What to plan for first timers

[parkesyau]

we are a family with two kids aged 7 and 9 visiting next April/may.
Have been to DL in LA and pretty much had no plans other than to visit parks etc.
I now keep reading DW needs to be planned! So just wondering on everyone's thoughts on exactly what to plan
I've booked room only at Pop and will get tickets to the parks later this year
I have my Disney experience linked and set a reminder to book restaurants when they open. Be our guest will be unlikely I know everyone has no luck so will try sci fi dining.
What else do you plan? I will keep an eye on undercover tourist and crowd forecasts and pick our parks accordingly on the day we want to visit and organise the fast passes too.
Is that it? Can we still just wing the rest or does all dining meals etc need to be pre organised? With kids we though we would just grab meals in whichever park we were at and at night either head to resort or Disney springs and just walk into a restaurant.
I don't know if there's anything else we need to "plan" as such.with kids plans always change.
I have not gone with a package as it seems cheaper to do it seperate and will give us dining flexibility. Thanks for your thoughts I've spent hours on these forums and mousesavrs and undercover tourist
April can't come quick enough

 

[jpeterson]

Fastpasses. These need to be planned. Since you are staying on site you can pick those 60 days out

WDW does not have paper fastpasses like DL. They are all tied to your MDE and used with your magic band. You pick 3 a day and then can get more. Check out the FastPass sticky in the theme park forum

Edit: I see now that you mention fastpasses in the middle there so hopefully you have this under control.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I would do the following:

1) Pick your park days and how you want to tour (will you go in the AM, take a break and go back or go to another park? Will you stay in the park all day?). Use touring plans or another site to check "best days", crowd levels, etc. I HIGHLY recommend putting AK further into your trip if you are interested in riding FoP (but I'll get to that in FP+) After that is determined,

2) Prior to your 180 day booking window, pick the restaurants, special events (tours, dessert parties, BBB, etc.) that you want based on your touring plan. I suggest doing this after making a touring plan as you don't want to end up with a BOG dinner reservation on a night you then decide to spend at EP. If you want to keep your touring plan flexible, I, personally wouldn't make more than 1 TS restaurant per day. If there are only a few TS you want to do, book those and yes, you can sort of wing things. You can certainly eat at QS on the fly. If you are interested in eating at TRex, Rainforest Cafe or Yak & Yeti, I would highly recommend getting a Landry's Select Card. It's $25, but that $25 goes toward your bill. With the card, you can walk up to any of the Landry's restaurants I've listed and get priority seating above even guests with ADR's. If you are interested in eating at DS, I recommend using opentable to make reservations. There is usually more availability and you don't need to use your CC to hold the reservation. You can also check the MDE app on your phone for last minute reservations on the day you want to eat. There are a lot of DS and, in particular, resort restaurants, that book up, so I wouldn't recommend going all the way to DS or another resort without a reservation. If you are flexible with where you eat, you shouldn't have trouble finding something on the MDE app or on opentable.

3) Make your FP+ 60 days prior to check-in. If you have your basic touring plan and ADR's planned at this point, you will probably have a good idea of where and when you want your FP+. I suggested in #1 to put AK late in the trip as it has been very difficult to secure FoP FP+ as those going earlier than you will get earlier access to these FP+. The later you can do AK, the more chance you'll have of getting a FoP FP+.

 

[megs1313]

You need to plan your fastpasses+ and your ADRs. Otherwise, you're fine. Don't give up on BoG, we've been able to get ADRs on our last two trips within like a month of our dates....we never plan that far in advance. I actually think CRT is harder to get (IMO) so that would be my priority on your 180 day mark if you're looking for it.

And people aren't wrong: you need to plan WDW. It's not at all the same as DL.

 

[parkesyau]

amazing thank you so so much for that advise. Happy to miss CRT but would love to get BoG and possibly the scifi one.
i have been using Undercover tourist calendar forecast for now however touring plan.com seems to be subscription only. Is it safe to use UCT or should i subscribe? I assume by touring plan i should know which parks on what days. I seem to arrive on the 1/2 marathon star wars so i expect some crowds
will take your advice on AK and get it as late as possible.
Is it true you can either select FoP or Navi river journey not both?wow i have a lot of planning to do i am sifting through undercover tourists suggested itineraries i hope this is ok I will have 6 full days so one park each day with two days to go back to our fav

 

[Hopefully]

