Skipping Attractions

Funny you ask! We actually find that in the busier times we don't skip as many attractions, since we need the "less popular ones" as it helps fill the time between the "more popular" ones ... such as waiting for FP+ times to open.

So, we only see the Country Bears about 50% of the time ... and always because it has a shorter line than everything else!

Interesting thought, the more I think about it it makes sense. We were able to all of the FP's we want and we are speding at least 2 full days in each park except AK. So maybe with the FP's we could do more than we think.

We skip Country Bears, Tiki Room, Liberty Boat and sometimes Hall of Presidents at MK

Epcot - we skip a lot of the movies in WS/we'll skip Ellen, figment and a lot of Innovations in FW

AK all we do is Safari, Tough To Be a Bug and Festival of the Lion King

DHS all we do is Muppets, Toy Story and Great Movie Ride

I want to do Country Bear since we have never done this, but my DD and DW have no intrest. This is what brought up the question.

To be quite honest, we had probably nine trips under our belt before we did Country Bears - and that was just to find a cool place in the heat of the summer to relax. We will probably go another nine trips before we see Country Bears again. In my opinion, this is an attraction to see when you have no other options or lines are way too long for everything else. If holiday crowds allow for other attractions that your family wants to do, I would hit them first.

While we have fond memories of Country Bears from maybe 20 years ago, we skip this most of the time. We probably skip too much! It'd be easier to list what we must do.

MK - Adventureland, our traditional first day first ride is Aladdin. We will always try to do Pirates, if it's running, and lately we've been into the Tiki Birds, and that's about all we do here.
Frontierland: we always try to do the mountains, and Haunted Mansion, tho that is Liberty Square.
Fantasyland: trying to pull the sword from the stone is a must do, as is the carrousel and Philharmagic. Maybe Peter Pan. Teacups is a must do. We've yet to have experienced any of new Fantasyland.
Tomorrowland: Buzz is probably our only must do here since Space Mtn has gotten so rough. We usually try to do TTA and Carousel of Progress.
Getting something done at Harmony Barbershop was also a must do for many trips. Rarely do a parade, and we'd rather see the fireworks from the Poly.

Epcot: Turtle Talk with Crush, and Soarin' are the main must dos unless the line for Soarin' is over 30 min. If it's open, Test Track, and possibly Mission Space. Most trips we'll do Spaceship Earth, but not always. About half the trips we stop at Club Cool.
In World Showcase we like to do the movies at Canada and China, sometimes the rides at Mexico and Norway. We like to get a pearl at Japan. Mostly we like to eat at World Showcase. Maybe once a trip we'll do Illuminations.

Animal Kingdom - must do attractions are the Safari ride, Pangani & Maharajah trails, Expedition Everest and Dinosaaur, Primeval Whirl. Half the time we skip It's Tough to be a Bug. We rarely skip Tusker House or Flame Tree. And we rarely skip any drum we find.

DHS: Must do is Star Tours, ToT and RnRC. We like to do Toy Story when we don't have to wait. Occasionally we'll do the Movie Ride or Indiana Jones. But mostly we do 3 or 4 things here and gone. We rarely eat here. No parade, never seen Fantasmic!

Mostly tho, everything is skippable. If it's down or a long line we figure we'll catch it next time. It's all good.

Jan

I plan everything before we go and once we are there, change our plans a lot depending on crowds and weather. With little kids just be sure to let them enjoy the little things they may find they enjoy. I can remember spending over 2 hours at the dancing fountains at Epcot near Figment ride. The girls were having so much fun I had to force myself to chill and let them enjoy that moment.

When it is crowded sometimes the attractions you think won't be crowded are. Glad you got all your important FP's!

Have a great trip!:thumbsup:

even when Disney isn't busy, we have to skip attractions.
This year I want to go on the astro orbits....I realized today I have never been on it...IN all the times I've gone, never been on it.

We have a list of skips

MK: we skip tiki room, jungle cruise, swiss family robinson tree house, hall of presidents, tea cups:ack: and most of fantasyland because we are older! We love tomorrowland and spend a lot of time there.

