Which order of parks to visit with a preschooler?

[sunflow3r]

Myself, spouse and 3-year old child will be going to WDW for the first time this December. We are DL pros and said child would have been to DL five times before our WDW trip. Only mentioning that part because MK is supposed to be similar to DL (please correct me if I'm wrong though!). Given that info, and that MK hours will be shorter for the Christmas Party three times a week, if we do not make it into MK first, what order would you suggest for our trip with 6 full park days (no hoppers)? And if we do not make it into MK the first or second day, should the order be different?

Thanks for any and all advice!!

 

[Upatnoon]

Are you staying at a deluxe resort with access to extended evening hours?

Do you want to see the fireworks at MK?

Are you going to try to get a hard-to-get dining reservation inside a park?

Are park reservations available for all the parks on every day?

The Florida parks are big and can wear you out! Making sure you get enough rest is important. Consider what evening activities you want to do vs. what rope-drop parks you want to hit. A visit to Animal Kingdom, or MK on a party day, will mean you can go to bed early.

All these are factors that will help plan your park selections if you can't hop.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

I don't think you can go wrong on the order in which you tour the parks. You're inevitably going to get some advice to skip Epcot altogether. All I can say is that my three year old loves Epcot. It's her second favorite park behind MK.

 

[sponica]

I don't think there's a "good" touring order. Given that you go to DL, your life might be somewhat easier touring WDW.

I like doing MK first regardless of where I'm staying.
Then I do whatever I want, given the current state of things, I reserve 2 DHS days because it generally sells out the fastest and I want to make sure I get on ROTR. But since you have Galaxy's Edge over in CA, you don't have to worry about that part of DHS and it might actually be a less stressful experience.

Don't fall for the "little kids don't like Epcot" trap. In fact I would recommend Epcot because there's not an Epcot at DL/DCA.

 

[Moliphino]

Don't fall for the "little kids don't like Epcot" trap. In fact I would recommend Epcot because there's not an Epcot at DL/DCA.

We did and it wound up being my nephew's favorite part when he was 6. He loved the Kidcot stations. He was wary of all rides, so MK actually wound up being a bit of a bust. We had meant to start him off with Peter Pan's Flight, but it was down, so his first ride was 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, which was too scary for him. After that all rides were suspect.

 

[goofyernmost]

The only advice I can give you is Magic Kingdom last because once they see MK the others will bore them. You can make the other parks interesting when not competing with MK. My kids always seemed to enjoy whatever I was visibly enjoying, but I followed that rule after the first trip. The secondary rule is once they have seen it and they are old enough to have some degree of reason after that they will just be anticipating the return to that. In the meantime they will actually find things that they like a lot in the other parks. My 5 year old granddaughter got hooked on "thrill" rides on test track. Today at 20 years old, she loves, loves all coasters the scarier the better.

 

[sunflow3r]

Are you staying at a deluxe resort with access to extended evening hours?

Do you want to see the fireworks at MK?

Are you going to try to get a hard-to-get dining reservation inside a park?

Are park reservations available for all the parks on every day?

The Florida parks are big and can wear you out! Making sure you get enough rest is important. Consider what evening activities you want to do vs. what rope-drop parks you want to hit. A visit to Animal Kingdom, or MK on a party day, will mean you can go to bed early.

All these are factors that will help plan your park selections if you can't hop.

We are staying at a moderate resort. We'll try to take advantage of the 30 min earlier start time. We usually rope drop at DL (early risers). All the deluxe resorts were unavailable at the time I booked and if I had known then what I (sorta) know now, I would've rented DVC points! Live and learn.

I wouldn't mind seeing the fireworks one of the nights but its not essential.

Yes, current priority is to get our park order in place, then I will plan our TS reservations around it. We usually aim for character meals and show/parade dining packages, its less about the food for us on park days. Our 3-year old eats like a bird but will go crazy for the characters.

 

[sunflow3r]

I don't think you can go wrong on the order in which you tour the parks. You're inevitably going to get some advice to skip Epcot altogether. All I can say is that my three year old loves Epcot. It's her second favorite park behind MK.

I haven't heard this. What is the reasoning behind skipping it? I was planning to tell my child Elsa and Anna lives there and we might get a sighting. And to relive our recent trip to Europe through the sights and food.

What does your 3-year old love to do at Epcot? I'd appreciate any tips to make it fun for my kid!

 

[Upatnoon]

I would start by looking at what days MK is available to see the fireworks, as the Christmas parties will block you from seeing those.

Getting your restaurant reservations to line up with your park days may require some flexibility of moving park days around, so be prepared to do that.

 

[sunflow3r]

I don't think there's a "good" touring order. Given that you go to DL, your life might be somewhat easier touring WDW.

I like doing MK first regardless of where I'm staying.
Then I do whatever I want, given the current state of things, I reserve 2 DHS days because it generally sells out the fastest and I want to make sure I get on ROTR. But since you have Galaxy's Edge over in CA, you don't have to worry about that part of DHS and it might actually be a less stressful experience.

Don't fall for the "little kids don't like Epcot" trap. In fact I would recommend Epcot because there's not an Epcot at DL/DCA.

