We are visiting Disneyworld for our second time as a family. Our children were pretty young on our last visit and we only went to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom for one day each. We did love them both!
We are visting the first week of December for 8 nights and have tickets for 7 days (no hoppers). Our children will be 7, 5 and 2… If relevant, we are staying at Port Orleans Riverside. How many days would you go to each park? Would you get Hoppers if you had the choice?
Thank you for your help!
2 MK, 2AK, 2EP, 1HS whiles reserving the right to do a 2nd at HS depending on how mad it is with TSL. Else add a third MK
I would go:
3 MK
2 HS
1 EP
1 AK
I would definitely get hoppers.
This is almost exactly our situation… 8 nights, 7 days of tickets + a water park, and our kids are similar ages, with addition of one more: DD12, DD9, DD6, DS2. We don’t do hoppers because I would rather put that money elsewhere.
We have a healthy break planned each day.
Here’s our plan:
Day 1: Epcot
Day 2: Typhoon Lagoon (dinner at HDDR)
Day 3: MK
Day 4: rest in the morning exploring Fort Wilderness or Disney Springs, evening back at Epcot (eat at F&G kiosks)
Day 5: AK
Day 6: HS
Day 7: MK
Day 8: family votes for park to return to (most likely MK, but book FoP FP just in case).
I forgot to add we do have one waterpark ticket. We could also possible add another ticket for the first night?
Absolutely. We’re staying at Ft. Wilderness, so our first night we’re going to do the Chip & Dale bonfire.
Two days at HS would be good since they’re going after TSL opens.
1 HS, 2 days each for the other 3.
Park hoppers does offer a lot of flexibility. If it’s in the budget, do it!
My plan is:
Day 1: Late afternoon Arrival/Check-in - Dinner at Disney Springs
Day 2: Hollywood Studios
Day 3: Epcot
Day 4: MK
Day 5: Rest / Pool day
Day 6: AK
Day 7: Epcot
Day 8: MK
Day 9: AK
Day 10: Check-out / Flight home
Not sure if it’s in the budget, but you might want to look into Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – it’s an extra cost but you can get into MK at 4:00 and stay until Midnight, and there’s a special parade and fireworks show. We LOVED it. The lines for the rides were also much shorter. The dates haven’t been released yet, but there are usually several parties a week starting in November.
We were there for four days and bought 3-day park hoppers plus the party ticket. That night at the party we were able to ride everything we wanted to plus totally enjoy the experience – we stayed for the whole 8 hours. That also freed up the rest of the day for sleeping in, pool time, Disney Springs, or whatever! It might be something to consider.
For us, the hoppers are a must-have, but only to mix it up and keep our options open. Especially with a seven day ticket, you’re looking at just $11 dollars per day (per person) to hop. We like to go to rope drop, stay until early afternoon, go back to the hotel for a break and often a meal, then go to a different park in the evening. That’s just us, but we like the option of being able to hit whichever nighttime shows we want regardless of where we were during the day. We also find that we have more staying power if we rest every day – learned from experience after trying to pound out 4 consecutive days with no break and not being able to feel our toes the next day!
Our kids typically go to bed early. My guess is we will only go a couple nights to see fireworks. This is why I was thinking hoppers were not necessary?
My kids don’t go to bed early and we don’t hop
Our last day is also currently AK with FoP FPP (2nd time during our trip). We have a contingency to change to a different park for the last day, but then we wouldn’t have top tier FPP most likely.
What time do you expect the kids go to bed?
On a 9 night trip, I only try to see the nighttime shows 1x each park except for MK I try to do 2x. If you think you can keep them up long enough, we really enjoy the nighttime entertainment. Also, street entertainers at Disney Springs is great too!
They typically go to bed around 730/8. We have no problem putting them to bed late but will not sleep in the next morning! Then the crankiness begins!
I have found less crankiness while at the world 
but that’s just my personal experience. I also don’t do 2 late nights back to back. This will be my first trip with a planned midday resort rest/pool time.
Are you getting a stroller for the 6 and 2 yo?
That’s good to hear! We have a double city mini that we are bringing from home. I do think we will try to see each of the night shows.
We will be there at the same time with a 4.5 and 2.5 year old. We’re doing:
EPCOT 2
HS 1
AK 2
MK 2
MVMCP - hoping kids will be able to make it through fireworks then fall asleep in stroller so my husband and I can stay at party until 11ish then walk back to BLT