Nervous my trip will suck...

[timsueshd]

I have always enjoyed going to Disney World, I don't go a lot, only 4 times in the last 30 years. But love it when I'm there...

This trip it is myself, DH and DS (13) staying on site 3night / 4day with hopper passes.

We are 10 months out(week after Thanksgiving) from our trip and by reading posts and threads I am afraid this trip will not be enjoyable. FP+ not available for certain rides, long lines, every extra thing to do is an added cost, having to plan every minute of your day.

I don't want to plan out my full day or be running around. I want this to be relaxing too. Please tell me if my following daily plan will not work. I am hoping to have a few FP+ already reserved for later morning or afternoon.

Have a granola bar or small snack in hotel room
try to make rope drop and do as many rides as possible
grab counter service for lunch
maybe head back to hotel for a couple hours of pool/relax
back to the park(s)
sit down dinner at pre-reserved restaurant
end the night

 

[Tonyz]

Spoiler alert: It won't.

 

[dcassetta]

I think your plan sounds great.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

Your plan sounds awesome! No need to pre-plan every moment of your day. Many of us are go with the flow travelers and love it!

 

[anomamatt]

Unless you want it to suck, it won’t.

 

[BrianL]

Try not to worry about it. You'll have a great time even if not everything goes off without a hitch. Just relax, be flexible, and most importantly have fun!

 

[rajak73]

Here was our plan in 2014,
Get up, eat
Day 1, go to AK
Day 2, go to MK
Day 3, go to Epcot
Day 4, go to HS
Day 5-15, go to whichever park we wanted and do what we wanted.

The plan worked great. We had people in the campground next to us, they would go to the bus stop and go to whatever park bus showed up first. Your park experiences are up to you and what you make them. Have a great trip and have fun!

 

[MamaBelle4]

We went for the first time since 2000 in 2014.

I made FP daily because I didn't know you could do it in advance. We still rode everything we "had" to and saw what we wanted. It was October. I didn't even know about F&W. I had done no planning. There were 8 of us.

I had planned the whole trip for our party. When we were getting packed up and ready to to home, my dad said to me, "Everyone had a great time. You did a good job." I then learned all the planning that I could've put into it.

The point I'm trying to make (perhaps poorly), is do all the planning you can/want. Have a couple of things you and your family have to do. And go with the flow otherwise. If you can't get FP for something, decide if it is worth the wait for you or not. When we went in 2014, Anna and Elsa we're still in MK. It was a must do for my girls. So we did 3 hours of waiting. I was going insane, we're wasting so much time. But then we met them and the magic was so real for the girls. I would stand in that line again.

Just because some posters will say "I won't wait more than 20 minutes for a ride" it doesn't mean you can't. Only you can decide what is right for you.

Don't stress about it. And go with the attitude "We can only do what we can do" and you'll have a terrific time!

 

[MNDisneyMommy]

Thats exactly how we toured the first week of December, and we had an absolutely fantastic trip.

Don't worry! It'll be great.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Aside from the TS meal every evening, your plan sounds a lot like we have done on most of our trips. Will it be perfect? No. Will something go wrong? Yes, probably. With only 4 days (or even with 14), you won't get to see and do everything. You will have to be okay with skipping some things. You don't have to plan down to the minute and follow a rigid schedule, just have an idea of what you want to do and make a plan, ask for tips here and see what people say. Do a little bit of research and be prepared to make changes as you go.

There are a few FP that are hard to get: FoP at AK, 7DMT at MK, and probably by the time your trip comes along, it might be hard to get FP for the new Toy Story stuff at HS. If you don't get the FP you want on the first try, keep looking. People do change their plans and cancel FP. If you know your trip won't be good unless you ride FoP (for example) and you can't get FP for it, be at AK an hour or so before opening and go straight there. Or, get in line a few minutes before the park closes. I would pick 3-4 things you really want to do at each park and count anything else as a bonus.

 

[bjs1228]

Short of getting sick on the trip, I don't see how being at WDW could ever suck!

 

[nco91590]

LOL Your trip won't suck. I promise. We were there over spring break and it was heinously crowded. We had the same agenda of getting up early, using FPs and going back to the hotel around 3pm every day to relax and then go back out for dinner. My kids are little too. Your 13 year old has a longer attention span that you could actually stand in a line for longer than 8 minutes. We had a great time. I wouldn't worry.

