What's your schedule like when you are at Disney for a week??

[Grendalynn]

I have read so much on these boards about "going comando" through the parks, necessary nap and swim breaks, ADRs, planning this and planning that right down to the minute. As we start finalizing our "schedule" for our April 08 WDW vacation, I am curious to know how everyone else spends their time while at WDW. Not so much because I am an anal-retentive planner, but more or less because I want to be sure we get the most of our visit and have some sort of game-plan going into the vacation. Also to avoid the whole" Whatta ya wanna do?" - "I dont care - whatta you wanna do" and all that back and forth business that can sometimes lead to unnecessary bickering...

In short - what is your schedule look like when you are at Disney for a week or so?

 

[GoinToDisney]

We have a rough idea of what order to ride the rides and we know which days to be at which parks because we use Tour Guide Mike. We are also not afraid to change the plans when we get there. Usually, we have a few days wehre we try to get alot done, and then a few where we repeat our faves and do some things on our maybe list. I highly recommend Tour Guide Mike. We do not usually take breaks at the hotel, but we are going to give it another try this upcoming trip. We do take breaks in the park, though. We like the have nice long meals and rest in our parade spot for a while before seeing a parade.

 

[mom2aredhead]

We do a few "set the alarm clock" days where we have an early breakfast ADR and/or get to a park for rope drop, and a few days where we start out later and plan on doing night time parade/fireworks etc. We're also not afraid to throw the plan out the window and go swimming instead if the weather and mood suits us.
For us, during the course of a week, we go to AK twice (usually on arrival and departure days - it's easiest since we've been staying at AKL) MK 2-3 times (my son is 4), and Epcot and MGM we usually split into 2 half days at each one - we'll go to MGM in the morning, have breakfast at H&V, meet Lightning McQueen and Mater as early as possible, go to the first Lights Motor Action show, maybe hit the Playhouse Disney show if the timing is right, then we'll leave there, chill out on the boat ride and go over to Epcot for lunch in World Showcase and spend the rest of the day/evening there. Another day we'll reverse it and go to Epcot first, then head back to MGM (Times Guide from previous visit in hand) to catch whatever we missed the first time. I find it very hard to do everything we want to at MGM in 1 visit because of the way the show times conflict with each other and the parade.

It also kind of depends on the park hours and how late things are open...if there's a Halloween/Christmas/Pirate party at MK, it closes early so we try not to miss the evening EMH that week since it's an extra 3 hours of rides that my son loves.

We do not generally go back to the hotel for breaks. Even when my son was little, he had no problem crashing in the stroller for a nap. And now as long as we got a good nights sleep the previous night he's fine all day.

Just double check what you're trying to do and make sure you haven't accidently stayed for the late fireworks (or something that will keep you out until midnight) the night before your 8:00am breakfast reservation. BTDT - it doesn't work.

 

[Elmo888]

I use touring guides, too, but the ones from The Unofficial Guide to WDW book. It helps you hit the popular rides early and make the most of your park time, probably similar to Tour Guide Mike. We just skip the rides that DDs don't want to ride.

Last time, we took the afternoon break everyday. This time, we'll do that some days and just power through some days, ending the evening with an early dinner and be back the the resort for the evening. We'll be there at the end of January, so taking the afternoon break doesn't seem as important as it is during those hotter months.

We will hit MK at least 2 days, Epcot at least 1 day, DHStudios only 1 day, and AK 1 day. I like to leave a day or two open for "playing by ear", hanging out at the resort and/or sleeping late and/or letting DDs pick the park.

I don't plan to the minute, but I do have a game plan. And we are always flexible in case the "lowest common denominator" needs to do something different.

Does that help?

 

[VolleyballQt07]

I think our trip last year went something like this:


Day 1-arrival,lunch at airport between connections, swim, dinner (offsite), Downtown Disney, Walmart (to stock up on goodies!)

Day 2-MK open-close (Counter service lunch and dinner) swim

Day 3-Sea World (CS lunch) left at closing @5ish) offsite dinner, outlet malls/other shopping, swim.

Day 4-EPCOT open-close (CS lunch and dinner), swim

Day 5-Universal Studios (CS lunch) left at closing @5ish ,NBA-CITY for dinner on the walkway outside the studios (BIG waste of money, won't eat there again) ,DTD, outlets, swim

Day 6-Switched to Nick Hotel, swam/mini golf at hotel, offsite lunch, shopping, offsite dinner, DTD ,swam

Day 7-Animal Kingdom (CS lunch) left around 3:30 for early dinner at CHEF MICKEYS and then hung around hotel pool

Day 8-swim in am, pack up, go home.

