10 Day WDW Itinerary help please

[drpixel]

We are a family of 4 going to WDW in July. We have 10-day base tickets and hope to just take it easy (use our FPs and standby for maybe 2-3 rides), maybe a few rope drops (if we get ourselves to wake up early) and 4 late nights (to allow us to watch HEA, ROL, Illuminations, and Fantasmic). We don't have touring plans yet just a general idea of what we'd like to do. Does this look good or would you arrange it differently? Thanks!

4 days MK
Day 1 Frontierland/Adventureland + Parade
Day 2 Fantasyland/Liberty Square + HEA
Day 3 Main Street/Tomorrowland
Day 4 ride favorites

2 days AK
Day 1 Na'vi, Safari, Lion King, Dinoland
Day 2 Flight of Passage, Nemo, Rivers of Light

2 days Epcot
Day 1 Future World + Illuminations
Day 2 World Showcase

2 days HS
Day 1 Toy Story, ToT, Star Tours, Beauty and the Beast, Fantasmic/Star Wars
Day 2 RnR, Indiana Jones, Disney Jr., Great Movie Ride

 

[Klayfish]

We have done a number of 10 day trips (we're lucky in that we can now make them longer), and 10 days is a lot of time to get things done. We're not rope drop people...we "quit" doing that years ago, as it's just not worth it to us. We'll show up right at park open sometimes, but not 45, 60+ minutes early.

Your plan looks fine to me as far as the split in days for the parks, but for my family the specific plans would be far too confining. While we don't intentionally crisscross the parks, we never do days by "lands" or sections of the park. For us, we wouldn't like going into MK and saying "We're only going to Fantasyland today". We get FP+ for the rides we really want, regardless of where they are then fill in the time between with rides that are nearby. But that's just our way, if splitting into lands works for you, then your plan looks great.

 

[drpixel]

We have done a number of 10 day trips (we're lucky in that we can now make them longer), and 10 days is a lot of time to get things done. We're not rope drop people...we "quit" doing that years ago, as it's just not worth it to us. We'll show up right at park open sometimes, but not 45, 60+ minutes early.

Your plan looks fine to me as far as the split in days for the parks, but for my family the specific plans would be far too confining. While we don't intentionally crisscross the parks, we never do days by "lands" or sections of the park. For us, we wouldn't like going into MK and saying "We're only going to Fantasyland today". We get FP+ for the rides we really want, regardless of where they are then fill in the time between with rides that are nearby. But that's just our way, if splitting into lands works for you, then your plan looks great.

Thanks, I see what you mean about the plan being quite restrictive. My thought behind this was to avoid too much walking in the July heat. We just need to have a direction in terms of where to go but if we have to cross lands because we spot something interesting, that would be okay too!

 

[Klayfish]

We're going to be there in July too. It's hot, no doubt about it. We just try to be mindful of the heat. For example, during the worst of the midday heat, we never "run" "hustle", etc...from spot to spot. We take our time. Use QS places to get plenty of free ice water. We try to go on rides that are air conditioned and/or have a/c queues. For example, we stay far, far away from Tomorrowland Speedway during mid-day. Just way too hot. But Philharmagic, CoP, Laugh Floor, Pirates, etc...are great mid-day rides. Rides like HM are also nice and cool inside, but the queue is outdoors so we won't wait in it during mid-day.

So at the end, I'm sure we do some degree of crisscrossing, but it's not constant. Like I said, we take our time getting spot to spot and then ride things that are near to our FP+...and in the a/c.

 

[kruegeme]

Just returned from an 11 day trip. Would suggest doing as many rope drops as you can. For AK, book your FP+ for Flights of Passage and then do Na'vi via stand-by line at rope drop. Everyone is running to get in line for Flights so the Na'vi line moves pretty quickly.

 

[drpixel]

We're going to be there in July too. It's hot, no doubt about it. We just try to be mindful of the heat. For example, during the worst of the midday heat, we never "run" "hustle", etc...from spot to spot. We take our time. Use QS places to get plenty of free ice water. We try to go on rides that are air conditioned and/or have a/c queues. For example, we stay far, far away from Tomorrowland Speedway during mid-day. Just way too hot. But Philharmagic, CoP, Laugh Floor, Pirates, etc...are great mid-day rides. Rides like HM are also nice and cool inside, but the queue is outdoors so we won't wait in it during mid-day.

