A skeptical family of First-Timers take on WDW Nov 15-22** NOV 28 update

[skier_pete]

It's so exciting that you're so close to your trip!

One more tip - over-door-shoe-holder. About $5.99 at Target. Holds all your make-up and toiletries for the family in one place where you can see through the holes and keep the counters less messy.

On touring: The bigger your group, the harder it is to stick to a touring plan. When I say bigger, I mean - 1 person - easiest, 4 people - very hard. And being the planner, I get upset and stressed and frustrated when MY plan doesn't work out or gets a glitch or someone decides to deviate. So I've decided not to make a full plan.

Here's how we do it:
1 - each person picks the 1 thing they want to make sure they do at WDW. (any park or resort) We make sure that happens.
2 - each person picks 3 things they want to do in each park, in priority order. We make sure #1 happens but then just hope for 2 and 3.
3 - at each park, we get a fastpass before riding the first ride. We may ride the same ride we FP, but we get the FP.
4 - My top priorities (your mileage may vary):
MK - all 3 mountains, Haunted Mansion, night parade and fireworks
EP - Soarin, Test Track, Illuminations
DHS - RNRC, ToT, Star Tours (this year) and Beauty and the Beast (this year)
AK - Safari, Everest, Conservation Station for the vet procedures

On priorities, we make sure those happen, in any order. Then we just fill in the (time) blanks, according to where we are in the park and what's close by. By following these "rules" (which are very minimal), we get to make sure we do everything we want and we all feel fulfilled at the end of the trip by seeing all the fill-in stuff.

That's an excellent guideline. Usually you can get to everyone's top 3. (Expect you cheated swwake - your "top 3" in MK is actually 6!)

 

[swwake]

That's an excellent guideline. Usually you can get to everyone's top 3. (Expect you cheated swwake - your "top 3" in MK is actually 6!)

Darn! Busted!

 

[jusjesjulmom]

We have been to WDW two times with an 16 year old boy, a15 year old girl and a 12 year old girl. They had a fabulous time and can not wait for our next trip in February.

 

[heathsf]

Oh my gosh! You'll be in WDW before you know it!

My Best Tips (what works for me anyway):

1. Rope Drop!

2. Collect FP throughout the day. With every FP you get, check the time on the bottom that tells you when your next FP will be available and keep racking them up. If you do this in the morning, you'll be able to enjoy an afternoon of little to no lines! You may find you want to ride some things more than once too If you decide you don't want to use the FP, you can make someone else's day by giving them away.

3. Prepare yourself for the idea that you won't get to do everything. Prepare your family too. Attractions aren't as fun if you're rushing around just to cross them off your list. Someone else already said it - but let each person come up with a few "must-dos" and anything extra that you get to do will be a bonus!
Anything that doesn't get done will just go on the list for your next trip!

 

[FosterA]

I'm so excited for you! My trip is still months away.

My advice on touring: Take it easy. It's a first visit.* Have everyone pick one or two things they want to do that day (or pick something you know they'd love) and fit the rest in as you can. You already have ADRs and certain times that you want to be at certain parks. If your plans become even more inflexible, it's just going to make your family tired and annoyed and none of you will be having fun. Stop and take time to smell the Main Street Bakery, as it were. Anything you miss will be a great excuse for planning another vacation!

Also, if crowds are higher because of holidays, don't forget that you can use your phone to check approximate wait times for rides, etc.

*Don't forget to pick up your "First Visit" buttons!

great advice! I've been practicing a little with the Lines app and love it. I hope it's accurate.

How awesome! I'm so excited for you! And yes, ditto on the First Visit buttons! Don't forget to wear those each day!

Okey dokey, I'll be sure to set us up with buttons

I wrote this big long post reply about touring, and then accidentally deleted it. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I'm not going to write it again.

What it really boiled down to is there is no right or wrong way to tour the parks - you have to do what is right for YOU as a family. If running around like commandos makes you miserable, then don't do it! We took 4 or 5 trips to really determine how we best tour each park - and it works for us. I could tell you about it (and I almost did) but it doesn't mean it would suit you well.

