Disney With Young Kids

A number of years ago we took a Disney Cruise and stopped by the parks for a day. Buying a one day ticket was not cost effective, so we decided to pick up a 10 day, non-expiring tickets and have used them to visit the parks a couple of days at a time for 8 years now. We still have 2 or 3 days left on the tickets, good for another trip in the future...

First, do you have fast passes for these?

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· Meet and Greet Mickey and Minnie on Main Street
· Carousel

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This is AWESOME! My 3yo loved it. He talks and is really good with the kid. He did the Hot Dog dance with my son. I strongly suggest a fast pass here. If not, it could be your longest wait.

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· Carousel

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Good.

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· It’s a Small World Ride

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Good for a rest. Short wait typcally.

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· Peter Pan’s Flight

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Also good for a fast pass. However, they've changed up the line so that it's pretty interactive and entertaining. You are basically walking through Wendy's home in London. Tinkerbell shows up. Again, this is just in the line but the wait can be as long as 90 minutes for a 60 second ride.

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· 11:30 Bibbity Boppity Boutique

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I'm glad I have a son.

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Princess Fairytale Hall- Meet Rapunze

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Really good.

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· 5:35 Cinderella’s Castle Dinner

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You'll like the atmosphere but maybe not the food. It's just okay. I like the breakfast better.

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The Boneyard
Finding Nemo the Musical
Kilimanjaro safari
Festival of the lion king
Discovery tree africa- butterflies

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Nemo and Lion king are pretty good. I'd also suggest going to Raffiki's Planet watch. You ride a train to a separate part of the park. Petting zoo. Animal hospital. It's usually not crowded.

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Enchanted Tales with Belle
12:05 Be our guest restaurant- lunch Reservations
Under the sea journey of the little mermaid
Meet Ariel
Dumbo's ride
Pete's silly circus train ride
Magic carpets of Aladdin

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So you're going to MK twice and trying to pick which rides to ride whether you have a fastpass or not? I think that's going a little far. Unless you have a fast pass, you should be able to just "wing it" elsewhere during this time of year. You'll likely see a lot of Brazilians. But it won't be very crowded. Monday should have more people at MK than Wednesday. So, again, the fast passes will be key.

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The seas with Nemo and friends turtle talk

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This is great. She may get to ask him a question!

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Norway- Frozen

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It'll either be a 2 hour wait or a fast pass, unless you get there right when it opens.

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6:00 Dining at Hollywood and Vine with Minnie and Friends
Book A storybook moment with Minnie
Fantasmic 9-9:30 pm

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So it looks like you're doing a half day at EPCOT and a half day at HS. EPCOT is pretty big and the countries are fun for parents. I wouldn't avoid them.

Also at EPCOT is a meet and greet with Joy and Sadness. They were fantastic characters. Played their parts well. If she likes Inside Out, it's a can't miss.

There's also a Pixar/Disney Shorts "ride" which is where they used to have Honey I Shrunk the Audience. The whole theater seating moves and rumbles along with the shorts. I remember La Luna, For the Birds, and Get a Horse which is a short with Mickey Mouse vs Pete but with a new twist. But I'm not sure if they regularly change up what they show.

There's a boat ride in Mexico that has Donald Duck throughout it. It's an "It's A Small World" type of ride but quieter.

I'd also spend some time in "seas with nemo and friends". You can go into the building by riding the ride first, which she'll like. It's normally a short 10 minute wait. Then you get in the building where there's Turtle Talk as well as a bunch of different aquariums throughout, upstairs and down. She may really like looking at all the fish for a while.

The Land has a boat ride too that takes you through some of greenhouses in the back. Kinda neat.

And, of course, Soarin' is there which is a really great ride. They've recently changed it and it's fun. If it's just you, your wife, and your daughter, you can still ride it with "rider swap". You won't be able to ride it with your wife, but you can ride it while she watches your daughter and then when you get off, you watch the kid while she goes straight to the front of the line.

Is it weird that my boys don't care much about meeting characters? The youngest is still terrified and the older ones would rather ride rides. If they run into one in the park they think it's cool but they don't wanna wait in line to see a costume guy.

Going into our trip over thanksgiving, I was strongly considering skipping Hollywood Studios because it's a bit of a dead park right now. But I'm glad I didn't. Why?

1) Toy Story Mania is still awesome
2) Star Tours is still awesome
3) Indiana Jones show, I mean I know all the lines now, but it's still cool to see
4) The Frozen sing-along is HYSTERICAL. Tons of jokes that only the adults will get.
5) Movie ride has been redone a bit, still very awesome
6) If you are going this month, the holiday show they have at night is absolutely stunning

Having said that, you definetly should do two days in MK. So if going to Hollywood means you can only go to MK for one day, skip Hollywood. But if you can do two days in MK and one in Hollywood, do that.

One day each should be good for AK and Epcot.

Lemme tell you, the shows they got in Hollywood are out of this world. I live in the Orlando area, so I go on a regular basis and they always impressive.

Op, we are talking about Disney here. They do an excellent job of mixing it up for both the adults and kids enjoyment. Plenty for the kids to do at Epcot, and honestly Hollywood studios I probably look forward to most but that's because I've been there the least. They have a ton of very good shows at Hollywood studios, the Frozen show is as said very funny and a great show all around for all ages. Maybe not teenage boys but there's boobs so probably even them. There's easily 8 hours of fun there for everyone and its nice to have 1-2 days of not needing to open and close the park, but you easily can at them all and still have stuff to do.

If you go 4 days I think it would be a mistake personally to not do a day at each park, 5 days I'd say 2 days at MK and 1 at the others. Like you said, the problem with Universal is that 1 day there is $50 more each person than an extra day at Disney.

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seemed like HS was the least attractive for our kids minis Toy Story

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HS is a difficult one for sure. It's close enough (about a mile walk or a 20-30 minute boat ride) from HS to the International gateway at Epcot so if you get done with HS you can head back to the world showcase for things you may missed or some of your favorites (fish & chips..mmmmmm)

I'll have to look at the construction to see what is affected. I thought the Indiana Jones show closed. Did that happen? Is there still a playground where the Honey I Shrunk the Kids area was or is it closed?

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Hollywood Studios just doesn't appeal to me much for kids that age

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kids (2-5 years old

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IDK if its open because its right next to the Star Wars launch bay, but they have the Disney Junior show that my 3 yr old LOVED. Also do the Disney Junior character meet at Hollywood and Vine. They come to your table and you can take pics and they also let the kids sing and dance with them. Those young kids eat that sh*t up.