Am I Crazy?

[mrzrich]

That looks great.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

That looks great.

Thanks. And thanks for your help.


Now if I can just figure out MK. It's much harder to plan since there are so many good attractions!
Right now, this is what I have:
Rope Drop: 7DMT
Peter Pan (Line may be long, but we have some time before our first FP.)
10:30: FP for IaSW
Other Fantasyland attractions?
12:05 BOG reservation (made by booking separately, hope it works)
1:30: FP for BTMRR
2:10: FP for Splash (Does this give us enough time to find a spot for the parade in Liberty Square?)
When can I try to make 4th FP selection? My FP for Splash begins at 2:10. Is there a kiosk back there, or have they rolled out the ability to FP from app?
3:00: FoF parade
POC (maybe with FP???)
Jungle Cruise (or maybe with FP for this one???)
Maybe walk back to the train? Or should we get on at Main St? (I've never ridden it, and I think she wants to.) How long does it take to go from Frontierland to Fantasyland? from Main St. to Fantasyland?
Dinner (CS somewhere, maybe Pinocchio Village Haus???)
HM
9:00: MSEP
10:00 Wishes
Park is open until 11:00. Would it be worth staying after Wishes to do something? (I've intentionally left out Space Mt. She doesn't want to do many roller coasters. I thought I would build up to EE on our last day. Plus I HATE Space Mt!)

Any advice on this plan would be greatly appreciated! You guys are great!!!

 

[mrzrich]

FP kiosks in MK:

* In the walkway between Adventureland and Liberty Square, near The Diamond Horseshoe Saloon in Liberty Square and Swiss Family Treehouse in Adventureland

*At the entrance to Jungle Cruise in Adventureland

*Outside Mickey’s PhilharMagic in Fantasyland

*Near Stitch's Great Escape in Tomorrowland

 

[mrzrich]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the railroad is closed from April 11 to April 23

I took note of those dates because I will be there on the 17th and I frequently use the railroad to get back to the front of the park for my mid day break. It's nice getting dropped right there and not having to fight through the masses on Main Street

 

[Bullseye]

As long as you go knowing this isn't your "usual" WDW vacation, you'll have a blast. We've been several times with my family and always stay at a Deluxe, usually a 2 bdr villa. We plan hard, pore over dinner choices, spend time at the pool in the afternoons, then go back to the park later that night. So, when I volunteered to chaperone the HS band trip last year, it was a vastly different experience! No less fun, but different. We stayed at a decent hotel off property, and only saw it for early breakfast and then to pass out into our beds at midnight when we got back to the room. We couldn't make any FP or ADR's because of the way the group travel bit worked. We just went with the flow, and had a blast.

Short answer, no, you're not crazy, you'll have a great time, especially showing a newbie around. Just acknowledge up front that this is not your typical WDW vacay.

I agree, we usually stay in a nice DVC suite, but on both occasions of bringing my kids down for their Disney college programs we stayed offsite and still had a great time!

OP, flower and garden is going on so she should really enjoy that!

 

[OhMari]

Columbia Harbor House is a better Quik Service for supper.

 

[mrzrich]

Also keep trying for that PP or 7DMT FP. Especially the day and night before as people often change their plans

 

[cel_disney]

For your MK day, I think you need to work in Buzz Lightyear, Dumbo (iconic), we enjoy the Laugh Floor (again - trying to make sure she sees a breadth of attraction types - could possibly get this with turtle talk at Epcot too), a visit with a princess or Mickey/Minnie/Tink, and then depending on her personality - jungle cruise or peoplemover.

I would keep trying for the 7DMT or PP fast passes - small world will be easy to get as a 4th FP. Another approach to consider if you end up towards the back of the rope drop crowd is to bust thru and get all of frontierland/adventures and done first thing. You can walk onto BTMRR, Splash, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion all before 10:15/10:20 most days.