When I'm not feeling overly wordy I usually provide 3 keys to park touring:
1) Arrive for rope drop.
2) Fastpass, Fastpass, Fastpass.
3) Have a plan but be flexible.

By a plan, I mean as simple as "We start in Frontierland and hit the mountains - go to Adventureland, hit Haunted Mansion, lunch at Columbia Harbor House, then Fantasyland and finally into Tomorrowland. Then go back and use FPs." (Don't forget FP can be used anytime the same day after the start time - at least for the time being.) If you have things you really, really want to do, make sure to work them in. If they are rides that involve long lines, do them early or use a FP. If they are shows with times, make sure to arrive at least 20 minutes early to ensure a good seat. (Another of our mantras - wait for shows, not for rides.)

Other than that..its Disney...the only thing that will stop you from having a good time is if you stress out too much about having a good time.

And you better schedule at least 5 minutes on Saturday the 19th @ MK so we can meet face-to-face. I don't want to wait til you get home to hear your families reactions.

SP

All good advice. We will definately do rope drop and I want to start getting Fastpasses right away and gather as many as possible. For some reason figuring out Hollywood Studios and AK seem tricky with needing to hit shows at certain times.

My advise would be to only worry about grabbing FP right away for the rides you really need them for (TSM, EE, Soarin'). Otherwise, take it easy, let your family enjoy the sights and little touches. As you come to an attraction, make a decision as a family--wait in line, grab FP for later, or skip it. Them may go crazy if you have a numbered list of things for them to "accomplish" each morning.

I like that...wait in line, get a FP, or skip it. Very simple but that's what it really boils down to. I need to watch the FP times though and be sure to get another one as soon as possible.

Go left! that is what we follow when going into the parks! DH will go and get whatever FP we want for that park and meets back up.. and off we go!
This year we are doing pretty much the same with a more Slow and steady walk! I want tons and tons of pictures now that a friend of mine is teaching me all the cool tricks!!! can't wait for the MVMCP and the pictures i will be able to get now!!!
13 days!!! YIPPEE!

Good luck with the friends... you'll need it

You need to do a report so we can see your MVMCP pics! I'm not a good photographer and really need to practice with my new camera this week! Night shots are not my thing.

It's so exciting that you're so close to your trip!

One more tip - over-door-shoe-holder. About $5.99 at Target. Holds all your make-up and toiletries for the family in one place where you can see through the holes and keep the counters less messy.

On touring: The bigger your group, the harder it is to stick to a touring plan. When I say bigger, I mean - 1 person - easiest, 4 people - very hard. And being the planner, I get upset and stressed and frustrated when MY plan doesn't work out or gets a glitch or someone decides to deviate. So I've decided not to make a full plan.

Here's how we do it:
1 - each person picks the 1 thing they want to make sure they do at WDW. (any park or resort) We make sure that happens.
2 - each person picks 3 things they want to do in each park, in priority order. We make sure #1 happens but then just hope for 2 and 3.
3 - at each park, we get a fastpass before riding the first ride. We may ride the same ride we FP, but we get the FP.
4 - My top priorities (your mileage may vary):
MK - all 3 mountains, Haunted Mansion, night parade and fireworks
EP - Soarin, Test Track, Illuminations
DHS - RNRC, ToT, Star Tours (this year) and Beauty and the Beast (this year)
AK - Safari, Everest, Conservation Station for the vet procedures

On priorities, we make sure those happen, in any order. Then we just fill in the (time) blanks, according to where we are in the park and what's close by. By following these "rules" (which are very minimal), we get to make sure we do everything we want and we all feel fulfilled at the end of the trip by seeing all the fill-in stuff.

As usual, you have great advice!
oh and I did buy an over-the door organizer. David is going to think I'm a nerd but it's going to be so great especially with a teen girl in the mix hogging the bathroom.

We had a trip that overlapped with friends. We purposely planned to spend 2 days with them. Between our ADR's and such we spent 2 hours with them and never saw them again the entire trip.

cool! I don't mind seeing my friends but don't want them breathing down my neck. I hope this happens to us.

