Which park to skip with 3 year olds?

[littlebit0863]

Hi, I'm new here, but have been lurking for a good week and I'm sure in no time I will be posting my own pre trip report. I am heading out to Disney Oct 15-20. We are only using 4 park days. I've got me, DH, DS (3), niece (3), my sister, and two friends and their 2 1/2 year old. Phew! A big group. With the little ones, I plan to do only one park a day, no hopping. No one really has a preference of what to do, they are leaving all the planning up to me and say they will follow me. We have no ADR to control our park choices (I know, crazy, right?) So I know we are doing MK and AK, that leaves DHS, Epcot, and Universal. We can choose two. I know people say leave two days per park, etc. etc. but this is my 4th trip to Disney and then by reading trip reviews (which I'm not at all ADDICTED to), I have a general idea of what we would do in each park to get them done in a day. DH is all about skipping Epcot, he hated it last time, but it's my favorite park. He says if he was bored, imagine how the kiddos would be.(But it's my favorite park!!) I say skip DHS because I feel the kiddie things (TSM and Disney Jr Live) are just out of age range. I feel like they're too young to enjoy the shooting games at TSM and too old to enjoy Disney Jr Live. We have a Phineas & Ferb crowd. But then again, I really want to see Fantasmic, and think it might be worth using a park day. DH loved Universal last time we went, and since he is not super excited about this trip (he has 0 interest in the mouse), I feel like he deserves a day of fun. My sister and my friends also have no input, they are all first timers so they say whatever.

Anyway, if you listened to all this rambling I would really like some imput.

Thanks!!

 

[kerriemiller]

When we went last fall with our DD2 (turned 2 on the trip) and DD3 (one month away from 4), we skipped DHS just because DH and I had already been there and we wanted to go to AK which we had not been too. For us AK should have been a skip. There is only two rides they could ride, it was really hot and they just were not interested. Its really kind of like a zoo. And since we live right by a zoo that we go to once a month I should have known better.

My girls love Disney Jr, are you really sure they wouldnt like the show? maybe if they wanted the shows before they went they might be more interested. my girls really love the Jack and the Neverland Pirates.

I would do 2 MK days. We did Epcot the girls loved it we made a big deal out of the countries spent time watching the street shows in each country and meet charactors (that really surprised me did not know they had M&G in epcot) Epcot has food and wine the month of October DH can have some snacks and cocktails and find a way to have fun

We will be there the same time you will be we are going 10-13 to 10-20

 

[danceintherain]

I would skip Universal with 3 year olds. Is it possible to split up for that day and send him off to Universal with a companion, while the rest take the little ones to somewhere more kid friendly?
If you all want to spend every day together and Universal is necessary, then I would probably skip Epcot.

 

[sritter78]

I like DHS because there are tons of character interactions. My kids love the Playhouse Disney (even my 6 year old enjoyed it). They also enjoyed the backlot tour, Toy Story Ride, Muppet Show.

Epcot is probably their least favorite park, but my DH's favorite.

 

[loricdietzel]

I haven't been to Universal, but that is one we decided not to take our three year old to. I felt the rides that were offered for her there were too similar to carnival rides that we could go on anywhere else. DHS is another one that is iffy. The only thing my three year old liked there was Toy Story Mania and the character meal at Hollywood and Vine. (Although she REALLY loved that one!) The rest of the park wasn't really appealing to her.

 

[Spunky946]

I bet they would love Disney jr live. My ds8 still loves it. I would not do universal. The cost alone would keep me away.

 

[sk!mom]

We would skip Universal. To us it's just an amusement park- nothing special. We visited once 11 years ago and would have never returned and then along came Harry Potter. DD16 is a huge Potter fan. They are the defining books of her childhood so last Summer we sacrificed two Disney days for Harry. Even DD says never again. We saw the Wizarding World and we're done. We would enjoy staying at Hard Rock again.

That being said, my DH's favorite park is EpCot. Probably because he loves to drink around the world and we all enjoy snacking around the world. We normally plan extra time there.

