First Timers! Traveling with kids...how's this itinerary?

[NCRedskins]

I've just about finished planning the major details of our mid-Sept trip. We have three kids (5, 3, 15 months) and this is what we have going so far:

Sat: Arrive via plane, check in to Hotel, eat dinner, hang
Sun: 8:00am Breakfast at Be Our Guest, Magic Kingdom Day
Mon: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tues: Epcot. Akershus Breakfast at 8:15
Weds: Breakfast at Ohana at 8:15. No parks. Pool at hotel? Downtown Disney?
Thurs: Animal Kingdom. Lunch at Rainforest Cafe
Fri: Magic Kingdom (to cover anything we missed, let the kids do favorites
Sat: Fly home

A couple questions
- Is Akershus worth it? Seems pricy to me for what you get at breakfast. I may drop this
- Are we crazy to skip Hollywood Studios? We just thought it didn't have enough for my kids ages. It seems like just shows, which I'm sure they would enjoy, but we were concerned about how much my son would sit through since he's a wild toddler
- Is three days in MK overkill?
- Any really good dining experiences for the little ones we are missing out on?

Please save the "your kids are too young" comments - we are definitely going, it's all booked, so please stay constructive in terms of maximizing the fun.

 

[BigHero4]

Itinerary looks great to me. Is the 3rd day at MK to fill in for the one day skipping HS? Are you going during MNSSHP?... if so, you could go to this to help maximize your MK time.

On your off day, I would definitely have some pool time and then go check out Disney Springs... especially if your kids are into LEGO's. Or if you haven't already, take a monorail tour - kids of all ages love this.

 

[polynesiangirl]

I've just about finished planning the major details of our mid-Sept trip. We have three kids (5, 3, 15 months) and this is what we have going so far:

Sat: Arrive via plane, check in to Hotel, eat dinner, hang
Sun: 8:00am Breakfast at Be Our Guest, Magic Kingdom Day
Mon: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tues: Epcot. Akershus Breakfast at 8:15
Weds: Breakfast at Ohana at 8:15. No parks. Pool at hotel? Downtown Disney?
Thurs: Animal Kingdom. Lunch at Rainforest Cafe
Fri: Magic Kingdom (to cover anything we missed, let the kids do favorites
Sat: Fly home

A couple questions
- Is Akershus worth it? Seems pricy to me for what you get at breakfast. I may drop this
- Are we crazy to skip Hollywood Studios? We just thought it didn't have enough for my kids ages. It seems like just shows, which I'm sure they would enjoy, but we were concerned about how much my son would sit through since he's a wild toddler
- Is three days in MK overkill?
- Any really good dining experiences for the little ones we are missing out on?

Please save the "your kids are too young" comments - we are definitely going, it's all booked, so please stay constructive in terms of maximizing the fun.

- Can't speak re: Akershus
- I don't think skipping DHS is crazy given your kids' ages. If you had park hopper passes I might encourage you to swing by for a couple hours but I think you're fine skipping it either way.
- I think 3 days is good considering your kids' ages. You probably won't be able to move very quickly through any park so it'll be nice to have the time to see and do what you want to.
- what you have picked are several classic dining choices. Whether or not you'd want to branch out probably depends on your kids' eating habits (for example, my older son who is almost 5 loves hibachi restaurants like the one in Epcot because he likes the table show/food prep, but not every young kid is into that.)

 

[Go.Nijntje]

Do your children always wake up super early? Just wondering because on your no parks day you have a very early reservation for Ohana. You could have a relaxing start to your day and have a later breakfast.
Also Flame Tree Bbq is my favourite QS, portions are big so easy to share and much cheaper than Rainforest Cafe.
I have never been to Akerhus but that might be something you can do next trip.
Just my 2 cents on your dining plans.
As for doing 3 days at MK and not going to HS, I think with your kids ages you are doing the right thing. Nothing ruins a holiday to WDW more than trying to do and see it all. Your family will have a great time together just being at such a wonderful place. And if riding Dumbo 10 times makes the kids happy than ride Dumbo 10 times and leave some of the other rides for the next trip.

 

[Po'Rich]

What gender are your kids? It makes a bit of a difference. Personally, I did not enjoy Akershus. I had dinner there and found it overpriced for what I got. However, it is a princess meal and if you have girls, then it is worth going (especially since you are not going to Cinderella's castle).

You're probably okay skipping DHS. However, if you have boys, it is the place for Star Wars; Toy Story; Indiana Jones; and Lights, Motors, Action! There's also Muppet Vision and Fantasmic!. The question here is whether or not you want to up for an extra ticket and spend half a day on Wednesday there. Another option might be to do DHS in place of Epcot. Considering the age of your kids, you might also want to decide whether they would enjoy DHS or Epcot more.

