Does this seem unrealistic?

[abckid]

Using Ridemax and going through some tips from DIS'ers, this is a schedule I came up with for first day. It seems so unrealistic though It's next Thursday and we are not using our MM that morning, so we are staying clear of Fantasyland. We don't have any TT Morning Madness tickets but our youngest kids are dying to go to Toontown, so that's why we are planning to go there as soon as it opens and spend a couple of hours. Dh is dead set against going back to the hotel for a "rest" every day, so the first day I was thinking of going over to S.S. Rustworthy to let the kids play in the water during the heat of the day. We also have PS for WCT at 4:10. One of the things that makes me nervous is that we will have to use our water ride fastpasses in the evening. Also, dh wants to go back to the hotel after the fireworks, which disappoints me because we'll lose 2 good hours of rides. However, I do think we will all be exhausted from a long day so I'm considering what he wants. Give me some honest opinions here, please

6:00 Rise and Shine
6:45 Breakfast
7:15 Shuttle
7:30 Line-up
8:00 Collect Indiana Jones Fastpass
Ride Indiana Jones and get Babyswap passes
Ride Pirate's of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Collect Splash Mountain Fastpass
9:00 Toontown! Collect Roger Rabbit Fastpass
Mickey's House
Minnie's House
Gadget's Go Coaster and get Babyswap pass
Chip and Dale's Treehouse
Donald's Boat
Goofy's Playhouse
Roger Rabbit and collect another Fastpass
Character Meet and Greets if available
11:00 LUNCH
12:00 Collect Soarin' Over California Fastpass
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
1:17 Orange Stinger 5min.
1:27 Jumpin' Jellyfish 5min.
1:40 S.S. Rustworthy
2:00 Collect Grizzly River Run Fastpass
2:48 Maliboomer 15min.
3:00 Toy Story Mania 35min.
King Triton's Carousel 5min.
4:00 Collect California Screamin' Fastpass
4:10 Wine Country Trattoria
Use California Screamin' Fastpass
Use Grizzly River Run Fastpass
Use Soarin' Over California Fastpass
Use Indiana Jones Fastpass
Use Splash Mountain Fastpass
Ride Adventures of Pooh
Get a treat from Pooh's Corner or Ride Haunted Mansion
Ride Train from New Orleans Square to Toontown
Use Roger Rabbit Fastpass
Ride It's a Small World 15min.
9:00 Find a place to watch the Fireworks
9:25 Fireworks
Catch the Shuttle Back to the Hotel
11:00 Light's Out

 

[austinosphere]

8:00 Collect Indiana Jones Fastpass
Ride Indiana Jones and get Babyswap passes
Ride Pirate's of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Collect Splash Mountain Fastpass
9:00 Toontown! Collect Roger Rabbit Fastpass
Mickey's House
Minnie's House
Gadget's Go Coaster and get Babyswap pass
Chip and Dale's Treehouse
Donald's Boat
Goofy's Playhouse
Roger Rabbit and collect another Fastpass
Character Meet and Greets if available
11:00 LUNCH

I think you have one extra fast pass run planned than you'll be able to get in. You have that you'll get Indy FP, so let's say that's like 9am you can get your next set, so you're getting Splash Mountain, and let's say that's 1030am - so forget about getting Roger Rabbit ones - that early you should be able to walk on anyways - and since you're already making the sacrifice to spend so much time in TT before 10 - might as well get them on the rides as soon as you're over there, then let them do the playhouses after?

Also when you ask about realism - here's what my family has learned: When we set hard and fast expectations, THAT's when we get disappointed. I'd be afraid that one or two rides taking longer than expected, and the whole schedule is thrown off.

We try to tell the kids 'we'll see' if we can go on this ride or that - and if we get there and the line is silly - then we say oops we'll have to do this later/another visit.

Best of luck! Hope you have a great time rock on!

