Help - 4 day itinerary for 5 & 8 yrs old

[Geeper]

I am taking my girls (5, 8 and 38 ) arriving June 1, departing late June 5 and am looking for some help from you long time Mickey fans.

I'd like to be able to balance "adult" things like some of the newer rides but ant the kids to have fun.

Any ideas on itineraries? We are leaning toward the Ultimate Park Hopper passes and figure full days (or split days) Monday through Wed and half day Sunday afternoon or Thursday Morning with the other half day lounging, boat rental. etc.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[stacy6552]

disney is great about mixing fun for big and little ones. A great example is at the world showcase. Your kids can carry passports to get stamped in each country. They can also make masked at kid-cot stations in each country. Thsi is a great way for kids to enjoy a part of WDW that is basically meandering from store to store...opps i mean country to country.

So I would just plan parks for the days, adjusting for early entry adn such, and not sweat your fun vs thier fun.

word to the wise: dont take them on alien encounter, though they will both probably be big enough for it. Its down right terrifying!

 

[Dizzie]

We went last Oct with my DS 7 & DD 4. We are going again this Oct. You might be surprised at how many adult rides the kids will enjoy. My 4 yo wasn't big enough for Space Mnt or ToT but she loves Splash Mnt, Big Thunder, etc.

This works for us, but every family is different. At MK we go directly to Fantasy Land, then to Buzz and Space Mnt and Indy speedway and then go to Toon Town. We generally then work in adventure and frontier lands. We may or may not see the afternoon parade. If your girls are big princess fans, then I'd get a schedule of princess happenings.

We like to try get a late PS breakfast at Cindy's and a late lunch at Crystal palace.

We generally don't spend too much time in World Showcase, but we do walk through all the countries. My kids love The Living seas, but interestingly enough the Wonders of life is just ok to them.

We have never been to AK before but will try it this year.

We like to spend our first day just hanging out at the hotel to absorb the magic. We take our talk about with so my DH can go get fastpasses and we can stay in contact. I also get Disney dollars and then have the kids do extra chores to earn money for their souveniers. That way I get a little extra work out of them and it doesn't cost my any more and they feel responsible with their own money.

It's impossilbe to see and do everything so have a good plan and then just go with the flow and have fun!

 

[firstmickey]

the best advice I can give you is:
Do not do MGM as your first full day park.
When we went my son was 5 and daughter 8.
We did MK first nite and all was good.
The next day we went to MGM for the day because we had PS for lunch there.
My son was very excited about riding everything and was not afraid of anything.( he rode lots of things at MK)
At MGM, he really wanted to ride ToT and was excited.
After riding it and seeing several shows (which all have some surprise element in them: such as water splashing you, loud noises, etc), he became afraid of almost everything for the rest of the trip.
I really think if we had stuck with MK and Epcot the first two days, we would not have had the problems that we did.
Only you know your kids, but I thought mine would not be afraid at all and they were.
My kids enjoyed the park, but have said since our return that they wish they could have had more time at the pool and Blizzard Beach. They also really enjoyed the evening at Simba's Cubhouse that we used for babysitting. They said it was nice to take time off and play with toys. (And we got to see Fantasmic without stress!)
Have a great time!

 

[MrsMud]

When we went with our then 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 year old girls, we had 4 day PHs. We planned 2 days at MK, 1 day at MGM, and 1 day at AK. I had thought we would bypass Epcot as my girls wouldn't get much out of it at that age. We did start the days as planned, but ended up hopping a little more than we thought:
Day one: We spent the whole day at MK, and did all of Fantasyland, Tomorrow Land and Splash Mountain. Day two: we spent a whole day at MGM and did all the shows and lots of character meets, but not the adult rides. Day three, after doing most everything we wanted in 2/3 day at AK, we hopped to MGM for the Osborne Lights (we went in Dec.), RnR, ToT and Fantasmic. Day four: our second day at MK (did Frontier land, Liberty Square, Adventureland and repeated what we wanted of the other lands). It got very crowded in the afternoon (Fri.), and since we had done most of what we wanted we hopped to Epcot for Body Wars, Test Track and Spaceship Earth.
My girls were not scared of anything at MGM, but didn't go on ToT or RnR. They didn't particularly like Pirates of Caribbean at MK, but that's about it. At the age of your girls, I don't think you have to worry about scare factor except for Alien Encounter, Dinosaur and ToT. Then again, your girls may like all of these rides, you know them best. You will have a great time!

 

[Geeper]

bump. Need all the help I can get

 

[cruisnfamily]

OK, I'll try to help. Here is my 4 day itinerary for my family(Me, DH, DD10 & DS7) arriving Sunday June 1st. Now, keep in mind we live in FL and have been to Disney MANY times over the years and now when we go, we try to mix old favorites with new things we haven't done before. That said, here's our plan:

Sunday June 1st:
Get up early and drive to Epcot (it's a 2-2 1/2 hr drive). We plan to arrive between 9 & 10
Lunch at the Food Court in The Land
Do Epcot until about 5pm
Check in at CBR, relax a little and get settled
Head over to Hoop De Doo Revue (7:15 show)
Maybe see if we can catch a hayride after this or view the EWP from Ft Wilderness.

Monday June 2nd
Sleep in
Relax around the pool at CBR
Late morning or early afternoon head over to Disney Quest
Eat at the Cheesecake Factory
Spend as much time as we feel like at Disney Quest

Tuesday June 3rd
Arrive at MK about 8:45am and hit a few rides in Fantasy Land right away
10am Family Magic Tour (2hrs)
1pm lunch PS in the Castle
Do as much of MK as we can fit in until closing (currently scheduled for 7pm) This is an E-night but since our crowd is not into the "big" rides it would be a waste for us
Probably swim a bit before bed

Wednesday June 4th
9am PS-Character Breakfast at Cape May
Drive home

That's our plan. Epcot and MK are our favorite parks. People say Epcot isn't for kids but ours adore it. MGM and AK are rated as "OK" by my kids. We will have hoppers so we may hop if MK is too crowded but what you see above is our basic plan. It's kind of a laid back trip as you can see.
Tuesday June 3rd