If not MK, which park to start with?

[caitcance]

Kids are 6, 5, and 2 and this is their first time at WDW. We are doing our MK days last because we have a split stay AKL followed by BLT. Given this, which park would you do first and why?

 

[SabbyR]

My MIL always told me start with Epcot because it has the least for kids at that age and they will be thrilled over it and not disappointed after seeing the other parks.. Idk if she was right but I took her advice because shes my MIL

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

My MIL always told me start with Epcot because it has the least for kids at that age and they will be thrilled over it and not disappointed after seeing the other parks.. Idk if she was right but I took her advice because shes my MIL

LOL
I was actually going to say Epcot too. They will have lots of energy at beginning of trip, just because they will be so excited, and this is a big park to walk! There is still a lot to do here such as spaceship earth, figment, turtle talk with crush, innoventions, meet and greets, plus World Showcase (craft activities at each country). They can do the Kim Possible activity in World Showcase, eat at Coral Reef to see giant aquarium or Garden Grill with Chip and Dale, have drinks at Club Cool and play in the fountains on walkway to World Showcase! Lots of fun stuff and a good way to kick off your trip.
Have fun

 

[minnie mum]

While I have my favorite parks, like everyone else, I'm not sentimentally attached to going to one park first second or third. I'm too practical for that. I prefer to go with the recommended parks according to the crowd calendars, like easywdw.com.

 

[ariane37]

I agree EPCOT is a good choice and their IS a lot for them to do there! Good tip from OurLaughingPlace about the amount of walking in EPCOT, too. If you aren't sold on that, maybe AK? There is also lots of walking there if you do the trails and I would assume the kids will be exited for their first day, so they might not mind. guess it all depends on what they like - take a look at the shows/attractions at the other 3 parks and see which park you think would interest them most after MK.
But please don't rule out EPCOT!

 

[ZoZo]

I'd recommend looking at the recommended (and "not recommended") parks on a site like easywdw.com. Josh (the person who runs this site) provides great info about which parks to go to on which days. I like the fact that he provides the reasoning behind his recommendations, too.

This is especially helpful during really busy times of the year. It can make a huge difference to avoid what will likely be a super-crowded park. I think it's interesting to read "just back" posts from people. You can have several families traveling the same exact week, and some report that the parks are super-crowded, while others say the parks (during the exact same timeframe) were very manageable. Lots of this might have to do with which park you pick on which day - it can really help (or hinder) your experience.

 

[autismmom1]

My vote is for Epcot as well...though we choose it first mainly because our first park day is a Monday. We go in October during the Food & Wine Festival and the weekends are insane there, so Monday tends to be a quieter and less busy atmosphere.

 

[Hootch]

We always end with the MK. In general we start with the MK also.

I'm not a big fan of opening weak for parks.

After a number of trips, I would focus on which park is the best to visit. Kids will enjoy activities ans and not waits. (Though Disney has gotten better at queues.)

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Look at the crowd calendars and go from there. We always start with Epcot but that's because we tend to arrive on Sunday.

 

[artemis4]

Whatever park is recommended by the planning site of your choice. I don't have a sentimental "must do first". I just want to avoid the most crowded parks.

 

[ssmurphy28]

Our last two trips we started at AK. There was no real reason, it's just the way it worked out.

We were there a couple weeks ago and we got in late on a Wednesday. So we slept in, hung out at the hotel, and then went to AK around 2 on the Thursday. We only had three hours there, but it was dead so we got a lot done. We finished with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe at park closing time. Since we were staying at AK, we went back to AK two more times (on our break days), so we had more than enough time to check out the whole park. It was so nice being so close to the park!

We just got back January 31st and we didn't actually get to MK until day 6,7, and 9 of the trip. We were done all of the other parks before we even got to MK. I probably wouldn't wait that long into a trip again to hit MK though.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Kids are 6, 5, and 2 and this is their first time at WDW. We are doing our MK days last because we have a split stay AKL followed by BLT. Given this, which park would you do first and why?

