Christmas week

Hi, I am planning a Disney world trip between Xmas and New Years, I know it’s going to be real busy but it’s one of the only times we can go. Unfortunately it is also our kids first trip. We have two boys, 3 and 6 yrs old. Now I’ve gone ahead and customized a plan for some of our park days for the days that we plan on going but I’ve read that we should be using a holiday touring plan? My question is when you customize a plan to a certain date , would it not take that into account or? We plan on trying to get to the parks 30 to 45 mins before rope drop to help with crowds, we are also staying at music resort in the hopes that it allows us to take a midday lunch break at our resort and then head back out. We will also try and eat at off peak times. Any other tips for the holidays? I hope we didn’t make a mistake by booking this time of year. Thanks!

I think the specialized holiday plans are meant to account for things that the regular TP algorithms can’t on what are literally the busiest days you’ll ever see at WDW (think 10+, with an emphasis on the +… 10 is pretty much the busiest you’ll ever see outside of 12-23-1/1 and maybe a day or two during the week after Easter if that’s a logical spring break time, and those days are different animals altogether) because those re days when the park might actually hit capacity and stop allowing guests in the gates. I also think it might just be a little more experience-based than numbers-based, because there’s only so much the numbers can do in terms of helping you cope with the dense crowds and such.

It’s obviously doable then… there are people who return at that same time year after year by choice. It just takes more planning and more patience.

When you do a custom TP, it knows the date you are planning for, and therefore knows the Crowd Level for that date, so it will take that into account when you Optimize your plan. I don’t think it takes anything else into account, like if it actually Christmas day. I think that’s fairly irrelevant. The crowd level is what matters most, afaik.

Thanks guys, I figured by entering the dates in the custom plan it would account for the crowds once I optimized. It’s when I started reading the faq that they mentioned to use a holiday tour plan and no mention about the custom plans also that I wanted to make sure that a custom plan for these crazy busy days would be similar to the generic family holiday plan. I realize that we may not get everything done but if we even get half of the day plan done with the help of these plans I’ll be happy!

@Josedorego, not sure if you know, but they have an app for iOS & Android that you can use while in the park to re-optimize your TP on the fly. I found that very useful last time I was there! If you get ahead or behind in your schedule, if rides are shut down, you need to take an expected break, whatever… you can re-optimize for the best possible TP at any given moment.

My family will be there for the first time during that week too, with boys 10 and 11.
The thoughts of the crowds are slightly terrifying so I don’t think about it. :wink:
I’ve set my walking speed to the slowed setting on the plan. Not because we’re slow, but just trying to move around is probably going to take longer than normal during that week, plus I don’t mind having a bit of a time buffer!

Don’t panic, at the end of the day the important fact is that you’ll be at disneyworld! :slight_smile:

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Thanks! At the moment we may be the only people who don’t have cellphones, I’ve got a work phone but it’s not android or iOS. I’m hoping to try and put the app on my moms phone, we are also bringing our kids grand parents.

Yeah I’m doing the same with our plans backing off the walking speed. Also our kids and parents aren’t gonna be speed walking. Like you said just remember your in Disney! Expect big crowds and make the best of your time there. Thanks again everyone. Oh also us it just me or do the dining reservations for dinner packages like candlelight dinner or some of the firework dinner packages , become available for reservation at a later date? Or all should be available at 180 day Mark?

If you happen to have an iPod touch or an android tablet (or want to find one cheap on ebay) you can use the app on there as well, since there’s wifi in the parks. I actually used Lines and MDE on my iPod exclusively during our trip last year, which saved the battery on my phone.

And yes, special event packages do release later… my 180 was over a month ago and they still aren’t released.

Good to know! Thanks, We do have an iPad, a little bigger to lug around but it could work. Is lines also the same app that could re calculate our touring plan on the go? Thanks again.

Yes, that’s the Lines app.