Which park to repeat?

[ClapYourHands]

I’m heading down with DD (age 4) in May. We will have 7 days, though at least one will probably be a partial day (haven’t booked flights yet).

We don’t have hoppers. While I know MK will be a priority, I’d like some advice on how to divvy up our park days.

MK - 3 days
AK - 1 day
Epcot - 1 day?
HS - 2 days?

I think I’m mostly struggling with Epcot vs DHS. Which gets the extra day?

On the one hand DD loves characters and will probably want to meet some of the ones like Mulan that can only be found at Epcot. I think FEA is probably our only “must do” ride, though I think she will like some of the tier 2 rides.

But I also know it’s pretty torn up right now, and have no idea if she’s going to enjoy meeting character after character, especially without FP. I worry she will be bored with WS. I’m not even sure what non-ride attractions are going to be open in FW when we go. She is the kind of kid who would enjoy interactive exhibits like the Glidden Colortopia that used to be there, but I think closed with the construction.

I was originally thinking DHS was a one-day park, but DHS is looking better now that AS2 and TSMM are tier 2, and MMRR will be open then, too. I also think she will like the shows. What I don’t know is what her tolerance will be for the more intense rides in GE or even SDD. I know RNRR and ToT are not happening. There are also two night time shows, which would be nice to see, but her tolerance for the loud noise of fireworks might make this a moot point. Personally, one of my favorite things at Disney is catching a Citizens of Hollywood show, and I’d like to have enough time to do this.

With both parks, I worry that two days are too much, and one day is not enough.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

 

[RedsDrew]

I would go to HS twice, not EPCOT based on your family’s preferences. Perhaps even AK. There are plenty of characters there.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I would go to HS twice, not EPCOT based on your family’s preferences. Perhaps even AK. There are plenty of characters there.

Which characters meet at AK? I know Mickey and Minnie are there in their Safari gear, and I think I read Pocahontas does a meet,
But who else?

 

[RedsDrew]

Which characters meet at AK? I know Mickey and Minnie are there in their Safari gear, and I think I read Pocahontas does a meet,
But who else?

I haven’t brushed up on this so I’m not exactly sure but when I was there a while back I saw Baloo, Rafiki, as well as Mickey and his friends. I highly recommend Tusker House for breakfast. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy make appearances and it’s the best character breakfast IMO. If you are interested, Kenny the Pirate, a guy that has a great unofficial WDW guide/site has an awesome character locator. It’s ten dollars and many people swear by it, saying it’s the best ten dollars they’ve spent. It can help you plan your day:

https://www.characterlocator.com/

 

[midnight star]

Which characters meet at AK? I know Mickey and Minnie are there in their Safari gear, and I think I read Pocahontas does a meet,
But who else?

Pocahontas does meet at AK. She was there last friday (1/24).

 

[midnight star]

I would also choose an extra day at HS.

Although, remember Epcot has the Frozen ride and Anna and Elsa.not sure if your DD is Frozen obsessed. It also has Akershus.

 

[Helvetica]

Which characters meet at AK? I know Mickey and Minnie are there in their Safari gear, and I think I read Pocahontas does a meet,
But who else?

Lots of ducks are at Donald’s Dino Bash in Dinoland USA. Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Launchpad McQuack and Daisy Duck. There’s also Pluto and Goofy along with Chip and Dale.

Dug and Russel are by the tree and Kevin is a roaming character. Sometimes there are people that meet before the bridge into Dinoland USA.

 

[Orionreplay]

My kids love Epcot, so based on this, I know the characters are slim. With all the walls today, I'm unsure how many of the Meets are now gone. We used to love Epcot for "traditional" character meets (i.e. no special costumes, just plain ol' Mickey). Garden Grill fills the void being a character meal we adore.

On our last trip, we were surprised by how many characters we were seeing at AK. Just never considered it a character park in the past. We did run into Kevin near the Flametree BBQ area and that was super fun. My daughter thinks she saw Flik the ant, but I didn't catch sight of him.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I haven’t brushed up on this so I’m not exactly sure but when I was there a while back I saw Baloo, Rafiki, as well as Mickey and his friends. I highly recommend Tusker House for breakfast. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy make appearances and it’s the best character breakfast IMO. If you are interested, Kenny the Pirate, a guy that has a great unofficial WDW guide/site has an awesome character locator. It’s ten dollars and many people swear by it, saying it’s the best ten dollars they’ve spent. It can help you plan your day:

https://www.characterlocator.com/

Sounds like Kenny’s guide would be great - thanks!

Tusker House is not really in the budget for this trip, though.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I would also choose an extra day at HS.

Although, remember Epcot has the Frozen ride and Anna and Elsa.not sure if your DD is Frozen obsessed. It also has Akershus.

She’s not Frozen obsessed, but she likes it. I think FEA is our only real must-do ride in Epcot. I had planned to do that meet in Norway, but don’t need two days for that.

