Which itinerary would you choose? (no Park Hopper)

[Disney Daddy]

For those that may not know:

MK is Magic Kingdom
AK is Animal Kingdom
DHS is Disney's Hollywood Studios
EPT is Epcot

There will be 4 children traveling with us on this trip (ages: 8, 6, 4 and 1). Thanks for all of your input.

-- Disney Daddy

 

[UberPlannerMom]

Have you checked the crowd calendar for the days you will be there? Sometimes that can greatly affect which way to go.

 

[Disney Daddy]

UberPlannerMom,

I looked at the crowd calendar and the crowd levels are roughly the same for either of the itineraries. Which is what is really making the decision even more difficult.

 

[jaklgreen]

We usually avoid the parks that have morning EMH since we do not get up early but we do the evening EMH so that is how I would plan my days. For your family with the little ones, I would save MK for later since that will probably be the kid's favorite and they might get a bit bored with some of the other parks.

 

[m3owbox]

I would also try to look at the crowd calendar.

 

[Disvillain63]

Since you don't have PHs, then it might be best to avoid the EMH morning park as it will be the most crowded later in the day, if you plan to return once you leave.

 

[Britt]

I'd check the crowd calendars on undercovertourist.com for the dates and go from there

 

[stevehousse]

Choice number 2! I like splitting days at MK up instead of doing them in a row! Also, use the crow calendars to judge crowds! There are several sites, which I usually take in all of them and judge from there. Sometimes u will see they can be very different!

 

[UberPlannerMom]

You can tell from my name that I obviously love to plan things out, and yet I still have to say this- since you are going for 8 days I would intentionally not really plan about half of the trip. Obviously make your dining reservations if you plan on sit down meals but I wouldn't set my heart on anything for certain. You are lucky enough to feel like you have a little time so if on day 5 the kids really seem to need to sleep in and swim and have smores with chip and dale, I say go for it. Or maybe you always think of HS as a half day park but get there with 4 kids and discover that they think playhouse Disney live on stage is the best thing ever and Indy's explosions are really funny or whatever, then it's all good- two days there. It's what I call loose planning. I plan and then plan on maybe having to plan again. No matter which way you go I am sure you will have a great time!

 

[R W B]

I personally wouldn't chose any, too much MK but since you will have a lot of kids I would do plan #2.

 

[Dads 2 Boys]

If these are your choices, #3. Always do MK first.....especially with younger kids.

 

[jlsHouston]

Well...I have done EPCOT first, but only when we all arrived together and I took off solo from the BC to get a crepe but traditionally we always start with MK and we like to do it a couple of days in a row to get see it all and try to do all the rides...without getting too exhausted. I picked 3 simply because it has 2 visits to EPCOT. Not sure if your kiddos are going to be too thrilled with 2 visits to EPCOT. Four kids 8 years old down to 1...Probably 1 visit to EPCOT is enough

 

[disneygirl76]

I picked one but I make these decisions on park hours, EMH if you are staying on property, events taking place and the day of the week it is. So its hard to choose. I will say, just start with MK and end MK.