 

[abckid]

Well, they open at 8. So we'll get Indy FP at 8, and hopefully pick up the Splash Mountain FP on our way to TT before 9. We for sure wanted to do Mickey's House First because that's the only thing the little ones are looking forward to (they have no idea what Disneyland is, except I told them that Mickey lives there). And I heard the lines for Mickey and Minnie's grow super fast. So we thought we'd catch a Roger Rabbit FP on our way to Mickey's, because it's not connected to the network. We were planning to stop at Roger Rabbit again on our way out of Toontown. Depending on how much time we have, we will take a ride if the standby line is short and collect another FP if we can or we will just grap another FP on our way out of Toontown if we can.

We are going to be there for 5 days, so anything we don't get done in the beginning we can catch at the end. I am also prepared to skip rides if it's not working out. I just want to have a good idea before we get there because I'd rather skip rides than sit around wasting time figuring out what to do next or standing in a long line because it's the closest around.

 

[Eeee-va]

If you're careful not to tell your kids your plan, I think it will work, because as you said, you can skip over any rides that are too busy. I would expect VERY heavy crowds on Thursday evening because it's just before the So. Cal APs get blocked out until August. I'm using a Ridemax plan on Saturday, so if my laptop survives the trip to CA I can post how it works. Saturday is a blockout date so if the plan does NOT work well then I'll be VERY skeptical of how well the rest of the plans will go. I'm worried that Sunday-Tuesday will have some glitches because of the likely near-record crowds, but we'll see. If nothing else, the mornings should work pretty much as Ridemax predicts, I think.

The 8 AM - 9 AM block does sound a bit optimistic to me...just walking through Indy's queue takes a while, plus riding (twice, right? with the child swap? that's 10 minutes total without any queue or walking at all). PotC plus Haunted Mansion will be at least 24 minutes, not including any walking or queue time. (And realistically you'll actually arrive at Indy at 8:05 or something, right? That's what my Ridemax always said about my first ride of the day--not 8 AM, but 8:05 or so.)

Anyway, I'd be a bit surprised if you made it to Toontown by 9 AM if you're doing the Indy child swap, but hopefully you can! Other than that, as long as you're open to dropping rides in DCA as need be, I think you'll do fine.

Have a great time!

 

[Disney Dreams]

I think you have a LOT planned in there. In my opinion, too much. What happens if you want to take a picture? What happens if they see Cinderella or Chip and Dale and want a picture? Your entire - very tight - plan comes to a halt... with no time built in to recover.

At 4:00, you are getting California Screamin' Fastpasses. I don't care for that attraction, so I don't know the answer to this question, but someone else will read this and have the answer. You are eating at 4:10 and then planning to use the Screamin' FP. I am guessing this will be around 5:30? I don't think the FP will "pop" that early. Anyone?

Also, it appears to me that you are planning on using a ToonTown FastPass shortly before the fireworks. ToonTown closes prior to the fireworks. I think you may be using this FP too late, but it's a little tricky to tell for sure what time you think you will land there. Just something to think about.

Fireworks: Where are you planning on watching them from? You have given yourself 25 minutes prior to showtime to find a spot. I may have missed it, but I don't see how old your kids are. If you have strollers, etc... and are planning on Main Street, this is not enough time.

I agree with you 100% that you want to ride the "wet" rides before the sun goes down. Trust me on this. You will be much happier.

My final thought: You have 5 days - why go so commando style? I would cut back your plan. Allow time for the unexpected, wonderful, unplanned moments, and enjoy - rather than worrying about being behind schedule on vacation.

- Dreams

 

[austinosphere]

...because it's not connected to the network.

You're right I forgot about RR not being connected.

 

[PinkBudgie]

This is my thought- yes, it is a lot. But bring the schedule with you. It at least gives you an idea of what the lines will be like at different times. That's what I figured when I was making my Ridemax plans.

We will be arriving on Wed and leave the next Wed, (with Sat blackout) and I still feel like I don't have enough time! When I put in time for our two PSs and the shows I want to see, I feel like we are running of time. I even made up several schedules for some days, just in case. But then, I'm nuts.

 

[abckid]

Thanks guys, I knew you could help! I put in Ridemax that we wanted to go on a "slow" pace and also tweaked the schedule a little to give us a little extra time here and there (like an hour at Redwood and an hour at S.S. Rustworthy), but I still felt that this schedule was way too optimistic.