I couldn't remember the date of your MK day but I put these rides into a plan for 4/13 to see other systems recommended - with no FP:

Rope Drop
Peter Pan
Buzz
BTMMR
Splash
Pirates
Haunted Mansion
Small World
BOG Lunch
7DMT
Parade

The logic is really that you are able to wait less than 10 minutes for all of those rides in that order except 7DMT - which is about an hour. Anyway - just sharing as its a different way to approach the 7DMT challenge! Not sure how any of it works with her no coaster statement - with 3 of these rides being adventurous - but atleast it's not the very first rides of the day that are! (I have to plan this way for my kids - they need an ice breaker ride before doing something that they feel is adventurous).

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the railroad is closed from April 11 to April 23

I took note of those dates because I will be there on the 17th and I frequently use the railroad to get back to the front of the park for my mid day break. It's nice getting dropped right there and not having to fight through the masses on Main Street

I didn't realize that. It's fine. I've never done the train and honestly never had a desire to. This actually frees up some time, so it's all good.

I agree, we usually stay in a nice DVC suite, but on both occasions of bringing my kids down for their Disney college programs we stayed offsite and still had a great time!

OP, flower and garden is going on so she should really enjoy that!

I can't wait for Flower and Garden Festival! I've never been there during that time but have wanted to go for a while. My DH and I always get different Spring Breaks so we never travel in the spring. This was my chance to go!

Columbia Harbor House is a better Quik Service for supper.

I totally agree!!! In fact, I'll be eating there the first week of June with my family. But she doesn't eat fish or seafood. (And I hate Cosmic Ray's.) So....Pinnochio Village Haus? I thought about leaving MK and taking the monorail over to Poly for Capt. Cook's, but not sure I want to leave. We are going to have to ride the monorial at some point though!

For your MK day, I think you need to work in Buzz Lightyear, Dumbo (iconic), we enjoy the Laugh Floor (again - trying to make sure she sees a breadth of attraction types - could possibly get this with turtle talk at Epcot too), a visit with a princess or Mickey/Minnie/Tink, and then depending on her personality - jungle cruise or peoplemover.

I would keep trying for the 7DMT or PP fast passes - small world will be easy to get as a 4th FP. Another approach to consider if you end up towards the back of the rope drop crowd is to bust thru and get all of frontierland/adventures and done first thing. You can walk onto BTMRR, Splash, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion all before 10:15/10:20 most days.

I couldn't remember the date of your MK day but I put these rides into a plan for 4/13 to see other systems recommended - with no FP:

Rope Drop
Peter Pan
Buzz
BTMMR
Splash
Pirates
Haunted Mansion
Small World
BOG Lunch
7DMT
Parade

The logic is really that you are able to wait less than 10 minutes for all of those rides in that order except 7DMT - which is about an hour. Anyway - just sharing as its a different way to approach the 7DMT challenge! Not sure how any of it works with her no coaster statement - with 3 of these rides being adventurous - but atleast it's not the very first rides of the day that are! (I have to plan this way for my kids - they need an ice breaker ride before doing something that they feel is adventurous).

I've never ridden Dumbo, but I think you are right. We should ride it. Buzz I can skip. That ride frustrates me so much! It's so much harder to shoot anything as compared to TSM. I thought Laugh Floor might be a good one to go to after Wishes (maybe hit Tomorrowland for a couple of things since it's closer to the park entrance), but I'll skip it if we get to do Turtle Talk with Crush on our Epcot day. Jungle Cruise is on my list. I figure it might be better to see princesses at Epcot. We will have a lot of time in World Showcase. I definitely want her to see Mulan. As far as roller coasters, I do have her riding Test Track the day before (which to me is similar to a roller coaster!), so I think 7DMT will be manageable first thing in the morning. She just doesn't want anything too big since she's never ridden one before. She's going to Universal the next day (I'm skipping that one for lack of interest and budget issues; she's meeting up with an advisor that lives in Orlando) , so she may be a roller coaster expert when she returns!

My big thing with MK is I hate to backtrack, so I'm trying to move from one land to another. The only exception to my plan is walking back to HM and then Adventureland if we eat at Pinnochio Village Haus.

 

[mrzrich]

Soooooo....how did it go?

