Trying to please everyone....? Planning nightmares, please help.

Just have a ton of fun - make the FP ressies for the parks you will be in those days, and then play with them as plans evolve. Arm yourself with knowledge gained here and other places, maximize your riding vs. waiting time ratio, and make sure to look around you instead of being focused on the schedule or smart phone. You'll have a great trip!
 
I guess the other option might be doing just one MK day, doing all full days, and having a schedule something like this:


Thurs: AK
Fri: EP
Sat: Free
Sun: SW
Mon: DC
Tues: Free
Wed: MK
Thurs: HS

Two park days then a free day. Could do Pirates Cruise Friday night after Epcot to have the free day for resting. Could do HDDR on the free Tuesday. They'd all be longer days, but would all be free evenings, home for supper/normal bedtime. Plan at least an hour long break each day somewhere in the park? Via ADR or just a resting spot?
 
Thursday: Animal Kingdom, full day, lunch time ADR at Tusker House
Friday: MK, either full day (9-3 if we skip parade) or go in the afternoon 12-8
Saturday: Epcot, evening (say 4-8) for the WS. Free day before this, as we're going to need recovery time during the day after the late night before.
Sunday: Sea World, full day
Monday: Epcot, morning (9-1) for Future World. Free afternoon. Hoop Dee Doo at 6:15
Tuesday: Discovery Cove, full day (though I imagine we'll leave around 2 or 3 since we're not doing the Dolphin Swim)
Wednesday: MK - not sure if we should do 9-12, go back to the house and then come back for our 5:00 BBB. Or if we should do a later arrival and maybe plan on being there around 1.
Thursday: HS, half day. I was thinking of going maybe 3-9, watching the first Fantasmic show. We're starting our drive home the next day, so they can sleep in the car. But we could also just do a 9-1, too.

So... thoughts? I do like how it basically alternates full days followed by a partial day.
Day 1, good,
Day 2, I would do a full MK day. Why bother just for an afternoon?
Day 3 I like Epcot in the evening,maybe 2-8 p.m.(ish)
Day 4 SW
Day 5- good
Day 6 DC
Day 7 I would do Mk all day,till your appt. at 5. so 9-7(?)
Day 8- swim in a.m.- HS from 1-9
Personally, esp.staying offsite, if you're in a park,stay there and see what there is to see. There are a LOT of places to 'hide' from noise,crowds,etc and relax,and pick up steam. Find a shady spot, have a snack and a cup of tea, relax and people watch, till you feel 'rested'. Plus your kids ages make MK very interesting..... I am a big fan of being somewhere,not rushing, and seeing a lot. relaxing is going to happen, I always seek out places that aren't as 'popular' to just chill for a while. IMHO.
 
Day 1, good,
Day 2, I would do a full MK day. Why bother just for an afternoon?
Day 3 I like Epcot in the evening,maybe 2-8 p.m.(ish)
Day 4 SW
Day 5- good
Day 6 DC
Day 7 I would do Mk all day,till your appt. at 5. so 9-7(?)
Day 8- swim in a.m.- HS from 1-9
Personally, esp.staying offsite, if you're in a park,stay there and see what there is to see. There are a LOT of places to 'hide' from noise,crowds,etc and relax,and pick up steam. Find a shady spot, have a snack and a cup of tea, relax and people watch, till you feel 'rested'. Plus your kids ages make MK very interesting..... I am a big fan of being somewhere,not rushing, and seeing a lot. relaxing is going to happen, I always seek out places that aren't as 'popular' to just chill for a while. IMHO.

I wasn't sure if the kids could handle 9 am till 9 pm for that last Friday was my only concern with just staying. But then again, maybe we could arrive later morning, around 10 or 11? We'll probably plan on an hour for lunch, plus BBB will be a break in a way (basically just sitting down in air conditioning while they get made up). If we get hot they can hit Casey's and splash around there for awhile? And while we want to see MSEP, we're not stuck to it. If kids are fried we'll leave early.
 

