advice on my itinerary, please

[mickeyfan0705]

Hello! My family (me, DH, DD -age 13, DS - age 11) We will be going to WDW for 9 days from June 24 - July 2. We have the Ultimate Park Hopper Passes. We will be flying down and will not have a car. Here's how I've planned our itinerary........any suggestions on anything that should be switched around?

(Other than the day we do a character breakfast, we will be eating breakfast in our room)

Thursday, June 24 - arrive early afternoon at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Hoping to get the Jamaica Village (fingers-crossed - planning on faxing request 4 days before arrival) Check-in. Grab lunch at the food court. If room is available, take a swim. Head to DTD and visit DisneyQuest. Each dinner at DTD.

Friday - MGM at opening. Do major attractions in the morning. Lunch PS at 50's Prime Time. Fantasmic Dinner Package at Hollywood and Vine. See Fantasmic.

Saturday - Epcot at opening. Do Mission Space, Test Track, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Spaceship Earth. Lunch at counter-service restaurant. Do World Showcase in Counter-Clockwise direction until we get tired and/or hot.......back to hotel to swim.

Sunday - EE at MK. Do Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Liberty Square. Lunch at Pecos Bill. Back to resort to swim and relax.
Go to Epcot at night for Illuminations and check out anything we wanted to see, but didn't the day before.

Monday - Typhoon Lagoon until mid-afternoon
Back to resort for dinner. Rent surrey bikes to ride around Promenade in early evening. Watch Epcot fireworks from beach at resort.

Tuesday - AK at opening. Do Africa and It's Tough to be a Bug. PS at Rainforest Cafe at 11:00. Do Asia - get soaked on Kali River Rapids! Back to resort. Swim. Rent boats at resort to ride around lake. MK at night for Spectromagic and Wishes.

Wed - MK Frontierland, Adventureland, and Toontown. Watch parade. Take boat from MK to Fort Wildnerness for 5:15pm show of Hoop-de-doo-revue.

Thurs - AK (at opening) in morning. Camp Minnie/Mickey - see characters & do shows. Do Dinoland. Lunch at counter-service restaurant. Hop to MGM. Do attractions we missed first day. Make sure we do 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' - this is set to be back open after refurbishment on this day. Back to hotel to pack.

Fri (July 2)- check-out (have hotel hold luggage). Head to 'Ohanas for Character Breakfast. (Bus to Epcot, ride monorail to Polynesian). Spend last day at MK before returning back to resort for shuttle service to airport.

Hopefully we will be leaving before the big, big crowds get there for 4th of July!

Thanks for any advice you can give!

 

[captJack88]

Hello there, I hope you have a great trip, we just got back from ours!..I just wanted to point out that with the fastpass, once you get one fastpass, you are not able to get another one for any ride until your original one is almost expired. I wasn't aware of this and found out at epcot for test-track. We got our fastpasses for mission space and then went to test track to get those, and it spit out invalid tickets. We thought it may have been because those 2 rides are so close, but no it was the same at MK for HM and SM. This may have been posted on here and I just missed it or it may be only for busy times. So with epcot, chose which ride is a must do for you and get those fastpasses first, and good luck getting some for the other ride. You're crowds shouldn't be as bad though, so you might be able to get both! Good luck and have fun trying!!!

 

[Deb & Bill]

On the fastpass, check the bottom of the fastpass. It will tell you when you can get another. You don't always have to wait until the first one comes due if it is more than 2 hours away.

Your kids may find the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground a bit beneath them. Mostly littler kids there. Unless you are talking about Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (over at Epcot Future World).

Don't forget Dinosaur at AK. Your kids are the perfect age. If you go to Tarzan Rocks, don't sit in the front section unless there are no other seats left. Sit in about the center of the theater right behind the walkway that runs from side to side in the middle of the theater. You get to see the skaters with a great vantage point.

When you go to TL, get there before the park opens so you can get a primo location, especially if you want shade. Those spots go quickly. You might also want to check out Blizzard Beach as well. You could even go to BB early in the day, then head over to AK and then do Kali River Rapids with your bathing suits on. (Sometimes we leave BB, put shorts and T-shirts over our suits, and head to AK. Or play a round of miniature golf at Winter Summerland.

HDD is great fun. Your family will love it.

On your last day, take the bus to the MK instead of Epcot, then the monorail over to the Polynesian.

 

[JudithM]

You have quite a full itinerary! I hope you all enjoy WDW as a family - should be fun for everyone! Is this your first visit to WDW? Be sure to leave room in your itinerary for changes, plenty of pool time, etc.

The one thing I see that may present a "concern" is your first MGM day. You are planning a dinner package at Hollywood & Vine - great idea. Is H&V still a buffet? If so, & depending on what time your lunch & dinner reservations are, you might not be ready for a buffet at dinner time. Many days we find it is hard to eat more than two meals at WDW. You mentioned you will be having breakfast in the room.

Just a thought ... have fun .. you have put a lot of thought & planning into this trip ... ENJOY!

 

[GarrettJD]

Seems like you have a good plan. Just remember that when you actually get there, you'll probably need to change some things, depending on weather conditions, energy levels of your family, and crowds. You seem to have dome a good job putting highlights in your itinerary instead of trying to pack too much in.

I agree with Judith, though... I think that more than one PS in a day is too much, usually. I'm a big eater, and there's no way I would be able to eat at the 50's Prime Time at lunch and then eat enough at H&V for dinner to make it worthwhile. The Fantasmic package is a good idea, though. Maybe you should move one or the other seating to your other MGM day.

Have a great trip! We'll make sure to "warm up" the rides for you when we go in early June

 

[mickeyfan0705]

oh--- I forgot to put we have PS for Sci-Fi at MGM on Thursday. I really didn't want two PS at MGM on the same day, but those are the restaurants we choice, so I guess we'll just have to eat a light lunch at 50's Prime Time and save our appetites for the HW&V dinner package that night.

Thanks for all the hints!

 

[ILOVEPOOH1]

FIRST OF ALL, HAVE A GREAT TIME ON YOUR TRIP!

I HAVE TO AGREE ABOUT MGM PS RESSIES. PORTIONS AT 50'S PRIME TIME ARE LARGE, WHEN I ATE THERE I COULDN'T EAT A BITE LATER AT DINNER AT THE BROWN DERBY. BUT DON'T SKIP PRIME TIME, THE FOOD IS GOOD AND THE ATMOSTPHERE IS FUN (DON'T FORGET TO TRY THE SMORE'S, THEY ARE WORTH THE TRIP!)