Our first WDW trip plan - feedback welcome

[jdrasin]

Sorry this is such a long post. Our family (Son is 8, Daughter is 4) is going to Disney World in a few weeks for a long trip. This is our first time going, and will likely be our only one for quite some time. I will freely admit to not being the biggest fan of Disney, but my wife really wants to take the kids, so about a year ago I started planning out the trip. My kids don't know a lot about Disney, though we've been showing them a lot of the classic movies (my daughter loves Frozen - what a surprise). While I plan a lot of travel, Disney World has been more than a bit overwhelming. So here is what we have, and I would greatly appreciate feedbacks/critique/etc..

Arriving (by Auto-Train): January 31: 9AM (paid for expedited departure)
Departing: December 9: 2PM
Staying at the Wilderness Lodge - Huge thanks to this and another board for getting me comfortable with buying DVC points, saved me a boatload!
Park hoppers for 8 days (these were a comp offered for the construction - we never asked for anything).

I have mapped out all 8 days and gotten appropriate ADR/FPs, but I'm only posting the first 5 days here since that is what I'm most focused on. The days are planned as: Epcot (arrival day), HS, MK, AK, MK, Epcot, MK, AK, leave. All the times (other than FP) are my estimate based on tools I've seen, but this is more for me to organize, we are very flexible: if things need to drop, they drop, if we have time, we can add. My wife and I also realize that one of us may have to leave early to take my daughter home early.

Epcot Day 1 (Noon arrival)
1. Arrive Noon (having eaten lunch)
2. Spaceship Earth (FP): 12:30p
3. Test Track (FP): 1:30pm
4. OPEN 2pm – 4:30pm
5. Sum of All Thrills: 4:30
6. Dinner Electric Umbrella 5:15
7. The Seas with Nemo and Friends: 6:00 pm
8. Turtle Talk with Crush (FP): 5:30
9. Living Seas Aquarium
10. Desert Corel Reef 7:00pm
11. OPEN 8-9
12. IllumiNations: 9M

Rock n’ Roller Coaster (9AM)
OPEN (9-10) - May RD RnRC if my son is feeling up to it, we might also sleep in
Toy Story (FP) 10:15
Lunch - Bring (11:00)
Indiana Jones Epic Stun Spectacular (12:00)
Muppet Vision 3D (12:35)
Great Movie Ride (1:00)
Beauty and the Beast – Love on Stage (2:00)
Voyage of the Little mermaid (2:35)
Disney Junior – Live on Stage (3:10)
Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (4:00)
Star Tours (FP) 4:00
Frozen Sing-along (FP) 4:00
Dinner – QS 5:00
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (FP) 6:00
Fantasmic! (7:00)

Magic Kingdom (Day 1) - Rope Drop
1) Magic Kingdom Welcome Show
2) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh 9:15am
3) Peter Pan's Flight 9:30 am
4) it's a small world 10:30 am
5) Lunch Be Our Guest Restaurant (ADR) 11:00am
6) Enchanted Tales with Belle (FP): 12:15
7) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (FP) 1:00pm
8) Mickey's PhilharMagic 1:30pm
9) Journey of the Little Mermaid 2:15 pm
10) 3PM parade
11) Jungle Cruise 4:00 pm
12) Pirates of the Caribbean 4:45am
13) The Hall of Presidents 5:15 pm
14) Country Bear Jamboree 5:45pm
15) The Haunted Mansion 5:15am
16) Dinner Pecos Bill 5:30pm
17) Main Street Electrical Parade 6:30pm
18) Celebrate the Magic 7:30pm
19) Wishes Nighttime Spectacular 8:00pm

AK
1) Rope Drop (9 AM)
2) Kilimanjaro Safaris: (9:15 AM)
3) Discovery Island Trails (10:00) – 10:30
4) Maharajah Jungle Trek (10:30) – 11:00
5) Expedition Everest (FP) 11:00
6) Micky M&G (FP) 11:00
7) DINOSAUR (11:30)
8) Lunch. Flame Tree Barbecue (12:15)
9) Festival of the Lion King (FP) (1:30)
10) Pangani Forest Exploration Trails (2:15)
11) Kilimanjaro Safaris (FP): 2:50 PM
13) Finding Nemo –The Musical (3:45)
14) t’s Tough to Be a Bug (4:45)
15) Dinner: Hotel?