We have been to WDW two times with an 16 year old boy, a15 year old girl and a 12 year old girl. They had a fabulous time and can not wait for our next trip in February.

That's great. I love that my kids are older for their first time. They will really appreciate all the detail!

Oh my gosh! You'll be in WDW before you know it!

My Best Tips (what works for me anyway):

1. Rope Drop!

2. Collect FP throughout the day. With every FP you get, check the time on the bottom that tells you when your next FP will be available and keep racking them up. If you do this in the morning, you'll be able to enjoy an afternoon of little to no lines! You may find you want to ride some things more than once too If you decide you don't want to use the FP, you can make someone else's day by giving them away.

3. Prepare yourself for the idea that you won't get to do everything. Prepare your family too. Attractions aren't as fun if you're rushing around just to cross them off your list. Someone else already said it - but let each person come up with a few "must-dos" and anything extra that you get to do will be a bonus!
Anything that doesn't get done will just go on the list for your next trip!

Love this advice! I need to stay on top of checking the times on the bottom of FP and be sure to send someone off to get another as soon as possible. me and Dave will have to alternate being the runner.

 

[TheWrightTrip]

This thread caught my eye because we'll be there the same week just a little earlier, the 12th-19th. We are first timers too and my dh is clueless.lol He has no idea where we are staying, where we are eating or what parks we are going to. He too was, "just tell me when to take off work."
The one big difference being that my kids are 5,3 and 1. Hopefully we'll still be sane when the trip is over.
I read through this whole thread last night and I can't wait to see how it goes for you guys!

 

[FosterA]

Thanks for joining in!
You are going the exact dates I really wanted to go. I'm jealous....you shouldn't have alot of crowds at all! We'll be ok as far as crowds also except for maybe our last 3 days or so. I just didn't want my kids to miss 5 days of school so I wanted them to be able to go on that Monday the 14th and only miss 4.
Anyhoo....Hope you have a great time!! Glad to see someone else has a clueless husband Good thing about them being clueless is that their expectations are not high at all. As a matter of fact, my husbands are very very low so it's fun knowing he'll LOVE it at Disney because it's awesome of course.

 

[skier_pete]

Love this advice! I need to stay on top of checking the times on the bottom of FP and be sure to send someone off to get another as soon as possible. me and Dave will have to alternate being the runner.

While I'm a big proponent of FP obviously, you also have to know your family. If your husband seems to be annoyed at the whole Idea, don't push it too hard...though the first time you wait 60 minutes for a ride might change his mind!

This thread caught my eye because we'll be there the same week just a little earlier, the 12th-19th. We are first timers too and my dh is clueless.lol He has no idea where we are staying, where we are eating or what parks we are going to. He too was, "just tell me when to take off work."
The one big difference being that my kids are 5,3 and 1. Hopefully we'll still be sane when the trip is over.
I read through this whole thread last night and I can't wait to see how it goes for you guys!

Heigh ho, we'll be there too! Which resort are you staying at? If we see a frazzled mom with a clueless dad and three small tots, I'll be sure to wave "HI!". It might be hard to tell you apart from the other 1,000 familes that look like that though...

 

[Forensicmom]

This is too funny to read this because it sounds VERY familiar.

We are taking our first trip to Disney, well actually our first trip out of the state of Maryland, Nov 16 - 22. We have 4 kids in school and didn't want them to miss much either. We compromised with 3 days off of from school. DS (17) has been there before with other family and loves the parks. My girls (13, 10, 7) weren't too happy about going at first.

I also had a "wake up call" when I realized that my son is graduation from high school this year and we've never taken a real vacation. DH finally agreed but we couldn't decide where to go. Disney was NOT on my wish list at all. But DH finally said "if we don't do it now, we never will". Then we started planning and the two of us are more excited then the kids.

We leave in 13 days and will be staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We joined Touring PLans, have the app on his phone and habe our ADR's. Now we're trying to finalize all the last minute things.

