~ If You Could Only Do 3 Parks, Which 3 Would You Do? ~

[JustJamie]

(And If you think DAM is addicting, just hang out around here for awhile!)

Hey G!!!!! Wow, I didn't know I would "run" into anyone over here. I figured a few were here, but this place is HUGE!! Anyway, Hi!!! Glad to see a friendly face. LOVE your avatar.

I have spent ALL weekend on here. Oh my gosh. So much to learn.

 

[suzimar57]

we'd skip AK (and have) when time only allows for 3 parks

 

[SPAM]

MK
DHS
Epcot

Skip AK.

 

[hapandpam]

We are only going to do 3 parks for our first trip.

We plan to do MK 2 days, AK 1 day and HS 1 day leaving Epcot out. But I am just curious if this is the best choice.

Which parks would you do?

ETA: We are taking our 5 year old and 3 year old. (1 year old is staying home). My girls LOVE Hannah Montana and all that Disney Shows. They LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney Princesses. And they have never ridden rides before and I have a feeling will be a little hesitant on the bigger stuff.

We do have 2 Zoos near us. One that is exceptional. But we are also a big Animal Family.

And again, we have NEVER been to WDW, so everything will be new to us.

My daughters were 3 and 5 the first time we went. They loved MK, liked the shows at MGM (HS), and were ok with Epcot. AK was not open then. If I were to leave out 1 park for your age children, I would skip Epcot. (DDs agree.) I know there are things for kids to do, but mine never were excited about the kidcot stations and it seems to me more adult oriented.

However, you know your family better than anyone else. If I were you, I would get a guide book, or go onto a site like allears.net, and read about all the attractions/shows in HS, Epcot, and AK. If you are an animal oriented family, you might really love AK. It is one dd favorite park, so we always spend a day there. In fact, you could print out a list of attractions/shows, read about them, then highlight those you think your children could do or would enjoy.

When we came home from a 10 day trip, staying at CBR, I asked my daughters what they enjoyed the most. One said, "Feeding the ducks by the boat at MGM (now HS)," and the other said petting the goats at the Conservation station at AK. So, you never know.

I would strongly suggest that you look at each parks attractions and use that information, along with our opinions, to make your decision.

 

[kimsuenew]

We are only going to do 3 parks for our first trip.

We plan to do MK 2 days, AK 1 day and HS 1 day leaving Epcot out. But I am just curious if this is the best choice.

Which parks would you do?

ETA: We are taking our 5 year old and 3 year old. (1 year old is staying home). My girls LOVE Hannah Montana and all that Disney Shows. They LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney Princesses. And they have never ridden rides before and I have a feeling will be a little hesitant on the bigger stuff.

We do have 2 Zoos near us. One that is exceptional. But we are also a big Animal Family.

And again, we have NEVER been to WDW, so everything will be new to us.

Last year was our first trip to WDW. We LOVED AK by the way! I would replicate your list exactly!

Our favorites in order are:

MK
AK
HS
E

MK & AK are very close in our opinion (as to being tied for our favorite).

AK is so different than a zoo. It is a beautiful park, it has attractions, rides, and animals, it is a must see. Epcot was our least favorite of the four parks.

If by chance you want to try all four parks in your four days, perhaps you can do the EMH evening hours in MK, giving you an extra three hours (available only to resort guests) so that your MK day is loooong, than doing the fourth park in lieu of the second MK day? OR... could you get park hoppers? AK has the shortest open hours, so perhaps you could finish the AK day at MK (again trying to plan for an EMH evening so the day is even longer) and it would give you 1 & 1/2 MK days and 1 day for the other 3 parks. Just a thought! Have fun on your trip, it is truly a wonderful and magical place!

 

[Lovin' Lorne]

MK
DHS
EPCOT

We always skip AK. Once was more than enough. And to be honest, we usually skip DHS as well, but since you said three...

EPCOT is the only must do for us. MK is right up there too of course, but since we have DL right down the road, it wouldn't totally kill us if something unforeseen happened and we had to miss it.

