Need a little help planning 9 day Disney World trip

[DuaneHaas]

Hi,

My wife and I have 2 young children (will be 5 years old and 9 months old). We are planning a trip that includes lots of breaks and a bit slower pace. She will still be breastfeeding the newborn so we would need to take frequent breaks and probably be out of the sun during the middle of the day. We are booked 10 nights in the middle of May at the Swan and Dolphin. For this, I plan on getting a 9 day park hopper (since it doesn't cost much to add an extra day or two just in case).

When should we schedule which parks? Should we set up Magic Kingdom for the end of the trip since it has the harder to get fast passes or should we hit it the first day to get all of the main attractions out of the way? Same with restaurants? Since Epcot is closer, I kind of expect to eat there for dinner more often if we take a break in the afternoons.

We would like to do a few character meals with the original princesses being my wife's main focus (Cinderella, Belle, Snow White) as well as Mickey, Minnie and Donald Duck.

Which restaurants are can't miss?

We are also a little confused about the rider switch program. Any thoughts to get my son on as many rides as possible? He is currently right at 44" tall and likes almost all of the rides.

Thanks for any and all tips!

 

[Sara_H]

I would schedule MK for the beginning and towards the end of your trip. With a 9 day hopper you will have the opportunity to visit more than once. If you plan on doing Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, make that the first fastpass you try to get (or one of the firsts) because those are gone fast.

We did a character breakfast at Cape May café at the Beach Club (which would be walking distance for you) and there they had Minnie, Goofy and Donald. People always love Chef Mickey's too.

As for other restaurants, not sure how picky your son is but we enjoyed Satu'li at Animal Kingdom, Sci Fi at Hollywood and Coral Reef at EPCOT; those are the ones we had reservations for. We always eat at Harbor House in MK and also enjoyed eating at the Quick Service in Japan. I know there are several others that people love but those are the ones we did in January. Also, take advantage of the Mobile Order option when you can.

 

[sharadoc]

Probably a good idea to subscribe to Touring Plans. You can create customized plans for each day that takes your needs into account. Can also help you pick the best parks the best days while you're there.

 

[Magpie]

Should we set up Magic Kingdom for the end of the trip since it has the harder to get fast passes or should we hit it the first day to get all of the main attractions out of the way?

The hardest to get FP right now is Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom fastpasses are actually pretty easy to get, since there are lots and they're not tiered. I generally book MK fastpasses for the morning, since you can grab more on as soon as you've used up your first three, and there's so many to choose from that you can usually get some really good ones the day of.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

With the ages of your kids I would probably spend at least 3 days in MK and 2 days at each of the other parks. I like to start and end every trip at MK. With a 9 day trip I wouldn't worry much about FPs, it shouldn't be hard to get what you want. Just schedule the harder to get ones (FOP, SDD, FEA, SDMT) for the later days in your trip and go for those first on FP day. As far as restaurants, Cinderella's Royal Table and Akershus are both excellent princess meals. If you're on the DDP, Akershus is a better value at one credit vs 2 credits at CRT. For classic characters my choices would be Tusker House at AK or Garden Grill (Mickey, Pluto, Chip, Dale) at EPCOT. For non-character meals some of our family favorites are BOG (MK), Biergarten (EPCOT), T-Rex (DS), and Sci Fi (DHS).

 

[skippytx]

You're brave taking a 9 month old. I waited until my youngest was 3 before I attempted Disney. You'll be fine though.

We like to split our days up. We generally do one park in the morning with all our fastpasses, and the take a break in the middle of the day. We like to rope drop the park, do a few things, then schedule fast passes for 11, 12, and 1 when the park is busier. Lines aren't too bad early in the morning. Sometimes we nap, sometimes we visit the pool, but we generally take a break between 2:30 give or take until about 6. Exceptions are made of course for dining plans or events, but that's our general plan. We usually end up in MK every night as we love MK at night time and it's usually open until at least 11PM when we visit. We do make sure to see the Star Wars fireworks at HS though, as those are awesome. We stay at Bay Lake Tower though, so MK makes for an easy walk home. You might prefer Epcot at night due to location.

Character meals are fun, but I don't find them to be a great value. Focus on the characters you want to meet and not so much the food. I don't care for the food at 1900 park fare, but the character interactions are some of the best I've experienced. I rationalized the cost once I realized I was really paying for the ability to meet 4 to 6 characters in a short period of time, and not so much the food. There are some good restaurants though, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Like a previous poster mentioned, Tusker House and Garden Grill are two solid choices.

Watch lots of youtube videos to get an idea of what rides you want to experience, what restaurants are like, things like that. That's the nice thing about WDW, there's a million videos on YT about anything you could possibly want to know. Also plan plan plan.

 

[DuaneHaas]

Awesome! Thank you all for the great advice. I appreciate it.

 

[cruising spud]

A heads up about breastfeeding in the parks. I believe that your wife can go into the first aide stations to nurse. I say this because it can get hot in May, and she might want to get out of the sun.

