Family of 4, 7 days

[SweetPeasMom2]

If you are a family of 4 - 2 adults, 2 kids - and plan on staying 7-8 days, how would you break the parks up?

Tentatively, we will go May 29-June 5 or so.

Any advice welcomed.

 

[Karmel96]

Everyone has an opinion about which parks to visit first, and that may or may not be based on which parks have EMH's, and that's if you plan on using them or not (gee, what a mouthfull!)
So, that all being said, it's really up to you. Personally, I like doing something low-key on arrival day (my kids and us are tired, so we hit DTD). Then we hit the parks heavy for the next 2 days, take another low-key day in before wrapping up the trip. That second low-key day could be DTD (again), swimming at the pool (or doing something else at the resort, like walks or bike rides), visiting other resorts, or even doing a park to revisit some favorites again w/no pressure. We did this on our last trip: The kids went on a pirate cruise from GF while DH and I had a nice breakfast alone and wandered the resort. They came back at lunchtime and we headed over to MK to only do Tomorrowland; we were there a few days earlier but never made it over to that area! We stayed for only about 2 hours before going back to our resort and taking a bike ride. We were all so relaxed that day!
Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Jack&Ryan'smom]

We did 7/8 days in September. I had our days well planned out due to ADR's and it worked out great! Be sure to plan lots of downtime at the resort! My kids were exahusted at the parks and they liked being in the pool the best!
We did:
Arrival Day: Checked in at 3pm...settled in, explored Por and then dinner at Boma
Day 2: MK till after the parade 3:30...kids needed a break!
Day 3: Pool in a.m. Late lunch at Kona and then MK till close.
Day 4: MGM all day (3 hour break at resort durin day)
Day 5: Epcot all day (3 hour break at resort fo nap/swim)
Day 6: AK...not our favorite park, stayed ubtil 2pm...back for nap/swim and then dinner at HDR
Day 7: Resort Day...Swim/Boats...5pm dinner at Chef Mickey and then MNNSHP at night...kids didn't last long...too late of a night!
Day 8: checked out and hit Downtown Disney for shopping before leaving!

I don't think I would have changed a thing. We saw alot but had down time too! Have a plan, but take cues from the kids.

 

[Rylee]

If you are a family of 4 - 2 adults, 2 kids - and plan on staying 7-8 days, how would you break the parks up?

Tentatively, we will go May 29-June 5 or so.

Any advice welcomed.

I would check the park calendar hours and work around that.

Do you have hopper passes? Will you be taking advantage of EMH's? Any dining reservations?

My family insist on 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 2 days at the Studios, 1 at Epcot and 1 at Animal Kingdom. We visit Downtown Disney on the evening of our AK day, since this park usually closes a little earlier.

 

[Aliceacc]

Here's what we have planned for AugustAY

day: am: pm: dinner
WED 8/13 Arrive-- pool Magic Kingdom Chef Mickey’s

THUR 8/14 MK Epcot Coral Reef

FRI 8/15 Epcot MK 'Ohana

SAT 8/16 pool MGM Fantasmic Dinner Pack at Hollywood & Vine

SUN 8/17 AK MK 1900 Park Faire

MON 8/18 DDT Epcot Le’Cellier

TUES 8/19MK Return home

 

[kileybeth]

more information needed! are you 1st time visitors or veterens with favorites?
ages of children and parents
( I ask this b/c my answer would change based on your stamina which for me was much greater with my 1st three kiddos vs. 2nd three!)

staying on site or off? lots of ??? dining plan or no?


personally with 2 toddlers and 2 teens right now, we would do something like this.

MK has to be first
AK (short day)
EPCOT (future world) long day
off day (maybe water park/ DTD/Disney Quest)
EPCOT (countries) long day
STUDIOS end with Fantasmic a must for us
off day (maybe DTD/waterpark/DisneyQuest)
MK has to be last for us

 

[HelenePA]

if I'm correct you'll probably need to plan your days around star wars weekend and gays days, those are the exact dates we went last year, if you dont want long line ect ect you'll need to skip MGM on the days when the star wars people are there, for gays days you'll want to skip the big meet at MK (not that I am anti gay or anything) but it was VERY VERY VERY packed!! We actually did gays days at MK (by mistake) and had a wonderful time!! but it was very very very busy!! here is the gays days calandar http://www.gaydays.com/calendar/

actually it looks like star wars weekends start on June 6th so you'll be able to avoid that! Good Luck and have a great time!

 

[SweetPeasMom2]

Well, it looks as though our plans are going to be for Oct now. With the Gay Days that week (not anything against it) and I didn't realize there was something here that week my kids will need to be here for, we are now looking at Oct.

Dh and I have been before to MK. Our kids, first time. They will be 6 and 4.

We will get hopper passes. Not sure yet about ADRs and EMH. If we are staying on site, most definently.

I'm getting lots of good ideas. Please keep them coming.

 

[HelenePA]

oh dont get me wrong gays days was FINE, it was just the large crowds! I saw nothing I would have tried to hide from my children who were 11months,4 and 6 at the time. NOTHING! It really was fun, met alot of nice people. Just dont do MK on their planned day.

 

[scouthawkk]

This is our plan for the beginning of August. It will be me, DH, DS5 and then DH's little sisters (11 & 14). DS has been before, and does very well full day park, no nap/rest (I usually have to force him to slow down long enough to eat lunch). Makes me tired just thinking about all his energy! The girls have never been, but are always on the go type people...

8/2-arrive noonish to ASMu (family suite)-DTD/DQ w/dinner at Rainforest Cafe, then Cirque.
8/3-AK at open, with hop to MK for EMH & dinner at Crystal Palace (DS's only request for the trip)
8/4-MK after breakfast at Chef Mickey's
8/5-Resting day/water park (haven't decided which yet) w/ dinner at California Grill for anniversary and fireworks (DH's request. We've been before, and he wanted the kids to see the fireworks from there.)
8/6-Epcot w/ dinner at Le Cellier
8/7-DHS w/ lunch at Sci-Fi
8/8-Wild card park day, the kids get to pick. And with 2 adults, we may split up. Dinner at 1900 Park Fare
8/9-check out and DTD for last minute shopping before heading out of town

I'm sure there will be other hopping involved along the way, too.

I know this will work for us because I know the kids well. We (DH & I) aren't the comando style park goers. We have a general idea of what we want to do, fastpass what we can, and hit the other stuff when we can. We do stop for small rests on a bench or curb to watch people go by. DS doesn't like that too much, but he deals with it ok...as long as he has some popcorn or ice cream, he's happy! If the kids get too bored at the park we're in, we can hop to another, or go back to the resort for swimming, or whatever. Our main thing is to be easy going and enjoy what we can without killing ourselves.

Have fun planning!

 

[Disneyolic]

We have been when we had 2 boys (ages 2 & 4) and then with 3 kids (ages 7, 6 & daughter 3) for a week both times. We found that keeping it limited to 1 park per day worked the best for us. We did have 1 day of Blizzard Beach/DTD in the middle to break things up.

On our last night we did MK late EMH and stayed until 1 am. We had taken a good break in the evening before going back to the MK. The kids loved doing this. We were all tired for our return trip home but who cares? We had a great time.

 

[Mrs. Chilly Twist]

plan plenty of swim time...sometimes the kids are not so interested in the parks when there is a beautiful pool at the resort!