I am planning our children’s first Disney trip for this September, and my husband was somewhat resistant to it and doesn’t love crowds so I am trying to overplan /simplify everything to make it as easy as possible.
1. The best advice is to limit your goals and focus on just a few major highlights and then everything else is icing on the cake (instead of trying to cram too much in and being disappointed when you can’t do it all).
I bought the $15 subscription from Touring Plans, it really has lots of good info and I like creating a plan to give ideas of how long it’ll take to walk between rides, wait in line, etc.
2. Definitely factor in rest time or pool day. I’ve always been amazed when I travel with my nieces/nephews, they LOVE the pool as much as anything else even though they all have pools at home
3. Find a Disney blog you enjoy reading: I like Disney tourist blog and WDW prep school. Tom bricker on Disney Tourist Blog has a great packing list and also advice on how to pre-order or ship groceries/supplies so you can have food, diapers, etc available as soon as you arrive.
4. Have you done long car trips before? I pickup cheap toys, water pen books, travel games, etc whenever I see them on sale and then stash them away. Dollar store or target has Disney items often for cheap. It really helps my kids to have a new item every half hour or so to distract them. And lots of snacks! The older girls probably do well with electronics so that’s helpful. Maybe create a map for them that they can put stickers for each big city as you get closer??
Planning can be fun(and anxiety ridden), but May is still a year out so you are in a good place and I’m sure your trip will be amazing.