 

[Gehrig1B]

Your plan is a good one. With the hopper you can pick and choose which park to return to as well. I will add if you want to get the most done but in a leisurely way do FP your preferences between 10:00-2:00 when the parks get busiest, then go for extra FPs. Also avoid lines at the QS venues by using mobile ordering. It is pretty easy, even when crowded, to get as many as 8-10 fastpasses in a day. Rope drop the important attractions as well as get initial fastpasses for those. Expect AK to be your day 4 if you want a Flight of Passage fastpass.

We were there around NYE and were able to get a lot done each day. We are not commando style planners at all. I think you can ride 3 or 4 headliners in the first 2/3 hours at any of the parks, FP 3 more and then go for a multitude of others after your break. We were able to ride 10+ rides a day, as well as have a table service meal even though the crowds were massive. Plan a bit but enjoy and roll with the flow.

 

[rwdavis2]

That's about all we do. Make the FP+ reservations and go to the parks. With FP+ last trip we did not do rope drop every day. Wasn't necessary but this was before Avatar opened.

 

[YawningDodo]

I had the same fears when I went in 2015 after a six year gap because, like you, I read the complaining on this board and got a little freaked out by it. Our trip was wonderful -- not perfect, but wonderful, and I came away from it knowing to take certain things said on these boards with a grain of salt. While you should expect the parks to be bustling, it's all still perfectly doable. You don't have to buy the extras if you don't want to do them, and not being able to get all the exact FP+ you want months in advance isn't the end of the world. When you're at the parks, refresh your FP+ options frequently and you'll be surprised how many come up as other people's plans change throughout the day. Ditto dining reservations; I'd barely managed to get Be Our Guest on our schedule before the trip by checking and re-checking, and then once we were there and decided we liked it so much we wanted a second lunch there, I got it arranged on the MDE app within an hour of deciding to try.

And MamaBelle4 is right. Even if you can't get a FP for something, that doesn't mean you don't get to ride it. Just decide what is and isn't worth the lines to you, what is and isn't worth rope drop, and go from there. I think you've already got a great plan in place; apart from the table dining every night (we ate counter service almost exclusively apart from a very special Napa Rose evening) it's precisely what we did in Disneyland this last fall and the midday break schedule kept us refreshed and out of the worst heat and crowds.

 

[belledreamer]

Don't let negative posts get you down! Also, read them with a grain of salt. Trust me, nothing will bring you down about a Disney trip faster than a negative post... Disney works if you make it work for YOU. What works for me and makes an excellent trip for my family may sound absolutely terrible to you. And that's okay. The key is making a plan that works for you.

You still have plenty of time to plan your FP+. I would make sure that on the day your window opens up, be ready at your computer and have a plan of which FP+ you want the most. There's no need to plan out every moment of your trip. Just concentrate on what you want to do the most and everything else is bonus magic!

That being said, I think you've got a good plan in mind.

 

[HaveKidsWillTravel]

Short of getting sick on the trip, I don't see how being at WDW could ever suck!

Our son got sick the night before our last full day. (We ALL got sick upon returning home). My husband and kids still talk about what an amazing time we had. Haha. I was a bit stressed and we had to change plans on the fly, but we all have great memories from the trip!

 

[Court7321]

I would suggest using Touring Plans to make a plan for each day at the park. Since we've used plans the last two times we went, our trips have been much more enjoyable. At first I thought having a plan would make it more stressful, but it actually allowed us to relax and follow the plan, knowing that our wait and walking times were optimized, so we weren't zig-zagging all over the park, etc. We sometimes don't follow the plans exactly, as we've been enough times to know what we're doing, but it is a helpful guideline.

 

[Surr]

You will be fine and have a great time. I find that with the FP+ system, more upfront planning helps tremendously, but is not completely required except for this most popular attractions. Please don't stress about it. I find that by planning our FP+ can pace ourselves more, and crisscross the parks less. With the old system, we would often rush to attractions at rope drop to get an FP, then rush to another attraction for the short line. That is no longer necessary.

 

[disneyworldsk]

I would be too cold for pool in late November. Maybe resort hop instead or rest in the room?

 

[Dug720]

Unless you want it to suck, it won’t.

This.

Or go in expecting it to suck. Then it probably will also.

If you expect you’re going to have a nice family trip and enjoy each other’s company, you will likely have an enjoyable trip.