Creating a Touring Plan

[Keyser]

We'll be visiting DLR in August, and I am realizing that it's likely to be packed while we're there. I'm looking for advice on where to look for specific information to plan out my days there.

The one time I visited Disneyland, more than 20 years ago, I had a horrible experience, with so many crowds/lines that I think we only got to go on (new at the time) Star Tours, Tom Sawyer Island, and maybe one other ride, in the entire day! I don't want a repeat of that on this trip, so I'd like to have as much of a "plan of attack" as I can in figuring out an approach to use in the parks. I've read Hydroguys tips (which were helpful in getting oriented), but I think I want something more specific, such as which rides are likely to have long/short lines, and how the lines tend to build up.

We've been to WDW several times, and we had good luck with TourGuideMike when it was kept up-to-date, and also with some of the Unofficial Guide advice (before kids, when we could criss-cross parks with ease). I know there's an Unofficial Guide, but is there anyplace else that would be a good source for information? I'd rather not have to rely on something realtime like Ridemax (which we probably couldn't use anyway, considering we don't use smartphones...) - I would rather have something I can use beforhand to plan (knowing that Carsland might throw it all off anyway). Any suggestions?

 

[Girimama33]

An option would be to sign up for a subscription to Touringplans.com. They have touring plans available or you can create your own. You can print them down and take them with you. obviously, the time information they post I take with a grain of salt, but it may help establish a plan of attack like you mentioned.

 

[ArchOwl]

Well, first yay for planning a Disneyland trip!

I promise that even during the busiest of times it is possible to have a fun time. The key is to get there early and begin collecting Fastpasses and stay on top of when you are eligible to get another. Once you do this in the morning, the parks become easier to tour. I was there last summer in July and had lots of fun and experienced lots of attractions.

I know you said you weren't interested in Ridemax, but you are aware that you create plans ahead of time? You don't need a smartphone at all. You download the software on your home computer and then you print out itineraries. They do have a mobile web option to create plans on the fly, but you don't have to use it. I find Ridemax to be very helpful during busy times and by the time you visit in August, I expect Ridemax will have nailed down the information regarding Carsland.

I would become very familiar with Fastpass and how to use it during high season (by Hydroguy):
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

It is also important to remember to ride slow loaders during the morning (rope drop if at all possible) or very late at night.

I would make a list of all the must do show and attractions. Then you can purchase Ridemax and have them create a touring plan, or if you want, come back here and we can help you order them to the best of our knowledge. Of course, we have zero information on Carsland at the moment. So all planning around that will have to wait until we get information post June 15th. Have fun!

 

[CateinPhoenix]

I am using a combination of Ridemax and Touring Plan. Ridemax is online but I am printing everything out ahead of time. I don't intend to use my Iphone at all....There really is no easy way, you will have to put in a little time to get the most out of your visit!

 

[kerriemiller]

An option would be to sign up for a subscription to Touringplans.com. They have touring plans available or you can create your own. You can print them down and take them with you. obviously, the time information they post I take with a grain of salt, but it may help establish a plan of attack like you mentioned.

I have experience with touringplans.com. Great website really worked well for us. We created our own plans using their guidelines

 

[dshimel]

Need more info before I can help much. 1 day? 1 park or both? ages?

If it is all 8-10 y/o and up, and looking to ride e-tickets, the basic plan is pretty standard:

Be at the gates AT LEAST half an hour before open. 45 min better.

At rope drop (8AM):
grab Fastpasses to Star Tours (8:40ish return time)
Ride Star Tours
Ride Space Mt.
(8:40ish) Get Fastpasses to Space Mt. (9:30ish return time)
Ride Matterhorn
Ride Indiana Jones
(9:30ish)Get FastPassess to Splash Mt (10:15-ish return time)
Ride Splash Mt. (may have to reverse this order depending on time)
RIde Big Thunder
Ride pirates or mansion (both depending on return time for splash FP)
(10:15-ish)Get Fastpasses to Indy

It is now somewhere between 10 and 10:30 depending on timing... Park is getting crowded.

