Tour planning question

[shruley]

Since I've been stuck in the cold and winter of MN I've been trying to survive by planning our DL trip. We're planning to go next Nov. (early Nov.) I'm having a hard time trying to do my actual touring planning for DL than WDW. Not sure if it's the ages of my kids this time or the lack of advice out there (no Tourguide Mike or Easy WDW) or what.

Anyway, this is what we've done in our past. We are rope drop people. We typically plan out our first hour or two in the park. We write down what attractions we want to do in what order, so the first hour when the park is empty we are moving and taking care of the rides we'd expect to have longer lines later. Once that first hour or two is over we typcially slow down a little. We have no set plan we follow, knowing our way around well enough to manuever without a lot of thought.

Here are my current delimas. I will have an 11 year old, a turning 8 on vacation, and a (young) 2 year old, all girls. We've always taken our girls when they are 2 to WDW. In the past we would usually forgo the "big people" rides and do what they want. We'd rush to Dumbo and Pooh at rope drop and never really bothered with "baby swap" for big rides. Now my older one will want to do almost all the rides (all the mountains, etc). I'm also not sure when we will be back to DL, so things like Indy and RSR both my husband and I will want to go on, meaning I'll have to figure out the baby swap thing.

Any opinion on what our "must-dos" would be each morning in a rough order? How would baby swap work on space mountain or something if we're trying to do it first thing? Would it be a pain or a time waster for that first hour? Any ideas would be great. We'll have 5 day park hoppers and 3 early entry mornings to use. The only thing I've decided so far is to forgo wide right and try to hit TSMM and then get fastpasses for RSR. Since the baby can't ride RSR I can't imagine us doing it more than a couple times unless it's SO good, and then maybe we'll have to just split up a couple times or something. Thanks for any ideas anyone has.

 

[VandVsmama]

Purchase a subscription to Ridemax. It's totally worth the $15-16 that you pay for it. I used it last May when we went to DL for the first time with our elementary-aged kids and it helped us hit 10 rides in the first 2 hours.

 

[Blue32]

I also recommend Ridemax, but you won't be able to put in which rides you are using baby swap with. If you are comfortable splitting up anyway, you could take advantage of some single rider lines. Those would really help on rides like RSR(if you want more than one ride), Matterhorn, and Indy.

 

[shruley]

Will RideMax be better than TouringPlans.com customized plans? Because I have a subscription for that and attempted a customized one. It told me to go to see Elsa and Anna midday and said the whole wait and meet would take like 10 minutes. After that I decided those would be basically worthless.

 

[VandVsmama]

When we went to DL last year, I tried both Touring Plans and Ridemax and for our needs, I preferred Ridemax over Touring Plans. Touring Plans had us going on rides at a time of day that they wouldn't even be open (i.e., Indiana Jones during EMH). And I had to manually move things around a lot. Ridemax's software works best if you select 13 or fewer attractions to see each day. It will give you a bank of a few hours in the afternoon that is "free time." And if you want to, you can create an additional plan to cover that free time. But we discovered that during the "free time," the lines for our coveted rides were quite long, so we either went back to the hotel to chill out for awhile, or we did other things...like going to see shows, go to Tom Sawyer's Island, and see lesser (not as popular) attractions.

 

[Blue32]

Will RideMax be better than TouringPlans.com customized plans? Because I have a subscription for that and attempted a customized one. It told me to go to see Elsa and Anna midday and said the whole wait and meet would take like 10 minutes. After that I decided those would be basically worthless.

I have both right now and prefer Ridemax. TouringPlans puts things in some weird orders IMO and I just prefer Ridemax even though you can't customize your order. All of the Meet and Greets are not listed in Ridemax though.

I suspect the greet for Anna and Elsa will be over an hour wait, even though you are talking many months away yet. I just don't see the popularity dying down too much anytime soon.