 

[Leigh L]

My kids (26 and 13) love the characters, but in the shape Epcot is in right now, it's a hot mess. There are still plenty of characters, but last week it took us so long to navigate around and the lines were long when we went. Before the construction, I would have said Epcot or AK would be a fine choice.

Depending on what things look like in May, I'd choose DHS or AK over Epcot.

AK does have a lot of characters. Aside from the several M&Gs mentioned above, we've also run into Timone, Meeko, Kevin (several times), and even once Brer Rabbit and Bear (those two were wandering around right past the tapstyles). In August there was a dance party going on by Flame Tree (and while we didn't see one this time, we did see them setting up a stage for music when passing through so it might still be on the schedule). That was a lot of fun to watch too.

 

[Orionreplay]

She’s not Frozen obsessed, but she likes it. I think FEA is our only real must-do ride in Epcot. I had planned to do that meet in Norway, but don’t need two days for that.

My family likes that ride, but also Soarin', Figment, and very shockingly, my 12 year old daughter adores "Living with the Land" (yes the slow boat ride, seeing how food is grown). Spaceship Earth was also her favorite when she 4/5/6 years old and I have ridden that ride more times than I can count. Once during a slow visit, we rode it 3 times in a row.

 

[a742246]

Only suggestion I can make is avoid MK on weekends.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

If Frozen Ever After is your daughter's must see attraction, maybe do Epcot twice and get two fast passes for that ride? My kids really like Epcot. They like the Frozen Ride, Nemo ride, Journey into Your Imagination, Spaceship Earth, Mexico ride, and my daughter (just turned 5 last time) loved Test Track. We've found that Animal Kingdom is a one day park for us. I'm not sure about HS. In the last few years it was a one day park, but now that they've added more rides I could see doing 2 days. However, there isn't a ton there for young children.


I just asked my 2 kids (age 5 and 3) which of those three parks is their favorite, and they both said Hollywood Studious because of Toy Story Land.

 

[loves to dive]

Play it by ear. Go to at least every park once, maybe do your two days at MK then let the little one decide which one she wants to go back to again. Heck you might find that 2 days at MK was enough and you don't need 3. You might find one day at your planned two day park was enough. If your little one hasn't been, you have no way of knowing what she is going to like and what she isn't. The one thing I will say and is don't overplan, little ones can make things a tad unpredictable. And remember, she can't miss what she's never had so if she doesn't get to see or do something you think she might enjoy, she'll never know she missed it to start with (unless you've shown her videos and talked about it). When my son was that small he actually just loved being there, he liked to ride rides but it really wasn't his focus, just being there was it for him. We also spent a good bit of time at the resort in the pool and watching cartoons. Evidently, cartoons are better at Disney even if they are the same ones you watch at home. We went at his pace, if he got tired we left. If we went to the pool and he wanted to spend the rest of the day there we did. Oh, and MK wasn't his thing, even when he was small it was a 3/4 day park at best for him.

 

[disneylover102]

1 day at Epcot is more than enough. 2 days at HS is good because of SWGE especially.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

For a kid that age I’d do 2 days at AK and 1 at Epcot and HS. Kids love animals and I think there’s just more there for a younger kid then the other parks.

 

[DisneyFamily!]

We are doing 7 days
MK-2 days
AK-2 days
Epcot- 1 full day and a day split with HS
HS- 1 full day and a day split with HS (Will take boat, or skyline between parks)

We plan to do ALL shows, all rides, all characters. (With the characters, we will see some at character dinners instead of in the parks.) I have everything all planned out. The only exception is that we aren't doing the Star Wars thing you sign your kids up for, whatever that's called. And for characters, we'll see all characters available in the park, but we'll miss some available only at dinners (the dwarfs, the Beast, Flynn Rider, and Prince Eric, to be specific.)

The above layout of days gives you enough time to do it all (as we just did this last year). BUT, we do some long days. Typically, we do every other day until pretty late (around 9:30), but end the days in between around 6:00 and swim an hour before an early bedtime. We do NOT relax on our Disney vacations. But we are the odd family that does not want to "waste" a minute relaxing.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Thanks, everyone!

I’m mulling it all over. The past few trips to WDW have been focused on older kids who could go go go, and wanted to ride all the big rides and didn’t care about characters.

I’m taking this trip with DD specifically to be able to go at a slower pace, without annoying her older brothers (who got to go with me Fall 2018 while DD stayed with DH). But now that I have 7 days, I’m having to resist the urge to completely fill 7 days. Old habits die hard, and I’m so used to commando rope drop to closing kind of days.

I suppose worst case scenario is we get to a park, and she’s not digging it, so we go take a swim. I think I’ll plan FP for two days at HS, as they seem to be the hardest to get, and then switch my second day (or one MK day) if DD really wants another day at Epcot or AK.