Four days in March

[Alan Field]

Hi Everyone,

I'm taking my 10 year old son to Disney World for the first time (I've been five times but haven't been in a decade).

We're staying three nights at Pop Century, which means we'll have a two daym pass, plus two three quarter days on days 1 and 4 to see stuff. What parks would be good to visit on day passes on teh first and fourth days? Should be visit one park more than once?

 

[goofyyukyuk]

Either go to AK and HS on your short days and don't go to any parks twice, or skip HS and go to MK twice since your son is still young enough to be completely in love with the magic (not like older people like me don't still love it

 

[kelliechris]

I'd do MK 2 days, and either Epcot or AK the other.... unless he's super into Star Wars there's not much going on at HS right now.

 

[Alan Field]

Thanks! My son happens to love Star Wars right now.

 

[goofyyukyuk]

Then do all four parks

 

[carriebeth]

I would not skip Hollywood and especially so if your son likes Star Wars. My children LOVE Hollywood and we always spend at least 2 whole days there because we do find that much to do! I guess if you or your son didn't like bigger thrill rides it would eliminate a lot of Hollywood but I think you could still fill a day easily. Since he likes Star Wars I would say to make sure you go on a day when you can stay late and watch the Star Wars Fireworks. He will love them. He is still young enough to do the Jedi Training as well so get there at rope drop and sign him up for that first thing. He will get to participate in the show and fight either Darth Vader or Seventh Sister.

Definitely a full day at Magic Kingdom. And you won't be able to do nearly all that is there but you can pick and choose the best for you two.

The shorter days I would do at Animal Kingdom, only because you have to pick somewhere to do a shorter day at. Epcot would be your other short day. Although Epcot is a lot of adults favorite park, personally I think its the least attractive overall to children. We always spend the least amount of time overall at this park. While adults really enjoy spending a lot of time in each of the countries wandering through shops and taking in architecture etc, I find the world showcase doesn't have a whole lot children really really love. Especially a boy as girls would enjoy meeting all the princesses and other such characters around there, but there are not many characters a boy would probably really really want to meet. I would do the day you leave at Epcot and the day you arrive at Animal Kingdom if the amount of time each of those day are pretty much equal. The reason is Animal Kingdom at night is a newer experience with some new offerings and I think your son would enjoy the RIvers of Light better than Illuminations as a night show. Although I have not been watching ride wait times at Animal Kingdom lately since they opened Rivers of Light, so this may have changed now, but we always found after about 3:00 wait times really really dropped at that park and you could get on things very easily. Again, that may have changed as people hang around to wait for RIvers of LIght.

 

[Alan Field]

Thanks so much! This is great.

 

[Alan Field]

Because the Rivers of Light won't happen on the first day we are there, I think we'll visit AK on the day it is scheduled.

He also loves dinosaurs. Doesn't EPCOT have the Ellen ride for that and other things as well? I saw that dinosaur ride at AK has a long wait time.

 

[jlsHouston]

I am going to be contrarian and tell you to do EPCOT first day. Do spaceship and Mission Space and TT as your first fastpasses and then try and pick up SOARIN when the 3rd runs out and do living with the land while you are in that area and run over and do Nemo afters then as you walk towards the Showcase you can do the butterfly exhibit, watch whatever movie there is and eat around the showcase at the kiosks and enjoy the topiaries and at Mexico do the boat ride. If you can last til 9 you can catch the firework show Illuminations. If you can't last go back to resort, take a dip in pool and get to bed by 9-10 so you are up early next day for MK. I think all the Horizon stuff is still closed as is Ellen's.
Day 2 will of course be MK. I would be there at rope drop. Several different ways to enter MK but we generally go straight to Frontierland/Adventure land and start with Big Thunder and Splash walking on, back track to Pirates and the Alladin ride walking on. You can try and do Jungle Cruise at that time but the stand by may be too long. At that point stop for a little bit and do the frontier land area and Pirate League (cheap face paint that kids love) and climb tree house. You can raft to Tom Sawyer Island too. That would be my 0830-1 day. At 1 I would be at Haunted Mansion using first FP. at 2 I would be either at PP or 7DMT and those would be my FP's too. THen I'd start grabbing my 4th FP in the Fantasy land area alternating between grabbing a FP if wait time past 20 minutes and doing stand-by. Somewhere in there I would have a lunch reservation for BOG but your boy may not appreciate their lunch menu. If that is the case then eat before you exit Frontierland/Liberty Square. The last thing I would do before 4 pm is grab a FP for Space Mountain and at some point I would make my way to Tomorrow land and then start on those rides into the evening. I'd eat in Tomorrow land for dinner. I would also be around for parades and then the wishes fireworks show at night too. If your kid hates roller coasters skip Space.
Say 3 I would do HS and Day 4 AK. Or you can reverse but I love HS and can mess around forever there so day 3 would be HS for us
Have fun

