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Epcot: Definitely going to try to FP the frozen ride. I'm thinking about trying to get something like a 10 am time slot, so we can arrive at rope drop and ride it once, then ride it again later if the kids want with FP. Is this a good strategy? Otherwise, I don't really care what we ride at Epcot. The kids aren't old enough for Fast Track, not sure about Soarin. I'd like to see all the lands and maybe ride the things with fewer lines--the mexico boat ride...I think there's Turtle talk and maybe something else? What should our touring plan be if we definitely want to ride Frozen at least once, maybe twice? And meet Elsa and Anna.
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HS--it's mostly shows for HS for my kid's age, right? Or is there a ride they can ride? I might just book some afternoon shows for the day we arrive (we arrive in the morning) and an easy introduction to Disney world. What were your child's favorite things to do at HS and what is my fastpass strategy?
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MK--this is the big one. I feel like there are a million rides my kids would like:
-Peter Pan, Tea cups, Aladdin, Small World, Belle's stories, Barnstormer, 7 Dwarves Mine train...is there an Ariel ride, too? We're eating breakfast at Cinderella's castle. They would probably like the splash jr. area too. As a nostalgic adult, I would love to go with my husband on Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, see the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. HOW do I fit all this in? I think my in-laws are willing to watch the girls at night and DH and I can go back out if they have late extra magic hours.
What's my FP strategy and rope drop strategy? Try to FP 7 Dwarves mine train and what else? And then try to ride what rides at Rope drop (and therefore, no fastpasses for them?).
heeeelllpppp.
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@Anagram: I was just looking into AK touring plans now that the new Pandora land is open. I think the only limit on fast passes is you can only use them on one Pandora ride, so I think you can fast pass both the river ride and the safari. That was my plan, at least (although we are still a month out from the 60 day mark).
For HS, it is mostly shows but the Toy Story ride is really fun. Definitely get a fast pass for that ride of you plan to go to HS.
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@Jennibenni: If we are there for just a half day, what should we do?
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@catlady: I forgot Toy Story! And I heard that one has long lines. So Fastpass Toy Story?
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@Anagram: Yes, definitely. The line for that one gets super long.
Btw, have you checked out the touring plans website? They have good recommendations for which attractions to get fast passes for in each park.
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@catlady: yes, but sometimes I want to go off-plan, haha. Like riding Frozen twice in a day.
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@Anagram: The toy story ride, they have a Disney Jr. live show that incorporates MMC, Sophia the first, Jake and the Pirates. The kids would probably like it if they watch those shows. Character meet and greets for doc mcstuffins etc, there's also a muppets attraction but I'm not sure how it is. That's about all we did and then moved on as a lot of the park is under construction so it seems really small and closed off.
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@catlady: Do you have to pay for the recommendations on the touring plans website?
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@Anagram: No, I think that part is free. I do pay for touring plans because I like to build my own plan and use their app. But the recommendations for fast passes are here:
https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/fastpassAnother good site that I have used is wdwprep. Here is one of her pages about touring and fastpasses (you can search for the other parks):
http://wdwprepschool.com/magic-kingdom-touring-plans-fastpass/ -
@catlady: thanks!
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@Anagram:
There is an Ariel ride; my LO really liked it. I don’t think there was ever much of a wait the both times we’ve been, so you likely could just time it right by keeping an eye on the wait times on the app. Because of the nostalgia factor of Peter Pan and Small World, it seems like there is always a wait (def moreso for PP than SW), so I would probably FP those for the AM, and then once your FP clears I would try to get a couple more for the afternoon.
My LO *LOVED* stories with Belle. It’s more than a ride, it’s an interactive little show where kids get to all be involved. I would definitely FP that just because it’s like 10-15 minutes long, so the wait can add up quickly because not as many people get cycled through like on rides.
Do you and your husband want to ride together on Thunder MT etc? If not, I’d check and see if those rides have single rider lines. If so, they would be easy enough to do during the day while the other person watches the kids. Otherwise, I would try to FP those for night time after you go back alone.
