In A Dilemma! Help please?!

[lasmickey]

We will be arriving in Orlando on Sept. 29th (a Wednesday). Our first day to go to the parks would then be Thursday, September 30th. Unfortunately, we will be staying off-site. This is our girls' first trip to WDW, and we would really like to start off at MK, BUT this is EE day for MK. Are we crazy to try to hit this park on Thursday, without being able to get in early? Should we just choose another park, and then go to MK on Friday, when there should be less people? Also, if we should choose another park, which one? (We know we'll be doing Sea World one day, we've thought of doing it on Thursday, but would rather save it for a mid-week break). We wouldn't want the kids to be exhausted for their first time at MK the following day. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. TIA!

 

[disney4us2002]

I always like to start with MK as well. What time are you arriving Wed? Not early enough to hit that the first night for parade & Wishes (if showing then)? If you wish to wait, Thursday will be a bit more crowded but remember you are going at the quietest time of the entire year so you could be fine but I'd still plan to be at the park by rope drop at 9am. We'll be staying onsite but my kids really don't want to do EMH as they prefer to sleep (it bugs me but other than going alone, what's a person to do, lol?) so we'll be trying to hit parks on their non-EMH days as well.

 

[iluvtink]

How old are your girls? When ours were younger, we did Epcot before MK. Since they saw Epcot first, they didn't mind the "educational" aspects of it since they didn't know what their other choices were! Epcot didn't have Kidcot back then, which I think makes it much more fun for kids. Once we hit MK, they didn't want to go anywhere else! Now that they are older, and know all of the parks, we just go to any non-EMH park on the first day, and then all EMH parks after that.

 

[tjkraz]

Arghhhh! iluvtink stole my answer!!!

Seriously, that's exactly what we do. I know that many people want to hit the Magic Kingdom first because they feel that *IS* Disney. But we have found that hitting MK first makes the rest of the trip rather anti-climactic. While there are nice things to do at Epcot, it isn't exactly our favorite. By hitting that park first, we feel it helps build the excitement and enjoyment of the trip.

If you will have "hopper" passes, then I say get your money's worth. Start your first day at Epcot. Then after dinner, take the Monorail over to MK (or drive), take in a few rides, and finish the day with Wishes and/or Spectromagic. I bet you can easily see all you want to see in those 7-8 hours a Epcot, and you get a little late-night taste of MK. But don't forget to come back for Illuminations later in the week.

 

[iluvtink]

tjkraz,

I'm so excited I had an answer that was good enough to be stolen!!!

hee hee

iluvtink

 

[lasmickey]

Ok, here's a little more info:

My DD's are ages 7 & 4. They have both spent ALOT of time watching the planning video and looking at the WDW Guide for Kids by Kids. (The WDW planning video is my 4 yr. olds favorite movie!! ~ Can't imagine where she gets that from )

Anyway, they have both found things in all of the parks that they want to do, and are looking forward to going to all the parks. (So I don't think I need to worry about them not wanting to go anywhere else after having seen MK.) They are just REALLY excited about seeing MK the most!

We will have 7 day PH plus tickets. (We'll be in Orlando for 9 nights) We won't be arriving in Orlando until around noon, so I really didn't want to use a day on our tickets to go only half of a day our first day.

Thanks for all the great responses so far, but I'm still REALLY undecided. Anyone else want to give an opinion?

 

[vicb]

Epcot and MGM were our favorite parks on our recent trip!

Don't worry about Epcot being "too educational" or "non-Disney". They have the very cool character bus that comes to the fountain area of FW a few times each day. It is a double decker red london type bus blaring happy disney music and loaded with traditional characters to meet and greet.

Be sure to take your girls to the Figment ride in the Imagination Pavillion. My kids also liked Universe of Energy, TT, MS (well DD and DH rode it, DS and I played in the interactive area which is cool). We liked the Coke Ice Station, Jammitors and Kristos acts.

If you do some of the WS, let your girls make the free masks at each station in the countries. Eat at Mexico and do their ride, or our new favorite Le Cellier in Canada. Watch the Chinese Acrobats and the Living Statues.

I could go on and on.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by lasmickey
We will be arriving in Orlando on Sept. 29th (a Wednesday). Our first day to go to the parks would then be Thursday, September 30th. Unfortunately, we will be staying off-site. This is our girls' first trip to WDW, and we would really like to start off at MK, BUT this is EE day for MK. Are we crazy to try to hit this park on Thursday, without being able to get in early? Should we just choose another park, and then go to MK on Friday, when there should be less people? Also, if we should choose another park, which one? (We know we'll be doing Sea World one day, we've thought of doing it on Thursday, but would rather save it for a mid-week break). We wouldn't want the kids to be exhausted for their first time at MK the following day. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. TIA!

You know what? I just stayed offsite for the first time. I stayed in a time share (High Pointe) that took me (I timed it one day) 12 minutes from my driveway to the parking lot at MGM. MK took about 3 extra minutes. I will ALWAYS rent a car from now on, even when staying onsite.

So...what I am getting at is, it's a lot quicker to get there than you think. Also, we got there every morning right at 9. We have no problems anywhere with EE crowds. You are going at a pretty quiet time of year and I don't think you will have any problems at all. Honestly, I don't.

