I’m helping some friends plan a spring break trip with their 7 year old grandsons. Any advice for touring for grandparents in their late 60s with energetic kids during a very crowded time of year? What are some strategies you’d recommend for structuring the day to cut down on steps and keep everyone from getting too tired, but still give the kids “the full experience”? I want them all to have the best time!
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How many days do they have? Where are they staying? Are they purchasing LLs and ILLs?
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This coming spring break?
Are they people who have been to Disney before and are relatively familiar with things?
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Should be week - nothing on arrival and departure days, 4 park days with a break right in the middle.
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Yes, this coming spring break. Not super familiar with Disney. Relying heavily on info I’m providing.
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I’m also concerned about how they’ll handle MDE and LLMPs. It seems like a nonnegotiable to use LLMPs over spring break, but I don’t know if all the phone stuff will be overwhelming to them on top on navigating the parks.
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Are they onsite? Park hopping? Rope drop will be essential- hitting the major rides at park open. Penny press are cheap souvenirs . Also, they can make an inexpensive light saber at the store near star tours. I’d probably skip character meet and greets unless there is some the kids MUST do. TS meals will eat up a lot of time.
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Yes, I expect them to pick an onsite resort today or tomorrow. They spoke to a Disney Travel agent. I suggested rope dropping, mid day break, back for dinner and evening. But… I’m in a different age bracket. Is this going to be exhausting for them? What would be a reasonable kind of touring plan that won’t make them feel like they missed out if they can’t do All The Things?
I did not suggest park hoppers because I think there’s so much to do in each park as it is. Plus, I think they’re already experiencing sticker shock.
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LlMP is easier then Genie+. You can set up their initial 3 and then give them 3 easy ones for the afternoons. You could even book those remotely.
For walking, keep lands together. MK start in Tomorrowland, doing Fantasy East then a break. For afternoon Frontierland ending in Fantasyland West.
For Epcot I like to split Showcase East and West. Frozen is the best LL to get pre booking. Remy LLs can be found during the day. Will they go back to AK in the afternoon? This could be a good opportunity to have a nice resort character meal or see the entertainment on the Boardwalk. AK, I just plan a big circle with the Safari in the first half of the day before it gets too hot. HS is the hardest park. The park is west side heavy. I would plan it around what LLs they get and definitely plan to do the Indy show. Kids love that.
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It could be. I try to think of MK as the late night park. It’s best to have your rest day right after. And AK is good for a last day park visit. They could push it a little later and just no break. It makes the evening before departure less stressful.
Arrival, Epcot or HS, MK, rest day, Epcot or HS, AK, departure is how I would line up the days.
They should start a walking regimen now. And bring grab and go breakfast foods to make mornings easier. The pools will be busy mid day but that’s a nice way to take a break. Maybe grandparents can take turns napping (if a 1 hour nap would recharge them a bit).
ETA: I would pick which day to do EP and HS with avoid Epcot on Friday and Saturday if possible. F&G is happening and will be more crowded then.
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Thinking about a WDW vacation from their perspective is making me understand the general grumbling about Disney that we read about in articles like the one Len was recently quoted in. It’s quite a shock even for people who are well-travelled but either haven’t been to Disney ever or in a long time. It’s a very steep learning curve and such high pressure to make it magical and worth the cost!
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This is what I was thinking!
I like this too, though I’m wondering if AK is even worth it right now without Dinoland USA. Perhaps 2 MK days would be more valuable for them?
Yep! Definitely avoiding Epcot on the weekend and trying to use the crowd calendar as a guide!
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It is! It’s especially hard since Disney moved to app everything. Make sure they know they can go to guest services and blue umbrellas is they have trouble with things.
Chances are they can’t do it all. But making a list of the top attractions that everyone is interested in and building it around that could help. Also, if doing a TP, add sit down rest spots every hour and a half - 2 hours. This can coincidence with snack/ bathroom breaks. There are a few spots the kids could blow off steam while the g- parents take a break. The play yard in circus area and the camel fountain in Adventureland in MK, Echo lake by the dinosaur in HS, The boneyard should still be open in AK. I would potentially do the petting zoo at Rafikis if time allows. The MJ Trek could be skipped to save on the walking. Pandora is also cool for the kids to explore. In Epcot they have the playground by mission Space, the aquarium in the seas and some open spaces by the china and AA pavilion. Japan has the koi pond.
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Will it be closed by then? I love AK. But it could be better to do 2 days MK (with an early last day MK) if you think that would be better.
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I find it good for the most part. But a couple of points isn’t worth changing plans for.
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Just keep in mind the day wouldn’t be split equally. Mornings will be more productive. Generally 4-5 hours in the front half with a 3 hour break and 3-4 hours in the evening is a very long day.
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I have only been on Dinosaur once and otherwise haven’t done anything else in Dinoland. AK is still definitely worth it!
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Also, Dinosaur gives me back problems, lol.
