6-day plan for 8 people (long, sorry)

Walt Disney World Touring Plans
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Edit: After thinking some more, I answered some of my own questions, so I’m editing down the length to focus on the things I’m most concerned about. :slight_smile:

I’m planning a 6-day trip for February, traveling with a group of four adults, two teens, and two elementary schoolers. We’re mostly morning people and only the teens like (some) coasters.

Our itinerary is:

Day 1: Epcot, RD to about 5pm, focusing on the east side of the park, lunch at Via Napoli

Day 2: MK, RD to at least after the parade (evening plans TBD), lunch at Skipper Canteen

Day 3: AK, RD until ??? I’m tempted to stay all the way through RoL which is at 7, with plenty of time to eat (quick service) lunch and dinner, and a couple shows, so that it’s not a lot of rushing around. DH thought maybe we could take a mid-day break but with short park hours (9-8) and losing so much time to travel, I’m wondering if it won’t be worth it. <-- This is the day I’m most concerned about.

Day 4: Late-start Epcot day, focus on the west side of the park, eat QS (TBD).

Day 5: MK, late start after 1900 PF breakfast at 9, lunch at BoG. Stay through fireworks at 8. Hopefully this doesn’t end up being too long of a day either.

Day 6: HS, undecided if this will be a late start day. On the one hand, I want to give the younger kids a chance to do Jedi training, but it might be nice to let the teens sleep in a bit. Milkshakes at Sci Fi at 3, then leave.

I’ve made (and edited, and optimized, and changed some more…) touring plans for each day. But I’m not totally sure how long everyone is going to last in the parks, and whether I’m making a mistake by not planning any mid-day breaks.

Any input is welcome!

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Three comments from me:

For your AK day, I wouldn’t be concerned about staying all day. To me, AK is much more low key because it is more about the shows, exhibits and surroundings rather than ride ride ride all day. Maybe if you do want to do a break, just take in a meal at AKL.

For EP, not sure what you mean by east vs west. If you are looking at world showcase vs future world, I highly recommend the Land pavilion for a QS lunch on day 4.

For HS, not sure how old the teens are, but I know I loved when I was in high school and was allowed to take Disney transport on my own. Maybe that could solve your conundrum there - let the young jedis do an early start and let the teens sleep in and join on their own.

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Thanks, that is really helpful!

It’s good to hear I’m not crazy for thinking we could try AK all day. A break at AKL is a great idea, too! Just eating and maybe sitting in the lobby might be the break we need from the park.

Epcot - I literally meant doing Test Track, Mission:Space, and approximately Mexico through Italy one day, and then doing Nemo, Soarin, and Canada through Japan on the other day. That way it’s a little of both Future World and World Showcase on each day. I figured the first day, we’d end up hiking back to Italy for lunch and then do the countries on that side on our way back to the front (Germany through Mexico); on the second day, I thought we’d do the Land pavilion, then go up through Canada and after we tour Japan, take the boat (is there still a boat?) back from Morocco to the entrance of World Showcase, then go to the Seas before leaving. I know it’s a long way back, but I’m having a hard time figuring out a better way to divide things up; I’m worried if we do a day of just WS the kids will revolt. I think we did something similar when we visited before, but that was several years ago and there were only four of us.

(Basically we’re planning a modified version of the two-day Epcot touring plans from this site - modified mostly because we need to be at the Seas around 4:30 because DS17 is doing the Scuba tour, and because we’re doing early arrival one day and late arrival the second day. I think Tour Guide Mike used to recommend something similar back in the day.)

QS lunch at the Land pavilion could fit in with that day though with the late start; good idea.

The teens are 14 and 17, so old enough that Disney would let them in without us. Good idea about letting them sleep in while the little awake-at-6-every-day Jedis go to HS early. We could even have an adult stay back with them if they aren’t comfortable taking the bus on their own, or if one of the adults is tired too. I’ll try to make their fastpasses a little later and then we can play it by ear.

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I am a big fan of mid-day breaks for everyone’s sake in our family. Even those who don’t nap enjoy putting their feet up and relaxing around the resort. And I think it make a huge difference late in the day when we have taken time to rest. But we go in the summer so we can essentially take a several hour break and still have as many park hours left as you will be starting with. And making it the nighttime shows and events in the summer means a much later night than you list. I think in your case I would skip the break at AK. Honestly, RoL has never really appealed to me but I think Tree of Life Awakenings and even walking around Pandora after dark are worth staying for. With spacing meals and shows throughout your day and taking a lower key approach, I bet you would be fine staying through to the end at AK.
I think the suggestion to let the teens sleep in on HS day and get themselves to the park to meet up with the rest of the group is a great one. If your younger ones are early risers like mine, then they will be up anyway so you might as well get to the park and do Jedi Training which is definitely worth it.

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Thanks! Yeah, if it were summer, I’d be all about the mid-day breaks.

It’s good to hear your opinion on RoL, because I’m sure my kids would love just wandering around Pandora at night, to be honest. Pandora is one of the things my 8-year-old is most looking forward to - he saw a video and just thinks that area looks so cool. He’s excited to “adopt” a banshee, too.

I’m liking the idea of letting the teens sleep in on the last day, the more I think about it. Glad you think Jedi Training was worth it! It seems right up my little guys’ alley. (They’re 8- and 6-year-old boys. They each have one princess they want to meet, but mostly I think they’ll enjoy active stuff like that.)

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Also, with AK, I don’t know how many rides you have scheduled on FOP. I had one scheduled with a fpp. As soon as we rode it, my dd’s 17 and 9 both said they had to ride it again. So we ended up dumping plans to watch ROL or anything else at the end of the night and lined up for a second ride on FOP right before closing instead. So keep that in mind as you plan, you might want to stay flexible with that in mind. Or rd fop and ride again with fpp. That would be another possibility.

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I only built one FoP into the plan but depending on if I manage to get fastpasses, and whether I can get everyone up and moving to be there well before RD, we might be able to do two. You’re probably right that we’ll want to go a second time.

The 6-year-old is pretty apprehensive about it, and also only borderline tall enough (he’s small for his age). I thought we might use rider switch, which could get a couple of his siblings an extra ride.

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