Tips for a laid-back first visit?

[MDfam5]

My husband and I are bringing our three kids (11, 9, and 6) to Disney for the first time in January. We're staying off property at an Airbnb and doing as much as we can to save money to make this trip possible (like no park hopping!). It looks like it will be pretty crowded that week (January 2-8). Hubby and I have been to Disney twice before as adults (for our honeymoon and 10-year anniversary), but as this is our kids' first visit, we want to take things slow, and instead of rushing down Main Street USA first thing to take advantage of early morning crowds/low wait times, I want to make sure we take our time, allow the kids to soak it in, take pictures etc.

I guess my question is, how do you balance taking your time and going at the kids' pace with actually trying to get things done and not sit in lines all day long? I know rushing around and having a strict touring plan will stress my kids out - they will do much better with a slower/more relaxed pace. However, does that mean my 9-year-old Star Wars fanatic will miss out on Rise of the Resistance or that there's no chance we'll get on Flight of Passage without waiting for 2 hours in line?

Maybe I just need talking down, lol! I'm a little freaked out since we haven't been to Disney in 5 years and both times we went without the kids it wasn't crowded at all (on our honeymoon 15 years ago, the week after Thanksgiving, we literally walked onto almost every single ride the entire week! If only we knew how good we had it and that those days would disappear for good!!).

It just sounds like so much has changed, and unless you're willing to rush around like a maniac (or buy Genie+, which isn't in our already overextended budget!), you're going to be missing out on almost everything or be stuck waiting in ridiculous lines. Any advice/encouragement would be appreciated!!! Thanks!

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Have you looked at the Touring Plans plans for families with children? You can set the walking speed and choose your favourite rides from a complete list and even set your start time etc. It’s about $17 for 12 months, I think but money well spent.
Also, avoid ‘hangry’ at all costs. The moment someone mentions food or being hungry, don’t wait, refuel immediately. I hope that you have a fabulous time.

 

[GBRforWDW]

I know the feeling. Our first ever trip to WDW was Thanksgiving week 4 years ago. We had no idea what we were in for! Lol. Fortunately, we had fastpasses and dinner reservations. Now we're doing our third trip and going Christmas week, this time understanding what we're in for and just going to be there for the experience and enjoy what we can, similar to you. This trip for us is going to be paid for by credit card points, which makes it more tolerable, knowing we won't get so many rides and will just enjoy being there.

No matter how much you budget, you're going over in a place like this. It's no fun when you get home and realize what just happened, but at the same time, it's such a fun and unique experience that is really exciting and worth it to experience with the kids while they're young.

As far as Taking it slow and enjoying things, you mentioned main street USA. The one cool unique thing about Magic Kingdom right now for offsite guests is that you can actually enter the park with resort guests. While only resort guests can move on to rides in tomorrow land and Fantasyland, you're free to roam main street, allowing you to enjoy it for close to an hour if you're able to get there early without worrying about missing out on rides, etc.

I would recommend, even if not entirely in the budget, to grab genie+ for your MK day. You can get a 1 day G+ pass on the day of your park pass, then you can wait in line via the app while you explore other parts of the park. There's really so much to see and do, though, so don't expect to do it all.

As far as top rides like Rise, so far, it's worked to wait until close to park closing before jumping in line. I know you mentioned young kids so not sure if that works or if you'd prefer the show at park closing, but if you're in line for a ride when the park closes, you can stay in that line until you ride.

 

[MDfam5]

Thanks for that tip @GBRforWDW! I didn't know that you could enjoy Main Street while the resort guests were having their early entry time. That will be great!

 

[katyjeka]

We changed our touring style over twenty years ago and will never go back. At one time we were the crazy people who raced from ride to ride and missed the true magic of Disney World. It took our kids to make us realize everything that we were missing. From Divine to talking trash cans, and spraying sidewalks the parks are full of all kinds of hidden surprises. I'm sure your kids will have the time of their lives even if they miss a ride or two. I still cringe a little when we are in AK and our girls spend forever watching the animals. It took some time before it hit me that that was as important as a ride to them.(they are HUGE animal lovers) Enjoy your special trip and don't stress over things you might miss. Focus on everything your family is getting to enjoy. The only advice I have is don't be too surpised if your kids beg to go back to the pool as it happens often with kids.(not sure if your rental has one) I get so tired of hearing the famous line, "when can we go swimming?"!!!!

 

[loves to dive]

To start, relax it will be o.k. Now on to the other advise. Warning!!!!!! this is not popular advise - if your kids have never been they have no way of missing what they have never had. There I said it. If you don't show them ride videos, etc. before you go they will not know they missed something. WDW is huge, I've been going with and without my son (who is now 1 month away from 41 and we started going when he was just shy of 3) for many years and I have yet to see and do it all. It can be overwhelming for kids, especially the smaller ones, so you might want to plan with your husband to maybe split some time. One of you go one way with the older kids and maybe do the bigger kids rides, even if it means standing in line, they are older and should be able to handle it. The other take the little one and go another way and do things the older ones might not be interested in. While some of the Fantasyland rides are going to have long lines no matter what unless you buy Genie + (I'm looking at you Peter Pan) there will actually be some that don't really have that long of a wait. Use the free Genie to look at the tip board and wait times, no they won't be right but they will give you some idea.

