Question about planning the trip as new DVC member

[dvc]

Hello,
We became DVC members yesterday. I have booked our first DVC vacation and also the first trip to Disney World. and need your help with following planning thoughts. Your help and advice is much appriciated.

We are family of 5 - 2 adults and 3 kids. Kids are 9, 5 and 1.5 year old. We are staying at AKV Kidani Village 1 bedroom villa. Me and my wife will be on strict diet so can not eat outside food but our kids will love the restaurants.

The questions that we need your help are:
1) Should we buy park hopper tickets?
2) Which will be a good option for kids dining needs?
3) What is the order for us to plan the parks since this is our first trip.

Again thanks a lot in advance for your help.

Thanks,
DVC member

[Hazzard101]

Originally Posted by dvc

Hello,
We became DVC members yesterday. I have booked our first DVC vacation and also the first trip to Disney World. and need your help with following planning thoughts. Your help and advice is much appriciated.

We are family of 5 - 2 adults and 3 kids. Kids are 9, 5 and 1.5 year old. We are staying at AKV Kidani Village 1 bedroom villa. Me and my wife will be on strict diet so can not eat outside food but our kids will love the restaurants.

The questions that we need your help are:
1) Should we buy park hopper tickets?
2) Which will be a good option for kids dining needs?
3) What is the order for us to plan the parks since this is our first trip.

Again thanks a lot in advance for your help.

Thanks,
DVC member

Welcome Home, Congratulations.

I would go for the park hopper option. This helps if there are crowds and or you decide you enjoy something at one park and want to go back at night or for extra magic hours.

Dining for kids, Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge is fun ( I would recommend dinner instead of lunch some say lunch is hit or miss). They have fun activities for the children and all you can drink milkshakes with many flavors, you can change the flavor whenever you want.

There are character meals at many different restaurants depending on the likes and dislikes of your children. My wife loves Crystal Palace for breakfast. It is in Magic Kingdom and if you make an early dining reservation you can get in the park early before it opens and take pictures of main street and the castle without all the crowds on your way to the restaurant. The characters
are Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeore.

Although I have never gone I have been told that a meal at Cinderella's castle is beyond compare.

If you have access to a car, there is a large variety of dinning off site. If you have a GPS they will show up. There are many threads on this site for dining options on and off property.

As for trip planning I will have to leave that info to someone more knowledgeable than I seeing my DW does all the planning.

I hope you have a great trip and Welcome Home

[Geoff_M]

For dining needs, I'd recommend Chef Mickey's as a good first character meal. We really like the breakfasts there.

As for the order of the parks, there's difference schools of thought on that one. For kids generally in that age range their preferences for the parks would probably be ranked: 1) MK, 2) AK, 3) DHS, 4) Epcot. I say "generally", but your kids may be different. For example when ours were in that age range, they liked Epcot as their 2nd favorite. So the question becomes "Do you go right to MK and risk listening to the kids say they're bored with the other parks and they want to go back to MK, or do you save MK for last and risk them wondering what the big deal with WDW is all about?"

[Deb & Bill]

Character meals are a lot of fun. But, if you are on a specialized dining plan (from your physician or for some medical or religious reason), you will still have to pay for meals for the two of you. And those are much more expensive than the price of the kids' meals at a character meal. So you will spend at least $70 for meals that you and your wife won't be able to eat. Everyone is charged the appropriate price whether you eat or not.

You just need to pick up Kids' meals at counter service locations unless the two of you do plan to dine as well.

Unless the two of you plan to eat table service or buffet meals, there is no point to dining in any of those locations just for the kids.

[Hazzard101]

Originally Posted by Deb & Bill

Character meals are a lot of fun. But, if you are on a specialized dining plan (from your physician or for some medical or religious reason), you will still have to pay for meals for the two of you. And those are much more expensive than the price of the kids' meals at a character meal. So you will spend at least $70 for meals that you and your wife won't be able to eat. Everyone is charged the appropriate price whether you eat or not.

You just need to pick up Kids' meals at counter service locations unless the two of you do plan to dine as well.

Unless the two of you plan to eat table service or buffet meals, there is no point to dining in any of those locations just for the kids.

If you go to the character breakfast and do not eat and are paying out of pocket you will not be charged if you are going for your children.

My DW and I went to Cape May and she was not feeling well due to a roller coaster. We told the server she was not eating and told him she was not feeling well. The server said that was fine and he even brought her a drink.
never charged her for her drink even.

I have heard that every one that goes to dinner gets charged weather they eat or not many times and find that if you tell the CM that you will not be eating, you will only be charged for those who eat.

How can a child go to Disney and not experience at least on character breakfast. They are a little pricey but worth every penny. And a great way to get pictures with characters without waiting in long lines.

[cayman01]

For tickets the question would be how often you are going to WDW? Once a year? If so, then get Annual Passes and schedule your next year trip a week or so earlier than your 2010 trip. That way you use the AP's for both trips.

AND then you don't have to worry about which park to go to first. You can go crazy and hit all four in one day ( not highly recommended......)!

[Lost in Neverland]

First of all Welcome Home!
As for planning your trip I found a great book that will give you an enormous amount of information about WDW as well as extras that you may not know about or be told until you have been going for several visits. The book is by Kim Wiley and is called Surviving WDW with Kids. We purchased one each time we went for the first few visits since it is updated about every other year. As for the parks I would go 1)MK 2)AK 3)DHS 4)Epcot. That is just how our kids rate the parks. But most important do not try to see everything in one trip. Since you now will be going regularly put rest breaks into your day and believe me we need them. Chef Mickeys is our choice for character dining. The food is good and the monorail keeps everyone entertained .For tickets I would use Undercover Tourist and get park hopper passes. Most importantly relax and enjoy your trip home.

