My Disney Plans....expert advice appreciated:)

[kellybean]

So this is the FIRST Disney trip I have ever planned. It will be me and my boyfriend. I have only ever been to Disney once when I was little, we stayed off site and didn't even go to Epcot. My boyfriend has been there twice, once as a kid again in high school but told me he didn't want to do any planning and it was all up to me!

This is my final (hopefully) itinerary for our vacation and I was hoping you expert DISers would be able to help me if you see something "off" or if you have any tips to make it better.

9/16
Breakfast in Philadelphia airport before boarding. We will arrive in Orlando at 9:30am. Get the Magic Express to POP. I know it will probably be too early to check in so we plan on getting our park keys and heading to Hollywood Studios for lunch at Sci-Fi @ 1:25pm! Hopefully we will be done with lunch in time to see the Block Party parade. Around 5pm we will head back to the resort to get settled into our room, change, and sit for a few. I want to head over to the Poly to watch Wishes from the beach at 8pm and then head into Ohana for our 8:55pm dinner reservation.

9/17
Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare (Alice is DBF's favorite Disney movie and this will be a surprise for him as he left the planning to me and I picked all of our ADRs! I think he is fully expecting a Princess meal ) Hop on the monorail with Epcot being our next destination. We will be spending the rest of the day in Epcot, getting CS for lunch (not sure where though )....more Epcot touring after lunch...Beverly pictures... hehehe... We have reservations at Le Cellier at 8:15 for dinner so I doubt we will be out in time for Illuminations so I don't think we will be seeing it this trip

9/18
Breakfast at Tusker House @ 8:25! We don't plan on being at Animal Kingdom very long. We have looked at the attractions and we definitely want to do the safari so we will head to that immediately after breakfast. Other than that we want to ride Mt. Everest and the River Rapids. Maybe take a few photos. Am I missing out on anything else spectacular in AK? Both of us remember AK to be the most boring of all of the parks when we were in Disney previously. Was hoping to be heading back to the resort by 1:00ish to relax or swim for a bit. Early dinner at Big River Grille and Brewing Works around 4:00pm and then get a bus to MK for MNSSHP! The rest of our night will be spent partying in MK! Since we are eating early we may end up getting CS later in the evening, not sure what will be open that late during the party though so any suggestions would be great!

9/19
Breakfast at Crystal Palace at 8:15am. I plan on getting some nice crowd free castle shots. Since we want to more of the party stuff at MNSSHP we will do whatever attractions we passed up after breakfast. We will catch the Dreams Come True parade at 3:00pm and head back to the resort after that to relax and get changed into our "dressy" clothes. We will head back to MK for our 7:05 dinner reservation at the castle and stay for Wishes after dinner!

9/20
SLEEPING IN! Will probably eat breakfast at POP, swim a little, and then head to Downtown Disney to SHOP! Def. getting something at Goofy's and have to go to the LEGO store to get a replacement "lego man chef" key chain for DBF! I am estimating we will have most of the early afternoon for DTD. We will be going back to DHS for dinner at Mama Melrose (Fantasmic package) at 4:45pm, see whatever else we want to see in DHS, and then catch the 8:00 Fantasmic show!

9/21
Going home breakfast at Boma 9:15am. Our flight doesn't depart until 3:30pm that afternoon so I'm not really sure what we can do to kill the time (or won't I have time?) in between. Any suggestions?

In my mind this plan sounds good to me, lol, but again first time planning and I don't have any idea of the time concept in WDW so this may be completely impossible to do! lol. Any advice would be SUPER!

 

[nicolepdonnelly]

Your plan looks great!
I think you will love the MNSSHP! You will probably get to ride everything if you stay long enough. We went to MVMCP and after the 2nd parade it was nearly empty and my kids rode everything they loved over and over- so nice to have MK virtually to yourself! They leave all the shops open and I think some food too- they would never pass up an opportunity to take your money
Anyway- try to catch either Lion King or Nemo at AK, they are both great shows and DINOSAUR is a really great ride, it may actually be our fav at AK next to the safari.

