I had high hopes...maybe too high

[Loveslsu]

The closer we get to our trip May 10-17 the more I change our touring plans. This is our first family trip and it will be me, my husband, and 4 year old daughter. I have tried to take it easy and not see everything and have large breaks in the afternoons for naps. Now I am figuring in travel time (I totally forgot to account for this and didn't realize it would be about 1 hour to get anywhere). Seeing how early we will have to get up to make it to the parks every day I don't know if we will be able make it to see the nighttime fun. What do you guys think, too much? S hould I leave out stuff?
We are staying at the Contemporary.

Sunday May 11: 8am cinderellas royal table (I am thinking we will have to wake at 6:30 and start our walk to MK at 7:30 to get there for the ressie)
FP Belle, FP Anna & Elsa, hopefully FP BoG lunch, FP Ariel, Fantasy parade then back to CR for a nap from 4-5, 6pm Plaza ressie, MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes. (I am guessing we wont be in bed until 11pm this night which worries me since the next day is an early day too)

May 12: 8am Akershus ressie (wake up around 6am bus or taxi around 7 to get there?), FP Soarin, FP turtle talk, Les Halles lunch, leave for CR to rest 1-4, 615 Via Napoli ressi, FP Spaceship, illuminations

May 13: wake up 8am (our usual wake time back home) park by 10, FP Kilamanjaro, 11 rainforest ressie, FP nemo, Jammin parade, leave after parade around 4 and eat and swim at CR..go to bed early.

May 14: 6am wake walk by 7:30, 8am BBB, FP rapunzel/cinderella, Pinocchio lunch, FP Splash, FP BTMR, rest at CR 2-5, 5:45 Liberty ressie, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes

May 15: 6am wake bus to DHS at 7:30 to get there before rope drop (is there a bus at this time? maybe this is too early?), FP little mermaid, leave for CR to rest 12:30-4:30, 6pm Mamma Melrose/fantasmic ressie, FP star tours, FP toy story, fantasmic

May 16: 7am wake rope drop in MK for our last day, I have no real plans yet except to revisit what we loved on this day and 6pm Crystal Palace ressie.

I have much more planned on each day on my touringplans.com this is just the highlights. I have allotted 1 hour for each breakfast/lunch/dinner and hopefully that is enough.
My biggest concern are the days we are up for breakfast ressies before rope drop and go all the way to the fireworks/shows late at night. I tried to put big breaks but I still wonder if it will be too much.
Any and all input will be appreciated!

 

[mrsmorrow]

The closer we get to our trip May 10-17 the more I change our touring plans. This is our first family trip and it will be me, my husband, and 4 year old daughter. I have tried to take it easy and not see everything and have large breaks in the afternoons for naps. Now I am figuring in travel time (I totally forgot to account for this and didn't realize it would be about 1 hour to get anywhere). Seeing how early we will have to get up to make it to the parks every day I don't know if we will be able make it to see the nighttime fun. What do you guys think, too much? S hould I leave out stuff?
We are staying at the Contemporary.

Sunday May 11: 8am cinderellas royal table (I am thinking we will have to wake at 6:30 and start our walk to MK at 7:30 to get there for the ressie)
FP Belle, FP Anna & Elsa, hopefully FP BoG lunch, FP Ariel, Fantasy parade then back to CR for a nap from 4-5, 6pm Plaza ressie, MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes. (I am guessing we wont be in bed until 11pm this night which worries me since the next day is an early day too)

May 12: 8am Akershus ressie (wake up around 6am bus or taxi around 7 to get there?), FP Soarin, FP turtle talk, Les Halles lunch, leave for CR to rest 1-4, 615 Via Napoli ressi, FP Spaceship, illuminations

May 13: wake up 8am (our usual wake time back home) park by 10, FP Kilamanjaro, 11 rainforest ressie, FP nemo, Jammin parade, leave after parade around 4 and eat and swim at CR..go to bed early.

May 14: 6am wake walk by 7:30, 8am BBB, FP rapunzel/cinderella, Pinocchio lunch, FP Splash, FP BTMR, rest at CR 2-5, 5:45 Liberty ressie, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes

May 15: 6am wake bus to DHS at 7:30 to get there before rope drop (is there a bus at this time? maybe this is too early?), FP little mermaid, leave for CR to rest 12:30-4:30, 6pm Mamma Melrose/fantasmic ressie, FP star tours, FP toy story, fantasmic

May 16: 7am wake rope drop in MK for our last day, I have no real plans yet except to revisit what we loved on this day and 6pm Crystal Palace ressie.

