What should I tell him? First Disney trip, week after New Years, staying off site...no plans yet!

[VAfamily1998]

Short version: My brother, his wife, and daughters (age 8) are going on their first Disney trip the week after New Years. They are staying off site and still haven't booked fast passes, ADRs, etc. He's asking me for advice on what to do while he's there. Any thoughts?

Long version: So my brother is married with twin daughters (age 8) and lives in Texas. My parents live in So. Cal and once when he was visiting them they went to Disneyland. He told me it was so crowded and lines were so long they only stayed a few hours and left. My brother is a VERY kind person, but he is impatient and impulsive--he's definitely not a "laid back, roll with the punches" kind of guy.

My brother has been to Disney World twice; once as a young child in 1984, and another time many years ago with me, I did all the ADR planning and it was before Fast Pass +--so he really doesn't know how far in advance you can plan, and how.

They will be going to parks (they plan to skip Epcot) on January 2, 3, and 4th and since many schools are still on vacation, it is showing as a very high crowd week on all the crowd calendars I see.
Honestly, I'm nervous that this is going to be a disaster. I mean, I get that lots of people don't plan their ADRs and Fast passes in advance. And lots of people stay off site. But those two things, PLUS the fact that it's a "first trip" for most of the group, and it's been YEARS since the other person has been...AND it's during a high crowd time? AND they aren't the type that deal with crowds well?

He's supposed to call me tonight so I can "walk him through" creating a MyDisneyExperience Account and make ADRs and fast Pass reservations. I'm basically going to tell him to pick a few things that are most important to their trip each day (essentially, their fast passes) and just consider everything else to be "bonus." Any other words of wisdom or suggestions?

 

[jsbowl16]

Will they have a car? If they will, then ADRs might not be too bad especially if they are willing to eat at resorts. The DIS just did a dining show on best places to get last minute ADRs. You might want to check that out on youtube.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Will they have a car? If they will, then ADRs might not be too bad especially if they are willing to eat at resorts. The DIS just did a dining show on best places to get last minute ADRs. You might want to check that out on youtube.

Thanks! Yes, they are driving (14 hours!) from home so they will have their car. Good call on resort ADRs--I think they might especially like Sanaa at AKL.

 

[js]

Good luck. I found talking to non planners and ESPECIALLY non Disney planners is like talking to someone that cannot understand the language you are speaking.

We are going January 4-12 and the crowd calender starts at 8-10s and then 5s-6s.
It will feel very crowded and overwhelming to someone without a plan and strategy. I had a friend that had a dh that wanted to go two years ago (they are in their 60s) and she gave me a budget and I booked it as well as my BFF that took her family of four, the wives and two grandchildren.

I printed out a daily schedule with exactly what they wanted to do and how and when they needed to do it. Both talk about and laugh at my directions, but both say they followed it and was so happy they did. I even made all their ADRs.

My family of four with older children went two years ago December 26-January 1 and NEVER stood in a line. If you do a search of my UN maybe you can find my post since I gave a short recap of what we did for someone else. As you know, the make or break for your brother will be that he NEEDS to be at the park an hour before RD to be ahead of all the crowds.

Maybe you can do his Fps and dining once he sets up his MDE on the phone with you and gives you his pw.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Short version: My brother, his wife, and daughters (age 8) are going on their first Disney trip the week after New Years. They are staying off site and still haven't booked fast passes, ADRs, etc. He's asking me for advice on what to do while he's there. Any thoughts?

Long version: So my brother is married with twin daughters (age 8) and lives in Texas. My parents live in So. Cal and once when he was visiting them they went to Disneyland. He told me it was so crowded and lines were so long they only stayed a few hours and left. My brother is a VERY kind person, but he is impatient and impulsive--he's definitely not a "laid back, roll with the punches" kind of guy.

My brother has been to Disney World twice; once as a young child in 1984, and another time many years ago with me, I did all the ADR planning and it was before Fast Pass +--so he really doesn't know how far in advance you can plan, and how.

They will be going to parks (they plan to skip Epcot) on January 2, 3, and 4th and since many schools are still on vacation, it is showing as a very high crowd week on all the crowd calendars I see.
Honestly, I'm nervous that this is going to be a disaster. I mean, I get that lots of people don't plan their ADRs and Fast passes in advance. And lots of people stay off site. But those two things, PLUS the fact that it's a "first trip" for most of the group, and it's been YEARS since the other person has been...AND it's during a high crowd time? AND they aren't the type that deal with crowds well?

He's supposed to call me tonight so I can "walk him through" creating a MyDisneyExperience Account and make ADRs and fast Pass reservations. I'm basically going to tell him to pick a few things that are most important to their trip each day (essentially, their fast passes) and just consider everything else to be "bonus." Any other words of wisdom or suggestions?