We are not "nappers" or back to the hotel to rest type people. Nor do we park hop. We tend to alternate our days with parks that close later with those that close earlier to get out of "the World" for unwinding. We also only do one Character Meal during our stay. We eat counter service when we are at a park all day and eat offsite (Olive Garden, Applebees, etc..) when we hit the early closing parks (Sea World, etc...). When the kids were younger, they would just nap in their strollers and we would either hit rides with our older dd or browse shops, or sit in the shade with a treat while they slept...About every other trip we will hit one of the water parks for a day and not go to one of the non-disney parks.

We are obviously not Disney snobs, we like to take in ALL of the sights when we are in Orlando and have been also known to throw in a zoo trip on travel home day (when we fly in/out of Tampa)

 

[Kies99]

We plan virtually nothing. Might make an ADR or two, but mostly we play it by ear.

First off, we are early risers so that's not an issue (kids are 4 & 6 and they rise early as well).

Second, we don't feel like it's a vacation if we overplan. We then find ourselves stressing over trying to make it someplace at the right time ("Do we have time for one more ride???" or "I can't believe the bus is late now we won't make the ADR", etc...).

The extent of our planning on last trip (April 2007) went like this:

Arrive Orlando Airport around 9:30am Wednesday morning. Take ME to Pop Century. Check in around 11:30 (room was ready), headed over to Downtown Disney for lunch and shopping. Dinner at Pop.

Saturday was down day (swim, relax) and then ADR for Princess Dinner at Grand Floridian.

Following Wednesday, went home.

Nothing planned for Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, other than going to the park that was open early that day. We even changed that up. Was wonderful and we had no problems getting into any restuarant that we wanted or riding any ride that we wanted.

 

[_queenie_]

We do not plan our day at all! We're going for a week in Feb and I've only made three ADRs for dinner, I never make any for lunch, my DH usually does it at the Concierge morning of. We usually just ask the kids what park they want to go to in the AM after they wake up (no alarm clocks) and go from there. We all have enough scheduling at home, it seems more like a vacation if we have none.

It's what works for us!

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I was just doing our April schedule yesterday! We will start the drive down on a Friday afternoon and come back on a Sunday. It looks something like this:

Day 1 - leave afterschool, drive part way
Day 2 - arrive WDW early afternoon, hang out at resort for afternoon, swim
Day 3 - Disney Studios (no ADR's)
Day 4 - AK morning EMH, probably CS at Yak and Yeti (maybe will get ADR for TS at Yak and Yeti)
Day 5 - MK, lunch at Crystal Palace
Day 6 - Day off. Swim, go to DTD for lunch and BBB for girls, dinner at Boma
Day 7 - breakfast at Norway for the princesses, Epcot
Day 8 - MK
Day 9 - breakfast at O'Hana, swim, check out and drive part way
Day 10 - arrive home

This is subject to change. If the Pirate and Princess Party gets added in April as rumored, we will do that on Day 3 and go to AK that day (don't want to do morning EMH after being up late). Then we will do the Studios on Day 4. We will return to Epcot one night for Illuminations, and we will see Wishes unless we do the Pirate and Princess Party and see the fireworks there (we might do both). We will also try to see Spectromagic. If it is crowded and we have had enough of lines, we'll go back to the resort and swim and eat there. If the lines are not too bad and everyone is doing well, we'll stick around until late afternoon. We avoid parks with evening EMH since the girls won't stay up that late and it is not worth the crowds. We occasionally take advantage of early EMH, but only a few times per trip max. We do not going to morning EMH parks unless we can get there for the EMH. We hit favorites in the evenings on days that we leave parks early due to crowds. We hop sometimes and stay in one park all day sometimes. I don't plan too many dinner ADRs in case we leave a park that is too crowded - we usually do lunch in the parks and a dinner at a resort or off-site.

Hope this helps! Have a great trip!

