Advice requested for WDW vacation!

[as1]

Hi all,

I'm new to the boards since my family and I are planning a trip to Orlando to visit WDW! My spouse and I have lived in LA for some time and are very familiar with Disneyland, but neither of us have been to Orlando sine we were kids (basically the mid 90's), so for the purposes of this trip as a family we are somewhat first-timers. Our kids will be 4 1/2 & 9 at the time of the trip. I've listed below what we are thinking in terms of scope & schedule, but would be thrilled with any advice from those of you who are veteran WDW'ers since we are certainly aware our plans are just a guideline, and things can change. Thank You!

Dates: The 9 days directly following Thanksgiving weekend
Accommodation: Boardwalk Villas (planning to rent points from David's VCR)
Tickets: 7 day single park

Day 1: Epcot
Day 2: Hollywood Studios
Day 3: Down day (sleep in, hotel pool, Disney Springs)
Day 4: Magic Kingdom
Day 5: Magic Kingdom
Day 6: Down day (sleep in, hotel pool, Disney Springs)
Day 7: Epcot
Day 8: Animal Kingdom
Day 9: Animal Kingdom


We are planning to save some money by eating breakfast each day in our room, mainly do counter service for lunches, and make reservations each night at dinner. The reason for planning a table-service dinner each night is is two-fold- #1) we really enjoy dining out and are ok spending a good amount of our budget on food & #2) having a sit down dinner each night will give us somewhat of a chance to sit, relax and recharge with the kids.

The restaurants (we hope) to make reservations for each night are:
Le Cellier
50's Primetime Cafe
Brown Derby
Jiko at AK Lodge
Be Our Guest (who isn't)
Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd.
Raglan Road
Via Napoli
Tusker House
Tiffins

As I said, any advice would be appreciated!!

 

[jaceraden]

You're getting down to the wire for DVC rental at the Boardwalk. I'd get on that, if I were you. That's my best advice to start.

 

[Gina Starr]

You seem to be off to a good start. My first question is there a reason you are doing Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom two days in a row?

 

[as1]

You're getting down to the wire for DVC rental at the Boardwalk. I'd get on that, if I were you. That's my best advice to start.

I should have mentioned this is most likely for 2018! If we can't get into the Boardwalk, our backups would be the Beach Club, then Wilderness Lodge/Boulder Ridge

 

[as1]

You seem to be off to a good start. My first question is there a reason you are doing Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom two days in a row?

I can't say there is- I'm sure I had a reason when I first put this together but I can't remember. Do you think it's better to space things out a bit? I figured the availability of the dinner reservations may also dictate which days we go to which park.

 

[Gina Starr]

I can't say there is- I'm sure I had a reason when I first put this together but I can't remember. Do you think it's better to space things out a bit? I figured the availability of the dinner reservations may also dictate which days we go to which park.

The reservations you listed should all be fairly easy to get at 180 days out. I would recommend splitting the days up but that's just me. I always start and end a trip with Magic Kingdom. That time if the year, you will have to look at party dates if you are wanting to go to a party or just avoid Magic Kingdom on a party night.

 

[as1]

The reservations you listed should all be fairly easy to get at 180 days out. I would recommend splitting the days up but that's just me. I always start and end a trip with Magic Kingdom. That time if the year, you will have to look at party dates if you are wanting to go to a party or just avoid Magic Kingdom on a party night.

thats good advice- thanks. The biggest reason we are hitting Epcot and DHS first is we've heard from a few people that it's better not to start at Magic Kingdom on day 1 with school age kids. The logic being that it may falsely set their expectations up front that every park and experience will be like the MK, so starting at Epcot is a the better strategy. I think my kids are going to be out-of-their-minds excited every day no matter which park we go to, so I'm sure it will be all good!

 

[rlessig]

I would consider adding park hopper. Especially when having so many dining reservations.
Just gives you a little more flexibility with not being tied down to staying in the park your ressies are for on any particular day.