I really enjoyed reading your posts since they were questions I had as well.

 

[TheWrightTrip]

Heigh ho, we'll be there too! Which resort are you staying at? If we see a frazzled mom with a clueless dad and three small tots, I'll be sure to wave "HI!". It might be hard to tell you apart from the other 1,000 familes that look like that though...

We are staying at ASMovies. I'm hoping to turn the clueless dad into a fan since I'm already thinking about next year! Isn't that completely crazy to be thinking about next year when we haven't even gone on our first trip this year?? lol Just 1 more week and a couple days to wait!!

 

[skier_pete]

We are staying at ASMovies. I'm hoping to turn the clueless dad into a fan since I'm already thinking about next year! Isn't that completely crazy to be thinking about next year when we haven't even gone on our first trip this year?? lol Just 1 more week and a couple days to wait!!

Not At ALL! This will really be the first time in 6 years I haven't had the next trip already in the works before the current trip was over. We aren't going to WDW next year at all, which will be the first year not going since we started in 2006. The longest we've gone was 16 months - and that was forever. This has been 13 months, and we are so ready to go back. I don't even know for sure if we'll be going in 2013 - so no planning at all right now. (We will be going to DisneyLAND next year though - I already have the hotel booked - so we console ourselves with that!)

You will have a great time as long as you don't stress yourself (and everyone) out about your plans. I don't know if I've said this on Amiee's thread here yet, but the two biggest rookie mistakes for a Disney trip are:
(1) Thinking it's like a regular vacation and just booking a hotel and not research what you are getting into OR
(2) OVERplanning the trip, scheduling every minute of every day, and spending your time running around to try and acheive all the plans.

Both can lead to misery. The hardest thing at Disney is to find that balance that is right for you and your family. It really took us about 4 trips to get there. It's partly why we go for 10 days - it allows us to do all the stuff we want at the pace that works for us.I also think it's why each trip is better than the last.

Aimee, I apologize for semi-hyjacking your thread - but this really is a good thing to keep in mind as well. There only ever one FIRST trip, and that is really something special. Because it's ALL new, you really can't go wrong unless you press everyone too hard and drive them crazy. Missing something only gives you an excuse why you have to plan the next trip.

TTFN,
SkierPete

 

[FosterA]

While I'm a big proponent of FP obviously, you also have to know your family. If your husband seems to be annoyed at the whole Idea, don't push it too hard...though the first time you wait 60 minutes for a ride might change his mind!



Heigh ho, we'll be there too! Which resort are you staying at? If we see a frazzled mom with a clueless dad and three small tots, I'll be sure to wave "HI!". It might be hard to tell you apart from the other 1,000 familes that look like that though...

Well....I suppose I wont make Dave do all the FP running. I figure we'll alternate back and forth. Maybe even make Allison do a run or two if I feel confident enough that she wont get lost. I'm making sure I pack good walking shoes! Lots of zig zagging will be happening but it's better than standing in line!

This is too funny to read this because it sounds VERY familiar.

We are taking our first trip to Disney, well actually our first trip out of the state of Maryland, Nov 16 - 22. We have 4 kids in school and didn't want them to miss much either. We compromised with 3 days off of from school. DS (17) has been there before with other family and loves the parks. My girls (13, 10, 7) weren't too happy about going at first.

I also had a "wake up call" when I realized that my son is graduation from high school this year and we've never taken a real vacation. DH finally agreed but we couldn't decide where to go. Disney was NOT on my wish list at all. But DH finally said "if we don't do it now, we never will". Then we started planning and the two of us are more excited then the kids.

We leave in 13 days and will be staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We joined Touring PLans, have the app on his phone and habe our ADR's. Now we're trying to finalize all the last minute things.

I really enjoyed reading your posts since they were questions I had as well.

Glad to have you along!!
Wilderness Lodge is probably beautiful with Christmas decor!
Have a great time

We are staying at ASMovies. I'm hoping to turn the clueless dad into a fan since I'm already thinking about next year! Isn't that completely crazy to be thinking about next year when we haven't even gone on our first trip this year?? lol Just 1 more week and a couple days to wait!!

