Just joining here...I'm very excited!
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| Mon, 04-23-2007 - 8:58pm |
Hello~
I just booked our trip to Disney World! We are going in mid-August...I know that it will be verrrrrrrry HOT but with kids in school, I didn't have a lot to work with. My kids are ages 12, 10, 8 (boys) and my daughter will be almost 3. My husband and I were teenagers when each of us last went to DW, so this is such a special and long anticipated trip for us!
We will be staying at Port Orleans-Riverside for 6 nights and going to the parks in this order: MK( Sunday), AK (Mon.), Epcot (Tues), MGM (Wed), Typhoon Lagoon OR Blizzard Beach (Thurs). I chose that order to utilize the extended hours of each of the parks. We have chosen the dining part of the package and I have booked reservations for each of the table dining restuarants as well: Fairytale Lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table, Breakfastosaurus, Garden Grill and Sci-Fi Dine In. What do you think?
My daughter is such a Disney Princess FREAK that I wanted to book a character meal for her, so I chose the FL @ Royal Table. I thought that the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall would be way too princess-y for the boys, but now I am not sure...DOES Cinderella show up at the Royal Table or not? What exactly DOES go on in there? Also, I realize that I have 2 more character meals...I wasn't trying specifically for that, but (long story spared)it just worked out that way. Do the characters really take the time for a photo or two when you do these character meals?
Back to the heat issue...I read somewhere that you CAN take a cooler into the parks. Does anyone know this for a fact? I couldn't find it on the DW website, but I understand that they might not want to advertise that. I am hoping to take in some water and Gatorade to try to ward off some of the heat...(yeah right, I know ;) )
If you have any advice for me regarding my current choices, please let me know...I feel like there is probably more that I should be planning, so I will be checking in here frequently for more info.
Thanks and I will be "seeing" you around here!
Stephanie

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YAY!!! Welcome to the "family", and congratulations on your decision to go back to WDW. You'll find that we are a little nutty with our love for Disney, but spend a few weeks (or less) here, and you'll feel exactly the same way!!!
Here are my opinions (just my opinion!) on your choices, and answers to your questions:
1) Port Orleans is nice, you'll enjoy it there!
2) It sounds like your order is great, I love that you did the research about the extra hours, you want to make sure to take advantage of all of those little extras like that.
3) Which dining package did you do? Does it include tickets to Cirque du Soleil (I know platinum and premium do, but I'm not sure about the one down from premium.) If so, you DEFINITELY want to see it, it is absolutely worth it! It's in downtown disney, which is a great big shopping area. That's the best place for souveniers, IMO, so you might want to schedule a little time there, too.
4) Dining:
Cinderella's Royal Table is wonderful! We did the breakfast there, but I assume that other than the food, it will be about the same at lunch. Not only is Cinderella there, there are a bunch of princesses there. Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Snow White, Mary Poppins, and even Fairy Godmother. All of the character meals are sort of set up the same way (well, the seating may be different, the type of service - buffet, table, etc - may be different, but the character part works the same.) What usually happens is the characters rotate throughout the room, and they stop at tables and sign autographs, take pix with the kids, etc. (make sure to bring your camera & autograph book to every character meal!!!!)
Breakfastausaurus has super yummy food, and the characters there are Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. The only thing I don't like about this one is that the handlers there tend to rush the characters through the room. I don't know if it's the specific handlers, or if it's some other reason, but we've eaten there twice and it's been the same both times. BUT, it's still worth it. My suggestion for this one is to warn the kids ahead that the characters might not be able to spend a lot of time at your table, because they have lots of people to visit with, so the kids won't be disappointed if the handlers are rushing.
I've never eaten at Garden Grill, so I can't comment on that.
Sci-Fi...hmmm...well again, this is TOTALLY just my opinon, but I don't think it's worth it. At MGM, I prefer The Brown Derby, and the 50's Primetime isn't bad. At Sci Fi, the movie clips are very old, very dumb, very cheesy, and my daughter had absolutely no interest in them. In addition, the food was...well, it wasn't great. Not awful, but not what we've come to expect from Disney. The only thing my duaghter really liked is that you're sitting in a "car" and they give the kids a fake driver's licence.
Last, I have absolutely no idea about the coolers, sorry! I know someone here will know the answer, though.
When you get to the stage of planning which rides to do and in what order at the parks, I would LOVE to see what you have planned. Planning out which way to go in the parks is one of my favorite things to do and since I don't have a WDW trip coming up in the near future, I would love to live vicariously through you, lol!
JoAnna in TX
Edited 4/23/2007 10:03 pm ET by joannab74
Hi Stephanie!
We're going in early/mid August also. (DH, DS8, and me) We're also super-excited and it's a big deal for us. Where are you coming from?
Here's what I'm planning for the heat:
1.Each of us carry small water bottles (refillable around the parks for free - the only problem I hear is that the water tastes bad, so I might bring some sort of powdered drink to add to it, currently looking for something low in sugar but without Aspartame, etc).
2. My son is getting one of those little fans/spray bottles to "mist" his face while waiting in line, etc. 3. Also, bandannas that you can get wet to keep fresh, or "neck coolers"...not sure if they'll be worth the hassle to carry around, but we might give them a try.
