Top 7 Walt Disney World Must Sees – Touring Plans Style
The mission of this site is to help you plan a better Disney World vacation. The key word there is “plan,” which those of you with kids know can be quite a struggle. If your children are like mine, their tastes can shift dramatically from the time you leave home until your arrival in your first theme park. Spontaneity can be a key to still enjoying your trip with kids, despite their shifting tastes.
So how do you do that? There’s no easy answer, but let me share my family’s little tip. I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, but it’s our version of the Top 7 Must Sees that you see on the resort TV channel, with the inimitable Stacey Aswad. Depending on the length of our trip, we give everyone in the family a list of must-see attractions, shows or restaurants, and plan the trip from there.
It sounds complicated, but it’s not really. Before we leave (or sometimes in the car ride on the way down) we let the kids know that each of us will get to pick seven must-sees. Think of it like a fantasy draft for Disney World. Picture if you will, a 9 year old boy, his 4 year old sister, and their parents, huddled around the dinner table, paper in hand, ready to pick. So, from our last trip, here was the top seven must sees for each of us:
9 year old boy – Big Thunder Mountain, Spaceship Earth, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Mission: Space, Tower of Terror, O Canada, Lego Imagination Center
4 year old girl – Seas with Nemo and Friends, Journey Into Imagination with Figment, swim time at the pool, Gran Fiesta Tour, Dumbo, Peter Pan’s Flight, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
My wife – Space Mountain, Boulangerie Patisserie in France, Mad Tea Party, ragtime piano at Casey’s Corner, Jungle Cruise, Expedition Everest, Rosa Regale in Italy
Myself – School bread from Norway, Toy Story Mania, Impressions de France, Country Bear Jamboree, dinner at Tangeriene Café
in Morocco, Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover, Soarin’.
So, with that list complete, how do we accomplish the touring plans as set out by this here website? Well, from the list above, we break everything out by parks. Then, we look at what attractions MUST be seen first thing in the morning. That lets us know if we have enough mornings to attack all of these attractions.
Based on the Unofficial Guide, these things have to be done first thing: Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, Expedition Everest and Soarin’. Since this was a 3 day trip, that left us with some work to do. Fastpass to the rescue!
Because Dumbo does not have Fastpass, we knew we had to do a morning at the Magic Kingdom. That meant that Dumbo, Peter Pan, the three mountains, the Mad Tea Party and Buzz were on the docket for one morning, with the hopes of picking up the TTA and Country Bears the same day.
The same goes for Soarin’ and Toy Story Mania. Both of those attractions run out of Fastpasses early in the morning, so we knew that the other two days of our trip had to include mornings at Epcot and the Studios. So, we organized our days accordingly, using the attractions in each park. Since Expedition Everest was the only attraction in Animal Kingdom
we wanted to hit, that was a tough one. We figured we would have to hit that separately and try to either wait in line or grab a Fastpass midday or early evening.
So how did it work? Really well. We managed to spend one day in the Magic Kingdom, doing not only our top rides, but a lot of other attractions as well. The next day we began at the Studios, then moved over to Animal Kingdom quickly before calling it an early night to squeeze in some pool time. Finally, we spent the last full day at Epcot, doing Soarin’, Mission: Space and Spaceship Earth early in the day before a relaxing evening around World Showcase.
The Top 7 Must See plan works really well for our family, because we are repeat visitors, we consult this site and the Unofficial Guide regularly and we have a good idea what we want to do. If you are not a regular visitor, though, it could work well for you because you can get your family to research the rides and figure out what makes sense for you.
Of course, this is just one system. Do you have a system you use (besides our touring plans) to help your family with harmonious touring?
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I’m glad I read your blog entry. On our upcoming trip in early June, we will also have only three park days and want to hit the headliners in all the parks. Our dilemma is how to hit Expedition Everest and Soarin on the same day. We were thinking Extra Magic Morning at AK for Expedition Everest and then head over to Epcot close to park opening. Now, I’m thinking your way may be better. What time did you get to AK, how long was the wait and/or Fast Pass return time for Everest?
Thanks!!!
I am basing this on my observations, not our Touring Plans data, but I think going to Soarin’ first thing in the AM then over to Everest is your best bet.
As far as Fastpass return time/wait time, I honestly don’t remember, but I think I got over to Animal Kingdom around 11 am, and was able to get a Fastpass for 3 pm. Don’t hold me to that, because it depends on the time of day. But your best bet is to get Soarin’ at 9 am or early if Epcot has Morning Extra Magic Hours, then over to Animal Kingdom before lunch. That way, you can grab your Fastpass first, then have lunch, maybe see a show before your ride time.
