Where to spend an extra 1/2 day?

[SusanneF]

A little background. We have been to disney only once before and the kids were too young to remember. My husband and I are traveling with a 9yo girl(a bit too cool for princesses/characters, but loves rides), and 8yo boy(who is probably in the middle for characters and rides) and a 4 yo girl(loves all things disney and has no clue what Disney World is). Our current plan has us spending 3 days in MK, 1 day in AK, 1 day in HS and 1 day in Epcot. We arrive around noon so we will have a few hours to spend in a park that say, although its a MK Christmas party day. The trip is really all about the kids so things like food/drinks in epcot wont really matter to us. We are on the dining plan and would plan for a sit down meal that night.

Is it worth it to add and extra 1/2 day onto one of the other parks? which one? I tentatively set it up as HS because of the shows etc, but I've heard that despite having a sit down meal and fantasmic, we will have plenty of time to cover HS and dont need the extra 1/2 day. Any and all help is appreciated!

 

[slickpoetry]

Why not go to the party in MK?

 

[SusanneF]

we are going the next night. The kids will be up early for our flight so we thought a few hours in a park, followed up by dinner would get us all home and ready to go strong the next morning.

 

[MrInfinity]

I would add the extra 1/2 day onto Epcot. There's a lot to do there. Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Figment, Nemo, Turtle Talk will all appeal to your kids age range. We would have a hard time doing Epcot in just one day. I do not think HS is a good use of that extra 1/2 day for younger kids -- it's in a state of flux, lots torn out and being rebuilt.

 

[TeamSy]

Not sure how long your trip is, but what about a water park? Or a relaxing day (or half day) at your resorts pool?

 

[ELSA711]

Why not go to HS that evening and on your planned full day there make it a half day instead, and use the hotel pool the other half to swim / relax or make that day half EP and half HS
We are only doing half day at HS this year, after 2pm-close for Fantasmic. My kids don't do the thrill rides there.
I have similar aged kids and we try to split up HS and EP if possible.

 

[richmo]

A few thoughts:
- I'm not sure when you're going, except its somewhere during the Christmas party period. If its busy, you might want that extra half day in MK.
- How about DTD/Disney Springs? Maybe eat at Rainforest or T-Rex, the kids can spend some time in the Lego store and you can start getting into Disney-mode.
- There's some fun mini-golf onsite, if you're interested.
- If you want your dinner to be in a park, there should be some good options at Epcot.

One other thing: the day you go to DHS, whatever you do, make sure you hit Osborne lights. There's no "we'll do it next time" on this one.

 

[lovndisney12]

With the tiered FP+ system at HS, spending that afternoon / evening there would give you a chance for another Tier 1 fast pass (TSM would be my suggestion). On your other HS day, if you finish up early you could enjoy the resort pool, DTD, etc. Also, if you are planning to see Osborne lights or Fantasmic - it would be an opportunity to get that out of the way so if on your other HS day the kids get tired, you don't feel you have to stay around OR if the weather is raining and you don't want to stand in the rain and see the lights. We usually try to plan our TS meals for mid-day so that leaves more flexibility in the evening.

 

[Hootch]

I would do either Epcot or Disney Springs.

As noted above, Disney Springs has restaurants and store kids will love. It can be relaxing just strolling around. We usually go to Ghiradelli's for sundaes after dinner. (Call Rainforest Cafe or T-Rex directly. You will have better choices in times.) The one drawback is parking. POFQ, POR, Old Key West and Sarasota Springs have boats going there which is nice.

Epcot has kidcot areas where they can do crafts and fill up a passport with stamps from the different countries. Your older kids will probably like the Phineas and Ferb adventures in the countries. They get cell phone type devices that give them clues on where to find things. Sometimes they can make things move by pushing a button. My daughter loves it. She did three countries earlier this year.

 

[disneygolfer1985]

As mentioned above, it might be good to go to HS your first night (if that is your half-day you are talking about) because you need to see the Osborne Lights. They will no longer be at Disney after this year, so I would enjoy it as much as you can. You can easily spend the 2 hours with the lights. It is definitely worth the experience.

 

[SusanneF]

My days are pretty set bc of dining. day 1-undecided, day 2 MK with Christmas party, day3 MK, day4 AK, day 5 Epcot, day 6 HS, day 7 MK, flight is afternoon on day 8.

