First timer-overwhelmed!

[Katina128]

We are newbies, going in May, and I'm completely overwhelmed! Where do I start when planning this trip? Our hotel is booked. I guess I need a dining reservation for each day, plus character meet and greets? Any tips for a newbie?

 

[monkyby87]

First thing would be to learn all that you can about FP+. Understanding that will help you overall for the entire trip. I don't have the links, but there is a whole FP+ section of these boards. After that, look into what dining options you want. You don't need a reservation for each day, but if you want a decent sit-down place you will want to book those ADR's (advance dining reservation) as soon as possible. What hotel have you booked? Is it on-site or off-site?

 

[BrianL]

Are you onsite or off? Things can vary a little depending on that. Also, do you plan to hop or not? Water parks?

Anyway, I would start by using a good crowd calendar. I like EasyWDW but many like Touring Plans. Plan out your days based on parks, hours, etc. Then start looking at ADRs. You don't necessarily need one for every day, unless you want to.

For Fastpasses start here:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

That's the best resource for planning FP+ priorities. If Meet & Greets are important to you some of them offer FP. Read a lot here and ask questions. You'll be a pro before you know it.

 

[Maxpowers]

You can book dinning reservations 180 days out. You should try to get them now if you can/want to.

FP+ you can select your fastpass at 60 days out if you are staying on property. Use the my disney experience app to do this. But as the previous poster mentioned there are a number of threads on FP+ on these boards.

This page has good info as far as crowd calendar and extra magic hours. So you can figure out which parks you want to go to each day.

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/

 

[monorailrabbit]

There is a lot of helpful information on this board - definitely check out threads on FP+Did you book through Disney? You can book dinning ressies on their website, as well as link your magic bands. If characters are important to you - check out Kenny the Pirate's website - he has great info! I'm a big fan of character meals, would definitely recommend getting ADRs for these!

 

[Katina128]

We are staying at Orange Lake Resort, so off site in a time share. We are driving down, so will have our car if needed but I think they may shuttle to WDW. Will check on that. I'm reading all I can. Thanks so much. I will check the calendar but I think it will be crowded no matter what as it is Memorial Day weekend and the week after. :/

 

[glassslippergirl]

With lodgings booked and dates set, I'd start here:

Step 1: Choose your park days. What parks are your going to on what days? There's four parks. I'd really like more information about what time of year you are going, how many days are you staying, how many days did you buy or do you plan to buy tickets for? Do you have kids? But without that info, I'd recommend that you start with a crowd calendar like easywdw.com and find the recommended days for each park during your stay. This will help you maximize your time.

Step 2: With park days set, you can make your ADR's (dining reservations) 180 days out. Try to make reservations at least close to where you'll be when it's time to eat. If you will be in Epcot at lunch time, make a reservation for lunch at a restaurant in Epcot. If you plan to take afternoon breaks at the resort, plan dinner at the resort or plan dinner for a time when you can comfortable get back to the park. WDW is huge, and you don't to spend more time on traveling around the resort than needed.

Step 3: If you're planning a while out, you have some time to relax after you've made your ADR's. Read up on the resort, parks, attractions. Talk with each other about what you want to do. Some people like to buy Disney clothes for their trip, some people make a countdown calendar-- whatever suits your fancy, or just relax.

Step 4: If you're staying on property, make your FP+ reservations 60 days out. I agree with PP's to read up on the system. The link provided above is a great one, especially the first few posts. If you're staying off property, you make FP+ reservations 30 days out.

Step 5: Pack (good packing resources here), finalize plans, etc.

When you look at it as just a few steps, I hope it's less overwhelming. Have a good trip.

 

[BrianL]

We are staying at Orange Lake Resort, so off site in a time share. We are driving down, so will have our car if needed but I think they may shuttle to WDW. Will check on that. I'm reading all I can. Thanks so much. I will check the calendar but I think it will be crowded no matter what as it is Memorial Day weekend and the week after. :/

I can't speak for all of them, but Offsite shuttles are usually not very good or only take you to certain locations and expect you to pick up Disney transport from there. If you have the car, I'd use it, unless the shuttle is convenient to your destination.