4. Also planning a "rest for the feet" midday (even if not leaving the park, but a friend swears by something she and her family did one summer: Just carry flip flops in a backpack, then at some point in the middle of the afternoon plan on taking shoes & socks off, getting feet wet at a fountain and resting for 30 mins to an hour by wearing just flip flops while sitting...watching a show, etc...I guess you don't want to walk on flip flops too much because of the lack of support for your foot).
Many people swear by mid-day breaks back at the hotel (for a swim/nap etc) but for us, considering that we won't have a car and will have to rely on resort buses, we just don't want to take that much time leaving and coming back to the park (we also won't have "hopper" tickets). So instead, I'm planning these "in-park breaks". Seeing that you have just one day at each park that may be a good idea for you guys, too?
Our first trip was in the summer, too. I just wanted to comment on what you said about in park breaks. In addition to the flip-flop thing (wish I'd thought of that!) what worked great for us is to plan our trip through the parks so that there was a sit-down show in the middle of the morning and again in the middle of the afternoon. The sit down shows are air conditioned and SOOOO much fun. My favorite is Mickey's Philharmagic, personally!
In addition to Philharmagic, in MK, there's also Carosel of Progress, Monster's Inc. Comedy Club, Country Bear Jamboree and the Hall of Presidents. In AK, there's the live Finding Nemo show and It's Tough to Be a Bug. In Epcot there's Figment's ride (more of a ride than a show) and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. There's also the Ellen one and an IMAX movie in the World Showcase, but we've never done those. At MGM there's Little Mermaid (this one even gets you a little wet!), Drew Carey's Sounds Dangerous, and the Muppets 3D. There are probably some others that I can't think of right now, but the point is that all of those will provide you with a 10-15 minute chance to sit down, get cooled off and relax.
Enjoy your trip!!!
JoAnna in TX
We always take a break by going back to the resort. It is amazing how fast we can get there from the parks. We all nap for about 1 -2 hours and then go back. With a 3 yo(almost 4 this year) it is so important for a nap! Even I need a nap from all the excitement!
I do not believe you can take coolers in the park. Water mist bottles are really cheap at Walmart and work just a s well! We bought one of those last year and we have a Brita water bottle with a little filter in it! So, when we refill the water it gets filtered and doesn't taste bad. Crystal light does make tasty and no calorie taste packets for your water bottles also.
At CRT for breakfast, we got to meet Cindy before breakfast and take a picture, but she didn't circulate around the room when we were eating. She came by once to wave at everyone eating, but not to the tables. We saw Belle, Mary Poppins, Sleeping Beaty, the fairy godmother. I heard great things about the pricness breakfast at Ashkerus but we are not doing any princess breakfast. I wish we would have paid out of pockt for the CRT because it definietely wasn't worth 2 table servive credits for the food. We did like eating in the castle...that was really neat!
Hi Stephanie & welcome,
Since your daughter is such a princess freak, have you thought about booking a make-over at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique prior to your CRT lunch? It will take time away from the park, but from the pictures I have seen, the kids are so cute coming out of there. Here is the link to the Disney site for the Boutique if you are interested.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_GB/moreMagic/shoppingDetail?id=BibbidiBobbidiBoutiqueShopPage_en_GB
As far as I know, Cinderella is not a regualar at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.
Christine
Hey Stephanie!
You are going to have so much fun!
Just wanted to jump in and recommend checking out 1900 Park Fare. Cinderella is there at dinner at least. We haven't been yet, but we'll be there in a couple of weeks. I've heard great reviews about it though, and the Grand Floridian is beautiful and fun to poke around in!
Also, regarding Sci Fi...we've eaten there twice and really liked it. My boys thought it was the coolest thing, eating in a car and watching those silly movie clips. My dh and I enjoyed the break and the peace and quiet (we sat in the back seat of the car, and the boys sat up front). The food is fine if you stick with the basics (burgers, sandwiches and milkshakes).
I've seen the powdered drink packets made especially for water bottles everywhere! I picked up two boxes of 10 at Walmart, but I've seen many different brands and types at my regular food store too. That should help the water taste better!
We've not been in the heat of August, but we did go in September 2005 and it was killer hot! We found a lot of the water playgrounds and fountains for the kids to cool off. I think every park has at least one...We also have the generic water bottle spray fans from Walmart and they work just fine!
Have a great trip!
Marcy
>>Also, regarding Sci Fi...we've eaten there twice and really liked it. My boys thought it was the coolest thing, eating in a car and watching those silly movie clips. My dh and I enjoyed the break and the peace and quiet (we sat in the back seat of the car, and the boys sat up front). The food is fine if you stick with the basics (burgers, sandwiches and milkshakes).<<
I'm so glad to hear that someone liked Sci Fi. I hate giving it bad reviews, but we just really did not like it. At least now I can feel confident in saying something like "it wasn't for us, but some people like it!"
JoAnna in TX
Hi, Stephanie! Everyone else has given you great advice! I just wanted to welcome you to the group!
Happy planning (it becomes VERY addicting)!!
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