Walt Disney World overwhelmed!

I have a few questions
I have a 3 yr old/ 9yr old & 8yr old (never been to Disney before)

  1. If I use the touring plans will it allow me to take brakes to look at things?
  2. The book"Unofficial Guide to Disney w/kids" says the best touring plans are in the back of the book. However, Those plans don’t allow for breaks. I am assuming those plans are going from ride to ride without stopping. That cant be realistic going to WDW for the first time.

So those plans do not include breaks. To include time to explore, you can start with one of those plans and then personalize it by adding your own break/rest time. You can also adjust the walking speed so that you don’t feel like you are zooming from place to place. Finally, take a look at all the options of things you can add to your touring plan under “add attraction”. There are lots of areas to explore on that list too - for example, in Epcot, each country’s pavilion can be added to your plan for time to explore.

Lastly, even having been before and going with just my husband, my intent is to treat my plan like a guideline - place to start. If we decide to skip something, spend more time somewhere than we planned or come back to something later, that’s up to us.

Hope that helps! Enjoy planning your first trip. You’ve got a great community here who will be happy to help!

By its nature, touring plans are designed to get you on to as many rides/attractions as quickly as possible. If this is your first trip I’d recommend figuring out what you want to do/see, then create a touring plan to check if it’s possible (they account for wait times, ride times, and walking times). I usually set walking to slowest pace and give reduced walking priority over reduced wait times. Disney trips with small kids are much more enjoyable when you focus on the things you get to do and not the things you’re ‘missing out on’. This forum and the chat on the Lines app are terrific sources of info/advice to help you prioritize!

I agree with those that came before me. :slight_smile: Use the touring plans in the book as a guide, prioritize what areas in each park you really want to explore- Fantasy Land and Adventureland over Tomorrow land for example- and build your own plan around those. You can customize your plan by saying what time you plan to start and end your day, and adding only the attractions that are on your MUST see/do list. This will force the plan to create break times in for you, especially if you have what it considers too few items over a six or eight hour period.

Also, don’t be afraid to take a break out of the park at your hotel if you think that would be beneficial for your and your littles. You can create half day touring plans (one from 8-12 and another from 4-9 for example) so that you can go back to the room and nap/swim/decompress from all of the action. The first day or so that I was there last year I felt overwhelmed by all that goes on in the park, and I’m a grown up who LOVES Disney.