Last, I don't think that three days at MK is too many. I think you'll find that there's plenty to do there. You may want to look to add dining on Monday as well. If so, I recommend Crystal Palace since I've heard the food is good and it will add another character dining to your plans (which the kids will love).

 

[Go.Nijntje]

What gender are your kids? It makes a bit of a difference. Personally, I did not enjoy Akershus. I had dinner there and found it overpriced for what I got. However, it is a princess meal and if you have girls, then it is worth going (especially since you are not going to Cinderella's castle).

You're probably okay skipping DHS. However, if you have boys, it is the place for Star Wars; Toy Story; Indiana Jones; and Lights, Motors, Action! There's also Muppet Vision and Fantasmic!. The question here is whether or not you want to up for an extra ticket and spend half a day on Wednesday there. Another option might be to do DHS in place of Epcot. Considering the age of your kids, you might also want to decide whether they would enjoy DHS or Epcot more.

Last, I don't think that three days at MK is too many. I think you'll find that there's plenty to do there. You may want to look to add dining on Monday as well. If so, I recommend Crystal Palace since I've heard the food is good and it will add another character dining to your plans (which the kids will love).

Not to start something but plenty of boys like princesses and plenty of girls like Star Wars or Toy Story. If you are really lucky your kid will like both. I do!

 

[Po'Rich]

Not to start something but plenty of boys like princesses and plenty of girls like Star Wars or Toy Story. If you are really lucky your kid will like both. I do!

This is true. I admit that I was being stereotypical when I replied.

 

[Curiosity]

I have nephews and a niece whose current ages are 8, 5, and 3 and two of them visited Disney before they were 12 months so I have a good amount of experience with little kids and Disney world (we go as a family every 2 years). Epcot is my favorite park, but you should consider Hollywood Studios over Epcot for those ages. Hollywood studios has the Playhouse Disney show which the 3 year old loved this past summer. Toy Story is a really cute ride (get fast passes). My oldest nephew loves the Star Wars ride and usually there is about a 5-10 minute wait. We went on together 4 times in a row while the rest of the group went shopping and took pictures with Chewbacca. If anyone in your group is a fan of Frozen, the Frozen parade is at Hollywood Studios. Also, while Epcot has the better fireworks show (IMO), Fantasmic is still good and has stadium seating, where at Epcot you have to find a seat on the sidewalk or stand. At the end of the night, that seating is really nice.

Epcot is now a must do for us because the oldest kid loves Test Track, Soarin, and Mission Space, but at least 2 of your kids probably won't be able to ride those rides. I love walking through the countries, but all the kids get bored quick.

Also, on another note, I think the Lion King show in Animal Kingdom is the best show in Disney. You should go, I've never had a kid be bored and antsy at that show. Oh, and I'll second going to Flame Tree BBQ. Good food.

And finally, I suggest going back to the hotel midday and hanging at the pool, if you weren't already planning that. It gets you out of the hottest part of the day and gives the kids a little down time for relaxing and naps (if you can get anyone to nap :/ Always a challenge. )

 

[wdwfan4ver]

If anyone in your group is a fan of Frozen, the Frozen parade is at Hollywood Studios.

The op can't do the Frozen Parade. The Frozen Parade is supposed end after September 7th and the op is going in mid September.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

- Are we crazy to skip Hollywood Studios? We just thought it didn't have enough for my kids ages. It seems like just shows, which I'm sure they would enjoy, but we were concerned about how much my son would sit through since he's a wild toddler
- Is three days in MK overkill?

You are not crazy to skip Studios. You are correct based on the concern based what described about your son. Doing Fantasmic is concern because of the show would be over 20 minutes and you have to sit ahead of time for Fantasmic also. LIghts, Motor, Action! takes 35 minutes for the show itself plus you have to get there ahead of time.

From a ride standpoint, you have Toy Story Midway Mania and Star Tours. I don't if your little kids could the alien scene for the Great Movie ride. The times for Fastpass Plus for Toy Story Midway might be iffy for start to book them now if you are staying a Disney Hotel. It is due to how popular Toy Story Midway Mania is even during a slow time.

3 days isn't overkill for MK.

 

[popcenturylover]

We Love Akershus! My DD6 was bummed that we didn't eat breakfast there on our last trip this past May. We wanted to try new things! Be Our Guest breakfast was good but, a bit pricey compared to other meals. Chef Mickey is a great place for kids & to see the Fab 5!

