1st time visitor(with kids) needs help with planning!!! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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1st time visitor(with kids) needs help with planning!!!
Hi all! I am new to the site. Let me specify I have been to disney numberous times when I was younger, before I was married with any children. Now it seems like I will be going for the 1st time! I have 2 girls, they will be 4 and 2 when we leave in november for our trip. We are going the week AFTER thanksgiving and hoping for low crowds(arent we all). Anyway, I would just like to hear alittle feedback from ya'll about ADRS! we will be getting the deluxe dining plan, with hopes of being offered the free dining and just upgrading(wouldnt that be nice) Here are my ADRS and plans for out trip
Tuesday 27th arrive 9am at MCO
we are staying on property so I have hopes of getting to the park early
and we have a hopper pass
1st day magic kingdom/DTD (tues)
Crystal Palace 1145am
stay untill around 5
leave for DTD for dinner(no ressie, prob just earl of sandwhich)
2nd day DHS (wed)
Breakfast- open
Lunch- Hollywood&Vine 12pm
leave around 4pm
back to hotel to lounge and get ready for dinner
dinner-Cali Grill 630pm(wishes go off at 8!)
3rd day EPCOT (thurs)
breakfast- OHANA 8am(thinking about making it CapeMay cafe for convienance)
Lunch-open
Dinnner-Biergarten 5pm(candlelight prossesional dinner package)
4th day Animal Kingdom (fri)
Breakfast- Tusker House 8am
lunch-open
leave around 3pm
dinner-Hollywood Brown Derby 445pm(fantasmic dinner package)
fantasmic goes off at 630
5th day Magic Kingdom (sat)
Breakfast- CRT 8AM
lunch -open
Dinner- WCC 5pm
Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party at 9pm
6th day (departure day) our favorites (sun)
breakfast- chef mickeys at 930am
flight departs at 630pm.
Would like to add that it is my daughters(both) birthdays the 1st and the 2nd so saturday the 1st we will be celebrating there birthdays with the tomorrowland dessert party and crt. and hopefully they will also enjoy Whispering canyon cafe.
Please feel free to tell me if you think im overdoing it or any other suggestions you may have. My kids are very well behaved in restaurants and they enjoy eating out, they also have an early bedtime, and are VERY early risers ( 6-630am) so every night i am aiming to be back at the hotel in bed by 830, apart from our last night (sat at MK) will be a late night for them.
THANK YOU for any advice you can give!!! MY 180 day make is MAY 31st!
I think your plans look great!! We arrive the day after you!! We went this same week in 2010 and it was pretty good. The parks seemed crowded, to walk around and maneuver a stroller, but ride wait times were minimal. And you can't beat Disney all decked out for the holidays!
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I think you've done a great job planning! However, I would be a little concerned about your Crystal Palace ADR on arrival day. You have less than 3 hours to get to your resort from the airport, get checked in, and get to the CP. That may or may not be doable, depending on your plans. If you are staying in a resort in close proximity to the MK, and/or are getting your own transport from MCO rather than using Magical Express, then I think you will have plenty of time. If not, it might be a good idea to try to get a later reservation, maybe a late lunch around 1:30pm. My reasoning is that you might have a delayed flight, or some other delay that would cause you to miss your ADR and hit you with the "no show" charge, which might put a bit of a damper on your first day.
I agree with the suggestion about a later time for Crystal Palace. Regarding your breakfast at O'Hana, I would say it depends on where you are staying. If you are in the Magic Kingdom area, the O'Hana breakfast would probably be very convenient. If you are in the Epcot resort area, the Cape May breakfast would probably be better if you are planning to go to Epcot afterward. Also, will you have a rental car or will you be relying on Disney transportation?
Be sure to note on your reservations that you will be celebrating your DDs' birthdays and make sure they wear their birthday buttons. Have fun!
