Comments on itinerary, advise and Suggests on our 1st WDW trip with DD's 5 & 7

[drogerstn]

A couple of sites, including The DIS E-Ticket Info
indicate that E-ride nights during your visit will be on Tuesday and Friday, AUG 12 & 15; you have Sunday AUG 17 on your itinerary.

We park hop on many days during our visits. Many times, we go back to the resort hotel for a mid-day break after visiting a park, then go to a different park in the afternoon/evening. We almost always hop to a different park (either directly or after a mid-day break) if we take advantage of EE; the EE park may get very crowded by 11am or noon.

We have often found that a rental car does not cost much more than the cost for roundtrip ground transportation from the airport. (Depends on rates and discounts available.)
Mousesavers Ground Transportation

 

[PoohFanKC]

Some more thoughts on your plans:

I will echo what others have said - your plan is a bit ambitious. Don't hop parks just to hop parks. Steamline things a bit and you will be able to enjoy things more. If you are an early riser, do the early park and then get out when things get crowded - that's when it makes sense to hop parks (or go back to the resort for a nap/pool time). That said, hopping between MK and EPCOT is not that bad - just consider the monorail as another attraction.

IMHO, don't do the silver package - it leaves you with the nagging obligation to use up your wishes rather than enjoy the parks and the WDW experience. You can still do all those things, you just won't be pressured into it. And no, the plan does not stand up to financial scrutiny. You can do better on your own.

You are thinking about the right types of things - avoiding transportation delays, scheduling private fun time with the kids, planning specific "memorable" activities, getting input from the kids regarding what they want to do, etc... Weed out a few of your scheduled events and you have it.

One topic not yet mentioned is planning within the parks. Make sure you know which rides are on your "Must do" lists. Do not plan on riding nearly as many in the afternoon/evenings as you can ride in the mornings.

 

[manchurianbrownbear]

You've already got much better advice than I can provide, but I have a couple thoughts to add.

On our first trip with kids (DS's 9 and 5 at the time) a couple years ago we planned to go back to the room to nap on days we used Early Entry and found that we could have stayed in our room for hours and the boys wouldn't have fallen asleep; WE'RE AT DISNEY WORLD! If your kids will sleep, naps are great, but we wasted a hour or two our first two days in the park trying get them to sleep. Someone mentioned park-hopping mid-day. You might find that your kids will catch a quick nap on the bus or monorail. I got a great suggestion (one of several thousand actually) on the DIS a few weeks back; try riding the monorail without getting off for an hour or so for the sole purpose of getting kids to rest/nap. Even if they don't sleep, at least they're off their feet!

On that same trip we rented a vehicle, but used park transportation the majority of the time. Like someone has already said, it's not express, but it is pretty efficient.

I'm intrigued by the $10 umbrella strollers!!! Since our last trip we have adopted two DD's, the youngest will be 4 during our trip this fall and we want to have a stroller for her, but don't want to haul it around through airports and everything!

 

[jjohns]

Originally posted by Quadman
My DD6 turns 7 on the 12, and desprately wanted to see the princesses for breakfast at the castle, but this was kinda last minute (less than 60 days anyway) so that was out of the question, but the breakfast at Epcot was the alternative. The problem I have is that DD's (one being a B-Day girl that day) want to see the castle and the MK as their first 'park experience', NOT EPCOT!!

I have been told that CRT bookings are sometimes available 2 days before the day you are interested in. This is probably because cancellations must be in 48 hours in advance. So, try doing the 7 am phone-in thing on the 10th.

Another princess dining option is dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Cinderella and Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother, and the mice appear there. Its only Cinderella and its not the castle, but... Might be a nice arrival day dinner for your DD.

 

[jimmytammy]

I didnt look at your itenarary cause the other posters pretty much summed it up. Dont try to pack to much into one trip. We have been 4 times with now 10 and 8 yr olds. Ist trip 7 days, 2nd trip 5 days, 3rd trip 10 days, 4th trip 5 days. Bottom line, we still havent seen and done it all. Go easy and take in what you can, cause if you really enjoy it, YOU WILL GO BACK.

Good luck and have fun

 

[Sharby]

There's some excellent advice here - I'm a little tired right now - so this may have been mentioned already - but the thing that struck me with your plan is that you have a lot of big breakfasts planned first thing in the morning.

I am a big fan of having something quick (and on the light side) for breakfast and be at the parks first thing. And if you are not doing the EE park - then go to the park that had EE the day before. Any time of heavier crowds, but particularly for the time of year that you are going (hot, crowded) you can do in ONE hour in the morning what will take THREE hours later in the day. I believe one of the top guides in book form publishes this tip as: Arrive Early! Arrive Early! Arrive Early!

So after a quick breakfast before hitting the parks early - then you can either get one of the last sittings of a character breakfast (you'll be hungry again by then) or do a character lunch or an early character dinner that day. (Of course, you'd make an exception for the Princess breakfast).

In August, you cannot be at the parks early enough. "Larks" (and thank goodness, my entire family are "Larks") definitely have it over the "Owls".