rarrington said:
We are going on our first trip in May and I've been making notes of what rides and attractions we do want to try as well as those we may avoid. Is there a master list somewhere that we can print and take along? I have seen a book with that info in it but the book didn't belong to me so I can't cut it out (although I may photocopy it if need be). Thanks!!!
Rosemary
CR May 3-10
Just another thought. I created my master list as a way of involving my daughter in the planning process. She was 6 the first time we went and I did not want her to be distracted pointing to and wanting to go to whatever she saw first and then doing the same all day. The reason is because there are ways to see Disney that wind up causing you to wait in very many long long lines. And then there are ways to see the parks that are way more effective.
What I did was create the list. Then I asked my daughter to place a 1 for those things she HAD TO DO, then put a 2 on things she would like to do, a 3 for things she would like to do but wouldn't be upset if we missed, and a 4 for those things she did not care about at all.
By doing this I could give my daughter control over what happened on our vacation. This made her much more pliable when working out a "Plan." Because that way she knew she was gpoing to get to do what she wanted to do and that I (dad) had to figure out a way to make it all happen. So she knew in advance that we had to do things in some kind of order because "DIsney is so busy honey that if I don't schedule things we won't be able to do all the things you want to do." I can't remember just how I explained it but it put her at ease and made her very open to Daddy creating the order in which things would be done.
So then I took her list of stuff she had to do and I got maps of the parks and figured out where everything was. And I looked for clusters of things. For example If your kids' "must do" list has Buzz lightyear, Tomorrowland Raceway, Goofy's Barnstormer, Mickey's House and Minnies house and Pooh's Great Adventure, Big thunder mountain and Splash Mountain then you have two clusters of attractions on opposite sides of the park. And if your kids could not care about seeing Pirates of the Carribean, The Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, and Alladin then you know in advance you can blow by that part of the park explaining to them that it may be hard to get all their stuff do those things once they are at WDW. That way they are more excepting because they want to do everything on "their list of most important stuff"
So in the example above, You do one of two things 1) You go immediately to the Big Thunder and Splash mountain cluster of rides and then take the train over to the opposite side of the park or 2) You go immediately to Buzz lightyear, Pooh, and Tomorrowland Raceway, and Barnstorner. And you should not do Mickeys or Minnies until you finish the rides where the lines grow the fastest.
SO that way you can group attractions together that your kids want to do, and you can optimize your time and your childs expectations. If you have a kid pulling you this way and that way at WDW it will be frustrating for all involved. At least from what I have seen of other families it doesn't look pleasant.