I know a lot of people on this board are die-hard Disney, and Disney only people, and every minute must be spent in Disney, lol... but honestly.. that's not us. We're going, it'll be fun and very happy to experience (I've already been before and DH has never had any desire to go, he's only going for the kids), but... we have no desire for it to be the ONLY thing we do on our trip. We are every bit as excited about SW, DC etc... Honestly, we could probably even do just one day at MK and the kids would be happy. But for the sake of allowing them to see more/do more etc... there, that's why we're planning two days there.

Well, you're posting on a Disney message board, and asking questions of die-hard Disney fans .... :confused:

I feel like the tail is wagging the dog to some extent. I don't think Disney is the only thing going, but I just don't think a lot of people are visiting Orlando exclusively to go to Seaworld, whereas I KNOW tons of people go to Orlando exclusively to visit Disney ... and there's a reason for that.

Also, the idea that you can fully experience MK in one day ... I just ... look, we tried it once, and couldn't do it. We're kind of Epcot fanatics, so we thought we could condense MK down to one day to leave more time for Epcot. You know what ended up happening? We dumped our plans to do Universal the next day and went back to MK. We saved our Universal tickets for the next trip. And it worked out fine.
 
Well, you're posting on a Disney message board, and asking questions of die-hard Disney fans .... :confused:

I feel like the tail is wagging the dog to some extent. I don't think Disney is the only thing going, but I just don't think a lot of people are visiting Orlando exclusively to go to Seaworld, whereas I KNOW tons of people go to Orlando exclusively to visit Disney ... and there's a reason for that.

Also, the idea that you can fully experience MK in one day ... I just ... look, we tried it once, and couldn't do it. We're kind of Epcot fanatics, so we thought we could condense MK down to one day to leave more time for Epcot. You know what ended up happening? We dumped our plans to do Universal the next day and went back to MK. We saved our Universal tickets for the next trip. And it worked out fine.

Just because we're not hard core doesn't mean we don't still need advice. Or, am I not allowed to ask because I don't live/breath Disney? lol. I only mentioned that so that people giving advice understand where we're coming from :)
 
Just because we're not hard core doesn't mean we don't still need advice. Or, am I not allowed to ask because I don't live/breath Disney? lol. I only mentioned that so that people giving advice understand where we're coming from :)

You are allowed to ask anything you want, wherever you want. I just meant that you might get better advice (for where you're coming from) in a different place. You are going to get Disney-centric advice here. And it seems like the only thing carved in stone in your itinerary are 2 non-Disney parks. I am not trying to be a jerk, really.

I would tell any friend of mine to concentrate their time in Orlando in the Disney parks ... I would say that (IMHO) the other parks in town are decidedly "less than". And that every additional park that you add to your trip will add a layer of frustration. I will leave it at that. I hope you have an amazing trip.
 
I guess the other option might be doing just one MK day, doing all full days, and having a schedule something like this:


Thurs: AK
Fri: EP
Sat: Free
Sun: SW
Mon: DC
Tues: Free
Wed: MK
Thurs: HS

Two park days then a free day. Could do Pirates Cruise Friday night after Epcot to have the free day for resting. Could do HDDR on the free Tuesday. They'd all be longer days, but would all be free evenings, home for supper/normal bedtime. Plan at least an hour long break each day somewhere in the park? Via ADR or just a resting spot?

OK, at this point I have to ask: are you making better plans or just different ones? Everyone has advice (me included) but at some point the unknown factors will way far more heavily in what happens to your plan than the known ones. I think most would agree that the plan you posted just prior to the one quoted above had many solid improvements over the one you posted first, where it was clear there were items you thought were too much and I felt there was a tone about your presentation that was kind of "OMG, how do we fit it all in and still feel human at the end?" Do you still need to improve on that plan?

