How do I decide which parks to do on which days?!?!
We will be arriving at GKTW on a Thursday, which is awesome because we can start the week off with Christmas! Every Thursday at GKTW is Christmas! Santa comes, there is a parade, snow, sleigh rides, and presents! The only downside is that we won't land until 3:10 (still haven't gotten confirmed times but that's what I was told) so we will miss the afternoon orientation so I will have to go to the 7:45 one, which means I'll miss some of Christmas. I wish I could send Craig to the orientation, but he'd forget what they tell him before he even walked out!
Now for planning... how in the world do I decide which parks to do first, in which order?? Since we are starting out on a weekend, should we avoid MK until Monday or later to have less of a crowd?
Going with a 3 year old, 5 year old, 15 year old and 34 year old kid.... do I need to plan 2 days for Universal and IOA or can they both be done the same day while pleasing both the big and small age groups?
I am not really interested in going around to all the countries in Epcot, but would like to still go for the popular rides and attractions. Could these be done in a partial day? Are we missing out on too much by skipping the World Showcase? Do you end up meeting a lot of characters going through?
I really can't decide what to do about character dining. I have seen so many posts about it and I feel like we are going to be missing out on something if we don't try it, but I have no idea what we'd want to do and if it would really be worth it. I know I don't want princess dining for the sake of the boys, and would prefer lunch over breakfast since we get free breakfast at GKTW but that's all I know. Any suggestions??
Hey Christy,
ReplyDeleteI would advise doing Magic Kingdom last or close to it. The reason for that advice is that the 3 and 5 year old will find the other parks very exciting, but will like Magic Kingdom the best so I think it is better to build up to it. In Epcot be aware that Test Track and Soarin' both have 40 inch height requirements.... Although ours aren't quite 40 inches by our measurements and still were able to go (I think the Disney measurements are a little generous). We didn't do character dining. Instead in Epcot you can go visit the big 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy) and get pictures made. For us that was enough.
Definitely rent or take a stroller. We found out the hard way that wagons are not allowed.
If you want to borrow a book on Disney (it is the "Unofficial Guide") then let me know and I can drop it off to you or meet you somewhere and give it to you. It is FULL of great tips.
I think you might be right on saving the kingdom, though I don't know how I'll manage :) I might start off with Sea World, then Universal and IOA (we haven't been to either of those). I did talk to MAW and they will have us a stroller at GKTW, which will be better than taking ours. Thanks for the book offer, but I've checked several out from the library and am pouring over them!! I can't focus on anything but DISNEY!!
ReplyDeleteI did Universal and Islands of Adventure in one night for gradbash and still had left over time. I think that doing it in one day wouldn't be an issue at all.
ReplyDeleteEpcot is a nice park to be at. There aren't too many rides but the fireworks at night are nice! Going around to see the different countries is kind of what the park is about. However, it isnt necessary. If you planned on skipping the countries and all of that id say the park could be done in part of a day. When I went, I didn't see any characters. I saw the most characters at Animal Kingdom.
Thanks! I think we will stick with the 1 day plan.
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