Second, there is no way anyone can know if that week will be crowded. All the predictions are based on either the before times or Jan. 2020 when the parks reopened and were not at full capacity. Chances are that they could be more crowded then say mid-May but there is no way of knowing.

You don't say how many park days you will have but I'm going to assume (dangerous I know) that from the 2nd to 8th means you aren't going to have tickets on the 2nd or the 8th? If that is so, 4 days one park ticket. You may have to decide to skip a park, I don't normally advise that but with no hopping in your plans and the ages of your kids, I'm thinking Epcot might not be a priority. I'll add it has always been my son's favorite park even as a little child but he likes learning and history. So maybe you do 2 days at MK, one day at AK and one day at HS, that should be doable. You might have to bite the bullet and stand in a long line for RoTR if your Star Wars loving son really wants to ride it but that would be it. The rest can be done with rope drop or later times during the day.

Now if the 2nd through 8th means that is your park days, you are golden. With six park days, it should all be o.k. Even 5 or 4 1/2 is going to be pretty good. Book the parks you know you want to hit and then go ahead and book the ones you think you might want to duplicate. It's possible (not always) to change your park days while there. Say you booked HS for two days early in the week, did it and decided you really didn't need another day. Look at the park reservation calendar that night, if it shows availability at another park you might want to repeat, go ahead and cancel your HS and book that park. Be warned, it is possible in the time it takes you to cancel and rebook, park #2 might become fully booked but something should be open. I would think as long as something is showing green and not yellow when you look at the calendar, the few minutes it takes to cancel and rebook should be safe. If it isn't, guess what, you just got a resort day or a DS day or a day to repeat a park you thought you might not want to repeat but will enjoy anyway.

 

[ChanaC]

I agree with the other poster - they may not know what they are missing if they never knew about it in the first place! For a laid back trip, I suggest asking your kids to pick one thing in each park they really want to do. Make it the goal of the day to just do those three things. Then everyone will be happy! For the 6 year old you can even decide for them what their "thing" will be.

I would say that rope dropping is stressful, but also showing up at the parks to find that everything already has an hour line is also stressful. Maybe at least plan on getting to the park within an hour of opening. So if there is a 9am opening, at least try to get there by 9:30.

I think having just a bit of a plan will also help things out. For example, if your Star Wars kid really really wants to get on Rise of the Resistance then maybe plan on buying that Genie+ Individual pass. Or, unlike what I said above, plan at least one rope drop day and plan on getting to Hollywood Studios right when it opens (and as a tip, get there even before it opens - it's not unusual for the park to open a little earlier than the official time). Same with Flight of Passage, although I hear that one has a shorter wait later in the day, so plan on staying in the park at little later and hitting that right as the park is about to close.

Also, something that stresses me out is all the talk about getting reservations to the "hot" popular restaurants, and people being upset they can't get a reservation. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it, and there is a good chance your kids wouldn't even know that the popular restaurants are. If you can find reservations, great. If not, just do quick service. And as much as people complain about some restaurants being better than others, unless you have extremely picky eaters or allergies, it really doesn't matter. Food is food, I don't remember about whatever burger I had when I really think about all the cool attractions. If you do want to sit down to eat (which might be a good idea during the middle of the day), I think every park has at least one "boring" restaurant that is easy to get reservations to, or if you are in Magic Kingdom or Epcot is easy enough to go to some of the nearby hotels to eat.

 

[Ak1700]

I am newer to this site, but highly recommend Touring Plans. It has helped me see the predicted crowd levels for each park/day and be able to plan out each park day fairly well. Also, it depends on if you have Park Hopper tix or not, but I'd try MK in the early AM to look around and ride the classics with the kids, but then try and go one night to see the holiday decorations lit up. Also, if you hit up HS later in the day, it tends to be less busy for some of the attractions (again, depending on crowds). I've gone with one child by myself and gotten to ride every ride in AK and do the games in Dinoland in just about a half a park day, and be able to get back to the resort pool for the late afternoon. Epcot is also a one day park or less (depending on how much food/drinks you want to do also besides rides), but MK and HS take the most time. Since your kids ages seem to be old enough to ride all the big rides, you probably won't use rider swap, but it might be worth it for Genie + for all of you for at least one day. I'd have your fam write down their top 3 must dos for each park , and make sure to cover the most requested, so it doesn't become overwhelming if you don't get to do all of it. Have fun!

 

[Anna131517]

My two cents - make dining reservations or bring food (hangry kids are the worst) and then just walk through the park and ride whatever has a short wait time. There are lots of non-ride things to do at Disney - like at MK there’s Tom Sawyers Island, the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, the Tiki Room, and getting a Dole Whip. AK and EP can be tons of fun without any lines. Don’t tell them about specific rides and they won’t have their heart set on anything with a long ride. Make sure to catch some shows. Don’t stay too long so they’re not too tired to get back to your car. If your 6 year old is on the smaller side consider a stroller.

 

[gharter]

we did every park rope drop, did attractions and lunch, then headed back to the resort for the afternoon and returned in the evening or after dinner.