Magic Kingdom (Day 2)
1) Magic Kingdom Welcome Show 8:34am
2) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 9:15 am
2) M&G
3) Splash Mountain 9:45 am
4) Enchanted Tiki Room 10:15 am
5) Lunch Columbia Harbor House/Bring 11:00 AM
6) Meet Ariel at Her Grotto 12:00 noon
7) Space Mountain (FP) 1:30 PM
7) Meet Anna and Elsa (FP) 1:30 pm
8) The Barnstormer 2:15 pm
9) Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade 2:45pm
10) Peter Pan (FP) 4:00 pm
11) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (FP) 4:30
12) Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor 5:00 pm
13) Tomorrowland PeopleMover 5:30 pm
14) Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress 6:00 pm
15) Dinner Cinderella's Royal Table 7:00 pm

Thank you for your feedback/thoughts!
Joseph

 

[Jetku]

Hi Joseph,

It seems like you guys will have a great time. A few recommendations from past experience:

1. If possible with your family, do rope drop every day. You can get more done in the first hour than an entire afternoon.
2. Make sure your comfortable with not sticking to this plan. With all those times slotted, it's likely everything will not go to plan. Treat it as a rough outline.
3. Towards the end of your trip, you might want to build in some afternoon time to go to back to the room and relax/nap. All day in the parks can be exhausting.
4. Try Touring Plans, as they have an app that can revise or recalculate your schedule in one click.


Hope you guys have a great time!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

You have done all your homework!
Now, sit back and be prepared to (shockingly) love Disney!
I would like to add one other idea... pick up a "princess" (not at disney, any place that sells them for less) dress for DD to wear on your MK day! Make sure your children are wearing "My First Visit" pins... (get them at WL when you're checking in)
The pin and the dress (splurge for a tiara as well! Lol) will garner your daughter a ton of magical moments! If DS would lije, have him wear an eye patch and a pirate scarf or hat! Again lots of attention.
You will be surprised how much you will love Disney!
Report back and let us know if the magic changes your mind!

 

[jdrasin]

Hi Joseph,

It seems like you guys will have a great time. A few recommendations from past experience:

1. If possible with your family, do rope drop every day. You can get more done in the first hour than an entire afternoon.
2. Make sure your comfortable with not sticking to this plan. With all those times slotted, it's likely everything will not go to plan. Treat it as a rough outline.
3. Towards the end of your trip, you might want to build in some afternoon time to go to back to the room and relax/nap. All day in the parks can be exhausting.
4. Try Touring Plans, as they have an app that can revise or recalculate your schedule in one click.


Hope you guys have a great time!

Thank you for your thoughts.
1. We are going to try and do this on every day, except maybe HS. We are a little worried about the kids wearing out.
2. I expect things to fall apart quickly, but it helped me estimate when to get FPs for.
3. My wife keeps calling for this, I'm just not sure which day(s) are best to do this. I have a feeling it'll be a little by ear
4. I used them initially, but you are right, I should go back and update the plan and see what it says.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

I echo what @Jetku said about afternoon breaks! The nice thing about WL is it's only a short boat ride away. You can sneak away, get rejuvinated, and return for dinner and rides or parades. I'm telling you, it makes a world if difference!
Being your first visit makes it really hard not to want to go commando style, but I promise you all will be a whole lot happier, with your sanity intact, with those breaks!
Also, on your HS day, DS may want to do Jedi training... You really really must sign up asap after rope drop! He will really like it!

 

[jdrasin]

You have done all your homework!
Now, sit back and be prepared to (shockingly) love Disney!
I would like to add one other idea... pick up a "princess" (not at disney, any place that sells them for less) dress for DD to wear on your MK day! Make sure your children are wearing "My First Visit" pins... (get them at WL when you're checking in)
The pin and the dress (splurge for a tiara as well! Lol) will garner your daughter a ton of magical moments! If DS would lije, have him wear an eye patch and a pirate scarf or hat! Again lots of attention.
You will be surprised how much you will love Disney!
Report back and let us know if the magic changes your mind!

Thanks for the wishes. I will certainly give a report when we get back, or maybe even during. We actually have a number of outfits for her, we hit the clearance sales after halloween and the disney store after Christmas. I had not thought about stuff for my son. Honestly, he's showed a lot less interest in the character stuff. Then again, I'm sure he'd like a pirate getup
Do people do the princess/dress up thing at all the parks, or is it mostly The Magic Kingdom?

I echo what @Jetku said about afternoon breaks! The nice thing about WL is it's only a short boat ride away. You can sneak away, get rejuvinated, and return for dinner and rides or parades. I'm telling you, it makes a world if difference!
Being your first visit makes it really hard not to want to go commando style, but I promise you all will be a whole lot happier, with your sanity intact, with those breaks!
Also, on your HS day, DS may want to do Heidi training... You really really must sign up asap after rope drop! He will really like it!