Dang, I didn't know next Thursday was the last day for SoCal Ap's! I'm sure it will be packed I'll have to take that into consideration.

I wasn't planning to actually ride IJ twice in the morning. I was just going to collect the Baby Swap tickets for later. Ridemax says we can get IJ, POTC, and HM in the morning before 9am, but I'm fine with skipping HM too. My dh and older boys are super excited to ride IJ and POTC as their first rides, especially before we head to Toontown for the little ones LOL

I thought about the FP's not being ready by 5:30 for CA Screamin' but I thought I'd give it a try. I've heard people say it's not a super duper busy ride so I had my fingers crossed. Maybe someone can help me out here? We might just have to skip it on the first day.

I don't know how else to do the wet rides in the day. Maybe I'll skip Splash Mountain on the first day and grab a BTMRR FP in DL instead. And then I can have us ride GRR during the afternoon instead of some of the less popular DCA rides. That might work.

Oh, thanks for the info on Toontown too. I forgot to check what time they close! I need to look that up.

As for the fireworks, nobody in my party wants to set up camp to find a spot early. So we are just planning to walk somewhere by 9 and take whatever we can get. I would love to get a nice spot on Main Street, but it's never going to happen. My dh would go crazy if we were trapped in the middle of that giant crowd Last time we went to DL, we just watched the fireworks from the line at Matterhorn....

I'll tweak this schedule and then bring it with me for reference. I don't want to be a DL nazi, but I do like to have an idea of what to do when. We don't usually follow my schedule exactly, but we're always glad I have one. This is the first time I'm using Ridemax though, and I honestly don't like it very much We'll see how it works out.

 

[GrandBob]

I'm exhausted just reading that schedule!

 

[abouley]

Just a heads up....no water at the S.S. Rustworthy! I'm not sure why they don't have anything turned on anymore but we were just there 2 weeks ago and although my kids LOVED playing on the boat, no water. If you want water, head to bugs land!

For our family, we really like to have a plan for the mornings and then play the afternoons/evenings a bit loose especially when we have 3 days or more! 5 days is a long time. The afternoon "rests" (which for our family involve back to hotel to swim for an hour or 2) really do help me and my kids love playing at the pool about as much as being at Disneyland (even though we have a pool in our backyard at home!)! We usually have at least 1 long day at first to knock out a lot of the must do's and then take it easier the rest of the days!

 

[abckid]

No Water! That changes everything We are going back the hotel for swimming and naps, but dh doesn't want to do it every day I figure the first day the older boys are going to be so excited that they'll want to stay in the parks anyway. But we do need a "break" and water will be necessary. I was choosing S.S. Rustworthy so that we could do rides on the pier. I didn't really want to do Toontown and Bug's Land in the same day. Oh well. Thanks for that tip cause I didn't realize the water was turned off.

 

[abouley]

There's a water play area right at the entrance to bugs land so you don't actually have to go into it...but of course you do still have to walk over there and that has you backtracking a bit with your plan!

 

[bumbershoot]

"You have 5 days - why go so commando style?"

Agreed. I mean, a bit of commando, having a nice idea of a plan, is good, but even to me that all seems like a lot!

I didn't really want to do Toontown and Bug's Land in the same day.

Why?




Where are you staying? How old and tall are your kids.

I'll tell you, my kiddo who was under 42" was VERY frustrated by the Redwood trail. He was too little to do the two really really interesting things, and just b/c he has his personality, not excited to do things like the rope areas...he ended up just playing in the water area, laying down in it even, and that's pretty much all he wanted to do or was tall enough to do. That area was a BIG disappointment.


About Screamin', I'd shoot for the Single Rider line instead. Yes it can go awry, as my hubby knows, but I've had really good luck with it.

 

[abckid]

I was planning the Redwood Challenge for the older boys while the younger boys were sleeping in the stroller. They will pass out after Toontown. My older boys are 8 and 9 and 50" and 55" so they should be able to do everything I think.

