Which parks for little girls?

[Carijo]

We are taking our princess loving daughters, almost 2 and 5, to WDW in two weeks and staying on property. We have 5 days of tickets, no park hopper. We want to do a day at Epcot and Hollywood Studios (mostly for Disney Junior) and 2 at MK. We are debating the last day of the trip- back to MK or Ak? We are going with in laws who are crazy for Everest and the safari but think maybe our girls would have more fun at MK. And yes, we realize FP will be limited if we switch but we just planned this trip a few weeks ago so we never had access to all the choices anyway. Thanks in advance!

 

[Tinkerbell397]

We just returned from Disney with my granddaughter.....20 months during the trip. We spent 1 day in Epcot, 2 in The AK and 3 in The MK. She loved, loved, loved all the characters like Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Chip and Dale and even Rafiki. She was not thrilled with any "human" characters like Alice, Mary Poppins and The Mad Hatter. She approached them with the same healthy apprehension that she approaches any other stranger. But I think she thought that the others were just big stuffed toys and she could not get enough of them Now I must say that this is a child who only knows the Disney characters in books...she has never seen TV or seen a video. Don't underestimate the draw of the AK for children this age. She loved every minute of the park, explored it at her own level so as a result, the adults experienced this park like they had never done before. We stayed off site so once we left the park during the day, we did not return. We were able to go back to the timeshare and relax so she could stay on her regular schedule. It was the most pleasant trip for all of us.
Enjoy the planning......

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

I would say that although MK is probably the best park for youngsters you HAVE to include AK in your plans.
Kids love animals. They'll love the safari and of course The Lion King Show and there's loads of other great things for them to experience and enjoy

 

[matt9112]

if you already have two days for MK it is a no brainer to see AK..

 

[HRHPrincessAriel]

AK. My kiddo loved all the animals and shows.

 

[NormC]

All of them.

 

[Kosmo1986]

Although AK may seem more boy like, with the bugs ride and dino sections, there is something for everyone. There is a petting zoo in Rafiki's planet watch along with characters. The dinosaur area has a great area for kids to play (the bone yard) . The finding Nemo and lion king shows are great for the whole family.
If you are already going to MK for 2 days, it is worth a trip to AK for a day.

 

[rsoxguy]

AK has the Finding Nemo stage show, a Safari, live animals throughout, and a lot of kiddie centric activities and rides in Dinoland. I think that variety would serve well if you are already doing the MK twice in the same trip.

 

[Tinkerbell397]

@Carijo ....if you choose to take your almost 2 year old to any of the stage shows in the AK, try to sit near an exit. There are moments of darkness, loud special effects especially in The Lion King Show which by the way is wonderful. My granddaughter was unable to wait for the beginning of Finding Nemo so we decided not to even attempt The Lion King Show. We chose to go later when she was with her parents and napping. Both shows will however be wonderful for your 5 year old. I also think that A Bugs Life with it's 3 D glasses would be difficult for an almost 2 year old. I have seen so many parents put their toddlers in situations that are not age appropriate and then punish them because they cannot attend.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I think it depends, honestly. My children visited AK for the first time at ages 4 (daughter, also a huge princess fan) and 6 (son). They weren't overly interested in the animals (they do love animals, but we have some very nice zoos at home and they've been multiple times), found the AK exhausting to walk due to its enormous footprint, were a little young/scared for Dinosaur or Everest, and had already met all the characters they wanted to (e.g., Mickey, Donald, princesses) at other parks. That left us with two very good live shows and only 3 or 4 attractions (Triceratop Spin, Kali River Rapids, Kilimanjaro Safari, Bug). With a park-hopper ticket, our half-day visit to AK was a no-brainer, but without one, I don't think it would have been worth a full-day ticket.

That being said, our experience probably has as much to do with the ORDER of the parks as anything else. Unless your daughters are super-excited about animals, AK will likely be the least interesting park for them. If we had started with AK and THEN the kids had seen Epcot, HS and MK (in that order), we'd have been building momentum and excitement for the entire trip, with each park offering more things that interested them than the prior one(s). We started with MK however, and after that, everywhere else was a little bit of a letdown for the kids, in terms of not offering as many attractions for all ages, and not providing similar convenience in terms of park layout.

If you're unsure, perhaps you want to show the girls the Planning DVD portions on each park (or check out on-ride videos online) to get a feel for where you think their interests lie. Plan a park for that last day, but keep it flexible, so that you can take a vote the morning-of and see where the family wants to go...