How many days for Epcot and AK?

[EmJ]

My family of three is planning a trip to Epcot and AK, and I'm trying to decide on the right number of days. My kiddo is 9 (will be 10 at time of travel) and is a good trouper, but we start before rope drop (lining up) and he is typically completely pooped out by 2:30.

I'm thinking of two days for each part (which are really more like 3/4 days if we end at 2:30). We live far away and don't/will not visit Disney World often, so I want the ability to take our time and do all of the major attractions at each park. My husband will LOOOOVE World Pavilions and I think we need an entire day just for that.

Thoughts? will 2 three-quarter days at each park keep us busy? Too busy? Not busy enough? We will be staying onsite and have access to early entry.

 

[nighttowll]

I think you will need 2 days for AK and possibly 3 for EP if you are devoting one to World Showcase alone, but it really depends on how much you have planned and want to see. 2 days each is more than enoug to see your must do attractions with planning.

At AK, my 10 year old kids loved the Wilderness Explorers' badge activities around the park. We could have spent a whole day just doing those alone. Sadly, we only did a few of them as we didn't have time to fit many in in between bigger attractions.

Do you think this is something your son will want to do? Many of the booths are right out along the sidwalk, so the kids see them and want to go participate.

Will you visit all the animal trails? Just walking the trails take up quite a bit of time.

Will you visit the petting zoo? That can easily be a 2+ hour activity alone because the travel time there and back can be quite long since you have to take a train over and then walk down a trail to get there.

Will you do a character meal? The one in AK has always been a favorite with our family, and surprisingly my picky eaters liked the meal better than anywhere else we ate.

Are you planning any character meets?

Will you ride everyting? Watch every show?

It's very hard to say how long you need without knowing exactly what you plan on doing. Also, will you have LL or Genie?

A lot of people see AK as a half day park because they go and ride a couple of attractions and leave, but if you really explore everything, you'll be there more than a full day, especually if you plan on leaving early each day.



On to EP, the kids at 10 enjoyed the pavilions, especially the KidCot stations and getting their passports stamped. I also suggest looking into the free interactive scavenger hunt Disney offers in World Showcase.

Do you plan on watching the different shows and demonstrations in this area? See all the attractions or simply check out the gift shops? If there are any shows your husband is especially interested in, make sure to look up the times for those, so you don't miss them.

Will you eat a long sit down or character meal in EP?

How many rides are you trying for?

If you really did everything there it would take you 2.5 days at minimum, but most people aren't doing everything.


I recommend paying for a Touring-plans subscription. I have always found it well worth the small fee in helping to plan my vacations. You can create custom plans. You simply tell it what you want to do, enter any pre-booked ride times, meal reservations, breaks, and times you want to rest, and it will give you a detailed itinerary with how long everything will take. This will help you to know exactly how long you need in each park.

 

[Matrixleos]

I'd recommend leaving the parks a little early, before your 10 year old gets too tired. Maybe after lunch, head back to your resort. Go relax at the pool, take a nap, explore your resort and see what kids activities they have.

Although I'd definitely try to head back to the parks around 6 to 7pm. You'd be amazed by how much a mid afternoon break recharges everyone. Also, you really should see Disney at night with all the lights lit up. Plus it's cooler and more managable at night weather wize. You usually also will have shorter wait times for rides around the fireworks and after the fireworks end as people start leaving the parks.

 

[Minsc]

When our kids were this age our plan was to rope drop and focus on the most important attractions. Get your LL's for later in the day. Have lunch in the park and then head back to the resort for a 2-hour nap/break. Head back to the park and start using your LL's during what is typically the busiest stretch of the day. Plan to stay late (hopefully the nap will have recharged the kiddos) and take advantage of lighter crowds as closing approaches.

Anecdotal, but that strategy served us well for years. Granted, it was much easier to manage with the old FP and FP+ system, but it is still doable with the Genie+ system.

Also when at that age, our kids didn't really care for EPCOT World Showcase as much, so we would either rope drop EPCOT and then park hop somewhere else after the midday nap or park hop to EPCOT after a morning somewhere else. As the kids got older, we kind of settled in on 2.5 days at MK, 2 days at HS, 1 day at AK, and 0.5 days at EPCOT. When my wife and I go without kids, EPCOT becomes more of a focus.

Good luck!