So at the end, I'm sure we do some degree of crisscrossing, but it's not constant. Like I said, we take our time getting spot to spot and then ride things that are near to our FP+...and in the a/c.

Great advice, thanks!

 

[drpixel]

Just returned from an 11 day trip. Would suggest doing as many rope drops as you can. For AK, book your FP+ for Flights of Passage and then do Na'vi via stand-by line at rope drop. Everyone is running to get in line for Flights so the Na'vi line moves pretty quickly.

Thanks for the tips! I guess rope drop is still the way to go no matter how many park days you have.

 

[Klayfish]

I don't think rope drop...as in showing up an hour before the park opens...is "wrong", but you have decide if it's worth it. The person who shows up one hour early will only get one more ride than I will if I show up right at park opening. We decided it wasn't worth it.

 

[drpixel]

I want to aim for rope drop so we can start the day when it's cooler and less crowded, but if we will spend 10 days at WDW and 2 days at Universal, we can't do rope drop everyday. We could probably do it at the beginning of the trip, but I see us needing days to sleep in and taking some mid-day breaks by the middle of the trip. There is no way we can do rope drop all the way to park closing.

 

[BelleBookandDisney]

I think your plan looks good. It's really what your family will enjoy the most. I think going by lands is good start. Then if you find you have more time you can always venture to other areas. You really don't want to do extra walking in the heat. Since it is so hot in July, I would try and get their earlier in the day. For days you're staying up late just choose a park the next day that you don't have as much planned. Your Epcot days will probably the most walking. For your AK days you probably want to visit pandora during the day and night.

 

[katyjeka]

We were a rope drop family but found we like late nights better. The parks feel so special at night with all the lights. Our kids couldn't do back to back late and early so we learned to change our touring style. I remember when we first started to go we would travel commando style(not that your plans look this way)it was our girls who slowed us down. This December we are planning 2 early mornings, one AK and the other MK. Have a great trip.

 

[ADS2508]

Depending on the age of your kids I may suggest breaking up your Epcot days a little differently. I would probably do Future World West and 1/2 World Showcase one day and Future World East and the other 1/2 of world show case the other. That way you are mixing rides and exploring the countries.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

We've planned "lands" per-day like you have, and it NEVER works out because each land bleeds into the next. It's pretty hard to get everyone on board with the idea of "cutting slingload" on the day's touring while in the middle of the park after having seen just a few attractions. Maybe your family has more will power than mine, but our "Tomorrowland/Fantasyland" days turned into "Tomorrowland/Fantasyland/Liberty Square/Adventureland/Tomorrowland/Liberty Square days.

 

[drpixel]

I think your plan looks good. It's really what your family will enjoy the most. I think going by lands is good start. Then if you find you have more time you can always venture to other areas. You really don't want to do extra walking in the heat. Since it is so hot in July, I would try and get their earlier in the day. For days you're staying up late just choose a park the next day that you don't have as much planned. Your Epcot days will probably the most walking. For your AK days you probably want to visit pandora during the day and night.

Thanks for the tips. We definitely want to see how Pandora changes at night.

 

[drpixel]

We were a rope drop family but found we like late nights better. The parks feel so special at night with all the lights. Our kids couldn't do back to back late and early so we learned to change our touring style. I remember when we first started to go we would travel commando style(not that your plans look this way)it was our girls who slowed us down. This December we are planning 2 early mornings, one AK and the other MK. Have a great trip.

Thanks, have fun in December! Would you know how soon they have the Christmas decorations up?

 

[drpixel]

Depending on the age of your kids I may suggest breaking up your Epcot days a little differently. I would probably do Future World West and 1/2 World Showcase one day and Future World East and the other 1/2 of world show case the other. That way you are mixing rides and exploring the countries.

That's actually a great idea! My kids are 5 and 8 so the World Showcase might not be as interesting to them. Thanks!

 

[drpixel]

We've planned "lands" per-day like you have, and it NEVER works out because each land bleeds into the next. It's pretty hard to get everyone on board with the idea of "cutting slingload" on the day's touring while in the middle of the park after having seen just a few attractions. Maybe your family has more will power than mine, but our "Tomorrowland/Fantasyland" days turned into "Tomorrowland/Fantasyland/Liberty Square/Adventureland/Tomorrowland/Liberty Square days.

I have a feeling our first park day will turn out that way!

 

[StraightToDumbo]

I have a feeling our first park day will turn out that way!

Which, don't get me wrong, isn't in itself a "bad" thing.