Overwhelmed - How do you plan your days?

[OurLittleLove]

Hi folks!

This isn't my first time to Disney, we've been many times before. But this is our first time going as a family...meaning my husband and I and our 2 year old.

We'll be in Disney for 9 days and I'm not even sure how to begin planning. I never used to worry about crowds because we could tolerate the long waits but with a 2 yr old its a new ballgame.

How do you plan which days you'll go to certain parks? I'm assuming I should nail this down first before booking dining reservations.

I literally just booked last night and called for a few dining reservations and a few of the "preferred" restaurants were not at all available during our 9 days. So now I'm in a bit of a panic. Please help!

 

[soniam]

Use a crowd calendar. I like Touring Plans. Others use EasyWDW. I also like to do morning extra magic hours, so look to see when that is. Check regular hours as well. If there is a restaurant that you really must go to, then plan an available day accordingly.

 

[2Gma]

When our kids were young (4 & 2) I made a list of rides/attractions that we could enjoy as a family in a particular park and then plan our day around that (or where we planned to use child swap). I consulted websites like touring plans or easywdw to find out the best days to be in each park and then fill in each day or our stay. I planned for shows with a/c to cool off and for afternoon breaks if necessary. As for dining just keep checking the disney website for spots that open up as it does happen. Keep visiting this site and you'll learn ALOT!

 

[Alesia]

Step 1: Use the crowd calendar at easywdw.com to choose your days.
Step 2: If you want to make ADRs, choose them based on where you'll be for the day.
Step 3: To make a touring plan, start with the cheat sheets at easywdw.com and take out anything that doesn't interest you. Now you have a touring plan.
Step 5: Read the first couple of posts in Mesaboy2's FP+ thread.

 

[starsweeper]

I never use crowd calendars but we tend to go at lower attendance times and are always there for rope drop when waits are shortest. With young kids, we find it's best to schedule either breakfast or dinner (after a mid-day break). If we schedule a lunch, we eat light for breakfast and have an early lunch so kids are hungry enough to sit through it. We simply pick a park for a day, schedule FP+ for mid-day or later and leave the evening open. Having very few plans works best with toddlers.

 

[Lee & Kerry]

Decide where you want to go we plan our park days around eating where we want to go to eat ,the plan our fast passes around that's; it works good, know that a two year old can not get on many of the rides, MK is the best for a two year old especially at night with all the lights. Epcot has a few as well as HS and AK. Baby swap on the rides you want to go on and the baby can't. Early mornings are the coolest time of day, if there is a cool part in the summer time. At night without the sun beating on you is the best. We learned with our kids and grandkids the biggest thing is take your time as it can get frustrating when it's hot and crowded. Nap time or pool time makes it easier with the heat. We have never been a read the book and see what days tend to be crowded or not, it's always crowded, some days you just get lucky. Big thing is just enjoy it's Disney

 

[MataHari22]

I literally just booked last night and called for a few dining reservations and a few of the "preferred" restaurants were not at all available during our 9 days. So now I'm in a bit of a panic. Please help!

You can check on the restaurants board, each month has a cancellation thread for restaurants and you may be able to find something there. This link will get you to the restaurant board you will have to look through to find the month you're going:

http://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-restaurants.14/

You can keep checking back for openings especially around the 45 day mark. Many people cancel trips then and things open up. I have gotten restaurants by stalking daily and doing this.

 

[rwdavis2]

Is 9 days going to be too long with a 2 year old? You will be limited to what you can do and for how long each day. Just a thought.

 

[BebopBaloo]

Best advice I can give - check out all the sites that the above posters mentioned and then relax. Seeing it through your 2yr olds eyes will be amazing. My daughter was almost 2 on her first trip and I seriously still get happy tears in my eyes thinking about certain events of that specific trip. I am so not a Hallmark/sappy person...but wow...you're in for a really wonderful time. Go at her pace, even if it throws off the planning. We were there for 5 days on her first trip and it wasn't even close to long enough. I think 9 days will be super.

 

[elaine amj]

9 days sound awesome - especially since you'll be going at a more relaxed pace.

 

[glassslippergirl]

We just returned from a trip with DS2. It was a lot of fun, but it did require a lot of planning. The most important advice is to keep your plan general. Decide in advance only the things that you have to decide like restaurants for ADRs and attractions for FPs (like other, I recommend the first two posts on Mesa Boy's thread). Let the little one determine the pace and direction of the day. If she wants to play in the Winnie the Pooh play area for an hour, why not? All of the attractions will still be there on your next visit, but her special wonder in that play area will never be the same again.

Like others have suggested, start with a crowd calendar. For the difficult ADRs, take them anytime you can get them, and let them determine your park for the day. Keep trying for the preferred ADRs. Eventually, something will come available. The same is true for FPs. At some point, it will seem like a part-time job as you keep trying for the things you want and switching around FPs, but it will pay off. For the rides that you really want to do with the little one, I'd suggest doing them first thing in the morning. A two-year-old's schedule can be erratic, especially with all the changes in routine that a vacation brings. She may nap and go to bed every day at home at a certain times, but that can vary widely on a Disney trip.

