Sonya I need Help
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| Sat, 10-21-2006 - 10:41pm |
We have finally booked our trip to Disney and will be leaving in about 6 wks. We will be there from Dec 2-9th and we are staying at Pop Century. I didn't take the dining plan as we don't want to be worried about having to be at a restuarant at a particular time. I have talked to some people I know and they said you can always try to get ADR that day when at the parks or even book it from your resort. I think we will be doing more CS and even try some places DTD. I think if there is really some place we want to eat while at the parks all we can do is try to book something when we arrive at the park and see what we can get. I'm also thinking we will do more late lunches then dinner as it will be cheaper. But the question I have for you is what order would you do the parks for the dates I have posted which are Dec 2nd at about dinner time to Dec 8th? We will be leaving on the 9th in the morning. I would appreciate your input as I know you know more about this then I do. We are also possible going to do Seaworld and if weather permits we would like to take the kids to Typhon Lagoon. Please help me if you can. Actually if anyone can help I would really appreciate it as this is my first time and would like any input I can get from those that have been there more then I have
TIA
Tina

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I'm not Sonya, but....I would strongly suggest you make at least a few ADR's before your trip. (See the post "Unplanned Vacation" about the family that had no ADR's). You don't have to plan every single meal, but a dinner or two and a breakfast or two can certainly help. The potential problem with making NO ADR's is that everything will be booked by the time you get there.
As for what parks you want to do on which days, have you checked out
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/calendar/parkhours/calendarHome?id=MKCalendarParkHoursMonthlyViewPage&date=20061201
That should show you park hours for December for each park. Do you have children? What are their favorite rides/attractions/characters? We usually just let the kids be our guide :-) Make a list of "must do's" and schedule your days that way. We normally would not spend a lot of time at Animal Kingdom but it turned out my DH and DS both loved Expedition Everest, so we spent more time there.
We spent some time in Epcot, but it just so happened that Test Track, Universe of Energy and Mission Space had technical difficulties most of the day. We went and had a picture taken (free with your Disney Visa), which turned out to be our most fun character interaction for the whole trip! Then those rides came back up and we got to ride Test Track before we left that afternoon. My point is you need to do *some planning*, but you also need to be flexible.
I found this "First Timer Primer" on wdwig, you might find this helpful.
http://www.allearsnet.com/ae/issue348.htm
I hope I helped some!
~Heather
~Heather
I would make a bunch of ADR's for wach day..like a dinner and breakfast and then at the start of each day you could always call and cancel or keep it. If you cancel some lucky walk up family will get to eat.
I would think you would have a general idea of how your day is going to go based on the last. At least that is what I found. Then you can make arrangements/changes/cancel from there.
Otherwise you might be stuck with nothing, when you actually want to do something more than CS for dinner the whole trip. TS is such a nice change.
Sarah
Sorry - I had out of town guests this weekend.
We'll be in Disney the same time. We check in the 3rd and out the 8th. Depending on what you want or think you want for dining you could already be out of luck if you don't have any ADRs. The dining plan is extrememly popular so the table service restaurants are booking up, and then add to it people making multiple reservations not sure which one they want and Dining tells people the restaurants are booked and they turn away walk ups becuase according to their computer it's 'full'. There are several days I'm trying to re arrange for my own reseravtions and I can't get anything earlier than 820pm for dinner. Of course we're a party of 6 so that makes it harder, but restaurants are showing up as full. So if there's something you even remotely think you want book it now, and please please please if you book something and end up not wanting it call and cancel it.
They are taping the Very Merry Christmas Parade at the MK on the 1-3, that's a Fri-Sun. The 3rd is just supposed to be a make up day if they need to redo a shot and really this will primarily effect Main Street. Mondays are typically busier at the MK (becuase most people travel on the weekends and start w/ the MK) so to really minimize any crowds you probably don't want to go to the MK until the 5th. Or just avoid main street at first (come in and go straight on the train to the back of the park). No Sun the 3rd is late EMH at MK last time I checked so that would be a fine time to do MK also. Mon the 4th is early EMH at AK and late EMH at Disney Studios. Late EMH at the studios would be a great time to see the Osbourne Spectecal of lights while the majority of the park is at Fantasmic!. Mon the 4th & Tuesday the
Sonya is right about planning your days around EMH.
