help! touring plan strategy for 3 gen trip???

[wdwpracticalprincess]

Absolutely LOVE DIS veterans! Don't know what I'd do without you!

We are doing two MK days for our upcoming trip in Oct. One day, it will be our little nimble family (me, DH, DD8.5). The other day it will be us PLUS my mom, MIL, FIL. Wondering about touring plan strategies you might use? At first, I thought we'd just do Josh's EasyWDW cheat sheet (NOT character-centric) for two-day MK, which works great for our little family, but maybe not with grandparents. Then I thought maybe I should do a custom plan using Touring Plans, but I'm thinking not as efficient as Josh's?

Grandparents are 66, 67, 76 and don't want to do any roller coaster, spinning, rough rides. We want to do everything (except M&Gs)!

In theory, we (little family) are planning on doing RD on both days.

Hellllppppp! Thanks for the advice!

 

[ksinniger]

How mobile are the older generation? If they can generally keep up with you, then you might not need to veer away from the 2-day plan all that much. They can rest while you guys ride the rides they won't do, and they still get to experience it all with you.

We took my mom back in November, and she's fairly mobile. She would sit while we rode coasters and other rides she was't interested in, and was able to stay with us for most of our days. I made sure to plan some later mornings for her, time when she could chill at the resort, and it worked out perfectly.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The older generation will want to do everything except Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Tea Cups and maybe BTMRR and the mine ride. I'd also skip kiddie rides like Dumbo and Barnstormer. There are plenty of things for them to do. They'll just sit out if they don't want to do it.

 

[wdwpracticalprincess]

MIL/FIL are pretty mobile. My mom (76) will definitely be in a wheelchair -- she walks with a cane in real world, but won't be able to keep up at Disney. My concern with Josh's 2-day plan, is that it goes land by land which minimizes walking/waiting. Works fine for me, DH, and DD, but grandparents will essentially be doing MK in 1 day. Do I use Josh's one day plan for them and just nix the coasters? Hopefully there will be some overlap?

 

[avic77]

I would plan the Nimble family hit the Mountains and rides grandparents wont do on your "Nimble day" On the Grand day plan a more laid back pace. Do not criss-cross the park a lot, hit the major shows that appeal to the older crowd and skip the others if need be.

 

[wdwpracticalprincess]

So would you stick with Josh's 2-day plan, 1-day plan, custom plan from TP, or some crazy combo of both? Or should I throw all efficiency out the window and just be happy to ride/see what we get to ride/see? My brain hurts.

 

[avic77]

Id go with the 1 day plan and follow it but skip things Grand parents wouldnt do.

 

[Lucius Best]

If you want to hit as much as possible with the grandparents, and keeping the group together, then I'm assuming you don't want to be doing roller-coasters where they will either be sitting on a bench or going off on their own. Like previous poster said, on the nimble family day, jam in as many coasters (and rides grandparents won't want to do) as possible.

On our trips with 7yo and grandparents, we had two different MK strategies. Both days did 7DMT at rope drop (grandparents could handle it but said once was enough). One day would be Fantasyland morning, do as many rides in Fantasyland as possible. Another day would be Frontierland mornings, after 7DMT, run over to Splash/Thunder (7yo's favorite) and do those as many times as possible. I like easywdw, but haven't looked at his touring plans, I'll just throw out some ideas:

On "nimble day", I would FP 7DMT and 2 mountains of choice. Either hit 7DMT standby at rope drop first, or just head straight to favorite mountain to get rides in before lines get long. Use FP for mountains early, 7DMT FP around lunchtime. Get as many additional FP as possible. Do rides that 8yo wants to do that grandparents won't want to do (teacups? Barnstormer?).

On "grandparents day", I would FP 7DMT and/or some of Haunted Mansion/Pirates/Jungle Cruise. Fantasyland rides first (7DMT? Peter Pan, Pooh, teacups, Dumbo, Mermaid, Small World). Depending on timing, counter service lunch at Pinocchio or Columbia Harbor House at some point, or make ADR Liberty Tree Tavern. Loop out through Frontierland/Adventureland using FP: Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Tiki Room. Get a 4th FP at kiosk for Buzz. See Philharmagic, and other sitdowns like Hall of Presidents or Country Bears depending on time. Head towards Tomorrowland for Buzz FP, Wedway, Monsters Inc, CoP?

 

[avic77]

Edit to say i second what Previous poster suggested!

 

[Jannephotog]

Did 1 day in MK with grandma who's pretty mobile but wasn't down for too many rides last May. We wound up doing lots of shows (which was cool because we wouldn't necessarily do them normally), riding the whole loop on the train, a couple rides on the TTA & more like that. Also had a nice time bonding just hanging out & people watching while we waited for some of our group to get off their FP+ attractions, like SM. Was nice to have a slower paced day & see things a little differently than normal.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

On the day they will join you could you hit the coasters and stuff at RD then have the grandparents join you around 11 when you can all do the rides everyone wants to enjoy?