If you are park hoping to both parks, not a bad time to head to DCA.

If staying in just Disneyland for the day, shift to the higher capacity (pirates/mansion/Jungle Cruise), or less popular rides. If you have any interest in Fantasyland, Snow, Pinoc and Toad can have pretty short lines that move quickly. Alice is a bit longer wait at most time. Pan is usually the longest wait of these dark rides.

At some point you will want to go into Toontown to grab FastPasses to Roger Rabit.

Keep getting more FastPases as soon as the time for the last one has arrived.

As you get to the really busy time of day (after noon), it is time to use all those Fastpasses you collected in the early morning. Mix those in with shows like Mr. Lincoln and Tiki Room, and the things with short wait like Tom Sawyer Island, Twian, Columbia. Subs is another ride that you are on for a long time, but the wait is not usually that bad, so good for the afternoon.

You should try to catch Billy Hill and the Hillbillies... good show. Arrive early for a table. This is a great place for a between meal snack.

As you move into the evening, keep using those fastpasses you collected earlier, combined with the shows, higher capacity rides, and rides with shorter waits.

About an hour before fireworks, get a spot in the street right in front of the Plaza Inn, just outside the entrance to Tomorrowland.

After fireworks, make your way with the crowd over to Rivers of America to get a spot for the second showing of Fantasmic! The best place is just to the side of the middle light tower, near Cafe Orleans. The tower will be down at ground level and looks like it blocks your view, but a few mins before show time, people climb up on the tower to control the spotlights, then the tower rises up and you have a perfect view..

After second Fantasmic! you will have about 2 more hours for last chance rides. Lines grow steadily shorter as you move toward closing.

Consider riding Matterhorn at night. It is a different experience then when the sun is up. Big Thunder is also different at night.

If you get in less than 25-30 rides/shows/attractions in a 16 hour day, then you did something wrong! It is not to hard too do 35-40, even on a busy day, if you really want to push.

 

[DLR29]

Need more info before I can help much. 1 day? 1 park or both? ages?

If it is all 8-10 y/o and up, and looking to ride e-tickets, the basic plan is pretty standard:

Be at the gates AT LEAST half an hour before open. 45 min better.

At rope drop (8AM):
grab Fastpasses to Star Tours (8:40ish return time)
Ride Star Tours
Ride Space Mt.
(8:40ish) Get Fastpasses to Space Mt. (9:30ish return time)
Ride Matterhorn
Ride Indiana Jones
(9:30ish)Get FastPassess to Splash Mt (10:15-ish return time)
Ride Splash Mt. (may have to reverse this order depending on time)
RIde Big Thunder
Ride pirates or mansion (both depending on return time for splash FP)
(10:15-ish)Get Fastpasses to Indy

It is now somewhere between 10 and 10:30 depending on timing... Park is getting crowded.

If you are park hoping to both parks, not a bad time to head to DCA.

If staying in just Disneyland for the day, shift to the higher capacity (pirates/mansion/Jungle Cruise), or less popular rides. If you have any interest in Fantasyland, Snow, Pinoc and Toad can have pretty short lines that move quickly. Alice is a bit longer wait at most time. Pan is usually the longest wait of these dark rides.

At some point you will want to go into Toontown to grab FastPasses to Roger Rabit.

Keep getting more FastPases as soon as the time for the last one has arrived.

As you get to the really busy time of day (after noon), it is time to use all those Fastpasses you collected in the early morning. Mix those in with shows like Mr. Lincoln and Tiki Room, and the things with short wait like Tom Sawyer Island, Twian, Columbia. Subs is another ride that you are on for a long time, but the wait is not usually that bad, so good for the afternoon.

You should try to catch Billy Hill and the Hillbillies... good show. Arrive early for a table. This is a great place for a between meal snack.

As you move into the evening, keep using those fastpasses you collected earlier, combined with the shows, higher capacity rides, and rides with shorter waits.

About an hour before fireworks, get a spot in the street right in front of the Plaza Inn, just outside the entrance to Tomorrowland.

