These forums are stressing me out- help please!

madtaj

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 19, 2018
Hi guys we are coming to Walt Disney World from Australia in late September early October...all your posts are starting to stress me out with all the advance dining reservations, fast passes, free dining, where we should be, what we should do, where we should go! Lol! I’m starting to wonder if I’m just gonna collapse in a heap from the exhaustion of trying to fit everything into five days of travelling to WDW. So we are two 39-year-olds with 11 and 15-year-old children. We have a five day park pass not with the hopper option. Please tell us what are the must do’s for dining, fast passes and overall to make it a magical Disney World experience with not too much stress. Oh and we are staying at the pop for 5 nights and contemplating if we should get some sort of dining package. This forum is hard core and the more I read the more I become stressed about the entire process! HELP
 
Step 1: Breathe. You need to relax.

Congratulations!!! You are going to WDW...all the way from another continent, no less!!!!!

It is not possible to do EVERYTHING in 5 days. I haven't done it in 6 trips for longer durations. You must prioritize based on your family's preferences. Research the parks and what there is to do and spend more time in the park that you feel will have more of what you will all love.

We love MK, so we stay on the monorail loop close to it. This trip we are skipping Hollywood Studios because Toy Story land is opening and we don't want to deal with the extra crowds, however, we did HS on every other trip. We have one day in Epcot and AK and four days in MK. We break down the 4 sections of MK into a day each.

Since we have been 5 times before, we know what we like and we have a pattern. We go to parks early in the morning at rope drop to avoid the biggest crowds which come later in the day. We take a midday break at our resort napping or swimming in the pool, and then in the evening we either go to the parks or enjoy the resort. We booked some signature restaurants for the evening so that after dinner, we can view the fireworks from the restaurant. We can also see them from the Polynesian Village Resort where we are staying.

There's many ways to do Disney World. We prefer not to go go go and exhaust ourselves. This is our vacation, so we build in time to relax. On our AK day, I'm staying back at the resort in a rented Cabana for the day. When the family comes back at lunch, they will have a lovely place to relax at the pool.

It does require a lot of planning, but I promise you, the payoff will be worth it.

I hope that you have a very enjoyable and memorable Disney World vacation!!!
 
That’s is perfect advice. I love the breathe post mostly! I cannot believe I have to book restaurants this far out. I was just hoping to rock up and get something to eat as we felt hungry, not on a schedule. I think because I have older children I can narrow down their preferences pretty well
so will start loading up the maps and go from there. Thanks for the information
 
I agree with the breathe and relax advice. No, you don't need to plan your ADRs this far out, while you can't just walk up to TS restaurants, they can be booked the day of, sometimes even a hour out. We do it all the time, as a matter of fact, 9 out of 10 times that is the way we do it. We have a 5 night trip coming up in May and I have one ADR booked and I only booked it because I had our one FP booked for FOP later in the day the day we arrive and we love Tiffins so I figured what the heck, might as well book it. I don't have any other ADRs or even FPs booked and won't until we get there. Now, I'm not telling you not to go ahead and book your 3 FPs but am saying it's not necessary to do this rigid minute by minute planning and go more relaxed. Keep in mind, as Summer2018 said, it's impossible to see and do everything, we have been going for over 30 years, at least every other year and the last 4 or 5 years once a year and still haven't seen and done everything. I always tell people to relax, go slow and actually look at the place, don't run from ride to ride or you will miss the magic of it. Must see things, must ride rides and must eat places are all subjective. We don't like BOG and have never done character meals, even when my son was a toddler. We aren't as in love with MK as most people are, again, weren't even when my son was a toddler, he always loved Epcot and WS there. Remember, you can't miss what you haven't had so don't set yourself up for disappointment by thinking if you don't ride a certain ride or see a certain show or eat at a certain place your vacation is going to be ruined. It won't as long as you go with the right attitude. Most important thing, relax and enjoy.
 



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