Given that DHS and DL share these similarities, do you think DHS still warrants two park days? I'm trying to decide which of the 4 WDW parks are "worth" going twice. Thinking MK and ?

 

[Upatnoon]

Given that DHS and DL share these similarities, do you think DHS still warrants two park days? I'm trying to decide which of the 4 WDW parks are "worth" going twice. Thinking MK and ?

This really depends on your tastes.

If you want to explore all the countries, enjoy some food offerings, EPCOT can easily take a couple of days. It's a giant park.

If you want to do everything at Hollywood Studios, it may take you two days as well. There are shows and attractions to see.

MK and Hollywood Studios fill up the fastest for park reservations, so would prioritize those first. I would probably book a day at Hollywood at the end of my trip that I can switch to EPCOT, which is usually available if you want to go back.

 

[sponica]

Given that DHS and DL share these similarities, do you think DHS still warrants two park days? I'm trying to decide which of the 4 WDW parks are "worth" going twice. Thinking MK and ?

What I have planned is 2 DHS days but the second day is a "just in case day". 99% of the time Epcot is still available to switch to.

Epcot is definitely huge enough that to explore all the nooks and crannies you could use 2 days.

 

[ArielDreams]

Just got back with my 3 year old. We did:
HS
MK
Rest Day (pool & Disney Springs - actually should have skipped DS!)
Epcot
AK
HS again (we were at the Swan and it was most convenient)

We really should have had 2 days at MK but still had fun anyway. Because everything is so big and so busy, he absolutely needed an afternoon nap at the hotel. We hit early opening every day and got so much done. Only bought the Genie the first 2 days.

At Epcot, he loved the Remy ride and Soarin. Otherwise, the Epcot day was more for us. There is a playground near Test Track he liked playing in while we rider swapped Guardians.

 

[Her Dotness]

Every time I see a similar question, I think of a post I saw several years ago.

Parents in Epcot were trying to figure out why their young son burst out crying and couldn't be calmed.

Upon being asked what was wrong, he said, "I want to go to Disney World."

They explained several times that where they were WAS in Disney World, that there are 4 parks, each being part of...etc.

But, yup, you guessed it...to him, only the MK was Disney World.

Truth be told, I understand how that kid felt, because I simply have to start our stay in the MK or it just isn't right.

 

[RoseGold]

Assuming your kid doesn't care about Star Wars, HS is tough in this age because there's very little filler and not much appropriate for little kids. And no fireworks. Meet Minnie, ride MMRR, Frozen singalong, Alien saucers, and muppets, maybe have lunch with Christmas minnie at Hollywood and Vine, and we are done for the day. I consider it a half day park with a little one, because there's so much we can't ride.

There is a school of thought that MK is a good pick on party days because of low crowds. I didn't see that at all in early December 2021. Crowds were just bananas all the time, everywhere. I'd try for fireworks on at least one of your MK days. Absolutely need 2 MK days with this age.

I would prioritize the Epcot fireworks, which are very different from DL and really amazing. Also Epcot has a huge amount of princesses, with scheduled meets everywhere. You can see it in the app, if you use the drop down for characters (default is wait times). We are into princesses, so Epcot is really great in that way.

 

[wiggy500]

I haven't heard this. What is the reasoning behind skipping it? I was planning to tell my child Elsa and Anna lives there and we might get a sighting. And to relive our recent trip to Europe through the sights and food.

What does your 3-year old love to do at Epcot? I'd appreciate any tips to make it fun for my kid!

The reasoning is that Epcot is the Disney World park best suited for adults. Traditionally the rides have had an educational element to them and some elements of the World Showcase make more sense for an adult to enjoy. But there's really a lot in Epcot geared towards kids. Everything in the Seas Pavilion comes to mind and there are a number of rides in Epcot that have an activity area at the end of the ride that I would imagine kids would enjoy. Certainly with six park days I wouldn't consider skipping any of the four parks.

If you have an interest in any extremely popular table service restaurants (like Space 220 in Epcot) they will be easier for you to book for the end of your trip. That could be a factor in figuring out which days to do what.

 

[Upatnoon]

Every time I see a similar question, I think of a post I saw several years ago.

Parents in Epcot were trying to figure out why their young son burst out crying and couldn't be calmed.

Upon being asked what was wrong, he said, "I want to go to Disney World."

They explained several times that where they were WAS in Disney World, that there are 4 parks, each being part of...etc.

But, yup, you guessed it...to him, only the MK was Disney World.

Truth be told, I understand how that kid felt, because I simply have to start our stay in the MK or it just isn't right.

I had a similar, yet different experience. When my kids were young, we would often stay Bonnet Creek or Harbour Lake, big resorts with lots of pools, activities and playgrounds.

I recall more than a couple of times that after arriving at MK (or some other park) for an hour or so, they would start begging me if we could "go back on vacation" by returning to the resort. They wanted to go back to doing all the stuff there.

Also, My son's favorite park when he was young was Epcot. He loved the stuff in the Innovations area. I think he would have spent all day doing the piggy bank game. Sadly, that is no longer there, but I'm sure a lot of parents of young kids are happy they don't have to do that again!

In the end, every member of the family enjoys different things on vacation, so just have fun and enjoy whatever direction it takes you.