Planning for a WDW Newbie

[msmama]

There is A LOT to see aside from just rides and shows. In fact, we ride very few rides and see very few shows some trip. But we do hit each and every store to window shop (and there are a lot of them).

You know your family best so you know what they will like best. If you think it's going to be mostly rides then 3 days at MK might be great. My son (almost 7) loves looking around at Epcot so we spend at least 2 days there.

Like someone else said, we have a list of 3-5 things (depending on time of year and travellers) and if we get those things done we consider the day a success. The rest of the day can then be spend doing whatever we feel like doing that day.

 

[SPSRAS]

We've done a few trips with our DD and my suggestions are:
Don't cancel your BBB & Cindrellas Table!
We do 2 days at MK - first one is RD til about 5:00p - then an early dinner off -site - the 2nd day we do a split day -RD (no FP+ for morning touring)- hotel for lunch and rest - back to MK 3 FP+ rides, dinner and fireworks. Both seem to keep DD rested enough to enjoy everything.
Also I cannot recommend enough the touring plans from EasyWDW. Everyone in our group thought I was totally crazy and didn't want to stick to a minute by minute plan but after we spent an entire week at the parks and literally never waited in line they were all thanking me! I amended the plans to account for our interests and "scheduled" in lots of snack and shopping breaks so it didn't really feel like we were watching the clock.
I also would suggest either opting out of Epcot or Hollywood Studios this trip and take a day off. It can all be pretty overwhelming and exhausting and I think having a day to recharge and assimilate everything the kids have seen is very worthwhile - probably more valuable than seeing every single park.

 

[Mome Rath]

Thanks so much! I do have all of our park days planned, as I had to do that to figure out ADRs.

We have six park days:
1. MK
2. MK (we are doing BBB this day with an ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table afterward)
3. Epcot
4. Hollywood Studios
5. Animal Kingdom
6. MK

I subscribed to Touring Plans and love how I can choose attractions and the system will make me a plan. But I don't know how much downtime to plan. I mean, I don't want to spend the whole time racing from one thing to another. But I don't know how much time we will spend looking around.

Oh, and while I like Touring Plans, I don't really plan to be married to the schedule and to HAVE to keep it. I just thought it would be helpful to give us a plan we can loosely follow.

We are going mid-June, so there will be higher crowd levels.

Thanks!!!

All kids are different, and you know your daughter best. But at 7 years old, I'd plan for more "downtime" than what you think you might need, because then you can always fill it with something else if you decide to. At 7 my feet still hurt so bad after a day on the march that it would become hard to force myself to get out of bed the next day and have my feet hit the carpet. lol

I actually think your days are pretty good, and I'd say to let you BBB day be more relaxed after CRT. Enjoy it. The reason I say that is your first day you hit the parks running and with so much energy it carries you through. The last day is, well, your last day, so you are wrapping up anything you missed, and honestly you'll be a bit tired. So your 2nd MK day is the day I'd really slow down and enjoy. I do think with all the time you have, go ahead and do all the parks. The only thing I'd add is Studios and AK are probably going to be your "shorter" days and what I mean by that is it doesn't seem as hard to hit what you want to hit in those parks in your allotted time.

In general, for everyone, take care of your feet! lol Anything you can do to insure your feel feel ok the next day will help you so much. If you are going to stay in the parks all day, don't be afraid to take a large chunk of time around lunch just to sit somewhere and chill, esp. in June. Get a snack, put your feet up, drink water, and breathe.

 

[SPSRAS]

We've done a few trips with our DD and my suggestions are:
Don't cancel your BBB & Cindrellas Table!
We do 2 days at MK - first one is RD til about 5:00p - then an early dinner off -site - the 2nd day we do a split day -RD (no FP+ for morning touring)- hotel for lunch and rest - back to MK 3 FP+ rides, dinner and fireworks. Both seem to keep DD rested enough to enjoy everything.
Also I cannot recommend enough the touring plans from EasyWDW. Everyone in our group thought I was totally crazy and didn't want to stick to a minute by minute plan but after we spent an entire week at the parks and literally never waited in line they were all thanking me! I amended the plans to account for our interests and "scheduled" in lots of snack and shopping breaks so it didn't really feel like we were watching the clock.
I also would suggest either opting out of Epcot or Hollywood Studios this trip and take a day off. It can all be pretty overwhelming and exhausting and I think having a day to recharge and assimilate everything the kids have seen is very worthwhile - probably more valuable than seeing every single park.

I just wanted to add that reason I suggest maybe skipping Epcot (when others are telling you to do 2 days!) is because it is the least princess-y. We managed to get photos with Aurora and Belle at France but that was it for princesses at Epcot. And to be perfectly honest my DD (who is princess obsessed) could care less about TT and Mission Space. She had a much more enjoyable day at HS - loved the Frozen Sing a long, Little Mermaid show, Beauty & Beast show, Muppets etc. She also loved the Art of Animation - drawing her own cartoon. The only ride we did was TSMM and saw Fantasmic. Many people say HS is the lesser of all the parks due to its lack of headlining rides - but we had a great day there full of princesses!

 

[IndianaRRT]

The only advice I have is plan for the unexpected. On our 2nd visit, we were at HS when an epic thunderstorm hit. The nearest shelter was a restroom, and we were crammed like sardines in there while Mother Nature put on her own light show. But then our DD whispered in my ear, "Mom, listen. How many languages do you hear in here?" And she was right. So we actually had a pretty good time enjoying multicultural descriptions of the weather. When it was safe, but still raining, we ventured across to the Beauty and the Beast show (provided some shelter from the rain but not on our original plan that day) and had a blast. Something won't work out like you planned, but something fun can still take place.

Some other things I keep in mind:
--My advice would be don't skip a park on this first visit. Sure, you can make assumptions from all this wonderful advice and literature what your little sweeties will and won't love, but let them show you. I was sure our kids would dislike Epcot on our first visit, but it was their favorite. Still is.
--Get your 1st visit pins and wear them.
--We took pictures of the kids at every park entrance, and those are still among our favorite photos. That excitement on their faces isn't duplicated by much once they're teens.
--Don't watch the whole vacation through the back of your camera. Use Photopass and Memory Maker to its potential.

Hope you have a wonderful vacation!