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Also this thread reminds me of some Disney movies LO1 needs to watch. We are slowly working our way through all of them, but she hasn't seen Toy Story.
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@Anagram: http://www.easywdw.com/reports13/mk_cheatsheet_summer16_full.pdf
here is another planning tool I like. Their list includes:
FastPass+ Priority:
1. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
2. Peter Pan’s Flight
3. Space Mountain
4. Splash Mountain (when high temperatures are 80+ degrees)
5. Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater
6. Meet Cinderella and a Visiting Princess
7. Meet Rapunzel and a Visiting Princess
8. Enchanted Tales with Belle
9. Meet Ariel at Ariel’s Grotto
10. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad -
When we went to MK at Rope drop, we went straight to fantasy land. We were able to walk onto the Under the Sea ride and you exit right next to the "meet Ariel" line. We were able to meet Ariel right away. I think after that we got in line for Belle and then used our first FP after that.
My favorite rides there are:
- Under the sea (and lines aren't too long)
- Story Time with Belle (fun for young kids and this way you get at least one picture with a princess)
- Small world - classic, longer ride and kids loved being on a boat.
- Carousel - We rode it a lot!
- Dumbo! Lines are hit or miss in length and there is a play area with the pager. Not worth a pass IMO.- Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh seem to have long lines but my kids didn't really appreciate the rides. They are cool but nothing I would rave about.
- Seven Dwarfs I would try to get a FP for but I know my parents in their 50's would not enjoy riding it. Its a full blown roller coaster. -
@Anagram: The splash area is nothing special. We try to avoid it unless the kids are just really hot and wild. There is a bathroom near there though and a water fountain.
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@Anagram: Don't forget about the Jungle Cruise! Again the kids loved being on a boat.
Other small attractions that are good to get out of the heat/rain are the Country Bear Jamboree and the Tiki Room (bird show).
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When we go to MK, we do the "counterclockwise" approach, beginning with the walk down Main Street and head to Aventureland. We do the Treehouse, Magic Carpets, Jungle Cruise and Tiki Room.
In Frontier land, we do Tom Saywer Island, then we take the train to ToonTown Fair. There, my son likes to splash around in Donald's boat and then we go to the character meet and greets.
After that, we walk to Fantasyland, and typically we do Its A Small World, Dumbo Flying Elephants and the Philharmagic show.
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@Anagram: have you gone on your trip yet? I'm anxious to hear how renting points worked out for you.
We just had to add 2 nights on to our stay (only way we could use flight points) and so I just rented 2 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge via David's rentals before we switch to Beach Club. The process has been easy so far but I'm curious to hear your thoughts after you are back!
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@Charm54: we go the last week of August. So I'll check back in after. I was in serious planning mode a couple of months back, but once aingot our dining reservations and fast passes, so kind of stopped thinking about it, haha. As it gets closer (like the day before probably), I'll try to firm up the loose itinerary I have in my head.
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@Anagram: exciting! Hope you have a great trip.
Did you add the dining plan and magical express through David's? Was it easy to do?
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@Charm54: no....we're not doing the dining plan at all, and we're actually visiting my family in southern Georgia the week before and driving from there so we have a car if we need it.
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Okay, we just finished our last night at Disney World (check out tomorrow,and I have a flight to catch and work a Friday---yuck).
But, here are my rambling thoughts:
-renting points was awesome. We definitely used all the space of a two bedroom suite, and we used the kitchen for simple stuff like making grilled cheese and boiling pasta. Price depends on the week you go, but for our week, renting points for a 2 bedroom/full kitchen/washer and dryer at a Deluxe was cheaper than renting two standard rooms at a Moderate (I compared the Port Orleans resorts) and cheaper than a family suite at Art of Animation (the bigger suites since we were 4 adults and two kids), so it was a no brainer.