If your DH looks forward to Universal and dislikes EpCot then I would skip Epcot. Breaks my heart a little to say that. Epcot probably has the least to offer 3year old, as well.

My DH dislikes Animal Kingdom so on our short, have to skip something trips, that's the one we skip.

 

[tralin]

I would think about whose trip this is first. Is it for the kids ( 3 years get a lot. I am always understimating mine.) Or is this the parents trip with the kids? Both are fine but you need to fully determine the purppose of the trip. We are taking DD3.5 in September and have catered the entire trip around her. (Can you say 5 character meals????) If this is for the kids to get that first disney experience and you will cater to them, then I would skip Epcot (I know it's your favorite but you have been there 4 times.) I would definately do MK twice and DHS & AK once. (they can spend half the day in the Honey I Shrunk the kids playground.) I would also skip Universal because of the expense and "It's not about you".

If this is not just about the kids then I would skip DHS and AK, Do Mk twice, Epcot once and Unviersal once.

Having said all of that you may want to consider a park hopper. I am a definate "no park hopper" person and after working my own trip every which way I can I have relented and got park hoppers. This would let you do MK 1.5 times, half day AK, half day DHS and half Day Epcot and a day at universal with the ability to get a mid day rest in. (taking advantage of EMH or course.)

Ultimately the decision is yours. I think once you firm up the purpose of the trip and consequently your "must do's" you'll figure out what works best for your family. I had a thread on here awhile ago asking other parents what their kids remembered the most AFTER the trip was done. Without exception the pool at the resort was high on the list for this age group so don't forget about the rest times. Good luck!

 

[LuLuO]

I would skip Universal with 3 year olds. Is it possible to split up for that day and send him off to Universal with a companion, while the rest take the little ones to somewhere more kid friendly?
If you all want to spend every day together and Universal is necessary, then I would probably skip Epcot.

I would also skip Universal. There really isn't all that much for the kids to do and not worth the expense. I agree that DH can go to Universal while the you and the rest of the group go to Epcot.

I would do 2 MK days, 1 Epcot and 1 DHS. My DS3 loved the shows at DHS. If you don't think your kids would like the shows, then do AK. The kids loved the Affection Section, safari, bone yard and Finding Nemo.

 

[Darcy03231]

I'm going to disagree with the others about Universal/IOA. We went when my niece was 3.5 and she had a blast there.

Suess' Landing in IOA is a great place for little ones. She also loved the Sinbad show!

In US she really liked the play areas (Feival, Curious George), the Animal Actors show, ET, Shrek, Barney, and the Beetlejuice show.

Since we were a bigger group (4 adults, 3 teens, 1 tween and a toddler) we split us quite a bit and took turns doing the kiddie things with her while the other explored the stuff she couldn't do.

One thing to keep in mind though, its pretty expensive to do US/IOA just for the day. If you don't have a car you'll need to arrange transportation.

I took my niece to WDW when she was 4. We found there was quite a bit for her at DHS. She loves shows so Beauty & the Beast, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and Lights, Motors Action were all hits. She also liked American Idol, the Muppets, Toy Story Mania, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Backlot Tour, and Disney Junior. I thought there was more to appeal to her there than at Epcot.

We did do Epcot, but she really didn't enjoy it as much as she did DHS and we skipped a lot of stuff. Since she's tall for her age, she was able to do Test Track and Soarin there which she loved. She also liked the Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush. We did go around the countries for her to color her mask and get her charms, but really didn't stay and do much in each one. We did the boat rides in Mexico and Norway and saw the live entertainment in France and Italy, but that was really it in the countries.

 

[MyKidsMom1820]

its SOOOOO hard to decide... if it were us I would skip DHS. it was voted my families LEAST favorite park last year... not to say we wont try it again next time, but other than TSM, the great movie ride, and disney junior live on stage there wasnt much for us... (star tours was down for refurbishment at that point) ENJOY YOUR TRIP!!!!

