Should I skip EPCOT with little ones?

[justamy27]

My kids are 6 and 3 and they love Epcot. The like Test Track, Soarin, Turtle Talk...pretty much everything I do except they didn't mind Ellen, which I am not a fan of.

 

[cwnhokie]

We love EPCOT. The first year we went my DSs were 4 and 2. We only spent an evening there and vowed to spend a whole day the next time. I think we all like that it is more relaxed and low key. It gives them time to just explore and recoup from the nonstop stimulation of the other parks. We usually do the Kidcot stations and they love collecting something from each country, while Dad and I get to check out the countries.

 

[dawneg]

One important note about your 4-year-old: he/she will need to be 40 inches tall for Soarin' and Test Track. My 4 and 7 year-old boys loved both on a recent visit, but my 4-year-old just squeaked by on height.

 

[FigmentChick]

Well....I don't know whether my advice will help, as my children are nerds like their mother, so we took them to Epct. The first time we went with children (2006), my daughter was 6.5 and my son was about to turn 5. They loved Epcot. The climbed on the fire truck (like they can't do that at home - I'm a volunteer firefighter), they made paper, they loved Living with the Seas and The Land. World Showcase allowed them to color masks and talk to people of different cultures....they ate it up! It's still their favorite park I'm happy to say (and mine, too, of course!).

 

[cwnhokie]

Well....I don't know whether my advice will help, as my children are nerds like their mother, so we took them to Epct. The first time we went with children (2006), my daughter was 6.5 and my son was about to turn 5. They loved Epcot. The climbed on the fire truck (like they can't do that at home - I'm a volunteer firefighter), they made paper, they loved Living with the Seas and The Land. World Showcase allowed them to color masks and talk to people of different cultures....they ate it up! It's still their favorite park I'm happy to say (and mine, too, of course!).

LOL! My DH and I were laughing this past summer. We couldn't have been more pleased that our boys 8, 6 and 2 were perfectly content spending all of their time in Innovations, which was air conditioned and not very crowded. They could care less about Soarin, which was out of fast passes and an hour wait.

 

[RandFamily]

My kids have always loved EPCOT the best!! I recommend you don't skip it and try to catch the rides that others have posted here. In recent years, they have geared EPCOT much more to younger children than in the past.

 

[PiperPizzaz]

It is my 4 yo's favorite park! He LOVES Test Track, soarin', nemo and mission space, spaceship earth, imagination with figment but, he also loves the countries. He is really into geography. The kidcot stuff around world showcase is really fun!

 

[HeidiGW]

I agree with the other posters, all great advice. My kids, even as infants, loved Illuminations...don't want to miss the spinning globe and fireworks!
BUT one of the best reasons is all the food. My kids' love the restaurants and eat around the world. It is a great way to sample foods other than chicken nuggets and fries. My most picky eater, age 12, now LOVES Japanese food because we ate at Teppan Edo when she was seven. She even tried the veggies...it was nothing short of a miracle! It's difficult to refuse, even for little kids, to try the native cuisine when offered by so pleasantly...or by a hottie. Two of my girls, still talk about "Roberto" at Tuttio Italia. For him, they ate sauce, instead of plain, on their noodles!!! ha!

 

[Mom2darlingboys]

Epcot is my kids' favorite park - and what a shame it would be to miss Soarin'. The little ones would love that ride, it really is magical.

 

[momto2js]

It is not my favorite park with my 1 and 3 year old. They enjoy Nemo and a few other things but it is a lot of walking for a little entertainment. I could also have a bit of bais. I HATED EPCOT as a kid, and it is still not my favorite. If you do go, Energy is a 45 minute ride, DH learned this the hard way with my oldest that was about 18 months at the time. It was a LONG 45 minutes. Nuclear winter wouldn't get me back on Energy with my kids!

 

[JessicaWakefield]

I'd skip it. If your six year old is tall she may be able to go on a few extra rides, but the other two will definitely be stuck on the sideline. I just don't think it would be worth the time.

