts on our MK day, so thank you to Disneylover99 for that idea. Will stick to resort and Disney Springs on departure day. Appreciate the head’s up on when to expect to depart on ME. I have been pondering this situation for a few days now, but you all have just made the choices so easy!