A little overwhelmed with dining

[showar]

Hi! I'm planning our first trip to WDW in late September. We are staying at ASMo and will use the bus transportation. We have the dining plan so I'm trying to plan our days to make the necessary arrangements. It will be dh, myself and 4 yo dd who can't wait to see the Princesses. We are flying in on Sunday and leaving the following Saturday. This is what I have planned so far.

Sunday -
Monday - Epcot/Princess Storybook for lunch or dinner
Tuesday - MK/CRT for lunch or dinner
Wednesday -
Thursday -
Friday -
Saturday - Chef Mickeys for breakfast (would this be difficult to get a PS for since it is a Saturday mornning?

Here are my questions:
What restaurants/days should we visit AK and MGM?
We would like to visit MK at least two full days. Should we go there on Wednesday or wait later during the week.?
Do I need to make PS for all the restaurants? Some of the ones I have been looking into include Le Cellier, Whispering Canyon, Ohana, Liberty Tree Tavern.
Any other restaurants that you recommend?
How easy is it to get around? If we want to eat at Le Cellier (Epcot) should we plan a 2nd day there or try something different?

We do want to be flexible so if dd decides she just wants to hang out at our hotel then we would be more than willing to do that. We may also plan a day to go to Sea World but after looking at everything it may be better for us to just stay on-site.

Planning this trip is definately overwhelming!

Sandra

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

Because of the free dining offer I would absolute make reservations for any meals you must have or for the popular restaurants. Le Cellier is very popular, as is LTT and 'Ohana. Assuming you have hoppers, on Wednesday, do AK in the morning and MGM after you are through. At that point you will have sampled all of the parks and you can make the call where you want to return to and when. AK has 2 excellent counter service restaurants (Flame Tree BBQ and Tusker House). Choose one of those for lunch and eat dinner that night at MGM (look at the menus, maybe Mama Melrose or 50's PT).

My family ends up at Epcot most nights during our trips, however we've been there a bunch of times so we take a HUGE break in the middle of the day. If you have park hoppers, that's an option to consider. You can always just bop into the park for dinner even if you've spent the rest of the day doing other things.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Because of the free dining offer I would absolute make reservations for any meals you must have or for the popular restaurants. Le Cellier is very popular, as is LTT and 'Ohana. Assuming you have hoppers, on Wednesday, do AK in the morning and MGM after you are through. At that point you will have sampled all of the parks and you can make the call where you want to return to and when. AK has 2 excellent counter service restaurants (Flame Tree BBQ and Tusker House). Choose one of those for lunch and eat dinner that night at MGM (look at the menus, maybe Mama Melrose or 50's PT).

My family ends up at Epcot most nights during our trips, however we've been there a bunch of times so we take a HUGE break in the middle of the day. If you have park hoppers, that's an option to consider. You can always just bop into the park for dinner even if you've spent the rest of the day doing other things.

I agree - AK is not an allday park (no flames, please!) =) You'll want to hit it at opening, take advantage of FP, eat a nice counter service there (have no table but RFC which ain't my favorite) then hop to another park or head back to the resort for a nap and swim. Even if you stay all day, they close early (around 6pm usually?) You can do MGM in the other half, really, or at least most of it, esp if you skip things that your daughter can't go on. Or you can do MGM that evening and return later in the week to catch anything you missed. I think MGM has great table service offerings but I know others disagree - SciFi is great for the atmosphere but food at dinner is hit and miss. We still enjoyed our last dinner there, and your daughter would love the atmosphere. 50's PT has had consistently great food but service isn't always as playful as we'd like, but it's still fun. Had a fantastic meal at Brown Derby, but I think its 2 table service and you may not want to spend that. It's also a slower meal, you may not want to waste that much time.

The places you listed that you are interested in are very popular places adn you will need a PS for sure. You should be able to get Chef Mickeys if you try for it close to 90 days out.

When the Sept hours are released, you can figure out which days are EMH and if you want to switch some meals around to align with that and such, too.

Hope that helps some!

 

[showar]

" which days are EMH "

what is EMH mean?

Thanks for your suggestions. It definately helps. I was planning to do AK on a half day and the suggestion to go to MGM afterwards is great. We will do the things my dd will enjoy and dh can go back on his own when I take my dd back to MK. I'm ok with splitting our group since I truly enjoy watching my dd's eyes light up as she experiences everything. We went to Disneyland last September and I've been dying to go WDW because of her.

Also, our flight will arrive in Orlando around 12:30pm on Sunday. Should we try to go to a park that evening? I was thinking of going to Epcot and eating at Le Cellier on Sunday night then going to AK/MGM Monday, MK Tuesday and maybe Epcot again on Wednedsay. That would give us Thursday and Friday to see our favorites.

Sandra

 

[Aimeedyan]

" which days are EMH "

what is EMH mean?

Thanks for your suggestions. It definately helps. I was planning to do AK on a half day and the suggestion to go to MGM afterwards is great. We will do the things my dd will enjoy and dh can go back on his own when I take my dd back to MK. I'm ok with splitting our group since I truly enjoy watching my dd's eyes light up as she experiences everything. We went to Disneyland last September and I've been dying to go WDW because of her.

Also, our flight will arrive in Orlando around 12:30pm on Sunday. Should we try to go to a park that evening? I was thinking of going to Epcot and eating at Le Cellier on Sunday night then going to AK/MGM Monday, MK Tuesday and maybe Epcot again on Wednedsay. That would give us Thursday and Friday to see our favorites.

Sandra

EMH = extra magic hours. Since you are staying onsite, each day one of the parks will be open during extended hours just for resort guests of Disney. Sometimes that's an hour before opening and sometimes it's 3 hours later in the evening. Because of it, that park can often become very crowded because people come for EMH, then offsite guests arrive, and it's a lot of people. We often will go just for the EMH and then hop to another park if we want.

We usually don't hit a park on our first day, unless you're just dying to go to one and have the energy. We are usually anxious to get unpacked, explore the resort, and relax some. If your plane lands at 12:30, I wouldn't expect to be at the resort before 2 or 230 (I may be totally off on that), check in, go to your room, look around, etc. You would have time, but there are lots of fun things to do without using a day of your pass if you want - Downtown Disney is a GREAT firstday activity to get into the Disney spirit. Your resort will have buses to take you there, and there is lots of shops. You could also do a big first night meal - like 'Ohanas or Chef Mickeys for dinner.

If you think you'll be up to it, you can jump right onto a bus once checked in and hit a park =)

edited: you might want to check the hours, too. if epcot closes at 7pm that night or something, it might not be worth wasting a day of your pass for just a few hours, esp if over an hour of that is spent dining. that is, unless, you have the expiration after 14 days on your pass in which you might as well take advantage of it