 

[FinallyHome]

Last time we were there with a million people but the one thing I stuck to was that my son needed a nap each day. We stayed on Disney property so that this was easier to do. As for park hopping, we'd decide where we were going to be each morning and each evening (ahead of time) so that the sit down meals we did were close to those places. Last time we went to too many sit down meals for my child (we were traveling with up to 21 people at one point so there was lots of visiting to do).
This time we're saying 1 sit down (which includes a buffet) per day. Other than that it's counter service or eating in the room (we're staying in a villa so that's easy to do).
We'll do the same - one park in the morning and one in the evening, split by naps. We'll get more done at the morning park because of where naps fall for us so we'll probably alternate. Lots of time at MK b/c my son will be not quite 5 and lots of time at MGM/Epcot b/c we're staying at the boardwalk so they're convenient.
Probably 1 morning at AK will be enough for us. DS and DD can't do most of the fun rides there so it's mostly just looking at animals. We're hoping to get one evening in at Downtown Disney to hit the Lego store, walk around and look and maybe eat at the new T-Rex place (my DS currently LOVES dinosaurs).
Good luck!
~Christy
Good luck with your planning.

 

[jazzmine]

We've planned what parks we are doing on which days we'll be there and also where we would like to eat (if ADRs are required... and shame shame, I haven't called to schedule those yet). With our DS, we have to be flexible with what we end up doing. We aren't planning on leaving the parks for nap time this time around but if he naps in the stroller, we'll have to play it by ear for that too.

So we basically have a schedule of where we want to be each day but other than that we'll wander, play it by ear, and hopefully we'll hit everything we want to.

 

[my2boyzrock]

When we went in November, we just planned what parks we were going to for each day and what rides we really wanted to go on so we would get fp for them. Other than that, we just went with the flow of the day. There were a few days we made it from 9 or 10 am to 7-8 pm and then there were a couple days that the kids were ready to leave the parks at 5-6 and go swimming. Now, normally, I am not that flexible of a person when it comes to a "schedule" but it really worked for us.

 

[Elmo888]

I use touring guides, too, but the ones from The Unofficial Guide to WDW book. It helps you hit the popular rides early and make the most of your park time, probably similar to Tour Guide Mike. We just skip the rides that DDs don't want to ride.

Last time, we took the afternoon break everyday. This time, we'll do that some days and just power through some days, ending the evening with an early dinner and be back the the resort for the evening. We'll be there at the end of January, so taking the afternoon break doesn't seem as important as it is during those hotter months.

We will hit MK at least 2 days, Epcot at least 1 day, DHStudios only 1 day, and AK 1 day. I like to leave a day or two open for "playing by ear", hanging out at the resort and/or sleeping late and/or letting DDs pick the park.

I don't plan to the minute, but I do have a game plan. And we are always flexible in case the "lowest common denominator" needs to do something different.

Does that help?

We do have our ADRs planned, and that dictates what park we go to, to some extent. I think that I started with planning the park days (with crowd estimates) and then the ADRs (we park hop, so the ADR doesn't require us to go to a certain park on a certain day...this is why I think park hopping is great with the nap plan - one park in the morning, nap in the afternoon, different park in the evening).

 

[Grendalynn]

We've planned what parks we are doing on which days we'll be there and also where we would like to eat (if ADRs are required... and shame shame, I haven't called to schedule those yet). With our DS, we have to be flexible with what we end up doing. We aren't planning on leaving the parks for nap time this time around but if he naps in the stroller, we'll have to play it by ear for that too.

So we basically have a schedule of where we want to be each day but other than that we'll wander, play it by ear, and hopefully we'll hit everything we want to.

Sounds about like us, right down to the non-made ADRs yet!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

yikes, Im speechless at the lack of planning you guys do, ESPECIALLY by choice!! Wow, i really am amazed at that info, glad it works so well for u.

I have every meal planned for every single day waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead, lik 6 months ahead, and we NEVER change plans or miss ADRs (ever)

We do commando parks for 10 days (DD5 and me with whomever I drag along on each trip_) DD5 has no prob napping in stroller and we usually open and close each park each day. We swim at nite when we come home from parks some nites. Our trips are usually Sept Oct and or NOV.

cANT wait to return!

 

[Amirah95]

We decided to omit Epcot this coming trip because we'll have a little one with us and we hate to leave Epcot for naps. We always have our ADR's planned. We always do four parks days max. and this includes water parks. The other days are for TS breakfasts onsite, siteseeing on site and relaxing at our home resort. We go commando, but only on park days doing everything we want to do which doesn't include everything at the parks by far.

