If you've been following my Disney Planning Series, then you know that during my Part 2 post (HERE), I gave you a timeline for how I like to plan my trip. Now, we are going to actually start the planning process - hip, hip, hooray!
Alright, as of today, we are 7-8 months out from out vacation, so in this post we are going to work through our 8-10 Months Out planning bullet list - which is only one item but it's a long one.
8-10 Months Out
Like I said, prepare yourself because this is going to be a long post. If you have a favorite coffee or slow-sipping drink, grab it now and get ready with a pen and paper. Let's jump in!
- Start prepping itinerary for the dates selected; this is a rough draft and will be changed once FastPass selections are made. This just allows you to pre-plan must-do rides, must-see shows/attractions, and figure out a route outline for the parks. Try to print out maps of the parks and start getting familiar with where certain rides/restaurants are so that when you go, you will know exactly where to find these things.
First, I start by prepping my itinerary by heading to Word. If I'm being totally honest, I write everything down first. I used two pages to write down our "wants/plans."
Typically, I'll write the dates and rough-draft the order in which I want to attend the parks. We keep Magic Kingdom last because it's the longest and most important - to us.
Here's how I structure the pages:
Day, Month, Park and then below that I list our must-do rides/attractions and put FP by them if they have FP availability and *FP if they are a FastPass option that typically goes quickly or is very popular.Example:
Monday, August 31 - Hollywood Studios
Rides:
FP - Lighting McQueen Racing Academy
*FP - Toy Story Mania
Runaway Railyard
FP - Alien Saucers (32")
*FP - Slinky Dog Dash (32")
Rise of the Resistance (40")
side note: Rise of the Resistance does not have FP option at this current time, however they may have FP option soon so if this one is on your list, just know it will definitely be a *FP option!
Meet & Greets:
Woody
Buzz
Other:
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
First Time in Forever
I do this for each park. I include height requirements so that I can remind myself to check to ensure my children are able to ride them, otherwise, I'll need to prepare for who can/can't ride and if I will fill the non-rider's time with an activity while we wait. This is especially important if you have a child who isn't interested in standing around waiting for their sibling to ride. I recommend looking at the different activities - for example, let's say my youngest can't ride Alien Saucers and the line wait is about 10-15 mins. I might head over to where the Green Army-men will be performing to allow my youngest a chance to dance, watch, play, etc. You could even go ahead and start waiting in another longer line like the Woody/Buzz meet-and-greet line. Just let your family/friends know to meet you there after they get off the ride. If you make it to the front of the line before your family/friends arrive, just let the Cast Member know that you are waiting and ask if others can go ahead of you until they do arrive. Most Cast Members will oblige - after all it's called "Disney Magic" for a reason.
Once I've done this for each park, I then start looking at restaurants. We have opted for Quick Service dining again this year because it just works out for us, so I like to get an idea of new places we haven't tried, but I always make sure that they have the option for mobile ordering. Otherwise, if they do not have mobile ordering, I will need to plan for us to have some time to order, wait for food to be made, and then either sit and eat, or continue on walking so long as it is a meal that is easily walk-and-eat.
I will also start printing maps for each park out and routing our plans to get an idea of where everything is. I highlight each ride, attraction, meet/greet, and restaurant that is on our list, as this will be a major help once we have our Fast Pass reservations booked. This is also very helpful for those with Table Service restaurants where you want to sit down and eat. Advice: if you are going to opt for the Table Service dining plan, then try to pick a restaurant that is either close to the ride you will have just gotten off of or close to the ride you are heading to. Remember that Table Service restaurants require reservations and some of the very popular ones go very quickly. Once you have the availability to book the Table Service reservations, you need to ensure you add those into your plans - we will discuss this more as we get closer to the 180 day mark.
Want a glimpse into my rough-draft? Take a look below!
I blacked out our dates for security purposes.
Below the image, I listed our top 3 restaurants to eat at per park - these each have mobile ordering. Keep in mind, with mobile ordering, you can easily order your food on the app, then skip the main line by heading to the mobile order pick-up line - which means you can either keep walking while you eat, find a cool place other than the restaurant to sit and eat, example: waiting for the parade, get first row seating, or have a member of your group grab a table while one person grabs the food. Mobile ordering is just so convenient.
in order by park per my plans above
Hollywood Studios
1) Docking Bay 7
2) Woody's Lunch Box
3) Backlot Express
Epcot
1) Electric Umbrella - only mobile restaurant
Animal Kingdom
1) Restaurantosaurus
2) Flmae Tree Barbecue
3) Satu'li Canteen
Magic Kingdom
1) Tomorrowland Terrace
2) Casey's Corner
3) Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
Stay tuned, Part 4 of the series will discuss planning 8-7 Months Out!