I have always thought that there should be Disney on site camps for people to send their kids to. Chaperoned etc, like school trips. Is that a thing? They could make a fortune. Parents can go to the beach and sip pina coladas.
I suggest getting in the parks as early as you can every day. One way to do this if you are not staying on resort propoerty is to go to character breakfasts. You need to reserve in advance but get on the property early. Spend 4-5 hours in the park then head back to your hotel for lunch and a pool break. Then head back to the parks for the parades and fireworks.
Definitely recommend doing fastpasses in advance for some rides it’s IMPOSSIBLE to get on unless you’re there the second it opens or the last ride before it closes. The the whole Pandora World in Animal kingdom is ridiculous. So is snow whites mine train in Magic Kingdom for some reason.
In terms of eating, we did meal plans for both of our trips - first trip girls were young elementary, and our last trip this past summer they were in high school. By the time we made our last trip, we were able to plan a lot more online. And, like was said above, you need to plan to get the most out of your trip.
We did counter service for breakfast, used a snack for lunch and then did a sit-down service for dinner. Dinners were always at Epcot.
Do NOT leave Disney without having dinner at Canada - known for their filet. And that comes from a vegetarian, so you’ll have to trust what the carnivores told me 
We were less impressed with dinner in Mexico. Italy was okay, but I am Italian and grew up with homestyle food and it was more gourmet. We also like dinner in China, but it was definitely busy.
When/if you book dinners, book them ASAP from when your 90 day window starts (if you are staying at the resort). We booked the first day, and ended up at 2 p.m. in Canada. The rest were around the usual dinner time.
If you stay at a resort site, everything opens 90 days before your trip including dinner reservations and Fast Passes. If not, I think it’s more like 30 days. So staying at the resort does come with some perks, including pretty decent transportation among the parks. We stayed at Port Orleans/Riverside both times … they were a little farther out, which sometimes made the buses crowded, but it was nice to get away from the hullabaloo.
Also, we did a park a day, and ended our day with dinner at Epcot.
We’d go early (some parks have “Magic Hours” where they open earlier for on-site guests) and stay till we were tired. We’d go back to the resort to relax, and then head out for dinner.
We were careful to not pack so much into our days that they became forced marches. Getting to the park at 8-9 a.m., we were about done by lunch. Disney is very expensive and there is the temptation to “get your money’s worth” but you also want to enjoy it, too.
The trips were very different based on the ages involved. We did much different things the first trip than the second. The first trip we did dinner at Cinderella’s Castle - the food was average, but you do that one for the experience not the food. The second trip they loaded up on rollercoasters. So, really, Disney has something for all ages.
We probably won’t go again until we have grandchildren.
Bring reusable water bottles for everyone in the family. We bought ones with straps so we could wear them on our shoulder. Fill them at night and freeze in the hotel mini fridge or fill with ice. And buy snacks at a grocery store when you land, and bring them in a small backpack into the park. .
We’ve been going to Disney World 1-2 times a year for the last 20 years. I’m sending you a pm.
How old is your grandson?
Some general thoughts on your situation, given where you are staying and how many days you have at the parks:
- Since you only have 2 days there, don't bother going all the way back to your hotel. Just stay at the park all day.
- If your grandson is age 6 or less, rent a stroller. It will help him last longer and when he's tired, he can plop down in the stroller and rest or take a nap yet still remain mobile.
- you can rent a stroller at the park or you can rent one through an outside company which will deliver it to your hotel and pick it up at the hotel at the end of your vacation. https://www.orlandostrollerrentals.com, for example.
- Don't bother trying to park hop on a 2-day trip.
- Don't try to see everything. You also won't have time to go see all 4 parks, but that's ok.
- Have everybody in your group pick the #1 thing that they want to do, see, or go on for the 2-day visit and try to do that stuff on day 1. This way, if a ride breaks down, you still have time on Day 2 to do it.
- If the #1 thing that somebody wants to do is do a character meet & greet, then you can often use a Fast Pass (FP) for that or you might luck out and be able to see that character at a character meal (those are expensive).
- Choose WHICH days you go to which parks wisely. For example, don't start at Magic Kingdom on a day where all of the "on site hotel guests" get Extra Magic Hour entry into Magic Kingdom. Go to a different park that day.
- if your grandson is young and will likely get overwhelmed 2 days in a row at WDW, consider taking a day off in between day 1 and day 2. Make it a pool day at Bonnet Creek, for example. Get the kiddo to bed early and then it's off to the races for WDW Day 2.
- Re: #6 - the attitude that everybody in the group should have is that once you've gotten to do your #1 thing, EVERYTHING ELSE ON THE TRIP IS ICING ON THE CAKE!
- Download the app that everybody has mentioned. It will have ride wait times. That's a life saver.
READER’S DIGEST SUMMARY OF HOW FP+ WORKS AT WDW:
I’ll put this in my next reply.
