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dyingtodisney

<font color="#2f639d">Can't wait to swim in the si
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Aug 27, 2003
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I've been excitedly wading through all my must do's and such in Disney for my first trip home to SSR. Before I get any more specific with planning my PS's I need to make sure I've got my basic's planned first and then go from there. We'll be going 6-6-6/18 with DH DD8 and DS4. As this is my husband and kids first time at Disney I'd like to cover a lot of ground. My main concern before I get too heavy in planning is how many days I should allot for each park. I'm still debating on MGM and Animal Kingdom days...any advice of MGM and Animal Kingdom which park you would visit on 2 days with kids 8 and 4? So far here's what I'm looking at. Any feedback will be helpful....
Magic Kingdom 3 days
Epcot 2 days
Mgm 1 days
Animal Kingdom 2 days
Typhoon Lagoon 1 day
SSR Pool/Play 1 day
DowntownDis/ tour other resorts 1 day
Winter Summerland/ SSr Pool 1 day
 
Looks like you have allocated a nice number of days per park. You won't be rushed that way and can work your way through your touring plans.

AK is a wonderful park by the way and it is so good to see that you've planned two days. It is a park that is only properly seen when the tour pace is slow, slow, slow! Take every bit of time you need and look at everything. This is not a typical theme park and most definitely Nahtazu! The place is awash in details and you'll need time to see them all.

Good that you've planned some slower days of rest and pool swimming. That will go a long way toward everyone staying happy and not collapsing due to exhaustion!

Have a wonderful time!
 
I'll make one main comment on your planning, and this comment is ENTIRELY based upon my personal preference. But consider whether it applies to your family as well.

Personally, I couldn't imagine spending an entire day--8am to 10pm (or whenever)--in a single park. Yuck! You might need that type of "commando" touring in order to visit all of the parks during a 4 or 5 day stay, but with 12-13 days in your trip, you have pleanty of time to spread things out.

At the very least we split our day into two time blocks which span morning/early afternoon and late afternoon/evening. I prefer to take a more intiutitve approach to planning (or NOT planning) a trip. Make your activites flow from one to another rather than saying "Today is our ONE day at MGM, so you better do everything you want to do."

If it were me, I wouldn't even be asking myself whether AK or MGM is the two-day park. The immediate answer would be to spend 1 1/2 days at each.

A lot of the things that you have on your list can be combined in a manner that makes a little more touring sense.

For example, even during peak seasons, Animal Kingdom will close at 5 or 6pm. What are you going to do with those evenings? How about touring AKL (while in the area) or visiting Downtown Disney.

A full day for touring resorts? I think your children will probably make you reconsider by the time you hit your 3rd resort. Why not tour resort areas while you're in the neighborhood? For example, hit MK in the morning, have lunch at Chef Mickey's, then tour the monorail resorts.

Disney has an excellent transportation system. Don't feel that you need to spend your entire day in one location.

I'm assuing you'll be getting Annual Passes due to the duration of this stay. So you shouldn't have a functional need for "non-park" days. Even if you want to plan some down-time, mix at least a few activies into your day.

Lastly, I would personally suggest that you purposely leave a day or two near the end of your stay as "unplanned." You can still "plan" everything you want to see/do in the first 11 days of your stay. But leave those last couple of days for your family to reflect on what you've done up to that point and decide together how to spend the remainder of your time. Perhaps everyone will want to go back to a water park again. Or maybe they will want to hit specific rides for a 2nd (3rd, 4th, etc.) time.

Planning is great. I love planning. But give your family time to be spontaneous--even if you have to plan the "spontaneity." :)
 
your plan is alright. But, what if yuor mood doesn't fit your plan?

I think an idea is a good thing, but for us we usually fly by the seat of our pants.

Even our best laid plans usually changed unless it is very special - CRT, Illuminations cruise, etc.

Good idea to go in with a plan, but be flexible and enjoy WDW for everything it has to offer.

I also agree with the previous statement of one park in one day. I like to change parks at some point to break up the day.

Take everyone advice and then decide what is best for your family. Themost important advice to ask is their's now our's as they are the one that will be there with you.

Have a great trip.

:tongue: :hyper: :tongue:
 

Thanks for all the advice! I really do have fun planning, I've already redone my "schedule" a few times but realitically (SP?) I don't expect my family to "comply". I just want to have a basic idea of where I"ll be so I can make ressies for dinner PS and such. I never thought to break up the parks and go to 2 parks on the same day, that's a great idea!
Now I'm thinking of combining the DD/Miniature Golf into one day and maybe heading to Vero Beach for a few days at the end of our trip. I"ll probably do some resort touring like you advised here and there
 

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