I had high hopes...maybe too high

[4xmom]

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.

This sounds like our trips when our kids were young. We had been a lot so we catered to them. We actually only scheduled one park day for a 5 day trip. One day we would ride boats, another would be riding the monorail and visiting resorts, one at DTD and one for the pool. We watched fireworks in their pj's from different beaches.

 

[Missyrose]

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

Hence me saying "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."

 

[JillShari]

OK... From mom to mom... I just got back from a trip with my 8 and 4 year old sons, so we had NO princess stuff in our schedule and they aren't character kids, so those things weren't worth the money for us. Let me share the way we were and you can take from it whatever you will.

My 4 year old hasn't napped since he was 2 years old, but he always has that tired point of his day and I know WDW tires them out quickly. We didn't plan a nap everyday, but we planned hotel time and normally scheduled bedtimes to keep us more on schedule and him really able to enjoy stuff with us. That also meant letting the kids sleep until they woke up. Even on late nights, they were up by around 8 at the latest. We had garden grocer deliver groceries so we ate breakfasts in our room to make our departure to the parks as fast as possible and maximize our park time.

We also did mostly sit down lunches. They are cheaper and it is at a good point in the day to give your feet a rest. So, we did reservations at 50's Prime Time in HS, China in EPCOT, and Liberty Tree Tavern in MK. The rest it was easier to eat at the hotel or find stuff at the quick service places. (And I packed snacks with us) I didn't do dinner reservations because I didn't know if and when naps would happen and how that then affected our day... it was less stressful that way for us.

The first day was arrival day, so we spent the afternoon at the pool and enjoying that with an early bedtime.

Day #2: after HS morning where we only used the Toy Story FP, we came back to the resort where my 4 year old took a 2 hour nap. Then we were able to go late to EPCOT and hop on a bunch of rides etc that had short lines and got back pretty late. That was fine because we were scheduled to do EPCOT the next day and we had rearranged our FP to reflect the things we got done the night before. (They have a character spot with 3 characters, mickey, Minnie and we had Goofy which had a 2 min wait that evening! and line for Spaceship Earth at 6pm was 5 mins, Turtle Talk and Seas with Nemo was only 5-10 mins) The crowds leave FutureWorld early, so arriving in the evening was perfect for minimal waits.

Day #3: Wake up that morning wasn't rushed at all. That was nice. And after our EPCOT visit, we got back to the hotel at around 3pm and hung out there and called it an early evening.

Day #4 and 5:The next day was one of two MK days. One I focused our FP on Fantasyland and the second was focused on Tomorrowland. We didn't make it for rope drop either day but as we got in 15 minutes after RD, we headed straight to where we wanted to be and rode anything that said 10 mins before we even used our first fastpass. It was very efficient. The first night, we went back to the hotel and swam and enjoyed that for the second half of our day with another regular bedtime. But we knew on our last night that we wanted to have the kids be awake enough to really enjoy one of the nighttime shows and to really do that, we need the 4 year old to nap. So, we went back to our hotel (AoA) and he did. We decided to go back to MK and see the MSEP and Celebrate the Magic and Fireworks... it was the greatest! But.... the next morning wake up also didn't matter....so that's why we did it that night.

Day #6: quick HS ride TSMM again with a FP....and leave for home.

Just know... that you have to be able to be flexible. I mean do you really want to wake her up early to get to breakfasts? Can you schedule them as late breakfasts/early lunches around 11 when the parks are getting really crowded? And I have to say that my husband commented how wonderful it was for us to get to bed some of those nights earlier than we would have at home. It was such a great energy saver for us and made the days so much better because they are exhausting.

She will have a great time whatever you do... don't think you have to do everything and see everything... because you will disappoint yourself! Your daughter won't know the difference.

BTW, Sorry I wrote a book.

 

[Loveslsu]

I really appreciate all of the advice that was given.
I am going to go over my plans again and try to make some more changes. I am going to increase my big ADRs to 1.5 hrs in my tourplans. I am going to try to make sure we have a minimum of 2.5hrs for our breaks so it won't be a waste. I think I have this covered pretty much except for the first day where I am trying to cram the parade in. Having a stuffed animal for a stroller nap in the park sounds great and I may do that on the first day. I know she will love going to the pool so I am going to try to find more time to do that as well. I keep telling myself she won't know what she is missing and then I try to cut more stuff out of the daily plans. Its only hard because I want to do it all. LOL Although I do love to sleep late so that would be nice too.
A few of you mentioned the 6:30 buses and I have been trying to get info about that. I was planning on taking a taxi to Epcot that morning because I know the monorail won't be running and don't know how reliable those early buses are. For all other things (except MK) I just allotted 1 hr for travel time and hopefully that will be enough.
Also, thank you for sharing your trip stories and plans with me.