 

[lovin'DVC]

Wow, everyone has such different experiences! We first went to WDW when my kiddos were 6, 4, 3, 3. They loved the little things in every park. If it were me, I wouldn't do HS this trip, or do MK only 1 day and do 1 day for each park. Regardless of what you choose, I would seek out the unscheduled play areas and hit the "high points" for that park, and then you'll have a good game plan for the next trip with all of your kids. My kids' favorites when they were little:

MK
Storytime with Belle
Teacup ride
Dumbo
eating at Pinocchio's Village Haus and waving at the people on It's a Small World
riding It's a Small World
Peter Pan ride
Spectromagic parade
fireworks
Aladdin ride (the Dumbo ride disguised as magic carpets!)
carrousel
eating funnel cakes
Toontown playground (and they would have loved the new Pooh playground)

MGM (now HS)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground
Playhouse Disney show (not sure if this is still here)
Beauty & the Beast show

AK
Festival of the Lion King
Boneyard
Triceratop Spin (Dumbo disguised as dinosaurs!)
seeing the animals
feeding animals at the conservation station
the afternoon parade

Epcot
my kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Kidcot stations
the Living Seas
the candy artist in Japan
the acrobats in China
shopping in all of the country stores
Innoventions
running around the garden in the UK
Illuminations
the playground at Mission Space
funnel cakes in the US while listening to the fife and drum players
running around on the sparkly ground in Future World

for our family, Epcot is always at least 2 days. We do get strollers for the kids, though, since we've used pedometers and know that we walk 10-12 miles on Epcot days. Epcot will be miserable for kids if they have to walk all that way.

Getting autographs in all parks was a top priority. We found MK and Epcot to be the best for that. My kids also LOVED the Disney transportation at that age. So we spent a lot of time on the monorails, the boats, buses, trolleys, trains...

Have fun! My kiddos are now 11, 9, 7, 7 and we're planning a trip in less than 2 weeks. We're really looking forward to it!

Terry

 

[catne]

With the ages of your kids, I agree with your choices. AK has more choices geared at little kids, like the Lion King & Nemo shows. Epcot is great for school-age & up, but a lot of it might be very boring for little ones (and the park is huge, you'd spend a lot of time walking/strolling between attractions.)

When you do MK, make sure to go directly to Fantasyland first thing at rope-drop (if staying at Disney resort, use early EMH at Magic Kingdom) The rides in Fantasyland appeal most to the preschool set, and the lines get very long quickly...by lunchtime you'll have an hour or longer wait at Dumbo, Peter Pan, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh. If you get there at rope drop, and don't delay getting to Fantasyland, you'll be able to do all those rides in the first hour.

At AK, be sure to get to the first Lion King show, then head for the Nemo show.

 

[jtopp]

MK, DHS, and Epcot. AK pretty much sucks.

 

[xDressedinlove]

I'd skip AK

 

[haley123]

I'd do Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney Hollywood Studios.

 

[annie1995]

Definately MK, AK and Epcot hands down . I really could skip DHS, its usually a half dayer for us anyways

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

i guess im the odd one out......hah. but we love love love the AK. its prob. right after MK for us. i do not ride the big rides at the studios. some shows are cute. epcot isnt to bad. i like to just walk around there. but if i had to leave out a park it would be maybe epcot, but def. we would leave out the studios. with your little ones i think they would enjoy AK. esp. the shows and we love pizzafari restaurant there at AK. to bad you couldnt hop maybe a day or two. but whatever you pick , have a great trip.

 

[jack_loves_sally]

I just asked my fiances' seven year old daughter if she could only pick three parks...which would she do...her immediate response was Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney's Hollywood Studios. I can tell you from experience, for a girly girl DHS is a dream come true. She loves how the streets are made to look like old Hollywood, and the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast shows as well. Now that she is older she is also really into HSM (which rolls by what feels like 30 times a day). She enjoys AK, we took her there for the first time when she was 5, and she said the Safari was very jerky and she HATED "It's Tough To Be A Bug". Every kid is different, before we went, I showed her a run down of each park online, so she had some kind of an idea what she was going to see/do at each park. Hope this helps!

 

[catho72]

OK...here's my two cents:

I would definitely do MK for 2, if not 3, days. Epcot is the favorite for our family but the first time we went, we weren't impressed (this was back in 2002). Your kids are 5 and 3, right? I don't know if they would like Epcot at that age, especially since one of them can't ride Soarin'. They would probably enjoy HS since there's Beauty and the Beast show, Muppets 3-D movie, Playhouse Disney, HSM, etc. We personally don't like AK...there's not a lot of attractions. Plus, when we are on vacation, I don't want to think about anything serious...I'm there to relax. AK makes me think too hard! It also has very narrow walkways...if it's crowded, you'll feel it immediately. Maybe spend a day at DTD and treat the kids to a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience. My kids LOVE going to DTD (so do I!).