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

We just got back last night. It was a great trip! It started off rough though. My husband flies out of Nashville sometimes on very early flights, so he is experienced with timing it right. I followed his directions for our 5:30 flight, but things went very wrong. I was not sure where she lived, so in the early morning hours I was looking around trying to find her house and a cop pulled me over! He said I crossed the center line. I was literally right in front of her house. He asked if I had been drinking. I told him I don't ever drink alcohol and that I was trying to pick up my friend since we had a flight in Nashville and I wasn't sure where she lived. He didn't seem to mind and took my driver's license and insurance card back to his car. I lost about 15 minutes there, then hit every red light out of town. We got there and thought we still had time, so we parked in the lot and took the shuttle. Well, security had very long lines (which my husband said if I could have gotten there 15 minutes earlier it wouldn't have--thanks, cop!) so we didn't make our flight. We had to wait for the next one which was 3 1/2 hours later. We were so tired that day from getting up earlier than necessary. Our room was ready when we got there so we stopped to freshen up and then headed to Epcot. We got there around 1:30 and had a great lunch at Nine Dragons. She was very impressed with China and Reflections of China. She also loved the rest of World Showcase. We headed to Future World where we did Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, the viewing area of the aquarium, and Living with the Land. We then went to Test Track to use our FP, but they were closed due to impending weather. They gave us a paper FP we could use at a later time. So we went to Club Cool and Journey into Imagination with Figment. The sky was looking worse, so we went to O Canada. When we came out it was pouring down rain, so we stayed under the shelter and waited it out. Finally it slowed down some about 45 minutes before Illuminations. I figured Test Track was probably still not opened and we hadn't eaten so we decided to buy some things at the Flower and Garden Festival booths and find shelter again to eat. It finally stopped raining a few minutes before IllumiNations, so we enjoyed the show and returned to our room.


Day 2, we went to Magic Kingdom. We got there for rope drop and were one of the first on 7DMT. It was her first roller coaster ever, and she loved it! We then ended up doing 20 other rides, ate lunch at BOG, and saw the FoF parade, MSEP, and Wishes. We even had time to ride the monorail around to the Poly where we ate dinner at Capt. Cooks (never again!). Her favorite ride was It's a Small World which we had to do twice. The only flaw to my plan was that we got too close to the castle for Wishes, so we missed a lot of the fireworks since they were behind the castle. I should have known that. I have viewed them close to the Walt/Mickey statue with no problem, but she wanted to get closer. We were right in front of the stage. We did get to sit down, but never again will I get that close. Great day overall! Oh, she said that the FoF parade was the first parade she had ever seen and that BOG was the nicest restaurant she had ever eaten in.

Day 3, we went our separate ways. She went to Universal to see Harry Potter World. I slept in, checked out of Pop, and went to GF to eat breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I then strolled around the resort grounds enjoying how beautiful it is. I had never seen the Wedding Pavilion so I headed over there and got to get a glimpse of a bride getting ready to walk down the aisle. Very cool! I then monorailed over to the Contemporary and walked around a little, then headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I went to Kidani first and sat in a rocking chair, relaxing and enjoying the animals. Then I went over to Jambo to enjoy the lobby and do the Boma tour. Boma tour was neat, but an obnoxious tourist just about ruined it. I will do it again to try to get the full enjoyment of it. I then headed All-Star Sports since our room was ready. I stopped at Bell Services to get our luggage. Guess what? No luggage. It was supposed to be there between 1 and 3, and it was 6! I told them I couldn't wait around so they said they would check on it and deliver it to our room. I then headed to Disney Springs where I met my friend for dinner. I was looking forward to Wolfgang Puck Express which I've never tried, but she wanted to eat at Earl of Sandwich instead so that's where we ate. We did a little shopping, but she was very tired from Universal. She enjoyed Harry Potter World at Universal, but that was about it. We headed back to the room where we found our luggage.

Day 4, we went to AK. We did Dinosaur, ITtbaB, Safari, FotLK, EE, and FoW. EE was the biggest roller coaster she had ridden, and she really liked it. We grabbed lunch at FTB and took it with us back to the hotel to check in for DME. We did NOT want to miss our flight again. While we waited, we ate our delicious lunch.

So it was a very nice trip. So fun to take someone who's never been before, especially someone who's never experienced some things that we get to experience all the time. Gave me a nice perspective of how lucky I am! Thanks again for all the advice given on this thread!