 

[MightyMouse]

Perhaps someone with more experience can help chime on on this, but Rainforest is outside of the park so if yoi plan on touring around the park some more you might have a bit of backtracking. A restaurant more inside the park might be a better option imo. Tuskers is a nice character lunch for example.
I second the LionKing show. Fabulous show.

Askershus (sp) was a pleasant dining experience. We went for breakfast and my daughter (4 1/2) really enjoyed meeting the princesses and parading around with them. The food was enjoyable however as with most reviews I find its all based on personal taste and experience.

Have a great trip.

 

[NCRedskins]

Wow, lots of information here. My daughters are the 5 year old and 3 year old and my son is 1. They love Princess stuff naturally - hence the idea for Akershus. I know it's an experience but it seems like maybe you can meet the princesses elsewhere anyway and eat cheaper?

My wife and I agreed that each family member should have one thing on a list that we will definitely do, and everything after that is gravy. Hers is Soarin' so Epcot is a must. Plus, my kids are really interested and curious about other countries, as my wife and I have siblings living abroad, so we thought Epcot would be solid.

The debate is really between HS and MK (Day 2 on my schedule) since we wanted to bookend the vacation with Magic Kingdom. It sounds like there is some big stuff we might miss at HS (Toy Story ride, Frozen sing-a-long, Disney Jr) but my concern is getting through MK in two days without feeling like we barely saw everything. My kids do not move fast. Thought about the park hopper but is it worth another $260 just to do those few HS things? I was thinking of saving it for when we go back in 3 years and all three kids are 40" or taller

Great tips so far on the monorail tour, Rainforest Cafe backtracking issue, Lion King, etc. I am taking notes big time.

 

[MightyMouse]

Epcot - Some of the countries (or maybe it's all of them???) have stations set up for the kids to take a break and colour or do arts & crafts or whatever, so taking advantage of that can help out if required. Ask for a free "passport" at the entrance and kids can go to cast members at each country and have the passport stamped. Little things like this keep kids entertained.

I will tell you of my personal experience and you can see if it can relate. We too had to chose whether to hit up every park or opt out of one park. I am a huge Star Wars geek, along with a long time Jim Henson fan. Along with that I'm a huge Marvel and Harry Potter geek. Hmmm???... Ok, I'm just an overall geek. ... In the end we chose to go to Universal and missed out on Star Wars and the Muppets. We thought at first of only doing one day at MK and/or getting the park hopper and cramming everything in, but I'm so glad we didn't. Trust your instincts and skip out on HS if it comes down to either missing it or trying to squeeze everything in. If you are not making dining reservations then I would suggest to play it by ear, and come Friday morning you will know if you'd like to hit HS or spend another day back at MK.

You will find a lot of ppl on these boards claim HS and AK are half day parks. Keep in mind every family is different, so really you will need to weigh your own family and how/what you like to do. A lot of people are thrill seekers only and skip out on M&G's, maybe only grab a quick lunch on the run as opposed to sitting down for an hour character dinner, maybe some do not care for shows or parades, etc. You have three children in tow so your pace will be different than that of a family with teenagers.

My personal experience along with many others I've heard with children of this age group is they managed to do only half the park at each park. Take that into account that you are not going to be able to do EVERYTHING. It's impossible if you think to hit rope drop, have a character breakfast, watch every show/parade/fireworks, visit every single characters M&G, complete every ride and attraction, do all the little side activities that pop up (such as stopping to do some arts & crafts, playing in the bone yard/sand pit, having a makeover at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, etc), shopping, dining, snacking, washroom breaks, on and on and on........... So with that in mind you are in the perfect mind set to hit all your "must do" activities, and all the other places and things will be things to look forward to for next time.

MK is a minimum 2 day park for sure, and like I said above even 2 days will not be enough. Also as a personal experience, we stayed at Art Of Animation and my daughter loved it there so much she asked if we could do a future trip of just staying at the resort alone for a few days. These Disney people go out of there way to make sure your day will be filled with activities no matter where you are, not just at the parks. So I wouldn't take too much stock out of having to skip out on one park. You will have an awesome memorable trip no matter what.

 

[Po'Rich]

you can meet the princesses elsewhere

Yes and no. There are other places to meet princesses, but you'll end up waiting in long lines to do so. I have found that princess dining is the most convenient way to see lots of princesses without spending hours just waiting.

