Hi! I’m trying to figure put which days I should go to which parks. There are 2 adults, a 3 year old, and a 1 and a half year old going. We will be there December 1St through 8th. We will have 5 day park tickets. No park Hopper. I’m debating if I should do mvmcp. I’m worried my boys won’t make it very late but it’s something I really want to do. If we do the party do you think we should still do 2 days at mk? I’m thinking our schedule would look like this:
Sunday: Epcot
Monday: Hollywood Studios
Tuesday: party
Wednesday: animal kingdom (late arrival?)
Thursday : Magic Kingdom
Friday: magic kingdom
This is mostly based off crowd calender. I want to end at mk so anything else I would be willing to change around. We may not do party and just add a break day. Just looking for opinions. I plan on taking it slow and adding in breaks as needed. I know this will be a lot for 2 littles.
My kids always slept in the stroller at that age and we stayed from RD to park closing. I’d hate for them to miss the Christmas party (if they fall asleep amidst all the excitement) but at least you will get to experience it!! We are going the same exact dates as you and we booked ours early in our trip, might be an idea for you too.
I’m still so confused. I keep thinking it all needs to be changed! I’m probably making this more complicated than it is. Does anyone else have any advice? I’ve been reading that mvmcp has been so crowded the last couple years. Would it still be worth it if it is crowded? I’m mostly wanting to go to see the shows, parade, and maybe a ride or two not so much for the characters. Would you still do 2 days at mk if you do the Christmas party also?
We’ll be there in early December, too. My kids will be 4, 6, and 8. We haven’t been yet since having kids so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
There won’t be much in Epcot that your kids will be interested in. A few rides, some characters, but much of Epcot is geared towards adults and/or older kids. Same with HS. TSL is opening so that will be fun but I’m pretty sure your kids won’t be tall enough to ride the new rides, unless your 3-year old is a tall one (I have a tall 3-year old!). They’ll like the shows but there aren’t many rides for littles there. There are lots of things for them to do in MK and if it were ME and I had 6 days with kids those ages I’d likely skip Epcot altogether (unless it’s for the grown-ups, in which case do it, cause it’s your vacation too!).
I’d do 1 AK, 3 MK, and maybe 1 HS. I’d start with MK on the first or second day (depending on CL) so that if they love it you can skip another park. It’d stink to save it for last and wish you’d had more days there. I’d only go to MK on party days so the crowds were lower and then I’d watch the fireworks from the beach by the Poly IF the kids were up for them at 10 pm. I’d skip the party because they won’t remember it and it’s so late, it doesn’t get started until nearly my kids’ normal bedtime. BUT if YOU want to go to the party then take that into consideration. If this is a one-and-done kind of a trip then do it. But if you’ll be back in a couple of years I’d skip it for this time. If I had the money I might do park hoppers instead of the party so we could hop to MK for fireworks in the evening or to Epcot to walk around the WS after nap time.
I guess in short I would not save AK and MK for the last days because I think they’re the ones your kids will like the most. I’d consider skipping Epcot altogether and HS, too, if the 3-year old isn’t big enough to ride anything. Not because I don’t think those parks will be great, but because I think MK and AK will be more enjoyed and that having more time there would be a better use of my time so I wouldn’t feel rushed. 
And let me reiterate: I have not done WDW with little kids. I haven’t been there with my own kids yet. But my own thinking is that with little littles it’s better to set the expectations low and then to be amazed at how smoothly everything goes and how awesome they’re doing than to be frustrated when it all didn’t go perfectly because I expected too much of them. 
I think I missed this when you first posted. I took my 11 month old in 2015 (now 2.5 year old) so hopefully I can be of some help.
First, as much as I LOVE the parties, I just can’t in good conscience recommend one in your circumstances. 
Unless your kids are super, duper night owls coming from the west coast, I think it is a lot of money to pay to push around sleeping kids. We tried really hard to maintain a similar home sleep schedule just for our own sanity (toddlers are tiring!) and so we didn’t have to deal with melt downs. I think you will be WAY better off with a rest/pool day. And you can look forward to taking your kids when they are older! Or do a couples trip. 
Second piece, I think you should try and do one MK day earlier on in your trip to spread it out a little bit. I would definitely do 2 full days there even if you do the party. This is where the majority of rides for your kids will be.
Lastly, I think that Epcot will be a lot of fun with your littles. The regular entertainment is great and at Christmas they will have the different story tellers. I also felt like there was the most space at Epcot to let the kids run around and let off steam. My favorite memory from my trip was having a F&W cheese plate while my son played in the grass with our trash!
Thank you! I do want to at least go to each park whether we stay all day or not will be a different story. My son is 40 inches now so should be a little taller by December. I keep thinking I need to add another mk day earlier in the week but was strictly going off crowd calendars. Thanks again!
I think we will skip the party this time. I keep trying to justify the cost but just can’t seem to especially when my kids will be asleep during most of it. I keep thinking of other things I could spend the money on that my kids would enjoy more. Thank you so much for the input.
I would not go nuts trying to find the lowest possible crowd level day for each. I think you’re better off with a touring plan and what works for your schedule. I would also think about morning EMHs (where are you staying?) and using or avoiding them depending on if you can use them.
You’ll also have to decide if you want to do the MK fireworks because things get tricky with those and the party nights.
We are staying at pop so we could utilize emh. I’m thinking about adding a park day and doing mk on Wednesday for fireworks that night but having a rest/pool day during the morning.
So it would be
Sunday:mk
Mon: hs
Tues: ak
Wed: mk
Thurs: epcot
Fri: mk
Would this be a better schedule? I’d probably also do a late arrival to epcot depending how late we stayed at mk.
So I was writing the below as you typed and I think we’re pretty much in sync. I am not quite sure how the Wed evening EMHs will affect crowds for those fireworks although it might actually be easier to leave if more people are planning on staying. Thurs/Fri are pretty interchangeable but now you have yourself hitting EMH at both Epcot and MK. Do you think you will be up that early? The 7am EMHs at MK will be awesome if you can get up that early on Friday!
Sunday: MK (4)
Monday: HS (4)
Tuesday : AK (2)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: MK (2)
Friday: Epcot (3)
I would definitely try but getting my husband and kids around may be difficult though! Maybe I will switch them around like you have them either way I feel a lot better about this now!
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Awesome! You’ll have a great time! It’s an awesome time of year. )