Itinerary for Disney World Florida

[mrscardigan]

Hi everyone,

I have been busy planning an itinerary for our Disney trip. We have seven days in Disney. Party includes me and hubby, 7 and 11 year old and a 69 year old. We've never been before so have no clue really. I've never done so much planning for a holiday, but everyone seems to say it's the only way at Disney.

So here goes....It's just my initial thoughts (a first draft if you like!). Just wondered if anyone could give me any feedback. Too much? Not enough? I haven't factored in any character meals or shows yet. Would like to firm up our schedule before I book the ADRs in a few weeks time.

Day 1 Arrive late afternoon - meal Downtown Disney evening
Day 2 Morning Magic Kingdom Morning/ Afternoon Hotel Pool/ Evening Wishes Fireworks and Main Street Electrical Parade
Day 3 Morning Hotel Pool/ Afternoon Epcot/ Evening Epcot Illuminations
Day 4 Morning and Afternoon Hollywood Studios/ Evening Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios
Day 5 Morning Hotel Pool/ Afternoon Animal Kingdom/ Evening Hoop Dee Hoo show @ Magic Kingdom
Day 6 Morning and Afternoon Blizzard Beach/ Nothing planned for evening
Day 7 Return to favourite theme park??

Thank you.

The only thing I would add, as a never-having-visited-before-but-have-a-trip-planned person, is that if you look on Undercover Tourist (and probably elsewhere, DIBB maybe?), you can see how busy the parks are likely to be, based on previous years, on the days you are visiting. So you can check that you are visiting parks on 'sensible' days.
And have you factored in jetlag? Admittedly, our DCs are younger, at 4 and 6, but I can see it taking a few days before we're ready for fireworks.... saying that, I have no idea what time fireworks will be on (we are going in October)

When are you travelling there and how long is your overall holiday?.

I would also suggest you look at the Dibb's website as well re Disney.

Are you actually staying in one of the Disney hotels?.

How near will you be to Downtown Disney on your first day and will you drive there from the hotel?. If that answer is yes I would change that section of the travel plan because you may well feel very tired as a result of jetlag so use a taxi instead. Also you could spend a long time standing in line at Orlando waiting for Immigration to get their act together!.

On arrival the first day you may not want to travel very far in the evening and may just want a light meal in one of the hotel's restaurants or in the surrounding area.

Re day 3 I would cross out the hotel pool part of it. I would also suggest you get to EPCOT (that goes for all the parks) for opening as this can be very busy. Test Track in particular is much improved and Soarin' is very popular and lines for both lengthen well before lunchtime. If you arrive in the afternoon you could likely spend most of your day there standing in line. Also you can easily spend a whole day there in any case and the World Showcase is also well worth visiting. There are also many good restaurants there particularly in France and Italy pavilions. Book those in advance!.

EPCOT Illuminations usually starts at about 9pm.

I second checking the busy day guides before you plan days if you haven't already.

Defiantly go to the parks early am, get there for opening if you can.

The whole of Epcot may take you all day.

We were so tired when we arrived that we just ate in the hotel. We landed at around 330pm but didn't get to hotel until around 7pm IIRC.

Epcot WILL take a whole day.

Your itinerary sounds fine but be prepared to be tweaking it as you go along, bearing in mind that your oldest relative might need more rest stops. Do check out quietest days from Dibb or whatever as they are usually pretty much spot on.

Expect the park food to be totally rubbish and try and take along on-the-go snacks that will save you money and ensure you get something half decent to eat along the way - be it grapes, carrot sticks whatever.

As for decent places to eat -

Ming Court on International Drive, excellent Chinese food in a serene Chinese restaurant with lovely waiter service.

Tony Romas, also on International Drive for fabulous spare ribs and excellent healthy sides of brocolli etc.

Finally, just have a wonderful time - I am very jealous.

Agree with Attila - getting to the parks early is the key, if you are only there for a week, then it is a good idea to not adjust your body clock totally - getting to the parks for opening time is the best way to do all the rides you want and see everything before it gets too busy. I'd say with the age spread you have, aiming to spend all day and evening at the park would be too much for people.

I'd recommend doing parks in the morning, eat lunch there or bring a pack lunch then head back early afternoon. When we went last year with our 7 year old DS he wasn't overly keen on the parades and evening fireworks - but you know your DCs better.

Something we really enjoyed was a character meal at Chef Mickeys - we did breakfast which was a bit of a mistake as it wrote off the day as parks were too busy by the time we got there. However I see that you are planning to go to Blizzard beach - the water parks don't get as busy, so maybe you could do it on that day or go for lunch or dinner instead. Out of all of the parks, I was least impressed with Downtown Disney and whilst I enjoyed Epcot DS was less impressed with the different countries, so if you are finding it all too much those are the ones I'd look to cut back.

Also ditto what Attila says about the first day - we were completely whacked. DH managed to drive to the supermarket to buy some pizza but both DS and I were asleep by the time he got back.

Restaurant wise, I have to admit to not being overwhelmed by the food selection. I actually found Disney fast food better than I anticipated - they do a nice chicken caeser salad, and sometimes the burger bars have a great selection of fixings. The restaurant we went to a couple of times, primarily because it was within walking distance of our apartment, was the Olive Garden - mixed salad, or soup with your main and very child friendly. Cracker Barrell does amazing pancakes.

