What should I be planning now?

We are a little more than 200 days out from our trip. I have purchased our tickets, reserved our room, planned what ADRs and FFPs we hope to get, and booked our flights. And I did buy the Unofficial Guide book and read/skimmed it front to back. What else should I be doing now? Are there more things I can plan ahead of time? I see many of you talking about “extras”. Are there any “extras” in July that we should definitely be doing? We are a family of 5, I have three boys that will be 14, 11, and 7. I am trying to plan everything out perfectly, but I am very afraid that I am missing something. Please help!! What am I missing???

You could start your touring plans but you don’t need to. Personally I never pay for anything extra - it costs enough for the basics! To me it sounds like you’re ahead of the game to be honest. It’s going to be great!

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Nope, you’re not missing anything. If there are certain extras that might interest your family (EMM or dessert parties for example) you could keep an eye out for them to be released. You could start your TPs (I always do but that’s me, lol). Other than that, I’d just keep scanning the boards. You’ll continuously pick up on things that will be helpful :slight_smile:

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You’re really in a “holding pattern” for the next 20 days until it’s time to book your ADRs. You could “play around with” TPs, but I don’t consider anything as being even roughly “realistic” until about 30 days out.

As for “extras”, it really comes down to what interests you and what your budget is.

Now is a good time to catch up on some movies to re-familiarize yourself with the story lines.
A free extra that your youngest might be interested in (the other two will pretend to not be interested, but they won’t be fooling anyone) is Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

The “holding phase” is going to drive my crazy…I’m beginning to worry that all my excitement leading up to the trip might leave the trip “lacking” in some way.

We don’t have a strict budget. We are not planning to go back with the whole family again…once my oldest is in high school it will be harder and harder to get away without interfering with sports. So I want this trip to included everything we will want to do.

I’m looking into the Wild Africa Trek at AK. And I’m planning to buy the extra club level fastpasses, but other than that I hadn’t planned on extras. I didn’t even know about After Hours until reading these posts. That is why I’m worried I will miss something.

I have 3 boys as well, a little younger than yours. I don’t think you are missing anything without the extras. We did do the HEA dessert party in May 2018, due to seeing it for the first time, my claustrophobia with that large of a crowd, and my kids being 9 and 6 and not being able to see over adults. We don’t plan on doing this next trip. Other than that, we didn’t do any other extras and had a blast.

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I’d be checking EMH patterns to help with adr planning, if needed. It might help guide you on which parks for which days if you plan on either avoiding or taking part of emh when offered.

Just a thought. It’s a big part of our planning. Might not be an issue for others.