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| Tue, 01-09-2007 - 12:52pm |
So we are taking our two girls (almost 7 and just turned 4) to Disney at the end of March.
We arrive in Orlando the afternoon of 3/25 and are staying at The Contemporary for 4 nights departing Orlando on 3/29 in the afternoon. I have regular passes for the 4 of us with the hotel reservation (I think). I didn't think the Hopper thing really made sense for us since we just want to spend 2 days in MK and one day in AK.
I have reservations for dinner at Chef Mickey's on 3/25, lunch at the castle in MK on 3/26, dinner at Crystal Palace on 3/27 and dinner at Rainforest Cafe on 3/28.
All of this planning based on lurking around with you guys, so thanks so much.
So a few questions for you:
1) We will have a car upon arrival in Orlando. We are flying into Tampa, renting the car and then visiting my grandparents in Lakeland for 2 days before heading to Orlando. We were thinking of dumping the car since we won't need it while at WDW but then I thought we might use it the day we leave to go to Downtown Disney. Our flight is not until 2:45 or so we have some time. Is it a pain to drive to Downtown Disney? Is it worth going for a few hours that morning?
2) I thought we could survive with one set of dining reservations per day and then bring breakfast or lunch food. Since we will have a car prior to arrival, we can stop and get bagels, fruit, snacks etc. Will they let us bring that stuff in? I am not opposed to buying food in the park just want to minimize our hassle since I believe it will be very crowded.
3) About the crowds, any tips to maximize our fun? My kids know nothing about Disney at all except that it is a place that exists in the world. So they have no expectations about what they can do. So I can avoid things where the lines are just ridiculous and just steer them to things that are not as bad. Any suggestions on what to avoid?
I know I have more questions but this will get me started at least.
Thanks so much in advance for your words of wisdom.
Dana

Welcome!
You can take the Disney Transportation to Downtown Disney. It might be a slower way to go, but you won't get lost. I think that area is well worth a visit. We finally went there for the fist time last fall (our third trip). We enjoyed lunch and some shopping.
I don't know if you are big eaters or not. You have 1 "big" meal reservation a day. I say that is enough. I am assuming you are not on the dining plan. That would give you a counter service meal per person per night. Honestly the food portions are so big at Disney that if you needed to get a lunch at the park, you could easily split a meal or 2.
You can bring in snacks to the park. You get a fridge at the Contemporary. We stayed there in September in one of the newly renovated rooms. You are going to love it! It is so nice to stay on the monorail. You can walk to Magic Kingdom or take the ride. My boys love the monorail so we never walked, but it is about a 10 minute stroll. The food court at the Contemporary is small, but has snacks, drinks and meals. We got breakfast there 2 days and snacks at night.
I don't know what type of crowds you will hit the end of March. If you are morning people, take advantage of the Extra Magic hours in the morning. If you are night people, then do the night hours. Since you don't have hopping on your tickets make sure you are doing Magic Kingdom on your Crystal Palace Day.
Grab a times guide when you enter the park. It will list parade times, fireworks, shows, where characters are for pictures/autographs. And of course the map (you get one when you check in). It is your first trip and there is no way you can see everything in 1 day or 10 for that matter. I don't think there is one thing that you can just skip. It all depends on what you like to do. Are you ride people or show people?
Use fastpass when you can and if the line is too long, we tend to move along and come back. If we miss it, we miss it. There will always be a next time.
Good Luck and ask more questions if you want! We are all pretty knowledgeable!
Sarah
I'm on my way out the door, so this will be short and I'll come back later for more.
Regarding Down Town Disney - We love going there BUT your flight is at 245. You need to be there 2 1/2- 3 hours prior. That puts you leaving the Contemporary, either by Magical Express or by your rental at or around 1130 am. From the Contemporary, by Disney bus which is shared for DtD) or by car if you don't get lost and get a parking spot to DtD is 20 min travel time.
It looks to me like you will be able to do just about everything at MK since you are devoting 2 whole days there.
Thanks for your reply.
I also thought that 1 "big" reservation a day was enough and we could make do with snacks and counter service for the in between.
We are definitely going to MK the first 2 days and Wild Animal the 3rd to match up with our dining reservations.
I don't think there are EMH for our MK days only for our Wild Animal day and they are evening. That is actually OK with me because my kids are good sleepers and I would rather them sleep a little more. We will plan on arriving just prior to opening time.
At the Contemporary are all of the rooms newly renovated? We are staying in the tower with the lake view.
Dana
Thanks for the info on Downtown Disney. It sounds like it might not work. We might just sleep in, have brunch or something and then head to the airport.
Dana
Thanks for the ride tips! Dumbo is a definite. Not sure if my older one will want to go on the bigger rides. She is pretty cautious. I will have to check the height requirements and discuss with her.
Also good point about the snacks. I was going to let them help shop for them so that they can pick out. They are pretty good about not asking for things. We usually will get them a treat at some point so they know if we eat the snacks we bought they will get that.
Dana