Ok i asked a form of this question on another board but i wanted your opinion too... my group of ppl( i say that because we will have 2 families going) are going to the world for the first time in oct! We will have 5 girls-ages 10,9,8,6,2 with us and 4 adults... I am wondering which park to do first. I have heard not to do the magic kingdom on the first park day because then they wont want to do any other park. i wanted to do them in this order... magic kingdom, epcot,disney hollywood studios, animal kingdom maybe i should change the order? thoughts? I was scheduling them with a thought in mind of the longer we are there, the less enerfy for a fast paced park lol. I have been driving myself crazy doing research for our first trip... I am not scheduling down to the minute but just a basic idea of what park what day and where we are going to eat stuff like that... afterall,we are on vacation! I just hate when we stand there for an hour saying what do you want to do today? I dont know what do you want to do.... and so on
Past three trips we have always done Magic Kingdom first. We've done this with a 6 year old girl and 2 1/2 year old boy on their first time, and on another trip with a 2 1/2 year old girl on her first time (well, second, but she doesn't remember the first). Ours kids never complained about not wanting to go anywhere else.
That is what we do as well. It makes all the difference in the world I don't think Magic Kingdom spoils the other parks for the kids at all. Mine love all 4 parks. For most of their younger years (say ages 2 to 8; they did not voice opinions earlier and now they cannot choose just one favourite) their favourite parks were always either Epcot or Animal Kingdom actually.
I wouldn't worry about them not liking the other parks. My guys loved them all. The three year old was especially looking forward to Epcot--it was all he talked about for months beforehand (that giant golf ball really intrigued him!). We did MK, AK, Epcot, MK, HS, MK but that was based on the crowd predictions, TGM's best parks chart and my kiddos (we left MK really early the first day and still had a lot to do there!). My 3 yo's favorite ride was Soarin' (epcot) and my 6 yo's favorite was Rockin roller coaster (HS).
Are you staying on site? If so, will you be taking advantage of EMH? We always stay on site and we're early risers, so we love EMH mornings. I plan our park days according to when EMH mornings are. If you're not doing EMH mornings, I would plan the opposite way. For example, if MK has EMH on Thurs and you're not doing EMH, then don't go to MK that morning. Go to a park that opens at 9:00. Other than that. I don't think it matters which park when. MK doesn't ruin the other parks for kids. There are many fun things for the kids in every park!
I agree with this...check out the park hours and figure out your EMH strategy and go from there. All of the parks are fabulous and plenty of fun for all!
I agree with laughinplace. We do am EMH most days of our trip, so that's how we plan. We also have park hoppers, so we just plan where we will go for part of each day. So, we know we will go to am EMH on Thurs-- we go back to the resort for a nap and then let the kids decide what they would like to do that evening. This way we have a plan, but also can be flexible.
I plan by TGM's green days. And my kids love all the parks-it is like a different vacation every day! I had been told by my boss to not spend much time in Epcot, since it had nothing for kids, before my 1st trip in 2006. dd10 was 6, and Epcot was her favorite park, with Test Track being her favorite ride. Ds12 was 9, and AK and Expedition Everest was his favorite. Just make a plan and enjoy them all!
I think i am going to plan like this... mk,ep,dhs,ak and mk the day we leave for a couple hours because we have an evening flight home. That way we do all the parks and get to open and close our vacation with the mk!