READER’S DIGEST SUMMARY OF HOW FP+ WORKS AT WDW:
Each park guest can make 3 Fast Pass+ reservations in advance before they even get to WDW. But WHEN you can make those FP+ reservations differs based on where you are staying.
- guests staying at a WDW property can make FP+ reservations 60 days in advance.
- guests NOT staying at a WDW property can make FP+ reservations 30 days in advance.
How do you book the FP+ reservations for attractions & character meet & greets? Online. Either through the website or through the app on your smart phone.
You can ONLY book 3 FP attractions ahead of time.
From what I understand, once you’ve used all of those FP+ at the park, then you can get FPs for other attractions either at that same park or other parks. You can do this through the smart phone app or through kiosks that are in the parks. But the kiosks are only in certain locations.
There is wifi available, from what I’ve read, so that makes it easier if your phone plan has limited data or if you’re going to WDW from outside the US and you have to pay exorbitant rates by the minute for data.
At some parks, there are different “tiers” of FP. This applies to Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.
FP ATTRACTIONS AT MAGIC KINGDOM:
Barnstormer
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear
Dumbo
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Haunted Mansion
It’s a small world
Jungle Cruise
Mad Tea Party
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Winnie the Pooh
Ariel meet & greet
meet princesses at Fairytale Hall
Mickey Mouse meet & greet in Town Square Theater
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Monsters, inc
Peter Pan’s Flight
7 Dwarfs Mine Train - this one is popular
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Tomorrowland Speedway
Little Mermaid
So, for example, you can only reserve FP+ for 3 OF THOSE ahead of time.
Choose wisely based on when you think you’ll get to the parks, when your grandson probably naps (and consider whether or not you’re travelling to WDW from a different time zone because young kids can sometimes have difficulty adjusting to a new time zone), when he usually eats lunch, etc.
If you’re not taking a break back at the hotel, use the busy part of the day for shopping, exploring, and going to see shows. And this is where you’d use the WDW app on your smart phone to pick rides with shorter wait times.
If your grandson is not tall enough to go on certain rides and the adults want to go on it, you can ask for a Child Swap pass. Look on 1 of the websites mentioned earlier in this thread and you’ll find info about how it works.
The WDW app is also very helpful because it has a map with all of the bathroom locations, which can be helpful if your grandson is still in diapers or is newly potty trained or if he’s just 1 of those kids who doesn’t announce that he has to use the bathroom until it’s an emergency and it’s almost about to come out. LOL!
Hope you have a wonderful time!!!
So I planned an entire week of DW parks using touringplans. You can book your FP and then go to TP and put where and when. You can also pick what you want to do and it will schedule you around the FPs and the times you say you will be at the park. We actually did MK in 2 days. It’s a lot to see in one day. The other parks one day was enough. But we used the FP for the most in demand rides. TP will also give you a crowd calendar to use to determine which days will be less busy at which parks. It’s accurate. It will spit out a plan for the entire day, telling you where to go when. They also have live feeds telling you the waits. We stayed ahead of the plan for every park.
Caveat: I am very analytical by nature. So when I say planned…I mean to the minute. We got there before the parks opened. We stood at the front and we made a beeline to the first stop on our plan. My kids told me it wouldn’t work. About 3 rides in, I told them we were 3 minutes ahead of schedule. Needless to say, we saw and did everything we wanted to do, and even finished MK early on the second day and went to a water park. Mind you, we are amusement park junkies, with the capacity to both open and close a park on the same day. Our kids are troopers and love it just as much. The pace can be unsettling though for the faint of heart, but you can edit that with TP telling it how much rest, etc. you want.
Touringplans look something like this:
get there 8am
first ride Pirates of the Caribbean, wait 10 minutes, ride 4 minutes, walk to next ride, 5 minutes
second ride haunted mansion, wait 15 minutes…etc.
Then it will tell you when you have lunch and breaks…
I liked it because once I realized it was working, it put me at ease that we’d get to do everything, and we did.
Long, long ago I planned a trip to Disney using a touring plan from the Unofficial Guide to Disney World. Before fast passes and cell phone apps. It definitely was almost down to the minute–where to go when, when to eat (and where and even what line to stand in to get your food). It was wonderful.
My husband would get in a food line and I’d be there saying “but the book says we’re supposed to go around the corner to line 4” He’d look cross-eyed at me but I’d made him promise to let me do my thing. And line 4 would have two people in it rather than 20 (now that felt like real magic!).
My advice: If you go to the trouble (and it can feel like real work!) to plan your visit so meticulously --(and you should for fun’s sake) don’t let any naysayers derail the plan. A lot of the plans are based on times of day (and show times etc) so putting things off by an hour or two will find you standing in a long line.
Have fun!
SO in my wheelhouse!!!
There’s no longer any such a thing as regular fastpass.