This is totally kid dependent, but both of our kids were thrilled with every single ride their height allowed and our two year old was very disappointed to not get to ride the 40inches-and-taller rides. Neither of them were st all phased by dark rides and our 4 year old loved 7 Dwarves Mine Train, Big Thunder Mountain, Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom, Frozen. Basically there wasn't a ride or show she didn't like and as felt like she was at the golden age for Disney. She just felt so much wonder at every new experience, she loved all the characters, she never had a tantrum or meltdown. She was flexible and just a total joy overall. She's still at the age where she thinks the characters are REAL but old enough to skip naps or push bedtime a bit.
Our 2 year old is more challenging in general, in just regular life, so I was a little worried about how she'd do. She loved the rides and shows, but would get cranky when we missed naps (she didn't really nap in the stroller), and being 2, she didn't really tolerate lines. Luckily for us, we had low crowd days (5 out of 10) and we really utilized our FPs well, so the only time we really got stuck in a line was when we decided to try to see Mickey before the parade on Main Street. That was a rough wait for her, but that was the only one. If I could do it over, I would never wait in a line longer than 10 min with a 2 year old. They are too old to be content just being carried and too young to be patient. Luckily, we rarely had to wait more than 10 min as we basically only went on things we had fastpasses for.
Booking the 60days + trip length really helped us get good fastpasses. There are so many rides I would never ride at all if I had to wait more than 5-10 min...they just aren't worth it ( N'avi river journey and Kali River Rapids for sure, plus a few others), but with faspasses were good.
A few things I didn't count on were that I had planned to go back most days to the resort for naps. That fell by the wayside, because we were traveling with my in laws too, so I couldn't 100% run the show and the timetable, and I didn't realize how limited MILs mobility is until we were here. She ended up needed a wheelchair but our first two days were slow with lots of rest breaks so we weren't efficient with time and it just seemed like too much of a hassle to go back to the resort. However, I maintain that had it just been our little family, we would have gone back for nap times. Having said all that, I feel like we covered a ton of ground and basically saw and did everything we wanted to do--and that was surprising to me because I wasn't sure what would happen with a 2 and 4 year old.
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Here are all the rides/attractions we enjoyed st each park (that I can remember!!)
-I did online check in and our room was ready by the time we arrived at noon, so we got to bypass the front desk lines and go straight to our room 4 hours early.
- Hollywood studios--half day on arrival. We just did Toy Story (fastpass), Disney junior (fastpass), met Sophia, and did the A frozen sing along show (fastpass) It was pouring that day so we didn't stay too long at HS. We put the kids to bed early and checked out the boardwalk. We could also see the HS fireworks from our balcony.
Epcot: Frozen first thing at rope drop, then meet Elsa and Ana, then a turtle Talk, Finding Nemo ride (both FP),The Land, Mexico (that ride twice,the girls loved it), Canada and France and those movies. Frozen again with a FP. It was another pouring day, so we took the girls back "early" after skipped naps and in laws stayed and saw all the other countries. We went to the resort and went swimming (4 year old loved the big slide), then bed early.
- Magic Kingdom (2 days). I feel like we did EVERYTHING. Breakfast at Cinderella's castle, met Mickey, Rapunzel, Tiana, Peter Pan (twice), Small World, Belles enchanted tales, Mine Train (twice with rider switch), Winnie the Poo, Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, People Mover, Racetrack, Carosuel of Progress, Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle a cruise, Tikki room, treehouse, Thunder Mountain (3 times), Haunted Mansion, Space mountain. Went home and put kids to bed and then we went back for the new nighttime show which was surprisingly great. We went home a bit early on the 2nd day so kids could swim again before bed.
Animal Kingdom-- Kilimanjaro safari, Kali River rapids, Na'vi River journey, Finding Nemo musical, Lion King show (this one is fabulous), A Bugs Life, Dinosaur, Triceratop spin in laws stayed and did the train more walking trails, and the Rivers of alight show.
Since we ended up skipping naps, we ended up typically going home pretty Early like 6 pm, so kids could eat, bathe, and be asleep by 7:30.