 

[Ricklg3]

Your 6 year old and 4 year old will have a great time. My son turned 4 just before we went he is 40 inches tall and he is average height. His favorite rides are at epcot- test track and soarin. Your 6 and 4 year old will love those rides. Then there is the Nemo ride, turtle talk with crush, my kids are 4 and 5 on our open day the park they wanted to go back was Epcot

My daughter at Epcot, reading a map looking for Test Track

 

[floursackmama]

We thought there was plenty for kids to do during the recent Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot. The park sets up wonderful playgrounds and play gardens for the kids just during that time. They enjoyed the butterfly house and received free packets of seeds to take home and plant. I spoke with the horticulture manager about what goes into all of the special displays during the Festival, and that's at FlourSackMama.com.

 

[momtoltl74]

Took my kids ages 1,2 turned 3 at the park and then our 5 year old and Epcot was one of their favorites.

 

[yellen97]

I think it depends on how much time you have to spend at the other parks. When we took dd who was only 2.5 for her first trip, we only went to Epcot one evening for dinner. We wanted to only focus on stuff SHE would really enjoy since we knew all the parks so well ourselves. It made for a very relaxed trip with a 2 year old. However, on subsequent trips (with dd's @ 2 and 6 one time and 4 and 8 the other time) we have not skipped Epcot and the kids loved it each time.

If you have adequate time to do ALL the little kid stuff at the other parks too, I say go for it, but if you will be cutting short your time to see playhouse disney or festival of the Lion King, etc. definitely not.

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

Taking my kids ages 6, 4, and 2 in Nov. We are thinking of skipping EPCOT since there doesn't seem to be a ton geared towards them.

What do you think? Is there a full days worth of things for kids this age there? If so what??

My personal opinion, do NOT skip Epcot with your little ones. They are the exact same ages when we took our three. Now, it is one of my children's favorite parks. Like other posts have mentioned, there ARE things for little ones to do at Epcot. Most things have been mentioned. So, I won't relist everything. You won't be disappointed! I think WDW needs to promote Epcot better at being a "family park" and emphasize what it has to offer.

A cute photo op: I have some cute pictures of my kids trying on the hats in each country. They are priceless!

Have a magical trip!

 

[bwilcox]

Epcot is my 2 preschoolers' second favorite park (after MK, of course). Don't think of it in the number of rides you can do-there is so much more! Interactive fountains to play in, Innoventions has places to create art, do experiments, play games, the WS has a lot that kids can explore (don't forget Kimpossible!), and in our experience it is the best place to meet characters with the shortest lines. Epcot is a more laid back, relaxed day for us. After we do the rides in the morning before the crowds, the kids get to decide what they want to do. I definitely wouldn't skip it without giving it a try!

 

[KatieCollette]

We saved Epcot for our last day on our last trip, and only we're there for about 4 hours. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! We had so much fun, and we only got to walk around the World Showcase. We barely got to explore any of the countries, and didn't do Future World at all. We missed the Crush turtle thing, which I am sad about after hearing so much about it on these boards. On our next trip we're planning on spending two days there to make up for our last trip.

 

[JEL394]

I'm struggling with whether or not we will go to Epcot this trip as well...our boys will be 4 and turning 3 on the trip, and our daughter will be 5 months. We have 3 full days (but 4 tickets, so we can do something on arrival day as well, but no park hopppers). I have created a plan for the whole time (that does not include Epcot presently), but I'm gonig to see how things go when we get there if we could possibly do Epcot later in the trip. I just want to be SURE we do everything at MK that they want to do, and am willing to give up other parks to fit it all in (ie. we don't need any princess stuff this go-round, we can wait till DD is older to do all that). One thing I struggle with is that I know our almost 3 year old will not be able to ride as much as our 4 year old, and he will HATE that...he wants to do everything big brother does, so I'm trying to plan very carefully to hit the rides they both can do, and hopefully leave out the ones he can't ride without either of them noticing

 

[Melissalovespugs]

I have 2 girls, ages 5 & 1, and we found plenty to do at Epcot. We did everything as a family, so even the 1 year old was never left out. We never went for a full day though, we did 2 evenings at Epcot.

We had a harder time finding things to do at Animal Kingdom, due to the height restrictions & such. (Our oldest is barely 40 inches at 5 years old, and our youngest has a hard time sitting through shows, one or maybe two but after that she makes too much of a fuss.)