After fireworks, make your way with the crowd over to Rivers of America to get a spot for the second showing of Fantasmic! The best place is just to the side of the middle light tower, near Cafe Orleans. The tower will be down at ground level and looks like it blocks your view, but a few mins before show time, people climb up on the tower to control the spotlights, then the tower rises up and you have a perfect view..

After second Fantasmic! you will have about 2 more hours for last chance rides. Lines grow steadily shorter as you move toward closing.

Consider riding Matterhorn at night. It is a different experience then when the sun is up. Big Thunder is also different at night.

If you get in less than 25-30 rides/shows/attractions in a 16 hour day, then you did something wrong! It is not to hard too do 35-40, even on a busy day, if you really want to push.

This is a good plan and great advice for a 1 day, all-out trip...but doing this over the course of multiple days would be WAY too exhausting. I think it's pretty harsh to say that if you don't fit in 25-30 things in a day you are touring DLR "wrong". People have different styles. Not everyone can do a 16 hour day...although I am a big fan of them every once in a while.

Also that morning plan is VERY ambitious for a crowded time like August. By the time you get to the Matterhorn on that plan the line will be at least 20-30 min (perhaps higher on Early Admission days). Then trying to squeeze Indy (which will also have a 20-30 min line) and going all the way to Splash's FP machines in there in between 8:40 and 9:30? Yikes! Not to mention trying to ride Splash, BTMRR and one of the NOS rides and get another FP at 10:15...maybe 2 of those 3 (maybe). But I do like the FP order. I've definitely used that a few times and it's worked well.

Also if you're interested in DCA (which you should be), hopping at 10 might be too late, especially for the new Carsland stuff. It'll be interesting to see how morning crowd patterns change when DCA starts opening at 8 also. To the OP, I would stick around here and check this out once DCA "reopens" on June 15th. We're not sure, at this point, if starting at DL or starting at DCA in the morning will be the best option.

 

[Keyser]

Wow, thanks for the great replies! No, I had thought RideMax was just the phone application - I guess I need to look more at it.

We'll be there 3 days with park-hoppers. Kids are girls ages 4 and 10 (and I'm a thrill ride fan...), so sadly there aren't many rides that are totally out for us! We will probably do the be-there-at-rope-drop, break-in-afternoon, return-in-evening plan (the 4 year old will certainly need the break). I know we won't be able to do everything; I'd mainly like to minimize how much time we have to stand in lines, while still seeing highlights...

That one-day schedule is incredibly helpful already, even if we couldn't do that entire plan. Thanks!

We'd probably like to see more of the unique-to-DL/CA rides, plus one or two favorites like Soarin'. We'd be fine to skip things like Peter Pan for instance (assuming it's the same as the one at WDW), which sounds like it would make the schedule easier. Neither of my daughters has any interest in (in fact, they both are afraid to ride) Haunted Mansion and Pirates, which might also help our schedule. I guarantee we'll have to ride the carousel at least once, though...

 

[S. S. Columbia]

... we had good luck with TourGuideMike ...

:secret-TGM-handshake:

You'll definitely want to take advantage of your Magic Morning at DL. The only disadvantage is that the Magic Mornings in mid-August start at 7:00am.

Yes, it's a good idea to line up at the green security tents by at least 6:30am.

Here's some very good advice from DLR29's "Early Admission (MM/EMH/APEE) Superthread" (link):

What's the best "touring plan strategy" for EA?

At DL, assuming you are doing Fantasyland for your EA, in order to have the shortest lines, this strategy is recommended:
(0). Arrive before EA begins and run straight to...
1. Peter Pan (always first!!!)
2. Dumbo
3. Matterhorn/Mr. Toad/Alice
4. Pinocchio/Snow White/Mad Tea Party/King Arthur's Carrousel

If you can get ahead of the initial crowd wave, then your wait times can be fairly short for that first hour. The FP Machines start to distribute at 8:00am (DL's regular opening time). And at 8:00am you will also have the advantage of being inside DL, so you will be way ahead of many guests. If you want, you can stay in Fantasyland for Casey Jr. and Storybookland. IASW would practically be a walk-on around 8:30ish. On a Tues., Thurs, and Sun. in mid-August, ToonTown opens at 9:00am. Just before 9:00am you could line up for the "rope drop" at ToonTown, and then get a FP for Roger Rabbit and ride Gadget's Go Coaster. Visit Mickey, etc.