 

[rwdavis2]

I can't speak for all of them, but Offsite shuttles are usually not very good or only take you to certain locations and expect you to pick up Disney transport from there. If you have the car, I'd use it, unless the shuttle is convenient to your destination.

I agree use your car instead of the hotel transportation. You'll have to pay to park but the convenience is worth it.

 

[Katina128]

We are going May 26-June 4. Our kids are two boys ages 15 and 12, and a daughter age 5. We have not bought tickets yet, but will do so with the tax return when it comes back, through my husband's employer which gives a discount. I'll go look at the calendar. Thanks!!

 

[lovethattink]

Welcome to the DISboards! I'm a "local" but have stayed on sight the last three years during your time frame. It's a great time to go!

My oldest and youngest are 10 years apart as well. Back when the age difference was 15 and 5, we found splitting up at times to be helpful; with me and one ds going to an attraction or M&G and dh taking the oldest on the coasters and such.

 

[loves to dive]

First, I'd say relax and take a breath. It can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be. You mention meet and greets so I'm assuming you have little ones so you probably aren't going to want that many table service restaurants unless those are character buffets. Character buffets can be great if you don't get those all elusive meet and greets since there are characters roaming around while you eat. They can be expensive, we never did them when mine was little but that is just because I'm not fond of buffets. There are quick service restaurants in all the parks, these are walk up restaurants that don't require reservations (advanced dining reservations - ADR) and are a little less than table service. You can take your own food into the parks. Since you are staying off site I'd definitely plan on driving your car back and forth to the parks, the shuttles that are provided by most off site resorts only run at certain times. There is a parking fee at each park.

Now on to planning, I'm not big fan of the touring sites and planning calendars simply because for one, they are best guesses by the people who run the sites based on previous year's attendance. And two, tt's a pretty good bet there are going to be factors thrown in that are going to screw with those calendars and you may end up disappointed if you arrange your whole day around thinking a park is going to be less crowded then they said it was. Having said that, they do have a few good suggestions as to what order to get your fast passes in so they are worth a look. You will find different people on these boards have different styles of doing the parks. Some like to plan their day down to the minute and use color coded spreadsheets and everything, you could be opening yourself up to a lot of frustration and pain if you go this way and even one of your plans goes south. There are others who do rope drop (when the park opens get there before it opens) and then ride as many rides as they can before it gets busy and book their fast passes for around 11 or even after lunch. Your fast passes will guarantee you at least 3 experiences, choose wisely grasshopper. Then there are others (I'm in this crowd) who might maybe book their fast passes a couple of weeks in advance and hit a rope drop or two and just wing it. This will mean you will be standing in some lines, no matter how busy or not busy the parks are so going this route is only for those who don't need to ride as many rides as they can in the course of a day and actually find waiting in line kind of relaxing.

It really is up to you but keep in mind, the parks are big, it will be warm (o.k. hot) and most likely will rain at least once during your stay. Rain is not a bad thing at the parks, it cools it down and a lot of people leave, giving you a whole lot more park to play in. You will NOT be able to do and see everything there is to do and see. Go in knowing that and you will not set yourself up for disappointment from the get go. If you have little ones, let them determine your speed, you might be surprised that they are enjoying just looking at the amazing things all around them. If they get tired, stop and rest, don't try to push them, nothing worse than a whining tired hungry youngun. Enjoy yourselves, don't get caught up in running from here to there and have to do this and have to do that and you forget to just stop and enjoy the moment.

 

[RustManFan]

We have never done a meet and greet and maybe zero or one dining reservation a trip. All depends on what you are looking to experience...

 

[tlmadden73]

May 26 - June 4?

That's a long trip .. the longer the trip the less planning you may really need. My suggestion is don't stress out and overplan .. you simply may not know what you want to do until you are actually there. That is half the fun .. discovering the parks on your OWN time and pace.

Just plan which days in which parks now. At least one day in each park . .then you can plan your dinner reservations and Fast Passes later. Again .. don't "stress" about them . they basically just let you skip three lines per day. Sure there are ways to be "efficient" with them, but since this is the first trip then just pick the ones that look good to your family.

What are your kids "into" -- what Disney charactes or stuff do you think they want to see . .that may help determine what parks to hit and what characters to meet.