 

[Alan Field]

That's alot of info. Not sure how the First Passes work. How much extra are they? Could you tell me what the following acronyns are?

TT
PP
7DMT

 

[jlsHouston]

That's alot of info. Not sure how the First Passes work. How much extra are they? Could you tell me what the following acronyns are?

TT
PP
7DMT

Test Track
Peter Pan
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Did you book the hotel and buy the tickets yet? Disney should have sent you instructions. When do you leave? And LOL you need a lot of instructions to do Disney in 4 days if it's been a while since you visited WDW. My first visit we stayed at POP and all we did was non-stop MK and Character Dining. Didn't even let kids jump in pool and we went over 4th of July when it was HOT. We had a blast.

 

[Alan Field]

Yeah, I'm hitting the books. We're arriving on March 20th and leaving on the 23rd. We already purchased two day passes with a meal plan, and I received our baggage tags and wrist bands. The Disney Experience app is already loaded on my iphone. We just need to decide FP reservations and where to go on days 1 and 4 which won't be full days. I know MK is a must, but my son also likes animals, dinosaurs, dragons and star wars. I think we may blow off EPCOT because the dinosaur attractions are closed

One reply mentioned I should sign him up for the jedi training at HS. Can that only be done at rope drop or can I do that online beforehand? I couldn't tell if that is a fastpass attraction.

As for the meal plan, I know it only covers two meals and it does not include the sit down restaurants. Is there any helpful information about that I should know?

 

[Owl X]

Day 1: Epcot
Day 2: Magic Kingdom
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Day 4: Animal Kingdom

I recommend arriving at MK at rope drop, take a break in the afternoon back at your hotel and then return to the park after you are rested.
Hollywood Studio has multiple shows where you can rest. You will need to check the daily schedule to plan your day to incorporate the shows.

 

[jlsHouston]

Put the Disney App on your phone. Enter your ticket#. Then pick your FP's.

Yeah, I'm hitting the books. We're arriving on March 20th and leaving on the 23rd. We already purchased two day passes with a meal plan, and I received our baggage tags and wrist bands. The Disney Experience app is already loaded on my iphone. We just need to decide FP reservations and where to go on days 1 and 4 which won't be full days. I know MK is a must, but my son also likes animals, dinosaurs, dragons and star wars. I think we may blow off EPCOT because the dinosaur attractions are closed

One reply mentioned I should sign him up for the jedi training at HS. Can that only be done at rope drop or can I do that online beforehand? I couldn't tell if that is a fastpass attraction.

As for the meal plan, I know it only covers two meals and it does not include the sit down restaurants. Is there any helpful information about that I should know?

I didn't know their was a dinosaur attraction at EPCOT. If you blow off EPCOT you will miss the Flower and Garden stuff which yah is more adult oriented but my grandson who is now 10 went with me a couple of years back on spring break and he loved the butterfly exhibit and the play area. And of course TT is a blast. Anyways with only 2 full days and 2 half days due to travel I would probably blow off EPCOT too if the trip was more for the kid rather than me.
I haven't done the JEDI training thing since 2013. But back then you had to get into the park early and run straight to the sign up place. I think I was at the sign up place at 9:25 am and I got a 1pm slot for 3 kids. You only have 1 kid so you may be able to get an earlier slot or be given more options. I don't know whether they have it as a FP option as of last November they did not.
Maybe you should just do MK first day and either 2nd or 3rd day and make AK a full day. You can do AK all day especially now that they have ROL show.
There are lots of good places to eat QS meals in the parks and at Disney Springs too. With only 4 days eating at Disney Springs going to be rough. At MK we like Caseys because we love hot dogs and we like Tortuga Tavern because we love the smoked Turkey legs and we like Cosmic Rays over in Tomorrowland, and I love Be Our Guest lunch my grandson does too but my granddaughter who is older not so much. You need a reservation if you are going to try to do the qs lunch at BOG.
HS is not my favorite park for dining....On hot days I end up at ABC studios and I hate their food. The decent qs venues all the dining is outside...
AK has great food. I LOVE Flame Tree BBQ.
Your dates are right before mine. We are going 25-1st.