Ideas!

The general order for FPs in DL is Star Tours, Space Mtn, Splash/Indy or Indy/Splash, Autopia, and BTMRR. I'm pretty sure the FP machines for Roger Rabbit are not connected to the rest of DL's network.

HTH

 

[dumbocutie]

Hey great advice love the touring plan we are doing a do or die day so this is great. And will check out ridemax. Thanks.

 

[dshimel]

We'll be there 3 days with park-hoppers. Kids are girls ages 4 and 10 (and I'm a thrill ride fan...), so sadly there aren't many rides that are totally out for us!

Perfect!

With a 3-day hopper you get 1 day of early entry. On that day you can easily do all of Fantasyland and still be grabbing lots of Fastpasses. On another day you can do opening to DCA. On the 3rd day you can do a toned down version of my one-day commando plan from above.

3 nights means you can do fireworks, Fantasmic! and World of Color on different nights and not try to stress trying to do two in the same night.


Fastpass and child-swap really help if the 4 year-old can't/doesn't want to ride certain rids.


Nap/pool/rest time from about noon-2 until about 4-6 REALLY helps a ton.



Here is what I would do/have done:

1) have a basic touring plan for the rope drops like
Day 1: Early entry. Pan, Dumbo, Matterhorn, other Fantasyland
Fastpasses to Star Tours, Space Mt., Splash, Indy,

Day 2: DCA for Carsland, Midway Mania,
Fstpasses to RSR, Soarin', ToT, Screamin'

Day 3: Disneyland for E-tickets... like my plan above

2) After you have finished the basic "mad dash to the key rides at rope drop" just play it by ear for a couple hours.

3) Take your breaks when you still feel like you could go longer. At noon on that early entry day, you've only been in the park 5 hours and may be tempted to forge ahead and do 2-3 more hours... if you do, then suddenly you are taking your break from 4-8... and at 8PM you are all like... I don't want to go back to DCA for only 2 hours.

4) For your evenings, have shows planned out, but between the shows just play it by ear. You do not need EVERY ride scripted out.
One day, parade and fireworks. Another day, Billy Hill and Fantasmic! Another day, Aladdin and World of Color.... or something like that. You will have hours between shows where you just do whatever is convenient that isn't too much of a wait.

5) DO NOT STRESS
When you are rushing from E-Ticket to E-Ticket in those first two hours, if it feels like more work than it is worth, then stop and slow down. If you are freaked that you may miss a show, then oh well, you miss a show. The plan says Splash, but it is an hour wait... move along and come back later with a Fastpass.

 

[kangamama]

Hi all --- this is my first post here on these boards, but I've been lurking for a couple of months. We (and by "we" I mean "I"!) are planning our first trip to Disneyland, so I'm trying to figure out how to get a touring plan together right now, myself. We are planning to get 2 day park-hoppers, and I have the Unofficial Guide and a subscription to touringplans.com, but I can't figure out how to personalize a touring plan that will let us park hop. Any ideas? FWIW, we are going for a few days between xmas and new years (not the whole week though!) and the ages in our group will range from 18 mos to 74. No joke, the whole family is coming.

 

[ArchOwl]

Hi all --- this is my first post here on these boards, but I've been lurking for a couple of months. We (and by "we" I mean "I"!) are planning our first trip to Disneyland, so I'm trying to figure out how to get a touring plan together right now, myself. We are planning to get 2 day park-hoppers, and I have the Unofficial Guide and a subscription to touringplans.com, but I can't figure out how to personalize a touring plan that will let us park hop. Any ideas? FWIW, we are going for a few days between xmas and new years (not the whole week though!) and the ages in our group will range from 18 mos to 74. No joke, the whole family is coming.

Hello! Welcome!