 

[chitown_disneylovers]

Well I am a slave to sleep so your schedule sounds a bit tiring to me! I don't think I could do MNNSHP and then the next morning make it to Crystal Palace by 8:15 a.m.

A huge thing I learned when planning my vacation = allow ONE HOUR for transportation time. So if you stay at MNNSHP until midnight you will get back to POP at 1:00 a.m. In order to get to MK the next morning for your ADR you need to be standing at the bus stop at POP by 7:15 a.m. And then you have a full day that day too........

If you watch the 3:00 parade you won't get back to POP until 4:30 and then need to be back at the bus stop by 6:00 to make it to the CRT ADR. Honestly I would skip the parade and go back to POP after Crystal Palace and take a nice long nap!

I like the Safari ride and Expedition Everest at AK a lot and I also like Dinosaur and the Festival of the Lion King Show (but if you aren't into shows you can probably skip this one).

If you are using Magical Express I think they will pick you up from your resort 3 hours before your flight so you need to be back to POP by 12:30. I don't know the best way to go from AKL to POP. You might need at least an hour.

I guess the question is will you have a car or be using Disney transportation?

Your ADRs look AWESOME! I think you will have a blast at MNNSHP and your dinner in the castle will be nice and romantic. It stinks that you can't see Illuminations but if I HAD to pick a nighttime show to miss out of the 4 it would be that one. (If you really want to see it though on 9/16 you can skip Ohana and the Wishes fireworks from the Poly since you will already be seeing Wishes two other times during the week. You can go over to Epcot that night instead.)

I hope you have a wonderful and magical vacation

 

[Plannin'Shannon]

First of all, congratulations on your first "official" trip to the World! And he's letting you plan it all? Lucky, lucky girl!

Boma is my favorite restaurant for breakfast in all of WDW. Fabulous, fabulous buffet. Did I mention that it's fabulous? Be sure to try the cinnamon raisin french toast (killer!), as well as the goat cheese and chive scrambled eggs. And if you're not a coffee drinker (like myself), be sure to try the West African Frunch. Best fruit juice of my life!

Can you tell I'm passionate about this meal?

Also, Animal Kingdom is a great park. Many hidden gems. Don't miss the Nemo show if you enjoy Broadway-style productions. It will not disappoint! The safari is also a must-do. Bring a camera, but hang on to it tightly! The jeep really jostles you around. Another fun ride is the Primeval Whirl in DinoLand USA. If you love roller-coasters, and you love the tea cups, this one's for you!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Minniekins]

Well, I don't think you'll have a ton of time before you leave for your 3:30 flight that last day. If you are taking Disney's Magical Express back to the airport, which you said you are taking there, they usually give you a time of approximately 3 hours before flight time to be at the Magical Express loading area to board the bus. So probably between noon and 12:30 is when you'll have to be there. Depending on how long you take for breakfast, you'll have about an hour or two maybe.

Maybe you will get lucky on check in day. When we got to our resort(CBR) last time we were able to check in early, it was great! But, you are getting there early so who knows. If you do get in you'll have a bit a change in plans.
I would remind you, you are on vacation, so don't forget to get some rest and some sleep, too! There's lots to see and do, but if you squeeze in too much and push yourselves to be on the go every minute, you may end up exhausted and cranky, lol! So, remember to include some relaxing and down time now and then. Even in the parks you can slow down a bit and take some resting time, maybe do some people watching and just enjoy soaking it wall in!
Hope you guys have a great time on vacation and really experience the disney magic! It's really like your first time, as adults and together, so don't forget to get your first timer buttons at guest relations in the park and wear them through the week!