I have much more planned on each day on my touringplans.com this is just the highlights. I have allotted 1 hour for each breakfast/lunch/dinner and hopefully that is enough.
My biggest concern are the days we are up for breakfast ressies before rope drop and go all the way to the fireworks/shows late at night. I tried to put big breaks but I still wonder if it will be too much.
Any and all input will be appreciated!

You'll get lots of opinions and this is just mine When my daughters were 4-5, they could pretty much handle that schedule but were definitely tired at bedtime! I would skip the second viewing of Celebrate and Wishes and after Liberty dinner stroll a bit and maybe catch the fireworks from the resort, you could even have your daughter in her pj's maybe On your DHS day, why bother with rope drop? Or are you trying for headliners without FP? Just curious, that could be a little later start day and maybe not so rushed to get out the door. The big afternoon breaks will help tremendously and you won't be dealing with super hot, sticky, energy-draining heat. The Contemporary is so fun and I'm sure you'll have a terrific time!

 

[martikus]

DS is an early riser by nature so we choose to make rope drop and go until we are pooped....about 4pm. We head back to Hotel for swim and easy dinner and pretty regular bedtime.

We don't like the mid day break....too much wasted time for us. We have yet to see any nighttime shows by we figure we will when DS is older. We have gone when he was 4 and 7 and it works for us.

We also find one sit down meal a day is plenty. And to also be flexible when planning. Our pre kid comando trips are gone but now we take it a little easier and if DS wants 10 trips on small world than so be it.

 

[JillShari]

I can give better input if you tell me more about your 4 year old. I have a 4 year old also, but since his usual bedtime is 8ish and no nighttime things were that early, we didn't plan every night to be out. I wanted him rested.

Does your 4 year old nap? Do you think they get tired during the day and would nap in the stroller? What is her usual bedtime? How does she act if she doesn't get enough sleep???

Then I can give better advice.

 

[Missyrose]

Buses will start running at 6:30 a.m. And they are supposed to come about every 20 minutes or so, though the early morning buses can be slightly more sporadic than that.

Going back to your room for an hour on the first day will be kinda useless. You'll spend time walking back and forth and in the bag check line. I wouldn't bother going back to the resort for anything less than 3 hours. There are good attractions for "quiet time" like Hall of Presidents or Carousel of Progress that can be used for rest time.

You've got things pretty planned for the trip, but be prepared to throw all of your plans out the window once you get there. If your little one is zonked the night you're supposed to see fireworks, don't be so wedded to the plan that you incite a meltdown. You'll be back again, in case you miss something.

 

[Loveslsu]

You'll get lots of opinions and this is just mine When my daughters were 4-5, they could pretty much handle that schedule but were definitely tired at bedtime! I would skip the second viewing of Celebrate and Wishes and after Liberty dinner stroll a bit and maybe catch the fireworks from the resort, you could even have your daughter in her pj's maybe On your DHS day, why bother with rope drop? Or are you trying for headliners without FP? Just curious, that could be a little later start day and maybe not so rushed to get out the door. The big afternoon breaks will help tremendously and you won't be dealing with super hot, sticky, energy-draining heat. The Contemporary is so fun and I'm sure you'll have a terrific time!

Thank you. I was planning DHS rope drop to get a toy story in first thing. You are right and I am now thinking of only doing Celebrate and Wishes one of the MK days.

DS is an early riser by nature so we choose to make rope drop and go until we are pooped....about 4pm. We head back to Hotel for swim and easy dinner and pretty regular bedtime.

We don't like the mid day break....too much wasted time for us. We have yet to see any nighttime shows by we figure we will when DS is older. We have gone when he was 4 and 7 and it works for us.


We also find one sit down meal a day is plenty. And to also be flexible when planning. Our pre kid comando trips are gone but now we take it a little easier and if DS wants 10 trips on small world than so be it.

Thanks!

I can give better input if you tell me more about your 4 year old. I have a 4 year old also, but since his usual bedtime is 8ish and no nighttime things were that early, we didn't plan every night to be out. I wanted him rested.

Does your 4 year old nap? Do you think they get tired during the day and would nap in the stroller? What is her usual bedtime? How does she act if she doesn't get enough sleep???

Then I can give better advice.