Have a great time

www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/busy-day-guide.php. Use this. We swore by it, get there early, follow the guide and avoid the queues!

I would give animal Kingdom a whole day, it's great.

I found this a very useful resource www.britguideorlando.net/, also if you go on the Disney site you can request a mini brochure with a layout of the parks - we brought this with us and used it to loosely plan each park trip, small enough to carry with you.

To avoid big queues you really need to be waiting at the gate as the park opens! Do mornings in the parks and hotel pool in the afternoon. Www.easywdw.com is a great resource. It has cheat sheets suggesting touring plans for the parks and which rides to prioritise for FastPass Plus. (Which you can book 60 days ahead if staying in Disneyhotel). Look at www.touringplans.com too. They have great plans, but you have to subscribe to see them. Heaps of info available on the site free, though, including good explanations of the brand new fast pass system. Have a great holiday!

Definitely make the most of the jet lag, for the first few days you are likely to be up very early , so aim to get to the parks just before opening, and do some big rides before the crowds arrive. Don't reckon on doing fireworks/evening shows at least for the first couple of days.

Are you staying on or offsite? It's worth checking the parks that have early and late 'magic hours'. These allow onsite guests to arrrive/stay an extra hour earlier/later. So if you're offsite you should try to avoid the parks with Extra Magic Hours, as by the time you arrive the onsite guests will have been there an hour already and the queues will have built up. Conversely if you're an onsite guest you may choose to go extra early to those parks.

Agree with everything Atilla says. You need to get to the parks early, in particular MK as it can take some time to get from car park to the gates, allow up to an hour to get parked and get in. We always make sure we are there before the parks early as you need a head start to get in and try to get as much done before the hoards arrive.

Where are you staying? If you are in a Disney hotel you'd get extra magic hours so make use of those.

If you want to do one of the most popular character meals (ie breakfast with the princesses at MK) then you need to book months in advance, booking opens 180 days prior.

Soooooooooo jealous - I'm ready for another Disney fix but it's not on the cards. Hope you are staying in a Disney Hotel - we've done in & out and being in does make the holiday extra special.

Agree with what others have said re early starts etc. I used this to plan all my trips www.amazon.com/Birnbaums-Disney-World-Birnbaum-Guides/dp/1423169395. I thought it as great, it is VERY American though

For me the pools (other than Blizzard Beach) are a totally missable item - you can swim anywhere - perhaps a quick dip before going for dinner but that would be it for my family - we are there for the parks. You can easily spend a whole day in each of them.

Have a fantastic time!

Maybe try and squees in a one day pass to Universal studios and island of adventure? The rides there are a bit different and I think the 7 and esp 11y old would like them. You can just about do both in a day i you are selective with the rides (it's open late)

Epcot will need a whole day and then stay for the fireworks (which are amazing). I wasn't even sure about Epcot and we ended up staying for an epic 14 hours!

Check every single busy day guide you can get your hands on to decide which order to go. Avoid red days like the plague.

Get the Disney apps on your phone for ride times and character times - saves a lot of time walking around as can target areas and rides with shorter queues ( parks have wifi )

We did chef Mickey for dinner - very good but very hectic, prepare yourself!

We enjoyed all the water parks, good rest day when it gets too much.

Agree with a lot of what has been said. I would spend first evening getting yourself set up for next day as you will be tired when you arrive. You should be fine to go to park early next morning as your body will still be on UK time. I would do mornings and eves at Disney and break in the midday e.g go back to hotel etc. check when you need to queue for shows. If it is 90 minutes for Fantasia, that is when you need to get in line or risk not getting in. Always get to the parks as they open - they fill up quickly and fast passes go very quickly. Finally, take your own food, snacks in if you can. Food is pricey, not very good and the queues can be long, wasting valuable time.

You seem to have too much 'hotel pool' and not enough time in the parks...

My DD is only 3 and can manage whole park days

Agree with curiousgeorgie - that's a long way to go and just lie around the pool! You need at least a full day in each park, and then more to go back and do all the things you've missed. You don't need to schedule parades, they just happen - unless you're the sort of person who likes to sit in a perfect spot for 2 hours before they start .

Yes, food is rubbish, so take your own (they don't care about that when they check bags). I wouldn't bother with water parks either, but would second Universal.

Actually, we've never had a plan on any of our trips, but they've always been grand. Get up early, stay late, pack in as much as you can, use fast passes wherever possible, stay in a Disney hotel to get extra magic hours.

check the time your flight arrives - if it is late afternoon a lot of flights arrive then so you can take 2 hours to get through luggage/immigration/car hire.... sorry.... So I would pick up fast food that night..

next day you will probably wake up between 4 and 5 - we always do.. so it is easy to get to the parks before they open....

That's true - it's dreadful for getting through luggage etc at the airport, it always takes hours. If you're at a Disney hotel though, one of the Parks will probably be open until midnight. So we tend to get to the hotel, get changed and just rush out again - if a flight gets in mid-afternoon, you can still get 4 hours or so at Magic Kingdom on the first day.

Disney are in the process of scrapping their Fastpass system and replacing that with Fastpass Plus.

Immigration processing at Orlando is always dog slow (having only 4 out of 30 desks open on my last visit never helps either!); its never taken less than an hour to get to the head of that long line!.

Yep, a terrible airport. Been several times and tends to take 2 hours and upwards. Nearly as bad on the return trip too, getting through security. You would think they had gotten the hang of dealing with tourists by now.