First timers october 2018

[Guest]

Hi everyone!

We will be making our first family trip this year. Myself, my husband and our two daughters aged 4 & 6.

We will only be doing the Disney parks on this trip (saving universal till next time!)

I have put together a rough plan and wanted some opinions please and things i could maybe add or change etc? Would be grateful if you could have a look?

We are staying onsite at Pop Century but do not have the dining plan, just free breakfast.

Arrival day - Arrive at hotel, hopefully get a good nights sleep!

Day 1 - MK - Up early for breakfast at BOG.
Stay at park till mid afternoon then head back to hotel.

Day 2 - Epcot - Up early for breakfast at Akershus.
Stay at park till mid afternoon.

Day 3 - Typhoon Lagoon
Arrive early at waterpark and stay till mid afternoon.
Evening - Possibly go to MK to see Happily Ever After (if girls
not too tired!)

Day 4 - AK
Plan to have a lazy morning by pool then go to AK around
lunchtime and eat at Rainforest cafe. Stay as late as possible.
Rivers of light?

Day 5 - MK
Lazy morning then MK around dinner.
Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique around 4ish
Tea at CRT.
Possibly fireworks if not managed them on day 3.

Day 6 - Pool day!

Day 7 - Hollywood Studios
Pool in morning then park in afternoon into night.
Mama melroses Fantasmic dining package.

Day 8 - Blizzard Beach
Waterpark early then to chill at hotel.

Day 9 - Pool day.

Day 10 - Back to Animal Kingdom.

Day 11 - Pool in day
MNSSHP at night

Day 12 - Hollywood Studios

Day 13 - MK

Day 14 - Hotel then time to go home.

The girls are only young still so we will have to judge how tired they are as to how long we stay in the parks at any time. We will never manage a full day at any of the parks.
I will also have to wait till the dates are announced for MNSSHP and possibly change things around slightly.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

[loves2plan]

Looks good to me

Just in case you're not aware, the free breakfast is actually a free quick service credit that can be used for any meal at any time, in any QS restaurant in the resorts, parks and Disney Springs. Also, there's no difference between an adult and child QS credit, so you can order anything. A lot of meals are big enough to share, especially for children, so you can actually make your QS credits stretch quite a lot

[loldis]

Good to me too. More pool days than I would do, but you could always choose on the day to head into a park on those days if the girls are up to it.

One tiny note is that the waterparks aren't open until 10 so no point heading out early for those.

[Guest]

Aw wow really!?

That's great, didn't know this! Will definitely make use of those!

Thank you so much

[loves2plan]

No problem. I wrote a QS food report last year that you might find useful to read - it includes photos of everything too:
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1013966

Also, QS meals now include alcoholic drinks, smoothies and milkshakes where they're offered, so bear that in mind too

[LexiBantam]

That looks like a really good plan - you're fitting everything in, but not trying to do too much. The one thing I'd look at is Epcot - because you're only going once, make sure you know what you want to see / do (assuming frozen will be on the list!) so you don't need to go back again. Have a lovely holiday!

[Toff Princess]

I personally would get rid of one pool day and add another Epcot day. I went in October 2017 and the weather was not pool day weather 70% of the time. It was actually quite cold, so we only did one visit to waterpark (DS wrapped in a towel the whole time) and 2 hrs by our pool on the one blazing hot day.

Also.. do you have park hopper tickets? Because I notice you don't ever re-enter parks in the same day. Travelling with kids it may get tiring to try do more than 4/5 hours at a time. I tend to take my son for a nap/rest 2pm ish before either re-entering or doing another activity.

I also know this sounds mental but at 4 & 6 that is a lot of walking. I would consider renting a stroller.. 100% for the 4 year old. Park strollers are terrible but you can rent from Orlando Stollers and they deliver and pick up from your resort.

[Guest]

Thank you all for your replies. I’m definitely going to ditch a pool day and do Epcot twice.

Will consider the stroller for my 4 year old, though to be honest we wouldn’t want to be in the park for more than 5 hours at a time I would say.

Was October 2017 cooler than normal weather wise? I thought it averaged around 27/28. Was hoping I’d still get a bit of a tan lol!

[Eccle]

It looks good, and a good decision to do two days in Epcot.

I would agree that you might need a stroller, we don't do long days either but it is still a lot of walking and standing around, my 6 year old was hopping into his little brother's pushchair at every opportunity!

[Hyde1969]

I would also say take a stroller. We went when my son was 5 and he obviously wasn't in it all the time but good in crowds, in heat, parades etc. Even good for putting bags on! Now he is 7 we won't - mostly because his feed would drag along the ground. My experience of October weather is that it's always warm or hot to walk around in but did our pool day on a clear day because it cooled when the sun was in. We only fit in one pool day though because my children range between 7 - 23 and we do Univeral and Seaworld as well. Personally I would consider what you want to do if you find the pool days too many and perhaps book fast passes at a park you may visit just in case you have a change of plan. Also Disney Springs is good to visit when you don't fancy a pool day.