Have a great time!!
I think having another trip planned is important so you don't get depressed when you have to head home from the current trip

Not At ALL! This will really be the first time in 6 years I haven't had the next trip already in the works before the current trip was over. We aren't going to WDW next year at all, which will be the first year not going since we started in 2006. The longest we've gone was 16 months - and that was forever. This has been 13 months, and we are so ready to go back. I don't even know for sure if we'll be going in 2013 - so no planning at all right now. (We will be going to DisneyLAND next year though - I already have the hotel booked - so we console ourselves with that!)

You will have a great time as long as you don't stress yourself (and everyone) out about your plans. I don't know if I've said this on Amiee's thread here yet, but the two biggest rookie mistakes for a Disney trip are:
(1) Thinking it's like a regular vacation and just booking a hotel and not research what you are getting into OR
(2) OVERplanning the trip, scheduling every minute of every day, and spending your time running around to try and acheive all the plans.

Both can lead to misery. The hardest thing at Disney is to find that balance that is right for you and your family. It really took us about 4 trips to get there. It's partly why we go for 10 days - it allows us to do all the stuff we want at the pace that works for us.I also think it's why each trip is better than the last.

Aimee, I apologize for semi-hyjacking your thread - but this really is a good thing to keep in mind as well. There only ever one FIRST trip, and that is really something special. Because it's ALL new, you really can't go wrong unless you press everyone too hard and drive them crazy. Missing something only gives you an excuse why you have to plan the next trip.

TTFN,
SkierPete

I agree that we need to find the right balance of feeling satisfied that we did "enough" yet still got lots of relaxing time in. I'm feeling pretty good about having 7 full days and 2 older kids that wont be having meltdowns and needing naps and such which means we can cover more ground.
Not that I wouldn't like to go 10 days though

 

[momabaarjo]

Ten more days!

 

[FosterA]

Ten more days!

I know, it's soooo exciting!!!

 

[joy13]

Our trips are getting so close -woot!!!! I should really finish my pre-trip report - lol!

 

[FosterA]

I'm about to have a heart attack. ONLY 9 DAYS TIL WE GO!!

I only have 5 days of work left and a list a mile long of things that need to get done this week. We have a housesitter coming to take care of the animals and watch the house so of course I feel the need to clean and make the house perfect which is really ridiculous I really doubt anybody cares how clean the house is, sheesh.

I've been keeping my eye on the weather and our days are just now sort of popping up on weather.com. I probably wont pack clothes until the day before because I hate doing that and because the weather can be crazy and I'd rather just see at the last minute what we might need.

I have most of the oddball items stacked up such as a power strip for all our electronic goodies, pop up hamper, soothing peppermint foot soak for after walking all day....etc etc. After my family realizes how much work I put into organizing this adventure, I expect them to give me foot rubs every night to show their appreciation for my planning genius

The family is showing glimmers of excitement but it's really really hard to get them pumped up yet because they just have ZERO expectations and really don't understand how cool WDW is. The kids are excited that they only have 6 days of school left though. I think they have heard me talk about this trip for so long that now I just get eye rolls whenever I bring it up. BUT....once we are on that plane and they realize we are REALLY FINALLY going, they will get all fired up.
David says he's ready and somewhat looking forward to the trip. Like the kids, it's not so much Disney but rather getting to get out of work for awhile. He's had a cruddy couple weeks at work and says he's ready for a break! That's good news for me because I was worried he'd be burnt out of traveling with having just got back from Korea and all but he says he's really looking forward to our trip.

The other day I pointed out to David that we have watched at least one Disney movie every weekend for the past several weekends and he has slept though EVERY ONE of them. He says "I know, Disney stuff just isn't my thing and I hope you don't get mad at me if I'm bored at Disney". I thought it was sort of a cute thing to say beings that he's worried he'll ruin my trip by being bored and he wants to really try to have fun "for me". Well....poor guy doesn't realize that going to DisneyWorld is just a tad more fun than watching a Disney Movie for pete's sake! I'm thinking being bored will not happen. Granted I don't expect my husband to want to buy a Disney wardrobe or buy any snowglobes and start a collection of Disney character paraphernalia but....I guarantee that he will have a blast touring the parks. He just doesn't know it yet.



