April 28 - May 3rd HELP!

[DoveLovesTivo]

Please give me all the TIPS you can get... save $$ and Time.

We have never been, staying on site. I am not sure what kind of tickets we need, hopers or what? Also made a reservation to have meals paid for, 1 sit down, one lunch and one snack. $37.00 a day. Is this a good deal?

I also see people making reservations for meals... what is this?

How is the weather and will the park be full?

5 adults, and 2 kids.

Thanks for helping the newbie!

 

[jagruti6]

Hi, we are going for the first time too in may (4th -11th). We bought the meal plan too. The reservations people are talking about are priority seatings, you decide before you leave where you would like to eat for your sit down meals, then call disney to reserve that restaurant, ( its not a REAL reservation, but you get priority at your selected time). I think the meal plan is good value, because you can use your sitdown meals for th charater dining meal, we have booked 3, (hopefully 4 if the buzz lightyear is up and running by then!!) or you can use two of your sitdown meals for meals at Cinderella`s royal table or a dinner show or a signture dining experience or 1 grand gathering experince.
jay

 

[Ana~n~Joseph]

Please give me all the TIPS you can get... save $$ and Time.

We have never been, staying on site. I am not sure what kind of tickets we need, hopers or what? Also made a reservation to have meals paid for, 1 sit down, one lunch and one snack. $37.00 a day. Is this a good deal?

I also see people making reservations for meals... what is this?

How is the weather and will the park be full?

5 adults, and 2 kids.

Thanks for helping the newbie!

I see you're staying on site. Did you get a packet with tickets included? You may want to get Magic Your Way passes which allows you to go into all four parks. You then have the option of adding the Plus to it which would let you into the water parks, Disney's Wide World of Sports, Pleassure Island and Disney Quest. You can also add Hoopers to the tickets which would allow you to visit more than one park in one day. For example, you can go to Magic Kingdon in the morning, go to Epcot for lunch and watch Fantasmic at night at MGM. It's up to you guys. We had the hopper option and we only used it once during our whole stay, some people though use it daily.

The meal plan is awesome! You get one sit down meal (appetizer, main course, dessert and one non-alcoholic beverage), 1 counter meal (meal, dessert and non-alcoholic drink) and 1 snack (water, soda, popcorn, ice cream) per day per person. It's a really great day. For example, we had a $90 lunch at Le Cellier at Epcot and it only cost us 1 sit down credit/per person. We definately got our money's worth on that one! We usually used the counter meal for either our breakfast (when we woke up early enough to eat breakfast) or for our lunch and then used our sit down for our dinner.

As for reservations for restaurants it is all up to you. I highly recommend them, no matter what time of year you go. I went the second week of January, value season, and a lot of restaurants were turning down guests who did not have a reservation. If you want to do character dinners, make reservations; it assures you that you will have a table in that restaurant. Also, if you want any fancy meals (i.e. California Grill, Le Cellier, Hoop de Doo) also make reservations. It will make your life a lot easier and also you don't have to wait that long for a table. You may have to wait but I rather wait 10 minutes than 45 minutes.

As for crowds and weather I'll leave that one up for someone else to advice you on.

Have a fantastic trip!

 

[RevBob]

If you are on the Dining Plan, ADR's (Advanced Dining Reservations) are a must for all TS (Table Service) Meals. With the Dining Plan many TS Restaurants are hard to get into unless you have ADR's. The Dining Plan is great, we used it last year and will use it again in April, but unless you make ADR's you will be limited in your selection of TS Restaurants, available times, and possibly having to wait exceedingly long times to get into a restaurant.
We also found that with the Dining Plan, it was helpful to have the Park Hopper option, since we could be at one park in the morning/afternoon and then hop over to another park for supper.
Have a great trip.

 

[gidge]

Priority seating is very necessary if you want to sit down and eat, I think. Otherwise you may find yourself walking around eating ice cream and chips all day. At Magic Kingdom try the Crystal Palace.........it is wonderful......Winnie the Poo and those characters such as Tigger and Piglet come around to the tables for pics and autographs.
Another delightful place is at the Contemporary Hotel there Breakfast at Chef Mickeys was a big hit. Make reservations (thats priority seating) You will be glas you did. You can also call from the hotel the night before or day of and make priority seating if you are not sure where and when you will be where. Wear comfortable shoes. Have a magical time!

 

[walrusgamer]

and don;t forget before you go to check the weather report. and to pack rain ponchos even if is it going to be sunny. when i went last year it said it was going to be sunny so we dident bring the rain ponchos. it rained and we got soaked.

 

[Mermaid4me]

We are going Apr 28th to May 2 too. We went the same time last year. The crowds were totally manageable. My entire family DH, DS 8, DS 7 and DS 2 had the best trip of our lives!! We hope to have as much fun this time. As far as the DP, we had and it was awesome. When my 2 older sons weren't that hungry, they would split a CS kids meal and then we would get one later so we didn't waste the food. You can't buy food for what you pay for the DP, so IMHO I think it is an awesome bargain. I do reccommend that you make some ADR for a character meal or 2. Have fun.


Mermaid4me

ASMO Apr 2006
CR Apr 2005
ASMO 1999
Offsite 1986
CR 1979

 

[seobaina]

oohh, I'm there then too - April 27th - May 11th