The good news is that you have lots of time to plan and going to DL during the holidays is so much fun! The slightly bad news is that you are going to DL during the busiest time of the year! It is not uncommon for the resort to hit capacity during the time you selected, so it is good to have a plan. Because it is so busy, you may want to think about a possible third day to really get a chance to see the shows and ride the attractions, especially with Carsland being open.

Touring Plans just recently started their "make your own touring plan". I haven't heard too much here about the reliability of their plans. I do know that their crowd calendar isn't too terribly accurate for DL, so that does make me a little wary. Ridemax has been doing Disneyland plans for years and I have personally used them several times and found them to be accurate. But neither one has a park hopping function that I am aware of. For Ridemax, I tell it to end the plan at the time I want to hop and then tell it what time I will be in the other park. That generally works out ok for me.

The number one piece of advice for you will be to get to the parks early!! The golden hours in the morning cannot be emphasized enough. This will allow you to ride the slow loading rides before they get too crowded. It will also allow you to start collecting fast passes. Additionally, during the time you will be there, Disney may have to do crowd control measures. These range from stopping the sale of one day tickets, to only allowing re-entries, all the way up to not letting anyone in. If you get there early and get your hand stamped, you will be allowed re-entry. This could save you some frustration later on.

Have you read the stickies at the top of the page? If not, I suggest you do so you can get an idea of what visiting in high season means and how to make it work for your family. Do you know if you will be staying off site or on site yet?

Happy planning! I was at DL last year from the 30th of Dec through Jan 3rd. It was the busiest I had ever seen the place, but it was also tons of fun!

 

[coaches24]

We just finished 5 days at the parks and we managed not to wait in any real long lines despite it being quite busy. I have to say I was a little skeptical of what I read on these boards about starting in FL as I always thought it made more sense to go to the big rides that get super long rides like space or Indy. I had never in the past taken advantage of fast pass (well not correctly anyway). This time we made more of an effort to collect FP and we did all of FL first on our MM. I now understand what I always read about collecting FP and see why some were so worried about the rumors of DL enforcing FP times. We were free to go on all the non FP rides early when crowds were low and then when it got busy we were able to use FP to bypass the long lines and we got so many more rides done.

Today was our last day in the park and we left at 1:00 pm when it got too crowded. We did TTMM, PP, Alice, Pinochio, Dumbo, astro blasters, POC (3 times), HM, splash, Winnie the pooh, GGC, BTMRR, JC, Indy (twice) and ST and that was in 5 hours with a couple of potty breaks for DD and DW and we stopped to eat a snack as well. Without FP we wouldn't have been able to do nearly that much.

We did even better on Tue with MM. We got all of FL done, astro blasters, POC, HM, ST and had collected FP for ST, Indy, and BTMRR before heading over to DCA where we saw Soarin twice, ariel, saw a couple shows, did GZ, jelly fish ride (DW and DD did that one as I had to run back to the hotel to get our Aladdin PS vouchers I forgot). We did some other rides I forget as well. It was a packed day (rides wise ) and we saw F! that night with a 2.5 hour hotel break in the afternoon and dinner in DTD.

My point is read everything you can on how to utilize MM and FP and follow it. We didn't have a runner going out of the way to get FP we just collected as we passed and just timed our walks to different sections of the parks with our time for being able to get a new FP. We hit other rides or attractions in that area as we went.

 

[ArchOwl]

We just finished 5 days at the parks and we managed not to wait in any real long lines despite it being quite busy. I have to say I was a little skeptical of what I read on these boards about starting in FL as I always thought it made more sense to go to the big rides that get super long rides like space or Indy. I had never in the past taken advantage of fast pass (well not correctly anyway). This time we made more of an effort to collect FP and we did all of FL first on our MM. I now understand what I always read about collecting FP and see why some were so worried about the rumors of DL enforcing FP times. We were free to go on all the non FP rides early when crowds were low and then when it got busy we were able to use FP to bypass the long lines and we got so many more rides done.