Have a great trip!

 

[ChrisandDon'sMommy]

We'd do MK, Epcot, and AK. DHS would be skipped!

 

[tinkjess3]

I would skip AK...Def MK, DHS, and EPCOT!!

 

[HOGFAN]

I would skip AK.

 

[Dr J]

i would probably skip HS. epcot has soarin' (and figment for the young kids) and AK has safari. the kids (i have three young ones) love these rides. if at all possible, try to do at least a little time in each park. i do think that HS is the most "teen" park (TOT, RnR) of the four.

jh

 

[BabaGanoush]

We are only going to do 3 parks for our first trip.

We plan to do MK 2 days, AK 1 day and HS 1 day leaving Epcot out. But I am just curious if this is the best choice.

Which parks would you do?

ETA: We are taking our 5 year old and 3 year old. (1 year old is staying home). My girls LOVE Hannah Montana and all that Disney Shows. They LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney Princesses. And they have never ridden rides before and I have a feeling will be a little hesitant on the bigger stuff.

We do have 2 Zoos near us. One that is exceptional. But we are also a big Animal Family.

And again, we have NEVER been to WDW, so everything will be new to us.

Well this thread sure did seem to pull out the DAK haters. But that always happens when you throw out the idea of skipping MK or Epcot (since many people consider those their favorite parks). I certainly believe they are entitled to their opinions but I would also go with your first instinct. Remember, YOU know what is best for your family and from the looks of it, you seemed to really think it through. Plus, many of the opinions that have been thrown out there are simply a "DAK sucks" or "I always skip DAK" which is fine for them but doesn't really help YOU out because this is your first time and you havent experienced any of the parks.

Honestly, I think you would really enjoy DAK. It is the newest park and they were able to apply a lot of the things they learned from the other parks to DAK. The atmosphere is untouched and the Tree of Life is amazing to look at. Since your family are animal lovers, I think you would have an exceptional number of things to do - contrary to what many other posters are stating. For many of them, animals may not be that big a thing so they may not take the time to explore the walking trails or animal shows. If that is the case, than there may not be as much to do as at the other parks. But I think there will be plenty for you to do.

How about starting out the day going on as authentic of an African safari as you can get outside of Africa? And then following that up by walking down a trail where you can see monkeys, naked mole rats, hippos, meerkats, and western lowland gorillas in as much a natural state as you could possibly believe. You could follow that up with the best show on property - The Festival of the Lion King, and then pick and choose different characters to see such as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy - all in Safari gear. Go explore the trails around the Tree of Life where you will see even more animals such as kangaroos, giant galapagos tortoises, flamingos, and porcupines and then head INTO the Tree of Life to catch up with the Bugs. In Asia, head to Flights of Wonder - a wonderful show about birds that has the birds flying over your head and exhibiting all natural behaviors - and then head into the jungle temples to visit gibbons, komodo dragons, giant fruit bats, and asian tigers. Again, all in the most natural setting you will probably ever experience. Then you could head to Finding Nemo - The Musical - a full broadway style puppet production. Finally, wrap up the day in DinoLand USA where the kids can ride Triceratop Spin and play in the Boneyard. When you have time, you could even make your way up to Rafiki's Planet Watch where you can see live veterinary procedures occuring, speak to REAL animal keepers and conservation leaders (can be a real treat for animal lovers), meet hard to find characters such as Pocahontas and Jiminy Cricket, as well as have up close and personal encounters with all sorts of animals - everything from snakes to lizards to small mammals to tiny, exotic invertebrates.

All of this doesnt even include Big Kid stuff like Everest, Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur, and Primevil Whirl. All of which you can potentially throw in if the kids are feeling up to it or the adults want to do something for themselves. To say that there isnt anything to do for a first timer at DAK is ludicrous. Especially for one that seems to love animals as much as you do.

Having said that, there ARE awesome things to do at all of the parks (including Epcot). However, I think your original inclination is right on - to possibly save Epcot for a later trip. Remember, that will just give you something to look forward to for a return trip. Plus, you may be able to experience it when the kids are a little older and may enjoy more aspects of Epcot. I also think the Studios is a smart move with what you have said about your kids.

All of this is just the humble opinion of someone that thinks that DAK gets short changed by many - especially those that have been there and just did not "get it".