How to decide park days

[my523]

Captain America repeated advice that we had been told about saving Magic Kingdom for last for little kids. I found that as long as there was something to look forward to at each park, we could go to any park. We did take our 4 year old to MK first, because he saw it out the window when he woke up, and there was no way I could tell him for 3-4 days we were going elsewhere. He was VERY into the characters, and there was someone he wanted to meet at all the parks. BUT... that was our vacation. You need to figure out what's best for your group, because that will give you your best trip

We will be at the Poly, so can’t imagine having our princess-loving girls wait that long to actually be near the castle when they can see it every day.

Did you do 2 MK days? What other park do you recommend 2 days for?

My thought is going to MK on Sunday bc even if it’s busy, I know we will be back for sure later in the week.

 

[Miffy]

@my523: The first 2 weeks of December in 2021 weren't the lower-crowd weeks they were in the past. We were there Dec 12-24 last year and MK was hugely crowded. I think we were there on the Saturday of that trip, if that makes a difference. By noon the park was packed. We fled to the Grand Floridian Cafe for lunch and never went back.

Just warning you--don't expect low crowds or even lower crowds. Of course there's no way to accurately predict this ahead of time. Who knows what effect inflation, for example, might have on travel later this year?

 

[my523]

@my523: The first 2 weeks of December in 2021 weren't the lower-crowd weeks they were in the past. We were there Dec 12-24 last year and MK was hugely crowded. I think we were there on the Saturday of that trip, if that makes a difference. By noon the park was packed. We fled to the Grand Floridian Cafe for lunch and never went back.

Just warning you--don't expect low crowds or even lower crowds. Of course there's no way to accurately predict this ahead of time. Who knows what effect inflation, for example, might have on travel later this year?

Yes, I do understand it is do hard to predict. Ugh, which makes it so difficult to try and plan since we will be taking kids out of school. Thanks for the feedback about your experience last year. I'm so sorry that it was that awful!

 

[MinMou]

We will be at the Poly, so can’t imagine having our princess-loving girls wait that long to actually be near the castle when they can see it every day.

Did you do 2 MK days? What other park do you recommend 2 days for?

My thought is going to MK on Sunday bc even if it’s busy, I know we will be back for sure later in the week.

If your girls like princesses, you need to plan a day at Epcot, and make the Norway pavilion a priority to meet Anna and Elsa. I also recommend a day at HS to see First time in Forever, the Frozen sing along. It was my husband's favorite show in ALL the parks!

We did 2 days in MK, but one was a pirate day, where we rode the PeterPan's Flight and had our son made up like a pirate. We still didn't see everything I had planned with 2 days, and in retrospect, that's ok. We made it a kid centered trip, and for little kids, less is more.

There are princess character meals, but the interaction in the parks is better and more personal imo

 

[my523]

If your girls like princesses, you need to plan a day at Epcot, and make the Norway pavilion a priority to meet Anna and Elsa. I also recommend a day at HS to see First time in Forever, the Frozen sing along. It was my husband's favorite show in ALL the parks!

We did 2 days in MK, but one was a pirate day, where we rode the PeterPan's Flight and had our son made up like a pirate. We still didn't see everything I had planned with 2 days, and in retrospect, that's ok. We made it a kid centered trip, and for little kids, less is more.

There are princess character meals, but the interaction in the parks is better and more personal imo

Thanks! We will for sure go to all 4 parks. The dilemma is we have 6 days. I can't decide to do an extra day at HS, Epcot, or just do a Rest day instead. Thoughts on HS vs Epcot on being a 2 day park with little girls? I have read such varying things.

 

[DWlovers_1st visit DL]

Agree with MinMou - figuring out a few of your group's top priorities will definitely help guide your planning.

Our first trip with our daughters was in 2011 when they were 4 and 7 years old and we had a terrific time in EPCOT and thought the character experiences/sightings were some of the best of all four parks! Granted, much has changed since then but there are still so many fun things for the little ones to see and experience at EPCOT (slow rides like Spaceship Earth, Nemo, living with the land, three cabellleros etc.), I would say you might get more bang for your buck there vs a 2nd day at HS but if your group likes shows at HS, that might make a difference?

Also maybe character greets/dining will change between now and Dec? If so, you could make a princess meal reservation. We enjoyed the one at Akershus in EPCOT and it was so nice to see and get autographs from a lot of the princesses in one place vs. trying to schlep around to a lot of different meet & greets! Fingers crossed that those come back in full force!

During our 2014 trip, our kids were 7 and 10 and could take more in so for our full EPCOT day we planned an early sit down dinner at Teppan Edo which we all loved and that helped us power through the evening to see the nighttime show. Our kids definitely liked the world showcase more as they got older and the bigger thrill rides like Soarin and Test Track were a ton of fun then too.

 

[uandmfan]

Thanks! We will for sure go to all 4 parks. The dilemma is we have 6 days. I can't decide to do an extra day at HS, Epcot, or just do a Rest day instead. Thoughts on HS vs Epcot on being a 2 day park with little girls? I have read such varying things.

When our kids were younger we did 3 days at MK and 1 day at each other park. It made MK pretty relaxed. This was in the days of FP though so not sure it would be the same now. We did 7DMT repeatedly, for example.

 

[godfather927]

I've been using Thrill Data to rank days of the week from least crowded to most crowded based on wait times and LL return times. Counter-intuitively, recently it looks like the weekends are least crowded for whatever reason, and Mondays are the busiest of all days. Since MK and HS have the most attractions with HS having longest lines on average, I'm prioritizing those two parks, and then doing Epcot and AK on the busier days since they have fewer attractions.