1st timer-leaving in 3 weeks!

[paper1225]

Hi everyone! I have been watching this board for the last month or so and actually posting a little-but am not patient. When we go to Disney I have everything planned.........and right now the only scheduled meal I have is IOA for a character breakfast one morning-and from another post, I may need to cancel that, no one seems to think the breakfast with spiddy is worth it?! I am looking for advice, any advice. We bought the 5 day passes online for our family and we are arriving in Orlando the day before memorial day(sunday) and staying until the following sunday. If I understand the tickets correctly, once we start using them we have 5 days from that day....since Memorial day is monday, should we wait and not go to US or IOA until Tuesday? I would assume Monday would be really busy. (we know we have extra days, planned that to enjoy florida!!) Also, we have 3 children- DD12, DD11, and DS5. The girls love roller coasters as I do, DH will probably sit back with DS a lot...but DS is courageous! Any tips on dining or rides, etc would be great! I feel so "not right" without plans!! DH laughs at me and keeps telling me we are going to have a real vacation for once! We are not staying onsite, we choose to rent a condo for the space since we are TRYING to relax, ha! Thanks everyone!!

 

[LEO_Magic]

Here's how I can help. There's really no best way to plan in your case cuz you'll be there w/ your family a week. Uhm, best rides & places to eat.

IOA rides:
Hulk coater-a must!
Spiderman ride-a must!
Dr. Doom-if you like butterflies in your stomach, go for it.
Rip's is like Splash-very cool ride.
Jurrasic ride- awsome drop.
Dooling Dragons- awome coaster.

best place to eat in IOA:
Mythos
Confisco Grill
Captain America burgers

Universal:
The Mummy coaster
Shrek 4D-
MIB-family ride
Jaws-very cool!!!!!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I've also read the bad reviews of the Spidey breakfast. I'm curious as to how many of those people have eaten a character breakfast at WDW. The complaints I've read all thought it was too expensive for the poor quality of food. As we all know, all character meals are pretty much that way. I've never eaten at one at UO, so I don't know how it would compare. Perhaps, you should post a seperate thread asking those who have eaten at both WDW & UO character breakfast to compare the experience.

I'm definitely no UO expert, but I think you're original thought of skipping Memorial day at the parks is a good idea. There's many others on this board who can help you maximize your time better than I. We stay onsite, so I don't know the best ways to beat the crowds.

As far as restaurants go, I think you should consider making some reservations, especially if you plan to have dinner on property. The lines at some of the Citywalk restaurants get very long around dinner time. Then again, my family may be the only ones who refuse to stand in line an hour or more to eat dinner. We don't go anywhere w/o reservations. Also, definitely eat at Mytho's @ IOA. It's a great experience. Our DS(14) always asks to eat there, when we visit UO.

 

[mom2riceboys]

right now the only scheduled meal I have is IOA for a character breakfast one morning-and from another post, I may need to cancel that, no one seems to think the breakfast with spiddy is worth it?! I am looking for advice, any advice.

The Spiderman breakfast was the highlight of the trip for my boys last year. IMHO, food at character meals is never great. I was surprised the food there was pretty good.

I think the character interaction was great. Spiderman came to our table three times and would talk to the boys about helping him locate Doc Ock. He also taught them the proper way to shoot webs. Cat in the Hat and Things 1 & 2 were there too. The Things kept playing tricks on my boys. They took DS10's hat and stole a muffin off DS5's plate! We'll be at Universal next week and the Spiderman breakfast is the one thing my guys say is a must do.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[Snoopymom]

We had a blast at the Spiderman breakfast! Ds was really into it and asked Spidy a bunch of questions. He came to our table twice and probably spent about 15-20 minutes total with him. Thing 1 & 2 were a riot throwing sugar packets and playing around and someone came around to ask if Cat had been at our table and he hadn't so he came right over.

We've been to the character breakfast at Ohana's and the food there was much much better, but the characters were more rushed. Also, we're not big fans of buffets, and in my opinion, Confisco's is on par with your standard hotel breafast bar. I believe that coffee and soft drinks are included, but milk and oj are not and they're expensive, about 3.50 each for larges.

We'll be there the same week and we're skipping Memorial day weekend too. The best tip I can think of is to get to the parks before they open. You'll be amazed at how much you can do and see in the first two hours, especially compared to Disney.

I'm sure you've already checked the rides out, so you know that there are lots of opportunities to get wet so you might want to wear fast drying board shorts or bring clothes.

There's a pizza place in NY in Universal where it's pretty reasonable to order a whole pizza instead of individual meals. Can't remember the name of it, but it's easy to find from the smell of the pizza crust baking. It's not bad either.

You should check out the off-site club thread on the Orlando board. There are some funny posts about how magical it is to be cramped into a small expensive hotel room with your family. It might help you feel more "relaxed" about your trip too, LOL.

Have fun planning!

 

[E&B's Mom]

I've done both the IOA breakfast and Chef Mickey's. For the price, Chef Mickey's is far better. More characters, better food, birghter cleaner environment. The food at IOA is basic breakfast - nothing special.

However, we did enjoy it. We were the first ones in the restaurant (made an early reservation) and the character interaction was far better than Chef Mickey's. There were only 4 characters, but they spent loads of time with us. I think it was worth it to do it once, I didn't think it was a waste of $, but we won't be doing it again this trip. Get an early reservation if you can. I would think that the more crowded it gets, the less time the characters will have to interact with you.

 

[momto4obkids]

Hi!! We are going the exact same time as you!! It's our first time as well and it's also driving me nuts not having everything planned out too!!

We are also skipping the parks on monday.We will just swim at the house we rented,go out for a nice dinner and maybe some putt putt golf.

Hope you have a great time!!

Amanda

 

[rpbert1]

we are staying at the RPR 28th june to 5th july when can you call to book character meals at the hotel

 

[paper1225]

thank you to all who have posted! We have decided to keep our ressies with spiddy........and I will call tomorrow to get ressies at mythos. I have printed out the other ideas for our daily planning!