I haven’t been to Disney in 30 years. I have 3 1/2 days. Are there any parks I should spend two days at the expense of one of the other parks? What park would you skip if you had to make a choice and why?
I would do them all. You can do AK in half a day if you focus on the main attractions and skip all of the animal trails. Or you could do Epcot in half a day if you don’t do WS.
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Agree. Skip nothing, but cut one short.
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You know, generally I would say I would never skip AK to do two days anywhere
But I’m about to leave for a trip where I’m doing exactly that.
I guess it depends on the purpose of your trip. What you want to get out of it. For me, this time, I want the chance to really and fully take in the F&W festival at Epcot. My kids would never enjoy doing that to the extent I want to, so this is a good time to do it. I also want the chance to spend an obscene amount of time at SWGE and HS in general.
So overall, on a usual trip with the whole family, or even on a solo/couples trip that is intended to see all the parks, no.
But there might be an occasion when it just makes sense.
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That’s our early December trip. We are only going for a few days, and the purpose is to show the kids Disney at Christmas - so I know AK has some stuff but out of the 4 parks and Disney springs, it is probably the weakest for holiday decorations, so we are skipping it that trip - which makes sense for us especially since we have a longer trip planned for April.
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Welcome to the forums!
I agree with the sentiment to just each park. I wouldn’t skip a park. The tricky part is deciding on which park to do a 1/2 day. Is the half day your arrival day, or departure day? It could play into which park. For example, if your 1/2 day is your arrival day, I wouldn’t choose AK that day, since it is the park that closes earliest, giving you very little time. You might choose which park has the latest hours, in such a case.
If your 1/2 day is your departure day, then choosing AK for that day might make the most sense, because it generally is the earliest park to open.
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if you haven’t been for so long, I would definitely do all parks.
Epcot and AK are imo the easiest to tour more “lightly” (less rides) in half a day, but of course, this is up to personal preference.
I’ve done AK several times on derparture day for half a day and I think that works nicely.
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The AK puppets at Christmas are my favorite. I think EC does the least for holiday decorations of the four parks.
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Epcot does have the storytellers and festival of the holidays though. And the Spaceship Earth beacon of magic. And the candlelight processional.
It is tempting though seeing those pictures. Decisions, decisions. 
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You do have some tough decisions to make 
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Plus we want to do the Christmas tree crawl at DS and go to some of the resorts (e.g. Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread house)… And we will be there Wed afternoon to early Sun… So that basically leaves Wed evening, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
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Some of the best holiday decorations are actually at the resorts…so…you’re planning to do a resort tour as well…right? 
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See above.
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Yeah. Kinda cross-posted there.
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My husband will be down there for a conference in November. My arrival day is the first day and I will land in Orlando at 10 AM. I am on my own the first and second days. Then, he and I are going to HS on Saturday and EP on Sunday. We are heading home on Monday. I am trying to decide what to do with my day and a half solo.
Well. I would love to suggest AK but I feel like you kind of have to go to MK.
But if it were ME it would be AK hands down for the full day and a half. It’s my favorite of them all and I could spend days and days there and never tire of it
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For me I’d spend that incoming day in Epcot and the other solo day at AK. MK is my last choice in WDW. DL is far superior in every way but castle size from the exterior (but I prefer there is an attraction inside DL castle than a restaurant). Since I go a lot and go to DL, I’d skip MK. But that’s me.
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You have to have a point. A purpose. A goal. With less than 4 days, you’re not even hitting the tip of the ice berg.
My cousin and her husband toured with us for 2 days. Her first time ever and his first in at least 25 years and he didn’t care for that visit. Plus she’s got neck issues and he’s got back problems.
We did Magic Kingdom one morning focusing on “Walt’s attractions”, except for Hall of Presidents. The quintessential Walt Disney stuff.
Second morning we moseyed around Animal Kingdom. I kid you not, we spent a solid hour in the Aviary - much to their enjoyment.
We did two evenings at Epcot - I know one evening was Living Seas, my cousin’s husband has two large saltwater aquariums, followed by a lovely, quiet supper at Tokyo Dining. I’m not recalling what we did our second evening.
Quality over quantity. That’s my recommendation.
If you’re heavy into Star Wars and conservation go to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. That sort of thing.
Get a park hopper ticket. It maximizes your options. Bad weather, attractions closures, etc can impact a park’s quality in a hurry.
Good luck.
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I agree with this, if you can swing the PH it can help maximize your time. We had 4 park days and only once did we not visit multiple parks.
Since it’s your first visit in 30 years, I really can’t pick a park you should skip in favor of another. It also depends what you like in a park. If the world showcase isn’t your thing, Epcot can be done fairly quickly. If you only want to do rides at AK, that can also cut time. You can spend all day at MK due to the sheer number of attractions, or HS due to the wait times if you don’t have G+.
For me, because we’ve visited a couple times the last few years, my skip park would be either AK or MK. There are fewer rides that are “must do” for me at AK (though I will add that for my money, AK has the best atmosphere of any of the parks), and even though I feel like walking down Main Street is kind of a must, I’m way more into Epcot and HS in general than MK. There’s my very long answer.
This is good advice, and soooooooo hard to heed if you’re a Liner at heart.
I mean, the whole reason I found this place was that I was researching how we could see and do the most things and get the biggest bang for our buck.
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