Today was our last day in the park and we left at 1:00 pm when it got too crowded. We did TTMM, PP, Alice, Pinochio, Dumbo, astro blasters, POC (3 times), HM, splash, Winnie the pooh, GGC, BTMRR, JC, Indy (twice) and ST and that was in 5 hours with a couple of potty breaks for DD and DW and we stopped to eat a snack as well. Without FP we wouldn't have been able to do nearly that much.

We did even better on Tue with MM. We got all of FL done, astro blasters, POC, HM, ST and had collected FP for ST, Indy, and BTMRR before heading over to DCA where we saw Soarin twice, ariel, saw a couple shows, did GZ, jelly fish ride (DW and DD did that one as I had to run back to the hotel to get our Aladdin PS vouchers I forgot). We did some other rides I forget as well. It was a packed day (rides wise ) and we saw F! that night with a 2.5 hour hotel break in the afternoon and dinner in DTD.

My point is read everything you can on how to utilize MM and FP and follow it. We didn't have a runner going out of the way to get FP we just collected as we passed and just timed our walks to different sections of the parks with our time for being able to get a new FP. We hit other rides or attractions in that area as we went.

Sounds like a great trip! I had to convince my family the first time we toured together that I wasn't crazy for not making a beeline for Indy or Space at rope drop. However, after the first day, they completely understood the strategy and now refuse to tour without me!

It will be a different ball game if FP return times are ever enforced, but until then, utilizing FP to the max is the way to go! Glad it worked out for you!

 

[kangamama]

thank you for the welcome and the advice! I won't lie, I'm a little terrified. I haven't been to disneyland since I was a kid, and I have a feeling that things have changed a LOT in the last thirty years... All the reports I've heard of crowds over the holidays has really reinforced for me that it is going to be essential to have a plan. Good idea to limit the personalized touring plans to the time that we plan to hop over to the other park, otherwise I really don't know how we would plan this all out... Well, in any event, I'm sure we'll have a good time, I just hope we don't drive ourselves crazy before December!

 

[Hound 109]

OP (& other posters asking for touring advice), a couple of questions that will help us help you.

- Where are you staying (onsite or off site)?
- What time zone are you coming from?
(& to all others.....what are the dates/days of week of your visit?)

You're getting great advice from many of DLR's most knowledgable Dis'ers. Read the tip threads & the advice given. Know how FP works. (Know it cold). Have a plan each early morning. Know how to park hop. Get to the parks BEFORE opening.

The opening of Carsland will alter some of our former favorite touring plans. (probably best to start every other day at DCA for awhile). But the same basic strategies remain. and the following is still basic research for all DLR newbies:

If you are a WDW veteran, then here is your primer.....a must read!!:

HydroGuy's "DLR for the WDW veteran tip thread". http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

Also, lots of good info for the WDW vet in Mary Jo's tip thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=802084


Regarding touring DLR....the two most important things to remember is to:

- Get to the parks BEFORE opening &
- Know how to use FP at DLR.


30 minutes early is typically when security opens (so getting in THIS line 5-15 minutes prior to security opening is best). Being one of the first 8-10 families at Security will get you up front (probably first thru third family) in line at the DL turnstile. Being very near the front of the turnstiles is important (to me) so that:

- If it's an MM day, I'm first on Peter Pan...if i'm first on PP then the rest of MM flows easily. & even if i'm not doing PP, i would want to be first on Matterhorn...or SM (or whatever) during MM.

"Critique of MM/EE" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1392671


- Even on a non MM day, I want to be one of the first few the turnstiles so i can get to the ST, SM (or Indy) FP machine first (to start the FP collection clock). Then we'll hop on our first ride a minute or two later & begin the important first 90-120 min. of the day at DLR.



