Book FPP First, Or Create TP first?

Hi. I am brand new here. We planned our first trip just two weeks ago. We are staying at POP 3/31-4/3, with plans to attend MK on 4/1, and AK on 4/2.

I do have an ADR for CRT on 4/1.

I thought I needed to do FPP first (which I can book midnight, one week from tomorrow). But baed on posts I read, maybe I should do a Tap first?

We are traveling with our daughters (9 and 6.5) who love princesses. So I know I will try for a FPP for A&E, and prob 7dwarfs, too.

Any suggestions? I thought I had it figured out, and now I am confused. :-/

Thanks.

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Sorry for auto correct typos. *based *TP

Personally I prefer to make my touring plans first. That way I know all of the things I want to see and do and I can use the estimated wait times to figure out the best use of my FP’s. Then I made a list of the days and times I wanted each one so that when it came time to book them I knew exactly what to go for. Of course you may not be able to get the exact times you want to fit into your TP but you can you usually get close, and then you can tweak the order of things in your TP to fit the times you did get. Good luck with them and have fun on your first trip!

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Welcome @DarcySteele! And congrats on your upcoming trip! We have stayed at Pop and love it! I’m sure you will too! :smile:

Your daughters are at such a great age - your trip is going to be awesome! Touring Plans worked so well for us on our trip over Christmas. I made mine first and then booked the FPPs based on the longest waits. Your two listed are great choices. If by chance you don’t get them right away, keep checking! I have boys so we didn’t do A&E, but I couldn’t get 7DMT at 60 days out. Closer to the time, quite a few became available and we ended up with FPP for it for both of our MK days. Enchanted Tales with Belle might be a good fit for your daughters as well - I haven’t seen it yet but it seems to be very popular.

I’m sure others will chime in shortly but please feel free to ask any questions! There is a lot of knowledge in this friendly group and everyone is very happy to help! :smile:

Ditto on what @Outer1 says - make a TP first and Optimize it so that you can see what attractions will get the greatest benefit from an FPP reservation. Here is a link to my tip sheet on how to do this Making Optimized Personalized Touring Plans with FastPass+

Thanks so much. Does it make a difference if there are EMH that day? We are planning to go early for the EMH at MK (8-9:00am). But not to run and see A&E…I saw videos on You Tube of crowds running to see A&E at RD, and it scared me! Those people were crazy!!

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It will make a difference in the sense that there are no FP’s during EMH hours, and not every ride is open, but you’ll also have shorter lines during that time. If you don’t manage to get an A&E or 7DMT and expect to try the regular standby lines that will be the time to do it.

Thanks again!

I did think of one more question…

Since we are traveling for the first time, is it easier to try and follow a TP that is already in place (for ex, the one for traveling with princess fans, ages 4-8)? And then tweak it? (if you can tweak ones pre-loaded)

Or make our own up?

It is probably easier to take a pre-made plan and tweak it. You just go into the plan, click on “Copy”, and then modify it as you see fit. The most important mods to do are setting the plan date to the date you will be at the park, letting it know if you are going to be using EMH (where applicable), and letting it know your intended start and stop times (if you aren’t going to hit RD and stay until close).

Hard to say really. The pre-built ones are certainly workable and you can copy them to sort of make your own and rework them. Since you’ve never been I would honestly suggest you take a look at the list of attractions for each park and then read about them or watch youtube video’s so that you’re familiar with them and which ones your family might enjoy. So many people like different things and kids are often put off my elements that might seem scary or boring to them. My own personal favorites are Splash Mountain and the Haunted Mansion but your family might not enjoy dark rides or drops ruling those out. The key to any DIsney trip really is research, research, research lol.

You all are the best…Such helpful advice! Thank you again!!!

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We will be there the same time as you! Kids are older though, 11&13. We arrive late Tuesday night to Coronado Springs, actually going to Sea World on Wednesday, then to MK later in the evening. Thursday is also AK for us! We will be heading straight to Expedition Everest for a few rides to get the day started. Friday Epcot, Saturday HS, Sunday MK. For both our trip last April and for this one, I made TP’s first. This gives me an idea of what I should FPP. We are skipping A&E this time as we saw them last year, but would like to ride 7DMT in the daytime and evening. Are you planning to go to a park on Friday as well? Hope you have a great trip!

Hi, @Wahoohokie! We kind of planned our first Disney trip backwards. We are going to be spending 3 nights in Clearwater first and then thought “Let’s go to Disney!” So we booked that afterwards. We decided to hit two parks this trip since we are driving and live 10 hrs away. Hopefully next time I will plan better…But so far, I think I have done OK. (I did learn that booking more days/tix certainly does save you a lot of $ in the end!) And accidentally getting an ADR for Cinderella’s Royal Table didn’t hurt this time either. =)

Sounds like you have a lot of fun planned for your family. ENJOY!!! =)

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