 

[wdwpracticalprincess]

LOVE it, DISers! Thanks for the suggestions! I am trying to discourage RD for grandparents precisely so we can RUN to 7DMT, MTNs, etc during early morning. I think we'll be ready to slow it down after that. Only potential setback is park hrs that day are 9-7pm AND I'm pretty sure it's a MNSSHP night. Any adjustments I should make if this is the case?

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

We have gone with my parents at least 5 times. The last trip they were into their mid 70's. You might be surprised how well they do. We tried to keep everyone together. They tried most rides except space, dad was hurt on it the year or so after the park opened. Just keep in mind they might need to use the bathroom more than you ever thought, they might like a relaxed dinner, and the time with your kids and them will be priceless. I think they are some of my kids favorite memories. You might find they get tired, it is a lot of walking for anyone. I would stick to one land at a time. We jumped around once, it was not as fun because they were tired but just would not say so. ps my parents liked rope drop. They get up earlier than us, they loved the preshow. It was afternoons and evenings that were when they struggled. I would book chef Mickey or pooh. Grandparents liked those esp. Pooh great photos.

 

[Lucius Best]

LOVE it, DISers! Thanks for the suggestions! I am trying to discourage RD for grandparents precisely so we can RUN to 7DMT, MTNs, etc during early morning. I think we'll be ready to slow it down after that. Only potential setback is park hrs that day are 9-7pm AND I'm pretty sure it's a MNSSHP night. Any adjustments I should make if this is the case?

I haven't experienced MK on a party day since FP+ came out. The general thought is that the park is less crowded in the morning of a party day. There will be people staying all day for the party, but many people who aren't attending the party will be doing MK on a different day to see Wishes. Note that party guests will be entering as early as 4pm, and with their party tickets they can make 3 FP+ in advance from 4pm-7pm. That could make the lines swell a bit after 4pm. Crowd levels will also be affected by what day of the week you'll be at MK.

 

[Kathryn777]

We took my parents on our last trip. They kept up with us I had to build in sitting time. So things I'd normally skip like Tiki room, laugh floor, etc I added to my Plan so they could get a break. There never seemed to be enough places for them to sit. The hardest thing was keeping everyone together without spending all my time keeping everyone togerther

 

[wdwpracticalprincess]

Our "nimble" day is on a Sat in Oct for MSEP and Wishes. Our "grandparents" day is the following Thurs. We *were* planning on staying til our 7pm close then catching monorail to GFC for 8:10p ressie. Maybe they do need to do RD with us.

 

[Lucius Best]

Our "nimble" day is on a Sat in Oct for MSEP and Wishes. Our "grandparents" day is the following Thurs. We *were* planning on staying til our 7pm close then catching monorail to GFC for 8:10p ressie. Maybe they do need to do RD with us.

Rope drop would be the best time to whip through Fantasyland rides with the grandparents. Another option to factor in, if your grandparents are fine sitting down and resting while you ride something like BTMRR or 7DMT with FP, you could take their Magicbands and get two rides back-to-back.

 

[Kathryn777]

I took my parents to rope drop. Other than convincing them to do it, it went great. They walked and we ran we met up at Peter Pan with no wait

 

[wdwpracticalprincess]

you could take their Magicbands and get two rides back-to-back.

Could you elaborate a bit more? I'm a total FP+ / MB newb. Do you mean I should try to get FPs for them too for those rides at 30 days out with ours, then when it comes to ride time, simply use their MBs to ride again? Would this work the same with RFID tickets? Not sure we are all getting MBs (staying offsite). Thanks!

 

[Lucius Best]

Could you elaborate a bit more? I'm a total FP+ / MB newb. Do you mean I should try to get FPs for them too for those rides at 30 days out with ours, then when it comes to ride time, simply use their MBs to ride again? Would this work the same with RFID tickets? Not sure we are all getting MBs (staying offsite). Thanks!

You'll want to read mesaboy2's FP+ guide before you get to your 30-day window
http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

As far as I know, RFID tickets should work exactly the same as Magicbands for entering the park and entering FP queues. If everyone has park tickets beforehand, you can link those tickets to your 'My Disney Experience' account, then you'll be able to make FP for all 6 of you. Say you make a FP+ reservation for all 6 of you for 7DMT, if the grandparents decide they don't want to do it, the nimble family can ride once with your own FP, and then swap RFID tickets or MB with the grandparents and ride again with their FP.

On our trip, the grandparents didn't do coasters, I offered to reserve them different FP (such as Pirates while we were riding Thunder) but they didn't want to split up. So two of us would swap MB and ride again with the grandparents FP.

Note if you're staying offsite, you should be able to get FP for the rides you want, with the exception of 7DMT, that has been known to run out of FP+ more than 30 days out.