Which park for only the afternoon?

[MrsJ Henry]

On our first day we will only have from around 1-4:30 do do either Epcot or DHS. We have dinner reservations for Chef Mickey at 5:40. we will drive right over there from the park.
It will be DH and our 2 1/2 year old daughter and myself
We are struggling with which park to go to.
We don't have park hoppers, we have done both parks several times before and have only select things that we want to do in each park.
The park we don't do we will spend the day at on another day.

DHS
Playhouse Disney-must
Little Mermaid -must
Block party parade-must
Idol- take it or leave it
Toy Story Mania-would love to but could skip it

Epcot
World showcase-MUST- but we don't spend much time in some of the countires
The Seas-Must
Imagination-possibly if there is time


So which park would you choose and why.
Thanks

 

[AndrewK]

Epcot

 

[micheleq]

I'd do EPCOT! First, because it will be so easy to take the monorail to CR for Chef Mickey's. Second, if you do DHS and want to see all those shows & BPBash, it takes som etiming, and you might not be able to do all that and still make your ADR.

Either way, enjoy!! My girls loved Chef Mickey's, they were 1.5 & 3.5 when we were there

 

[koolaidmoms]

I also vote for Epcot. The shows at DS can get you held up and it is much easier to pace yourself through WS IMO.

Have fun whatever you choose!

 

[SGMCO]

I say DHS--I think you can get most things done there in 1/2 day.
You will have to spend at least a whole day at Epcot to get anything
accomplished.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

Any other thoughts?

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

EPCOT take the monorail to Chef Mickey then go back for a few more hours.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

We will have a car so we will be driving to CM and we will not be going back into the park after dinner. I'm sure our daughter is going to be too tired since we will be up early for the flight.

 

[MiniGirl]

We love the Studios, but it is better in the morning. It is easier to get on TSM and all the shows, etc.

Have you considered skipping a park on that first day? Maybe just relaxing at the pool or enjoying DTD. AKL has a great pool and I know they have a schedule of children's events as well. You could easily spend the afternoon there just walking around looking for hidden mickey's and looking at the animals.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Have you considered skipping a park on that first day? Maybe just relaxing at the pool or enjoying DTD. AKL has a great pool and I know they have a schedule of children's events as well. You could easily spend the afternoon there just walking around looking for hidden mickey's and looking at the animals.

I agree with this vote! Take it easy. Check out the hotel, rest, swim. It would be tough to do either of your To-Do lists in 3 1/2 hours. The show schedule at DHS makes that park hard to finish in 1 day let alone a couple of hours. Block Party Bash is always at 3pm on the days it's running. So that means you'd have to try to schedule your other must dos around that.

The issue with Epcot is the size of the park. It's about a mile from the front of the park to World Showcase. It's another mile AROUND the showcase. With a 2 1/2 yr old, you'll be walking that slowly. However, you will be able to finish the Seas and be able to take a walk around WS as long as you don't stop too often and be back to the front of the park by 4:30.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

Usually we would not go into the parks on the first day but we only have three full days.
We will be flying in at 10. Expect to be at AKL around 11:30 and check into the resort. Head off to the parks around 12/12:30. Then we have ADR's at CM for 5:40. We also already have our tickets. so.... wanted to get one of these in since we have all that time in between.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Why not go to AK then? You can probably finish the highlights of AK if you don't want all the shows in 3 1/2 hours. It's close to AKL so you won't waste a lot of time driving (the other two are about 15 minutes away). That would leave you with 3 full days at each of the other parks.

 

[GoinToDisney]

I'd do Epcot for sure. DHS is better in the morning. It's much easier to fit in all of the shows that way.

 

[MiniGirl]

Usually we would not go into the parks on the first day but we only have three full days.
We will be flying in at 10. Expect to be at AKL around 11:30 and check into the resort. Head off to the parks around 12/12:30. Then we have ADR's at CM for 5:40. We also already have our tickets. so.... wanted to get one of these in since we have all that time in between.

In that case, I'd choose Epcot. Have a great time though whatever you decide.