I strongly suggest that you start by choosing which park on which day. Use either Undercover Tourist, Touring Plans or easywdw.com to choose based on predictions. Then if you want a sit down dinner you want to pick one in or near that park and get an ADR. You can not usually just walk into a resort restaurant and expect to be seated when you arrive. It is certainly possible, maybe not likely but possible, to get same day or last minute ADR's but it is not a guarantee. WDW's popular restaurants book to capacity months in advance. With over 100 restaurants you will be able to eat, but it might not be either where you want to eat or when you want to eat.
Once you have the park of the day and that days ADR planned you should plan which 3 FP+ you will book in advance. Again, you can not just wing it for the popular attractions.
You should definitely expect crowds. April/May is still Spring break time.
WDW is huge. It takes significant time to travel between destinations, unlike DL. Disney tells you to plan 90 minutes to go resort to resort, and that is often good advice.
Yes you can only select either FoP or Navi River Journey in Pandora in advance.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

amazing thank you so so much for that advise. Happy to miss CRT but would love to get BoG and possibly the scifi one.
i have been using Undercover tourist calendar forecast for now however touring plan.com seems to be subscription only. Is it safe to use UCT or should i subscribe? I assume by touring plan i should know which parks on what days. I seem to arrive on the 1/2 marathon star wars so i expect some crowds
will take your advice on AK and get it as late as possible.
Is it true you can either select FoP or Navi river journey not both?wow i have a lot of planning to do i am sifting through undercover tourists suggested itineraries i hope this is ok I will have 6 full days so one park each day with two days to go back to our fav

I love Touring Plans and find it very useful not only for plans, but crowd calendars, predicted wait times and even hotel room views.

With six full days, I like your idea of doing each park once and two days to go back to your favorites. I would suggest looking at the rides/attractions at each park to pick your FP+ selections. There is "tiering" for FP+ at each park except MK, so I would read up on the tiers and what you can choose before you book your FP+. For example, as Hopefully pointed out, you can only FP+ one of the Pandora rides and FoP is really the one you want to FP+ (I would probably make AK your 4th day and maybe even keep your 5th and 6th day flexible in case those are the only days you can get FoP FP+). In EP, you can only pick one Tier 1 ride to FP+ (Frozen, Soarin', TT OR Illuminations).

So, yeah, it can be a lot of planning and a lot of details. I find, if you can choose your "must-do's" and nail those down with ADR's and FP+, the rest of your trip can be a little more "go-with-the-flow".

 

[LovesTimone]

WDW is very different from DL in the means of getting around, at DL you can walk across to the other park and Downtown Disney, not at WDW you will need to catch a bus or drive over to the parks, including Disney Springs. WDW is so much more spread out that DL so you will need to keep that in mind when heading into the parks give yourself at least 45 minutes to a hour to get to where you are going, you might not make it on a bus and have to wait for the next one, so keep that in mind.

Pop is a value resort and super cute but we found the rooms to be to way small for a lengthy stay, the beds are doubles and there is not a frig. I think you can get one but its extra. I know you will be more than likely just sleeping and showering, but sometimes to much togetherness will cause squabbling with the kids, sometimes mom and dad.... just putting this out there as I have lived through it with 2 DD's and we were only there for the weekend. You might want to look at a family suite which will give you 2 bathrooms which is really nice when trying to get out of the room, and showering at night and gives everyone some room to spread out, or a moderate just a bit more room, not as tight, and most of them have queen beds and a frig. included in the room...

Table service restaurant you will need ADR's especially character meals, BOG, okay really everywhere including Disney Spring there is a exception if you are Landry's ( Rainforest and T-REX) club member will get you a table, it 25 dollars but you get 25 off your meal, and if it's your birthday month another 25, so does anyone have a birthday when your visiting?

I would check park hours if there is something that you really want to see in the evening, night parade, fireworks or enjoy extra magic hours, then I would not plan a rope drop for the next morning, and get some extra sleep. I also would plan some pool time, just to step away from the parks and sorta regroup, or even nap.

I would keep checking to see if Free dinning opens up during your window for visiting.

Keep running the numbers, then run them some more... double checking packages, special promotion, free dinning, to see what works out the best for your family.

You might want to pull up a map of WDW to really understand how spread out it is. Also check out the park maps and resort map to you make a room request.

Think about spending sometime on checking the restaurants and the menus so you know what is offered, the worst thing is to head into somewhere to eat and nothing on the menu will work out for your family. I have picky eaters, so this was a must for me.

 

[Accidental Magpie]

amazing thank you so so much for that advise. Happy to miss CRT but would love to get BoG and possibly the scifi one.

We booked last minute this Summer 46 days out (!) and still managed to grab a BoG breakfast at 9am. I gave it back in hopes we catch an 8am, but not expecting. It is possible. Keep checking after your window opens if you don't get it first try.

Have a WONDERFUL trip!

 

[parkesyau]

Fantastic help Thankyou I have marked the days in my calendar for when reservations for dining and fast pass open
I think I will subscribe to touring plans to get the ability to view the calendar and some extra content
It's funny we never considered going to AK mainly because we have been to enough zoos where kids get bored until my brother returned from DW and said it was the best one
Plus avatar looks amazing
Thankyou again I have spent many hours reading