I arrived Saturday the 21st (a busy day as it was the end of Presidents week) and I got to MK at 1 pm. I was worried about wasting a day on my PH pass but I was SO glad I went. We got on almost everything (and the things we skipped we skipped because we wanted to , not because we ouldn't get on!), used fastpass, and had little to no wait, saw Spectromagic and dined at CRT for dinner!

I think starting a Disney trip at MK is the best. Really make syou feel like you are there!

Have fun!

 

[4greatboys]

Sept in off season. We have been there 2 times then and there were never any crowds. We rarely had more than a 15 min wait for most attractions. I also want to add my family likes to sleep in a bit--we have never hit a park at opening, lol. Normally we arrive somewhere between 10 and 11 and we have not had a problem doing all we wanted to.

 

[shortbun]

I concur with the above post. End of September should be
low crowds and EE day should be fine. You have 7 days worth
of Disney and could go back another morning if necessary.
Using Fast Pass really helps get you on things with little wait.
We do more walking using Fast Pass because you cross the park
quickly sometimes to get in the best usage. A double stroller will
be a life saver and keep both girls fresh as well as give you a place to stash your "things." IMHO this is no time to be militant about children walking the parks-you are there to have fun, not
test your physical stamina. Oh, and our "midweek break" is
usually a sleep in morning, late breakfast, hour at the pool, movie at downtown Disney, early dinner(maybe character) and early
bedtime. We really rest.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

When I was at WDW recently with my 4yo I waited until we'd done all the other parks before going to the MK. I hadn't really planned it that way (we'd actually planned on going to EE at MK on our second day and then hopping to Epcot after a few hours, but my son got a stomach virus that morning so we didn't make it to teh EE), but it worked out well. He loved Epcot and the other parks because he wasn't expecting a lot of rides. He'd also watching the planning DVD, so knew what was at MK, but I don't know how firm of a grasp he had of what was really at MK. He'd been to WDW before, but he was too young to remember. This of course won't work so well for me next time I bring him since he'll remember a lot, but I'm glad that we waited for the MK.

Even in the off season MK can get so crowded--I know, not as crowded as the high season, but still lines for a lot of the slower loading rides, like Dumbo, the racecars, and Astrorbitor. If you do go on later on an EE day, make sure you plan out which fastpasses you want to pull right away and then go to the other rides that don't take fastpass (ie Dumbo) before the lines get too long.

T&B

 

[LDV]

This doesn't really help for your first park day, but maybe you could do a character dinner your arrival night at one of the resorts on the monorail and see the fireworks from there. There are a lot of posts of good places at the Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian to see the fireworks and at some you can hear the piped in music. At that point, you'll have seen some characters, seen the fireworks and may be more ready for a day at Epcot or MGM or Sea World. (and you won't have used a day of your passes) You might even get to see the Lagoon Parade too.

 

[slo]

We go every year in September and the reason for this is the crowds are very light. In fact - I could never go in the summer because I am to spoiled with not having to wait long to go on any rides.

I have two girls - one 6 and one 13 months. This will be my 6yr olds 4th time at Disney and we always started with the MK first no matter what. You will not have a major problem with crowds on Thursday, you will be fine!! We are arriving at Disney on a Monday and we are doing the MK the next day. If we were there at the same time I would not be there Thursday with the E thing going on and I'm sure there's other people like us out there.

Getting my daughter into the MK to see that castle has always been for us the best way to start our trip. If you have hopper passes, which I'm sure you do, if the MK is to crowded and unbearable get on the monorail and take it to Epcot, or the transportation center and catch a bus to MGM. Either of these 2 have evening shows going on there later in the day & will not be a waste of time.

Now, my question to you is - how do you know there is an E night going on? When I have called the cast members tell me that they can't get Sept. on their screen yet because it to much in the future. They couldn't even assure me about the Pirate Cruise being on the days they typically are on. Please inform me how you received this information. Thanks!!

Have a great day!!

 

[lasmickey]

slo ~ I'm sorry if you misunderstood, I was referring to Thursday being EE ("Early Entry") day for those staying on-site. I wish I could tell you that I know of a "magic" way to get information about e-nights, but I don't. Sorry!

Thanks to all of you who have replied! You've been a HUGE help to me. I think we've decided to do MK our first day, regardless of it being EE day. This is the part we've looked forward to the most. Ever since my DH and I were in WDW before we had children, we've always looked forward to being able to take our kids to MK. Every time we start talking about starting in another park, we just get depressed at the thought! We know that even if it's crowded, we'll have another whole day there later in our vacation week, AND as "slo" pointed out, if it gets too crowded, we can always park hop later in the day.

So unless somebody comes up with some "earth shattering" reason for us not to, it will be MK for us on our first full day!!!

Thanks again to all!!

 

[kilee]

I would go to MK first. It's almost sacreligous not too !! I have to always start there personally. Anyhow, being September I wouldn't worry about the crowds.

 

[pm914]

First night idea: We've decided that on our next WDW trip, we're going to take DD5 to the Snow White dinner at 1900 Park Faire at the Grand Floridian on our first night.
We were "resort hopping" on the monorail one night and saw all the little girls dressed up in their princess costumes and tiaras waiting to go in for dinner and felt really neglectful for not having made PSs for our daughter.
You could take them there (in the GF) for dinner, watch the fireworks, and then catch the electrical water pageant - very magical - and no Park Hopper days used.
I, too, would go to the MK the first day - couldn't resist.
Have a great time!