How much time ?

[mistymouse5001]

How much time would it take to do each park if you didn't have to wait in lines for anything?
Do you think a 5 yr old will get anything out of Epcot?

 

[stsomewhere]

My kids loved Epcot. They have been there twice. 2 and 4 1/2, and 5 and 7.
Theheir wass a craft at everyone. They loved visiting the different countries.
Both times, we spent 2 days there.

Spaceship earth
Character meets
Mission space
finding nemo
soarin
dancing water fountains

We like to sample food from all the countries

 

[homeschooler]

Last question first, it depends on the kid. My kids have loved Epcot from the very first and each have ALWAYS loved Epcot best. We spend the most time there still. We do each country, some more than others, but explore each. We also do the passports and have done so for several years. My SIL and MIL both did passports when they were with us. And we take our time. If we want to see a show, we stop to see a show. The kids can take hours in Innoventions.

I have no idea how long it would take to do each park. We go in the winter and have very little waiting time. Very little. I would imagine that we spend less than 2 hours a day in line, including meals. But there are things we skip and things we do more than once so... maybe someone else.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

How much time would it take to do each park if you didn't have to wait in lines for anything?
Do you think a 5 yr old will get anything out of Epcot?

I'm not sure about your first question. I can't imagine there is every a time when there is no waits at all of the parks and you can just go around walking on the everything. We always go at slow times, but you are going to always have some amount of time you are going to wait for rides - even going during slow times and using Fastpasses.

For your second question, I say, what would a 5 year old NOT like at Epcot. My kids have loved Epcot since they were very young - Spaceship Earth, Living Seas with Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, Soarin, Living with the Land, Imagination Ride with Figment, Honey I shrunk the Kids 3-D movie, Test Track, Rio Del Tempio Ride at Mexican Pavillion, Maelstrom boat ride at Norway Pavillion, the Chinese Acrobats at the Chinese Pavillion . . . I believe a 5 year old would enjoy the things I have listed, along with many others.

 

[santa's surpriz]

My DD was 5 on her first trip and loves Epcot. I was amazed bc I planned a day at each park and at the end I left days for to choose where she wanted to return, first choice was Epcot! She wanted to go back and see Figment again. We must have rode that ride 10 tens that day! She had a ball. World Showcase has a lot of street shows that entertain kids. At some point Epcot got deemed as an adult park and Disney recognized this, they took measures and added several extras to help attract more kids. IMO they did a great job!

Don't overlook the Kidcot stations. I saw all sorts of kids running from point a to b get their cards filled up. My daughter did a few but we got sidetracked with the other attractions we never completed a card.

 

[happymommy]

We have taken our kids since they were 2 and 4. Their favorite park is Epcot. One reason is that it is OUR favorite (we went 3 times before we had children). They absolutely LOVE the countries, Future World is so FUN! My son would spend ALL DAY in Innoventions (he is a science genius, no not trying to brag he really is, spent some time this summer as well as my DD at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program). It is SO FUN there! They love trying Coke from different countries. It is much bigger, so gets less super crowded feeling than MK. We truly enjoy stopping and "smelling the roses" there!

Honestly, I think the parents need to do what they would enjoy - the kids will obviously have fun ANYWHERE in Disneyworld! But YES a 5 year old will have fun!

We love the food also in the different countries. My DH is Asian (I am Caucasian) and so my kids love rice. We always go to Japan for the Yakitori House. There is so much to snack on in the countries - and the grown ups can enjoy beers or wines from all around the world as well!

To answer your first question: there is no answer. We have been about 20 times - I've never seen it all. Never tried. You really can't try to do that or you won't have the real fun. Whenever we go, if we do MK for example, I know it gets crowded there. We will go early (-ish, not one for getting up too early on vacation) and spend maybe 2 hours there, maybe 3 if I can do that. We will get a fastpass for Buzz (a must do for my kids) wander around, try to get on Winnie the Pooh, or get a FP for that, then once it gets a bit too crowded, we'll monorail it over to Epcot or something.

The year before DH and I got married, we went to Disneyworld, and we did kind of go commando style (we were young and no kids). We got there early, stayed till lunchtime, went back to hotel (not on property, so we ate near the hotel) swam, then went back later in the afternoon and stayed till midnight (for some reason Epcot or MK was open very late that week). So we did a lot then! I wouldn't do that with kids (or at my age!).

