Feeling Overwhelmed with planning- Help!

[Adrieske]

Ok, we will be in Disneyworld Jan. 17-24 (we have been planning for less than a month- this was a last minute trip.) I am totally overwhelmed.

I'm definitely a planner and want to make sure we are making the most of our time - it will be a long time before we get to do this again.

It is my parents, dh, and DD's, 5 (three days before we go, so this is her "birthday") and 19 mo. We are staying in Kidani, have the Dining plan that comes with 1 CS & 1 TS, and Parkhopper tickets. We will have 6 full days and then a half day before we leave.

I've been reading books and this board like crazy, but just feel totally overwhelmed. We'd like to have a few really yummy 1 credit meals, but don't want to spend all of our time traveling to and from restaurants. I'd also like either late mornings or afternoon naps each day.

Here is our schedule so far.
Sun.: Arrive at resort at 11 p.m.
Mon: Sleep in late, watch animals at hotel as everyone gets ready.
10:50 a.m. breakfast Akershus
Early afternoon in Epcot
Late afternoon in MK
7 p.m. Spectromagic
8 p.m. Wishes

Tues:

Wed: 5 p.m. dinner/DD Birthday Celebration at Park Fare. Ferry or Monorail to MK until park closing.

Thurs: 2:50 Mama Melrose/Fantasmic package. Evening in HS
6:30 Fantasmic

Fri:

Sat:

Sun: 1:30 leave for airport



Suggestions??

[billyvmom]

Snacks don't get used enough. A snack can count as a muffin or bisquit and gravy in the morning you can order adult CS for the kids if you use your key card only and split it so then you have extra CS to fill in gaps. Park fare was excellent but, ask the step sisters to sing for you they will makes great pictures. and Tony's on Mainstreet is a great place to watch parades. if you request to eat on patio you see the whole parade and no crowd around you. Also the railroad station is a good place to see it. We ate at the Biergarten the food was good and you get a show the kids all dance it was fun. Festival of the lion king was great. I loved Fantasmic but, it scared my kids We were bummed. Snow white scary adventures is very scary!! Good luck and have fun and if you can't get the reservations you want show up and ask we did for Chef Mickeys we were told it was sold out but, when we went we waited less than 10 minutes. But had reservations for park fare and waited 30 Go figure. Hope this helps. BRING A STROLLER!!!!! or get into a swap you will need it Also if you are not doing the BBB try the barber shoppe on main street we had my daughter hair done for 7.50 and it was sooo cute they also gave my son a red mohawk also 7.50 we did BBB and I loved it but, 60 vs. 7.50 we will go back everytime and do Barber shoppe but, BBB was a one time thing
Brandy

[Minnie824]

We traveled multiple times since our DDs were those ages. I have a few tips...
1) Be there at rope drop..you will get the most in at each park with the fewest wait if you are there when the park opens. Then have a counter service meal at the park..return to your room around 1pm for nap and/or swim. Head back out for dinner. You'll miss the afternoon parade, but thats the time you want to miss..everyone is hot, tired, and grumpy then and the breaks are needed.
2) If you plan a character meal, such as Chef Mickey's, you can cover seeing them w/out the long lines.
3) Park hop - we normally schedule our mornings first, so we have one rope drop at each park, giving us time to hit the most important, busy rides. Then we schedule where we want to have nice sit down dinners, and work our evenings around that. Don't worry about taking the kids to any of them (other than Victoria & Alberts). We've been taking our girls since that age, and only once did I have to take my daughter out (20 mos at the time) and only because we were at Marrakesh and it was like a library in there.
4) At Epcot, go around world showcase and stop at the kidcot stations. your DDs can color a mask and get tags at each country added. Our DDs LOVED this.
5) Kidani is an awesome resort..we stayed there in Aug..you can walk to Jambo for a quick meal as well.
6) Don't expect to make park close...its better to make park open, than park close if you want to do a lot of rides.

I did some updates to your schedule:

Sun.: Arrive at resort at 11 p.m.
Mon: Sleep in late, watch animals at hotel as everyone gets ready.
10:50 a.m. breakfast Akershus
Early afternoon in Epcot (Do masks) & See princesses. they're out at the countries in the afternoon
Late afternoon in MK
7 p.m. Spectromagic
8 p.m. Wishes
Tues: AK morning
Wed: MK morning rope drop 5 p.m. dinner/DD Birthday Celebration at Park Fare. Ferry or Monorail to MK until park closing.
Thurs: Epcot morning rope drop 2:50 Mama Melrose/Fantasmic package. Evening in HS
6:30 Fantasmic
Fri:
Sat:
Sun: 1:30 leave for airport



Let me know if you have any questions!

[jtopp]

Don't try and do it all! Luckily, you are going at a slow time, so you will get to do as much as you want to. Disney is a tiring, wonderful experience, and our best vacation was the one in which we also planned last minute(planned and paid on Monday, flew down on thursday). It's a vacation, and if you normally don't get up early, maybe being at rope drop every day isn't for you.
That being said, I hope that everything goes very smoothly for you, and that you can relax enough and not stress about it. You will have a great vacation, if you can accept each day as it comes and enjoy. Have a great trip!

[Adrieske]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I feel like slowly it is starting to come together. I also just booked lunch at Tusker House on Tuesday, because we get preferred seating for Finding Nemo. I figure the less time trying to keep my little ones waiting in a line, the better.

[JW2]

Just a quick few thoughts/suggestions:

Your Monday looks tiring especially if you are arriving late the prior day - I would consider just doing Epcot, returning to Kidani later on and relaxing, swim - Jambo has some evening things to do - movie, kids African music (I think it was around 5 pm);

I would leave MK for another day - I completely agree with rope drop esp. Extra Magic Hours - we went with 2 young boys and were there right at the beginning and finished Fantasyland in 1.5 hours - stayed in line longest 15 min. (we skipped Dumbo, Aladdin, etc. as many amusement parks have that type of ride - line ups for these are huge)

If you are only doing Hollywood Studios at night, you will not see any shows - again I would go at rope drop - your children would like Mermaid, Playhouse, Toy Story Mania is a must; go to hotel for rest, swim and then return either to same park or closer park for later on.

Tusker House is one of our favourites. For our children and it completely depends on your own schedule, my guys were better at sit down meals early - so even though it makes no sense point wise to use TS during lunch or breakfast, that's what we did and then counter service during the time they would more likely have melt downs.

As PP said, go with your schedule. January is not peak so likely the lines won't be long - we would pick one park in morning, go for nap or swim and then return to another park at night that was closer to our resort.

Re: restaurants - look at Dining Reviews but my favourite
MK - CS: Peco Bills, Cosmic Rays; TS: Crystal Palace
AK - CS: Flame Tree BBQ; TS: Tusker House
HS - CS: haven't had luck at HS; TS: Mamma Melrose
Epcot - too many to state - loved it all

Don't forget DTD - we go for 1-2 hours if have some extra time early evening - your DD would like Goofy Candy Co

I used to plan to a tee for our first two trips and something always would change ... so now we go with the flow other than planning some of the days we do parks during EMH and need to pick restaurants on those days

Have fun - follow the kids moods and don't push the time at a park - our worst melt down was in Epcot when we thought we would do "just one more" attraction - 1:00 pm, hot, and my youngest son was done .....