My suggestion on park days
Magic Kingdom - 2-3 days
Animal Kingdom - 1 day
Hollywood Studios - 1-2 days (because of the age of your kids)
Epcot Studios - 1
Plan a day off in the middle for a break.

Meals .. don't reserve more than 1 per day .. and only if your family wants to have "sit-down" table service meals. So don't sweat it unless there is a restaurant or two you feel you really want to go to. Some families are fine with eating counter service all the time or bringing a bagged lunch (it's cheaper by far).

Character meet and Greets .. you can plan those out if there are specific ones you want to see .. or just take it easy and just check them out AS you see them as you wander through the park .. To me those are the cooler moments .. "Hey look, there's Buzz .. let's wait in line!"

 

[mickeyluv'r]

You don't need a dining reservation for each day. You might want to book one or two character meals.

My general suggestion is to keep it simple. Disney is pretty big, and you can't know your favorite things until you see them in person.

It is prudent to think of WDW as a multi-trip destination if you are able. We've been many times, and still discover ways to improve our touring year after year.

Even if this is a one time deal for you, I'd suggest keeping your trip to the basics: one park each day with an opportunity to take a break - at least one afternoon or full day.

Also plan that WDW is LOTS of walking and standing. The more you increase your endurance, the more you'll see. By that I mean: getting in shape before you go, investing in quality footwear, and if necessary- renting a scooter/using a stroller for family members with limited endurance.

What you will want to book is the 3 fastpasses each day. That does mean picking which park to visit each day.

Also know that transportation from place to place takes a good deal of time. Gettign from your room to your first ride take a good deal of time, no matter where you start/end.

I also suggest driving vs. shuttle. Shuttle often only go once an hour or less, which is very limiting.

If you have AAA, they are a decent source of information. I prefer booking my own stuff vs. going through them, but they offer a January bonus. If you don't have a membership, just the WDW info alone is almost worth the cost of AAA, especially since they give newbies bonus deals.

 

[Skywise]

Agree with the other posters here - A lot of it depends on why YOU are going to DisneyWorld in the first place -
Are you going with children?
What ages?
Princesses or pirates (or just rides?)
fancy restaurants or fun restaurants (or both?)
Shows? Fireworks? Parades?
Some general rules of thumb:
First - divide it down by what parks you want to hit (For instance my family wasn't big on Animal Kingdom and aren't that big on many of the Future World exhibits at Epcot so I was able to plan my trip around MK, DHS and World Exhibit at Epcot). MK and Epcot are 2 days parks and DHS and AK are 1 day parks (EG the amount of time you'll need to comfortably see everything at a leisurely pace)
The rides are pretty easy to figure out for each park - What's not so obvious are the parades (although this only applies to MK now), fireworks and other shows/exntertainment that happen throughout the day. On-site resort events/dining are also things that tend to get missed. (EG If you have daughters you might look at the Grand Floridian Afternoon Tea)
I'd start by figuring out what parks you want to do and what you want to do in each park - that'll give you an idea of how much time you'll need for each park and what a loose schedule will look like. For example if you want to see Wishes that means you're going to spend one evening in or around MK. Do you eat in MK (Be Our Guest or a QS resturant), do you eat at one of the MK resorts (Ohana, California Grill?) or do you go back to your resort for an afternoon siesta, eat there and come back?

Part of this reflects on costs - If you decide to spend one day at MK and then half a day (maybe the next morning) maybe you'll want to get park hoppers added to your tickets so you can switch to another park for the evening.

Once you've got a good idea of what you want to do and what restaurants you absolutely have to eat at (or not!) then you can start building a real schedule of what days you want to see each park. For instance I always try to plan Wishes for the last day of our trip as a "capstone" to finish off the trip.) Don't set this in stone yet though because the real fun is about to begin!

Now fire up MDE and start trying to get dining reservations for the restaurants you want to see - The sooner you can do this the better as ADRs for the popular restaurants tend to go quickly. if you can't get ADRs for the time slot you're looking for you might look into rearranging the days you visit each park if you can get ADRs on a different day.

