How many days at the big 4 would you do

[antietam]

We are off for 2 weeks staying on site with a 14 day ultimate ticket and DDP

We are going to

MK 3 Times
EP 2 Times
DS 1.5 Times
AK 2 Times

As we have ultimate pass we feel obliged to spend more times at Disney Parks than others

We are also doing

BB 1 Time
TL 1 Time
Coast 1 Time
Shopping 1 Time

Thats 12.5 days out of 13 if you take out the travelling

My big concern is whether we should just go for AK once and do TL twice instead.

Most people think AK is a one day trip be it a full day
As we intend to get there at rope drop is there any need to go back unless we miss something big.

I am not doing Seaworld or Universal on this trip

[Leanne1977]

Its a tough question to be honest as we all have our fav parks.

But looking at your lovely sig pic I would say you have it spot on with MK certainly. The little ones will enjoy it here the most without a doubt.:o:

Epcot is one of our fav parks so we schedule at least 2-3 visits here during our 3 weeks.
DHS we would normally schedule 2 visits so we can make sure we have done everything we want and see Fantasmic. Sometimes we would park hop purely to see Fantasmic a second time.
AK is a tough one as we find it the hottest park and so we tend to arrive at park opening and leave around 1-2pm. We have never managed to stay there the whole day as its a real tough park when its hot.:cool2: So we always go back for a second visit to finish it off.

My boys love the waterparks so we have at least 1 visit to each but sometimes more. We will also be doing Aquatica so that will be another day. But we usually again arrive for park opening and leave around 3pm. Go back to the hotel for a rest and then change for the evening at a park.

So to me your plan looks fab.:thumbs-up

[Elsie]

Looking at your pic your kids are quite young so I'd concentrate on MK, AK, MGM and (if they like splashing) the water parks. I find Epcot more boring than being at work so I (personally) wouldn't want to take young children there.

I know you've said you're not doing Sea World this trip but this, along with MK, are the best places in Orlando for children. But that's just me.

[David63]

I find Epcot more boring than being at work so I (personally) wouldn't want to take young children there.



And I thought it was just me. First timers should do Epcot, but we won't be going next time.

[bookswin]

If I were you, I'd shave some time off AK and lengthen the time at Hollywood Studios.

[Sue]

I love AK now and think for children the theming so fantastic, a lot to take in. I think you have the balance about right, although I agree that maybe your little ones won't enjoy Epcot as much as the other parks. It is a HUGE park though, so how about doing Epcot in 2 half days - say a morning and an afternoon (World Showcase does not open until 11am usually) - you could then do TL again one day and Epcot for the late afternoon evening? If the children can get an afternoon nap and are not afraid of loud bangs - I have seen so many of them thrilled at Illuminations at Epcot at 9pm.

[pinkypominnie]

You are doing almost exactly the same as us :)

We are having:

MK 3 visits
AK 2 visits
EP 2 visits
HS 1 visit

And then TL and BB one day each - so I think its perfect!!
There is loads to do and see for kids at Epcot so dont worry about that, and its HUGE so you can easily spend more than one day there xx

[pinkypominnie]

I love AK now and think for children the theming so fantastic, a lot to take in. I think you have the balance about right, although I agree that maybe your little ones won't enjoy Epcot as much as the other parks. It is a HUGE park though, so how about doing Epcot in 2 half days - say a morning and an afternoon (World Showcase does not open until 11am usually) - you could then do TL again one day and Epcot for the late afternoon evening? If the children can get an afternoon nap and are not afraid of loud bangs - I have seen so many of them thrilled at Illuminations at Epcot at 9pm.

Oooh...we posted at the same time Sue :d:
Although I have said 2 days for Epcot, I do pretty much what you have suggested and we spend one day there from rope drop until 2/3ish (to cover furture world) and another day we go back about 4pm and stay until the end, and concentrate on the World Showcase with a nice ADR for Illuminations xx

[jaydecay]

We have unlimited 14day passes for Disney and Seaworld tickets - not bothering with Universal or IOA and we intend to do;

2 days Epcot - more that likely be 2 half days though
2 days Magic Kingdom
2 days Animal Kingdom
1 day MGM - though this normally ends up just being a half day

So basically we'll be spedning about a week at the Disney parks - possibly more if we go back in evenings for any of the shows

[cat]

Why plan a set number of days for each park ?
I'd just make sure you do each of the four main parks ( maybe with a water park in the middle ) before you do any 'return' days at a park you've already been to then decide which parks you want to return to again.
I've found things change all the time especially with children involved. In 2006 ours couldn't stop going to Epcot then last year we only went a couple of times and seemed to spend forever in MK.
Also POFQ is a lovely resort and you may end up spend some time here then catching the boat to DTD etc.
With so many wonderful thing to do you just have to accept that you will miss something out somewhere, the main thing is to just enjoy yourselves and relax.

[BevS97]

it looks about right to me, but why not make your decision on AK/TL on the day - mark it on your plan as an option and see how you feel. You could easily do both on the same day actually.

Also with park hopping, you have the option of leaving a park if it's getting stale and moving on somewhere else, we find that works quite well for us, and in the last few days of the holiday when we want to revist everywhere just one last time we often do that.

Don't rule out Epcot for little ones, ours really enjoy it, although it's not a ride sort of a day, more of a watching the world go by day. I would recommend taking a change of clothes and letting them play in the fountains, this is one of our favorite things in any of the parks.