A Bunch of Mousellaneous Questions?

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Registered: 03-27-2003
A Bunch of Mousellaneous Questions?
6
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 12:05pm

Hi Girls - I have a bunch of questions (Imagine that - LOL)... and So instead of posting individually, I thought I would put them all in one post and see who can answer what.... Thanks!!!

andrea1.gif picture by ascherm 

Avatar for laurieh88
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 1:12pm

1. I *think* official check-in for us last year was 4 pm, check out 11 am. However, we've usually been in our room earlier than the official in time.

2. Hmmm....tough question. I guess it depends upon how busy things are! It took us about an hour, but then another hour for DH to wait and check in at the resort. This was in December at a value resort. Check-in at the deluxe resorts was much quicker in our experience.

3. ME will give you reservations and TELL you what time you will be on ME for the trip home. No guessing on your part, which is nice! Have you made your ME reservations yet? We still need to do that, since I just booked our trip last Sunday and we just purchased our airline tickets a few days ago.

4. You can store your bags at the resort, and they can be sent to your room along with your luggage. DH even stored his laptop, no problem.

5. Yes, we had some Christmas gift items shipped home for the kids. The folks at the Wilderness Lodge (store and front desk) helped me UPS things back home to DH's work address.

6. I've never been on the dining plan, so I'll pass on this one! :) My gut feeling is taht you'll want to tip for good service though.

7. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to link to here, but Google "DISNEY RIDE HEIGHT REQUIREMENTS". The first site you'll see is a pretty neat calcuator that I used for my own family yesterday.

Here's a copy and paste:

Animal Kingdom Dinosaur 40"
Epcot Wonders of Life / Body Wars 40"
MGM Studios Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith 48"
Blizzard Beach Summit Plummet 48"
MGM Studios The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 40"
Animal Kingdom Primeval Whirl 48"
Blizzard Beach Downhill Double Dipper 48"
DisneyQuest Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam 48"
Epcot Body Wars 40"
Magic Kingdom Tomorrowland Indy Speedway 52"
MGM Studios Star Tours 40"
Typhoon Lagoon Bay Slide 52"
DisneyQuest Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster 51"
DisneyQuest Cyberspace Mountain 51"
Epcot Test Track 40"
Magic Kingdom Space Mountain 44"
Magic Kingdom Stitch's Great Escape 40"
Typhoon Lagoon Humunga Kowabunga 48"
Animal Kingdom Expedition Everest 44"
Epcot Soarin' 40""
Magic Kingdom Splash Mountain 40"
Magic Kingdom Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 40"

8. I am pretty sure it's not possible to get a fastpass for a ride in the same timeframe as one you already have....if that makes sense. If you try to get another one with your ticket, you will be denied. OK though once the time is up on the one you have. (*edit: I am not sure I was clear....there is a time range stamped on a fastpass....the fastpass should only be good for that range, although at times you hear about someone sneaking through on one that has expired. Is that better...or clear as mud? LOL!)

9. You do NOT need a regular ticket for MK the day you are at the MNSSHP. The earliest you can get in is 4 pm. At that point, rides are going as usual. Once it's time for the party, the rides are more limited, I believe. That's how it is for the Christmas party. We never get tickets for the day we do parties, since we're at the park from 4 pm until midnight. That's our DTD or resort day until 4 pm.

10. We only do counter service. Favorites in my family are:
MK: Cosmic Rays (lots of choices as you go around to the different counters)
Epcot: I like Morocco very much! DH agrees. The kids, not as much.
MGM: Backlot Express
AK: Restaurantosaurus

I hope I've helped some. :)

LAURIE IN OH, Mom to:
Alex, 12.5 years old
Julianne and Leah, 11 years old
Audrey, 3.5 years old

Disneyworld trips in 1973, 1986, 1987, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006
Upcoming Setember-October 2007 trip!!!




