Feeling overwhelmed

[FutureMrsF]

Hi

I am super super excited for our first family trip to florida next May but I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed with the level of planning required and where to start.

I know at 180 days out we can book ADR and then at 60 days our fast pass+ but it's really hard at this stage choosing which restaurant to go to on which day and therefore also which park and rides.

Any advice on where to start and what happens if we change our minds?

How does anyone ever know what to book restaurant wise?

Sorry for the mini meltdown I'm just worried I will get it all wrong

Thank you

Andrea

 

[flortlebap]

Hi!

I absolutely don't blame you for feeling overwhelmed. It's tough enough with as many trips under the belt as many regulars on here have I honestly don't know how I would manage without experience with all the changes lately.

Anyway have you any idea about which restaurants you want to do? If not, check out the popular choices as they're usually a good place to start (but everyone has different taste!).

In terms of parks, have a look at easyWDW or touringplans to see where the least crowded days are.

Make a list of your must dos and keep them on one side. For shows like wishes where I know I'm going to be up late I usually plan for a sleep in the next day. I also leave a couple of free days so we can chop and change when we are there. Work out whether you want to swim/nap in the afternoons too as that can really help. And plan at least 2 MK days and one for each of the other parks to see as much as you can.

 

[FutureMrsF]

Hi!

I absolutely don't blame you for feeling overwhelmed. It's tough enough with as many trips under the belt as many regulars on here have I honestly don't know how I would manage without experience with all the changes lately.

Anyway have you any idea about which restaurants you want to do? If not, check out the popular choices as they're usually a good place to start (but everyone has different taste!).

In terms of parks, have a look at easyWDW or touringplans to see where the least crowded days are.

Make a list of your must dos and keep them on one side. For shows like wishes where I know I'm going to be up late I usually plan for a sleep in the next day. I also leave a couple of free days so we can chop and change when we are there. Work out whether you want to swim/nap in the afternoons too as that can really help. And plan at least 2 MK days and one for each of the other parks to see as much as you can.

Thank you so much that is a really big help to get me started.

We have disney dining plan so I guess I could look at the restaurants on the list to start as well.

I know DD really wants to do at least one character meal as she loves Pluto.

The websites to look at crowd levels will help and thank you for the tip on how many days are usually good for each park.

 

[clambert1273]

This is our first time going to Disneyworld. I was also overwhelmed the level of planning I needed to do 180+ days in advance (luckily we had booked already).

I can tell you what I did to kind of ease it out... I made a list of the parks and then places we wanted to eat (in the parks) and another list of places to eat out of the parks. I gave us a rest day in the middle of the week and the day we arrive (driving down) we won't be doing any parks.

I took the list of my parks and decided what I wanted to eat in each one. We KNOW (from our experience with DisneyLand) that we want at least one TS per day - just to wind down. I knew that with my 7yo diva I had to get Cinderella's Royal Table so I started there.

For the day we get there, we did Chef Mickey's for dinner I picked MK for Sunday and marked off CRT and CP (yay me!), then AK on Monday where another was marked off, Tuesday is rest day from the parks lol so that was a good day to Beaches & Cream for lunch.. Wednesday is HS so we did the Fantasmic package, Thurs is Epcot so got Coral Reef and Fri is MK again.. BOG and Liberty Tree for that day... then our day leaving on Saturday we did the Ohana breakfast

It worked having everything laid out in front of me and just moving from one park to the next then whatever I wanted outside the parks to do on days we aren't in the parks

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

One of the most helpful pieces of advise we got on our first trip was that on the first full day you will be awake really early like 4-5 am because of time difference, so this is a good opportunity to do a character breakfast or get to the park for rope drop.Then as you adjust to Florida time then that's the time to do later reservations and things like Wishes
I look at www.allears.net for restaurant reviews, but only take them with a pinch of salt, theirs no pleasing some people ;-)

 

[Elise79]

I know it's a lot to take in!

Firstly with restaurants have a look at the menus and get a shortlist of the food that appeals to you. IMHO I find the food at the resort restaurants better than the in park restaurants.

For character meals check out which characters are at which meals.

You can find the menus here on the Dis, on allears.net and then also on the WDW website.

Personally I like touring plans although there is a small subscription fee I find the information better and like the new touring plans.

I would plan at least two days for MK and Epcot and one each for DHS & AK as a start.