 

[mjkacmom]

Definitely add a park hooper if you are staying at the Boardwalk, within walking distance of two parks! We hopped every day when we stayed at the Beach Club (also rented points).

 

[windcriesamy]

I also suggest park hoppers for flexibility's sake. I would also consider breaking up your MK and AK visits, and highly suggest ending your trip with MK (unless the crowds are projected to be unreasonably high that day). There's something about being able to wave goodbye to the castle on your way out of the park on your last night that is just so quintessentially Disney.

 

[princess jasmine 76]

Another vote to add park hoppers if you can. Having stayed at the Boardwalk, there is nothing like a short walk over to HS or Epcot (or both!) on any given day at your heart's content.

 

[HydroGuy]

I liked your overall plan. IMO it is a good idea to take some down days every 3rd or at most 4th day.

I vote against park hoppers. There is enough to do in each park to keep you there all or most of the day (DHS is a bit of an exception). In general park hopping takes way more time at WDW than DLR. We never do it and it works fine for us. There is a new Express bus that makes park hopping more worthwhile but you need to pay extra for that. Otherwise you burn a lot of time park hopping and it complicates getting Fastpasses.

When you pick your parks think carefully about EMH (Extra Magic Hours). Only go to a park with EMH if you are going to use the EMH. Otherwise, go to a different park. At WDW it is debatable whether EMH is worth doing. Not like at DLR where it is a no-brainer to use EMH if you have it. I rarely use EMH but there are some out there who believe in it.

 

[goofy kc]

I am pro-Park Hopper because being at BW means you can stroll over to Epcot in the evening. Maybe shoot for one of your Epcot dining choices one evening after visiting another park.
This brings me to my second point! I love BW! But, if you are planning to focus on AK and MK why not select a resort closer to one of those parks? Makes taking a break easier and you could have access to QS choices. Just a thought!

 

[as1]

I am pro-Park Hopper because being at BW means you can stroll over to Epcot in the evening. Maybe shoot for one of your Epcot dining choices one evening after visiting another park.
This brings me to my second point! I love BW! But, if you are planning to focus on AK and MK why not select a resort closer to one of those parks? Makes taking a break easier and you could have access to QS choices. Just a thought!

Thanks to everyone for the helpful feedback! Goofy KC, to answer your question about why we choose Boardwalk if we are only going to Epcot/DHS 3 days out of 7, it just seemed to make sense given that if could go to something on Seven Seas Lagoon (Wilderness Lodge is actually my first choice hotel, aside from its location) or Animal Kingdom Lodge, we are then only close to parks for 2 days out of 7, which seemed less convenient overall. Adding in that the hotels on Crescent Lake have the benefit of being within walking distance of other hotels and restaurants, that seemed like a good choice for us. That said, I feel like we can't really go wrong if we are in one of the Villas (hopefully!). I'm definitely now considering Park Hoppers thanks to all the comments. I think it would add on about $250 to our ticket cost, but I could see us walking over to Epcot for dinner on one of our days off, rather than eating at the hotel.

HydroGuy, I will certainly consider EMH in our planning (and now that I'm thinking about it, Mickey's xmas party will be going on). Does anyone know how far out Disney announces the Christmas Party days, and the individual park hours, by day?

 

[linzbear]

I should have mentioned this is most likely for 2018! If we can't get into the Boardwalk, our backups would be the Beach Club, then Wilderness Lodge/Boulder Ridge

Your backups are harder to get into than Boardwalk, so you may want to rethink that.

 

[Tomh]

Having park hoppers isn't going to allow you to walk over to Epcot for dinner on one of your days off. It allows you to leave one park, and go to another park on the same day. If you want to enter a park on your day off, you need another day of park admission, so 8 day tickets instead of 7.

