Planning Disney?

[allsorts3]

Hello all! I've been browsing this board for a while but have never posted myself. We are going to Florida in August of this year (16 days, 2 hours, 38 minutes and 8 seconds!) and, as the excited teenager of the family, I have the task of planning what we are going to do for the two weeks.

Simply, where the hell do I start?! I have been twice before when I was really young when my parents would have planned it. From what I've read on here it looks like we need a plan

Anyway, where do I begin? How did you all start your planning?

 

[sandshal]

Hi there and welcome to the boards. We leave in 18 days and 15 hours so will be at the same time too.

You've picked an excellent place to start your planning ..... right here on the boards. I'd also recommend buying Simon's book "Brits Guide to Orlando" we found it most helpful when planning what we wanted to do and which days were best for each park etc.

 

[DisneyB2B]

Hi Allsorts!

First of all welcome to the boards

The first thing you need to do is check with your mum and dad on what tickets you will be purchasing. Have a look around on the sites to all the parks you can list all of the highlight from each park that you/ your family would like to do.

You can always ask people on here to show you their itineraries so you can use that to schedule your own 2 wks.

The main parks are of course all the Disney Parks, Universal/ IOA, SeaWorld etc.. thats always a good starter and will easliy fill up your 2 wks.

Good luck planning!

Nicci

 

[allsorts3]

Thankyou both! Wasn't going to bother planning before this but now it looks like it is more of a must .

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

It's probably a good idea to decide which parks you want to do - perhaps you could book a meal (if you want to) to coincide with your day there.

Also - at least you will be aware of the fastpass system so you can use that and know if there is a show or ride you really want to do.

Are you staying on or off site?

 

[UKDEB]

Hi, allsorts3, and welcome!

Planning is all part of the fun for us DISers . As others have already mentioned, it would be helpful to know what tickets you have and where you're staying.

 

[allsorts3]

We'll be staying on site at Pop Century and I think the tickets are the ones where you can go to all of the parks unlimited times? Not sure what they're called. I've collected a fair bit of information about where is best to go at what time but did you all plan as in 'On Monday we'll go to Epcot in the morning and Animal Kingdom in the afternoon'? That's where I can't even think about beginning!

 

[~Piglet~]

did you all plan as in 'On Monday we'll go to Epcot in the morning and Animal Kingdom in the afternoon'? That's where I can't even think about beginning!

I suppose it depends on the level of planning you want to do We did a timetable mostly to try and do as much as possible in 18 days (although of course you can't see everything in one visit). We didn't stick to it religeously but it gave us an idea of what we wanted to fit in. We stayed at the Pop too and found it nice to nip back and have a swim & rest in the afternoon when the parks were busy, and then go back to the parks later for the evening

 

[allsorts3]

Tyvm How did you find Pop? Me and my brother have been looking at pictures of it since we first booked a couple of months ago and are getting more and more excited! Think I may have to start the proper planning tomorrow

 

[~Piglet~]

We loved it! after we had booked we looked at a few pictures and thought it was a bit bright - colourwise - but seeing it in person it is much nicer

Plenty of room around the pools, good choice at the foodcourt and friendly staff too. I'm sure you won't be disappointed

 

[Shooby doo]

Allsorts welcome! Are you planning on doing any of the Universal Parks,Sea World,Aquatica....? Some people like to plan down to the minutiae for us it's suffice to say a park on a certain day.We always start with MK-that is the Official start to the Holiday! Others prefer to start with the "boring" ones first ie: Ep,AK,HS,MK but for us MK,Ep,HS,AK works.I know that you were using Ep & AK in the same day as an example but it doesn't work that way round as AK shuts the earliest of all the parks but it is possible to do it the other way around & is something we do if we feel that we haven't finished Ep.
Alot of your planning will really depend on how busy the parks are & you won't know this until you get there but alot of the parks start getting busier around 11-12 so it is advisable to get there for park opening then you are always in front of the masses.
My best advice is listen to your body because there is little point in making yourself stay in a park another couple of hours if you are out on your feet :I read in a guide of a couple that used a pedometer at Ep & they covered 13 miles in one day!You can always come back another day.
HTH SD

 

[ClaireW]

Allsorts - have you made any ADRs yet? Not sure how easy it would be to make any at this stage but def worth a try if there's places you really want to go to.

 

[Daysleeper40]

Hi and welcome to the Dis!

Planning is defo necessary to make the most of your time IMHO. As others have said you don't have to stick exclusively to Disney and TBH we much preferred Universal / IOA / Seaworld / Busch to the Disney parks so we had a lot to fit in. Feel free to have a look at my trip report to get an idea of what we managed with our 14 days - the link is in my sig.

I would recommend you get the Brits guide and really look at what you will all want to do at each park. It is pretty overwhelming but if you can get a handle on what your must-do's are you are well on your way. If you wait till you get there you might succumb to the headless chicken approach which is never good!

We didn't plan as much as some do - I couldn't be that rigid - but we had an itinerary of where we wanted to go on each day and an idea of what we would be doing i.e. on AK day we knew we would be eating at Rainforest Cafe. We didn't make reservations but I know a lot of people do for ALL of their meals - I wouldn't want to plan EVERY meal like that in advance but sometimes it is necessary at Disney.

Feel free to ask me any questions - particularly about any non-disney places you want to go... I can talk about them for hours!!

Happy Planning!

 

[Daysleeper40]

Oh and I meant to say that we went in September which is WAY quieter than August so you may need to be a little bit more military than we were!

 

[Becx N Gav]

Hope you guys have a great time, not long to wait

I agree you will need some idea of what you want to do and where, we tend to prioritise our 'must do's' in each park (also going to resorts, DTD, mini golf and malls). I looked at EMH in each park (which you can take advantage of as you are staying on-site) which allow you to enter 1 hour earlier in the morning and stay 3 hours later in the evening than the regular opening times, at differing parks each day (check the schedule http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours.htm).
We then looked at the restaurants (we've booked at least 1 ADR each day) and planned what would fit in with the parks and nearby resorts - there's nothing worse than going from place to place just for an ADR, WDW is massive

After that we just do what we fancy and things we happen upon. I don't like to over plan things - must do this, then that etc. I found I was so disappointed when we missed out things on our first trip, plus with the heat you need time to chill for a bit and relax

Oh and with the 'park hopper' option (going to different parks on the same day) you have the greatest flexibility which can allow you to go back and do things you missed

 

[allsorts3]

Thanks to you all. I don't think we will be going to Universal or any of those but my mum wants to go to the malls and my dad is all for the water parks. I think I've decided that I could work out which parks have early/late magic hours and what restaurants we wanted to visit then we can plan it around that.

Thanks again, this thread just makes me even more unbearably excited