Planning too much or just enough

[carandem]

Planning a surprise trip for Oct 27-Nov 3 for myself,grandma and the surprise is for my 6 yr old daughter

I have read the ultimate guide to disneyland and touring plans book

I feel that having a touring plan for rides is just too hectic, we have a 5 day park hopper pass

will be attending sea world one day

We will be going to mickeys halloween party on the 31st

I am trying to put togeather an intinerary like what park on what day, show schedule etc but with hours not being posted for those dates/times frustrating

Plus not to mention, where should i eat, what time should we eat, will we be hungry then, will we be in this park then

For what i consider myself to be a first timer, should i put togeather an itinerary, make a ton of reservations?

I think ideally we would probably take a nap some days but not all if any

Thoughts on a 6 1/2 yr old doing disney all day/night when to eat, what to reserve, what to wait for

Help!

 

[KateDrake]

First of all, take a deep breath. You can do this!

You'll be there during the best time of the year, IMHO - the off season! So that will make things infinitely easier.

I think reading the books and getting a touring plan idea are helpful, but when I go in the off season, I mostly just make a plan for the morning, and then see where we're at. The busy attractions (Cars Land for sure, and things like Space over at DLR) are still going to be busy, but everything else will be super easy. You'll probably be able to walk on quite a few attractions! So I'd make a plan as to which park you want to start in each morning (utilizing MM or any other EE privileges you have) and that way you can get the tough ones out of the way and play the rest of the day by ear.

Reservations are nice to have, but for most restaurants you can make them the day of. The ones I'd try to book in advance if you are interested in doing them are Blue Bayou, Carthay Circle, and any of the character meals you might want to do. There are some great dining threads on here, I'd check those out. You might also want to look at the menus here or at allears.net and get an idea of what sounds good.

You're going to have a great time! Five days gives you plenty of time to relax and soak it all in. Feel free to take a break in the afternoon if you need it. It will be magical!

 

[sonnyjane]

Everyone is different, but I personally don't like having rigid plans like that. In my opinion, Disneyland is a great park for flexible people. Everything is really close, so I like to grab FP's for the headliners, but then just pop onto stuff when I see it looks like a short line. If there's a sit-down restaurant I know I absolutely want to visit, then I'll plan for it that day and make a reservation, but other than that, I like to just go with what I'm craving at the moment, or what is close by when I'm hungry.

You have 5-day hoppers, so you don't have to think about things in terms of "what park per day", because in all likelihood you will be visiting both parks each day as they are just that close. Also, 5 days is a great length of time to see and do just about everything you probably want to.

I think it's best to have a general idea of what you'd like to do when, for example, okay, Monday let's do Fantasyland and then some of the big rides in Disneyland, Tuesday let's do Carsland in the morning, Wednesday will be a good night for World of Color, etc., but I'm not a fan of the "9:00 AM Space Mountain, 9:20 AM Nemo Subs, 10:00 AM Matterhorn, 10:30 AM bathroom break, 10:35 AM Small World" type plans. That's just too structured for me.

 

[BayGirl22]

I'm also a first timer going as an adult with family on a planned trip and I struggled with this too. My philosophy was to gather all the info I could (you've done that), plan out where we'd go each day for meals and shows. Then plan out the rides I knew we'd want to do so we'd at least have a plan in the mornings and evenings. I used Touring Plans but didn't focus so much on optimizing wait times, just building a schedule that covered what we wanted to cover, like a checklist.

60 days out I made reservations for the TS restaurants I may want to go to, especially if I had strong timing preferences. (ex. Goofy's at 7am, BB early to get a water table). 6 weeks out when Disney released the show schedule and EE availability changed I reevaluated and made some changes to my ressies. (flipped days to hit the non MM park during EE)

Now I'm a couple days out and I have a spreadsheet with all the good tips and personalized Touring Plans for each day. BUT when I actually get to the parks I intend to follow the plans loosely. I'll push the family to get on Peter Pan first, for example, but if DS wants to ride Dumbo 6 times and spend 2 hours at Mickey's house the schedule gets dropped. We can always cancel a reservation and eat corn dogs if that's what we're in the mood for. For me, being armed with info in advance will allow me to relax on the trip, not be looking up suggestions every time we need to make a decision.

I assume when you're going the hours are shorter (10-8)? My kids will nap in the stroller so we'll plan to stay in the park all day. I would think a 6 1/2 year old who doesn't nap could probably make it too. Of course I know some people here take afternoon breaks for the adults benefit. To me a 9:30-8:30 day is not too rigorous to require a break, but that's just our style.

 

[carandem]

This is so incredibly helpful, i always thought it would take one day to do the entire park at each but doesn't seem that way, I guess my biggest thing is yes I want to see shows, yes we want to see it all,

Bibbiddi Boutique planned

Ariels Grotto booked

Those were the two main things, I have read some of the boards about F! and WOC and it seems like absolute chaos to see these shows,

Because of the extrasd like castle at boutique package and halloween party i dont want to buy every upgrade to get a good seat, is it still crazy to get a good spot this time of year then?

I see that halloween is considered off season and should i still be rushing to get the fast passes? To me i am still not 100% clear on the fast pass how they work where to go how to get them , my thought is walk in the front door and start there like a regular exhibition and ride the rides as they come

 

[BayGirl22]

I really don't think the shows are "absolute chaos" at all, they are designed to entertain a large number of people at one time. In any case you can walk up at the last minute and catch them, but getting the best spots requires some waiting and planning. Keep in mind that thousands of people got to DLR every day with minimal planning. Here on the DIS things tend to get very planned and we try to optimize every little details For WOC and F! I would read the first pages of the Superthreads, and come up with a simple strategy, no reservations needed.

Putting a bit of thought into FP's would not hurt, but its not that complicated. There's a thread in here somewhere. Personally I don't like the idea of just entering and wandering around, I think that wastes a lot of the best time and puts you along with the biggest crowds. If you are looking to plan a little, just plan what you'll do first and then take it from there as the PPs said.

If you haven't read the Stickies and Superthreads yet I would start there.