Ok, I have started to feel guilty that we are not going to Epcot. I know the park has lots of fans on here. I’ve tried being sensible. I’ve planned our arrival day to enjoy our gorgeous resort (WL) and figured we’d go meet Chip and Dale at FW and try to make it an early evening. We don’t have park hoppers and right now only have 3 day tickets. My daughter loves Elsa and Ana and she knows she’ll see them in the parade at MK and at the sing along at HS. BUT to actually get to meet them… she would be so excited. Do I throw our quiet arrival day to the wind and get a 4th ticket? Instead of dinner at the resort we could do the F&W (It’ll be a Tues so hopefully not too crazy that night in terms of drunk adults). I’m basically doing HS for my son’s love of Star Wars, so feeling bad we’re not doing Epcot for her.
Adding a fourth day in terms of price is pretty negligible, so it really is a matter of overall experience you want.
Despite the fact that we’re pretty big Epcot fans, I don’t presume that it is that for everyone. Since you are talking about arrival day, that means you will have limited time at Epcot. Epcot is quite huge, so it may feel rushed as a result. If you decide to add it, I’d make sure to have a set of very specific goals. Like, hit Soarin’, Frozen, food, and maybe one other thing. Then, anything else you choose to add it will be a plus. (Kind of depends on when you’d actually arrive.)
Now, as a kid, I remember how excited I was to actually ARRIVE to our destination. Not the hotel, but the parks. So making arrival day NOT a park day creates an element of anticipatory frustration. Going to Epcot, even for a short while, might kind of alleviate that frustration.
I’m thinking we’ll get to the resort by 3 pm (arrival at 1pm, ride w/ ME), swim and explore then leave about 5 pm. The park has EMH that night. Priority is Elsa and Ana. I’d be excited to do F&W- it means more planning, my favorite part!
Let me first say that if spending the extra money for an extra day of tickets is going to cause stress then, by all means, don’t do it. It’s certainly not worth that. However, if it’s not going to hurt your pocketbook too much, I think Epcot the first evening is a fun idea. That is actually our plan for our arrival day this year also. My hope is that we will ride a few rides with fast passes and then just stroll through World Showcase until time for dinner and Illuminations. Seems like a fun way to start the trip.
Despite the fact that we ourselves are not big Epcot fans I totally agree with this.
Choose just a few things that appeal the most to your family (on top of Frozen and Soarin, we liked Nemo and the aquariums and thought a lot of future world was a waste of time) and remember forever the look on your daughter’s face while she talks with Anna and Elsa ! 
The hit to the wallet from moving from 3 days to 4 days is a little harder than if you are moving from 5 to 6 days on up. For that reason, I would have a difficult time spending the money if I knew I would only get 4-5 hours of park time. My vote would be a slower arrival day where you swim, explore Disney Springs, have a nice dinner, and get in bed early to prepare for the next day.
How old are your kids? Will they be excited by the pool or would they be more excited by the park? Whenever I’ve been, Anna and Elsa really take the time with the kiddos at the Norway meet and greet. My daughter actually likes most of the rides in Epcot (she’s 7 now), but we can’t make it around the World Showcase with her. 
Forget the kids! This is how I feel! I’m the one running to the parks when we get there!
Skipping Epcot is unthinkable for us
My daughter is 7 and my son 9. They definitely will want to swim, but if things go right, we’d have 60-90 minutes to do so before heading to the park. (I’m hoping we arrive on time and planning on 2 hours to get from airport to resort).
What would be the “can’t miss” experiences for you, if you only had an evening?
Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, exploring and eating/drinking and catching live music in World Showcase, and Illuminations wouldn’t be missed on any trip…however short.
Yes. Um. Well. I didn’t want to admit it publicly!
I think for a short trip, this sounds like an amazing plan! Epcot is one of our favorite parks! An evening spent meeting Elsa/Anna and eating sounds totally worth it to me.
Ok, it’s looking more and more likely we’ll do Epcot on arrival evening. For those who know Wilderness Lodge well, to maximize our park time, should we do bus or uber to get there?
Unless there is a bus waiting, Uber will be faster.
I’m glad after reading the thread that it sounds like you’ll go to Epcot! My advice would be to go. Since you are considering it, if you didn’t go, I think you’d be feeling regrets after the trip.
We usually go to WDW for around 9 days once a year. There was one year that we only went to AK for half a day. I had anxiety dreams for ages afterwards that morphed into not going to any parks for the whole trip! Not letting that happen again!
This cracks me up because it is something that would totally happen to me. Only a true fanatic would experience this. We only get to WDW about once every five years, so I really sweat over every planning decision!
Yeah, it really happened… more than one dream/nightmare. Sometimes it’s AK, sometimes is MK and we’re like 6 days into the trip and haven’t gone to either!