5 day touring plan

[millie0312]

Hi everyone.
I have a quick question for some of you vets.... We are going to DLR for the second year in a row (maybe it will be a yearly thing!!) and are upgrading from 3 days to 5 days this year (2 days are 1 park/day and the other 3 are hoppers). We like to loosely base our days on a touring plan because it cuts out discussion on where to go next and usually cuts out some waiting in line if we do it right, but I'm not sure where to start on a 5 day plan. I have a subscription to touring plans and our plans from last year, but does anyone have advice on a basic plan that I could tweak for 5 days in the parks? Touring plans is great for 1 day plans but you kind of have to have a basic plan if it is more than one day before you can play with the plans much. TIA!!

 

[egritz]

I've found planning too much doesn't work for my family. What I tend to do is plan out ADR's first, then parades/shows we want to see and then lightly build around that. I tend to plan the mornings for the first few days and by the end of the week we just let the kids decide what they want to do again. We typically visit DL for 5 days at a time with parkhoppers and hop nearly every day.

One big thing depends on the ages of your party. When traveling with the kids we do 1 thing, when traveling with just adults we skip a lot to just enjoy the big rides.

I tend to open DL 3 days and DCA 2 days. And I always plan to be through security at least 30 minutes prior to the gates opening.

So what i'd suggest is decide which parks you at least want to START each day at, then make any ADR's, then plan out what days you're watching parades, fireworks, Aladdin, etc. When planning for Fireworks I always try to plan that for one of the first days in case they get cancelled due to weather, that way we have a chance to still see them later in the week. Also another tip is if you are planning to do the character breakfast inside DL (Plaza Inn w/ Minnie & friends) then I plan that for a MM later in the week. For example, if we are arriving on Sunday, I plan to use our MM on Tuesday morning, and then I make the earliest ADR for Minnie on Thursday during MM.

For the MM's with the kids I'll do a light plan where we go straight to Peter Pan, then Dumbo, then other Fantasyland attractions.
For regular morning at DL we'll go pull a FP for something first (usually Space Mountain or Star Tours) and then ride it right away, then head to Nemo, Small World, and then it is about time for Toon Town to open.
For our third morning we'll get a FP for something (typically Star Tours or Space Mountain again) and then ride it and head over to the other side (my daughter loves the HM with the Nightmare overlay). But typically by the 3rd day we are opening DL, we are on our last day and we plan it on the fly based on what we haven't done yet (and want to do) and what we want to repeat.

For DCA, since I have kids we'll head straight to get our Anna/Elsa FP, meet Olaf, then probably get our RSR FP's.
Our 2nd day opening DCA we'll likely get RSR FP's and then head to Toy Story. If DD REALLY wants to meet Anna & Elsa again I'd pick up FP's for them too.

 

[Winnowill]

I did touring plans, but found that we only really utilized the first few hours. Which is fine - usually those were the "get these out of the way before the crowds hit" items and a basic fastpass strategy. As long as we knew what our absolute must dos and scheduled events were every day, we were good.

 

[texasgingerbread]

Any input on RideMax?