 

[Jairy]

I just purchased Ridemax. So, if I wanted to change parks mid day, I schedule that in as free time, and then make another plan for the same day in the other park? You can't combine two parks on one day, right?

 

[JohnneeO]

If you are into books, there is an "Unofficial Guide" to DLR. Not as extensive as the UG to WDW, but it was helpful for us when we went to DLR last November.

 

[VandVsmama]

I just purchased Ridemax. So, if I wanted to change parks mid day, I schedule that in as free time, and then make another plan for the same day in the other park? You can't combine two parks on one day, right?

You can't combine 2 parks in 1 plan, but you can create 2 separate plans for the same day. 1 plan for DL and another for DCA.

 

[Blue32]

I just purchased Ridemax. So, if I wanted to change parks mid day, I schedule that in as free time, and then make another plan for the same day in the other park? You can't combine two parks on one day, right?

Right. If you look at the Tips and Hints, he tells you to do that. There are some other helpful things in there as well.

 

[Jairy]

Right. If you look at the Tips and Hints, he tells you to do that. There are some other helpful things in there as well.

Thanks! I never thought to look at tips and tricks! Lol I just dove right in.
I planned the first 2 days of five, then I think it would be best to make a new plan each night. I have no idea what we are still going to want to do by the end if the week.

 

[momof4fans]

I purchased Ridemax for our August 2013 trip. We had 5 day park hoppers but no early entry or magic morning (we purchased our tickets on a military base.) Anyway, I studied different schedules like crazy. Day after day. I changed this, I changed that. I practically memorized the tips and tricks. Finally, our trip came. I had schedules for every day. I had stressed to my family and our friends that were going with us (newbies) that we had to be there early. We made it to rope drop every day. We were there about 7:45 every day. We just alternated daily between the parks without MM or EE. By 10am we were so far ahead of schedule it didn't even make sense to follow the schedule anymore.

The three most important things I learned and will always follow are: 1)Be there at rope drop. No if's, and's or but's about it. 2)Do the rides that are bold first. They get long lines early. 3)Utilize the FP systems to the max. We did those 3 things. By day 3, no schedule. It was awesome! And like another poster said, it was the best $15 I spent. I will buy Ridemax for our next trip just to refresh and have the tips and tricks.

 

[shruley]

Thanks for the ideas. I will look at Ridemax. Momof4fans, I think our DW trips would be like yours. At first I'd have the whole days planned out, but once the big ones were out of the way it didn't make sense to keep following the plan all day as it just wasn't needed.

We will be there at rope drop, but for the most part I expect the hours to be 10-8, so probably not quite an advantage crowd-wise as it is when there's an earlier opening time.

And am I correct in understanding that if we do, say, Space Mountain first thing and ask for a Baby pass, or whatever it's called, my DH and girls could go ride, and I would get a pass that would allow me to come back later if needed? So I wouldn't necessarily HAVE to ride at that exact same time? I'm sure it won't be as hard as I'm thinking. We normally fir 4 parks into about 6 days, so 2 in 5 should be easier right?

 

[momof4fans]

Thanks for the ideas. I will look at Ridemax. Momof4fans, I think our DW trips would be like yours. At first I'd have the whole days planned out, but once the big ones were out of the way it didn't make sense to keep following the plan all day as it just wasn't needed.

We will be there at rope drop, but for the most part I expect the hours to be 10-8, so probably not quite an advantage crowd-wise as it is when there's an earlier opening time.

And am I correct in understanding that if we do, say, Space Mountain first thing and ask for a Baby pass, or whatever it's called, my DH and girls could go ride, and I would get a pass that would allow me to come back later if needed? So I wouldn't necessarily HAVE to ride at that exact same time? I'm sure it won't be as hard as I'm thinking. We normally fir 4 parks into about 6 days, so 2 in 5 should be easier right?

It's true that in the off season when hours are shorter being there at rope drop doesn't give you as much of an advantage. We found that out on our Dec. 2011 trip.