to choose only 3 parks...

[amyrajo]

My family and I (kids ages 9 and almost 6) will be taking our first trip to Disney in the next couple of months! If you could only choose 3 of the parks to visit, which ones would you go to??

Our vacation time only allows us 6 days - (hardly enough time, but oh well!) We also want to hit Sea World on one of the days, and drive to the beach on another day.(being from WI, my kids really think seeing the ocean would be soooo neat!!) With the remaining four days, we'll do the parks.... which park would you skip if you absolutely HAD to??? Thanks for your help!!

 

[Mr.BsMom]

MK and Epcot are definites!! Personally, I would skip AK if I had to pick only 3 and go to MGM instead.... but I know there are a lot of people out there that would disagree! Do your kids really enjoy animals or entertainment-type things? Our family prefers the entertainment, therefor we preferred going to MGM....

Have a great trip!

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

You'll get lots of varying opinions on this one, but here's mine. I would skip Animal Kingdom if I really had to skip one. It loses out based on the fewer number of attractions, some similarities with zoos, etc. I don't really mean to bash it, but for my family it just doesn't measure up to the other three parks.

What kind of tickets will you have? If you have some form of Park Hoppers you could split a day between AK and another park. You can hit the highlights there in just a few hours, and then go somewhere else. Just rememeber to allow lots and lots of time for Magic Kingdom. It's just the home of all the "magic"

Have a great trip!<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_1_10.gif' border=0></a>

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

I wouldn't skip any. I'd do AK on an early entry morning and have the major attractions finished by lunchtime. Then I would head to another park for the afternoon and evening. That way you don't have to miss anything.

HBC

 

[EsmeraldaX]

I only have 4.5 days on my upcoming trip and my plan is like this :

first night...arrive at MK around 3 to have an early dinner at the castle. Then do some attractions.
Second day go to Epcot all day.
Third day go to MGM all day (staying till they close because we went to see Fantasmic)
Fourth day we are doing AK in the am (if you get there when it opens on a weekday , you should be able to do all the attractions (minus a show or two) by early afternoon) then head back to either Epcot (if we've missed a lot) or Magic Kingdom (if we did a lot of Epcot)
Fifth day, MK all day till it closes

You can easily split AK into a day with another park, possibly MGM; or Epcot. Unless you are absolutely into seeing all of the shows. I'm not that interested in parades, character meetings that require waiting in line or shows. I will be seeing Flights of Wonder & The Lion King while I am there. The others I could take or leave.

Another possibilty is to only do the Future World section of Epcot then go to MK, and then split AK with the world showcase, since it's open a lot later than the other parks.

I really think you will be able to do all 4 in 4 days and at least get the highlights, but if you have to skip one, I'd say it depends on what your family likes. I love animals and could not imagine skipping AK, but a lot of people think "well it is just a zoo" .

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Originally posted by Happy Birthday Cat
I wouldn't skip any. I'd do AK on an early entry morning and have the major attractions finished by lunchtime. Then I would head to another park for the afternoon and evening. That way you don't have to miss anything.

HBC

Took the words right out of my mouth! EXCELLENT!

 

[kaylajr]

you said with the remaining 4 days you'll do the parks
that's a day in each park unless you only have three day passes

are they hoppers?

my answer and it is only my opinion is skip NONE
at least hit the high lights

i have to dd's they were 6 and 8 last trip and they really did not need more than a few hours in MGM by early afternoon we were back at the pool for the day

it all depends on waht you like

we would never consider missing AK
that is just a big park for us

what ever you choose remember you'll never see it all while your there so don't try
we did the first time and missed so much by trying to hard


Have Fun Planning

 

[tjkraz]

Not a popular opinion, but we would probably skip Epcot. We LOVE Illuminations, but many of the attractions there fall into the "saw it once, don't need to see it again" category.

On the other hand, we LOVE MGM. Love all of the thrill rides, the park theming, the majority of the shows.

For three days, our ideal plan would probably be to split a day between AK and Epcot. That's assuming you have "hopper" passes, of course.

