Itinerary recommendations (3rd day at MK?)

[ForTheGlory]

My family (myself, my wife, 4 year old son, 7 month old son, and my wife's sister) will be going to WDW in early December. Our ADR booking starts tomorrow. I thought I had our itinerary fleshed out but now I am second guessing myself. Here's our current plan....

2 days at MK (we are not doing MVMCP)
2 days at AK
2 days at Epcot (one day is on arrival day so not a full day)
1 day at HS
1 day at Universal (we've got big Harry Potter fans in the group)

Do I have a good plan here or does anyone think we would be better served by dropping the 2nd day at AK in favor of a 3rd day at MK?

Side notes that may be helpful. None of us have been to WDW in many years except for one evening at MK for MNSSHP when our older son was an infant. We probably won't return until our infant is 4 years old or so.

Thanks for any help!!!!

 

[Accident]

It's always ok to change your mind while on vacation and pivot what you do. Keep your plans like it is. kids generally love AK and it's really rough to get everything they generally like in as many things aren't all day events or longer shows that have a set performance schedule.

You'll also get a chance to 1: figure out if you want another MK day. 2: figure out if you need or want another AK day after you've done each once. You also don't seem to ahve any break days which you might crave and maybe it's an afternoon in the pool and lunch or dinner at springs day instead of another park day. You might even want a second universal day. I would plan it around a disney park and get some type of fastpasses for it in advance and be ready to change as the vacation progresses.

Switching a day tricks to know: If you know the night before, that's when you want to start canceling your adrs for the park your not going too to avoid the no show fee, then near midnight you'll get a large array of options, some really hard to get that show up to book a nice lunch or dinner somewhere in the park you end up (or springs if you go that route). Same day fastpasses are amazing lately, just start to really look hard about noon and you'll get some amazing choices for the afternoon or evening while your on your pivot day..

Also weather plays a factor, I personally hate AK in the rain even if it's just a couple hours of rain so you this extra day you can be flexible if weather is a factor for any park on any other day... Universal also really sucks in the rain so it might be you need to shift when your at universal.

Just book your hard to get must do things for other days and leave this pivot day setup for AK just in case.

 

[glassslippergirl]

It's a sound plan. I agree with @Accident. You can change your plan as you go. I think you'll want two days in AK, but (depending on how long you have on arrival day) you may not want two days at Epcot.

 

[TI double-GUH ER]

I agree with the previous advice telling you that you can change your mind when you get there if you need to...

However, I disagree with the days. I know you can always do rider swap for the adults, but you aren't going to be taking the little ones on thrill rides like Everest or Kali. Your 4 year old also probably isn't tall enough for a bunch of the rides at each park and I know you'll want to keep them entertained - so with AK what you want to figure out is how much time you want to be doing the trails and animal shows with a 4 year old. You know your child's attention span best. As an aside, you might want to preview the Tough to Be A Bug before you go- it can be a little scary if your kid is not ok with it. (Mine could not have handled it at age 4...) In any case, I think with young kids like that, one day would be fine in AK. When mine were that age, we never even lasted a full day in AK -- and that's with spending an hour at the Boneyard!

I find we spend the most time in MK, just because so many of the rides are easier to take the little ones on - and there are so many familiar characters for them to meet. So I'd vote for a 3rd MK day in your plan. I double down on my vote if you're planning to leave the parks for naps each day. Going in December, I'm not sure how much pool time you'll actually want or need.

The other idea I'd recommend if you're ok with it, is to leave that day open for revisiting favorites. It works out great if you have park hoppers, because you can just hit whatever you want wherever it happens to be - but even if you don't, you can see what park had the biggest reaction from your 4 year old and go with it.

Good luck and have a great trip no matter what you decide!!!!

 

[ForTheGlory]

Thanks everyone! We are going to keep the current plan but rearrange ADRs so it's easy to switch the 2nd AK day to MK.