Don't worry even if you book early nothing is set in stone and is all changeable

 

[khibs]

First thing would be to decide whether your going to be up early and do rope drop & early magic hours or will be staying in bed and heading out a little later. This will help you decide on what park each day. As a previous poster said you will find yourself up very early to start with so i would def make the most of those magic hours. Also book a breakfast before park opens it's a great experience to be in the parks before the crowds arrive. We personally feel that the hotel restaurants have much better food than the park restaurants so def have a look at some resort restaurants, although do consider the amount of travelling you might need to do. I would say 2 days in MK as a minimum! When we go we spend our mornings in the parks leaving about 12/1pm once it's at peak crowds then would go to the pool/nap time & head back out somewhere in the evening for a meal or into parks for night time shows etc. Good luck with the planning just remember you won't be able to fit everything in so just pick the most important things you want to do.

 

[FutureMrsF]

I really like the idea of an ADR before park opens. Can anyone tell me which restaurants are best for this, what sort of time that would be and what happens when the park opens would we just walk out the restaurant into the park?

I love the idea of rope drop but our kids are not early risers so not sure we would make it otherwise so the early ADR could fe a good idea.

Thanks everyone

 

[Elise79]

Any of the in park restaurants that offer breakfast work just pick your favourite Once you have finished eating just edit to the park and assuming it's open just go and enjoy. Once we finished before the park opened do they just held just outside the restaurant for a few minutes.

Bare in mind that with the 5 hour time difference you will be up early the first few days so make the most of it

 

[petals]

We don't do alot of adr's as we don't like having to be at a certain place at a certain time but adr's we have done is O'Hana and Tusker house for breakfast. Loved O'Hana. Tusker House was fine but wouldn't do it again. We've also done Sci Fi and Crystal Palace for Lunch and both were great.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

The best thing about ADRs is you can change your mind as often as you like, just give the restaurant 24 hrs notice through MDE,concierge or by your room phone. It would be good to get most of your must dos booked at 180 days then you know your not going to be eating somewhere you may not have wanted to eat at if there's nothing else available.
Our favourites this year were 50s Prime Time at HS, Grand Floridan Cafe and Yachtsman Steakhouse

 

[maclondon]

Hi

I am super super excited for our first family trip to florida next May but I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed with the level of planning required and where to start.

I hear you - I'm in the same boat - I've been left with doing ALL the organising,
my strategy is this...

wait until opening hours are announced, check easywdw for recommended parks. go with those for fast passing, put it all down - work out where you will be at for you dining times check out the best that you will like

and relax
you can easily change dining - for all but the odd place.

I'm on free dining - will probably use one double credit table and 4 normal - and all the quick services, paying for breakfast mostly.

we are 5 days onsite - 9 off site - so im even more chilled about those other days - ill be booking afternoon fast passes for them on recommended parks, plus i'll plan on which days we're doing universal, sea world etc.

pen and paper are your friends (or a spreadsheet)

don't sweat it if you don't get something. there's lots to do, the endless you MUST get 7DMT / A&E fastpass nonsense is irrelevant - esp for first timers like us.

 

[maclondon]

In the meantime you can start blocking out
Look at the days for 2014, use days of the week rather than dates as it will all be shifted by one - should be a good guide - though EMH/recommended parks may well change - you can start planning then switch when the days are set.

 

[scoobydooby]

At this early stage I would apply planning principles. Then you just place them on your plan when the EMH come out.

For example. Over a 14 day trip your planning principles may be.

7 rope drops with morning at the parks, rest or swim and evenings back at a park.
5 sleep ins.
2 none park days.
Do you need to follow park evenings by a late sleep? This helps you consider how to stagger your schedule.

So now you know you have 12 park days.

How many parks do you want to visit?

Now work out how many of those 12 days get allocated to each park.

Which parks need a rope drop to get the most from the rides.

Now you should be at your basic outline plan. Knowing when are where you will be, just not which specific days.

Look at this to decide where ADRs fit best.

Work out which parks need which FPP at what time depending when you plan to enter the park and how long you plan to stay.

At this point you're basically done until you can drop those plans into specific days based on the EMH schedule.

I can do this in about an hour now and just sort out the details when they release ADRs and park hours.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

Don't listen to the negativity about FP+, as this is your first trip they will be invaluable, but, look at park maps when booking them so you are not walking from end of the park to the other and back again, for example, MK book Splash Mountain, Big Thunder mountain one after the other as they are next to each other, then you can book a third somewhere else, it's blooming hot, but lovely, in May and walking shouldn't be faster than a stroll, you do not want to be racing around and the parks are BIG! As for ADRs think about what you would like to do and book at 180 days, breakfast at Kona Cafe is fab, I'm doing it again and the Big Kahuna will fill you up most of the day. Doing it through My Disney Experience is easy and if you change your mind cancelling is simple, you can do it up to 24 hours before the reservation without incurring a charge. By booking the ADRs first you have plenty of time to work out the parks you need to be at to get to your ADRs, so you work the FPs around them. People are making it out to be a lot harder than it actually is, so don't panic.