I think the plan you have above is fine. I think the plan you posted just prior to this one was also fine; although obviously it was a little more fleshed out, there was flexibility in it and choices (like park arrival times on specific days) that didn't need to be made until you arrived and saw how your kids/family were managing. It seems a lot of the in-law issues that were making you stressed have resolved. If you're having a good time tinkering with your plans, then by all means keep going. But if you're not having fun anymore, which I think is where you were when you started the thread, then please take a good look at either of the last two plans, and ask yourself seriously if there is anything about them that really bothers you or you think is unworkable. And if not, and you're not having a good time with the plans, then give yourself a break and stop. :-)
 
OK, at this point I have to ask: are you making better plans or just different ones? Everyone has advice (me included) but at some point the unknown factors will way far more heavily in what happens to your plan than the known ones. I think most would agree that the plan you posted just prior to the one quoted above had many solid improvements over the one you posted first, where it was clear there were items you thought were too much and I felt there was a tone about your presentation that was kind of "OMG, how do we fit it all in and still feel human at the end?" Do you still need to improve on that plan?

I think the plan you have above is fine. I think the plan you posted just prior to this one was also fine; although obviously it was a little more fleshed out, there was flexibility in it and choices (like park arrival times on specific days) that didn't need to be made until you arrived and saw how your kids/family were managing. It seems a lot of the in-law issues that were making you stressed have resolved. If you're having a good time tinkering with your plans, then by all means keep going. But if you're not having fun anymore, which I think is where you were when you started the thread, then please take a good look at either of the last two plans, and ask yourself seriously if there is anything about them that really bothers you or you think is unworkable. And if not, and you're not having a good time with the plans, then give yourself a break and stop. :-)


Haha, no. I'm still tired of planning. I was "thinking out loud" , toying with an idea based on some of the input here. There's been some great advice, so trying to put it all into a plan now. I think though, we'll stick with the general overall plan that I had originally: AK, MK, free day with EP evening, SW, EP morning, DC, MK, HS. I think overall shorter days, rather than longer RD to evening days will work better. We'll keep the Fireworks cruise, and leave HDDR as a "wait and see". I only need to give 24 hours cancellation, so we can just see how the week goes once we're there.
 
Sounds like you've settled on some good ideas with some flexibility too. Just one point...you said somewhere that your kids don't transition well and you wouldn't want to tear them away from the park when they are still raring to go...I totally understand that and can sympathise. BUT....I worried about the exact same thing with my DD...but after getting up at 6am to make RD at MK....she was positively DONE by 1pm and wanted nothing to do with ANYTHING I offered her at the parks. We went back to our hotel for seriously less than an hour at the pool...hung out in the room for an hour....and then she (and I) were refreshed and ready to go out again. I know that going back for a break might not sound feasible...but after a long hot morning...you all might need one. (or you might not and you are wayyyy more energetic than we are :)) Just my two cents. I love all your plans and wish it was me :))
 
That's good to hear and at least we'll know that's an option. Well, I thought and thought about this all night, all the advice I got, and made a call. Turns out we ARE able to cancel our Discovery Cove tickets. So... We're going to drop that. We are going to keep Sea World however, but that definitely frees up time. We're also going to drop the Pirates and Pals cruise. It's going to be way too late.

So our new, and FINAL plans are as follows :

Day 1: Animal Kingdom, ADR Tusker House
Day 2: Magic Kingdom day, stay for FOF
Day 3: free day. Hoop dee Doo at 4
Day 4: Epcot day
Day 5: Sea World day
Day 6: free day. I think we'll go to Kelly Park for a couple hours in the morning, do the river tubing.
Day 7: Magic Kingdom, go in at 12 or 1, stay for MSEP and Wishes (as long as.kids are doing OK). 5:00 BBB, 6:50 CRT
Day 8: Hollywood Studios evening. Go in around 3, ADR at Sci -Fi
 
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