First visit, 4 days, 3 young kids...do we visit all the parks?

[llvg]

This is our first visit to WDW. The kids are 4, almost 7 and 11 months. We have 4 full days at the parks, do we hit one park a day? Pay the extra for park hoppers to spend more time in MK? Both older kids are over 40" and will love the rides. We likely won't return for at least 5-10 years, is it a must to see all of the parks or which park would you eliminate?
Thanks for the help, we're not really sure where to start

 

[kohlby]

I'd do all the parks, one day each. Do your research before your go to make sure you hit the attractions/rides that you really want to. One day is not near enough time to do everything you want to at MK or EP likely, but it's long enough to have a great time! I would not do park hoppers.

 

[Kristina4109]

I would spend one full day at each park. Since you've never been, you simply don't know what your kids will be totally enchanted with. Give them the big picture of everything WDW has to offer - they will find something they love at each park!

 

[lymaniii]

We just got back from our Disney trip and we have 3 kids of similar ages: 9, 7, and 4. We spent the days in a single park each, Animal Kingdom (our shortest day due to travel), Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Magic Kingdom for three days in a row, then Epcot on the last day. Our rationale for MK that much was that it is the largest park and has the most our kids would be interested in. We spent the first day in Adventure Land and Frontier Land, second it Fantasyland, and third in Tomorrow Land. Throughout our trip we tried to get there at park opening and then spend 3 hours, go home for a long rest, and then spend another 3 hours later in the day. Even that schedule was pretty hard on our kids, but the nice thing was that our FastPasses made the time we did spend kind of awesome.

With kids this young, we really liked the Pirate scavenger hunt, Jedi academy, meeting Jack Sparrow, doing things other than rides. We had a great time and hope that you will too!

 

[noahdove]

We are leaving in 2 weeks and we will only do 3 parks as I feel Magic Kingdom requires more time and more things for the little ones to do. My grandchildren are 7 and 5, and we won't do a park the day we arrive so that they can be rested for the week. Good luck and magical times for you

 

[Flanders]

We did it with our three kids a couple years ago on our first trip, they were a little older than yours but not much.

We went with one park a day for four days and actually had another couple of hours on the first travel day (it was buy four days get the fifth free for the tickets or we wouldn't have paid for the fifth day being only 2.5 hours or so). We went during a week were the days never got worse than a 3 on the tourningplans.com crowd calender scale, picking days with smaller crowds is almost the only way to do a park a day if you want to see most of the attractions.

We got all of Animal Kingdom in one day pretty easily, we got to all the shows and did all the rides at least once (for everyone who could/wanted to ride). If you were going to skip a park most people would suggest this one but we were happy we did it.

We used the 2.5 travel day hours at Epcot and then another day there later, we probably should've used the extra hours at MK but live and learn. My kids LOVED the Agent P thing there and we did a lot of those and still had extra time.

Hollywood Studios has a lot of shows and we didn't get them all in but we got the ones everyone wanted to see and rode all rides at least once.

MK was a really long day with extra magic hours and we still didn't get it all in, we got maybe 80% but it was a looong haul.

I would say it's the best way to do it so your family can experience at least SOME of everything. A good amount of research and a strong plan of attack on where your going to be when to avoid the longest lines is essential and worthwhile.

You'll have so much fun you're going to want to come back much sooner, I remember thinking we'd do it once and probably wouldn't come back again, and now we shoot for every two years! LOL It's a really great trip.

 

[glassslippergirl]

I think a day at each park is important if you won't be going back for a while. I also think your kids will want more time at MK. You can add park hoppers any time during your visit. I'd recommend doing MK on your first full park day. If there's more you want to see there, you will probably find the time in the evening on your DHS or AK day (or both). If you feel like park hopping is a good idea at that time, add it to your tickets.

 

[SweetMissy]

We always make sure to spend 2 full days at MK and 1 day for the others. Since you've never been there before, I would do 1 day/park. This is what we did our 1st trip and we were able to cover a lot! After you go a few times you'll know what to skip and spend half a day in certain parks. Just be prepared to not be able to do everything in MK. Have fun!!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We always make sure to spend 2 full days at MK and 1 day for the others. Since you've never been there before, I would do 1 day/park. This is what we did our 1st trip and we were able to cover a lot! After you go a few times you'll know what to skip and spend half a day in certain parks. Just be prepared to not be able to do everything in MK. Have fun!!

 

[jezebel73]

The beauty of going for the first time is that you don't know what you've missed!! I agree with the 1 park per day for sure and that you never know what one your children will like best (and it may not be the same one either!).

Just remember that as long as everyone is in the magical Disney bubble, you're really not missing anything except the non-magical rest of the world.

 

[tina.tina]

Don't forget, if you're doing 4 long park days in a row, you're going to be tired!!! I would probably leave Hollywood Studios for last since it's less walking. In fact, this is the order I would do: Magic Kingdom (the castle/Main Street are what your kids probably associate with WDW), Animal Kingdom (a lot of walking but it closes earlier and you will have the evening to rest), Epcot (again, lots of walking but do Future World first and then rest in each country as you walk through the World Showcase), Hollywood Studios (least walking).

Study maps before you go so you know where things are and you don't do a lot of backtracking.

ETA: My friend says that you should not take your kids to MK before you go to other parks because they won't like those parks as much. I don't agree because I like to go to MK first- but I'm sure everyone has their own opinion.

 

[llvg]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I have actually been to WDW twice when I was (a lot) younger --My SIL volunteered to watch the baby one day for us - she lives in Orlando.
I first thought that we would do a park a day, now I'm wondering if we should do MK two days and skip AK. I know the kids love the animals (from what I remember AK is a glorified zoo, with some rides- am I wrong?) but I'm thinking they will love MK more and one of the days we do it will be the day without the baby. Start & end the trip with MK??

Can't wait for our trip, the kiddos don't know yet

 

[cruisingtwins]

We are skipping HS. It's mostly just shows and I don't thin my kids will have the patience for them.

 

[NinaBella]

I would suggest 2-days at MK. You could cut out one of the other parks. We rarely go to AK. I like the character greetings there but the rest of the park isn't very appealing to us, but we live within a 15 minute drive of Busch Gardens.

 

[mrsmomo]

What! Skip AK we love that park epcot however we skip if we dont have park hoppers.

Which leads me 2 my point of everyone is going to rank the parks differently.

I would do all four parks. Then you will know for the future how to plan your trip better and you get to see all the parks.

 

[JessZacc]

Animal kingdoms and HS are actually fun for kids. There is more to do then you would think. Look on the website at the list of attractions for each. Also, the parade at animal kingdom Is awesome!