So.....I wanted ya'll to have my final final itinerary so you can virtually sort of follow along on our trip. Also...if there are any newbies joining in that don't have the energy to go back to the very beginning of my pre-report and get the general idea of when/where/what we are doing:

~7 nights staying at the Poly. Garden room and hopefully facing the volcano pool but I'll be happy wherever. Would like a balcony though. I got a 40% off room discount for most of our days.
~We're not renting a car because I want to be swept away and not have to think on this vacation.
~We are not doing Dining Plan and are paying out of pocket. Long story short, the kids are "adult" prices yet they eat like little birds and usually just pick off of our plates or order chicken nuggets Our ADRs are Kona and Grand Floridan for breakfasts; Sci Fi, Yak and Yeti, San Angel Inn for lunches;
The Luau, Rose and Crown, and Hoop De Doo for dinners.
~We got hopper passes and we plan on doing 1 full day at AK, 1 full day at HS with another night that we will pop over there just for Fantasmic and Osborne, 1 day just for the Future World part of Epcot, 1 day for World Showcase, 2 almost- full days at MK plus maybe a late night hop over there for a Magic Hour crazy night staying up 'til 3 am.

We fly out on Tues. the 15th and land around noonish in Orlando. We'll just hang out at the resort and maybe catch a nap. Our first ever park adventure will be doing the Christmas party this night. Probably head to that around 6:00 and stay 'til the end. All counter service food this day.

On Wed the 16th we are going to sleep in WE will head to Kona for breakfast around 10:45. Back to MK to do whatever we didn't accomplish at the party as far as rides go. We'll do some sort of CS late lunch at MK. We will then head to HS to watch the 8 pm Fantasmic and maybe get pizza at Pizza planet right before we get in line for that.

On Thur the 17th I plan on doing HS all day and we have lunch ADR at Sci Fi. We have to be back at the resort by 8:00 for the Luau

On Fri the 18th I plan on doing AK all day and we have a lunch ADR at Yak and Yeti. Once the park closes, we'll go back to the Poly and lay around and watch fireworks, water parade, maybe do a load of laundry

On Sat the 19th the plan is to mainly do Future World and then San Angel Inn for lunch. We might go to MK this night or the next night for Elec. Parade but we'll have to see how tired we are.

On Sun the 20th we have a late breakfast at Grand Floridian so I can check out that eggs benedict. And also see the Christmas decor. WE will then go back to Epcot and do the World Showcase side and finally eat a late dinner at Rose and Crown and watch Illuminations. This is a late late extra Magic hour night at MK (as in open 'til 3am!). If everybody feels like it, we may just torture ourselves and go check it out. If we didn't get to the elec. parade the night before, we'll catch it this night since they have one at 9 and 11.

On Mon the 21st we will sleep in. Sort of free day and we'll just have to see. I imagine we'll go to Downtown Disney and maybe tour another couple resorts, maybe go back for anything we missed at any park. The only thing for sure is our Hoop De Doo ADR at 6:00

On Tues the 22nd we fly out around noon


More later.....[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[Desiree]

I'm sooooo excited for you and your family! I can't wait to hear their reactions to everything!

 

[fastergoofy]

"I really doubt anybody cares how clean the house is, sheesh."

Nobody else will, but you'll be so grateful when you come back to a clean house after staying on Disney property for a week. I've come home before to a dirty house after a great vacation and it's the pits. LOL

And low expectations are good! It makes it that much more fun when they realize how awesome it is!

 

[joy13]

Your plan looks great!! We intersect twice - we'll be at HS on the 17th and Epcot on the 20th

 

[heathsf]

Oh my gosh! 8 DAYS!!!!

Please please please promise me that you will write a full trip report with pictures! I am honestly so excited for you and I really can't wait to find out how much your family loved WDW!