Crafting an "MK Teaser"

[chotasahib]

Hi all,

I'd like to solicit your advice. My family of four (me, Mrs. Chotasahib, son 14, daughter 9) will be touring WDW for approx. two weeks in June, starting off on Sunday the 6th. We have 5-day hoppers, so we can spread the days out and not overdo it. My Order of Worship goes like this (and sure, some dates might change):

Sunday 6/6 -- AK
Tuesday 6/8 -- Epcot
Friday 6/11 -- MK
Sunday 6/13 -- MGM
Thursday 6/17 -- 1/2 Epcot, then 1/2 whatever we feel like returning to (I'll lay odds on MK)

On the non-park days, we'll do some shopping (read: the ladies will shop, while son and I try to figure out where to watch some of Euro Champs 04), a waterpark day (or two), Disney Quest (oh yeah!), and other misc. stuff.

My question comes back to that first day, Sunday the 6th. I've had many friends, all of them Veterans of 1000 Campaigns, tell me: "Look, if you're planning to get to AK bright and early [and I am], you can tour at a pretty leisurely pace and still be done by around 4:30pm, even doing some things twice."

SOooo, this got me thinking: since our full MK day isn't until six or so days into our trip, it would be fun to give the kids just a taste of the Kingdom that first evening. I'm imagining this scenario: we leave AK around 4:30 or so, go have dinner somewhere off property, and get to MK around 6:00ish. It's open until 10pm that night, so that would be a four hour "teaser" for my kids.

Long preamble, all to ask: what would be fun to do at that time of day, as a good introduction, and hopefully without too awful a queue situation? I mean, sure, Splash Mountain would be a wonderful first ride, but I have a feeling all FPs will be gone and the standby would be insane.

I was thinking maybe this: head over to Adventureland.
-- ride PotC
-- ride Jungle Cruise (or get FPs if still available)
-- see Tiki Birds
-- explore the SFT

Then, depending on how we were feeling, we could either watch the evening parade, or take advantage of parade time to do Splash and BTRM (we could see the parade on Friday).

If any of you have other good ideas for a four-hour "mini-block" as a first look/teaser for my kids (they've never been, and wife and I have not been for ~18 yrs), I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!

p.s. Can you just "hear" me quivering with excitement?! :sohappy:

 

[Lyzzer21]

Wow! 2 weeks??????? Have fun!

 

[chotasahib]

Originally posted by Lyzzer21
Wow! 2 weeks??????? Have fun!

You know it! But as an aside, how sad is it that I'm 34 and this is the first two week vacation of my adult life?? Ain't that America. When it comes to vacationing, I think our culture could take a cue from the French (or most of Europe, really)--"Oh look, it's August. Time to take a month off!"

 

[Pioneer Hall]

I would say that you should do that, but also allow yourself to have more freedom on other days as well. Remember that with your park hopper you may not want to visit one park on one day. You may want to visit multiple parks on the same day. You have a lot of time on your trip, so why not just go with the flow and decide what you feel like doing on each day.

Just a note though...

I am the kind of person that doesn't schedule much when I go to Disney. I am also a big park hopper. It isn't unusual for me to go to three parks in one day. If I ride splash mountain and then want to ride tower of terror, I take the bus to MGM. So take what I said and mix it with your own opinion.