In early 2015, the Michael W Travels family visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
During our day there, we spent most of the time at Magic Kingdom while also making a stop at Epcot .
Lucas was just a little over 3 years-old at the time and didn’t love Disney World. Kim and I are also not big fans of theme parks (I don’t love rides) so we’re looking for some advice.
Thanks to a Hilton Grand Vacations offer we couldn’t refuse, we’ll soon be heading back to Orlando.
We figured that Lucas would be much more interested in a couple of days at Disney World than during our first visit. Hopefully, two- year old Theo will also enjoy the visit. (We think he will.)
For our upcoming visit, Kim and I figured the best option was to buy a 2-Day Ticket with Admission to 1 Park Per Day. (We don’t want to purchase Park Hopper ticketsĀ since they’d cost $195 more than the option we plan to choose.)
Kim and I decided that we’ll definitely be spending one of the days at Magic Kingdom.
This leaves us with a big decision to make- where do we spend our other day?
We’re leaning towards visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios due to the addition of the new Toy Story Land as well as a variety of Star Wars themed attractions. The other option is to return to Epcot for a full day visit. The most appealing part of Epcot to us are the Nemo attractions.
The cons for each park are:
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios doesn’t seem to have a ton of attractions with just 13. (However, the entertainment offerings should more than make up for that.)
- Epcot has 35 attractions but most of them don’t sound overly exciting. (The character meet & greets in different countries do sound fun though.)
Help Us Out:
I wouldn’t consider myself in any way or fashion to be a Disney World expert so we could use your help.
What do you feel is the best option for us for the second day of our visit to Disney World? (Take into account that we’re visiting with a 6.5 year old and 2 year old.)
Thanks in advance for all suggestions!
Mike Stuben- Thanks! Not a bad idea.
Allen- We didn’t realize that it was under construction. Thanks for the heads up!
Shaun- Great ideas but we’d rather not split up during our visit.
Shannon- Thanks for those suggestions!
Matt- Animal Kingdom is sounding better after each comment!
Bern- We’d love to do Universal but I think at their ages, Disney is a better option.
Benji- Awesome!
David- Thanks! Another vote for AK. I def didn’t expect this.
Zorg- Interesting idea but I’m not sure a water park is the right move for them at the moment.
You might consider another option.
Get a 1 day park hopper with the water parks and more option. They run about $200 per person. You could do one morning/afternoon in the Magic Kingdom, go back to your hotel and rest, and hit another park at night. (or vice versa)
The water parks are awesome (if you are into that sort of thing) and the pass gives you two days access. Sometimes only one of the two parks is open during colder months, but both are worth visiting.
That would allow you to visit more than one park, and get 3 days of entertainment for about the same price. (your 2 year old would be free)
Animal Kingdom. Epcot may be too boring for them and DHS even with Toy Story doesn’t have enough if you’re not also doing things like the roller coaster or tower of terror. Animal Kingdom (especially if he’s talk enough for Flight of Passage) has the Pandora rides, the safari, three good shows, and a few more rides and beautiful scenery. And the young child can at least watch all the shows at AK and see the animals. He’d be waiting around for others a lot at DHS and totally bored at Epcot.
We took our two year old to animal kingdom and it was even more enjoyable than the magic kingdom. Lots of shade and plenty of animals to see. Plus the Everest ride is awesome for older ones…
Spending a full day in Magic Kingdom is the right choice, it’s the biggest park with the most to do. Incidentally our best tip is to stay in property resorts, take advantage of their free public transportation and extra magic hours. Our game plan has always been arriving an hour early to enter the parks before the crowd, you won’t imagine how much can be accomplished when the park has NO LINES. And when it’s mid-day around 11am-2pm, it becomes the hottest time of the day, and also the most crowded. Food is ridiculously expensive, that’s when we EXIT the parks, take the shuttle to Disney Springs have a nice lunch, and nap. We return to the parks 2-3 hours before closing, and having traveled to both Disney World and Universal. These opening and closing hours does massive wonders compared to spending hours of your days in the line with other screaming babies in the park.
Our 2nd favorite park in Disney World has to be Animal Kingdom. There are more lushness for shade and varieties of attractions to experience. Don’t be deceived that the park only has animals in a safari.
I just saw you’ll be staying at the time share.. I guess my best advice is go early to avoid crowds, sometimes leaving the park mid-day and exploring disney springs is the best use of your time, as you’ll probably be stuck in the sea of crowds anyway. Then return when closing.
For some reason, we weren’t fans of Epcot, because the food are mostly expensive and not really authentically representing the other countries well enough..
Maybe you can also explore Universal, since your children are not fans or Disney. The Potter universe is also very intriguing to experience.
Epcot definitely has more adult things to do, so not sure it’s best with your kids. Animal Kingdom might be a good option with the little ones. Hollywood Studios is a big construction mess, and although Toy Story Land might be a good distraction for a while, there’s not a whole lot more to do there that your kids can probably do. I’d do Animal Kingdom. Maybe take a mid-day break and check out Animal Kingdom Lodge nearby for a drink and snack. It’s a beautiful resort.
Two days isn’t enough time. Here are my thoughts after going multiple times a year with my family. I love Epcot, but your kids would probably like HS or AK better this trip. AK has the animals, character meet and greets. They could do the Safari Ride, take the train over to see the baby animals, the Lion King Show, Nemo Show (both great!), and what they would probably like the best is “The Boneyard”. It’s a netted play area where they can climb and dig for bones. At HS, Toy Story Land would be fun, there’s the Beauty and the Beast show, meet and greets, Star Wars march, and the Disney Junior show. I really think if you just had two days, I’d do MK and AK. All the parks have fun things, but at your kid’s ages, I’d skip Epcot.
HS and EPCOT are tough for 2yr olds. There just isn’t as much to do as Magic Kingdom. If you ever plan to come back when the kids are older, you might just want to do 2 days at Magic Kingdom. There;s so much to do there that 2 days will allow you to take your time and go at the kid’s pace. But if you are set on a 2nd park, I’d lean towards HS…just for Toy Story Land. But be aware it has the least amount of kids rides.
Also, you don’t say when you are going, but if your dates are anytime between now and mid-December be aware of the nights they have the Halloween or Xmas party at Magic Kingdom. This is a separate paid event and the park closes to regular guests at 6pm. Don’t plan your Magic Kingdom day for a day a party is going on.
If I was in your shoes, I would get 2-day hoppers for 1 parent & 6.5 yr old. I’d then get 2 day non-hoppers for the other parent and 2yr old. DAY 1 everyone is together doing Magic Kingdom. Then on DAY 2 one parent and 6.5 yr old would go to HS and do Toy Story stuff and a few other things that he can ride while parent #2 and 2yr old do Magic Kingdom again. Then once the two doing HS are done, you meet up at Magic Kingdom for lunch and everyone spends the rest of the day there. Not sure if you would be cool with splitting up for a few hours…but I would consider it.
Also, check out Undercovertourist.com for tickets. They are an official re-seller and I’ve used them many times to save a few bucks on tix.
Go to Animal Kingdom and experience Avatar World, ride Flights of Passage and enjoy looking at the animals….Toy Story land is nice but not worth it if you only have 1 day to spend in a park, I wont waste my time and money in a park that is heavily under construction
You should keep open a third option.
While your kids will love any Disney park, the Magic Kingdom is best geared for them. If after day 1, you have seen less than half of what you want to see, you may just want to go back to the Magic Kingdom and save the other parks for when they are a little older.