Plans for Mornings Only with Young Children

Walt Disney World Touring Plans
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Hello everyone! We are taking our children (ages 2 and 4) to WDW and I am wondering – are there are plans for visiting the parks in the mornings only? I am looking for a plan that basically says, “If you want to visit everything in the MK for preschoolers/toddlers, here’s a route that works over the course of 4 mornings.”

I’m thinking that we’ll aim to be at the parks for rope drop and stay until 1 or 2pm, and then return to our hotel for naps. After nap, we may go back into the Parks but I think it’s just as likely that we’d just go to dinner, chill at the hotel pool, etc.

Anyone have a good plan to share? Or can you guide me on how to put this together?

THANKS!

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Kids that age can be funny about what they do or don’t want to do. I would probably suggest making a personalized plan and selecting the rides and items that you are mostly likely going to want to do. New Fantasyland/Fantasyland is likely where you’ll spend most of your time. How familiar are you with the parks? Is that the only park you’ll be visiting?

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I always do a personalized touring plan. I would set your walking speed to slow and maybe add in some breaks to account for bathroom breaks and just looking around. When my kids were that age they enjoyed things like watching the ducks and hanging out in the play areas more than the rides. I’d focus on just enjoying their reactions more than getting everything done. It is fun to watch kids of that age. Have fun!

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There ARE TPs for families with small children; you might be able to use that as a starting point for customization. But I think @JustKeepSmiling has good advice.

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We went with our 4 and 2 year olds this past February. We only had 2 park days so we spent a day (Rope Drop until about 2pm?) at Hollywood Studios and another day at Magic Kingdom. We were lucky to be at MK on a crowd level 3 or 4 day so we hit the majority of the attactions in the morning. We started in the left side of the park (Adventureland) and made it over to FantasyLand around 1pm (with a stop for lunch around 11:30). I will see if I can find a link to our touring plans and post them for you - we made one TP for the morning and another for the afternoon. We didn’t follow them exactly but they were more of a guide for what we wanted to see and how much we could feasibly get done in just a few hours. We had a very slow walking pace and my kids were free to run around and explore rather than following a tight schedule and rushing from ride to ride. We ended up getting on WAY more rides than our morning TP listed. We headed back to the resort for a swim/nap around 2pm. We were staying at BLT (so a 10 minute walk to and from) so headed back to MK around 530. We did a couple quick rides in Tomorrowland, ate dinner at Cosmic Rays, then caught the electrical parade and Wishes.

My kids weren’t interested (and/or were too small) for the big coasters so we skipped those - and I think that is where most people get caught up in lines. Again, we were lucky to have low crowds and most of the big rides weren’t options so that helped us have an easy day!

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Thanks for the feedback, everyone! And egkleinmann, I’d love to see your TPs. That sounds like what we have in mind. We’re staying at the Poly Villas - so, not too far from MK.

We have a 7-night stay (beginning on Nov 11) and I expect we’ll also try to visit Hollywood Studios (I have a Cars fan), as well as AK.

I think what’s tricky for me is figuring out how the character visits, rides, and show times all sync up – and then how we want to make our ADRs. Phew.

My goal is really to just to give my kids a relaxed, fun time. I’m hoping that a little advance planning will keep us from rushing from one thing to another!

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Here are the links to the TPs that I created:
Morning: Disney World Touring Plans
Evening: Disney World Touring Plans

Hopefully you are able to open! I pretty much started them from scratch as opposed to using one of the templates. In doing so, I was able to select only the rides that my kids would be interested in. Having a relaxed vacation was our goal too. I more or less followed the morning TP until lunch but we were all in such good moods that we decided to stay in the park for a bit longer. From lunch, we headed over towards It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, etc. and got all of those rides in that area done before heading back for a nap.

And, like I mentioned, the TPs were more of a guildline for what I could expect to get done and what wait times might look like.

You will have a blast regardless!

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This is what we do, with boys 4/2 first trip, 5/3 second trip.
Our plans look like this:

Day 1: Buzz, TS, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Ariel’s Grotto, UTS, PP(FPP), IASW, early lunch at Pinocchiohaus, ETwB(FPP), teacups, 2nd Buzz (FPP), then back to hotel. Get 4th FPP before leaving in case we want it later.

Day 2: Fantasyland favourites (Usually Buzz, TS, Winnie the Pooh, PP, whatever they want to rerun from prior day that’s going to get a long line later, and PP FPP for 9-10 am) then meet Chip and Dale in Frontierland, Country bears, snack (e.g. Dole Whip @ Aloha Isle), JC(FPP approx 1015-11:15), Aladdin’s carpets, Swiss Family Treehouse (their favourite thing ever), lunch at Casey’s, and maybe Buzz for 3rd FPP before leaving park. Make 4th FPP for later, just in case.

If my kids weren’t chicken, I’d add Barnstormer and 7DMT into fantasyland, and Pirates, BTMRR, Splash, HM into day 2 after JC.

We haven’t taken the Walt Disney Railroad around the park before, but I think we’ll have to put that into our next plan. Would probably add this in after Chip and Dale on day 2. The part from Frontierland to Fantasyland is the best.

Pirates and HM a bit creepy for them.

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Hi egkleinmann - Thank you so much for the links but I can’t open them. :disappointed: I like the way you organized your days and I’m going to try to follow your lead!

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Unless your 4-year-old is already averse to coasters, I’d plan for 7DMT (if you can get a FP), Barnstormer, and BTMRR if he/she’s tall enough. They’re all great “first” coasters, and you can do Rider Swap with the 2yo so your 4yo will get to ride twice.

In general, I would just break up the park by Lands based on how many mornings you want to go to MK. I find it easier to tour that way with young kids, so you aren’t running all over the park. Fantasyland has the most preschooler-friendly attractions, and the most attractions in general, so you may find it takes you two mornings to see them all. You can probably see the whole left side of the park (Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square) in one morning, especially if you’re skipping the Mountains.