Travel planning.

[frijolefrito]

I had all the details planned then I added a day So I have the opportunity to get one of the tour guides for one of the days I'm at disney. Thing is I'll have 4 days and am thinking 4 days + a guide is over kill. It'll also save me 1500... thoughts? Suggestions? Thawjestins? I'm traveling with 17 (yes I'm aware of all the park guide logistics.) but realistically only 10 will be going with the tour guide. I'm also thinking about restructuring my planning.

I'm also traveling with 6 kids ranges from 1-8 whos all bedtimes are 830. I'll have a babysitter and a nanny available. So what time to put them to bed and what time to break for lunch and how to fit pool time... or are pools for suckers... I've put way too much time into this lol.

Oh my dates are aug 1-4

Okay so my questions are:

4 days plus guide overkill?
What's a good schedule for the kids If they go to bed at 730 but probably can stay up till 8?

 

[frijolefrito]

anyone bueller

 

[DizNee Luver]

I had all the details planned then I added a day So I have the opportunity to get one of the tour guides for one of the days I'm at disney. Thing is I'll have 4 days and am thinking 4 days + a guide is over kill. It'll also save me 1500... thoughts? Suggestions? Thawjestins? I'm traveling with 17 (yes I'm aware of all the park guide logistics.) but realistically only 10 will be going with the tour guide. I'm also thinking about restructuring my planning.

I'm also traveling with 6 kids ranges from 1-8 whos all bedtimes are 830. I'll have a babysitter and a nanny available. So what time to put them to bed and what time to break for lunch and how to fit pool time... or are pools for suckers... I've put way too much time into this lol.

Oh my dates are aug 1-4

Okay so my questions are:

4 days plus guide overkill?
What's a good schedule for the kids If they go to bed at 730 but probably can stay up till 8?

Wow I thought we went to DL with a lot of people last summer.....we had 10!!! (hubby, MIL & my 7 kids ranging from 3 to 25).

So 4 days.......great number of days to get pretty much everything done you want to do!! Do you really feel you need a VIP tour? That really is a lot of money. I would so use that money for something else......something fun!!

Have you been to DL before?

As for the early nights.......this is how we did it. Since we had 6 adults, we took turns "babysitting" (sounds like you might have that covered). The 3 yr old twins are autistic & delayed & HAD to stay within their normal routine. We'd have lunch & then who ever was on baby duty, would take the twins back to the motel for a nap/downtime & then return around 4-5pm. We'd regroup, do dinner & park time before the twins would return back to the motel by 7:30pm for bed.

I'd suggest being at the parks before opening & head to Fantasyland first thing. For the younger kids, this will be a must. Fantasyland gets busy very early & stays that way until closing. So if riding Dumbo is important......losing sleeping in will be in the cards. The first couple hours is a great time to hit the rides & gather FP's.

We'd break after lunch for swimming (where are you staying??) & then back to the parks for dinner & the evening activities.

If you can keep the kids up late on a couple nights.....the fireworks up by the castle are really something to see!! During the time you're going, the fireworks show includes Tinkerbell & Dumbo flying over the castle.

The other nighttime options include Fantasmic (awesome) & World of Color (awesome).

Looking over trip reports & reading threads that interest you will help you plan what you want to do & see. I have a ton of pictures in my TR from last summer. I also put reviews of meals.

Hopefully that will get you started & then you can come back with more questions!!!

 

[skiingfast]

I agree with PP 4 days will be great.

I'm not sure I would use a tour guide unless some people are really into the history of the parks. Maybe if a few are one of the tours would be a better way to go.

As far as pools. Not a bad break and kids love to swim, but maybe it would be better to give the young ones naps during the mid day so they can stay up late. Besides it is DLR and you are there for the parks, otherwise you would go to your local YMCA to swim.

I would make the kids stay up late for the 3 night shows. It's possible to do all three in a night, and easy to do the two in DL in a night. But will probably not work with such a large group because you have to work your way through crowds. Maybe with the big group you can get a couple to sacrfice the early show to save places for everyone in the second show if you do Magical and F! in the same night.

Even with a 8pm bedtime I was able to get DS to stay up late for the shows when he was younger. Wanted to stay up till midnight on NYE 2010 and didn't make it, but did stay up until 2am to shut down the MK before Granted 2am there is 12pm here. I don't know why but he can go open to close without a problem when Mickey is involved.

 

[frijolefrito]

I want to thank you both for your responses. Yes I keep having to plan pretty detailed itineraries. I'm at the DLH wooh hoo!!! I want to thank disney for the 40% military discount and the 100 dollar 3 day passes. Oh and thank the free ticket with the 33 reservation (I'm kinda gloating). The tour guide we use is also our friend and I think she's so excited about it now that I'm not going to be able to back out. So I talked with family (they are all 3 figure + doctors) and we are splitting it. I think you are all right tho if we weren't friends I would have dropped that part.

The times I like what I'm hearing 8pm is what I was thinking. I was actually thinking of pushing 9 but then have booked really nice restaurants and thought... they can keep the nanny and babysitter employed.

So last question: Should I cut out the nap the first day and see how they do? Should I add the nap and see how they do. Kids falling asleep on me around 7 isn't a bad thing. Plus I have grandma and grandpa who'd like nothing better than excuse to go take a nap. They live next to disney and have the maxed out passes with no blackoutd dates.

You're right about the pool I'm just well okay. Last year we were given one day to do disney. We blazed trails and everyone was done by like 8pm. Well we got a note on our door saying.. you can stay an extra day for like 124 or something and we jumped on it. We went back to the park and were DEAD.. ALL of us just DEAD! Plus everything sort of seemed like same as before but watered down. So I reflected on that and thought... okay first thing I didn't hit everything. I skipped a lot of things and second I was just so tired. It was emotionally tiring getting the second part of the group to move and just the feeling of not enought time. I don't know has anyone done this? So I thought maybe since I got 4 days I can just take it just super easy and mix in sit down dinners and breaks. Thoughts, comments, personal storys? I was also thinking like maybe afternoon DCA alcohol break and GAME ON! lol

 

[DizNee Luver]

I'd still go with the short break after lunch. That way, no one burns out on the first day & ends up dragging the rest of the trip. A couple hours away from the parks is good for everyone & staying at the DLH, you'll still feel like you're there.

The resort pools are nice & a great way to refresh!!!

How long is the tour you're doing?? If you're doing it for the history & trivia of DL, I'd say do it on the first day.....that way you'll have an understanding of everything you do the rest of the time. I believe with the VIP tour, you also get to do rides......so this might be a great way of figuring out what rides everyone likes so you can repeat them later in the trip.

 

[frijolefrito]

yah we are getting charged the VIP tour rate but it's not the VIP tour. No this isn't our first time I been there plenty growing up but slowed down when I joined the military had a famliy ect. The tour is the I dunno 8 hours whatever the minimum was. I think it's 8 hours. Maybe 6.