Epcot: MJ show, american adventure, mission space :ack: and ellen.

HWS: Voyage of the little mermaid, and Beauty and the beast.

AK: Kali river rapids unless VERY HOT, also we dont always take the train out to rafiki, bugs life...:paranoid:

With 2 days at each park I believe that you will have plenty of time to fit in all that u choose. I personally disagree with most of the posted skips bc most of them while not headliner attractions are nostalgic ones for us. It is all personal preference and really should be based on your families likes/dislikes and age of the group. I since u already have been enjoying planning sit down and have everyone make a list of priorities & "sleeper" attractions, chart them and go from there based on time. If you take the list with you you'll have a great jumping off point based on location & time when you have space bw headliner attractions. I hope u have a magical time.

I don't know that it's about "what to skip" so much as it's about "make sure we hit these, and everything else is optional". At least, that's how we do it. For us, the must do's on short trips are:

MK: Splash Mountain, Mine Cart Ride, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion (POTC is right on the line)

DHS: RNRC, TSMM

Epcot: Soarin', SSE, O' Canada

EVERYTHING ELSE is optional. Test Track? We love it, but it's optional. If they didn't have tiered options for FP+ in Epcot, we'd consider it a must do. But we'll pick Soarin' over TT every time. The entire Animal Kingdom Park? Optional. We haven't hit it on our last two trips because they were each only three days.

Anyway, that's how we do it.

I agree, we are more on the side of making sure that we hit our "Must do" list when approaching our planning. Though I will say we will skip Stitch until that is replaced with something else.

I would encourage trying just about anything in WDW if someone hasn't done it before. Country Bears in particular is one that I don't think I ever went to until I had young kids. Now it is one that we hit every trip because they like it and it is usually a small wait. Your 4 yr old is right in the age range where he may really enjoy it. It's nothing spectacular but it is a cute show and really not that long. Now if there was a long wait for it, I would definitely think twice before getting in line.

I like the idea of giving everyone a chance to pick attractions that they want to do/see and the whole family doing them if possible. I may not be jazzed about doing something that my wife wants to do, but we each have our "things" that we want to explore or try new on a given trip. Allowing everyone to do so will really add to their enjoyment. One of you may fall in love with something that you never thought to do previously!

When my full family goes we usually skip Dumbo, as we have no small children. Also, Peter Pan, Tiki Room, the Riverboat, the Train, and Stitch (can't believe that is still there!!!). A lot of the movies at EPCOT get skipped if we are on a tight schedule, as do Ellen, and Imagination (sorry Figment...).

I have favorites thatare Never Miss...Pirates, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, Toy Story, Soarin', Test Track, Star Wars, Muppets, the Safari...

I find that the Studios and AK are easy enough to do in one day that you don't have to miss much and you can see the whole park.

I will be considering the hit and miss quite a bit as our trip in January will be one day MK, one day EPCOT, one day Universal. It will also be DH's first trip, and I more or less selling him on a longer trip to Disney so I need to impress!

Since you have children, OP, your list will be different than ours. When I was little my favorite things were haunted mansion, and small world at MK, and imagination at EPCOT. With a 4 year old, I'd do Dumbo.

As far as the country bears, let your son decide. If the trip is a suprise for his birthday, let him pick if you see it or no. If his choice doesn't jive with the 10 year old, let her pick something she really wants to see.

We are taking our two sons (now in college) to WDW this Christmas week for the first time, to re-live memories from their childhood trips. We know the parks will be packed so we are expecting to not be able to hit every attraction. We would already not be planning to ride several, like the slow loading spoke and hub kiddie attractions, and the speedway, etc. I hope we are able to see most of the shows. As far as the E-ticket types, we will probably let the weather conditions determine whether we try the get-wet attractions, like Splash Mountain, Kali Rapids etc. but we have FP's for the main attractions we don't want to miss. We'll play the others by ear, and do what we can while enjoying the company and the magic atmosphere! :thumbsup:

I will say that there is one attraction I never miss.......Peter Pan. Don't know why, but I love that ride.