 

[FutureMrsF]

I honestly don't know how people plan a disney holiday without these boards. Your advice is so helpful I really can't thank you all enough.

We actually only have 6 days at disney staying in the Caribbean beach resort and then we've got 4 nights at universal so I'm going to have a look at the websites you've all suggested and start writing down a rough plan to maximise those 6 disney days.

Thank you all so so much

Big disney love and appreciation to you all

X

 

[scoobydooby]

Don't listen to the negativity about FP+, as this is your first trip they will be invaluable, By booking the ADRs first you have plenty of time to work out the parks you need to be at to get to your ADRs, so you work the FPs around them. People are making it out to be a lot harder than it actually is, so don't panic.

I agree to ignore the FPP negativity. In some ways it's worse if you've used the other system, considerably so, and in some ways it can be better, also considerably so. It's what we've all got so I say just exploit it to your advantage as far as possible.

But personally I would never book my parks around ADR's. I always plan everything else first and fit the ADRs in around that. You can eat anywhere. You can only do Disney at Disney. The foods not anywhere near good enough to plan a trip around IMHO. I enjoy Disney dining for sure, but if I was planning food as a priority of a holiday Disney wouldn't be my first, second or even tenth choice.

 

[MrsJobba1]

I know exactly how you feel-

We have been to Wdw 8 times but our last visit was back in 2011 before the invention of My Disney Experience & Fadt pass+!
We are returning next April and feel like total newbies - it's taken a lot of support & questions to get my head around these! So feeling overwhelmed is totally understandable !

Look at the different parks , their rides & attractions and make a list of what your family would like to do - prioritise , then look at the crowd calendars and pencil in which park you would like to do when! You can then look at the different menus and think about where your family would like to eat.

One piece of advice I would give stems from our very first visit ( back in 1998)

We hadn't done the research and just visited the parks day after day - on our 3rd day we were at Magic kingdom and it was round 3pm , dh and I were shattered and sat down on some of the rocking chairs outside of the hall of presidents attraction -well we both fell asleep ! I woke up after 15 mins with some Japanese tourists taking photos of us!

Since then when we plan what we are doing we always build in some chill time ( rest days) for example if you go at rope drop, spend 4 hours then go back to your hotel for a swim or nap then go back to parks in evening - Don't try to do it all! Or you too could be in someone's photo album asleep! Lol x

 

[FutureMrsF]

I know exactly how you feel-

We have been to Wdw 8 times but our last visit was back in 2011 before the invention of My Disney Experience & Fadt pass+!
We are returning next April and feel like total newbies - it's taken a lot of support & questions to get my head around these! So feeling overwhelmed is totally understandable !

Look at the different parks , their rides & attractions and make a list of what your family would like to do - prioritise , then look at the crowd calendars and pencil in which park you would like to do when! You can then look at the different menus and think about where your family would like to eat.

One piece of advice I would give stems from our very first visit ( back in 1998)

We hadn't done the research and just visited the parks day after day - on our 3rd day we were at Magic kingdom and it was round 3pm , dh and I were shattered and sat down on some of the rocking chairs outside of the hall of presidents attraction -well we both fell asleep ! I woke up after 15 mins with some Japanese tourists taking photos of us!

Since then when we plan what we are doing we always build in some chill time ( rest days) for example if you go at rope drop, spend 4 hours then go back to your hotel for a swim or nap then go back to parks in evening - Don't try to do it all! Or you too could be in someone's photo album asleep! Lol x

This really made me chuckle thinking of you both in someone's photo album

We only really have 6 days to do disney so sadly I don't think we will be able to take a whole rest day but I like the idea of taking the afternoon out.

What sort of time do the parks shut in May, would we get much time for rides etc in the evening or would it be the parades and fireworks?

Thank you

 

[tinkandonaldfans]

As you have 6 days I would consider not going to a water park unless that's a must do for your family! Then I would allocate a day each to the four parks and then for the last two days pick the parks that have the most family appeal! From there I would check out the restaurants in the park or nearby hotels! The less travelling you do the better as you will end up spending all your time going back and forth to reservations. I look at the menus and think what what would my party eat and if I think there isn't much for someone then I look elsewhere! I would also factor in fireworks! I think they will make all the planning and stress worthwhile but they do make your day a long one so a pool/ relaxed morning helps!

Try to remember that you can't do everything and that you may change your entire plan when you get to grips with everything! Don't plan every hour, those shops are hard to avoid and before you know it you've spent an hour looking at everything and doing the obligatory hat pictures!

Although this may be your first trip I could pretty much guarantee that it won't be your last so you can save some things to do for then!

Have fun most all and if the plan is ruining the trip then ditch it!