Thoughts on skipping Epcot?

[ols386]

Epcot is almost my favorite park, Mainly because of World Showcase. I just love it. I also like Test Track and Soar'in. I would never skip it, but that's only my opinion. If you want to skip it, that is totally up to you. It just depends on what you like.

 

[ullen]

I agree for the most part with just go with what parks would make your family happy. My favorite park is Epcot and I'm fortunate enough that my husband and kids feel the same. We are spending 3 of the 7 days there. Our least favorite is AK but I still feel the need to spend a day there (especially since we have not been there since Pandora opened.) But we only go like every 5 years so that could be why we feel the need to visit each park.

 

[agavegirl1]

I go without kids now (empty nester here) but when I did take the 9 and 11 year olds, they liked Epcot best. It was, however years ago and the rides and theme were different. Wonders of Life was open, Innoventions had tons of interactive stuff. There was no food and wine or food and garden. Computer games were not in every home. We could make a dinner reservation on an interactive screen. Test track was a "TEST TRACK".

I agree that you need to do what makes your family happy. I would still think a day there would be worth it. The aquarium is really cool and Turtle Talk is fun. Kids don't shun education on a WDW vacation. Living with the Land is a fascinating boat ride and trying new foods can be cool as well. How you approach it makes all the difference.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I know you can add the Hopper option once you’re at WDW. Can you add them for just the remaining days of your trip or does it have to be for the entire length of our tickets?

You can add hopping at any time up to the last day on your ticket. However, the price is based on the number of days of your ticket, not the number of days you can hop.

You'd have to check the ticket sticky thread for the prices, but I think it's one price on a single day's ticket, another higher price on a 3 day ticket, and one more price point for tickets over 3 days.

 

[tinkerhon]

I could never skip experiencing World Showcase and the dining opportunities. Not to mention Flower & Garden may be on depending on when in March you're going.

If the idea of World Showcase doesn't excite you, you can just hit a few rides and skip the rest. If the rides there don't interest you; then skip it

This !! We can live at WS !!!

 

[Jenderelly]

My family and I love Epcot and we are spending 2 of our 5 park days there on our Feb. trip. Now that my kids are older (16 and 13), I'm looking forward to spending more time in World Showcase and not feeling like we have to run back and forth to the rides with them. Having said that, I'll echo what others have stated - if it doesn't interest you, don't go! Park tickets are expensive and you wouldn't want to waste one at a park that you don't fully enjoy.

 

[Magpie]

The first time we went to Disney (in 2005), my kids were 7 and 9. At the end of the trip, they said Epcot was their favourite park.

Here's what we did...

Purchased passports for each of them. They went to every country, stopped at the KidCot craft stations and got a stamp. Then they asked the castmembers to write "hello" in their passports, and they practiced saying hello in their language. Made a lot of new friends!

Did everything they could in Innoventions, which at the time was some sort of "Fire Safety" thing, paper making, and a city energy planning game. For whatever reason, they loved it. Plus, the castmember in charge of the Fire Safety exhibit gave them a certificate for completing the activity. I think the only thing currently in Innoventions is "Colortopia"? Still, that is also fun, even for us adults (we tried it last time we were there).

Made sure to arrange our time so we could see some of the shows and demonstrations (ie, feeding the manatees in The Seas, belly dancing demo in the World Showcase, etc). Spent a lot of time looking at exhibits and talking to castmembers, and getting to touch things like shark teeth.

On a subsequent trip, my daughter spent a good hour playing with the "Virtual Surgery" thing in the post-show area of Spaceship Earth.

For us, at Epcot, the rides were almost an afterthought. It seemed more like a large, sprawling museum. Which, as enormous museum geeks, was right up my kids' alley.

If I had a six year old these days, I likely would do Epcot, because I think we'd have a heck of a lot of fun with the passport. Plus, I'd do whatever the current scavenger hunt is (Agent P?). But I also think it's completely reasonable to want to skip it, if these things aren't your idea of fun.