Here’s how FP+ works: you get up to 3 chances per day, all in the same park, to reserve a spot in the faster line. Here’s a pretty good step by step: https://www.undercovertourist.com/blog/how-to-use-fastpass-plus-disney-world/
I believe that you are eligible to book Fast Passes 60 days in advance and to go to Extra Magic Hours in the park, if you are staying at Bonnet Creek, based on this source:
https://wdwnt.com/2017/12/confirmed-non-disney-resorts-adding-fastpass-60-day-booking-window-extra-magic-hours-2018/
The Hilton Orlando was advertising this feature when we were there a month ago. If you check with your hotel, they can confirm it (or not), and assist you with the Fast Pass reservations.
Sorry, it looks as though Bonnet Creek resorts are not actually included in the deal. I don’t understand that, based on location. The hotels on Hotel Plaza Boulevard are further from the parks than the Bonnet Creek resorts. It may be that their land is owned by Disney, or the hotels may have made some deal to become “Official Walt Disney World Hotels.” Now I am so confused!
Have to agree with everyone who said check out the disboards and that’s all I’ll say on that. Just wanted to say you’ll love Bonnet Creek. We stayed there last May and loved it! It was so great to be on property but technically off in terms of cost. Have a great time and try to have fun planning, but ya, make sure you plan!!
@Onward If it comes to the point where the planning starts ruining the fun, then back off of it.
We planned on a less busy time & I did check to see which parks were less busy on certain days.
We did one park per day. Pick the ones you really want to see. None of us liked Epcot, all loved Animal Kingdom.
We stayed as long as we felt, then left for the day. Always ate supper away from the parks.
We never used fast passes, or did character meals. Seemed like a lot of work/expense & joy killing.
We ended up not seeing everything, and you really can’t anyway in one trip, so don’t try to.
We enjoyed every minute we were there w/ just basic planning. Enjoy.
You should also check out the DIS Unplugged WDW podcast. They broadcast it online every Tuesday (it’s a video broadcast). But you can also download it off of iTunes and listen to it. It’s very informative and includes information about upcoming changes and other stuff going on at WDW.
http://www.disunplugged.com/category/orlando-podcast-episodes/
Their podcast is sponsored by Dreams Unlimited Travel, which is the travel co. that runs the Disboards website.
Disboards is THE reason why our family has thoroughly enjoyed our Disney vacations. Everyone there has always been really helpful in my experience.
When it comes to a Disney vacation, you can plan it out to the max (I’ve done it this way a few times using something very similar to touringplans.com) OR you can go the do-it-yourself route and still have an equally enjoyable time.
But THE best way to have a miserable time is to just show up and not have any general idea of what you want to do, what you want to see, who you want to meet, or where you want to eat.
Disboards is the way I found out by accident before 1 Disneyland trip that at Coke Corner every afternoon, Alice and the Mad Hatter play musical chairs with children. Usually around 3pm-ish, but you have to ask a Cast Member at Coke Corner to confirm the time. It’s wonderful to just sit and watch it.
Disboards is also how I learned prior to that same Disneyland trip about the roaming characters and how you can literally just bump into Peter Pan and how he’ll play games like hide & seek with kids. It’s a magical thing to see.
I hope you have an amazing time with your grandson! Going to a Disney park with a child is a lot of fun!!
Here’s my biggest tip: don’t give any one ride, show or event the power to “make” your vacation. Let’s say you have a fastpass to see, I don’t know-- Rivers of Light or something. But your grandson is tired, his feet hurt, and he’s dying to go night swimming.
Go night swimming.
I know-- you may never get back to WDW again, not while he’s so young…
But you can only have as good a time as the least happy person. If someone in your party is tired, hungry, hot or whatever, he or she will be miserable. And soon everyone else will be as well. Be willing to sacrifice some small – or large-- thing you had planned in order to keep everyone enjoying their vacation.
Nope, you may never see that show. But you’ll look back at your vacation fondly.
For counter service meals, use the mobile ordering option. You can order your food on your way to the restaurant and pay for it with a credit card, then walk right up and get it. It saved us half an hour at Pecos Bills and more than that at a couple of other places in December.
Also, to get the 4th and additional fast passes, you can get them as soon as you tap into the line for your last fast pass ride. So as you are walking to get onto the ride, you can already reserve the next fast pass, rather than waiting til you get off the ride.
Do not pay for water at the parks. If you ask at any counter that sells soda fountain drinks, they will give you a cup of ice water for free. They cannot fill water bottles because of sanitation laws, but they will give you a cup and you can then refill your own.
We tried to stay calm and “loose” without over-planning and have always enjoyed our time at Disneyland well that way. We don’t do well with too much scheduling. Of course others have methods that work for them. We tried to go at shoulder seasoning so it wasn’t so crowded or hot.
Actually, have been to Epcot but never Disneyworld. Lots of SRs on scooters in Epcot. Beware as they don’t always look out for others.