Thanks so much! I think we will go with your tried and true advice.
That’s a great idea! I always know what the dozen or so things are that I want to see/do on every trip, but the (well-trained) hubby always says, “What ever you’d like to do, dear. I’m just happy to be there with you.” That lasts until we take our first step into a park. I have often abandoned my plans in favor of his last minute asks since I feel guilty about making all the plans and doing what I want to do.
I don’t need to do that anymore. I know now, though, that what I need to do is to make sure we are 1) having at least one dinner at bluezoo or Flying Fish, 2) stop by Mexico to look at pullovers and drink tequila, 3) allow for plenty of time to ride/re-ride Toy Story Mania, 5) let him pick a pearl (or two) for me in Japan, and 4) allow for at least 6 hours of camera-with-tripod-time at the Animal Kingdom. Then he really is happy just to be there with me. 😉
It’s all fun!
It’s funny how “I’m happy to be there” turns into “can we do this?” isn’t it? I’m in the same boat with my wife a lot of times, but I don’t mind it. It’s always good to know what certain things will make your vacation “whole” for you, and have that expectation set ahead of time.
We try to do the same thing with each trip. On an upcoming trip with first timers I’m struggling a bit since this will probably be their only trip to the parks. My kids know they’ll be there other times and we’re going to do things our guests want to do but the guests are having a hard time coming up with things since they’ve never been. The “over the top” planner in me wants to make sure they see as much as possible but are still able to enjoy and relax which can sometimes be a challenge.
Another thing we do is (if the trip allows) spend a couple of days in the parks then we’ll ask everyone if there’s anything we missed or they want to redo and we’ll plan a day around that trying to fit in as many things as time allows.
The re-do day is always a good idea. In one case where I went through a trip with first timers, I tried to give them the highlights of what I thought were the most impressive Disney attractions or restaurants. Cater to their tastes, of course, but also don’t miss some of the big headliner attractions.
For my upcoming WDW trip, I’ve got the luxury of numbers in my favor: 2’s-4’s on the crowd calendar, 7 full days, 2 people total. But I still. must. PLAN! So instead of planning our “must do’s” we’re making our “must NOT do’s” work in our favor. For example, My fave ride at DHS is ToT, which my friend hates. So at rope drop, he’ll get the TSMM fastpasses while I ride ToT and we’ll meet at RnRC. Win/win for all!
That’s another great idea! Knowing not to waste your time on certain rides is important, even with a long time to spend.
We went through a similar exercise on our Spring Break trip. What worked best is that we didn’t miss any true desires since we planned on a daily break because of 10-level crowds.
Great idea to put food and treats on the Top Seven. It’s not all about the attractions, you know, and we’ll definitely expand our method next trip!
Food is always a big part of my vacations, and I find that there’s things I’m always looking forward to eating, and feel like the vacation is incomplete without it. So, I started putting things into the list. It really makes a difference!
Really nice way to do it ! I’ll keep that in mind. My only problem is that I’m the “Disney freak”. And when I bring someone new to WDW, they say “I’ll follow you eye closed” and they don’t wanna plan or check anything before leaving. It is kind of hard to spot their preferences…
I’ve had that experience before as well. I tend to use pre-planning time to show them videos, discuss rides they’ve done in other parks, etc. Sometimes that doesn’t work, but you can usually get a good idea of what people’s tastes are.
Thanks.
we do something very similar and it really does work! We do TOP 5 wishes. after I have decided on which parks what days (normally based on touring plans recomendations too) we sit down and come up w/ the general Must list and if time list. I then ask the family (6 of us-4 kids:3 girls (12-4) and 1 boy (12) to give me their TOP 5 wishes…anything from extra pool time to a special treat! I make sure like you, to make these things priorties in my daily itineraries…of course Dad & I have final say if the wish is something like “fly w/ Tink to start Wishes”…cause they have asked LOL…it really helps keep everyone happy and part of the planning effort. Our last trip we stayed at BLT and my husband had a “1-ride” MK visit on his list. He actually went to MK by himself after the kids were settled to bed and had his MK experience in 1 hour complete w/ 4 rides and a Dole Whip. thanks for continuing to bring fun and inspiration to my Disney planning 🙂
I, too, have done the quick trip after my kids went to bed. It’s kind of fun.
I like how you make it “wishes”. That’s a great idea.