Hi, we are first timers arriving to WDW in July, 2 adults and 2 kids, aged 9 and 5. We are staying for 14 nights and I subscribed to TP today in order to help us make the most out of our holiday.
I was looking at the TP on the website but can’t decide which one would be best suited to us? The 5 year old is over 44" in height now, so thrill rides won’t be an issue.
Can anyone advise on which TP we should use? TIA
Your comfort zone will change drastically after you spend a few days here in the forum and you will be doing personalized plans in no time.
As a starting point the Happy Family Two Day plan for MK is good and pretty much everything in the “Fun for the Whole Family” category for all the other parks is good. However, with 14 days you will likely be able to do lots of repeats and you know your family better that any guide so take these as starting points.
All the above is only secondary to the most important rule of all: TAKE MID-DAY BREAKS. I’ve seen young and athletic friends fall to their knees and cry in despair because they thought they could do RD to FW. WDW will chew you and spit you out with little regard to overstuffed plans.
I agree with @SneakyPete. With 14 days, you’d do better to have a slower-paced set of customized plans rather than try to use the existing ones. (You can use those as a start/guide if you want.)
Start by figuring out how many days you want to spend in each park of those 14 days. Then start prioritizing rides. The Tier 1 rides you want most, make sure you plan to tackle LATER in your 14 days so that when you go to get the FPPs, you are “first in line” to get them. (For example, don’t try to get a SDD FPP at 60 days out. Instead, try for it at 60+5 days our or something, when you are far more likely to get it…which means having a HS day at 5 or more days out.)
You might also want to split parks up. For example, let’s say you plan to do 3 days at each park. This means you can focus on Frontierland and Adventureland in one day, Liberty Square and Fantasyland in another day, etc. Not that you can’t overlap…only to make those your focus.
Another option is to make your first day at the each park an “overview” where you hit highlights of everything. Then on subsequent days, focus on the rides you couldn’t get the FPPs for (7DMT, etc), or things that you didn’t want to spend the time on initially for (such as Tom Sawyer’s Island).
As Pete said, though, you need rest time. So make sure you intermingle plenty of resting times, including shows and food in the Air Conditioning! Several of the rides at MK are good resting times as well, since they are long. PeopleMover is like 10 minutes. Splash Mountain I think is 12. It’s A Small World is also over 10 minutes long, etc.
I have used “2-day touring plan for parents with small children” in 2016 (DS8 & DD6) and 2018 (DS10 & DD8) but add or subtract rides to suite our family… which make the plans personalized to you.
With that many days you have plenty of time to get everything done!! I would split each park in half and then plan repeats on the third day of that park. Enjoy planning!! 
I am going to echo what others have said. Start with half day plans. I have kids about the same age and breaking days into half day touring was just right. You have so many days that you really do not need full days of go go go. If you go back out after a break, make it easy. Just go to dinner or a night time show for example. Or a go to a TS breakfast, rest at the resort, and do touring in the evening.
I also try to alternate outside/dark attractions to minimize being in constant sun & heat. I don’t think the touring plans accommodate for this. Being there is July, you may want to consider avoiding mid-day touring altogether. It may seem like you are going to miss out if you leave mid day but you can accomplish so much in the mornings and evenings.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I have already made a personalized TP for day 1, only using Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, incorporating a little bit of Main Street. I set my hours for 9am - 6pm (I have a 8:10am BOG reservation). I admit I may have tried to cram loads into it, so I will go back and take some things out, with more rest in mind especially at midday.
Btw what do SDD and FPP stand for? I only use FP for Fastpass so was wondering what the FPP was.
PS It will be easier once I book my initial Fastpasses at 60 days out then I can add them in.
SDD = Slinky Dog Dash
FPP = FastPass Plus (aka FP, and FP+) All three are used somewhat interchangeably.
What is FP+ ?