I would start with Epcot. We did this with my nephews on their first trip (they were 6 and 3 at the time). They had no expectations of what Disney World is, so they had nothing to compare Epcot to. They LOVED epcot. They spent SO much time at The Living Seas (the whole pavilion), loved playing in the area after Figment, with the interactive games at the exit of SSE, in Innoventions...I've never spent as much time in these places as an adult as they wanted to as kids. IMHO, there is a LOT for kids in Epcot, and visiting Epcot first helped because the boys didn't have any idea of what the rest of WDW was like. They were happy to explore the games and such, because they hadn't been exposed to all the rides like at MK yet.

 

[eastendlights]

Our first trip ever started with Mickey's BYBB on arrival night and the next day we went to AK. My kids were 8 and 4 at the time. We all were blown away by the detail at AK-so much to see for a first timer-I still remember walking around in amazement. We had been to DLR twice so we thought we knew what to expect and were still totally captivated by AK. I will always remember that and seeing the expressions on my children's faces. The Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Tough to be a Bug and the Tree of Life are all incredible experiences for little ones.

 

[rizzo0904]

My six year old said Epcot is his favorite park.

 

[HydroGuy]

Kids are 6, 5, and 2 and this is their first time at WDW. We are doing our MK days last because we have a split stay AKL followed by BLT. Given this, which park would you do first and why?

I have a totally different take than everyone else here so far. We fly to Orlando from Colorado so have a two hour time zone change. With travel time to the airport and all, it takes a good chunk of the day to get to WDW.

Therefore, I usually try to plan an easy day on the first full day because we are a bit travel weary and not in the right time zone yet. It depends a bit on where you are staying - onsite?, and if onsite, which park are you closest to and have easiest access to?

With all that said, AK is often a good first day park for us. First because it usually has the shortest park hours. And second because we usually get there by rope drop and are pretty much done by 4PM. Then we grab an early dinner at Rainforest Cafe and try to get back to the hotel for a more early time to bed to help with the time zone adjustment.

It does depend which day of the week we arrive and which parks are recommended by the touring sites. I would not do AK first, for example, if it had a morning EMH that day.

Second best park for us is DHS for similar reasons as AK. Except we usually stay much longer at DHS than 4PM. But still its earlier closing time does force a shorter day.

 

[tinkerbella16]

It's been our tradition to start with Epcot on our arrival day, but because it is one of my favorite parks. There is a lot more to do there than there was when I was a kid and it was my least favorite park then. I think its a great kick start to a trip. I always reserve the first FULL day for MK. Waking up refreshed, after a long day of waking up early and traveling... MK can't be beat to really kick start the magic after a nice breakfast!

 

[caitcance]

Thanks so much for all the responses, it is so helpful. According to easywdw the day I'm looking at has HS as the most recommended park. Any pros/cons or should I just go with that? I actually think of all the parks we will probably spend the least time at HS.

 

[Angel Ariel]

What's the easywdw crowd level, and what are the full parks recommendatiosn that day? (there's usually 2 recommended parks and 2 non-recommended ones)

 

[DisneyFive]

Thanks so much for all the responses, it is so helpful. According to easywdw the day I'm looking at has HS as the most recommended park. Any pros/cons or should I just go with that? I actually think of all the parks we will probably spend the least time at HS.

Our very first trip in 2010 started with HS on our day of arrival. (kids were 3, 6, and 8) It was great, especially seeing Fantasmic that night. That was our first taste at how impressive WDW is. There is lots to do for your age kids there too.

To be honest, you can't go wrong with any park on your first day. They are all very impressive.

Our arrival days have all been either Epcot or Hollywood Studios, with our first and last full day typically being Magic Kingdom.

Dan

 

[PSUGuy]

We usually stay at an Epcot area resort, BoardWalk mostly and by landing at MCO by 9 ish we can get to WS by opening, hitting the 'ride' shown below first.

Bill From PA