I made the trip extra long so we wouldn't feel so rushed every day or feel we couldn't take a day off. The only thing really locked in is the ADR/FPs. And really, other than a couple of those, they are easy to change.

My son said he's not interested in the Jedi training, but I may check again as we get closer. He just saw the original 3 this week and has a little more interest in Star Wars than before (personally I'm not a big Star Wars fan).

 

[jdrasin]

I should add that one of the more stressful aspects is that things seem to randomly (I know it's not really random) go into refurbishment. Even as of a couple weeks ago things were closing during our trip.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I gotta tell you - I think your Day 1 is gonna be unrealistic. I don't believe most folks sleep well on the AutoTrain, and if even 1 of you doesn't sleep well, that is gonna be a seriously dragging day. No way you'll make it to Illuminations. I'm also not sure when you are planning to check in and unpack that day b/c I think your open afternoon time won't be enough time. If it were me, I'd greatly reduce your day 1 expectations, so you don't start the whole vacation on the wrong foot (going to end of Illuminations and then probably rope drop the next day could be a killer for a few days...I'd either plan to sleep WAY in on Day 2 or have much less Day 1)...

 

[g-dad66]

Like you, I like to plan things non-stop all day long, but I soon learned that this doesn't work for more than about 2 days in a row at Disney. If you all are fresh and rested every morning, you could do any one of those days the way you have it planned -- but I think five days in a row without a break just ain't gonna work.

Since you have a total of 8 days, I would plan on cutting down the attractions for a couple of these first 5 days and saving them for days 6-8.

I notice that there are times when you have two or three attractions scheduled for the same time (Lights Motors Action/Star Tours/Frozen Singalong 4:00; Hall of Presidents/Haunted Mansion 5:15; Expedition Everest/Meet Mickey 11:00; Space Mountain/Meet Anna & Elsa 11:30) -- does this mean you are splitting up for these attractions?

One minor suggestion: Do Peter Pan before Winnie the Pooh. The Peter Pan line gets long fast.

And no third FP scheduled for MK Day 1? I'd suggest getting it for the Jungle Cruise.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

There are beautiful princesses in every land of WDW! Of all ages, shapes, sizes, and nationalities! It's a beautiful thing!
Also, have DS check out jedi training on YouTube... He may (or may not) change his mind...

 

[jdrasin]

I gotta tell you - I think your Day 1 is gonna be unrealistic. I don't believe most folks sleep well on the AutoTrain, and if even 1 of you doesn't sleep well, that is gonna be a seriously dragging day. No way you'll make it to Illuminations. I'm also not sure when you are planning to check in and unpack that day b/c I think your open afternoon time won't be enough time. If it were me, I'd greatly reduce your day 1 expectations, so you don't start the whole vacation on the wrong foot (going to end of Illuminations and then probably rope drop the next day could be a killer for a few days...I'd either plan to sleep WAY in on Day 2 or have much less Day 1)...

That's a good point about the auto-train. My wife and I have traveled by train and slept fine in sleepers, but I have no idea how my kids will do. We're not rope dropping the next day at HS probably, but maybe I should drop the desert plan at living seas and then I'm not stuck if kids get tired.

 

[jdrasin]

Like you, I like to plan things non-stop all day long, but I soon learned that this doesn't work for more than about 2 days in a row at Disney. If you all are fresh and rested every morning, you could do any one of those days the way you have it planned -- but I think five days in a row without a break just ain't gonna work.

Since you have a total of 8 days, I would plan on cutting down the attractions for a couple of these first 5 days and saving them for days 6-8.

I notice that there are times when you have two or three attractions scheduled for the same time (Lights Motors Action/Star Tours/Frozen Singalong 4:00; Hall of Presidents/Haunted Mansion 5:15; Expedition Everest/Meet Mickey 11:00; Space Mountain/Meet Anna & Elsa 11:30) -- does this mean you are splitting up for these attractions?

One minor suggestion: Do Peter Pan before Winnie the Pooh. The Peter Pan line gets long fast.

And no third FP scheduled for MK Day 1? I'd suggest getting it for the Jungle Cruise.

I'm starting to think of making Epcot Day 1 slower, just noon-5ish and keep HS light too. That way MK/AK can be more intense.