[Hazzard101]

Originally Posted by Hazzard101

If you go to the character breakfast and do not eat and are paying out of pocket you will not be charged if you are going for your children.

My DW and I went to Cape May and she was not feeling well due to a roller coaster. We told the server she was not eating and told him she was not feeling well. The server said that was fine and he even brought her a drink.
never charged her for her drink even.

I have heard that every one that goes to dinner gets charged weather they eat or not many times and find that if you tell the CM that you will not be eating, you will only be charged for those who eat.

How can a child go to Disney and not experience at least on character breakfast. They are a little pricey but worth every penny. And a great way to get pictures with characters without waiting in long lines.

My DW just told me that you do have to pay for character meals if you are eating or not. I was at Cape May at night and DW said that was different. Didn't want to give you false info so I thought would let you know. Sorry but I would call Member services and ask about being on a specific diet.
Welcome Home again

[DVC Grammy]

Since only your kids will be eating in the restaurants, I would stick with counter service places. There are enough different ones in each park to give your children choices of which kinds of foods they'd like for each meal. Plus, being in the parks will be exciting enough for them, even without character meals.
Since you'll be staying in a villa, you could make some meals there, especially breakfasts. If you're driving to WDW, you could bring some staples; if you're flying, you can put in a grocery order and it will be delivered to your villa (I think there's a place on the member site where you can place your order). The shop in Jambo also sells some basics for meals.
Also in Jambo, there is Mara, a counter service restaurant with a nice selection of foods.
Have a great trip and welcome to the DVC family!

[robertdangelo]

Welcome home! Seasons at The Land in EPCOT is a great food court... Many choices. 50's Prime Time Cafe at DHS is one of the best themed restaurants.(and fun!) I suggest taking the kids to Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club for ice Cream.

If you plan on another trip within 12 months, get annual passes. This can save you money.

Bob

[sskem96]

If you're on a very strict diet, I would recommend either renting a car so you can go to the grocery store of your choice and make sure you get exactly what you need, or one of you could take a cab and do the grocery run while the other watches the kids play at the pool.

You are allowed to take food into the parks, so you could all eat breakfast together in the room, pack lunch for mom and dad to take into the parks and buy the kids lunch at a counter service restaurant, then if you return to the room for afternoon naps, you could eat dinner together in the room before returning to the parks for the evening.

If your kids can handle the schedule, I recommend being at the park approx. 30 min. before opening, which means leaving your room at least an hour before opening time. Each park has a nice little opening ceremony with characters, and as soon as the opening ceremony is over and the rope drops, you can go on many rides with very little wait in the first hour or 2.

Get a good guidebook (I like the Passporter and your oldest would like Birnbaum's WDW For Kids By Kids) and read all about the different attractions so you know which things you'll want to do and which things don't really interest you. Have a plan of action when you get to the park or most of the day will be spent looking at a map and trying to decide what to do next.

On our first trip with kids, we did Epcot first since it has some fun things but isn't the highlight of a trip for kids. We did the Kidcot fun stops that first trips, but have skipped them since. Too much time wasted sitting and coloring. There are lots of other more fun things to do. We did AK next, then MK, then DHS.

An example of the advantage of park hopper tickets is if you want to see Fantasmic at night (at DHS) but you really want to spend your day at AK, you can hop over to DHS in the evening. If you don't have park hoppers, you have to choose your park of the day carefully because you can't go anywhere else that day. Of course if you end up getting annual passes, hopping is included.

[dvc]

I really feel home. Thanks a lot for your warm welcome and great suggestions. They are very helpful.

[bumbershoot]

I would recommend looking around the Theme Parks forum for info on tickets (many threads about pros and cons of hopping vs staying with one park per day) and touring ideas, and check out the Dining forums for ideas of restaurants.

[Donna M]

Since you will have a complete kitchen in your villa, everyone can eat in there if that works for you. The kids are young enough and probably don't have past expectations, so they don't need to eat in fancy restaurants at this time. Maybe a special lunch a couple of times and stopping to get an ice cream or special treat. Since you will be going to WDW for years to come, your dietary needs may change and everyone will be able to eat at a character meal restaurant down the road.

We get multi day park hoppers with no expiration and use them over a 4 or 5 year span. We don't go into the parks every day. Some days are spent hanging around the pool and going to other resorts or using the boats and bikes.

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Originally Posted by Donna M

Since you will have a complete kitchen in your villa, everyone can eat in there if that works for you. The kids are young enough and probably don't have past expectations, so they don't need to eat in fancy restaurants at this time. Maybe a special lunch a couple of times and stopping to get an ice cream or special treat. Since you will be going to WDW for years to come, your dietary needs may change and everyone will be able to eat at a character meal restaurant down the road.

We get multi day park hoppers with no expiration and use them over a 4 or 5 year span. We don't go into the parks every day. Some days are spent hanging around the pool and going to other resorts or using the boats and bikes.

You don't go to the park every day?!!! You must only go to the park 2 days per trip to get 5 years of use, as the longest multi-day park hopper is 10 days. A 10 day no-expiration park hopper is more expensive than an annual pass. That would only be advice for if you don't go every year, or really don't want to go to the parks.