Do try to get your fastpass for your first choice of attraction soon in the mornings - and then you can get another one in 2 hours, or after the time starts for the prior one. You can figure out your best system for optimizing them!

 

[imthatgirl]

my neighbor went with her son for make a wish(i never got to meet the son). they never waited in a line and i asked her the same question. she said she was still in each park for the whole day.
she said that because they never had to wait they were able to take it very slow and never rushed anywhere.
they were there for 5 days and did everything in those 5 days, but didnt feel like it was too much time.

 

[mistymouse5001]

Thank you for the information, very wise ones I was going to skip it but now I see I need to plan a whole day for it! I think Mk is a whole day with nap. I guess I can try to split AK am Hollywood somehow AK is awesome right? But all of the characters he's REALLY into are at Hollywood. I don't know. Oh well We're going to WDW!!!

 

[mistymouse5001]

I really want to go to Epcot

 

[Ariel8676]

My kids LOVE Epcot! They love the rides and the Kidcot stations and the food (especially the rice cream from Norway!)..lol I really enjoy going to Epcot and have since they opened, and i am so happy that my girls like it as much as we do. They really enjoy going to the different countries and looking in the shops and learning about the different cultures..i always make sure they talk to the different CM's in the countries. My girls are 6,5 and 2 and we go 2x a year...MK and Epcot are their favorite parks...

 

[mistymouse5001]

Are the CM's from the country they work in?

 

[cuppycake]

Yep...one of the fun things that we did with the girls and their passports was have each CM who was writing in it put a dot on the map of the country that located the city/town they were from!

OOOH! And, Dh always asked them how to say thank you in their language if he didn't know it (we know all of them now!). The girls had a great time trying to repeat the words to thank them for writing in their passports.

It's one of the neatest things to do, we think, to speak with the CMs in the countries, ask them questions about their countries, and practice some fun conversational foreign languages

 

[mistymouse5001]

Yep...one of the fun things that we did with the girls and their passports was have each CM who was writing in it put a dot on the map of the country that located the city/town they were from!

OOOH! And, Dh always asked them how to say thank you in their language if he didn't know it (we know all of them now!). The girls had a great time trying to repeat the words to thank them for writing in their passports.

It's one of the neatest things to do, we think, to speak with the CMs in the countries, ask them questions about their countries, and practice some fun conversational foreign languages

Neato, I din't know that!

 

[proteus]

Epcot was the favorite from the get go of my DD aged 5.

 

[bzzymom]

DS's favorite park is epcot since he was 3. He really likes science and so he is interested in future world, but also the countries too. There are many things to see, many characters to find. Plus they have really made it more attractive to kids with the kidcot stations and so on. Epcot is the park that we spend the most time in.

 

[happymommy]

Thank you for the information, very wise ones I was going to skip it but now I see I need to plan a whole day for it! I think Mk is a whole day with nap. I guess I can try to split AK am Hollywood somehow AK is awesome right? But all of the characters he's REALLY into are at Hollywood. I don't know. Oh well We're going to WDW!!!

Definitely - Star Tours at MGM (oops, Hollywood Studios). It may be old (we've been going on it for 15 years) but super fun for a 5 year old boy who may be into Star Wars. That one is fun!

AK is fun, but hard to do in 1/2 a day for a newbie - it is okay to save something for the next trip. We spent a whole day there the first time, and didn't do half of the park.

 

[mistymouse5001]

Thank you, I'll study up my must dos for AK. Full Day Epcot. Full day MK.
Half day Hollywood. I wish we could just stay a month!

 

[sk!mom]

We love EpCot. At 5, DD rode and loved TestTrack and she loved the countries, water sidewalks, street performers, everything.

She's 12 now and has been to WDW 4 times and still loves EpCot.

 

[mistymouse5001]

We love EpCot. At 5, DD rode and loved TestTrack and she loved the countries, water sidewalks, street performers, everything.

She's 12 now and has been to WDW 4 times and still loves EpCot.

What are water sidewalks?

 

[happymommy]

little fountains the squirt up out of an area on the sidewalk. Cute - but you could get a little wet. The kids like to try to stomp on the little squirts of water as you don't know which one will squirt next.

I've seen really little kids there having a blast - sometimes the parents will strip them down a bit since you get wet (like really little ones in just a diaper). Maybe that is tacky, but at least their clothes stayed dry.