 

[kwdw]

I’m curious why you are just planning two parks if you don’t go often. I think both parks can be well covered in 2 days around 6-7 hours each. I personally would complain a ton if anyone made me spend more than 3-4 hours in World Showcase because even with fitting in the rides and shows there, the endless gift shops bores me and I’m a middle aged female! I don’t know many 10 year boys who can spend a day in WS without complaining.

 

[angryduck71]

My son LOVED doing the interactive game in World Showcase at that age. It is DuckTales. This gives the adults plenty of time to look around too. We spent hours doing this. I would say two days EPCOT. One day AK.

 

[nighttowll]

I’m curious why you are just planning two parks if you don’t go often. I think both parks can be well covered in 2 days around 6-7 hours each. I personally would complain a ton if anyone made me spend more than 3-4 hours in World Showcase because even with fitting in the rides and shows there, the endless gift shops bores me and I’m a middle aged female! I don’t know many 10 year boys who can spend a day in WS without complaining.

I think it really depends on the interests of the child and what all you plan to do.

There are 11 pavilions, so if you only spent 15 minutes looking at each, that would be just short of 3 hours, and most people are going to spend more than 15 minutes looking around gift shops, at gallery displays, at architecture and landscaping, and taking in entertainment such as musicians or other street performers.

My 10 year olds were very interested in looking around, especially in Mexico and Japan. Did they want to stay in each pavilion for hours? No, but they enjoyed making a round through a gift shop or the area in general, and certain displays, gift shops, and entertainment caught their attention more than others, and they wanted to stay longer in those areas.

The 3 hours above also doesn't factor in demonstrations, shows, and attractions at each pavilion which is going to add more time to the day. Most pavilions have either a movie or a street or stage show to watch if not more than one. Most people won't want to watch them all, but even picking out only a few to see, could equal an hour or more of extra time. Then, you'll have another 2 to 3 hours depending on wait times for the 3 riders. Mine wanted to ride Gran Fiesta over and over again. Not sure what was so fascinating about it, but we probably spent an hour or more just on that ride alone.

There are also 11 kidcot stations, so if a child spends 15 minutes at each, that would be about another 3 hours. I had to pry mine away as they would have happily stayed there coloring and doing crafts all day if I had let them.

The scavenger hunt takes a minimum 30 minutes to play and can be repeated for different experiences, so that can easily be a couple of hours of entertainment for a child as well.

Meals and snacks will take up another 1 to 3 hours depending if you choose to eat there, how often, and what type of meal. Table service meals at Disney can easily eat up a couple of hours or more. We've done a few different meals there before, one character meal specifically for an 11 year old.

If I counted right, there are 8 character meet-n-greets in World Showcase. If you only chose one or two of those, that could be another 30 minutes to an hour or more depending on lines. We've had some of our best character interactions in WS because the area was tucked away and less crowded. It is also a nice option to meet a character in EPCOT instead of a park with more attractions geared towards kids like MK, so you aren't missing out on a ride for a meet-n-greet.

You also have to factor in travel time between pavilions, there's probably 20 to 30 minutes of walking right there alone, and families navigating with kids are going to do that much slower than a single person or two adults will.

Will everyone want to do all of that? No, but how much you do want to see is going to drastically impact if 2 hours or 2 days is needed. This is why I suggest making a plan to get a general idea of how much time you'll want to spend.

Average Estimated Time: 11.5 to 17.5 hours

• Exploring / Window Shopping (15 min/pavilion): 3 hours
• Entertainment (3 shows at 10 minutes each): 30 minutes
• *Gran Fiesta: 15 to 25 minutes
• *Frozen Ever After: 55 to 90 minutes
• *Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure: 65 to 280 minutes
• KidCot Stations (15 min/pavilion): 3 hours
• Scavenger Hunt (1 time): 30 minutes
• 1 snack: 20 minutes
• 1 meal: 1 to 2 hours
• 2 Character Meets: 30 minutes to 1 hour
• Walking time: 20 to 30 minutes

* I used Touring Plans average wait times and added the ride time to that to get the above numbers. Obviously, people may encounter shorter waits with planning. This is just to give an idea of times.

So you can see from the above which does not include everything there is to do and only gives 15 minutes per pavilion that you easily need more than 1 day if you really want to see everything there is to see in World Showcase. It's just most people don't see even 50% of what's there, so they breeze in and out in a couple of hours.