Thanks so very much for your input as I appreciate any help I can get and heck I wouldn't even mind seeing your itinerary as just seeing what someone elses plans were can help me. I also understand having some ADR but exactly how do you go about it? I'm wondering if my CAA travel agent can help us. Do you have to give them a credit card # or what? The reasoning behind the ADR is my DH doesn't want to really do this and I do know we really don't want to spend alot on food. I'm even thingking about bringing a suitcase of snack foods from home which will include boxed cereal, granola bars and other muches so we won't have to worry about breakfast alot and if so we may even grab it at the resort. The one place we may want to have a sit down dinner maybe the Rose & Crown but then again I understand they even have CS. I will have to talk about this with DH and see what he says again but if dinner won't be until until after 8pm most nights then heck we might as well just go back to our resort and eat as I know we will be able to get food there. What is it like for DTD do you have to do ADR for the restuarants there too? I have read alot about POP Warner happening at this time and also Mousefest figure the first time we decide on going and it seems the place willbe packed. I do hope this won't effect us much but then again I did tell hubby and he still insisted on us going at this time. I do know I made a request for a top floor room hoping that is our resort is packed with cheerleaders that we won't hear as much noise as I was thinking being on the bottem floor would probbaly be worse. I appreciate everyones helps and will be doing alot of thining about what our plans will be when we get there.
Thanks again
Tina
My travel party & needs are probably diferent from yours, so keep that in mind. We are a party of 6, myself, my dh and our 3 girls have been before, but my little girls are going to be 2 & 35 mo on the trip, and my 7 yo neice is coming and has never been.
Sonya,
I was just looking at your interary and my friends did the Playhouse Disney meal back at the end of September and LOVED it. I hope you have a great experience too!
Sarah
Thanks. That day is Megans 2nd birthday and the meal is subject to cancelation if she's still terrified of the characters.
Ok here is what I'm planning at this time but I know once we get to Disney things may change as we would like to add in Seaworld and possible Typhoon Lagoon if the weather is nice enough to do so. This is a plan of the parks only I actually have 2 to pick over which do you believe would be best
#1 Plan
Arrive on Saturday and get to resort before dinner early afternoon Check in and maybe head downtown and check around to see where to go for dinner. Still haven't decided on ADR as if we have to we can always eat at our resort which will do as I said we arn't there for the meals. Then in the evening we would like to go to MGM for Fantasmic but do we have to book something in order to see them? Then we are thinking of heading over if possible to Epcot to watch Iluninations but are also wondering if we have to book something in order to watch these as well?
Sunday - Head over to MK
Monday - MGM
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - AK
Thursday - MK
Friday - Not sure as I think we will go to where ever we want to go back and do the most as this is our last day
Also on some evenings I would like to do DTD to shop some
#2 Plan
Will start the same as #1
Arrive on Saturday and get to resort before dinner early afternoon Check in and maybe head downtown and check around to see where to go for dinner. Still haven't decided on ADR as if we have to we can always eat at our resort which will do as I said we arn't there for the meals. Then in the evening we would like to go to MGM for Fantasmic but do we have to book something in order to see them? Then we are thinking of heading over if possible to Epcot to watch Iluninations but are also wondering if we have to book something in order to watch these as well?
Sunday - MK
Monday - AK then head over to MGM in the evening before 5pm to get wristbands for EMH in the evening
Tuesday - Epcot or waterpark
Wednesday - AK, waterpark or Epcot depending on what I did the day before and then head back to AK in the eveing this is if I haven't done AK on MOnday otherwise it will be Epcot if it wasnt' done on Tuesday
Thursday - MK
Friday - Seaworld and if possible whatever we may want to go back to before we leave on Saturday
Also I would like to try and do DTD in the evening on some nights
I know the #2 plan is alittle messy but what do you think anyone I would appreciate your input
TIA
Tina
You don't have to have reservations to see either Fantasmic! or Illuminations. There is a Fantasmic! dinner package that gives you a voucher to sit in a reserved area and you don't have to arrive until 30 min prior to the show. Normally it's suggested you arrive at least an hour prior, and during busy times 2 horus. The week that we're going I don't execpt it to be to bad and you could probably arrive 30-45 min ahead through the main entrance and still get good seats. The downside to the dinner package is that the latest seating is usually aroudn 430 for dinner.
You *can* do Fantasmic & Illuminations on the same night but it will be quite rushed. You'd have to either have the dinner package so you can sit in the reserved section and be one of the first ones out when the show ends (there's an exit near the reserved seating) or sit all the way at the top of the bleachers and leave just before the show ends because you have to go the long way out and around to beat the crowds. Once out of the park grab the boat to the International Gateway or walk it, either way you're looking at about 20~ 30
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