I have all girls, and our next trip will include my two nephews ages 5 and 7. My first couple trips with my own kids were very princess heavy. Could some of you who have done Disney with elementary age boys give me some idea of what appealed to them the most? I realize all children have different likes, but I’d love a sample from you guys. Both restaurant and park tips are appreciated.
Pirates! Pirate’s League, Pirate’s and Pals Cruise, etc.
My then 6 year old boy actually really loved meeting the princesses too. Is it a surprise trip or can you get their input?
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It’s not a surprise, but they’ve never been before and have no idea what the options are. I’ll get some feedback from them at some point, but I’d love to have some ideas of where to start.
I have four boys, one girl. I’m also the youngest boy in a family with 6 boys, 1 girl. Aside from rides, which I think are universal, here are some ideas. (Of course, not to say the girls won’t love these…but boys seem taken with them in my experience.)
- Tom Sawyer’s Island!
- Swiss Family Treehouse. Even as an adult, I still love seeing the engineering/ingenuity behind it all. My boys also seems fascinated by it.
- Jumping Fountains at Epcot.
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I have 2 boys, 6 and 9. We’re about to take our 3rd trip in September, and have also visited when they were 3&6 and 5&8. Definitely no interest in princesses, though the younger one is a bit of a flirt with the pretty girls. 
They both loved Animal Kingdom! Especially the safari–my older son would do the safari 10 times if he could. They’re not super into meeting characters, but did have a few specific ones that they wanted to meet–Chip & Dale in their dino pajamas were adorable and a big hit. They liked getting autographs from the characters they did meet. They also loved pin trading–I did “cheat” and order a bag of assorted pins from eBay before our first trip, and we’re still going strong with that. Oh, and pressed pennies! There’s lots more, but those are a few things.
For restaurants, they loved Ohana, Chef Mickey’s, Biergarten, Yak & Yeti… They seemed to like Sci Fi at the time, but now they say they don’t want to go back so who knows.
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In addition to pirates (in MK my 6yo’s favorite rides were Peter Pan and POC), space stuff including Star Wars. My boys really liked the Jedi Training and all the space rides (Mission Space, whatever the Star Wars one is).
They’re also into American history so we did some stuff related to that (but we live in the Northeast so I didn’t focus on it as we have it everywhere here - I’m taking them to Williamsburg next weekend). My kids also are really into learning all about the world and different cultures so I got them passports for the Epcot countries.
At Animal Kingdom they got really into the Wilderness Explorers stuff. We made the mistake of getting them Sorcerers’s stuff at MK and then were annoyed by how much time it was sucking up so beware of that one.
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We had a similar experience. We learned about this and for our last trip decided to try it. We soon found ourselves frustrated how much time we were wasting doing that instead of riding rides, etc, and abandoned it.
But I know of a family who they almost rather spend their entire time in MK doing the Sorcerer’s game!
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Yes, Wilderness Explorers! My boys loved that too. We’ve saved the booklets to take back because they didn’t quite finish everything.
Oh. The Agent P adventure, for sure. I can’t believe I forgot that one.
Oh one more thing, if they’re obsessed with Pokemon like mine, and all of their friends, are, they will LOVE the shop in the Japan pavilion. We have to set very clear ground rules when we go in there to avoid meltdowns over not being able to buy every thing 
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We missed TSI and the jumping fountains on our trip (TSI was closed). I have two hours set aside for TSI this trip (includes getting lunch and eating it on the island).
Restaurants they really liked in addition to Biergarten: Raglan Road, Hollywood & Vine, and BOG. They did not like 50’s Prime Time at all but I think my kids were just done by that point (it was the last thing we did before flying home). My friend has two boys and it’s been their favorite for years (they’re teenagers now).
Ryan - We were at MVMCP! They were wasting precious time on Sorcerer’s. I wouldn’t have cared so much if it wasn’t a limited time event.
Speaking of shopping - Disney Springs and the stores there. That could take hours.
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Good planning! 
Certain times of the year, Aunt Polly’s is open, but most of the time it is closed. If is open, you can get food on the island itself.
So, was it YOUR idea or your children’s idea to abandon the game, then?
This is true. Particularly World of Disney, The Toy Story store, and of course, the Lego Store. (Not to mention Goofy’s for a slushie!)
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This was the ages that we took our boys for the first time to DLR. They loved all things Star wars, the train, and my youngest was infatuated with Lightning McQueen (Ka-chow!) so we did Lightning meet and greet.
Pokemon has become THE THING in our house. Well, that and Beyblades. I guess we’ll be stopping by Japan this trip!
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I agree with the above suggestions, especially Pirate’s League. My boys are similar ages and are into dinosaurs, so T-Rex Cafe was a hit as well as Dinoland in AK.
I’d say Beyblades are a very close #2 in my house!
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The Boneyard in Dinoland was a big hit with my kids.
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My boys enjoyed all the rides and fur characters a great deal at that age. They have also always enjoyed the stage productions and parades (though there are fewer of the latter now).
Our whole family loves TSI and the walking trails in AK.