How To Avoid Overscheduling Anxiety

[Ava]

Thanks for your perspective on this topic! I feel I read it at just the right time! I'm currently making TPs for our August trip and am slowly feeling sucked in by an obsessive need to "make the most" of this trip. This is only our second family trip to WDW and last year, upon reflection, I definitely overplanned.

This year I hoped to do RD when we could, midday breaks when possible, and evenings with FPs. But as I make my plans I can feel the noose of anxiety starting to squeeze. Sprinkle in about 8 ADRs over a span of 10 days and I'd say I'm headed for disaster! Oy!!! I said I wouldn't make the same mistakes but here I go again!

Can someone please give me their perspective on this...? How do you make your decision on when to do RD and when to do late evenings? Honestly, we can't do both! We'll be exhausted! I remember all too well last year. And where oh where do you fit in afternoon breaks without wasting so much time? I'm trying really hard to not overplan, then I think I'm underplanning. I mean, only 8 things to do at AK from 9am to noon? Come on!

The good thing is we'll be staying at the Poly, so convenience of location is a plus. And our kids are 12, 15 and 17. They actually got the monorail/boat by themselves a few times last year when we stayed at the GF.

Can someone shed some (more) Disney wisdom? Much appreciated!

My kids are much younger, they'll be 6 and 2, but here are my plans for our August trip. On the days we're visiting two different parks, I'm going to schedule our FP+ at the evening park. We're also on a Free Dining bounce back, which is why we have as many ADRs as we do. But we love character meals since it lets us meet characters without waiting in lines.

Thurs (arrival day) - no parks, just swim at resort

Fri - MK rope drop, 11:30 Crystal Palace lunch, nap/swim break at hotel, back to MK until ~8pm

Sat - AK, 11:30 Tusker House lunch, nap/swim break at hotel, get to Epcot ~5pm, 6:00 Via Napoli dinner, Illuminations

Sun - no parks, sleep in/swim, 5:05 Chef Mickey dinner

Mon - 8:00 Akershus breakfast, tour Future World until 11:00 then go over to World Showcase, tour & have lunch until ~1pm, nap/swim break at hotel, back to Epcot ~5pm to finish up FW

Tues - MK morning, nap/swim break at hotel, DHS evening 5:45 Sci-Fi dinner and either Fantasmic or Frozen Fireworks (probably will go for the fireworks since we saw F! last year but I'm waiting for the final schedule)

Wed - sleep in, Blizzard Beach, "Mommies Night Out" in the parks (aka DW and I leave the girls with our moms, who are joining us, and go to the parks alone for a couple hours)

Thurs - AK all day, 5:00 Boma dinner

Fri - DHS morning, 11:15 Hollywood & Vine lunch, nap/swim break at hotel, MK evening, 6:10 BOG dinner, MSEP & Wishes

Sat - travel home


Last year we had a shorter trip (6 full days instead of 8) and I didn't give us any full days off. We made it, but by day 5 we were so tired we barely made it to DHS in time for the Frozen processional at 11:00am. This year I made sure we have sleep in days after the later nights, and only one 8:00am ADR (after an early night) since those were rough last year. I didn't even bother trying to utilize AM EMH, even though we're staying on site, since I know it would be hard to get there in time and the kids would just be grumpy.

 

[Ambear]

The title of the thread is "How to avoid overscheduling anxiety" yet many sources of that scheduling anxiety are not addressed by OP's touring plan aside from they didn't do it (ADR's) or mention it (M&G). That's why I said it could work for some but it's not for everyone. Beyond that, I have no interest in debating you.

How many times are you going to edit that to not debate with me? Regardless, we agree it's not for everyone. But you excluded a whole group of people. That's all that I don't agree with. Nbd!

 

[wisblue]

Most little ones wake up before the crack of dawn so rope drop is a great idea. Most need an extended break midday And then Hitting another park in the evening at a slower pace with FP+ Seems to work well.

I think it's a perfect combo for little ones. We did this last trip when my kids were 11 and 5. I had to wake them up for rope drop that trip since by this age they slept in more. But when my older child was under 7 he woke up by 6 am everyday.

Our general approach to WDW really started 24 years ago when our daughters were 1, 4, and 6. We stayed at the Poly and were up early for Magic Mornings or whatever they were called then. There were a lot more rides on Dumbo and the carousel and none on Space Mountain or Spalsh Mountain until they got a little older. The girls would spend time playing in the play area in the old Mickey's Starland. We would leave the park by noon and spend several hours at the Poly for pool and/or nap time. We would do a character breakfast every trip.

