Julylady
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2005
- Messages
- 2,099
I think you can have it both ways. Some planned, some spontaneous. At least that's how it worked for us. We were there last Easter week with 5 kids ages 9 - 17. They knew the following "rules" going in:
1. We would get up early each day to start at a pre-determined park. We also knew which ride we were headed to first, second, and third.
2. We knew which park we would close with each night.
3. No waiting in lines more than 15 minutes long (until the last day if we still hadn't experienced the attraction.) No exceptions. Utilize fastpass whenever possible. (NOTE: We sent the older kids to get new fastpasses rather than the entire group.)
4. No waiting in lines for autographs. We had scheduled two character meals to take care of that.
5. We had at least one priority seating scheduled for each day so we knew we would have one nice, relaxing meal together.
6. No riding a ride a 2nd time unless there was zero wait and everyone wanted to re-ride.
7. We had a mandatory 2-hour break back at the hotel each afternoon. (Actually, this was mostly for my benefit!). As the week went on, all the kids admitted that having that break allowed them to have the energy to close the park at night AND get up for early entry the next morning.
Oh...one more thing. Several weeks before we went, my 15 year old created a spread sheet with all the attractions listed and had everyone rate them by priority 1-5. He then analyzed the results and came up with a list in priority order. I also studied the individual surveys from each person so I had a good sense of what was and was not important to each person ahead of time. This information came in very handy!
Within these parameters, we were pretty spontaneous and found time for many magical moments. If a park was busy, we hopped to another. If we were hungry, we stopped for snacks. We went during the busiest time and it never felt like commando touring.
1. We would get up early each day to start at a pre-determined park. We also knew which ride we were headed to first, second, and third.
2. We knew which park we would close with each night.
3. No waiting in lines more than 15 minutes long (until the last day if we still hadn't experienced the attraction.) No exceptions. Utilize fastpass whenever possible. (NOTE: We sent the older kids to get new fastpasses rather than the entire group.)
4. No waiting in lines for autographs. We had scheduled two character meals to take care of that.
5. We had at least one priority seating scheduled for each day so we knew we would have one nice, relaxing meal together.
6. No riding a ride a 2nd time unless there was zero wait and everyone wanted to re-ride.
7. We had a mandatory 2-hour break back at the hotel each afternoon. (Actually, this was mostly for my benefit!). As the week went on, all the kids admitted that having that break allowed them to have the energy to close the park at night AND get up for early entry the next morning.
Oh...one more thing. Several weeks before we went, my 15 year old created a spread sheet with all the attractions listed and had everyone rate them by priority 1-5. He then analyzed the results and came up with a list in priority order. I also studied the individual surveys from each person so I had a good sense of what was and was not important to each person ahead of time. This information came in very handy!
Within these parameters, we were pretty spontaneous and found time for many magical moments. If a park was busy, we hopped to another. If we were hungry, we stopped for snacks. We went during the busiest time and it never felt like commando touring.
Whoohoo! What a great kid! Can you put him in my science program!! I also really like the idea. Data, gotta have data 