Overall it's been pretty great and if anyone has questions about getting around with a wheelchair, I can tell you a little bit. In some cases it got us "perks", like front row st Lion King....but in other cases it made the ride take longer (Kali river rapids and Kilimajaro safari) because they make you wait until you have a full car/boat of other people in wheelchairs so in some cases we had to wait an extra 15 min.
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So you must LOVE Disney now!!! A well planned trip just makes you want to keep coming back for more. I can't wait to go back again!! So glad everything worked out.
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@Anagram: Sounds like you had a great time! We’re in the beginning stages of planning a trip for end of January or beginning of February when DD will be almost 2. Did your 2 year old do okay skipping naps? I’m really hoping to avoid going back to the hotel and aiming for stroller naps or no nap.
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@anagram awesome!! We are Florida "locals" (3 hours away from Disney) and used to go all the time. We now have a just turned 2yo and haven't taken him yet because, as you said, he can be pretty difficult to manage. Lol. We have 3 nights booked in December, and my mom is coming too to help. He will be 2y3m at that point. I am so thrilled to read that your 2yo loved all the rides! I am worried he is going to be scared of dark rides, loud noises, etc. and be miserable! A lot of the dark rides have scary parts (in my opinion). I am also planning for a midday break for a nap at this point, but I guess it depends on how he does. He has never napped in the stroller.
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@skinnycow: We have taken both our kids at age 2 and they both survived a whole day with just a stroller nap. I think my son we did the 3 pm main street parade (way past his "nap" time). I put him in the stroller with a fan and covered the stroller with a muslin blanket. I faced him towards a wall and we watched the parade and rocked the stroller back and forth until he fell asleep.
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@Anagram: I'm so glad you had a great trip!!! My girls will be the same ages when we go, 4 and 2 and I'm hoping our 2yo will do some stroller naps. 🤞 DD1 did great at Disney when she was 2, but my dd2 is more...spirited than my dd1 .. I'm hopeful she will go with the flow! She still loves the stroller so that will help.
How did you like the Boardwalk? I'm excited to stay in that area ! I'm so glad renting points worked out for you. We had to tack an extra 2 nights on to our trip and Davids was super accommodating, got us points at Animal Kingdom Lodge for those nights before we switch over to Beach Club for the rest of the trip.
What was your favourite restaurant? We make our dining reservations tomorrow!
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@Charm54: the only big reservation we did was Cinderella's RT for breakfast. We did the 8am rez so we didn't have to rush but were still done just before 9. Then we went to Fantasylsnd and we're able to ride 3 rides straight away before our first FP that was from 9:30-10:30.
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@Anagram: That is how we did Cinderella and Fantasyland too! So much fun!!!
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@Anagram: What did you do for food delivery, or did you have a rental car to go to the store? That's the one part that paralyzes me right now about vacations, is not having access to a kitchen, which sometimes means needing a car.
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@looch: we had a car, so we just went to the publix near there before we checked in and picked up essentials---pouches, bananas, almond milk and cheerios, cereal bars, yogurt, and mini muffins, and eggs, sandwich stuff. And stuff to make pasta.
So every morning we had either cereal and a banana, or yogurt + muffin, or eggs and a banana. Lunch we usually ate at the parks at Quickserve places. Dinner we made veggie pasta and had it twice, ordered pizza and had that twice, and then ate sandwiches and popcorn and stuff the other night.
The villas has everything--a few pots and pans, flatware, glasses, salt and pepper, coffee. And since our kids are young and go to bed early, it made sense to eat dinner at the villa before bed. If our kids were older, we probably would have switched that and done dinners out.
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@Anagram: Thanks! We've always also had a rental car, so we just go to the grocery store when we get there at the beginning of the trip. I have an intense planning spreadsheet I use but my husband is trying to break me of that habit and instead eat out a bit more.
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This is a super helpful thread..