Now the mix of attractions and the length and form of the midday breaks have changed, but the general approach is still the same.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Most little ones wake up before the crack of dawn so rope drop is a great idea. Most need an extended break midday And then Hitting another park in the evening at a slower pace with FP+ Seems to work well.

I think it's a perfect combo for little ones. We did this last trip when my kids were 11 and 5. I had to wake them up for rope drop that trip since by this age they slept in more. But when my older child was under 7 he woke up by 6 am everyday.

Each family needs to take their own family's needs into consideration when reading any advice, of course. Not all kids are early risers- not even all toddlers (speaking from personal experience there ), so while this schedule might be perfect for some families, it is less so for us. There's good info in there for us to take and tweak to what will work for us, though, even with schedule differences.

TBH, park hours is one reason we're really excited for our DLR trip this November. They are working pretty perfectly with DD's schedule at the moment.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Each family needs to take their own family's needs into consideration when reading any advice, of course. Not all kids are early risers- not even all toddlers (speaking from personal experience there ), so while this schedule might be perfect for some families, it is less so for us. There's good info in there for us to take and tweak to what will work for us, though, even with schedule differences.

TBH, park hours is one reason we're really excited for our DLR trip this November. They are working pretty perfectly with DD's schedule at the moment.

Trust me I know about not all kids being early risers. Lol

DS would be up before the sun. DD woukd sleep until 10 am from birth. She's 9 now abd can sleep until noon if I let her. It's a nice change from DS.

Even with DS being an early riser when he was younger. we've only done AM EMH once.

I definitely agree everyone has to do what's best for their family and situation. WDW isn't one size fits all.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The title of the thread is "How to avoid overscheduling anxiety" yet many sources of that scheduling anxiety are not addressed by OP's touring plan aside from they didn't do it (ADR's) or mention it (M&G). That's why I said it could work for some but it's not for everyone. Beyond that, I have no interest in debating you.

OP was up front regarding their parameters. You didn't say it wasn't for everyone. You said it wasn't for folks with kids and didn't even specific height or age limitations.

Little kids aren't tall enough for half the rides the OP listed they did.

Actually, many children are. Most of my kids have been tall enough for the mountains by age 4. Leaving out only Space Mountain and and R&R. (And maybe EE, but I don't know the height for that.)

What is shocking is that a lot of 3 year olds are also tall. (Not in our short family--poor kids have to wait.)

For kids that are not, we employ baby swap.

That leaves an incredible range of children who are tall enough for those rides.

So I am not even sure what you might be getting at. Do you have children? What ages and heights might they be?

 

[Mad Hattered]

For someone who historically never rode many "headliners" in the past, you sure knocked it out of the park this trip! Congrats!! It must be FP+.

 

[Alfalfa]

So I am not even sure what you might be getting at. Do you have children? What ages and heights might they be?

I do. And how old/tall they are is really none of your business. What I will tell you is that "overscheduling anxiety" as expressed by many on these boards is often manifested from M&G's and ADR's, two must-do activities for many families with children. And that was my point if it helps you understand what I was "getting at".

 

[Alfalfa]

For someone who historically never rode many "headliners" in the past, you sure knocked it out of the park this trip! Congrats!! It must be FP+.

And multiple times! Way to go!

 

[Mad Hattered]

In all honesty, seeing the recent waits for HM on non-10 level crowd days was pretty ridiculous. How long does one wait in SB for 3 rides on it during those crowd levels? Did you do them all at RD?

 

[MouseMum]

Or with kids. We employ many of the strategies of the OP. Except instead of a break at the hotel, we slow down and do non-attraction things like Sorceror's, for example.

I agree. A break could be getting out of the heat and into a/c!

 

[wisblue]

or longer

In all honesty, seeing the recent waits for HM on non-10 level crowd days was pretty ridiculous. How long does one wait in SB for 3 rides on it during those crowd levels? Did you do them all at RD?

Those 3 rides were on 3 different days. They were all between 9:30 and 10:30 AM on days on which the MK opened for EMH at 7 AM, as it did every day last week, until Saturday. The posted wait times were all 20-25 minutes and the actual waits were about 10 minutes shorter than that.