Yes, we are splitting up a few times, my daughter might not be 40" (it depends who's measuring her) and my son has no interest in some princess things. So for instance, she's seeing Mickey while he goes to everest and seeing a&E while he goes to space mountain. The LMA was just a mess-up on my part.

our day 1 MK fast passes are
Enchanted Tales with Belle (4)
11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (4)
12:55 PM - 1:55 PM
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (4) - This was just what a took since A&E were not available. Would you recommend dropping it for JC?
3:20 PM - 4:20 PM

This feedback is super helpful, keep it coming

Joseph Drasin

 

[g-dad66]

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (4) - This was just what a took since A&E were not available. Would you recommend dropping it for JC?
3:20 PM - 4:20 PM

Winnie the Pooh could also have a lengthy wait like Jungle Cruise, but I see that you're planning to also do Winnie the Pooh early in the morning. So, yes, rather than doing Winnie the Pooh twice (with FP the second time), I'd skip doing it a second time in favor of a FP+ for Jungle Cruise (or even Pirates).

 

[jdrasin]

I would like to make some of the evening fireworks/shows, but I know the kids might preclude that

 

[jdrasin]

Winnie the Pooh could also have a lengthy wait like Jungle Cruise, but I see that you're planning to also do Winnie the Pooh early in the morning. So, yes, rather than doing Winnie the Pooh twice (with FP the second time), I'd skip doing it a second time in favor of a FP+ for Jungle Cruise (or even Pirates).

The second MK day has an early morning where we've really not planned what we're doing. We figure if we get there early we can do a lot of things pretty quickly. Fantasy land seems nice and compact. Maybe we'll do Adventure land instead

 

[Kaylee Ann]

After over 30 Disney Trips here is what I would suggest. I would highly suggest the quick service dining plan!

Magic Kingdom----
1. Use one of your fast passes for seven dwarves mine train, you will not want to wait on that line! It's a new ride (kind of like big thunder mountain).
2. If you have a princess lover in the family I would also fast pass a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa or Rapunzel and Cinderella.
3.Try to knock out all the rides in one area before moving to the next area, I find it most effiecent.
4.Buy ponchos before your trip, you will most likely use them!
5.If you are staying on property and have a car drive into all the parks excecpt magic kingdom. You will have to get on a tram then the monorail.
6. Meet Tink she is in the building right on Main Street USA.
7. Get Pixie Dust in your hair at Harmony Barber Shop for free on Main Street USA.
8.Get to MK 20 minutes before the park opens to catch the good morning show!

Hollywood Studios----
1.Fastpass the frozen sing along,Toy story midway, and beauty and the beast live
2. I do not recommend park hoppers my favorite way to do WDW is 5 day one park tickets so 2 days in MK and one day in the other parks.
3. Star Tours always makes me sick, I do not recommend it.
4. It is super fun to meet Disney Junior characters and Star Wars characters.

Epcot---
1. One of my favorite things to do in Epcot is buy the ten dollar Disney passport and get it stamped in each country. They write your name in each language and it is a lot of fun.
2. You can meet Blue Belle in France, and get the best pastries ever!
3.Dont forget to see the manatees,Dolphins ,and sea turtles after you get off the nemo ride!


Animal Kingdom---
1. Flame Tree BBQ is a great use of quick service dining.
2. Don't forget to take the bus over to the conservation station. You can cuddle goats and donkeys.


Favorite Character meals---
1.Crystal Palace- It is located in Magical Kingdom with an American buffet. The food is good and you get to dine with Pooh,Tigger,Eyore,and Piglet. They spend time at each table. It is cheaper to do breakfast or lunch than dinner.

2.Cinderellas Royal Table- This is located in Cinderellas Castle, you get to dine with 4 or 5 princesses while you enjoy a delicious 3 course meal! I bet you will witness a proposal as well! So romantic.

3.1900 park fare dinner- You can dine at a buffet in the Grand Floridan with Cinderella,Prince Charming,Fairy Godmother,Lady Tremaine,Anastasia,and Drizella.

4.Chef Mickeys- This buffet is located in the contemporary. You can dine with Mickey,Minnie,Donald,Pluto,and Goofy. It is cheaper to do breakfast or lunch than dinner.


Hotel---
All-Star Sports Resort- We LOVE this hotel. It has 2 large pools,a laundry room,a nice food court, clean rooms, great staff, a fun arcade,and a gift shop. I left my phone there and hours later they overnights it for free. They are great.

 

[jdrasin]

Thank you everyone. I have made a few changes to our plan based on feedback. A few days I've grouped stuff so if we have to bail early we aren't missing any 'must dos' or those are happening other days. Lots of great tips you guys have

Joseph

 

[JaimeK]

I think you should build some more time to be at playgrounds (Tom sawyer island in MK, my boys could spend hours there, boneyard in AK, honey I shrunk the kids in HS). There are also very fun games to play - Sorcerers of the kingdom in MK, pirate scavenger hunt in MK, Phineas & Ferb in Epcot and the wilderness explorers in AK.

Also, if you want to see all the shows in HS I think you'll need two days.