Do you plan to go to a park each day? We were only there for three days, and we stayed in the parks all day. DS took naps in his stroller, which worked better than taking him back to the hotel. If you will be there nine days, you can go at a much more leisurely pace. I'd recommend a few days where you don't go to the parks at all. Maybe spend a day on a rented golf cart in Ft. Wilderness in addition to a day or two at the resort pool.

I would suggest park hoppers. MK is full of things for little ones to do, and AK has so many animals that little ones love, but family attractions that will appeal to a two-year-old are more limited in DHS and Epcot. You may find that, after a few hours in those parks, your little one will want to go to MK or AK.

Use child swap, but understand that it takes a longer than you may have planned for the attraction. Doing child swap (even when the first person had FP+) for Soarin took well over an hour, and took almost 2 hours for TT (here, first person used single riders). It was a lot of time to be separated on a family vacation. We were happiest on our MK day because we could ride so many more things together.

Have a good trip.

 

[minnie mum]

Alesia's post has given you excellent steps to follow. Be persistent about checking the dining site and I'm sure you will find your desired ADRs eventually.

Since you have the luxury of a longer stay, I'd recommend sticking as closely as possible to your child's normal schedule. This includes afternoon naps back at the resort. The comparative quiet of the resort is also great to get away from the constant overstimulation of the parks (for mom and dad, too). Earlier dinner ADRs mean its easier to catch the evening entertainment, and is probably what your child is used to.

 

[OurLittleLove]

Thanks everyone for your info on the planning sites, that will certainly help. I want to navigate out days against the crowd. Going to try and relax and just go with the flow, I'm just hoping to get some good sit down meals and a character meal or 2.

I know 9 days seems a bit long but we're using my mom's DVC timeshare since she needs to use up some points. And that way we can take our time, spend some time at the pool, and enjoy the trip.

 

[tlmadden73]

First off .. pretty impressed you are having your child's first trip be so long. Nine days seems an awfully long time.

I took my son who was 26 months old to WDW in October and we only did two park days. We had one pool day .. and one downtown Disney day (honestly he enjoyed DTD so much we probably didn't even need to go inside a theme park!)

So I would:

I would suggest keeping your plan loose. Heck with 9 days .. take your time and enjoy it .. don't plan anything but a few meals and few fast passes .. pick your fast passes based on rides your son can go on.. and where they are in the park (due not criss-cross across the parks) .. not what is the busiest (let's face it .. you won't be able to go on those rides anyway with a toddler) and plan your route through the park so you aren't criss-crossing the park (with a stroller)

I would suggest:
1) Don't overbook meals .. not too many ADRs. You need to be flexible due to his schedule.
2) Book some character meals. It was a great way for my 2yr old to see characters without having to wait in line and giving him some time to grow comfortable with them before he was ready for a photo.
3) Eat buffets (see #2) .. you get a great meal .. you can swap who watches the child as you get food and the child eats free with some great food (better than just chicken nuggets)
4) Fast Pass anything you can .. even rides with normally short waits .. kids hate waiting in lines.
5) Don't plan anything during the afternoon .. nap time (maybe)
6) Do what your son wants .. if he wants to go on ride X again right away .. go for it. You've been there before... make the trip about him!
7) Go on those "boring" rides ... my son was fascinated with the TTA and Swiss Family Robinson treehouse .. just from all the things he could see ..
8) Avoid "scary" rides even if he can ride them (Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Stitch) ..
9) Do a park every other day .. have "pool" days to rest.
10) Don't stay and see the night shows .. (we left every park as the night shows were starting .. made getting back easier .. and we saw the fireworks as we left (which impressed him just as much as standing in crowds)
11) See the afternoon parade ...
12) Stop and smell the roses .. (watch the street shows .. interact with street characters .. let him play in the water .. etc.)

 

[BigHeroKen]

We use the crowd calendars from easywdw and undercover tourist to plan which parks to visit on which days then build a "what we'd like to do" list and then come up with the best "attack plan" (i.e. the best order) for accomplishing our goals.

 

[myrheille]

Nine days is not too long at all with a two year old. It'll allow your kid to ride the carousel five times if that's what they want (yes, this happened to me, how did you guess?). Like everyone said, check the recommended days on the easywdw.com crowd calendars. Plan on being there at the opening (we didn't exactly rope drop, but we were usually there around 9AM), ride 7-8 things (make a list of things that are close by), then lunch, then home to the resort for a nap. We used park hoppers so we could eat at the parks nearest to our resorts (MK when we were at the Contemporary, Epcot when we were at BWV).

We tried "parent swap" during the day for the thrill rides, but we didn't like it much. The parent stuck outside with the kid wasn't really having fun (though some places have playgrounds, like the boneyard in AK, to keep kids busy). We preferred to have someone babysitting at night and the other parent riding the thrill rides during evening EMH.

Have fun

 

[threeboysmom]

The very first step to take is decide whether you are going to take advantage of EMH or not.

If utilizing EMH, take a look at the EMH calendar for the month you are going and plan your days according to that.

If NOT utilizing EMH (which I never do even though I stay onsite), plan on the OPPOSITE. I always attend the park that had EMH the day prior. For example, if Magic Kingdom has EMH on Saturday, then Sunday will be my MK day.

Print out your days and mark each day with the chosen park/s. Now you can start planning your ADRs around your park days.

Happy Planning!!