She usually wakes around 8, naptime 2:30-4 (although she is starting to really fight the naps now and we occasionally skip it), bed time is at 8pm but she doesn't sleep till 10pm. If she skips a nap then she will go to bed pretty much at 8 without too much playing around. She might nap in the stroller, that is hard to say because we never have a stroller (except for this trip). She is pretty good if she doesn't get enough sleep she doesn't really get to cranky she just nods off.

 

[uramr]

I have one suggestion...and it would depend on if there is an ADR available...can you make the Princess Breakfast in EPCOT later. We enjoy that breakfast a lot but usually make it the latest breakfast time possible and call it brunch. That allows us to get to Epcot at opening (would let you have a little extra time in the AM) and do a few things in future world such as Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush and then make our way over to Norway and the rest of the World Showcase.

 

[kathy884]

You know your four year old best, of course, and know what you want to do as a family.

Thought I'd throw this in, though. Also, my son when he was four might have been different than most four year olds that go to Disney.

But his very favorite thing for the whole vacation was swimming in the swimming pool, riding the monorail around, and riding the boats over to Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness and back. We kind of catered to that (as all the adults me, DH, my mom, and my dad had been to the theme parks what seems like a zillion times) and upped the resort time and lowered the theme park time. He liked the resort stuff and hanging out there more than the theme parks. lol // We stayed at the Contemporary on a high floor in the tower, and he thought it was the coolest hotel ever. // It's not a night time parade or spectacular fireworks display, but FYI we absolutely loved watching the Electric Water Pagent from our balcony at the Contemporary nightly. // It's a trip I look back at fondly, really relaxing and fun.

 

[MrInfinity]

You're going almost the same days as us, and you've picked many of the same parks. We're at the same Akershus. See you there!

Your plans look awesome. You're cramming in a lot of stuff, but we are too. it's just the way it is when you want to be there early for the rides and late for Illuminations or Fantasmic.

I might ditch the return to the hotel at HS... that's an hour there and back. You could be picking up some comfortable things like MuppetVision which is sitting down indoors. If Fantasmic is skippable (It's not that great, particularly the Florida version) then you can do your FPs around lunch, Mama for lunch instead of dinner, and get the same amount done (less Fantasmic) and be back to the resort by 3 or 4pm. That would be nice to have an extra pool evening.

For important dinners, I'd leave 1.5 hours not 1. CRT you need time to meet Cinderella. Evening dinners tend to be behind schedule so it's not uncommon to have a 20 min wait for your table even if you're on time.

Since you're at the CR, make sure to be on the beach around 10pm for the Electric Water Pageant at least one night, if not several.

 

[bumbershoot]

Seeing how early we will have to get up to make it to the parks every day I don't know if we will be able make it to see the nighttime fun.

This is exactly the situation my family is still in. Especially with what we consider to be a short week-long trip, we WANT to burn the candles at both ends, but we can't. Maybe one day can we be out and about from open to close. So we pick and choose and don't put late night and early morning back to back.

And that's just when we were dealing with DLR when DS was your age. We didn't even hit WDW until he was 6.5.

If you have her nap, from what you're saying it seems that she might make it to see the nighttime stuff, but, again, given what you've said, mornings are going to be a problem. Then again, when my guy was little it was easy enough to get him ready for the day without him actually being a part of that, and to get him to the parks without much effort on his part. Not everyone wants to do that with a kid and not every kid makes that easy.

Buses will start running at 6:30 a.m. And they are supposed to come about every 20 minutes or so, though the early morning buses can be slightly more sporadic than that.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that the bus any one person wants will come every 20 minutes.

 

[sunkissed4]

I'd skip the early morning at DHS since you have afternoon and evening FP+ and an ADR for dinner. Maybe relax at the pool that morning and then head over so you can all have a little quiet time. I have a 4 year old and he definitely gets burned out during the middle of our trips.

 

[minniemous]

The plan looks good. I would say take it easy though and do not be too tied to it. I have several times tried to plan ahead (a very good idea) but then we proceed to do what feels right each day. Changing reservations for restaurants, changing parks etc.

There are some people can who can set a plan for an extended period and go with it to the letter. I am not. We have a 4 year old daughter too and we were there in November. We kept all our really hard to get reservations like Cinderella Castle dinner, BOG dinner and Crystal Palace breakfast. After that we were canceling things left and right and getting up later when we felt like it etc.

My daughter has not napped since she was 2 (wish she did) and she will not go t bed until 8:30 9:00. In Disney she never went to bed early. We would get to bed anywhere from 9:30 to 12:00 depending on the evening.