 

[NJ Goofy]

I would plan my days around the FP's that are most important to you. For instance if you want to get SD2,you may have to wait until 60+5 to get it, if you and your wife want to do FOP, you may get it on 60+4. Then you can plan the rest of your days around that park. If you're going in the warm weather, I'd go around park opening and then head back to the resort @ 1:00 pm to relax or sit by the pool. Then since you'll have hoppers, you can head to another park @ dinner and stay for a little while. Nice thing about EPCOT resorts is you can hit two of the parks without long transportation times.

 

[lolomarie]

We were just there in Sept (hot hot hot) with a 4 year old and 10 month old (still breastfeeding, but usually only around nap times and for comfort). My favourite places to breastfeed were shows, especially darker ones, and the people mover! I used the baby centre once, and while many people love them, I found them too far out of the way to be convenient for us.

We either took a nap break each day, leaving around noon and returning around 6 for night shows, or would just push through until 2 or 3 and have a quiet night at the hotel.

We loved our double stroller and stroller fans. Favourite meal was crystal palace! Have fun!

Rider swap was a pain. You now have to ride within an hour of the first group exiting, meaning baby or kid had to wait around for 2 rides in a row. It's nice to have the option but we liked the old set up better.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Probably a good idea to subscribe to Touring Plans. You can create customized plans for each day that takes your needs into account. Can also help you pick the best parks the best days while you're there.

I second that!!!
There is a tool at the top that asks your walking speed and then preference with walking vs waiting. I absolutely love TP and find it well worth the annual fee just in getting the layout of the land and how fast I could really make it from one attraction to another.
As you can see, there's a lot more to it, but it has saved us enormous amounts of time and aggravation! I've used TP for the last 6 or 7 years of visits.

 

[WaterLinds]

Rider swap was a pain. You now have to ride within an hour of the first group exiting, meaning baby or kid had to wait around for 2 rides in a row. It's nice to have the option but we liked the old set up better.

Is this true for all rides now? We were there in February and at the time most rides you could use the swap pass anytime within the month, and for the headliners anytime that same day. That’s a huge change! We weren’t planning to use it much on our upcoming trip, because grandma is coming and most rides the 3 yo can’t do are too intense for her...but we were thinking of using it for Soarin’ and maybe one or two others if he doesn’t make the cut (he’s definitely under 38 inches right now but we’re hoping he grows by March! He just had one of his legs surgically shortened though, so the odds are not in our favour...).

 

[lolomarie]

Is this true for all rides now? We were there in February and at the time most rides you could use the swap pass anytime within the month, and for the headliners anytime that same day. That’s a huge change! We weren’t planning to use it much on our upcoming trip, because grandma is coming and most rides the 3 yo can’t do are too intense for her...but we were thinking of using it for Soarin’ and maybe one or two others if he doesn’t make the cut (he’s definitely under 38 inches right now but we’re hoping he grows by March! He just had one of his legs surgically shortened though, so the odds are not in our favour...).

Yes, all rides with a height restriction. They recently changed it. Here's the thread from over on the family boards:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...child-swap-in-effect-as-of-june-16th.3688372/

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We’ve been to Disney several times with an infant, toddlers, kids of all ages really (we have 5) and it’s always fun. I love the baby center in Epcot, but they’re all nice. We always have 10 park days in Disney, (plus 2 universal days) and we split our Disney days into 4 MK days, 2 Epcot days (one full FW day and one full WS day), 2 AK days and one HS day, then one day do do whatever park we feel like. This works out great for us, and since your kids are so little they’d love all the MK days. Also with so many park days you have plenty of time to go slow and take breaks.

 

[WaterLinds]

Yes, all rides with a height restriction. They recently changed it. Here's the thread from over on the family boards:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...child-swap-in-effect-as-of-june-16th.3688372/

Thank you, I had missed that! It’s very helpful—but also frustrating. I’ll save the bigger discussion as there are obviously other threads for that. But we had a technical malfunction with FoP that meant riding it took roughly a hour even using the FP line (one of the rooms went down, but not until after we’d waited, done the full pre-boardingbits, etc., so we had to do all that twice). If we’d been using swap with the new system it would have been awfully tight to make it back on!

We will plan accordingly for the next trip, though.

 

[Tksolomom]

Tratoria el Forno has a character breakfast with Ariel, Raphnzel Flynn Ryder and Prince Eric. My daughter always liked meeting the princes too. It is close to Epcot. Garden Grill has Mickey and is in Epcot. It is nice because it is AYCE, but they bring the good to you. Wilderness Lodge also will have the new Snow White dining with Dopey, Grumpy and the Evil Queen.

For rider swap, go to the ride with the baby and they will scan the band of the person not riding. While one parent and the older child is riding, the other parent can do something else with the baby. There are lots of rides at MK that infants can go on. My daughter as a baby especially loved Pirates. Normally they give you an hour after the estimated time for the second parent to ride.

I would get FP for everyone for FOP first thing in the morning, so the other parent can do Navi with the baby. It doesn’t normally get busy until about 30 min after park opening.

I hope you have a great trip! I think my biggest advice is to take a break when people are getting tired and cranky. My husband still wanted to do commando park opening to close, which wasn’t practical with little ones. Once we took a break things, even if napping during a show, things went a lot smoother.