Edited 7/12/2007 1:23 pm ET by laurieh88

LAURIE IN OH, Mom to:


Alex, 1

Avatar for carolejd
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-1999
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 1:46pm

I can't answer all of your questions but I can answer one or two:

4. Will we be able to store our bags at the hotel or will we have to take our Carry On Bag with us if we go to DTD or somewhere after arrival?- you can store your bags with Bell services.

6. Is it customary to tip the wait staff at the restaurants even though we are on the Dining Plan? - Tip is included in the dining plan (18% I believe)but if you felt the service was truly exceptional you could add extra (I wouldn't but then I am rarely tip over 10% in nay case)

9. We are thinking of getting tickets to MNSSHP, if we do, and we decide not to go to a park during the day, can we actually use our MNSSHP ticket to enter MK or do we have to use a park ticket? Meaning, I only got 6 days of tickets, as we were not planning on going to a park on arrival and departure day, but if we have this "extra" ticket, we may just do that? I believe we can't get into MNSSHP until after 4pm or so, right? But would we still have access to all the rides and such? This would not be our only day at MK.-

The MNSSHP ticket includes park entry but not until shortly before it starts, you can ride all the rides that are open for MNSSHP and I would think that once you are in the park you can ride any that are still open. Last time we went to the Halloween party it didn't start till 7pm and they cleared everyone else out at 5pm. I know it's changed now so I am not 100% sure how it will work. We will find out in September LOL!

Carole

Carole

Avatar for shelb31
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2006
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 5:14pm

I can only clarify a couple of things.

Disney 2010
Avatar for laurieh88
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 5:38pm

Me again!

I found a listing of what was open during last year's Halloween parties, just to give an idea:

WHAT'S OPEN:

Main Street USA

Casey's Corner
Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
Main Street Bakery
Tony's Town Square Restaurant

Adventureland

Swiss Family Treehouse
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin

Aloha Isle

Frontierland

Splash Mountain
Country Bear Jamboree
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Pecos Bill's Cafe
Wesward Ho
Frontierland Turkey Leg

Liberty Square

The Haunted Mansion

Liberty Tree Tavern
Sleepy Hollow

Fantasyland

Peter Pan's Flight
Cinderella's Golden carrousel
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Snow White's Scary Adventures
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Mad Tea Party
It's a Small World

Mrs. Potts Cupboard
The Village Fry Shoppe

Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland Indy Speedway
Space Mountain
Astro Orbiter
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Tomorrowland Transit Authority
Stitch's Great Escape

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
The Lunching Pad at Rockettower Plaze
Auntie Garvity's Galactic Goodies

Laurie in OH

LAURIE IN OH, Mom to:


Alex, 1

Avatar for cl_ktbugsmom
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 8:18pm

1. What is the Check in/out time at the hotels?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-27-1998
Thu, 07-12-2007 - 9:41pm

Check-in time at our resort (AKL) was 3:00, but our room wasn't ready until around 4. You can store your bags at the hotel. I only know about our hotel, but I'm pretty sure it's the same at all of them.

The amazing Magical Express people will print out this little card telling you when you need to show up to catch ME for your flight. You can actually check in and get your boarding pass at your hotel. We had to check in 3 hours before our flight, and that was perfect. No rush at the airport, but not too much hanging around either. They'll probably tell you to leave at around 12:30.

You can ship stuff from various locations around each park. We didn't use this service, because we are total idiots and *love* carrying loads of stuff around, but I saw signs for this service. :)

To be honest, we thought all the CS restaurants except for Epcot were just average. (Actually, the vegetarian burgers everywhere were really vile.) But CS is relatively, so we ate at them anyway. The kids' meals include some healthy stuff, like grapes and carrots, so we made our son order those. BTW, even adults can order a CS kid's meal, so DH had a hot dog in several places.

You can overlap Fast Passes. Just look on your current pass for when you can get your next one. For example, we had fast passes to Soarin. We got them at 11 and our return time was 1:30 or something like that. But we were able to get another pass for Stitch (waste of time) at 12:15.

Another strategy was to get a FP, then find a ride with air conditioning and wait standby just to rest. When that ride was over, it was usually time for the FP ride.