To give you an idea of how we approached the MK, on Easter Sunday we arrived at MK at 6:30 after the 5 minute bus ride from WL. When the park opened we did, in this order, 7DMT, Space, Buzz, PP, BTMRR, Splash, POC, and JC, finishing with JC at about 9:30. At that point my daughters decided that they wanted to get pictures with Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny so we went back to Main Street and I took a rest on a bench at the train station while they got their pictures. When they finished with that, the young ladies in the colorful dresses who would be appearing in the Easter Parade before the FOF parade came out, so we got some pictures with them too. By then it was about 10:15 so we went back to Liberty Square to see if we could do HM before our 11 AM lunch at LTT. The posted wait was 25 minutes so we got in line, prepared to leave it if it looked like the wait would be longer. But, it was obvious very quickly that the wait would be less than 25 minutes, and we were on and off the ride in plenty of time for lunch.

Maybe I should also add that, with one exception, we did not do any one ride twice in one day, even though there were several opportunities to do that early in the day for those who like to re ride things immediately. The exception came when EE broke down just before we would be boarding and they gave us an "any attraction" FP. Because we weren't sure if EE would be up and running before we left the park, we used the FP for a second safari. When EE did reopen, we used the single rider line.

Those standby lines in the middle of the day are pretty much irrelevant to us because we simply ride at other times. Because we have often visited at holiday times we have never expected to ride headliners in the middle of the day with short waits, so it doesn't really matter to us if the wait time is 30 minutes or 60 minutes or longer because we will be riding when the wait time is shorter.

 

[MouseMum]

I'm also going in August and have two kids ages 15 and 9.

I've been 4 times before. My first two trips were severely underplanned and offsite. My third trip was overly planned. Lots of ADR's and plans plans plans.

Our last trip and fourth trip was very nice. Rope drop, midday pool breaks (no naps) and PM park with PM ADR. My kids were getting annoyed by the ADR's at night since it didn't leave much time to PM touring.

This next trip is 11 days/10 nights and I've mixed up our late nights, early mornings and ADR's. We're mostly doing rope drop, midday pool break and pm park with FP+ at the pm park.

Rope drop for us is arriving about 15 minutes before rope drop so we try to leave the resort by 8-815. Midday breaks are usually us leaving the park around 1230, in the pool by 1ish, out the pool by 4 and back to the park by 5ish.

Wed - Arrival Day by 11 am, MK all day (FP+), Chef Mickey dinner, Wishes/parade

Thurs- Epcot, midday pool break, Ohana dinner 515, MK in the evening (FP+), maybe watch MSEP and Wishes from Poly beach

Fri - 815 BBB, MK, CRT lunch 1205, midday pool break, Epcot PM EMH (FP+)

Sat - sleep in, pool time, get to MK for PM EMH (FP+) around 5, 830 BOG dinner, stay until park close

Sun- rest day, pool time, Cali Grill adult only dinner, room service for the kids

Mon- Leave Poly/Check into BC, BB 10-2, MM F! dining package 440, DHS PM EMH (FP+) until park close

Tue - AK, midday pool break, Epcot (FP+)

Wed - sleep in, rest, pool time, DTD, boardwalk----basically whatever we want to do

Thur - DHS (FP+), midday pool break, Epcot WS

Fri - sleep in, pool time, MK (FP+) by 2, BOG lunch 215, Wishes from TTC, Epcot PM EMH (basically just to walk through to get back to BC)

Sat - Cape May Café 1050, leave to go home


That's how I've split it up to give us down time and park time.

Thanks! Looks like I'm on the right track at least, this time.

 

[BugsDaddy]

Actually we follow a nearly identical schedule with a now 3 yr old who has been going since he was 6 months old and it works quite well with him. We consider afternoon breaks a must even moreso now since our all adult trips changed to trips with a little one.

Kids wake up early, don't like sit down meals and need naps - fits perfectly.

This will be our strategy in November with our 4 year old. She rarely sleeps past 7am, needs a nap in the afternoon or is a bear the rest of the evening and hates sitting in one place for too long. I think an afternoon break recharges everyone a little bit and will allow us to see some things later into the evening like fireworks.

 

[Candleshoe]

Thanks wisblue!

fwiw, when DD was 3 she rode ToT and SM the first time, and I've never been to a park late night either except for MNSSHP (when we started our day about 2pm)