Help with planning for large family

[Cadets74]

Hi all, hoping for some advice... My wife and I are going the first week of April we have two rooms at Pop for us and ds13, ds12, dd8, ds6, dd4, ds2, and ds10months...we have 6 day passes and right now our plan (have dining and fp scheduled) is MK, Hs, ak, ep, MK, Hs... This is our kids first time and my wife and I haven't been since our honeymoon where she got mono on day 2 and we only did 1.5 days in the park... Prior neither had been there since we were kids.. I was talking with my father tonight who thinks we should not do a 2nd Hs and suggested MK 3 times, and 1 day at the rest of the parks... I think ds13 and ds12 would like Hs but neither really like intense rides and he thinks we can accomplish it all in 1 day... I would appreciate any suggestions on what to do with day 6... Really want to keep the first five days the way they are as to not mess with dining reservations... Thanks for any help...

 

[uccats97]

Why not take a family vote after you've had the chance to experience all 4 parks?

 

[MandiC]

We also did 6 park days for our trip. Hollywood Studios was definitely my least favorite park and it has to be the smallest. Lots of shows, not many rides. I don't know, it just didn't feel all that Disney to me compared to the other 3 parks.
We did Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (order determined mainly by crowd calenders) We loved Epcot and if you want to see most of it you will want more than one day. It's a big park, the World Showcase could easily take a full day by itself and then there are both sides of future world.
Hollywood Studios we only stayed half the day, I was just tired of waiting for shows to start and trying to time arriving to the next show...ect. Voyage of the Little Mermaid was great, Toy Story Mania was fun...but it's not a park I'd want to devote two days to

 

[fabulousfive]

I'm with your dad in doing MK three days and all other parks one day. The only other idea to that would be 2 at MK, 2 at Epcot, and 1 at HS and AK. But if you've never taken the kids, MK is so Disney and there's so much to do between all the rides, parades, characters, food, and evening entertainment. I like your dad's advice best. Also be sure to build in pool time too! It's so fun to relax at the resort and have more relaxed family time together.

 

[Cadets74]

Why not take a family vote after you've had the chance to experience all 4 parks?

I thought about that but would really like to have dining lined up ahead of time and also think it could lead to some arguing amongst the kids and hurt feelings when we don't choose what one kid wants over the other...

 

[Cadets74]

We also did 6 park days for our trip. Hollywood Studios was definitely my least favorite park and it has to be the smallest. Lots of shows, not many rides. I don't know, it just didn't feel all that Disney to me compared to the other 3 parks. We did Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (order determined mainly by crowd calenders) We loved Epcot and if you want to see most of it you will want more than one day. It's a big park, the World Showcase could easily take a full day by itself and then there are both sides of future world. Hollywood Studios we only stayed half the day, I was just tired of waiting for shows to start and trying to time arriving to the next show...ect. Voyage of the Little Mermaid was great, Toy Story Mania was fun...but it's not a park I'd want to devote two days to

Is there really that much to do at Epcot... I don't remember much from our our honeymoon but we did go to Epcot (wife has a thing for figment)... But I remember being there a few hours and deciding we were done and left (had hopper passes)... Will the kids (4 under the age of 7) have enough to do... The one day I have planned now we have the princess breakfast at akersus (or something like that) and dinner at Corral reef (have wanted to eat there since seeing it on Full House many years ago)

 

[Cadets74]

I'm with your dad in doing MK three days and all other parks one day. The only other idea to that would be 2 at MK, 2 at Epcot, and 1 at HS and AK. But if you've never taken the kids, MK is so Disney and there's so much to do between all the rides, parades, characters, food, and evening entertainment. I like your dad's advice best. Also be sure to build in pool time too! It's so fun to relax at the resort and have more relaxed family time together.

We originally were doing 5 day passes and keeping a day for hanging at the pool, but when we saw it was only $10 pp to get a 6th day we jumped at it with fear that we don't know when will be back (in a few years we would need 3 rooms to fit all of us). Hoping to get some midday breaks in especially our one day at Hs because that night they have late magic hours that day.

 

[MandiC]

I am sure part of it is personal preference but Epcot has Innoventions East and West (one has a lot of video game stuff, one has a simulation ride...you build your own thrill ride and then take a ride on it in the simulator), Test Track, Soarin, the kids loved the Living Seas building, the Nemo ride, Spaceship Earth and some other rides/shows....and then the World Showcase. We really enjoyed looking around, the kids liked the KidCot stations (I printed off a 'Passport' for each of them where the CMs could write a message to them in their native languages). There are two fun rides, especially the one in Norway, in the world showcase and then all the food and drinks

 

[ajwolfe]

We park hop a lot, but we usually spend one day in HS and then go somewhere else in the evening. One day in AK and go somewhere the rest of the evening. And then 2 or 3 full days in MK and 2 or 3 days in Epcot.
There is definitely enough to do in Epcot for kids those ages to take at least 2 days there.