 

[Luvchefmic]

As others have said you are going to get a lot of opinions here for the record I haven't had a kid that age in 32 years BUT I do remember this philosophy " Have kid will travel " meaning at that age yes plan things for the child but for you too

Best friend at WDW is a stroller no running back and forth to room for nap time, unless the adults feel the need, for the child my thinking you are tired here's your fave stuffed animal night night So with that way of thinking minus the back & forth to CR I LOVE your plans

 

[margaret07013]

you know your family best and what you can do - but I wouldn't plan so many breakfasts that early. it leaves you with no option to do anything "but" to be at the park.

I am going with my family a week earlier and decided to schedule early lunches and have an option of going to park early or around lunch time and take advantage of fp+ in the afternoon.

I know some people do take an advantage of early breakfast in empty park - I just don't think it will work with my 4.5 and 2.5 yrs old kids.

We went last year in late April and it was hot - lunches were the times to get away from the heat and have some rest. Without booking early ADR breakfast time - you have a flexibility of simply sleeping in just a little bit after full day of walking in the park previous day. I needed some rest after pushing a stroller all day long. We did state late for Wishes and parades and I needed some rest. We did get up early next day: 7-7:30am but we did it without running to make 8am breakfast ADR.

 

[jm106]

My kids did really well at 4 with later nights but easily would sleep in stroller. We did do a break each day, but to swim as mine were too wound up to lay in hotel room and sleep. We didnt experience any issues from less sleep and when we could, we did an ealry night (AK.) For MK, we did the evening light parade then headed right back to resort, then on second MK day, we took advantage of that time to do rides while others lined up fro parade and then right over to see wishes. We did Dessert party though so no early lining up which helped. Last trip Yds was 4, he made it until park close many nights, even one MK EMH until 1 am We left the next day, so he slept in and slept on the flight home.

 

[rlovew]

The one thing I notice in your plan- they do not have a bus from CR to Epcot- you have to take the 2 monorails- easy to get there. The ride back is long and if the monorails are running slow or having problems this trip can take up to an hour and a half. The last couple of times we have gone to Epcot from the CR getting there was fine but on the way back after we arrived at the TTC the monorails were having problems and they sent us to the ferry to MK and then told us to walk back from there. We did arrive at the CR before the monorail we were getting onto when it started having problems.

 

[jade1]

3 MK days staying at CR?-You did yourself an amazing favor there. No guessing how long it will take to and from including breaks.

Won't be an hour those 3 days, maybe 15 minutes max.

Worst case after Wishes if the little one falls asleep-just stroller back to the room, again in 15 minutes.

 

[Micca]

It seems like a lot of activity to me. Of course, that's pretty much what a WDW vacation is

I'll echo what others have said about naps: Either plan a nice long break (2.5-3 hours) or don't return to the resort for a nap. If you can't spare the time, sit down for a few minutes for a drink, snack, etc. & chill out. If you take a pass on the long nap/break, be prepared to call it a day (or night) if your group runs out of steam. You might miss something, but it's likely that this first trip to WDW won't be your last.

With respect to allowing an hour for meals, just keep in mind that while you can certainly sit down and finish a meal in sixty minutes, it's possible you may have to wait to be seated, and you may end up with a server that might slow you down.

The upside is that your family has you! You're making some plans and getting a grasp on the whole experience.

 

[GillianP1301]

It really all comes down to what you think your 4 year old can handle. Every kid is different. For us, we need to keep bed time pretty consistent with home or we end up with a really cranky kids a few days in. So for us, your plan wouldn't work.


The only real advice I tend to give parents of small kids is go with the flow and don't get upset if you need to completely abandon a plan. You may find your DD, who normally naps, won't have anything of it at WDW. So, that may lead to no breaks, but it may also lead to having to abandon some nighttime shows. Or, you may find the pool is more fun to her than anything else and you may want to increase resort time, etc... Make a plan, know what you want to do and then be as flexible as possible in the moment to have the best vacation possible.

 

[MrInfinity]

The one thing I notice in your plan- they do not have a bus from CR to Epcot- you have to take the 2 monorails- easy to get there. The ride back is long and if the monorails are running slow or having problems this trip can take up to an hour and a half.

Did they change this? I took the bus from Epcot to the Poly in 2012. From Epcot, it stopped first at the CR then the Poly. It was way faster than the Monorail.