Disney with 9 & 11yo

[Anonymous]

We go annually. I agree with some of the advice and disagree with others.

Don’t pay for magic bands. It’s all your phone now in the app.

I hate the monorail so won’t pay for monorail resorts. Contemp is loud but walking distance to MK. Boardwalk or Beach club are both walking distance to HS or Epcot. Wilderness Lodgr is a boat ride away from MK. The internal bus system is actually very efficient.

Epcot versus Animal Kingdom really boils down to preferences …. Let your kids pick based on what they have heard from friends or from looking online.

Park hopper is almost always a waste of money.

Do get LIgjtenjng lanes in advance, if you can afford it. A major advantage of staying on property is that you can book those 7 days in advance of your arrival plus can usually get to parks earlier at least on some days.

See if they will have a Hollywood Nights event when you are there and consider doing that instead of a regular HS day if you kids are night pwls — lines are much much shorter and no need to prebook LL.

For those ages, my LLs would be;

MK— Tron single LL pass. Use the three pass to get Spacr Mojntain, 7 Dwarves and I guess Pirates. Thunder mountain will be closed for renovation in March I think. You can usually get into monsters inc laugh floor without too much of a wait (and it’s fun), and if you like corny cartoon movies then the Mickey 3D movie is a great way to sit down and rest for a bit (we love it).

AK — Avatar Flight, and then you need to make a decision between Everest, safari and festival of lion king. Everest is very quick if your kids will do single rider. Doing LL for safari and festival of lion king just saves you some time standing in line — but neither one is a bad wait if you want to just get an ice cream or dole whip and play 20 questions while you wait. Festival of Lion kind is a really fun show -/ part musical part acrobatics part dance. Your younger in particular might also like going up to rafikis area which has a petting zoo and you can often watch animal surgeries or vet exams and talk to keepers.

Epcot — guardians of galaxy single lightening lane, then also try to do the virtual queue at 7 am for a second ride (you do this on the app — just wake up at 6:55 so you can hit the submit button exactly at 7 am). Then get a three pack LL for soarin’, test track if it’s back open (currently closed for renovations), and mission space. If you only want to do the green easy level off mission space, there’s never a wait so don’t waste a LL. If your kids were frozen fans, maybe do that instead. The lines are super long for both ratatoiille and frozen but I think they are both blah, but lots of people choose to use the LL for those. The aquarium there is also awesome (second largest in U.S.) and I love turtle talk with crush. The restaurant in the aquarium is pretty good as are the restaurants in Canada, France and Italy (and Mexico is not bad). People also really like the fish and chips in England.

HS— use lightening lane for any of these Rose of Rssistence, smugglers run (there’s are the two Star Wars rides), slinky dash (very short coaster but fun and long lines), midway mania (super fun shooting game—worth looking online for shooting strategy before you go). Star toris (another Star Wars show) has basically no line so is a good filler. I think rock n roller coaster will be closed for redesign in March. There is an Indiana jones show here that looks fun but I’ve never been. The frozen ever after show is good — very funny — and the beauty and beast show is basically a very short broadway show where they just hit the best songs so is pretty enjoyable. If you are into light shows and fireworks, there are lunch/dinner deals where you can get reserved seating for those shows….but I’d also note that those shows are great times to ride rides since everyone flocks to the show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not go to Florida

we love disneyland trips

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We go annually. I agree with some of the advice and disagree with others.

Don’t pay for magic bands. It’s all your phone now in the app.

I hate the monorail so won’t pay for monorail resorts. Contemp is loud but walking distance to MK. Boardwalk or Beach club are both walking distance to HS or Epcot. Wilderness Lodgr is a boat ride away from MK. The internal bus system is actually very efficient.

Epcot versus Animal Kingdom really boils down to preferences …. Let your kids pick based on what they have heard from friends or from looking online.

Park hopper is almost always a waste of money.

Do get LIgjtenjng lanes in advance, if you can afford it. A major advantage of staying on property is that you can book those 7 days in advance of your arrival plus can usually get to parks earlier at least on some days.

See if they will have a Hollywood Nights event when you are there and consider doing that instead of a regular HS day if you kids are night pwls — lines are much much shorter and no need to prebook LL.

For those ages, my LLs would be;

MK— Tron single LL pass. Use the three pass to get Spacr Mojntain, 7 Dwarves and I guess Pirates. Thunder mountain will be closed for renovation in March I think. You can usually get into monsters inc laugh floor without too much of a wait (and it’s fun), and if you like corny cartoon movies then the Mickey 3D movie is a great way to sit down and rest for a bit (we love it).

AK — Avatar Flight, and then you need to make a decision between Everest, safari and festival of lion king. Everest is very quick if your kids will do single rider. Doing LL for safari and festival of lion king just saves you some time standing in line — but neither one is a bad wait if you want to just get an ice cream or dole whip and play 20 questions while you wait. Festival of Lion kind is a really fun show -/ part musical part acrobatics part dance. Your younger in particular might also like going up to rafikis area which has a petting zoo and you can often watch animal surgeries or vet exams and talk to keepers.

Epcot — guardians of galaxy single lightening lane, then also try to do the virtual queue at 7 am for a second ride (you do this on the app — just wake up at 6:55 so you can hit the submit button exactly at 7 am). Then get a three pack LL for soarin’, test track if it’s back open (currently closed for renovations), and mission space. If you only want to do the green easy level off mission space, there’s never a wait so don’t waste a LL. If your kids were frozen fans, maybe do that instead. The lines are super long for both ratatoiille and frozen but I think they are both blah, but lots of people choose to use the LL for those. The aquarium there is also awesome (second largest in U.S.) and I love turtle talk with crush. The restaurant in the aquarium is pretty good as are the restaurants in Canada, France and Italy (and Mexico is not bad). People also really like the fish and chips in England.

HS— use lightening lane for any of these Rose of Rssistence, smugglers run (there’s are the two Star Wars rides), slinky dash (very short coaster but fun and long lines), midway mania (super fun shooting game—worth looking online for shooting strategy before you go). Star toris (another Star Wars show) has basically no line so is a good filler. I think rock n roller coaster will be closed for redesign in March. There is an Indiana jones show here that looks fun but I’ve never been. The frozen ever after show is good — very funny — and the beauty and beast show is basically a very short broadway show where they just hit the best songs so is pretty enjoyable. If you are into light shows and fireworks, there are lunch/dinner deals where you can get reserved seating for those shows….but I’d also note that those shows are great times to ride rides since everyone flocks to the show.

Thanks for the detailed response, very helpful! - OP