Again, we plan our park days, ADR's and what we want to see and do on non-park days.

 

[BeckityBobbidyBoo!]

The more times I visit Disney, the more I realize and execute a lower-key plan. I used to play it where we arrived (even at 4 in the afternoon) we'd drop our stuff off at the hotel and burn up a days ticket at M.K. and just plow thru the week like that. Exhausting!

Last trip and how I will do it again this time:

Day 1 -travel and arrive, chill out at the house, unpack, swim. chill.

Day 2 -Gotta be Magic Kingdom!

Day 3- depends on what's recommended as far as busy parks (last time it was an MGM day that began at around 10am and went til Fantasmic)

Day 4-Beach Day

Day 5 -Last time it was Epcot and we went all day, wish we had more time, will go two days next trip

Day 6 -Shopping! Downtown Disney and then back to the house to swim and chill.

Day 7- Animal Kingdom

Day 8- Magic Kingdom! Our trips begin and end with the M.K.

Day 9 -depart

 

[emmababy]

We do a little planning and a little go with the flow.

Our upcoming trip is like this:

Day 1- arrive, do lunch, go to early spectro
Day 2- Mk in am. Boardwalk in pm. ADR Cape May
Day 3- MGM, possibly fantasmic
Day 4- Rest, LeCellier in evening, maybe Illuminations
Day 5- AK, Whispering Canyon pm
Day 6- MK/break/Mk
Day 7- Epcot

We do TGM and it is helpful.We also take breaks most days. When we return to a park in the evening refreshed, we can tell those who have been there all day. And most look exhausted. We need the down time as much as our little one!

 

[northriver]

Years ago I was younger and we did "commando style trips". It was fun, no regrets other than my feel always hurt so badly at the end of the trip! We only went once every few years and we tried to see almost every attraction in every park. Lots of those attractions are gone now, and I'm glad we worked hard to see them all. However, WDW was smaller then, so I wouldn't try to 'do it all' now! But I'm also much older, and now I have a toddler in tow. So this is roughly how we do things. It depends on you and your traveling companions, their ages, their needs and their style of travel. So you just have to find what works for you!

Our last trip was 8 days. 6 park days, 1 full rest day in the middle and nothing planned on our travel days but a meal each day. Very few late nights, one night we did Cali Grill and stayed to watch Wishes, one night we watched Wishes from the Poly beach, and the last night of the trip we did Spectro/Wishes in the park. Some days we did early breakfasts before park opening, then late lunches. Some days we grabbed a quick breakfast in the room, then did a table service meal for last breakfast or first lunch seating. Either way, we normally do rope drop at the park and stay until mid afternoon. Then we are done for the day at the parks. My toddler does not nap in a stroller, or in hotel rooms. So taking a break is an excercise in futility for me because I could spend hours working on the "nap" which never happens, then the evening is a disaster. So we enjoy our mornings and early afternoon, usually with a sit down meal in the park as a 'mini' break inside the park. We normally eat dinner early, and early to bed.

Next trip we'll only do 4 days, with short park days as usual, and no break day. We are doing breakfast in the room each day with table service late breakfast or early lunch, then another table service around 5-5:30 each evening and early to bed.

 

[irene_dsc]

Lol - the quick answer is, read my pre-trippie/trip report!

The not so quick answer: I tried to plan for flexibility, which worked out pretty well. We only had one ADR per day to work around, and I had researched stuff well enough that we pretty much knew which things were Must Do's, good but optional, or things to avoid. So, we didn't spend too, too much time figuring out plans once we were there, due to prioritization.

 

[dawnball]

In short - what is your schedule look like when you are at Disney for a week or so?

We don't really do TS dining anymore, so our schedules are very, very loose. I make a chart with hours for each park every day, and the best/worst parks to visit with crowd level indicators. Then every night we look at what the best parks for the next day and loosely plan ahead. That conversation is which park we're going to do and what attractions everyone considers a priority. We might touch on where people want to eat, if there's a preference or what our first attraction(s) should be.

That's usually when we decide if we want to try to sleep in in the morning, or make park opening - based on how late it is, the weather forecast and how tired everyone seems to be.

We're pretty relaxed about these trips though, I think for our next 8ish day April trip we'll probably spend at least 5 days at the water parks, and we're usually there from open to close.