 

[jaysue]

If we had to skip one, we would skip MGM (lots of opinions around here)

AK is actually our favourite park of the whole lot by day and Epcot by night

AK can in theory be "done" in a 2/3 day if you stay to the highlights and only see 1 or 2 of the shows

Festival of the Lion King and It's Tough to be a bug is a must see

Thanks
jaysue

 

[beattyfamily]

If you HAD to skip one, my opinion would be for your to skip AK.

BUT you can certainly try and fit all four into 4 days. We've done it.

Mk deserves a whole day and MGM could possibly be done in half a day and depending on whether you want to stay for Fantasmic will determine when you would arrive at that park; AK certainly can be done in half a day. You can do the major things at Epcot as well. It's feasible.

But if you are set on only focusing on 3 parks, I'd skip AK.

 

[pammy1027]

We just returned and were gonna skip 1, but got extremely lucky with only 3 1/2-4 days to get ALL of the parks in, including a visit to Disney Quest, Pleasure Island, and a movie at AMC DTD.

I wouldn't skip anything! You can sleep when you get home

My suggestion is to hit MGM on arrival day and hit the major attractions- R&Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, etc.
Make sure you have full days for Magic Kingdom and Epcot, but try to plan those on Non Weekend days since those parks will have the most people. Then, try Animal Kingdom on an early day for about 1/2 the day. We did this one on our departure day since we had a later flight and it worked out perfect! AK has a few great rides (Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, The Safari, etc.) It's far different from a Zoo cuz you get to see the animals in their natural (kinda) habitat and some you wouldn't see at all in most zoos.

I believe you'll be sorry if you don't get to experience all of the parks and you'll have to come back at double the money once you figure that out.

My vote is to also hit DTD at least one night so the kids and the adult kids can create their own Roller Coaster at Disney Quest. This is also a wonderful "Rain Night" thing to do since it's all indoors. Lots of vertual reality things and simulators that make the experience seem real like Mission Space.

Get Ultimate Park Hopper Tickets- it's worth the little extra to get the complete experience and you won't have to pay to get in Pleasure Island if just the adults choose to take advantage of Parents Night Out and enjoy the 8 different Clubs to entertain you. You also won't pay for Disney Quest, Wide World of Sports, Typhoon Lagoon, or Blizzard Beach if you decide to hit any of them on your trip either.

A late dinner at Bongo's in DTD is a very fun time for the whole family on a weekend, too. It's Cuban Food with a Live Salsa Band with free lessons. The whole place is hopping! The pricing is pretty moderate as well in comparison with Disney Prices everywhere.

Have a wonderful trip- I'm sooooo jealous..... Will you adopt me??

 

[meeko_33785]

I think it depends on what your family's intrests are. A good first step is to determine what movies do they like. If "Beauty and the Beast", "The Little Mermaid", "Star Wars", or "Indiana Jones" rank high, MGM sounds like the place for you. If "The Lion King", "Tarzan", "A Big's Life", and "Pocahontas" rank higher, AK sounds like the ticket. Also, if they prefer thrill rides (MGM is the best place for those) or animal encounters (Definatly AK). Of course, you could always split the day in half and spend the morning at AK and the afternoon and evening at MGM. You won't see everything in the parks, but you'll get a taste of both worlds.

 

[Lory]

EPCOT--would be our choice. We've only been there once but didn't care for it. Kids were 8 & 4 at the time and they didn't care for it either. The hands on stuff they didn't like, they wanted rides and excitement. They didn't like World Showcase at all. We were there about 5 hours and the only thing we all enjoyed were the underground fountains that the kids could play in.
It just wasn't our cup of tea. When we go back in December we are skipping it all together. Absolutely loved all the other 3 parks.
Just our opinion, many others disagree.

Lory

299 days to go

 

[amyrajo]

Thank you VERY much for your responses! Your "been there...done that" opinions were exactly what I needed in order to plan out how much time to spend at the parks. Our family consensus is to try and get all four parks in....so your suggestions as how to split up the days were helpful! Thanks again!!!!! (only 48 more days!!!)

 

[rhazz]

We just got back from our 3 day visit w/ our 6 & 4 y/o's. We hit MK, MGM and US/IOA. We've been to AK, MK and EPCOT before. Our kids actually loved Universal, there's really so much to do and it's possible to do both parks in one day. I would recommend MK (must) AK (loved all the animal themes) and Universal (there's sooo much)