FastPass Plus is known here by three abbreviations. FP, FP+, or FPP. You’ll see all three used, but they mean the same thing. However, the reason most people differentiate FP from FPP or FP+ is because the “Plus” part is a modification of the original FastPass system. If you want to talk about the OLD FastPass system versus the new version, you would need to be clear. But generally, if you use FP, FPP, or FP+, it all means the same thing.
As most here say, after a short time on this site you will be ready to do personalized plans.
While I agree in principle with taking afternoon breaks, I realized that I had to abandon that rule in total because there are somethings you might want to see that are only in the afternoon - like the Festival of Fantasy Parade which is at 3pm. I went with a mixture of days. Some start early and include an afternoon break. Some start with lunch and go through the afternoon into the evening. As long as you don’t follow a late night with an early morning you should be fine.
Huh, I thought the most important rule was to make sure to RD to get park time when it’s coolest and most empty. Though I know lots of people swear by midday breaks, too!
We did lots of midday breaks last trip, but this time we’re only doing them on the 2 days that we plan to see the fireworks. For the rest of the days, we’re touring till the early afternoon, and then going back to the hotel for pool time and dinner and an early bedtime.
We don’t take midday breaks, but that’s because we stay off property. The time it would take to get back to our condo/rental for a break and return eats up pretty much what we’d want for a break, so it isn’t much of a break.
Having said that, we also don’t typically stay until closing. We arrive early, but leave around dinner time UNLESS we want to stay late on purpose…in which case, we’ll get into the park later as well.
We always try to make RD…although, we don’t try to be like an hour early for RD or anything like that. Just so we’re there shortly before, we’re good.
The best thing we did was make sure to get DD8 use to the hours before we went. After school let out (2 weeks before vacation) we let her stay up till 9pm to get her use to staying up later and sleeping a bit later in the morning. School schedule was up at 4:45am and in bed by 8pm so felt it helped make vacation more relaxed, and I didn’t have to get up that early lol.
Thanks for all the replies, gives me a few things to consider and is helpful.
Another thing I was wondering was that although I will have created a personalized plan, incorporating my three booked FP’s, I know I will be booking a fourth, fifth and so on while in the parks.
Can these additional FPs then be added into your plan using the Lines app, then have the plan optimised?
Also, if for example the plan’s estimated times aren’t stuck to, (I arrive earlier or later to an attraction) can I then edit the plan then optimise so that its up to date?
Even though we were on property, we found that they didn’t work for us in general. My DS5 ended up at the pool most afternoons, which just wore him out more. He rarely enjoyed the pm touring. The only day that the midday break made a difference for him was the last day, when I forced DS to lay down and lie still till he fell asleep. That was the one night when he was alert enough to really enjoy himself. And stay awake through the fireworks. (How anyone could sleep with fireworks going off boggles my mind, but he managed!)
ETA - YMMV, everyone knows their own family best, etc. DS has some challenges that result in him having reduced stamina. He can tire out rather easily. For a typical family staying onsite, a midday break may be just the ticket.
Yes. You can add as many FPP to your TP as you want. The only issue is you can’t be certain what you’ll Be able to pick up so plan accordingly.
Personally, I wouldn’t plan on additional Fast Passes. Rather, make your plan assuming you do NOT get the Fast Passes…but if you do, you can re-arrange your plan on the fly, maybe squeeze something else in, etc.
We don’t do mid day breaks either, even staying on site. We’re a family of 4 (kids 10 and 6) and went open to close 7 straight days on our last trip. We’re wired that way. It’s different for every family. Probably not a terrible idea to at least plan for them, but I don’t think it’s a hard set rule.
That was November though, so the weather was not draining. Going next month, so we’ll see, but I doubt it will be much different.
I’m not going to add in any FPs to my plan until I know I have my initial three. Once they’re booked I will add them in. But assuming I get my first three, then after using the third I get a fourth while in the park, am I able to add the fourth into my plan using the website or app, so that I can optimize it as and when I please?
The answer is yes, but I imagine when you’re getting 4th and 5th FPs, it’s late enough in the day to where you’re winging it and not sticking to a plan.