I don't know about the single rider line. My boys want to ride with us, and I am too chicken to ride with strangers LOL I get really shy around people I don't know and it makes me nervous. I know it doesn't make sense, cause we're going to be busy on a roller coaster. LOL

 

[broncoblue399]

With that tight of a schedule I will be seeing you and at least one of your kids having a melt down. You have 5 days to do it all, relax and remember your on VACATION. Every time we try and get all the big things in in the first day we end up with blisters and one of us having a melt down. Vacations are for fun not adding stress!

 

[PinkBudgie]

I don't know about the single rider line. My boys want to ride with us, and I am too chicken to ride with strangers LOL I get really shy around people I don't know and it makes me nervous. I know it doesn't make sense, cause we're going to be busy on a roller coaster. LOL

I understand completely. I don't want to do single rider on things either because it is more fun to scream next to your spouse, child, or friend than it is next to someone you don't know. In TSMM, I like being next to my DH while we play. It just doesn't seem as fun to play with someone I don't know. So we wait in line together even if it is longer.

 

[HydroGuy]

Dh is dead set against going back to the hotel for a "rest" every day, so the first day I was thinking of going over to S.S. Rustworthy to let the kids play in the water during the heat of the day.

Bummer. Maybe he could take 5 minutes and read my thread on summer touring?

"Getting The Most Out of a Summer Visit To DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1345319

8:00 Collect Indiana Jones Fastpass
Ride Indiana Jones and get Babyswap passes
Ride Pirate's of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Collect Splash Mountain Fastpass
9:00 Toontown! Collect Roger Rabbit Fastpass
Mickey's House
Minnie's House
Gadget's Go Coaster and get Babyswap pass
Chip and Dale's Treehouse
Donald's Boat
Goofy's Playhouse
Roger Rabbit and collect another Fastpass
Character Meet and Greets if available

I do not think there will be time to get to TT at 9AM with your above schedule. If you ride Indy at 8:05 you will finish by 8:15-8:20. POTC will then take 20 minutes. So then it will be 8:35-8:40. HM will take 10 minutes. Splash FPs will take another 5 minutes. You will have to be moving fast to make it to TT by 9AM. It may be more like 9:15.

I see your plans for DL are modest this morning. I prefer to not ride POTC or HM this early in the morning because the rides take so long (especially POTC) and the lines are near zero. If possible I would save them for 10-11AM. But if going early is the only way to fit them in then go for it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I was planning the Redwood Challenge for the older boys while the younger boys were sleeping in the stroller. They will pass out after Toontown. My older boys are 8 and 9 and 50" and 55" so they should be able to do everything I think.

So there are those boys and then younger children?

FWIW, on Screamin', you're seated two to a row. Once those harnesses are down, you can barely see the other person, and you do NOT want to be craning your neck around to see them, lest you get caught like that for "take off".

I do SR all the itme for that, and once the harness is down I feel alone. Heck, I'm so involved in getting into the seat that after the initial "hi" is done, I feel alone. Single Rider there is unique in that way...to me there's hardly a reason to ride with someone you know, becuase you won't be seeing them anyway! It's not worth the time to me.

FYI on Indy, if you don't fill your row, a single rider or a smaller group will very likely be put with you. For the baby swap, you'll want to know that that is going to happen.

 

[labattblue]

Well, they open at 8. So we'll get Indy FP at 8, and hopefully pick up the Splash Mountain FP on our way to TT before 9.

I'm confused. Is this assuming that the Indy FP return time is before 9AM? Otherwise how can you obtain FP's for two attractions so close together?


Does Ridemax factor this in because when I was playing around with it a couple of weeks ago, it spit out a schedule similar to this(FP's close together) and I thought it might be a mistake.

 

[S. S. Columbia]

I'm confused. Is this assuming that the Indy FP return time is before 9AM? Otherwise how can you obtain FP's for two attractions so close together?

At MK (WDW), the first FP return time is ~ 1 hour 5 minutes.

AT DL the first FP return time is ~ 45 minutes.

If you get a FP for Indy at 8:05am, then the return time could likely be ~ 8:50am.

HTH