2 days in Disney WWYD?

[donthasslethehoff]

Flame if you must, but Disney is my own version of hell, but I feel like every kid should experience it. For reference, my kid is 3. I realize she probably won't remember it when she's older, but I know she'll have an amazing time while we're there and that's what I am more concerned with.

We have friends that live in Fort Lauderdale, so my plan is to fly from Boston to Orlando on a Wednesday (in January) and spend Thursday and Friday at one or 2 of the parks. Friday night or Saturday morning we'd rent a car, drive to Fort Lauderdale and spend a few days there and fly home from there on Monday.

Given the above, what park(s) should we go to? I've been to Disney twice. Once when I was 10 and then again last year to do an international pub crawl around the countries at Epcot.

Also - if you have any recommendations on where to stay I'd take those too.Thanks!

[countthestars]

Definitely magic kingdom. Maybe even both days since she is 3 and that is the most child centric, though we can give you good kid suggestions if you want to do other parks.

What does she like? princesses? Classic Disney characters? Disney junior?

[donthasslethehoff]

countthestars Thanks!

She likes princesses and Frozen (though we haven't actually watched the movie in our house). She likes Disney junior.

She loves Monsters Inc. (which she hilariously refers to as "ink monsters."

[jeaniebueller]

I would do MK and Animal Kingdom or epcot. To me, MK is very overwhelming and I can't imagine going two days in a row.

[panicked]

Magic kingdom for sure. Honestly, you could do both days there. Stay away from Epcot. HS is okay, but the summer frozen fever stuff is done now, and it really wouldn't be worth a full day there at her age. Animal kingdom might be a good choice if you didn't do two MK days.

[krystee]

I think I would do one day at Magic Kingdom and a park hopper the second day for Animal Kingdom and whichever park you'd want to see. I love Epcot so I'd probably drag my kid there for a few hours, but HS may have more stuff she'd like.

[jeaniebueller]

Oct 12, 2015 8:33:08 GMT -5 krystee said:

I think I would do one day at Magic Kingdom and a park hopper the second day for Animal Kingdom and whichever park you'd want to see. I love Epcot so I'd probably drag my kid there for a few hours, but HS may have more stuff she'd like.

I love Epcot too! Its my happy place. Between Nemo, Turtle Talk, the character spot, I think there is plenty to do for a kid there. And I love the food court. Especially if you spent a long day at MK the day before. Epcot is a much slower pace and can be a shorter day.

[Ashley&Scott]

My favorite parks with my 3.5yo were Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom. We also LOVED the character breakfast at Hollywood & Vine with the Doc McStuffins, Sofia, Jake & Handy Manny at Hollywood Studios.

I know you said you only wanted to do 2 days but a 3 day ticket is actually cheaper if it's something you're considering. You could get the 3 day pass, do AK & MK on your two full days. Then on your last day stop for breakfast at H&V before you leave. 

[kittycatlove]

I'd probably stick to Magic Kingdom both days. I don't think either HS or AK have enough for full days with a 3 year old.

[krystee]

How did I forget about Nemo?! Yes, I would definitely do Epcot. Figment is cute too, and there are some fun activities for kids to do in the World Showcase area. You could have a meal with the princesses in Norway.

[countthestars]

I would do a day at Magic Kingdom and probably a day at Hollywood Studios. HS has some fun things she would probably like - Disney Jr. show, frozen sing along, little mermaid show, toy story mania ride, muppets 3d. With only two days I probably wouldn't pay for a park hopper but if you do, you could do 1 MK day and a split day Hollywood and either MK or Anmial Kingdom (would do AK in the morning). Personally I am not a huge AK fan but lots of people like it.

[auntie]

Definitely MK for a three.

AK is great, but if you already have a zoo, maybe skip this one. Most folks say it's a hald day park. I really like DS and they do have a Monsters Ink show. Sometimes the Princesses are easiest to see at Epcot or you could do a character meal with them.

[somersault72]

I'd probably do MK both days unless she's really into animals. Then I might do AK on the second day. There's not too much at HS for kiddos that little (or Epcot either, IMO).