The debate is really between HS and MK

If the this is the choice, then I would spend the extra day at MK. I think you'll find that there is more than enough to keep your family occupied for two and a half days. Besides, it sounds like you plan to return in three years, and in three years HS might have opened up some new spaces...Oh who am I kidding? In three years HS will be a construction mess...but in six years...maybe.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

The debate is really between HS and MK (Day 2 on my schedule) since we wanted to bookend the vacation with Magic Kingdom. It sounds like there is some big stuff we might miss at HS (Toy Story ride, Frozen sing-a-long, Disney Jr) but my concern is getting through MK in two days without feeling like we barely saw everything. My kids do not move fast. Thought about the park hopper but is it worth another $260 just to do those few HS things? I was thinking of saving it for when we go back in 3 years and all three kids are 40" or taller

I am not going tell you what you do between HS and MK, but I'll give some information on DHS. If you want to do One Man's dream and Voyage of the Little Mermaid, do now because those 2 attraction are going to close at the end of September. I did a PM a couple days and it was confirmed.

Those attractions are closing due to Disney wanted the 6 year HS redo start with Animation Courtyard and the Backlot Tour. The redo includes a change of infrastructure and new areas replacing old attractions/old areas inside the park.

I don't know for sure what the attractions are for the two areas I mentioned. The redo has areas changed into Pixar, and Star Wars for sure. Not all of that will be completed in 2018 though.

The catch is Disney also has plans for Streets of America and Echo Lake. Those areas could under construction in 3 years times although it is possible that Streets of America could start construction before 2018.

 

[jackson2005]

With those ages, I would skip rainforest and do chef mickeys or crystal palace.
I agree on flame tree, we do it everytime. In MK. Cosmic rays is also good, buy 2 adult meals and you can probably feed all of you!

 

[Tinkfriend37]

I am traveling for the second time to Disney World. But it is my first time going with my 5 year old niece and 2 1/2 year old nehphew. Does anyone have any friendly helpful ideas for what they might like? My niece is a princess fan so we booked at both CRT and Akershus. For my nephew we are going to Crystal Palace and if we can get in Chef Mickeys.

 

[graphite1326]

I've just about finished planning the major details of our mid-Sept trip. We have three kids (5, 3, 15 months) and this is what we have going so far:

Sat: Arrive via plane, check in to Hotel, eat dinner, hang
Sun: 8:00am Breakfast at Be Our Guest, Magic Kingdom Day
Mon: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tues: Epcot. Akershus Breakfast at 8:15
Weds: Breakfast at Ohana at 8:15. No parks. Pool at hotel? Downtown Disney?
Thurs: Animal Kingdom. Lunch at Rainforest Cafe
Fri: Magic Kingdom (to cover anything we missed, let the kids do favorites
Sat: Fly home

A couple questions
- Is Akershus worth it? Seems pricy to me for what you get at breakfast. I may drop this
- Are we crazy to skip Hollywood Studios? We just thought it didn't have enough for my kids ages. It seems like just shows, which I'm sure they would enjoy, but we were concerned about how much my son would sit through since he's a wild toddler
- Is three days in MK overkill?
- Any really good dining experiences for the little ones we are missing out on?

Please save the "your kids are too young" comments - we are definitely going, it's all booked, so please stay constructive in terms of maximizing the fun.

Looks good to me. I have one suggestion though. I wouldn't do Rain Forest Cafe. It's actually at the entrance of the park and out of the way. You will be doing a lot of walking and with children this young it may be a bit much for them. AK always seems hot and humid to me so by the end of a day we are whipped.

 

[graphite1326]

Wow, lots of information here. My daughters are the 5 year old and 3 year old and my son is 1. They love Princess stuff naturally - hence the idea for Akershus. I know it's an experience but it seems like maybe you can meet the princesses elsewhere anyway and eat cheaper?

My wife and I agreed that each family member should have one thing on a list that we will definitely do, and everything after that is gravy. Hers is Soarin' so Epcot is a must. Plus, my kids are really interested and curious about other countries, as my wife and I have siblings living abroad, so we thought Epcot would be solid.

The debate is really between HS and MK (Day 2 on my schedule) since we wanted to bookend the vacation with Magic Kingdom. It sounds like there is some big stuff we might miss at HS (Toy Story ride, Frozen sing-a-long, Disney Jr) but my concern is getting through MK in two days without feeling like we barely saw everything. My kids do not move fast. Thought about the park hopper but is it worth another $260 just to do those few HS things? I was thinking of saving it for when we go back in 3 years and all three kids are 40" or taller

Great tips so far on the monorail tour, Rainforest Cafe backtracking issue, Lion King, etc. I am taking notes big time.

If you are doing Soarin with an 8:30 breakfast you better have a fastpass. The line gets long real quick.

I gave my niece some advise for her young children and it worked well. She was worried about them at EPCOT that they would get bored. She bought them a "passport" that they can have stamped at each of the countries. I am not sure if it is still offered though. Anyone know?