Water Park and Theme Park on the same day?

[smelton521]

We are traveling to Disney World for the first time with our kids ages 4 and 5. They have watched the vacation planning DVD and they talk about Blizzard Beach almost as much as the rest of Disney! I originally had not intended to go to a water park and have already planned out our 6 days at the parks without it. But now I am worried they will be really disappointed. So do I need to take an entire day to go to a water park? Or could we do AK in the morning and a water park in the afternoon? I was planning on going to AK on a day with morning EMH and with their ages, I was really only expecting us to be there half a day anyway. We won't be doing a table service meal, Everest or Dinosaur or any of the bigger rides. So is that doable? Or would it be better to go on our Epcot Day? Or, on our last day DD and I were going to do Perfectly Princess Tea Party and afterward we were all going to go to MK for a 3rd day. We were going to do MK for half a day on our arrival day, a full day in the middle of our trip and then that last day. Will we want all of that MK time or should I just reduce our park tickets from 6 days to 5 and do the water park on our last day?

Thanks!

 

[Run princess]

We have spent full days at water parks and 1/2 days. Your kids are young so you can easily spend just a few hours but honestly they will probably be just as thrilled by the hotel pool. Many are heavily themed and even have water slides.

In general water parks are more crowded in the afternoon at the heat of the day.

 

[Hootch]

are still evolving and we have some time before we go to WDW again, but our current plan is to hit a water park at rope drop. Then we would go to Animal Kingdom. The water park is usually getting very busy around 11 AM. Lines for most of the slides/activities are short in the morning.

We considered doing the water park (in our case Typhoon Lagoon) followed by Animal Kingdom followed by the MK (requires PHs). The concern was that the lines for Kali River Rapids and the Safari would be very long by the time we got there.

 

[mfulk]

We go to a water park almost every afternoon we're at Disney. It's definitely doable to go to AK and then BB in one day. What works well for our family is go to rope drop at one of the parks, leave around lunch when it's getting crowded and spend the afternoon at TL or BB and go back to one of the parks after dinner. We are usually there in April/May and don't find the lines to be too bad at the water parks in the afternoon. We have 4 kids (8, 6, 4 and 22 months on our last visit) and we all love both water parks!

 

[smelton521]

Thank you all for the info! Since this will probably be our only trip to Disney while they are this young, we are trying to squeeze a lot in, so I am sure that we will just go to a water park one day. I was trying to find ticket prices. Is it $54 for an adult and $46 for a child and is that the cost for one day only?

 

[Fommt2]

I spent yesterday at Epcot in the morning, typhoon lagoon in the afternoon and DTD in the evening, so I can be done, just be prepared to be tired

 

[ArwenMarie]

The water parks are fun. We usually go at opening and just stay a couple of hours. Then we come back to the hotel and we'll do something low-key at night. Maybe dinner at a park and a few rides.

We usually do a split between the waterpark in the morning and Epcot at night. I think that AK is one that is good to go to first thing in the morning as well.

They will be tired, so just keep it flexible as to what you do afterwards that day. I would keep your MK plans after the Tea Party, that is a perfect way to end a trip

Just my opinion, have fun planning

 

[kay1864]

What works well for our family is go to rope drop at one of the parks, leave around lunch when it's getting crowded and spend the afternoon at TL or BB and go back to one of the parks after dinner.

We do this on every trip. Even as WDW "veterans", we split MK over two days. That way there are two afternoons for water parks or DisneyQuest, then back to MK in the evening.

We usually buy the Waterparks Fun n More add-on to our tickets. If you make two visits to waterparks and/or DQ, it's cheaper getting that option.

Your kids might also enjoy Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom if you return to MK in the evening.

 

[Minnie824]

We get to the water parks first thing... when they used to have EMH in the am there it was even better. We'll stay til around lunch (you have to have the sugar donuts there as a snack. SO good), but then have lunch at hotel. Then shower, and rest a bit and head out to the park. Going first thing to the waterpark, you can go on everything in just a couple of hours..especially w/the ages of your kids...they, I assume won't be doing the huge slides.

 

[g3pak]

Thank you all for the info! Since this will probably be our only trip to Disney while they are this young...

That's what we said before our first trip to Disney. At first our plan was to go once. Our DDs are 4 years apart, so we then decided that we should go once when older DD was 5 or 6 and the other was a toddler, then a second time when younger DD was 6 or so and older was 10.

DW and I took a Disney cruise last year, so our girls have not been to WDW in a year and a half. The last time we went, when DDs were 11 and 7, it was our family's 5th trip (plus my wife went without us last year to run the Princess half) If money and school schedule work out, we will be going again in about 8 months.

 

[dsneprincess]

On a summer trip, we spend every morning until early afternoon in the waterparks. We will go to the parks later in the day. I would probably do the ticket upgrade and take the kids to DisneyQuest and mini golf as well. It ends up being about the same price as a single waterparks day, iirc.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

At 4 and 5, your kids are probably too small for the 3 long line rides at BB:

Summit Plumet
Slushin Gusher
Downhill Double Dippers

All of the above can have 45+ minute waits in Summer, but most other things at BB have much shorter wait times. So, I see no reason you couldn't do BB over a few hours.

 

[freckles04]

On our October '13 trip, we spent the morning in Epcot Future World and then did Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon.

 

[smelton521]

On our October '13 trip, we spent the morning in Epcot Future World and then did Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon.

I just rearranged some things on our schedule to where we will have the option of either going on our AK day or on our Epcot day - Epcot in the morning, water park in afternoon, and back to Epcot in the evening if we want to. Or I guess we could do water parks both days if the kids want to. We are going the 2nd week of May so crowds are predicted to be somewhat low so hopefully the crowds at the water parks won't be too terrible in the afternoons. We definitely won't be doing the big water slides that should help. I am re-booking our vacation package through Small World Travel to get free one-day water park tickets for all of us. The cost for the package is $60 more than my current reservation and that includes a room upgrade plus the free water park tickets so it seems worth it to me!