Honey, I can get cheap airfare, want to go to WDW with our toddlers? PTR Oct 09 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Tentative Park Plans or Should we commit sacrilege and go to Seaworld one day?
When I originally got this hair brained scheme into my head, I thought about venturing out into other parts of Orlando. Namely, Seaworld. Sacrilege, I know, please don’t stone me! I know ds would love to see the marine life. Shamu jumping out of the water would definitely incite squeals of joy.
So I did some internet surfing and found out the cost of one day at Seaworld is $75! Yikes, that is just park entrance. For one person!! Yikes! Which would be on top of Disney park tickets. After deliberating, I have come to the conclusion that it just isn’t in the cards for this trip. I think we will have enough to do with just the 4 Disney Parks in what amounts to 4 full days. Now I am really wishing I would have not been quite so hasty in making my plane reservations.
So, my tentative plans, based on preliminary research, are
Sunday
Arrive at MCO around lunch time
Eat lunch, probably fast food somewhere
Get rental car
Check into POP
Magic Kingdom, with ADR for Crystal Palace or Plaza or Tony’s
Note: This plan has no provision for a nap. Not sure how this is going to work since we might not have a room ready when we get there. Maybe the kids will sleep on the plane and we won’t need a nap? That’s probably wishing full thinking on my part, but I think we are just going to have to wing it that day.
Monday
Hollywood Studios
Lunch at Hollywood & Vine
Not sure about dinner
Tuesday
Magic Kingdom
CS for lunch
Dinner at either Plaza, Crystal Palace or Tony’s
Wednesday
Epcot
Lunch or Dinner at Le Cellier
CS for either lunch or dinner
Thursday
Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Tusker House
CS for lunch
Dinner somewhere with my Aunt, more on that later
Friday
No plan, just go home
We do plan on going back to the resort for naps everyday. My fear is that with the days that are recommended by several guidebooks, it seems to put us in the parks on the days with shorter hours. Are we going to miss out on stuff because the parks are open shorter hours and we are going to be trying to fit in a nap. If we don’t fit in the nap, I know at some point my kids will hit the wall and we will have to leave. But, if we go to the parks on the days with longer hours, are we going to run into crowds and that will offset the longer hours. Maybe I am overthinking it?
The other thing I have been turning over and over in my mind are the “Other Parks,” meaning HS, AK and Epcot. There doesn’t seem to be as many things that I have earmarked to do there compared to MK. We don’t have the park hoppers. Originally I had thought it would be too much on our relatively short trip to utilize park hoppers. But, what if we get done with all of our must dos and want to hop back to MK?
Note: I know I have posted a ton of updates today, but I am trying to get this report more caught up on things I have already done since I started planning. Plus, I have no patience to wait days between postings if I already have the stuff written down. This is also much more fun than working.
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Great Start!!! I know what you mean about buying the Airplane Tickests. We are going for 6 days and now I wish it were 8 But can't because of already buying the tickets. OH well. Can't wait to hear more.
On a thread I read, someone said it was nice to be able to get in their own car at the end of the day and not have to deal with people, crowding, etc. I think that one comment sold me on the rental car.
I do see what you're saying on that one! Good point! That alone is probably worth the cost of the car, lol!
I will also add that in my experience, park hoppers have been good to us. If you really don't want to spend the money, though, then if you can't get a full day out of a park, there's always Downtown Disney, the pool, or resort-hopping (they have movies on the beach at some of the resorts, and other really cool things like storytelling at Animal Kingdom Lodge, a petting zoo at Fort Wilderness, the campfire at Fort Wilderness... etc. So there are TONS of things to fill your afternoon / evenings with if you end up not getting all that you want out of a park.
I like your schedule. And I agree with you that while I LOVE Sea World - I had no IDEA the tickets were so expensive! Holy smokes!! Back when I lived there in 02-04, season passes were only like $110... so I am appalled that a ONE DAY ticket is so pricey! Yikes!
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On a thread I read, someone said it was nice to be able to get in their own car at the end of the day and not have to deal with people, crowding, etc. I think that one comment sold me on the rental car.
DH and I don't have kids, but we always drive to the parks for just that reason. (We drive to WDW, so we have our own car, but I suspect if we flew, DH would insist on a car.) We've taking the buses a few times to test out the "convenience factor" and one of the times we were jammed in like sardines and were NOT happy! From then on, we've always driven.
ADRs or Why a sane person would get up at 4:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning?
My ADR window opened up on July 5th. Lucky for me, the online reservation system started the week before, so I could start making my reservations at 5 a.m. CST. That meant getting up at 4:45 a.m. the morning after 4th of July fireworks. I wasn’t too sure I would make it, but 3+ years of interrupted nights and early mornings must have conditioned me well. Thank you, dd and ds. I was hoping to get Le Cellier for our Epcot day, either Lunch or Dinner. I had alternates in mind for every reservation.
So, 4:45 am on July 5th. My alarm goes off, I hop out of bed and race downstairs to get my laptop. I forgot my glasses. Whoops. Deliberate for a second about going without them, but I decide to run back upstairs and grab them. I don’t need them to read, but things are definitely clearer. For some reason in my adreline rush to get online, I was debating taking 2 seconds to run back upstairs and get them. Crazy!
5 a.m. rolls around and I already have the site up and ready to go for Le Cellier. I start punching in my dates and times. Nothing! So, I play around with it some more and come up with 11:55 a.m. on Tuesday. So I rearrange all of my park days and make reservations accordingly. My new plans, which are based around Le Cellier are as follows:
Sunday
Same plan, Crystal Palace at MK after arriving and getting checked in.
Monday
AK, Tusker House breakfast
Tuesday
Epcot, Le Cellier late lunch (for us anyway, we usually eat at 11:30 or so)
Wednesday
MK, Tony’s Town Square for dinner
Thursday
HS, Hollywood & Vine for lunch
Friday
Departure, no plans
Immediately, I have second thoughts. What if Le Cellier isn’t as great as everyone says? The time isn’t that great for us, since we do plan on eating earlier and getting back to our room for a nap each day. Do I really want to plan my entire trip around one restaurant? Plus, now our park days are mapping to the busiest days per my research.
So, I do something, which I later found out is controversial on another board. I booked more ADRs based on my original park days plan. So, Monday would be HS with Hollywood & Vine, Tuesday would be MK with Tony’s, Wednesday would be Epcot with Biergarten and Thursday would be AK with Tusker House. Sunday and Friday would be the same.
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But can't because of already buying the tickets. OH well. Can't wait to hear more.
Melanie
PassPorter Guide Author
I booked more ADRs based on my original park days plan. So, Monday would be HS with Hollywood & Vine, Tuesday would be MK with Tony’s, Wednesday would be Epcot with Biergarten and Thursday would be AK with Tusker House. Sunday and Friday would be the same.
Liz 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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