[Ashley&Scott]

Oct 12, 2015 8:36:27 GMT -5 kittycatlove said:

I'd probably stick to Magic Kingdom both days. I don't think either HS or AK have enough for full days with a 3 year old.

I agree HS doesn't have enough for a full day.

We spent about 4 hours at Animal Kingdom & could have spent so much more time there. We left because it was nap time, but we didn't even see 1/2 of the park. We went on the Safari, had a couple of character meet & greets, ate lunch at Tusker House & rode the Kali River Rapids.

[countthestars]

I can't see a day at Epcot with a 3 year old if you only have two days and aren't going for you. Like, I love Epcot so I drag my kid there by if the goal is to do Disney for her, I would skip it.

[donthasslethehoff]

We're not opposed to doing 3 days, but I'd rather keep it to 2. For the people who are saying to do MK both days, is there a 2 day pass type thing we can buy or do we have to buy separate tickets each day?

Sorry - I literally know nothing about Disney and from being on this board, I know you guys have a wealth of knowledge.

For the PP who said don't do AK if we have a zoo - thanks. We do have a nice zoo near us, so we'd probably skip that one.

[donthasslethehoff]

Also - we'd likely be flying in around noonish on Wednesday, so we could possibly do a park in the mid-afternoon until night on Wednesday. I don't know if that's at all worth it. My kid is a night owl, so her being out until 9 isn't weird at all.

[Ashley&Scott]

Oct 12, 2015 8:48:54 GMT -5 donthasslethehoff said:

We're not opposed to doing 3 days, but I'd rather keep it to 2. For the people who are saying to do MK both days, is there a 2 day pass type thing we can buy or do we have to buy separate tickets each day?

Sorry - I literally know nothing about Disney and from being on this board, I know you guys have a wealth of knowledge.

For the PP who said don't do AK if we have a zoo - thanks. We do have a nice zoo near us, so we'd probably skip that one.

Tickets get cheaper as you add days, you can select 1-10 days.

disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/

(And I was wrong, the daily price is cheaper the more days you add. But it would be more expensive for 3 days vs. 2)

[jeaniebueller]

Are you interested in staying on property or off? We stayed at the Orange Lake Resort off property. It was a 10-20 minute drive to the parks, depending on traffic. Grocery store, restaurants, etc., were all within a 2 minute drive. I recommend it.

[eponinepontmercy]

We're going at the end of the month and we have 3 park days. Our plan is to do AK/ HS one day, then EPCOT the next, and the MK the last day. (That's based on the dining reservations we got for Biergarten in EPCOT and Crystal Palace in MK.)

I agree that you could just spend two days in MK if you wanted. At 3, she won't know any better.

[madringal]

I would do a day and a half at MK and half a day at HS (it has all the Disney Jr. stuff and the Toy Story ride there is our favorite! And try to make a reservation at Hollywood and Vine)

I think at 3, AK is no different then your local zoo, but I know some people love it. To me it is a snooze fest!

[countthestars]

For park tickets, you would buy a two day ticket. You don't have to buy a ticket to a specific park.

What type of hotel budget are you thinking?

[donthasslethehoff]

Oct 12, 2015 8:58:59 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Are you interested in staying on property or off? We stayed at the Orange Lake Resort off property. It was a 10-20 minute drive to the parks, depending on traffic. Grocery store, restaurants, etc., were all within a 2 minute drive. I recommend it.

We don't want to have to rent a car so shuttles or whatever the public transportation is down there is what we're planning on doing. There's a slight chance that our friends that live in FLL might come down to meet us, and in that case, we'd have a car.

If there are shuttles from off-property hotels, I would imagine those are cheaper and we'd probably go that route.

[Amy]

Oct 12, 2015 9:01:41 GMT -5 madringal said:

I would do a day and a half at MK and half a day at HS (it has all the Disney Jr. stuff and the Toy Story ride there is our favorite! And try to make a reservation at Hollywood and Vine)

I think at 3, AK is no different then your local zoo, but I know some people love it. To me it is a snooze fest!

I'd do this!