These will become your anchor points for your trip.
At 30 days out (60 days if you're staying onsite) you can reserve FP+ for rides for each park - I tend to schedule these around any dining plans I may have made as it makes it easier to do other things if you have to rework your plans at the last minute. (EG it rained on my DHS day and rather than spend the day at DHS we decided to resort hop around MK and then just show up at DHS for our FP+ and then ADR immediately after rather than trudge through the park - YMMV)

It sounds like you're going to be there for a week so I'd schedule some "down" time - spend a day at your hotel or maybe hit a water park so you can kick back and relax and just... have fun! You're on vacation, right?!

 

[Katina128]

Thank you everyone. I am checking the calendars as to see which days each park is least crowded and will go with that. We aren't doing Disney the whole time. We want to go to the beach at least 1 day as well, maybe 2. So we will have down non-Disney days. I was thinking beach on the first day there, then hit the parks and end up at the beach the last day. That way we get some ocean therapy first and last. LOL

 

[gdrj]

I would recommend one of the many travel books. To me a simpler one with basic information is Birmbaums Disney World Guide http://www.amazon.com/Birnbaums-2016-Walt-Disney-World/dp/1484720326. There are plenty of others which are as big as War and Peace. I' like some of the other but for a newbie I like this. Having FP's and dining Resv's as mention is a good start.

 

[patster734]

Have you created a My Disney Experience (MDE) account on the Disneyworld website? You will need it to set up FP+ and ADRs. If you have a smartphone, you should be able to download the MDE app so that you can view/add/delete/modify your ADRs and FPs if your within your window.

Once you have purchased your tickets, you will need to link them to your MDE account prior to setting up the FP+.

As a PP said, determine your park days now, but be flexible. Once you hit your 30 day FP+ window, a particular FP+ may not be available on the day you had anticipated, so you may need to shift park days around to acquire the wanted FP+.

Good luck and welcome to the Disboards.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Ten days is quite long. I'd definitely plan a non-park day in there. Mind, there's plenty to do at WDW, it is more that we kind of need a break from WDW crowds after a while.

If you are a condo, you will most certainly want to scope out a good grocery store and plan a stop. I suppose if driving you can bring some stuff in the car, but we prefer to stop for perishables vs. using a cooler. On the high end, there's an awesome Whole Foods near SandLake Dr (lots of bonuses that most stores don't offer- like a hot buffet, brick over pizza). Mid-level is Publix, which offers quite a few quality prepared foods good for travelers. There are a number of Publix in the area. There's also several places like Walmart, but they tend to offer big boxes of food. More than you need for a week, IMO.

You probably will do well - if eating out quite a bit - to eat a few meals off property. There's tons of options in the area. If you have a smart phone, it is easy to find options that way - complete with reviews. Your best days to eat off WDW are your arrival non-park, and departure days. Most days, eating lunch in the parks is best time-wise. Some MK days, we also hop over to one of the Disney resorts via monorail for a break and a snack.

We aren't into carrying bagged lunches with us. It is too much hassle to carry food around all day, especially in the heat.

In the parks, it pays to arrive early. It pays even more to stay late! The parks are best after dark. DO see the night fireworks and shows! They area all among the best ones WDW offers.

You don't need a huge elaborate plan to tour the parks, but it often pays to think a little outside the box. Zig when the crowd Zags. A simple trick - avoid the restaurants at noon. Eat lunch either a little early or a bit late. Similarly, at 9am, many guests go to the FIRST Epcot ride they see- Spaceship Earth. So you do well to simply keep your wits about you when touring. Know that the parks are most crowded from 11am to about 5pm, and plan accordingly. If you sleep in, and don't arrive at the parks until 11am- you'll arrive to the longest lines and greatest congestion.
My other big tip, don't freak out about weather reports before you go. Much of the year, WDW often gets short downbursts. DO consider inexpensive plastic ponchos (find in camping section of big box stores come spring). We also bring very compact rain jackets, and use those if the forecast calls for more extensive rain. DO have the guys wear cargo shorts. DO drink PLENTY of water every day! DO bring your smartphone. My suggestion is to avoid carrying around tons of stuff all day.

Driving to WDW is also lots of fun! Along the way, it pays to be quick, but it also pays to avoid too much fast food. With a little planning and a smartphone there are many great roadside options. Checking out different kinds of barbeque and regional foods is fun! When we drive, we often stop for a night in one of the cities/towns along the way. There are many inns with inexpensive rates and a decent breakfasts.