First trip to Disney period! First trip for me AND my kids! They are 3 & 5 and LOVE all things Frozen & Minne Mouse so I feel like this is the perfect time to take them. I would love help planning so far all I have done is booked the trip through WDW directly and started gathering info. I still need to book plane tickets which I plan on doing at the end of this month.
I keep hearing that I should plan well but not to much because if I try to do everything then I will burn myself out and it is impossible anyway!. I also heard that its best to save going to MK till near the end of the trip because that is the best park and you want your kids to have the most magical experience on the last day!. Also I'm trying to plan to spend each day in a separate park. Are these all good general ideas to have when I start planning? Any more I should know?
Oh and make sure to Fastpass Anna and Elsa meet ups for the girls.
My planned trip will cover 4 days. I may try for a 5 day trip and come in on Tuesday instead of Wednesday but I'm not sure if I should.
Check In: Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Check Out: Sunday, December 27, 2015
Alright! Congrats! Any help you want with planing, I'm happy to help. If you want my email, PM and you've got it! I'm sure many people on this website feel the same way.
Full disclosure, I've never been with young kids but am planning a 2018 trip with a young one, so I'm doing my research. I also don't want to over extend advice that's unsolicited. So, dont be afraid to ignore completely.
Couple things you should make sure you're familiar with in your planning:
Park hours & extra magic hours. Some parks will close early, so you'll want to plan a dinner or evening activities, or If your kids bedtime makes it easy (poly should have activities like movies on the beach, water parade, fire pits, etc, etc).
Rides, know height requirements. A lot of people say their kids don't have much to do in Hollywood Studios. Some also say their kids are bored in EPCOT after Magic Kingdom. You know your kids best, if they love cultures and food, you're set. Also, with height requirements on rides, I dont think you'd need to be concerned with rope drop at EPCOT and the world showcase opens later. Check out how FP+ works.
Dinner reservations, if you want to eat at a table service restaurant, you have to get your reservations set up ASAP. 180 day window (from the first day of your trip); Know when that is and get your reservations first thing in the am when you have access. Depending on how much you want to spend on your trip, you can do some great meals. With kids, Cinderella's Royal Table, Be Our Guest will be the hardest to get, both in MK. Character meals great with kids too. Some people eat table breakfast then small lunch at a quick service, and table dinner. Others quick breakfast, Lunch at table service, dinner at quick service. Plenty of strategy on here about this. Kona cafe in the poly has the best coffee, FYI.
Planning, I say have your meals strategized, general park hours (when you're arriving and leaving or hopping), and then be ready to be flexible. The 'Magic' moments (in my opinion) are best when you can be carefree in the parks and not thinking of where you need to go, if you can get in somewhere, what you can do next, etc. Pre-planning of big decisions makes that open up. Don't go nuts though.
Know layout of the parks and transportation. Yes, you have to change monorails between the poly and EPCOT at the ticket and transportation center.
It's gunna be awesome.