 

[jdrasin]

First, thank everyone for all the awesome feedback! I made a lot of changes based on the feedback and I can see how they made yesterday (our first day) go much better. We arrived at Epcot just after noon and did Spaceship Earth (FP) (pretty much as I remember), Sum of all Thrills (Son 8)/Color World (Daughter 4) (neat), and then took my son on test track (FP) (he loved it, I thought it was meh). Mission Space actually only had 10 minute wait, but we saved that for Epcot day 2 since we didn't want to do another ride my daughter couldn't do (she's 39.5"). We then went over to Journey into imagination (wow is that different than I remember from 20 years ago), had lunch at the electric umbrella (better than I expected), Mickey/Minnie/Goofy M&G (daughter had a big smile with Minnie), Pixar shorts (we're big fans), Nemo and Friends (kinda lame IMO), Turtle Talk (so-so IMO). At this point (5:30 maybe) my son told us he was beat and wanted to go back. So glad we dropped the dinner/desert reservations and the after 5pm plans!

We headed back to the VWL. The room is nice, but nothing special. I think the lobbies are quite nice and the pool is pretty cool. We had a bunch of food in the room and I thought our day was over. But then I took my son to look at the lobby and grab a refillable mug....and then we realized the fireworks at MK were starting and there was a boat waiting....so we ended up watching the fireworks on the boat and walking into MK. That was really neat. I told my son that even though I'm not a big Disney fan, i still was always impressed with their night shows. Then we walked over to splash mount for no wait (I remember it being hours 20 years ago when it was still quite new). Then while leaving we saw just the beginning of the electric parade....I'm hoping we don't pay today for him being up so late.

Overall, many of the rides did little for me, but my son and daughter were quite happy. I still think MK at night is unique and the ability to be door to door in 15-20 minutes is going to make a big difference in this trip compared to what I remember staying off site. Again, I'm glad we cut down on our plan and it turns out that we made a lot of changes from our main plan, but they were all positive changes.

Off to Hollywood studios today! I pushed almost our whole itinerary today earlier so we can leave 2-3 if we need/want and come back for a rest and pool time (my son really wants to go in the pool). i could see us going out for one of the night shows after that.

I'm not sure anyone is interested in these daily reports, but I wanted to give feedback on how the advice improved our day.

Joseph

 

[aprilp]

First, thank everyone for all the awesome feedback! I made a lot of changes based on the feedback and I can see how they made yesterday (our first day) go much better. We arrived at Epcot just after noon and did Spaceship Earth (FP) (pretty much as I remember), Sum of all Thrills (Son 8)/Color World (Daughter 4) (neat), and then took my son on test track (FP) (he loved it, I thought it was meh). Mission Space actually only had 10 minute wait, but we saved that for Epcot day 2 since we didn't want to do another ride my daughter couldn't do (she's 39.5"). We then went over to Journey into imagination (wow is that different than I remember from 20 years ago), had lunch at the electric umbrella (better than I expected), Mickey/Minnie/Goofy M&G (daughter had a big smile with Minnie), Pixar shorts (we're big fans), Nemo and Friends (kinda lame IMO), Turtle Talk (so-so IMO). At this point (5:30 maybe) my son told us he was beat and wanted to go back. So glad we dropped the dinner/desert reservations and the after 5pm plans!

We headed back to the VWL. The room is nice, but nothing special. I think the lobbies are quite nice and the pool is pretty cool. We had a bunch of food in the room and I thought our day was over. But then I took my son to look at the lobby and grab a refillable mug....and then we realized the fireworks at MK were starting and there was a boat waiting....so we ended up watching the fireworks on the boat and walking into MK. That was really neat. I told my son that even though I'm not a big Disney fan, i still was always impressed with their night shows. Then we walked over to splash mount for no wait (I remember it being hours 20 years ago when it was still quite new). Then while leaving we saw just the beginning of the electric parade....I'm hoping we don't pay today for him being up so late.

Overall, many of the rides did little for me, but my son and daughter were quite happy. I still think MK at night is unique and the ability to be door to door in 15-20 minutes is going to make a big difference in this trip compared to what I remember staying off site. Again, I'm glad we cut down on our plan and it turns out that we made a lot of changes from our main plan, but they were all positive changes.

Off to Hollywood studios today! I pushed almost our whole itinerary today earlier so we can leave 2-3 if we need/want and come back for a rest and pool time (my son really wants to go in the pool). i could see us going out for one of the night shows after that.

I'm not sure anyone is interested in these daily reports, but I wanted to give feedback on how the advice improved our day.

Joseph

I love hearing how it goes for first-timers! Keep 'em coming!