which park to skip

[cruisin'Mike]

I asked my three kids which park they would skip. All three (DS7, DS5, DD5) would skip Epcot. Animal Kingdom is the 7 year-old's favorite, and actually my second fave behind MK.

If you can add one more day at Disney, the increase in pass price is not very large for the extra day (but we won't talk about another day of dining ). Then my thoughts would be to do one day at each park, and go back to your favorite on the 5th day. Also, I agree that you should do Sea World. My kids really like it there too.

 

[SunFloridaDisney]

I used to be one of those people who would recommend skipping AK. Mainly because our first time there was a not great experience. Our recent trip, however, it was a whole new world!! We saw the Adventures of the Lion King, not sure how we missed it before, and explored areas we didn't even know were there. Love AK now, but I couldn't recommend skipping ANY of the parks.

Enjoy!

 

[bride03]

You can do AK in 1/2 a day! I would probably say to not skip anything and just do AK one morning. It only takes us about 2 hours to do AK!!!!! Just a suggestion.

 

[MOMOFMNM]

have you stayed at the poly before. maybe you should downgrade the resort and stay some extra days for the money. You said that you will not even have time to hang out at the poly if you only go for four days anyway.

actually we are a family of five and we want a monorail resort for our needs. Staying more days is not a money problem it is more a missing so much school problem for me. I think 5 days of no school is enough IMO. No, don't wanna go Summer or Spring or Holidays either

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

OP - We are a family of 4 (DH, DS7, DD7 and I) and we loved staying at the Poly! We had a 4-day hopper and didn't want to miss any park, either, and the hopper was really fabulous! We did 1-1/2 days at MK, 1-1/2 days at Epcot, 1/2 day at AK, and 1/2 day at MGM.

I asked my kids and DH what park they would have skipped if we'd had to, and all said MGM! We thought the show times made it very difficult to get things done, and although Little Mermaid was cute, it was nothing special compared to AK's Festival of the Lion King show-- Now that was incredible! Have heard good things about Playhouse Disney, but my kids are too old for that, and they are not into the thrill rides like TOT and RNR. Glad we checked out MGM, as now we know what it's about and will skip it without regret next time.

DD and DS LOVED Epcot WS, and your kids are good ages to make the kidcot masks (big big hit with kids)! They enjoyed seeing their names written in various languages, and my favorite character photo was the one taken with Pooh, Rabbit, Tigger and Eeyore at the toystore in the back of UK.

Good luck whatever you decide!

 

[candmforever]

We don't get hoppers b/c we get so absorbed in each park when we are in it, that we don't use the hopper option, we stay until closing. Last time, we did AK for 1/2 a day, and Epcot the other 1/2 of the day, and boy did we regret it! Epcot bored us to tears, even the side w/ the countries. We hated to leave AK for Epcot, but it was what DH wanted to do...until he did it. He is happily agreeing to skip Epcot this year. We actually found more to do at MGM than we coudl have ever done.........for all the ages in our group, adults too. We love MGM....Epcot was our snoozer for SURE!

 

[rcraw45425]

I recommend that if you choose to do World Showcase (aka the countries), save it for the evening. It is so much better then, plus you get to see Illuminations. We, a family of four, usually wind up skipping AK unless we go when it's really cool weather. It is absolute misery in the heat!

 

[SpoonfulofSugar]

The most easily skippable park is EPCOT. The only thing to see there is TT and maybe MS. My kids were bored everywhere there except the playground at the end of MS. MGM is great for kids with the Muppet 3D movie and Playhouse Disney along with the HISTK playground. AK is great, IMO, if I could only go to 2 parks it would be MK, and AK. The hopper strategy you decided on is your best bet, as Epcot and MGM are easily half day parks.

 

[DavefanBen]

Skip Animal Kingdom.

It'll be soo hot, there are very few attractions, and the animals probably won't even be out. It is by far my least favorite part.

MGM and MK are must do's. Personally, I'd much rather spend a day at EPCOT then AK. But that's just me.

 

[TimothyG]

If you had to skip one, skip Animal Kingdom. It is my least favorite park but a park I think that has a lot of potential, just too premature for me right now. Plus it somehow gets hotter at the AK than any of the parks. I would only spend a half day there.

If you go to a park twice, I would recommend that park be Magic Kingdom as it is the biggest of the other parks ride-wise. I've read of only 3 or so people that have rode every ride in 1 day (although that could be because most ride attempts in a day are unconfirmed).

If I may make a suggestion though, 4 days is too short of a stay to go to the Poly though because you wont be able to see much of it. I recommend that you stay at a moderate resort and have the length of your trip expand more. I recommend that you stay at Port Orleans Riverside as it is the best moderate in my opinion. Or if you'd like, visit disneyworld.com and browse through resorts and go to wdwinfo.com and read some reviews of it (I know there's a review section somewhere). Then go to disneypix.com and find pictures of it and see if it's your style. This will allow you to stay at a resort that you may like but dont know it and stay at Disney longer.

However, whatever your decision, have a good trip.