 

[tigger51276]

Hey- Congrats on your first trip together, I’m sure you will both have an enjoyable trip together with many memories. Now these are just my opinions from the many, many times I’ve been and are to be taken lightly, I’ve probably seen and done it all:
9/16- Good for you for getting right out there and starting your trip. Ohana is a great place to eat, but for lunch, I ate once at the Sci-Fi and was so totally disappointed and unimpressed. It’s sort of a cool idea, but really needs to be totally rethinked (IMO). It’s sort of quiet in there and you sit at these cars next to each other with a tiny table in front of you and the food isn’t great. All the while there is a huge movie screen in front of you playing awful shorts of old sci fi movies. It was totally not my cup of tea. Honestly for a fun experience and good meal, I think the 50’s Prime Time is a better option. I remember my first time there is was so refreshing to have a real homey meal. They had mashed potatoes! I hadn’t seen mashed potatoes in 8 days at the park, just FF. 
9/17- Awesome choice for breakfast. Buffet breakfasts at Disney are my favorite because there are so many great choices. For lunch at EPCOT if you are doing CS, I have a couple of favorites, I always eat inside The Land pavilion in Future World. It’s in the building where Soarin, Living with the Land, and Circle of Life are and they have a cafeteria style CS which is fantastic because they will have something for everyone there. There is a bakery, a sub counter, asian food counter, fruit stand, drink stand, and usually a couple other options. My other favorite CS place is in Japan. It’s called Yakitori House and they have really yummy food such as their beef sukiyaki and teriyaki chicken. I’m sure you will love Le Cellier, they are very popular. So popular that I’ve never been able to get in because I wait until the last minute to reserve (my upcoming trip in Oct I have 2 reservations for them cause I’ve heard such great things). Also if your meal happens during Illuminations, some restaurants let you go out and view it.
9/18- Animal Kingdom is a fun park and there tends to be a lot to do. If you aren’t in a rush that day I do recommend spending some time there. The animals are just fantastic to look at. The safari is great, Mt Everest is great, The rapids are a blast, Dinosaur is good, the shows are great and if you have a chance, take the train out to Conservation Station. Most people skip that and it’s pretty cool out there. At Cons. Station they have a vet lab that is viewable to the public and if you happen to be there and an animal needs to be checked out you’ll actually get to see it right in front of you (with glass separating you of course) regardless of if it’s a Gorilla, Lion, Tiger…If you are hungry for lunch before you leave and you like ribs and bbq, you have to get food at the Flame Tree BBQ is it soooo good! My favorite CS place in all of WDW. If you do CS at MK during the party, there is very limited food available. Probably the easiest place is the Lunching Pad as they have the most variety there.
9/19- Crystal Palace breakfast rocks. That is my favorite buffet breakfast and a beautiful building to boot. If you think you may run short on time for your dinner reservation, consider bringing your change of clothes and toiletries with you to the park and store them in a locker and then get changed in one of the bathrooms at MK. The castle for dinner will I’m sure be wonderful. I’ve not yet done that but it sounds great.
9/20- My recommendation for a good lunch place at Downtown Disney is Earl of Sandwich. OMG such awesome subs there, I stop at least once there every trip (and usually on my going home day get lunch there and an extra sub for the plane home). If you want to do something fun at DTD you can rent watercraft down there and take it out on the lake. I did that one year and it was fun.
9/21- Going home  so sad! You will actually be surprised by how quickly the morning goes by. If you are using Magic Express they will probably pick you up at 12:30 if you have a 3:30 flight. By the time you are done with breakfast it’ll probably be around 10:30. Since you aren’t staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, you will probably want to head right back to your hotel as you will need to take the bus to a park (I’d say AK since it’s the closest) and then hop on the POP bus and this could take you an hour or more to do. So all in all you are maybe going to have ½ to 45 mins that morning which you can check out the gift shop in the hotel one last time, grab a snack (or if you are on the DDP and haven’t used all your snack credits yet, get a bunch of snacks in the gift shop to use them up) and then get to the Magic Express spot to catch your bus. Now if you have a car then ignore the Magic Express parts and you will probably have about 2 or 3 hours to kill and can do that by walking around the Animal Kingdom Lodge and check out the safari they have there. You can also go for a quick swim that morning by not packing your suit and just store it in a large zip lock bag and throw it in your check in.

Hope you and your DBF have an awesome time. A nice way to commemorate your trip if you are the memorabilia type is at Downtown Disney if you go to the Christmas Shop there you can both pick out an ornament and have it personalized for your 1st trip together. If you like the idea, then don’t wait until too far into your trip as it can take them anywhere from 1-3 days to do the personalization depending on how many orders they have.

Have fun!