 

[Alan Field]

Actually, when I reviewed our plane tickets, only the first day would actually be a half day. On the fourth day, our plane doesn't leave until 10pm. Any recommendations for splitting days at any of the parks. It seems like a lot of wasted travel time to leave MK mid way through and come back the same day?

 

[jlsHouston]

Actually, when I reviewed our plane tickets, only the first day would actually be a half day. On the fourth day, our plane doesn't leave until 10pm. Any recommendations for splitting days at any of the parks. It seems like a lot of wasted travel time to leave MK mid way through and come back the same day?

I dunno about wasted travel time. Yah you probably lose about an hour to 90 minutes going back and forth. And granted POP doesn't have the coolest pools of the resorts but still a pool and most kids like pool time. Most kids need a break from the crowds and lines and sensory overload that you get at the parks. If we start in the morning we usually leave between noon and 2. Sometimes we leave and go eat and then hit our pool. Sometimes we leave after we have eaten and hit our pool. If it is a rainy or chilly day we leave and go resort hop like do the monorail loop or ride bus to Animal Kingdom lodge and look out their windows at the animals of go over to the Kidani part of that resort and look at the animals out back. But these are things we do when not at park and honestly when I take kids to WDW we are usually there 7 days or more so being park ninjas not my main priority. WDW is a fantastic vacation experience. You can literally go stay at a resort never hit the parks and have a great time. But of course the main thing is the parks and the park tickets are expensive.
However I would recommend if your kid likes swimming you do a afternoon at your pool with him.
If you have a hopper you can start at one park and then go to another park later in the day or evening. Did you buy the park hopper ticket? The first few years we did WDW I only bought the one park per day ticket. It took several visits until I started feeling limited by only going to one park per day. Park hopping means you can be a little more flexible in your planning in terms of rides and eating and shows but you do "waste" time getting to and from. Even if you are driving and not using Disney Transportation there is the time to park and walk into the parks and now there is security all over the so entering the park takes 15 minutes in itself.
If your last day you don't fly until 10 pm you can pack the night before , store your bags in the morning and hang at park all day. So like you said it is pretty much a full park day.
I would decide on what park each day. Get some FP's scheduled, have an idea where we you are going to eat and then you can adjust your schedule once you get to WDW. If you didn't purchase the hopper option to the ticket you can always go to the ticket line or concierge at the resort and pay to add it. Hopper is every day, you don't get to add what day you are going to enter more than 1 park you buy it for as many as days your ticket is good for

 

[Alan Field]

Is it wise to bring along a backpack along during the park day? Do they make you store it somewhere?

 

[kelliechris]

Since you won't have a stroller, a backpack is a good idea if you plan on staying at the parks for most of the day. I would recommend some snacks to take as well. I have found taking a small squeeze bottle of Mio or Crystal Lite flavoring and 1 bottle of water is a great way to stay hydrated, since the water in the parks tastes pretty yucky, to me at least. You do not need to store it anywhere. I don't recall if there were any rides you can't take it on, but I don't think so.

 

[jlsHouston]

Is it wise to bring along a backpack along during the park day? Do they make you store it somewhere?

Everybody without a stroller pretty much has a backpack or a crossbody bag...some people do packs but I just cannot do the pack thing. I use to travel light through the parks until my daughter decided to have 2 more babies so since 2015 I've had a stroller which really sucks. I hate pushing a stroller.

 

[GigglesMcSnort]

Because the Rivers of Light won't happen on the first day we are there, I think we'll visit AK on the day it is scheduled.

He also loves dinosaurs. Doesn't EPCOT have the Ellen ride for that and other things as well? I saw that dinosaur ride at AK has a long wait time.

I wouldn't go on that Elen ride if you paid me, unless I was tired and wanted to have a nap. Yes it does have dinosaurs, for about 5 minutes, and then you get to sit still and watch an old 30 minute video on renewable energy sources (just what everybody wants to do at a theme park!). With such a limited amount of time, you'll want to avoid that time-sink at all costs!

The Dinosaur ride at AK is rather awesome though.