Which parks to revisit?

[MelissaS8]

We are heading down in April 2020. Will by my three tween girls' first trip (9, 11, 12)

We have seven day non-park hopper tickets. Day 1 will be a partial day due to travel. I have a touringplans subscription. I heard I shouldn't START at MK because then nothing lives up to it.

So which parks should I double up (or triple up)? What do you think?

 

[holden]

It really depends on your family. We always hit MK twice during our trips. It's nostalgic for us.

 

[Dis Dragon]

Each park has it's own flavor, I wouldn't say not to start with MK - it has different experiences and feels for sure but are they better? Depends on what you're looking for.

MK is definitely a double or triple - AK is an amazing park, they're all pretty great actually.

Just my opinion but if I had a 7 day non-hopper I would probably do HS, 2AK, 2EP, 2MK. Starting and ending with MK - or fanagled to take advantage of EMH. If you don't care about World Showcase at all you could probably cut EP to 1 visit but my family has always loved it.

 

[TaraWasHere]

We usually do MK and Epcot twice. If we stay longer then we add AK for an extra day. I personally don't think there is enough in HS to warrant more than one day. (for us anyways)

 

[lisa cameron]

Two days at MK if you have to choose, so many rides.

 

[BrianL]

I sort of disagree about not starting at MK, especially if it is your first visit. I mean yeah, it's the best, but I don't think you'll find that the other parks are boring or anything. They have some of the best individual attractions. As a whole though, MK is Disney and will give you that feeling. I'd say start and end there.

 

[mrd7896]

i would start and end at MK

2 @ MK
2 @ AK

Then depending on your girls' interest in rides will depend for 2 days at HS vs 2 days at EP.

I think EP may be a one and done for younger girls. They will love Frozen, love Soarin, but the World Showcase may not be of the most interest except getting some princess meet and greets.
If they will ride ToT RnRC and enjoy the ins and outs of Toy Story Land they may enjoy the chance to go back to HS.

And if neither of those seem to hit the mark of how you expect your girls to feel about attractions then triple up on MK!

 

[_19disnA]

There is no generic answer that fits every family. Younger children tend to enjoy Magic Kingdom more while adults usually find more to do at Epcot. As someone else mentioned, it also depends if you have previously been to Disney (and have preferences) or this is your first visit. You really should visit each park and decide for yourself what you family likes best. I don't think any paid 3rd party opinion will work for everyone's tastes.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I agree with others that the answer is highly dependent on the personal preferences / ages of your family. I have kids around the same age as you (12 and 10) and for us the right mix would be 2 MK (starting and ending there, if possible), 1 EP, 1 AK, 2 DHS.

 

[Tallis]

MK

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

We ALWAYS have to start and end our trip at MK. Just so nostalgic, I feel I am really at Disney once we arrive at MK and we always end our trip at MK. Obviously personal preference but it just feels like home to us when we do that. I do agree that you may not need 2 days at DHS. But if you have 7 days would definitely do 2 MK and 2 AK and then visit EP and DHS and then decide which one of those you want to do again.

 

[cjlong88]

AK is my favorite park. MK is a close second. With that said, I can't ever get through everything at MK in a single day, so that's probably your best bet if you are looking to hit the things you may have missed or re-ride the attractions the girls really liked. I also like visiting World Showcase at Epcot twice in one trip, but who knows if younger kids will be interested in that. I would only say HS if they are into Toy Story or if they like thrill rides.

For what it's worth, I teach middle school and a lot of my students down in Georgia would talk about how much they love MK. Disney was a very common and popular vacation spot for people in the South, so there was much chit chat about it before and after class (which, of course, I didn't mind lol).

Follow your heart. Be yourself.

 

[Lilsia]

We plan our days according to crowd level so depending on what day of the week we get there, that determines what park we go to first. I would probably suggest MK for your extra day since there is more rides there that everyone in your age group can enjoy. Have fun.

 

[Geomom]

3 MK, 2 EP, 1 HS, 1 AK.

If one of your days is a 1/2 day, MK is fine to start with, pick a part of the park to explore that night, then start in another section on your next MK day.

Epcot FP+ has 3 tier 1's that we like, so doing 2 days will guarantee you'll get on 2 of them with little wait. Test Track seems to have the highest waiting times right now, followed by Frozen Ever After. Soarin' you can get on with 1/2 hr wait in the evenings since they added the 3rd theater.

 

[Calee]

I would do 2 for sure of MK. For the others I would plan one at each, but maybe at the end of your trip be open to revisiting one that everyone liked. For us, and with all that is being added, we can do two at HS.

 

[BarlowFamily]

We love Touring Plans! Have you played around yet with some personalized plans? After you sit down with the girls and pick all the things you want to do and see, you might be surprised by which parks you'll need a second day in. For my family, with 6 1/2 single park days we would spend 2 in MK, 1.5 in Epcot, 2 in AK and 1 in HS. This might be completely different for your family. I would arrange my park days based upon crowd calendars, but with a good touring plan even a 10 level day can be manageable. You have plenty of time to plan an awesome trip for you and your girls!

