We are taking a short WDW trip on June 3-6 right before our cruise, but as a surprise to us—we will be moving to Florida shortly after and will be passholders! So, this trip is really just the first of many.
With that in mind, how would you approach this trip? We are joining my mom and dad and 15 yo brother. We will have DD7, DD4.5 and DS 2 by that point. We are staying at AKL. My oldest loves animals and says she wants to be an elephant keeper at WDW when she grows up. Oldest also loves world history, and geography. Middle daughter loves trains and star wars as well as all good food. DS loves the Cars franchise. All kids love princesses/princes, Winnie the Pooh, and Space.
Instead of making a “get everything done” itinerary, I want a “do the most memorable things” itinerary. We will be in Jacksonville, so a day trip from WDW, but we definitely won’t stay on property or even overnight each time we visit in the future. We want this to be an excellent first visit for the kids, but our trip motto is definitely going to be “we’re coming back, don’t worry.”
I also have history and geography loving kids. Ignore the people that say Epcot isn’t for kids! Mine loved the World Showcase, even when they were little. Maybe you don’t do it this first trip, but definitely make it a priority on a future visit. You could do a focus with the world passport and Kidcot locations.
Definitely like the idea of doing a lot at the AK Lodge since you can make day trips to WDW and won’t need lodging every time.
For your DD& walk the trails at AK and spend some time at the World Showcase watching the films in the pavilions. Play the Agent P game if its still available.
For DD4, ride the MK train if not shut down (it may be by June) and the train at AK. Do everything at Galaxy’s Edge and ride Space Mountain at MK and Guardians at EPCOT. Even do the green side of Mission Space.
For the whole family, meet characters! I could not believe how much fun it was to do this when my then DD9 said she wanted to meet Mickey one trip. I thought it would be dumb, but the cast members are amazing that we make time for character meets always now!
Jealous you are about to become pass holders. Have fun!
Congrats on your pending move! We will also be at AKL June 1-5. How many park days were you planning? Are you doing LLs with your big group, or wandering and seeing what you can do standby?
I would def do AK since it is so close. And pool time, since you can do parks on later trips. When our kids were smaller, everything was overwhelming and strollers made us move slower, so we had slower paced days / didn’t get a whole lot done, but I think that letting the kids set the pace set us up for less stress and repeat trips. Some families thrive on go-go-go, but that was not our normal life back then so didn’t make sense to force it on vacation either. My kids had zero experience with rides, so it took a few trips to work our way to rollercoasters etc. It has been a fun way to mark time though, how many new rides we have braved each trip.
Epcot kidcot stations and pin trading are fun with littles. You can find passports on Etsy as well that may be a fun activity to start and continue on future trips.