 

[mrstomrice]

I also recommend seeing Lion King in AK...it is amazing and uplifting! Also, find out when DeVine will be out. She is now near the opening of the park. We missed her this year and wish we had seen her. If you have time, see Nemo too...great show!

 

[kellybean]

Thank you so much to everyone that responded! I know that it seems like we will be exhausted but we are both used to little sleep...lol... We are both up until about 11/midnight and get up at 5:15am every day for work! So getting up even at 6:30am is like being able to sleep in! We do want to spend some time at the pool and relax so I will be doing my best to fit all of that in, and make sure we have enough time to catch buses since we will not have a car. Like I said, no concept of WDW time yet so I will just have to go with flow and if I need a breathe, just take one!

Thanks for all of the AK tips! I think we will try to catch The Lion King show for sure, possibly Nemo. I think there is just so much to do in all of the parks I was trying to cut corners somewhere, but we are both animal lovers so maybe we will end up here longer than I thought! The conservation station sounds cool!

To the PP the suggested the ornament from DTD....thanks! We will definitely be doing this! DBF and i have been dating for 7 years!!! ...lol...and since we've moved in together (going on 5 years now) we have gotten a personalized ornament every Christmas (usually with the year and our names), so we will use our "First time at Disney 2009" as our "yearly" ornament.

As for our ADRs... We are trying Sci-Fi because family and friends recommended it. We like a good burger and a shake so it seemed like a good fit! DBF ate at 50s Prime Time when he went on his high school trip and he didn't like the "theme"...even though I was able to plan everything he said he would eat anywhere I wanted except at 50s (which I thought looked fun to try) and HDR (which I remember seeing when I went as a kid and LOVED...lol) I didn't argue though since there were SOOOOO many other places I wanted to eat at, it wasn't hard to find replacements. We are excited for ALL of them to be honest and if we walk away disappointed with any of them we will know for next time (is it bad I am already planning for a 2nd trip in my head without taking the first one? )

As for Illuminations, I am still trying to get an earlier Le Cellier reservation so we could be out in time. I know we are seeing Wishes 3 times but one of those times it will be Hallowishes (from what I understood it was different?) and watching Wishes from the Poly beach just gives us a chance to sit and relax for a little bit before dinner.

After reading everyone's suggestions we will go to Boma for breakfast and then right back to POP to catch the Magic Express.

Thanks again!

 

[Gowahoowa]

Our two cents.....

Animal Kingdom Morning
Get the first bus from your hotel to AK for breakfast (7am or so). They'll let you in the park at around 745am for breakfast reservations and you'll have to go right to Tusker. However, they should check you right in and sit you down. The park opens at 9am (unless it's am EMH) and if you finish breakfast by then, you'll be able to do everything you want that morning. Get fastpasses for and/or ride Kilimanjaro Safaris and then go ride Kali. Then, go ride and/or fastpass Everest after that. Squeeze in Primevil Whirl and Dinosaur and your good to go. Bugs Life 3D is great and so are the shows Nemo and Lion King.

Also...don't miss getting a Dole Whip in the MK (Aloha Isle across from the Treehouse and a Grey Goose Slushie in Epcot(near France)(if you drink).
Enjoy and have fun!

 

[Captain Nick]

My girlfriend and I took our first vacation together at WDW alittle over a year ago and we had an amazing time. Here is my advice. First, tell yourself that you are going to have a great time no matter what and that's that. Something will definitely go wrong on your trip and there will be many little annoyances but don't let those things ruin your trip. You will have plenty of time to gripe about things when you get back. Just enjoy yourself while you're there. Second of all, it seems like you did a better job planning meals than we did, but with as much as you run around throughout the day you can expect to eat at least twice as much as you normally do. I read somewhere that the average person walks around 14 miles a day while there. I don't know if that's actually true but you will burn alot of energy in a short amount of time. The turkey legs at the American pavillian are a good deal. Finally, the World Showcase is great for single couples. Get a couple drinks and enjoy. I recommend the Margaritas in Mexico and the Colladas in Morrocco. Have fun, take lots of pictures and do as much as you can while there. You can sleep when you get home.