 

[Klayfish]

We are heading down in April 2020. Will by my three tween girls' first trip (9, 11, 12)

We have seven day non-park hopper tickets. Day 1 will be a partial day due to travel. I have a touringplans subscription. I heard I shouldn't START at MK because then nothing lives up to it.

So which parks should I double up (or triple up)? What do you think?

As others have mentioned, this is really a personal decision. If you haven't been before, look at what each park has to offer and then make a best guess based on that. You won't get to see everything in a week, so don't even worry about that. Just see what interests you and the girls most. There's really no "right or wrong". For me, I would do things very differently than what you've listed so far, but that's just me. For example.

I completely disagree with the notion of not starting at MK. For me, that's the heart of WDW and pretty much the only place to start every trip. There is nothing in the world like walking under the train station and coming out onto Main Street. I don't know how many times I've done it now, and it still wows me every time. I would definitely start at MK.

I would never use Touringplans, except for their crowd sourced wait times. Their "touring plans" are silly, IMO, I've seen some of the suggested plans it gives people. I think the "crowd calendars" are even worse...and are intentionally misleading. For me, I would just plan around attractions I want and parks I want.

Most importantly, just take time to soak it in, whatever you do. Enjoy it, it's a magical place.

 

[Shellyred8]

I would plan for 2 MK, 2 AK, 1HS and 1EP. Then check with your family to see which one they want to use that last day on. Or, based on your knowledge of your family, make an executive decision where to use it. I know some kids don't care much for world showcase at EP, but I've also heard of some that just love it. So, if your girls are into learning about other cultures (as opposed to being total ride junkies ), EP might be where you go twice. If they are more of the ride-junky type, I would lean towards 3 days at MK.

If you've not been to AK, there is actually quite a lot to do there between the rides, the shows and the walk-through exhibits (these are similar to a zoo). I always enjoy the shows there: FOTLK, It's tough to be a bug, UP - a bird adventure, Finding nemo live show. It's not unusual for us to do FOTLK more than once a trip.

If your first day will be a partial day, I would perhaps recommend doing EP or HS on that day and then planning a second full EP or HS day. There is so much to do at MK that I wouldn't recommend using a partial day for it if this is their first trip. I always like when my first full day is at MK. I love riding the ferry from the TTC and seeing the castle as we approach. I like the idea of ending with MK.

Have a great trip!!

 

[PollyannaMom]

If info is out, check the calendar to see if there are any early closings or special events that would effect your trip. Barring that, and considering that it is a first trip, and the first day is a half-day, I'd do something like this:

	morning	afternoon	evening
Day 1 -	travel	AK	AK
Day 2 -	MK	MK	MK
Day 3 -	resort break	HS	HS
Day 4 -	Epcot	Epcot	Epcot
Day 5 -	AK	resort break	DS?
Day 6 -	MK	MK	MK
Day 7 -	return to HS	or Epcot	(or split up)

Trade around as needed to account for extra magic hours, etc. - or to put a mid-day break with the closest park to your resort. The point is to have them! - in whatever way fits your family best (sleep-in mornings, mid-day breaks, early-end days...) The point is not to go three full "rope-drop to fireworks" days in a row. (We call that the "day 3 curse" - and it's not pretty!)

And do be scared off by that "split up" thing on day 7 - you very well might find that the kids love different parks. While some "all together" time is important on vacation, it really is OK to split up for a little while! (Or to have one parent take the tired child(ren) back early and the others stay late on any day. - It's better to cut a day short than to ruin the next day!)

And my advice to all first-timers: For each park day, have each member of the party pick their #1 "must-do" and a couple of "like to"s, and prioritize accordingly. There is never time to do everything WDW has to offer, so do the most important things, and the rest is gravy!

 

[bryanb]

I grew up going to Disneyland once every year or two. So for me, Magic Kingdom is magical and special, but visiting it first seems like the proper way to kick off a visit to WDW. I don't totally agree that nothing lives up to it.

Instead, seeing the castle at the beginning is kind of like the opening to a Disney movie. But I guess each family is different, and there are no real wrong answers. Since it's your kids' first trip, I feel like there's plenty of fresh new experiences that could follow the MK day, with surprises everywhere along the way.

What kind of interests do they have? I find that Animal Kingdom has plenty to do, and FOP and the Safari are highly repeatable experiences. In particular, I could probably go on the Safari three times in one visit and still appreciate the different things to spot each time. The walking trail exhibits are another place you could get lost for hours, if you like animals. Just talking to the guides, who have interesting stories and answers for curious minds, can be fun and inspiring.

Epcot is enormous. In the old days, I'd have said that FutureWorld was another place you could wander for hours... but the exhibits are all pretty much closed. So then it depends on whether your daughters like to explore the world and different cultures.