KNOW THESE FP THREADS:

"Getting the Most Out of FastPass During High Season" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

"FastPass for Dummies and Smarties - A Photographic Explanation" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1186052

"Which Fast Pass First?" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1107718

"Strategies For Using DL and DCA Opening Time Differences to Collect More Fastpasses"
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1553197


"Why I Park Hop" http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1491961


If you have kiddos ages 4-11, then Jedi Training is a must:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1478699

kangamama;45057233]Hi all --- this is my first post here on these boards, but I've been lurking for a couple of months. We (and by "we" I mean "I"!) are planning our first trip to Disneyland, so I'm trying to figure out how to get a touring plan together right now, myself. We are planning to get 2 day park-hoppers, and a subscription to touringplans.com, but I can't figure out how to personalize a touring plan that will let us park hop. Any ideas? FWIW, we are going for a few days between xmas and new years (not the whole week though!) and the ages in our group will range from 18 mos to 74. No joke, the whole family is coming

Why not 4 days? (or most definitely at least 3 days)!! For several different reasons.

Have a great time planning a visit to Walt's park.

 

[kangamama]

Hound109, we are planning to stay at Paradise Pier (upper level, park view), and we are driving down from the Bay Area. We are only spending 2 days in the parks because of the drives on either side, and the fact that half our group will be flying back to NY from our area after the trip south.

Right now the plan is:
Day 1, drive there, check in, have dinner somewhere in DTD, watch fireworks from the roof of PPH, crash.
Day 2, get up mad early for MM in DL, spend through lunchtime or so in DL, back to the hotel for a bit, off to DCA for WOC and dinner, crash.
Day 3, start at DCA for Carsland and RSR, stay through lunch time, break/nap at hotel, return to DL for rest of day/evening/fireworks etc, crash.
Day 4, get up, go to a character breakfast, check out, and drive home.

We may not get to see/do everything, but I'd rather my kids be happy than overwhelmed and exhausted the whole time (they will be 5 and 18 mos) (same goes for my parents and inlaws who are also coming). So, the goal is to create a tight touring plan, so that people can opt in and out through out the day, with a minimum amount of texts/phone calls to one another to figure out where everyone is, what the plan is, where people are going to go next, etc.

(hope I got all the acronyms right!)

 

[Hound 109]

comments below:

Hound109, we are planning to stay at Paradise Pier (upper level, park view), and we are driving down from the Bay Area. We are only spending 2 days in the parks because of the drives on either side, and the fact that half our group will be flying back to NY from our area after the trip south.

Right now the plan is:
Day 1, drive there, check in, have dinner somewhere in DTD, watch fireworks from the roof of PPH, crash.

Sounds good.

Day 2, get up mad early for MM in DL, spend through lunchtime or so in DL, back to the hotel for a bit, off to DCA for WOC and dinner, crash.

On your way back to the PPH, walk thru DCA......pick up a FP, ride a couple of single riders (Screamin' or Griz?)....then thru the GCH to the PPH. Then after your break, you'll a FP to use.

Day 3, start at DCA for Carsland and RSR, I'm assuming early entry?

stay through lunch time, break/nap at hotel,

(have a runner snag a FP in DL prior to the rest).

....return to DL for rest of day/evening/fireworks etc, crash.

Day 4, get up, go to a character breakfast, check out, and drive home.

With a third day parkhopper you could head back over to DL for another MM (depending on what day it is) & get ALOT done early morn of the third day. Let the parents & inlaws sleep in if they want to, while you ride 10-14 kiddie rides in uncrowded early morning bliss......then you can head home in the early afternoon.

Have the character meal your first day (or brunch or early dinner of one of the other two days......but consider doing DL on the last day.

We may not get to see/do everything, but I'd rather my kids be happy than overwhelmed and exhausted the whole time (they will be 5 and 18 mos) (same goes for my parents and inlaws who are also coming). So, the goal is to create a tight touring plan, so that people can opt in and out through out the day, with a minimum amount of texts/phone calls to one another to figure out where everyone is, what the plan is, where people are going to go next, etc.

(hope I got all the acronyms right!)

I also like flexible plans & also believe with a big group, having them opt in & opt out is the way to go. But try to be productive with your little group each morning, & then the REST of the day is far less stressful IMO.

Have fun.

 

[kangamama]

oh yes -- the mornings are all heavily loaded! definitely planning on being productive in the mornings! I was considering adding a third day on the parkhoppers, but knowing our group, two days is probably going to be enough... we've got some time to think about that still, though!

Thanks for the feedback on the early plans!