Early planning ideas--whatcha think?
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| Sat, 04-22-2006 - 11:21am |
My mom and I are planning to take my son to Disney for his birthday in October... unfortunately, we miss the free dining by about two weeks... We enjoyed the free dining last year and loved the freedom it gave us, not having to really calculate (much) food cost and being able to order what we wanted, regardless of cost on the menus... We live in GA, an easy one day drive away from the Orlando area... I don't mind making the drive at all...
So, we are thinking of driving down on Sat Oct 14... We'd come back on the 18th... and would be staying at All Star Sports this is my son's favorite hotel... he's going to be 5 in October and he is sports crazy... we are planning on paying for the meal plan and doing character meals with all of our table servic meals, including two on his birthday... and getting 10 day no expiration, park hopping tickets... we also want to do MNSSHP during our trip...
Then, more as a trip for me, we are planning on going down in Early December... I want to see Disney at Christmas... my Mom just totally called me on it... is that trip in December for your or Joey??? It's for me, but Joey would never know the difference... for that trip we were thinking AKL... it will be value season in December and a bit cheaper, if I'm thinking correctly... after someone gave the idea of purchasing a one day ticket, so that it would count as a package and you could get the dining plan again for our trip and then use some of our no expiration tickets for the rest of our trip down there... while there we want to do MVMCP and the Epcot Candlelight Processional too...
Edited to add a question: how soon do the crowds clear out after Thanksgiving... right now we are trying to decide between 11/30-12/3 or so or 12/8 through 12/11...
How does this sound? I know that people always talk about building breaks in, but my little boy is extremely energetic and just keeps going... we had his stroller at Disney last fall and needed it 2 of our 6 days there, the others he was on automatic pilot, full speed ahead...
Time is ticking on the October one, as we're all ready within the 180 days to get the ADR and I haven't done that yet... We're thinking Chef Mickey's, Stitch's O'Hana Breakfast, Crystal Palace with Pooh... Has anyone heard any more about the Buzz/Boys Character Breakfast at MGM? Joey would love that, if it is an option... if not maybe a princess meal somewhere... he has a sweet spot for the princesses...
Thanks in advance for your input and suggestions!
Julie
Edited 4/22/2006 11:38 am ET by momtojoeybear

We like the Princess breakfast at Epcot. Haven't tried CRT for breakfast, and didn't care for 1900 Park Faire dinner. I'd guess the Thanksgiving crowds would clear out by Tuesday or so following Thanksgiving. Most schools start back that Tuesday. I haven't heard anymore about the MGM character meal, for some reason June is sticking in my mind as a possible time for it to start, but I honestly do not remember where or even if I read that now.
Steph
I can tell you about early December!! We went in early December 4 years in a row: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.
Thanksgiving is on Nov 23 this year. Therefore, all the crowds will be cleared out by the Sunday after, so starting on Nov 27, you're looking at no crowds.
However, it's been (or going to be) 4 years since we've been down there, and last year, they started this Pop Warner Super Bowl for little league football players & cheerleaders. That will be happening Dec 3-6 this year. The only run-in we've ever had with such an event was end of February--Twirl Mania. It wasn't nearly as bad as I've heard the cheerleaders/dance teams can be, but I did witness a few obnoxious moments. Not that they necessarily TRY to be, just put a bunch of pre-teen/early teen girls together and you're going to see some immaturity.
Since these sound like YOUNGER cheerleaders, I don't know if that will make a difference, but having boys & girls at this age, you know all of the parents will be tagging along, so that will likely make for more crowds since they will try to get family vacations out of it.
Your 2 timelines will be perfect around this since you're not planning to be there at this time. Also, the 11th will still be long before any Christmas crowds come in.
Please note that the Candlelight Processional is NOT extra admission..you get that with park admission. You can spring for reserved seats by booking a dinner package, but if you really don't want to, you can choose to go on a weekday, line up early and almost be guaranteed a seat.
And as I've mentioned a few times before....after Thanksgiving, due to the CP, Epcot stays open until 9:30 (not 9) EVERY night which is awesome for Epcot-lovers like us!
