Spontaneous romantic college getaway trip!!! Advice?

[tntny2fla]

Hi everyone... first post on the forum :cool1: !!!! The boards have been an amazing resource the past 3 weeks I've been reading so I finally got the sense to register and post up.

I'm a college student from the University of Michigan (Junior) and am planning on taking a special someone to Disney in late July this year for a "just because" occasion!!! Thought I'd treat myself to something for once and make someone's day as well. My budget is about $2000 and the options are ridiculously endless. Right now what I have in mind is a 4 day 3 night stay at the boardwalk inn. Magic your way with dining and 2 days of park hopping adventures (the day we arrive and leave would be relaxation days and have too many possibilities of timing issues to risk wasting paying for days in the parks we may not get).

I was wondering if there is any advice from those with experience out there on ANY aspects of the experience/trip planning process. From what I've heard and seen, I feel the boardwalk inn would be a great pick. The contemporary is in the running, but it would have no view for sure and I feel the after park entertainment isn't as good. Animal Kingdom lodge is also an option but I feel like it's a little far away for my liking. I'm not a big fan of bus trips and having a lake/lagoon is a perk for spending the extra money on the other two.

I'm open to ANY and EVERY comment...Thanks!!!
Ry

[black562]

The Boardwalk is a great choice...walking distance to Epcot (and the Studios if you don't mind a longer walk) and Jellyrolls is right there as well. The Beach Club is also a very nice choice...especially if you like to swim as it has the most popular pool at all of WDW (Stormalong Bay). Beach Club is right across the lake from Boardwalk and you can still walk to any of the above places as well.

The dining plan is a good choice. If you want a romantic trip, there are several good places to dine, just be sure and make your reservations FAST. If you're going in July, you're already inside the 90 day window. I would reccomend you book the meals immediately, which you can do even if you haven't made your resort reservations yet. The dining plan is also based on room nights, not park ticket days...which means if you have 3 nights, you get 3 days of dining credits.

You're in a very good situation right now, you know the budget and exactly what you want....just need to fill in the details. I could literally write a book on different tips and ideas (and just happen to be in the planning stages of doing just that).

So how can I help at this point? Do you need dining ideas, are you wanting activities outside the parks.....give me a starting point? If I were to tell you one thing you need to do the moment you read this is to make your dining reservations. The longer you wait, the more will book. In fact, places such as Le Cellier could very well be gone by the point.

Let me know how I can help...

[tntny2fla]

THANKS SO MUCH for the support and quick response!!! I couldn't sleep very much last night so instead I took your advice and hopped on dining reservation planning. I Read up as much as I could on what to do and this is what I came up with. The asterisks are where I need a little help.

After dining stuff, I'll think of other questions, but you are spot on with the fact that I need to get on that as soon as I can.

So my park hopping plan was to:
On Thursday hit MK reeeaaaalll early (extended morning hours are available), get Crystal Palace breakfast and try to do everything we want by around 4 O’Clock… switch over to Epcot for the remainder of the night, get dinner at le cellier sometime around 5-7 O’Clock and watch illuminations at 9PM (get good view about .5 hours before. Epcot has extended evening hours on Thursday the 23rd sooo it works out perfect.

Friday hit up MGM reeaaaalll early (have extended morning hours) and around 2 finish up any of Epcot or MK we didn’t get to or want to do again. I’d like to be at MK for spectromagic and wishes that night so I’m thinking a mid day break/dinner at chef Mickey’s?

So food schedule laid out:

With the 3 night plan I have:

3 table service meals
3 quick service meals
3 snacks

Wednesday
B- getting in mid day… so we’re good -----------
L- ***quick service somewhere around Boardwalk Q1Q1Q1
D- ***Nice dinner without tickets into parks and not using DDP (budget around $70 for entire meal and gratuity) On our own

Thursday
B- Crystal Palace Bfast (1 table service) T1T1T1T
L- probably had a decent breakfast so… use up our snacks :D SSSSSSSS
D- Le Cellier (1 table service) T2T2T2T
(only a party of 2 so I‘m hoping reservations will be a bit easier to come by, and I will call every day twice if I have to… really isn’t a big deal to me :D)



Friday
B- *** A Quick Service Breakfast?! MGM or hotel area Q2Q2Q2Q2
L- ***A nice quick service lunch in MGM?*** Q3Q3Q3Q3Q
D- Chef Mickey’s mid day early evening (1 table service) T3T3T3T


Saturday
B-*** Bfast Something simple around Boardwalk*** On our own
L- Plane ride home

Let me know your opinions and fill ins! Thanks again so much... I'll make sure to take pictures so everyone can see how their contributions came true!