 

[GillianP1301]

For my family Epcot is a must. My son has always loved it there (first went at age 4, he's now 9). But that's us and if your family don't enjoy it as much then I see no issue with just skipping it.

You can always change your mind and if you get to the mid point of your vacation and feeling like you're covering ground well and want to change a day to Epcot, you can. You can also decide to add a hopper on at any point as well, so you do have flexibility.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I have to hit each park at least once per trip or it feels wrong, so no, I wouldn't skip.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I always tell people to skip what they want because it's their vacation. I often skip DHS or only go in that park for one or two things and then leave.
Once Toy Story Land and Galaxy's Edge are open that may change but for now it's an easy choice for me. Now Epcot - I love that park and often spend a day and a half there out of a 4 day trip.

 

[KenHutch]

Its really just a matter of taste, myself I like EPCOT and think half a day there is great however ever since my 17 year old daughter was 5 (our 1st trip) EPCOT is the end all be all of her vacation, she loves it so look for things to do because she always wants 2 full days there. I will admit having been stationed in Japan for a couple of years I do enjoy the Japanese Pavilion.

 

[disneycountrygirl]

We only did 1/2 days at Epcot when we were going with toddlers. As the kids got older, we started spending more time there, and our delight in it grew. We love it now and it's one of the parks I am looking the most forward to for our next trip. I found the experience really depended on the ages of the kids. Things are more fun when everyone is having fun instead of the adults only.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We like Epcot and so we spend lots of time there-but we're two adults. With children it's probably different. Maybe if you had Hoppers you could spend a 1/2 day there. But it's important to remember to take all of our posts in this thread with a grain of salt. It's your vacation, do it your way. You spent the money and it's up to you and you alone to decide how the money was spent. You'll have a fabulous vacation no matter what you decide!

 

[tlmadden73]

We are going to WDW for 6 days with our six-year-old son in March 2018. We did our first trip to WDW in January 2017 and went to DL in summer 2016. During our January trip, we spent a couple of hours at Epcot and did Test Track, The Seas with Nemo, and Soarin' (which we had also ridden at DL). We also park hopped and did a couple of World Showcase dinners while we were there in January.

For our March trip, I am considering skipping Epcot altogether. We didn't spend much time there last time, but there is nothing there that we are dying to do again or feel like we missed out on last time. DS isn't into Frozen, for example. OTOH, there are a ton of attractions at AK and MK that we would like to do multiple times on our next trip. But I feel like we might be missing out if we skip Epcot altogether.

What do you think? Do other people with little kids skip Epcot? Am I not giving it enough of a chance? Is there something there that you think I shouldn't miss?

I have skipped Epcot on two of my son's three trips. (But he was a preschooler for those). I decided that it just didn't have enough "kid" attractions until he was at least tall enough to go on all the rides there. So we gladly skipped it. In my opinion, DHS, MK and AK are all way more kid friendly and more stuff centric to the movies/shows the kids know.

In its current state, Epcot also just doesn't have many extraordinary attractions compared to the other parks. Test Track and Soaring are cool, but sometimes not worth it considering the other attractions you spend the rest of the day with.

The only reason we went to Epcot this time around (he was 4 1/2) was because the other family we were going with went. We had a good time for sure, but just lacks exciting attractions, especially for kids. My son was just tall enough for Test Track and Soarin' (enjoyed them both), but honestly the highlight of the day for him was the character dinner at Garden Grille and just looking at stuff in The Seas.

We decided to not really hit World Showcase at all, after remembering getting dragged around that boring walk around the lake in my youth, I wasn't going to subject him to that after a full enough day in Future World.

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

do whatever is best for you! i never skip any parks, so i probably wouldn't be very helpful...

 

[deuceswild10]

We skipped it this past September. We did two water parks instead. Next time we will do Epcot and have something new to loom forward to.