Your son sounds a lot like Aly. We would just plan "in-park" breaks...like doing a show or getting an ice cream. If we had ever tried to go back to the hotel when she was younger, she would have been miserable, begging us to go back, etc. I know...we were "stuck" at our hotel one half-day in Dec '02 due to the downpours and we were miserable (Mike wasn't--he was sleeping the whole time!).
Alysha
A thought- what would you think about going 2 weeks early to celebrate Joey's birthday and get in on the free dining? It would save you more money for your Dec trip.
We were pleased with our breakfast with Pooh in the Crystal Palace when we were there last September... my Joey is a big Pooh Bear fan and it was the first ADR we made... we were so excited... I bounced off the walls for days afterwards...
I was definitely thinking of the princess breakfast in Norway or maybe 1900, as they have the princesses there, but its not Cindys... not that Joey wouldn't adore eating at Cindy's but... I don't know if I really want to use 2 TS meals for Cindy's...
Thanks for the information about early December... we are torn right now between leaving 11/30 or the following week. I'd personally like to go 11/30 or 12/1 and now that I've heard it clears out pretty quickly after Thanksgiving that is likely when we'll go...
Julie
Thanks Alysha... I'm really excited about both trips, but am super excited to see Disney at Christmas... I'd prefer to go down on the 30th and be there through the 3rd or 4th, than putting it off for another week... that extra week includes some family birthdays that we really ~should~ be in town for, kwim?
Thanks for the extra info on the Candlelight Processional... I have no idea what to expect, but certainly want to do it... what sort of dinner packages are available?
We do love Epcot... Joey enjoyed the different countries and thought the fire engine in Innovations (if I'm remembering correctly) was super cool... he's fire engine crazy... he also loved the playground at the end of Mission Space and SWEARS he wants to ride it... he's space crazy, but being only 4 I'm not so sure--I've heard it is as rough as any rollar coaster (per my xh)... but Joey's a tall 4... he was barely too short for it last year...
In park breaks worked very well for us... he enjoyed Donald's Phillharmagic and the new Pooh Bear Playground that had opened just before we got down there... we just had the best time last year!
*hugs*
Julie
Thanks Sonya...
Let's see, where to start... I can't say that we haven't been thinking of bumping the trip to September to take advantage of the dining deal again... We haven't told Joey about it at all... it was going to be his big surprise, so there's no let down on his part... just on mine and my mom's... He definitely knows when his birthday is though, so if we go in September, we will just go... it won't be for his birthday... I'm just so torn about the whole thing... I was not expecting Disney to offer the dining package again, so I was thinking regardless of when we went, well, we'd pay for dining, but this (not so) new little wrinkle has me re-thinking what I was ~so~ set on before...
Between my Mom and I though we would save several hundred dollars by going in September and I was thinking that I could still take his birthday off and maybe take him down to the GA Aquarium... we're in the metro Atlanta area... he loves aquariums, so that would be super cool for him... I'm still very torn though... I think I will play with the numbers on Monday... my computer here at home is too ancient to be able to load Disney's website, so I have to number crunch at work...
The idea of getting 10 day PH with no expiration is to help us save money on trips in the future... We would be driving from Atlanta and after 8 hours in the car, I can't say that I can see us heading to one of the parks... we normally head to Downtown Disney that first night, but we also have year passes to Sea World so we could go there the first evening for a couple of hours... we would probably only use three days or four tops on the first trip and maybe only 2 on the second trip... which gives us plenty of days to plan to play...
And I so know what you mean about those Airtran specials... even though I love to drive, Joey would love to fly anywhere someday... he's a great car traveler... which is a good thing, since we've driven all the way to NY with him a couple of times...
Thanks for the tip on the one day base ticket... which we would buy without park hopper and just use it for a day at MK... I mean at the end of our last trip we did lots of hopping, but we could easily stay at one park all day long too...especially if it was MK or Epcot...
Thanks again for all your help... I really appreciate it...
Julie