As for which parks on which days of your trip, I would say you need to wait until park hours are released, and then take a look at what parks have EMH, and what park hours are. Also, look for schedules for shows like Fantasmic, and Rivers of Light. If you want to see those shows, then you need to make sure they are scheduled for a day you are in the park. If you don't want to see them, then I would say go to that park on a day when the show is not scheduled, and the crowds will probably be lighter.

Same theory with EMH . .. if you want to take advantage of the EMH, then you go to the park the day they are having it. If you aren't going to go to EMH, then make sure you are NOT going to a park on a day when it has EMH, and it will be more crowded that day.

 

[Nancyg56]

If you are plannng to stay on the Boardwalk, I suggest that you add onto your park tickets. It is fun to catch dinner and evening entertainment in Epcot and DHS on a down day, and I think is less expensive than hoppers.

I would suggest planning park days for your convenience rather than how others feel about planning MK. Some folks always want it to be the first park, others find that waiting is better, and people like me use crowd calendars and choose the best day. If you are familiar with DLR, I would not bet that the MK will be the favorite park for your kids. The young ones in my family like Epcot.

As to ADR's, I am probably in the minority, but I would skip Le Cellier. I think it is crowded, over priced and overrated.
We all like Raglan ROad, but I would also consider Homecomin in DS. THe food is good, reasonably priced, and the service excellent.

I also wonder why you are not looking at restaurants in the Boardwalk area. My favorit there is Flying FIsh, but our other family favorite is Tratorria al Forno. With the kids, having dinner on the Boardwalk and then enjoying evening entertainment is not to be missed.

I also think I would plan a meal in one of the monorail Reosrts. I think that for fun, 1900 Park Fare is a blast. It features the Tremain Family and they are hysterical. The food is also prepared well for buffet food.

I like the restaurants in AKL and my family really enjoyed dinner in Sanaa at Kidani Village, but I probably woudl not venture out there with so many to choose from near your resort.


I believe that Tiffins is not to be missed. WHen you plan it, try to take a little time to enjoy the artwork. It is truly an homage to all of the imagineers and crafts people who inspired DAK.

 

[Disney mac]

Seeing the ages of your kids, I am in the minority and would tell you to skip the park hopper UNTIL you need it. You're going to buy a 7 day ticket it looks like. That means adding a hopper for every day on that ticket, which you won't use. And if you have a 4 year old, it just won't be worth it if you are hitting those parks on those days. If you decide to use it, you can always add it later at the gate (esp the Epcot gate from boardwalk).

Hotel: good luck with the rental points. I'd book asap for either of the boardwalk or beach club. We love them both to stay at. Great choice.

Meals: Look into the dining plan, but realize that you have 3 restaurants that require 2 credits (Le Cellier, Brown Derby, and Tiffins). Also you have 2 dinners at HS, but only 1 night there. And I'm not sure your kids at Jiko will be a good fit. For day off, my family LOVES Ohana at Polynesian for dinner. Very relaxed and it's a great meal. Also at Epcot, my kids (similar in age to yours) love Teppan Edo and NineDragons.

Best tip I have for you is to rent a stroller. One it will give your 4.5 year old a break, two it will help you store snacks and water bottles. Have a great trip.

 

[tbholc81]

I would either add park hoppers (as many others have said), or split up your MK and AK days. I think that even though there is a lot to do in MK two full days back to back would be way too much time for us to be in the same park. We would also struggle to fill two full days in AK. We usually knock everything out there we would want to do by early afternoon. I'm sure that will change with Pandora, but I don't think it would add a whole extra day.

 

[hsmamato2]

Read up on crowd calendars before deciding which parks on which days.... easy wdw is one of the best..... that way you can do non park hoppers,and plan your ts meal where you intend to spend the day,no hopping needed. The one big difference between DL and WDW is SIZE. There is no quick hop between parks..... it takes time to travel between them. WDW is BIG. The hotels are spread out,so be awrae of that. Also get rec. on restaurants with younger kids on these boards... Jiko is $$$ but there are also Sanaa and Boma (my fave) in the same resort. And more kid friendly perhaps(?)