We just made our reservations for a Spring Break 2018 trip, I'm a little overwhelmed. We booked a cabin at Fort Wilderness and will do a 5 day park hopper. My kids will be 9 and 6 so we are over princesses, but may be still interested in other characters. My 6 yr old is currently only 43 inches and I'm hoping he can grow another inch by March so we can all ride the 44" rides, haha...My dining reservation window opens in just two days and I have not figured out where we want to eat (and if we want dining plan). We usually go all day when we go to theme parks and going back to the cabin to cook for dinner sounds like a hassle, even though the cabin is fully outfitted. But having to sit down for table service every day also sounds like a pain when you have to get yourself somewhere by a certain time... there are a few places we want to eat, such as Be Our Guest, maybe Ohana?
@luckylifemummy: did you rent a car when staying at Ft. Wildneress? It is nice that each cabin has parking, but i'm not sure if it's better to drive the park each day, or take the bus/boat, especially if we are going to park hop. I wonder if taking the internal bus around the resort is as slow as some people say...
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@T-Mom: sorry, I missed this. If your son is 43 inches, just have him wear sneakers with the thicker sole and he should be tall enough. My oldest was 39.5 inches, but with her regular tennis shoes, she was tall enough for Big Thunder Mountain and the other 40 inch rides. Those are her comfortable shoes, so she was going to be wearing those anyway.
As far as dining--that's so personal! We aren't that into sit down dining with our kids in tow, so I didn't have much I really wanted. But I've heard great things about the Hoop de doo review at Fort Wilderness.
There is a new service that transports guests from one park to another, i think. You don't have to go back through security. Read this link for details: http://www.tipsfromthedisneydiva.com/2017/03/14/minimize-security-checks-disney-world-park-hopper-express-transportation/
As far as transportation, that's such a personal (and tough!) call. We drove one day, the day we had 8am reservations at Cinderella's castle, and at that hour, we basically parked in almost the front row of parking near the TTC (then monorail to MK), so it was really easy going in and out. But of course, later in the day I'm sure the lots were full so then you have to park, ride the tram to TTC, then the monorail or boat to MK. That would be kind of long.
The other days, we took the bus and left around 8:30 am each morning and the bus transportation TO the parks was pretty great. We usually only wayed 5-10 min for the bus and then were dropped right outside the entrances, so it was faster and more convenient than parking. BUT since we have young kids and were often leaving the park at off-peak times, we usually had to wait about 20 minutes for another bus to go back, which can be a beating when you are tired and want to go back to your resort quickly. But even with waiting for 20 minutes, that is probably comparable to walking through a huge parking lot to your car, loading stroller and gear and doing up car seats, and then driving back to the resort and having to park there, get kids out of car seats and unload stroller and gear.
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@T-Mom: also, with older kids, do you get through a whole park in less than 1 day? What made you want to do Park Hopper?
I feel like with kids, I would only do it if I were staying at a resort walking distance to one of the parks, in case I wanted to do dinner in the park after being at another park all day.
Also, I really enjoyed the new nighttime show at MK, Happily Ever After. So don't miss that! Some other pleasant surprises were the Lion King show at AK, and the movie in France at Epcot.
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The shows are so worth it. We did the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows and had a great time. No seat is a bad seat and you're sitting in the AC which is great for a break. We try to do at least one show per park, two if we can manage it. It makes the price of admission easier to swallow too!
I enjoyed Hoop De Doo...there are a ton of kids, but it's not what I would call a kids show. A lot of the jokes are for the adults, kind of like in the animated movies. I was pregnant when we went and I ate my fill, for sure!
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@T-Mom: We're staying in a suit at Wilderness Lodge in early March! We decided renting a car wasn't worth the hassle. Our Disney Planner said the boat to MK is great and the buses really aren't bad. You can also take the boat the MK and then hop on the monorail to get to Epcot if you want rather than taking a bus.
@Anagram: We have young kids and we did the park hoppers. We don't expect Hollywood studios will take a full day so we'll do Magic Kingdom in the morning and then HS that afternoon. Also, if you are going to restaurant inside of a park, you have to have a ticket for that park for that day, so the park hoppers just gave us way more scheduling flexibility.
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