Question about touring style with the young and old?

[U2_rocks!]

Kids will be ages 4 - 7, grandparents in their 60s, in good health but not up to a ton of walking.

We'll be there for 2 weeks, but DH might only be able to be there for about 9 days. It's the first time for everyone except DH and I, and we're doing Seaworld too b/c DS is a fish fanatic!

Which itinerary style is easier on everyone: (1) 2 or 3 park days with a break in the middle of the day, then a whole day off? or (2) break the park days up into more half days and have no whole days off in between? Do we really need an entire day of every few days? Or is it OK to plan a park for every day, but make some days only half day and the rest of the day is spent by the pool or something? I've only ever been to WDW as an energetic adult, so I have no idea how my kids and parents are going to feel. My parents will not come with us every time - they will take more days off. But how will the kids handle things best?

 

[cleo]

The best 'plan' I've ever found for this sort of situation is, no plan. Well, not NO plan, but don't plan half-day vs whole day off, just go, see how everyone is holding up, and switch gears as needed.

If you know you're going to be on a more modified schedule than you'd normally have, it's probably more effective to let everyone's stamina level on any given day be the 'Plan'. That way you aren't tied to anything....not to a break day when you don't want one and not to staying in the parks when you really need to go back for a nap.

 

[U2_rocks!]

Some days we have "must do" reservations, so I guess on the other days we can be more flexible. We are also trying to plan our late nights so that they aren't the night before an early morning, and we are offsite so we're avoiding EMH. We also want to have TS ADRs for most park days b/c my dad has lots of allergies and requires special meals that CS will find it hard to prepare. I don't want to book more than 1 ADR for the same meal - that's hogging, and it might get all my ADRs cancelled. Plus, we'll be a party of 7, so walk-ins will be very hard to get (and will be tricky with the special meals thing). This is why I'm trying to have an actual itinerary in advance.

Given my kids' stamina level right now (trip is 5 months away), only DS will be able to tour all day. The girls will not make it past 2 or 3 p.m. on any given day. I just don't know if they will need a whole day once ina while to recover, or if they will be OK setting foot in a park every day, even if it's only for 3 - 4 hours. I suppose this depends on the individual, but I was wondering what others had experienced.

 

[Amirah95]

With your kids and parents ages I would break park days up into half days (kids won't mind, there should be a pool back at the hotel), with two parks and then skip a day and then do it all over again until the two weeks are up. I only say this because you say your parents are not up to walking too much so don't make them walk too long.