i’ve seen you give this advice time and time again and i tried to avoid it by throwing in those 30 minutes breaks, plus the lunch break. i was not successful! lol. But you’re right, especially dealing with diaper changes, that’ll happen at least every two hours, so it would probably be better to add in more breaks, but shorter ones.
I"m not sure we’ll need more time to eat- unless getting our food takes forever, but i’m hoping to avoid that with QS and mobile ordering. Our kid doesn’t eat too much, and when he’s done, we’re all done, or he gets restless and it’s all downhill from there. Even going out to eat at home with TS as a family, we can be in and out in 40-50 minutes.
I didn’t add in my FPP times because 1) I don’t really know what times to shoot for. I hope to RD, but just in case we don’t make it, i probably don’t want a FPP earlier than 10:00 (side question, what happens if I make one for 9:00 and i don’t manage to tap in? will it count as used or will i not be able to make extra FPPs for the rest of the day?) and 2) Doing things like not adding FPP times and putting the walking speed on “very relaxed,” to me, are all little ways of building in extra time to our TP for things like diaper changes, snacks, extra magical moments, photopass photos, and all those other little things, as opposed to adding in specific extra breaks every couple hours. It allows me to know that i’ll be able to do all these things on this TP at the bare minimum, and most likely, with FPP wait times, even more. Does that make sense? Is there another way to accomplish this same thing that perhaps would work better.
I will go through and bump up eating times by 10 minutes each, and also add in more frequent breaks. I’m looking forward to scheduling my FPPs in two weeks, and maybe i can repost then.
And good to know about the morning show changes! That’s great that you can now RD at the land you want. We can probably do that the second day, since we’ll watch the show the first day.
i haven’t done it before, no. Thank you for the tip! I’m hesitant because of the 3-D glasses- i’m not sure he’d like them and/or keep them on his face, and i’m not sure the value of the movie without them in case he doesn’t want them on his face. When i watch 3D movies without glasses, i tend to get a headache. Though he’d probably be fine… Any insight for me?
Oh yeah…that can be a challenge. My boys have always gotten the 3D glasses thing okay - at least as soon as it starts making sense why they’re needed.If you decide to do it, get some gems for the Ariel scene. I didn’t have them last time so I found some on Amazon for this trip. I’m planning to “catch” a red one this visit.
There’s a picnic table on TSI that is near a pirate ship play thing so it’s a great place to take a rest for awhile.
actually, i did bump up eating times to 60 minutes. you’re right, we don’t want to be rushed or end up behind because i didn’t put in enough time. Plus we’ll be changing diapers during these times and going to the bathroom - it’s not just the time it takes us to eat.
Plans have been updated to include more frequent rest periods, longer eating times, and more time for TSI. I’m still considering getting rid of Belle. I don’t think my son will be into it at all. We go to library reading time every week and they do a march around the room and he never participates- just stares and watches. But I loved doing it my first time, and selfishly want to do it again, plus get some pictures with Belle. I’ll probably end up dropping it, but i’m going to hold onto it for now.
I copied my plans and added pretend FPPs. i like this Day 1 because it has 54 minutes of “free time” after Casey’s Splash area, which accounts for the hour or more i’m planning to spend there anyway. This is one of those attractions that i wish TP would allow you to edit the amount of time you want to be there.
Enchanted tales with Belle takes a long time. And, you’re right that it might not be the most interesting thing to a little boy (but, it depends on the little boy). I did it once with my DD4 and had a great time but did not want to do it again with her as 7 yr old, sent Dad instead. I liked it, it’s just very long.
i loved it! I was picked to be a suit of armor and had so much fun doing so. But Belle is my favorite. I’m pretty positive my son won’t be into it just because he’s not much for participating in things yet. But hopefully in the future
If you notice it’s literally the same sentence. I see the same questions so often that I have my own personal FAQ response document!
I know, for myself, what a big financial investment going on a Disney vacation can be. I’ve had both great & bad trips. I just try to pass along what I’ve learned so others don’t come back upset that they’ve “wasted” thousands of dollars.
I was just checking in before calling it a night. I’ll look over your updates in the morning!
Yes, 75 minutes is better. Those ferries are slooowww so it should give you enough time on the island. My younger son wanted to stay longer so my husband took our older son back to the mainland and they did BTMRR and Splash while DS7 ran around the fort.
Yes, there are two sections to TSI. First part has a picnic table and the ship as well as this floating bridge nightmare thing that rings the top of the island. Second part has an old fort with an escape tunnel. There are bathrooms in both sections.
The gem thing. I think I read about it on here. I’ll try to find the post. But basically there a scene where Ariel throws gems and with the 3D they appear to be reachable. The red gem looks closest or maybe it’s just the most attention getting. You can reach for it and then tell your child you caught it - giving them the red gem you brought.
Found the post. It also mentions other things like bringing a golf ball for Soarin’: Nope - going to have to try this again from the computer, not copying the right link on mobile.
Something to keep in mind…any time you insert a “rest” into a plan, the walking times just before and after the rest are now wrong, due to a bug in TP software. So, for example, you have Dumbo, then rest, then Jungle Cruise. But Dumbo and JC are on opposites of the park…notice it only allocated a minute walk time, instead of what should have been like 10-15 minutes. There are ways to better account for this in your plans.
Instead of inserting a true “break” in the plan, insert an eatery as a stopping point between the two attractions, allocating the amount of time equivalent to the rest time, and add a note indicating this step is only for rest. In doing so, you will get an accurate walking time, plus include the break.
Leave in the break, but increase it to including walking time between attractions (which you can calculate by temporarily moving the rides one after another and evaluating). I’d include a note saying that this break includes X minutes of walking time for reference.
Notice that while you have 15 minutes allocated to Casey Jr., there is then 54 minutes of free time before your “break” at 2:00. So, you might want to find a way to put something else before the break to use up some of that free time, or move your break up so that it is showing up as a proper break. Moving it up to 1:30 (± 30 minutes), for example, and setting it for a 30 minute break will help use some of that free time.
In many ways, I think you may have overdone it with breaks. 60 minutes for the egg roll wagon, then Casey Jr. for 15 minutes, the 54 minutes free time then 15 minutes break time? That’s a LOT of resting.
Mostly, the flaws I’m seeing in the plan is the use of breaks…not that you should have them, but they don’t seem purposely placed nor using the time well (nor accounting for walking time).
thank you for pointing that out! i saw the 54 minutes of free time after Casey’s but i figured that was okay since i essentially plan on spending an hour (at least) there. However, now that i’m looking at it, i see that i essentially only have lunch and Casey’s scheduled from 11:30 until about 2:30. i doubt i will need 3 hours for those two activities! I’d rather have too many breaks than too few, so i might leave it, but now i know that i have that chunk of time to prepare options, whether to ride more rides or tour main street, or… i don’t know. Nap? Thanks again!
My only comment is that Tom Sawyer is not really stroller friendly. Lots of steps, small dark spaces (caves), wonky bridges etc. You would need to carry your youngest around. It might be difficult for a 2 year old to navigate as well.
i’ve seen you give this advice time and time again and i tried to avoid it by throwing in those 30 minutes breaks, plus the lunch break. i was not successful! lol. But you’re right, especially dealing with diaper changes, that’ll happen at least every two hours, so it would probably be better to add in more breaks, but shorter ones.
no complaints! it makes sense