First visit to Disneyworld in 10 weeks, totally overwhelmed with info

[highviolet]

I have read loads of the existing threads on Disneyworld Florida but would love some basic step by step advice. 2 weeks, 6 kids, 4 adults, kids aged 5-12, booked into a disney hotel so will have the magic pass thingy, dining plan 2 meals & snack. I have set up the mydisney stuff and just booked one thing. It does all seem quite complicated for some reason and if you can offer any advice, we would be grateful.

Look on thedibb forums. The people who post there are disney fanatics and will help you out.

I think it's hard to know what to do for a first timer. Never had dining plan so can't comment on that but if I was you I would initially plan 1 day in each park and book fast passes for popular stuff ASAP for mid morning. You can change these as you go.

And book your meals NOW! From what I understand restaurants get booked up early.

Just looking on the app for example the only breakfast reservation time on 21st April at the crystal palace with character dining is at 10.45am. Get booking! You can always change it nearer the time.

Ah thank you. Luckily the only thing I have booked is the character dining at Cinderella's regal table so that's one meal down. I have looked at the DIBB sight, will ask for help there too. I have got the unofficial guide with kids and the amount of info is colossal. Will get booking some stuff now.

On the day you've booked cinderella dining book fast passes too. Try for the seven dwarves mine train and if it was me I would get fps for splash mountain too. Haunted mansion has fp but the queue is fun and moves quickly so I wouldn't worry about getting them for that.

It is definitely worth getting some sort of plan together before you go, it will save you time when you're in the parks and help you to pace yourselves.

It is worth looking at a crowd prediction calendar like the one on the undercover tourist website to help you decide which park will be the least crowded for each day of your trip. As you are staying at a Disney hotel, you are eligible to attend the Extra Magic Hour that is offered on different days at each park. In my experience it can actually be worth avoiding the morning EMH park as it draws a lot of the Disney hotel guests. You might also prefer a 9am start to a 8am one.

I would always plan to be at a park at least 15 minutes before it opens so that you can beat the crowds as much as possible. You can make three fastpass plus selections on the disney app in advance. My preferred strategy is to book these back to back in the morning so that you can hit as many rides as possible. You could then leave the parks for a rest or swim and return to a park for an evening show or meal. Even if you plan to have a day off from the parks I would make fastpasses just in case as the availability if you make them same day tends to be poor.

The Magic Kingdom is a big park. Consider spending one morning focused on two lands, say fantasyland and tomorrowland and then another morning on another two. This will save you cross crossing the park too much.

You can cancel dining reservations up to the day before with no penalty so you are better to make them and cancel than risk not getting any. Once you have worked out which park you will be in each day, you can start matching dining reservations up to your plan.

It is worth talking to each member of your group to find out if there are any particular rides/experiences they would like to do. Things like the bibbidi bobbidi boutique are worth making a reservation for. The disney app is great for looking at park maps and finding out about the rides.

I find the planning half the fun of a trip. If you tell me your dates I would be more than happy to help you come up with a plan!

iam I might take you up on that offer! We aren't going until October 2016 though so plenty of time

Thank you, I have made quite a start I think, chosen our specific days at each park, and reserved fast passes where I could but the time allocated is quite late. It is all starting to make more sense now I have started to reserve dining and fast passes. The whole group have left it all up to me with the proviso that they are not allowed to moan or complain. I have found touring plans and more info on the WDW prep school website. Need to go back into DIBB now, think I'm on a roll. Will I really need to book most meals? Or just table service ones? Will there be places where we can just turn up to eat on the day? Thanks for getting me started, starting to feel a little excited about it now.

IAM you could plan my 2 weeks for me!

I've been before but would be interested on how others spend their days

Never to early to start planning froome! I think our next trip will be about a similar time to you.

When are you going BDH? Nothing I love more than making a Disney plan

I would try and get all your table service meals reserved highviolet, especially as you will be in quite a large group. You can't reserve most counter service restaurants and you should be fine to just walk up. The main exception is Be Our Guest in the MK at lunch. This gets crazily busy but you could book a fastpass on a separate website when I went in Nov.

Once you have made your fastpasses you can always check to see of anything better opens up nearer to the time. I managed to get fastpasses on 3 days for the 7 dwarfs mine train about a week before we went.

Sounds like you're making good progress, sure you'll have an amazing trip!

Iam......

I'm there in June, arrive late afternoon on a monday.

Plans are all Disney parks/waterparks/downtown disney, Greenyards petting farm, a beach day, a half day shopping also planning on going on the new Orlando eye.

I'm not doing any fancy restaurant's as I have a 1 & 3 yr old who can't sit still for long.

Travelling with 2 adults, 4 DC's (1,3,13,16) the olders dc's have been a few times before so this trip is aimed at the youngest 2.

So far the plan is arrive late afternoon so grab something to eat, unpack then bed.

Tuesday - Walmart to stock up on juice, snacks etc, pool for a wee while....then probably a park at night after dinner.

Wednesday - Magic Kingdom while our body clocks will still be waking us up early.

that's as far as my plans have got lol, usually when we do the parks we are

there from morning until night but this year I want to spread things out more evenly. We usually decide what we do on the morning but I'm booking fast passes before we leave to I'm going to write on my calendar what the plans are and for once be organised

I should add too that I can't spend full days at the pool as it bores the life out of me lol

Have you looked into Hollywood and vine's character breakfast/ lunch? I took my 1 & 3 year old there and have videos of my 3 year old dancing with handy manny, whilst my 1 year old was toddling about to the music.

Thanks everyone, I've done it! Booked a restaurant for each day (our dining plan includes a table service meal each day), planned plenty of rest days/mornings/afternoons and booked fastpasses for every day just in case we need to change our itinerary once there. I have even managed to score a fast pass to meet Anna and Elsa. I can't stop tweaking the plan now, getting a little obsessed with it. Have read loads of DIBB and found the easy WDW website really helpful for simple maps and route instructions. It does seem that the busy days timetables contradict each other on each site but guessing that it is going to be really busy over Easter anyway. Thank you.

We booked an unofficial "guide" for a day in Magic Kingdom. They are basically ex Disney employees who know the place back to front, and can get you to the front of all the queues. Was expensive but well worth it for us. Best bit of advice I had from her was to be there at opening, and as you go I to the park turn left! All the Disney parks are basically circular, with a big feature In the middle (castle, golf ball, tree of life etc) and the different lands round the outside. For some reason, most people head right around the park, so if you go left you miss lots of queues. In magic kingdom it means you hit adventure land first, which is good for the age groups you have.

The guide also recommended going onto the roof of the Downtown Disney rail station to watch the nighttime parade- you get a fabulous view, it's not too busy, and you are right by the entrance to get out when it's done.

Also, in animal kingdom, make sure you get to the safari ride early as gets ridiculously busy, and don't miss the bird show- is a nice chance to sit in the shade, and we all really enjoyed it!

Finally, sounds really over-organised, but if went through all the rides for the park before we went so I knew which we most wanted to go on- it can be quite overwhelming when you get there, especially if it's really busy, so would be easy to miss things.