I like your strategy. I think boiling it down to their 3 FP+ and one ADR per day in close proximity to where they plan to be is a good plan. I would also walk him through downloading the MDE app on the phone and explaining how to get extra FP+ once the first three are gone (they can go to the FP+ kiosks and ask for help as well) and how to mobile order QS. I think just coming up with a basic plan that incorporates the 3 FP+ and keeps criss-crossing parks and traveling to a minimum is a good idea. I would probably also suggest they get there as close to RD as possible. When coming up with a touring plan, I would also check show times (if they are interested in shows), because those are things they can do without FP+ (Lion King, Nemo, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, etc.) and incorporate those into the plan.

 

[jsbowl16]

We go every summer and because of the heat we do rope drop every day, a short break in the afternoon and then dinner at a resort near the park we are going to that night. After dinner, we go to the park and do our fast passes then. There are people that will argue to do fast passes in the morning to get more but we like having guaranteed rides at night. We usually watch the fireworks at the park we are at and then close down the park. This way they are there the slowest times of the day at rope drop and closing and avoid the busiest part of the day in the afternoon. Not sure if they can do early morning and late nights with a nap mid day but we have found with a six year old that this is the best way for us to experience the parks.

 

[JFox]

I've stopped trying to help people plan their vacations. It's too much effort for someone who doesn't understand the process.

Last person who asked was a co-worker. Disney virgin who was traveling with his siblings. I gave them the full run down. They took none of my advice. Their main complaints were FP+ and too much food. They had the Deluxe Dining package and were in restaurants all day.

Now when people mention to me that they are going to WDW I tell them to have a good trip.

 

[TexasBee]

Good luck.

It took exactly ONE trip for my DH, who is NOT a planner / likes to go with the flow, to realize the benefits of pre-planning Disney. I hope you can talk some sense into your brother. The analogy of comparing "Dis-speak" to a foreign language is a good one! I also agree with the idea that you get him to book some basic must-dos and call everything else gravy.

 

[js]

How did it go OP?

 

[VAfamily1998]

Thank you all! I'm sorry it took me a long time to do an update, it ended up taking us longer to connect (he's not seeing the urgency that I feel! )
Short version: JS you are so right about it being like a foreign language. I think he just isn't hearing what I'm saying about the crowds, how having a plan is a good idea, etc. I emailed him a couple articles I found about crowds, but I think I need to back away a little bit and let him schedule his own trip.

Longer version:
I mentioned making ADRs for any table service restaurants he wants. He said that won't be necessary because they won't do any, it's not worth it with his kids because they are picky eaters and really only like to eat their mom's cooking. They are staying in one of the Marriott vacation properties off site so they will have a full kitchen, and plan to have breakfast in their villa and return back to the villa for dinner each night.
I told him how Disney does allow you to bring in your own food with some restrictions (no glass, no alcohol, no rolling coolers) but he did't think they'd do that either--they'd just get things like hot dogs or chicken nuggets from the quick service places (what happened to only liking mom's cooking?) So I told him about how the phone app has a way of ordering the quick service, but I've never used it myself so he'd have to check it out himself.

Fastpasses--so when I brought that up he started saying how he thought that was really only for people that had a "lot of plans" and know what they want to do, etc. I told him they were free (up to 3 rides in advance) and he was surprised. I guess he thought it was something you had to pay for. So I did a brief explanation about it and REALLY encouraged him to book some. I'm not sure how seriously he took that.
They are definitely not going to be "rope drop" people, and with driving in, parking, the boat/monorail to MK from the TTC, security check, etc. I can easily see it being 10 or 11 am before they even enter the park, which brings me to...

Apparently they will be arriving on December 30 and he thought going to MK on New Years Eve would be a great idea, so his kids could see all the Christmas decorations. I tried explaining the crowds and he just had a casual attitude with "Oh, well we'll just spend some time there and then go back to the hotel for dinner because I'm sure the girls will be tired..." I ended up sending him an article about tiered closings (from the article it looks like on NYE there is some type of tiered closing most years.)
He decided that maybe they'd spend NYE at Crystal River. I'd never heard of Crystal River before, so I looked it up. Actually it sounds gorgeous! It's a city on the gulf coast of Florida about 2 hours away from Orlando--lots of natural beauty and manatees! So maybe that's a good idea for them...it is 2 hours drive back towards the direction they came from...but it does seem nice. I hope that works well for them.

So, as of yesterday he had his tickets purchased, but no fast passes booked yet. I told him to call me if he had questions, and that's all I can really do at this point.
I do wish he had told me of his plans to go to Disney at least 3 months in advance (7 months would be better!)