We decided against the water park bc of how rigidly we had to plan(dining/fastpasses) and didn't want to pay for it if we only had one open day to use it. WE do have park hoppers, but the HS day includes fantasmic so we wouldn't really want to leave if we exhausted HS by 4 pm.

Having kids that will flip when we tell them we are going, no one will want to hang at the pool on day one We will be using on disney transport and will hit downtown disney area on the last day since our flight isnt until later and we dont have park tickets.

I guess I need to sit down and look at what epcot vs HS has and which one will take up more time. We travel the week before thanksgiving so the first 1/2 of our trip is light to moderate crowd, second half is moderate to heavy crowd.

 

[LisaCM614]

I do think you could do 2 half days at HS, I have found scheduling all of the shows in one day to be very difficult.
If you are planning on doing all of the shows that would really work best.
Our very first trip with the kids our very first day was a MVMCP that night.
We had lunch at our resort after checking in and then went to the Magic Kingdom. We strolled down Main Street USA and then went to Tom Sawyer Island. We spent about 45 minutes letting the kids explore. They had a great time and they really needed to get rid of some energy after the morning of travel. We took the raft back and then sat on a porch in Frontierland and watched the afternoon parade. After the parade we followed the end of the paraded and walked onto Its a Small World and the rode the caroussel. Then it was time for a very early dinner at Cinderella Royal Table. We had a lovely dinner and then left the park and headed back to our resort.
It sounds like you'll have a very busy trip and you might want to just enjoy your resort your very first night and schedule a nice dinner nearby or plan something low key that gives you a flavor of Walt Disney World!

 

[LJSquishy]

That's a tough one!

I first thought of AK because it has The Lion King and Finding Nemo shows (they are both fabulous) and seeing both of those plus the rides plus walking around to explore can definitely take all day (especially with kids which sometimes slow things down...not a bad thing). The only issue with doing AK for a half day would be the fact that it closes pretty early generally, but if you get there around noon you'd still have at least 5 hours there.

Epcot would be my other suggestion since the lines for both Test Track & Soarin' get crazy long. You'd be able to use a FP for each one if you spent two days there. The downside to Epcot is that your kids may not enjoy the World Showcase area at all so if they didn't want to "learn" about the countries I'm not sure you'd need a second day there unless they'd want to ride a few of the rides over and over.

DHS really isn't a good choice for a second day...you'll be able to get everything or nearly everything done.

I do like the idea of considering a trip to Disney Quest, mini-golf, bowling, etc for a low-key afternoon/evening, or even stay at your resort and go swimming.

 

[Quellman]

I would add the extra 1/2 day onto Epcot. There's a lot to do there. Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Figment, Nemo, Turtle Talk will all appeal to your kids age range. We would have a hard time doing Epcot in just one day. I do not think HS is a good use of that extra 1/2 day for younger kids -- it's in a state of flux, lots torn out and being rebuilt.

Why not go to HS that evening and on your planned full day there make it a half day instead, and use the hotel pool the other half to swim / relax or make that day half EP and half HS
We are only doing half day at HS this year, after 2pm-close for Fantasmic. My kids don't do the thrill rides there.
I have similar aged kids and we try to split up HS and EP if possible.

I like both of these suggestions for different reasons. EPCOT because there are fast pass restrictions on tier 1 attractions. You could FP+ all of the attractions there with 2 days.
The Hollywood Studios for similar reasoning, there is some tier-ing of attractions there as well. Both have great night time shows to take in for the fireworks effect.

 

[MisterPP]

We are going for the same length and are basically doing the same plan - 3 days MK, one day at each of the others with adding in Park Hopping back to Epcot and MK other nights after HS and AK close. We have one daughter who is 8.

Arriving around noon first day. - Have a reserved spot at Alice's Tea Party at GF for that afternoon. Plan on watching the electric water parade that night (do they even still have that?) In between maybe some mini golf and a dinner at DD.

 

[jolene63]

We are arriving at noon next Friday. We plan on going to Epcot for 1/2 a day. We will be a little tired that day from getting up so early and Epcot is always a relaxing place for us. There are also so many great restaurant choices. We plan on leaving before Illuminations so we can beat the crowds and get to bed a little earlier that night.