I think I would change Crystal Palace to later in the day - maybe even for dinner so you don't have to worry about getting to the resort and getting into the parks and I probably wouldn't try to get to Downtown Disney that night. Also, depending on where you are staying, the breakfasts may be a little early, but it depends. I know our kids are starving the second they get up and sometimes trying to get everyone going and to the restaurant for breakfast can be a challenge in our house - so often breakfast is something quick and easy... But your choices look great
We are staying at POR (reason i was thinking DTD the first night since there is a water taxi from our resort) We will be relying on disney transportation. My main goal in the dining reservations were to utilize our Deluxe dining plan WITHOUT taking away LOTS of time from the park. So the mornings with the early adrs for breakfast we are hoping to just be done by park opening, and the evening ADRS are where we are ending the night. We will be going back to the hotel for rests most days(even tho my kids arent big nappers) . I appreciate the feed back!! thank ya'll ! I am so excited for this vacation, its been 5 LONG years sicne my last one, and this is the first family vaca!
Just curious, is there a reason you want to do the deluxe dining plan instead of the regular dining plan? There are some good breakfast options at POR. I totally get not wanting to spend a lot of park time eating meals, so I was just curious.
The one thing we notice every time we go is how fast time goes when we are there and how long it takes to get in and out of parks etc.
We want to do the Deluxe Dining plan because we want to do Cali grilla and def CRT for the girls bdays, and the character meals, without the dining plan it would end up being more im sure. I dont like to take away from park time that why I was trying to do most of the character meals before the day really BEGAN, and then we are planning anyway to leave the parks early so the dinner adr would not take away from park time. Thats why I left lunch open for the most part. Do you think it still may too much running around and not enough park time?
First of all, to the boards! I too think that the Crystal Palace ressie is too early. You need just a little more of a time cushion. Try maybe 12:30 0R 1:00. Otherwise I think the ressies look great! I love love Ohana for breakfast...keep that one , you can just hop on the monorail to Epcot when you are done. Have a great time!
I would caution you to be prepared for very tired children. We took our 4 yo DGD in 2010. She is very energetic and did not nap. The first 2 days she was done by mid-afternoon and we did not get early starts. There is just so much for them to take in that it is overwhelming. We started letting her set the pace, let her wakeup when she was ready, headed back to the resort when she started getting "fussy", etc. Get their birthday buttons at checkin and have them wear them each day. DGD did and really enjoyed the attention. Also note the birthdays on every ADR, DGD got several free cupcakes and some really nice birthday cards - one from Boma was in Swahali. You should have a fantastic time just don't try to do too much!
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We want to do the Deluxe Dining plan because we want to do Cali grilla and def CRT for the girls bdays, and the character meals, without the dining plan it would end up being more im sure. I dont like to take away from park time that why I was trying to do most of the character meals before the day really BEGAN, and then we are planning anyway to leave the parks early so the dinner adr would not take away from park time. Thats why I left lunch open for the most part. Do you think it still may too much running around and not enough park time?
I think it really depends on your kids. I know we wouldn't have been able to pull off days that long when our girls were that young. If you are out until 10-11pm will you all be up and ready to go by 7:15-30 to catch a bus for an 8am breakfast the next day? Your evening plans look wonderful, but do your kids stay up that late or will they be tired and cranky in the evenings.
Our kids are early risers so when we started traveling with them we did the majority of our sit down meals at lunch. That way we were up and going in the park at their best time of the day and when they were getting hot and tired we had a cool place to go and take a break by having a sit down meal for lunch. By 6-7pm we knew we had to head back to the resort and start winding down. We usually had one late night to do fireworks, but even that was a push. While we missed out on some of those things when they were young, it made for a more enjoyable trip overall if we kept with their schedule.
Thank you all! we are hoping to be home at the hotel by 830 or so every night except saturday, which will be a late night. My kids at home usually go to bed around 8pm and they are always up bu 630, i never wake them either, they just naturally wake at tht time, even if they have an exhausting day the day before. I am hoping they will stick to this on vacation!! :0)
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to the boards! I too think that the Crystal Palace ressie is too early. You need just a little more of a time cushion. Try maybe 12:30 0R 1:00. Otherwise I think the ressies look great! I love love Ohana for breakfast...keep that one 
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