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In 2019 we had 3 of our great granddaughters - newbies - at Disney for a week. 8, 7 and 5.
Huuricane Dorian’s fly by only messed up one late afternoon/early evening of our plans and the girls didn’t miss it at all with all the other new things they had to experience.
I highly recommend touring 3 hours at a time - in the morning, as early as practical, ideally moving out of the park by 11:30 am and again arriving at a park about 4 and leaving about 7. Which seems early but by the time they’re at their resort, in the room and ready for bed, it’ll be bedtime.
With newbies, less is more. With 7 year olds, this is even more more. 
Our Animal Kingdom morning we did the Safari, the two older girls rode EE with 2 adults (full disclosure we had about 8 adults with the 3 kids), all 3 enjoyed playing the drums, having their faces painted and a 10:30 breakfast at Tusker House after which we went back to our resort for some quiet time. This was our second morning.
Our first morning was MK, opening Adventureland with the Magic Carpets which had the girls screaming in terror. Literally.
We then rode Pirates which was ok. Then Haunted Mansion - again ok. So we tried Splash and Big Thunder - again, ok. 
But no way they were repeating Magic Carpets.
We then had breakfast at Crystal Palace and visited with Tink on the way out and back to the resort.
That afternoon we went to Epcot where we took the Friendship to Morocco for supper at Marrakesh. Then we strolled through France, UK and Canada taking photos with the Eiffel Tower, the red phone booth, the photo cutouts in Canada. We stopped in at the Seas to chat with Crush. And then back to the resort.
Later in the week we had a supper at Akershus with the princesses and stayed late for the night show. Grandma and I had a bench over by the restrooms by the Odyssey
We rested on the bench while the girls stayed close but worked off some energy. Our location was way less congested than the walkway around the Lagoon which eased our minds about keeping an eye on 3 active kids. We had a great view of the show since most of us hadn’t seen it so we didn’t know what we were missing. The other adults were closer to the Lagoon since they were more particular about the view than the girls were.
Our schedule was 2 park days, a water park day - which could be a resort day with grandparents and 2 kids - followed by 2 park days. Our departure day included a character breakfast to bid farewell to all the family members and the World.
One of the sticking points was restrooms. I finally decreed that if anyone had to visit a restroom all the girls had to go.
As for LLs I think it really depends on how internet savvy the grandparents are. I’ve been to Disney 5 times since covid, I think 4 times since LL and have yet to use Lightning Lanes. We usually opened the parks so lines were less. With newbies we didn’t have to do the newest headliners since it was all new. Just think of meandering along a path at AK and seeing a bunch of drums that you could bang on as much as you wanted. You don’t get that every day.
Yikes 
thank you for reading all this 
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WDW is overwhelming, especially for first timers! The learning curve is steep!
You got a lot of excellent advice already here. What they need is for you or any Liner to be Mama/Papa Duck and lead them through their days at WDW! 
Staying on site is a must for convenience for them.
While we can all have great tips, I think you need to ask the grandparents and the grandkids what they hope to do, see, and eat. Afterall, it is their vacation! Knowing these things, you may learn maybe one of the parks isn’t for them.
You also need to know how computer savvy the grandparents and grandkids are. I think LLMPs are a must and depending on their interests, maybe even a couple of LLSPs.
Perhaps you can help out with getting them their first 3 LLMPs. And if they are not that tech savvy, maybe you can help them with LLMPs remotely… But less may be more for them!
I also think HS, while the smallest park, is overwhelming to start with! There are way too many E-ticket rides! If they are going to do all 4 parks I would recommend doing Ep first followed by HS, break, AK followed by MK. MK really should be the first park because it is iconically Disney! But it can be a rough and overwhelming park to start with. And the reason for AK after the break is that they may be exhausted by this point even with the break day before and need a slower paced park before ending it big! Epcot is huge but it isn’t necessary to walk the whole park! For me, Epcot should be a 2 day park with a festival going on! Epcot will be beautiful with Flower and Garden. They can find all the topiaries, try to get a butterfly to land on their fingers at the butterfly garden, and depending on when they are going, there is the Easter Egg scavenger hunt and the bee scavenger hunt.
It may be very hot during Spring Break. An early morning start, lunch and then pool time before a return to the park for dinner and a few more things sound like a good strategy to me! Every park has play areas for kids for unstructured playtime and no standing in line!
For the break day, I wouldn’t really “schedule” anything. Sleeping in and going with the flow of the day sounds good. You can help them with a few recommendations such as pool, resort kid activities, kitchen sink at Beaches and Cream, etc. If Spring Break is the week before Easter, they can go to the Grand Floridian, Contemporary, Beach, and Yacht to check out the chocolate Easter eggs. If they can only do one, I recommend the Grand Floridian. Beach and Yacht Club are next door to each other and easily walkable between the two.
If you have time, give them a loose TP for each day as guidance.
And I’m even longer than @janamelia ! Though she speaks from experience as a grandma and I just speak from how I provide suggestions to people visiting WDW!
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