 

[deuceswild10]

Epcot.

 

[Crystal824]

Skip Universal. It will be cheaper and there isn't a whole lot really little ones can do there. We recently did Universal with my almost 2 year old. She had a good time b/c DH and I bought Express Pass and used it sort of like babyswap. We kept meeting up and taking her to splash areas and shows she coudld do, but we didn't spend the day together as a family b/c DH and I kept splitting up to do the attractions DD couldn't.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I would also skip Universal. While I love Universal for the rides...I think there are just too many rides that would be limited to older children and adults due to height requirements to not make it a good option. My girls are 3 and 5(nearly 6) + short and while DH and I would like to go, we've decided it's a waste of time and $ until both girls are tall enough to ride the bulk of the rides.

While part of me wants to say- devote 1 day to each of the Disney parks... the other half of me is thinking 2-days at MK. On our girls' first trip we actually did 3 days at MK. My girls' least favorite park is AK, so last trip...when we only had 3 park days...we did MK, DHS, and Epcot.

 

[starsweeper]

We have memberships to 2 nearby zoos and we have young kids, so AK is a park we only spend about 3-4 hours touring. We arrive at park open for the Safari ride, go to the Lino King show, then head to Dino Land and leave.

I enjoy World Showcase but my kids (3.5 at the time) had no interest, so we spent a half day at Epcot Future World and hopped to MK. DHS was also a half-day park for us, so we again hopped to MK in the afternoon.

I would reconsider the park hopper option. You may find you need to spend more time at MK.

 

[4Joyces]

We had a similar dilemma. DS wants to go to Universal for a day to see Harry Potter. We had planned this trip mostly around DD3.5 since it's her first trip (DS has been ~12 times). I felt guilty telling DS no to Universal, but since we aren't renting a car, it'd cost over $500 for our family to go to Universal for one day, including transportation to/from there. I told DS that the next trip we'll stay offsite and rent a car or drive down to Orlando so that we can do Universal for a few days, WDW a few days, a day at the beach and/or Cape Canaveral, and SeaWorld. But this time we're sticking to WDW.

And with the money we're not spending on Universal, I'm surprising DS with the Aqua Seas Tour. Eases the mommy guilt a bit

 

[littlebit0863]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I think we have decided to skip Universal, but we shall see.

 

[AshleeH]

I would skip Universal - Epcot has just as many little kid things as Universal (which isn't many). If Epcot is your favorite, the kids would probably love the Seas area with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. Soarin' would also be an option, I think (not sure of the height requirement or the heights of the kids).

DHS is great for little ones! My youngest was 4 when we first went and that was nearly his favorite park (MK edged it out by just a bit). Both my kids love it so much that we plan two days for it - great character interactions, great shows, and fun things to see. They especially love seeing the actual Lightning McQueen and Mater and getting pictures.

I would personally skip Animal Kingdom, if you have to skip a Disney park. Camp Minnie-Mickey is fun, but those same characters are at every park. The Safari is great, but that's really the only ride that I would take the time to do with that age group.

But yeah, skip Universal if you can. It's a wonderful park, but it's most definitely geared for older kids (we've taken our kids the last two years and we're skipping it this year until they get a little older).

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

Do not skip universal!!!!! It's a blast and there is a lot there!! Shrek despicable me and um this little known place called hogwarts!!!!!


My 2 yo wants to go but we are making her wait till next years trip.

I would skip Epcot

 

[Random Ninja]

I would skip Universal. It's a lot of money for just a day especially if you aren't staying onsite there for FotL. I would spend a day in each park. There really is a lot for little ones if you look around. Sometimes it's surprising what they actually like. My niece at 3 wanted to ride living with the land over and over again. We had to promise to let her ride it during our Soarin FP time just to get out of the building. The Agent P Showcase Adventure should be running by your trip. I was surprised how much my dad like the kimpossible one, hadhe hasn't heard about perry yet but he's a huge fan so that's on the list for next trip.