Help me decide..

[DaisyDuck001]

After doing trips both ways, I no longer do a park on arrival day, because it's not worth getting overtired and sick and ruining the rest of the trip.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We are headed to WDW for a surprise trip for the kiddos March 14-21.This will be a once in a lifetime trip for us. We are in AZ and have been to DL many times but can't wait for the kiddos to see WDW. Our kiddos are 13,10,8. We arrive on the 14th and are staying at POR. Currently we have 6 day 1 park per day passes. My question is if we should add on another day to head to MK on our arrival day? I only am now considering this because they have added the EMH until 1 am!! Is that too much on a travel day? We arrive at MCO at 3pm. Currently this is our park plans..

March 14 - Travel day.
15- Epcot
16- AK
17 MK
18-Epcot
19-DS
20- MK

I would suggest just a few changes to this plan.

I wouldn't add a park visit to your travel day. Travelling can be tiring, and you are better off taking some time to rest and get an early start the next day. Maybe visit Disney Springs that evening for dinner.

Epcot has somewhat limited appeal for younger ones. Since you are travelling with kids, I would plan only one day there (as long as you make sure you do the Frozen ride, with FP or rope drop). I would change the 18th and 19th to Disney Hollywood and Animal Kingdom. Despite having limited rides at this time, DHS still has a lot that kids are likely to enjoy, particularly all the Star Wars stuff. As for Animal Kingdom, to me two days is a minimum since they added Pandora and Tree of Life Awakenings. You can only get one Pandora ride per day as a fast pass, and Pandora is great to explore during the day and at night.

Disney Springs is nice, but I wouldn't spend a whole day there when you only have a week to try to do everything you want at WDW. Trust me, the resort is huge and overwhelming, and a week is a bare minimum. If possible, I would add days to your trip. We spent ten days at WDW in October and still missed some attractions. All we did was the four parks, no water parks, no DS.

 

[Danadanes]

I would suggest just a few changes to this plan.



Epcot has somewhat limited appeal for younger ones. Since you are travelling with kids, I would plan only one day there (as long as you make sure you do the Frozen ride, with FP or rope drop). I would change the 18th and 19th to Disney Hollywood and Animal Kingdom. Despite having limited rides at this time, DHS still has a lot that kids are likely to enjoy, particularly all the Star Wars stuff. DS.

Respectfully disagree with this. My youngest is 8 (same as OP) and Epcot is his most anticipated park. He loves space and other cultures. He is so excited about visiting Japan and China.

I would do a half day HS on arrival day to hit the 4 rides at HS and fantasmic. And move the DS Day to 17/18 and rebrand it as a rest/pool day.

 

[ChristineOH]

I also have three kids who are a bit older than yours. When my kids were about the ages of your kids, the one time we stayed at the resort on arrival night, my kids were so mad and grumpy that I'll never do it again. All they wanted to do was get going! The next trip we went to Epcot on arrival night. Soarin' was on refurb and TT was closed because it rained all night. All we did was eat dinner and ride M:S and SE, and they said it was the "best night ever," because anything is better than sitting around when you are at WDW!

Because of the time difference, they may have a hard time sleeping anyway. I say go to MK! Get unpacked, eat dinner at the resort, and head to MK for the fireworks and see how it goes. Then take it easy the next morning.

Epcot is easy to do as a later arrival. I'd plan FP there from 9-10, 10-11, and 11-12, making your tier 1 either FEA or TT. I'd make the first FP one that isn't very important, and plan to arrive right at 10 and hit the end of it, knowing if you miss it, who cares. Then use the 10-11 and use the 11 right at 10:55 before heading to WS. Personally, I'd do SE, then M:S, then TT, and if we didn't show up until noon to use our TT, that would be okay. Then I'd plan spend the afternoon in WS and do the other side of FW, including Soarin', in the evening.

 

[AFwifelife]

Another vote for doing HS your first travel day and definitely not messing with the frequency of Epcot. My kids are significantly younger than yours and they love it. Also since they’ve been to DL, you will definitely want to hit what it doesn’t have with the parks at WDW. Also remember HS still has Tower of Terror, they aren’t changing it like they are in DL.