1st Day - Which Park?

[JessieR]

Here is the background. This will be my family's first trip to Disney. My husband and our two boys (ages 5 and 3 when we go this fall) have never been and the last time I went they had just opened the Tower of Terror - I know - a very long time. We have our trip planned for the week after Thanksgiving. Originally we were going Sunday through Friday that week but to take advantage of the free dining deal we had to move our trip to start on Saturday instead. With our original trip plan of arriving on Sunday I had planned on us doing Magic Kingdom on Monday (our first day there). Now that we are arriving on Saturday I am concerned that Sunday will be too busy as it is still the Thanksgiving weekend. With that said, I have two questions:

Are we better off sticking with the original plan and going to Magic Kingdom that Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend?

OR

Are we better going to a different park for a our first day and sticking with Magic Kingdom on Monday? AND - which park would you choose? (we have already decided to limit our time to MK/AK/HS and skip Epcot).

Any thoughts or advice would be VERY appreciated.

 

[stsomewhere]

Look at the CHristmas party hours. We are going the same week and MK closes at 6pm on Sunday,Tuesday, Thursday and Friday due to Christmas Party.

 

[scrapquitler]

We always prefer MK on our first (and last) day, even if it means just an hour or two before we hop over somewhere else because of crowds/party closures, etc. Walking in the park and seeing the castle is our "we are here" moment.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Always start at MK
If that Sunday is a party day it should actually be a good day to go. Party says tend to have lower crowds.

 

[saraheliz]

What time do you arrive? I usually find that the cost to add a day is so minimal that as long as we're at Disney before dinnertime, it makes sense for us to swing over to MK to see the castle, have dinner, and ride a couple of rides (FP+ has made this super easy). The kids get that initial excitement of seeing the castle over and done with (and sleep better because of it), and then I don't feel like we have to do MK for our first full day and can go a bit more by crowd calendars and pick what works best overall.
If you won't be in until late on Saturday, I might still stick with MK on Sunday and do rope drop until the kids are toast or until you get kicked out for the party, whichever happens sooner. My kids always want castle first. But if your kids are young enough not to know what to look forward to, then do what park you want and what works best for your family!

 

[JessieR]

Look at the CHristmas party hours. We are going the same week and MK closes at 6pm on Sunday,Tuesday, Thursday and Friday due to Christmas Party.

GREAT point! We are not doing the party so I think that solidifies my feeling that we should be doing a different park on day 1.

 

[JessieR]

What time do you arrive? I usually find that the cost to add a day is so minimal that as long as we're at Disney before dinnertime, it makes sense for us to swing over to MK to see the castle, have dinner, and ride a couple of rides (FP+ has made this super easy). The kids get that initial excitement of seeing the castle over and done with (and sleep better because of it), and then I don't feel like we have to do MK for our first full day and can go a bit more by crowd calendars and pick what works best overall.
If you won't be in until late on Saturday, I might still stick with MK on Sunday and do rope drop until the kids are toast or until you get kicked out for the party, whichever happens sooner. My kids always want castle first. But if your kids are young enough not to know what to look forward to, then do what park you want and what works best for your family!

Great points! My kids are small enough to not really know BUT every time they see images of Disney on TV they always say that the castle is "Mickey's House!" Haha! Flights aren't booked yet because we are waiting for Southwest to release their flights for that time of the year but that might be good idea to add extra park passes for that day. OR maybe spend Sunday morning at MK - and the evening at a different park. Decisions... Decisions...

 

[Hopscotch]

Different opinion but I read this in a guidebook year’s ago and it worked for our family and other families I’ve shared it with.

I would start at a diffferent park. Kids think of Disney as the Magic Kingdom. If you do MK first, the other parks may feel like a letdown. They will compare everything to MK and just want to go back there. (this literally just happened to our friends last week). This is fine if you have parkhoppers, but if you don’t it can be a big problem. Also, MK on a Monday is typically a bad idea. Tons of people arrive on Sunday and MK is their first stop on Monday. I have found that party days have much lower crowds but of course you get a much shorter day in the parks. Once again, if you have park hoppers or if you are not all day park people, this is not a problem.

 

[JessieR]

Different opinion but I read this in a guidebook year’s ago and it worked for our family and other families I’ve shared it with.

I would start at a diffferent park. Kids think of Disney as the Magic Kingdom. If you do MK first, the other parks may feel like a letdown. They will compare everything to MK and just want to go back there. (this literally just happened to our friends last week). This is fine if you have parkhoppers, but if you don’t it can be a big problem. Also, MK on a Monday is typically a bad idea. Tons of people arrive on Sunday and MK is their first stop on Monday. I have found that party days have much lower crowds but of course you get a much shorter day in the parks. Once again, if you have park hoppers or if you are not all day park people, this is not a problem.

Good point! Thank you for the advice!

 

[popriv]

just booked the same week. be there with DGD7 & DGS4..and their parents. also waiting for SW flights. not looking forward to choosing flights.$$$

We added 2 nights on the front of the free dining to arrive on thanksgiving. then added 2 nights after free dining to depart dec,1.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Unless your kids are night-owls, I would go ahead and do MK on Sunday. I agree that crowd levels will be dramatically lower because of the party, and I know when my DS was that age, if we started at rope drop, he would have been fried before 6:00 anyway, so the early closing wouldn't have affected us.

P.S. - He also loved both AK and Epcot at 5 (no let-down from MK in his mind, just additional fun!)