Ry

[black562]

Le Cellier is going to be your issue. I called today as my 90 days out and only had it available for 7:35 and it was nearly booked solid. I would reccomend you booking something to replace and then you could keep calling to see if there's a cancellation...but at least you'd have something to fall back on. Chef Mickeys is hard too, but its more difficult for breakfast than dinner.

For Wednesday:
You could go to Downtown Disney and eat somewhere like Bongos, Rainforest Cafe or T-Rex Cafe, and those should fit into your budget. You could also do some type of buffet dinner at one of the resorts. Somewhere like 1900 Park Fare at Grand Floridian or Ohana at the Poly (another difficult one to get). But Downtown Disney is a nice place to enjoy an afternoon, hence the dining suggestions there.

Thursday:
Good breakfast, call today if you can and book it. Hint, if you look at the park hours (park likely opens around 9am), you can actually book the breakfast earlier. They will let you into the park to go to breakfast and then it doesn't eat into too much of your park time.

As for Le Cellier, party of two is actually more difficult to get, as there are fewer two-seat tables. Booking for 3 people actually opens up more seats than booking for 2. As an alternative, might I reccomend Chefs De France. It has a very good menu and is a popular spot as well...but you should be able to get something there if you call soon(today).

Friday:
Chef Mickeys can be tricky, but usually harder for breakfast than dinner...so again, get it booked.

You have some very good dining options in mind, and very popular ones as well. Remember, if something is booked, get an alternative reservation, as you can always cancel it later if you get your first choice.

Some good snack ideas include the Dole Whip...a Disney snack that has reached cult status. The Orange Slushys at France in Epcot is wonderful, but its alcoholic so not included for the snack option. Also in france, the bakery is incredible, I love their Chocolate Mousse, and most of what they have is a snack credit.

By the way, you can have a look at dining menus here:
Disney Dining Menus (http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm)

I'd better stop before I write my book right here on the boards. Let me know what you think and then we'll move on from there.

Cheers!!!

[Floydian]

I was just going to say, it sounds like you've got a great grasp on your plans!! For the length of stay, I think that taking advantage of all EMH that you can is a good idea. Also having planned breaks and other options for partial days is good thinking. Have a great time!!

[black562]

Just waiting for an update. Did you make any dining ADRs yesterday?

[tntny2fla]

Reservations were really hard to come by today, All my table service meals were booked up pretty badly! As of right now I may be pushing the trip to a January 1-4 vacation since that's the next value period I can take advantage of with school and I'll make it a Christmas/Hanukkah trip. I'm going to give it another whirl tomorrow, but it may just be worth it not to rush the trip and be out 180+ days and do this 100% right with the help of those on the DIS boards. It'll be interesting to see the 2010 pricing though, that variable makes me a bit nervous. Do you know when those are to be released?

Ryan

[xmlguy]

Is this your first trip to WDW? 4days/3nights isn't very much time to see 4 parks. You could go for a lot longer for a lot less, if you're interested in that, and still stay at a very nice resort nearby.

[black562]

Well the dining window is now 90 days out so you should be good at that point. Of course its always best to plan as far in advance as you can. I agree with the above post that for a first-timer, that's quite a packed schedule.

If you can manage at all, 6 nights/days is a great option. Fly in the first evening and go to the hotel....stay the week....check out the last morning and fly home. Since dining is based on the nights and not days, staying this way will give you meals each day.

If you do move it to January, you can get it all planned before you ever even have to book, which is nice.

[black562]

Bumping this back to the top. Do you have an idea of what you're going to do?

[black562]

Hmm, this one got quiet. I wonder what happened with it?