Beyond the Obvious...

[PEIMother]

We are going to the World for the first time in Sept and have been researching since February. I only stumbled upon Pick a Pearl last night, and the Pirate Cruises two weeks ago. I did not see either of these experiences listed in the guide books or material that I have been reading (thank goodness for these boards!)

For all of you who have been to Disney World, other than the rides and shows at the parks, what other hidden treasures are available for my family (DH, DS11, DS9, DD6 & DS4).

We will probably only be making this trip once (very expensive to travel down from Canada with a family of 6) so I plan on taking in everything there is to see in the 9 days that we will be there (DH wants to do it in 3!!) I plan on doing the picnic in AK, a character meal, a trip to Downtown Disney, and a day trip to Sea World.

If any of you have any suggestions, please let me know.

 

[Disneychix]

For your little DD there is a tea party at the Grand Floridian with Alice in Wonderland.

Maybe little things like riding up front on the monorail or hidden mickey finding in the parks and resorts.

There's a petting zoo at Ft Wilderness.

Some resorts have movies outside at night (Ft Wilderness, last year the BC did too).

 

[tinkermom23]

There's a campfire sing-a-long and smores at night! We wanted to do it but didn't find the time.

 

[sksjasams]

I think your boys would enjoy Jedi Training Academy at HS and Capt Jack's Pirate Tutorial at MK. Also in Japan at Epcot, there is a candy making lady, who spins sugar into beautiful pieces of candy. She is the only female in the whole world who has this skill ( I saw that info on a travel channel show). Just remind them they may not get chosen to particpate but can all enjoy watching any of these things. At Downtown Disney, there is an awesome lego store and the new Dinosaur restaurant. The restaurant is really cool inside-a great experience. We went mid-afternoon and had an appetizer sampler and sodas to save money. Believe it or not, my DS10 was saying he wanted to order a meal, and the server backed me up with a wink and a smile and told him they were only serving appetizers today. I will never forget that.
Enjoy your trip!

Julie

 

[doodlesmommy]

There's a campfire sing-a-long and smores at night! We wanted to do it but didn't find the time.

We did this on our last trip and the kids loved it! Best of all; it was free!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Kidcots at Epcot. The place where you can try all the soda from other countries- also Epcot.

 

[crisi]

Nine days is a lot - but not enough to do it ALL. In the past ten years I've probably spent 60 days on property and have not managed to see and do it all. You are going to need to choose - particularly if you are going to go off property (SeaWorld, Universal, Kennedy Space Center, the ocean .... whatever). But even on property, its impossible to do it all unless you are staying for a LOT longer. So have realistic expectations. And decide what your priorities are. If you are taking advantage of Free Dining, you are going to be loosing hours each day to eating - and September is a short park hours month.

Deb has some things you might want to consider: http://allears.net/btp/beyond.htm

I'd consider: taking a day for a water park, seeing Cirque, taking a backstage tour, fishing out at Port Orleans Riverside off the dock. I'd be cautious of taking time or money to do things often available outside of Disney (pick a pearl comes in that category, so does eating at the Rainforest Cafe, so does mini golf, for that matter so does fishing off the dock....)

 

[sksjasams]

I remembered another special thing for your first trip...it was our first trip this past fall. We stayed at POP. I mentioned that it was our first visit and the CM at check-in gave us each a big First Visit button to wear. He said to be sure to wear it every day because you never know if something special might happen. Nothing special happened, but we did wear them every day and received many nice comments from CMs and other guests. They are a great souvenir and reminder of our first trip.

 

[doodlesmommy]

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge last year and requested to be flag family. Luckily there was one spot left for the day we were leaving. It couldn't have been a better way to top off a fun week. I agree with a previous poster, you have so much to choose from.....make a list and decide what is most important during this week. Whatever you miss, save it for the next trip (cause you know you'll rebook when you get home. lol)

 

[ladyv]

Agreed with the other posters - please don't think you can do it all. 9 days simply isn't enough. Especially with so many people. DH and I went for 11 days/10 nights for our honeymoon, never went off property and still missed many things.

I definitely recommend planning hotel / nap / swim breaks every day. Otherwise, you just get grumpy and IMO, there is only room for one Grumpy in Disney.

My sister has a great plan with her family. When they go on vacation, everyone gets to see a list of activities/attractions, etc. Each family member gets to choose the 1 thing that they want to do the most. Then you can fill in the rest of the time.

The allears site has a fantastic list of non theme park activities that you can do - mini golf, the boardwalk area, water sports, carriage rides, race car driver thing, massages at the spa, etc, etc.

 

[PEIMother]

Thank you to all of you who took the time to respond. It's hard to believe that 9 days won't cover almost everything Disney World has to offer (due to the fact that we could probably see everything in my province of PEI in nine days!) I guess I'll have to sit everyone down and figure out what is number one on their lists for all the parks and ensure we hit those.

We will venture off to Sea World for a day (or two if needed). The kids want to feed the dolphins and get splashed by Shamu.

I can't wait to visit the campfire and watch the movie, hit Downtown Disney (shopping is my thing!) and the Lego store. I had forgotten all about the Hidden Mickeys, thanks so much for reminding me.

We were going to stay off site originally, but after reading about taking a break in the afternoon and heading back to the parks in the evening, I figured that would be more likely to happen if I didn't have to drag the kids back to a car and battle traffic again (the buses suit me much better).

Once again, thanks to all. These boards are great. I've learned so much in the last couple of months which is going to turn what was going to be a good vacation, into a great one!

 

[TINK0998]

Thank you to all of you who took the time to respond. It's hard to believe that 9 days won't cover almost everything Disney World has to offer (due to the fact that we could probably see everything in my province of PEI in nine days!) I guess I'll have to sit everyone down and figure out what is number one on their lists for all the parks and ensure we hit those.

We will venture off to Sea World for a day (or two if needed). The kids want to feed the dolphins and get splashed by Shamu.

I can't wait to visit the campfire and watch the movie, hit Downtown Disney (shopping is my thing!) and the Lego store. I had forgotten all about the Hidden Mickeys, thanks so much for reminding me.

We were going to stay off site originally, but after reading about taking a break in the afternoon and heading back to the parks in the evening, I figured that would be more likely to happen if I didn't have to drag the kids back to a car and battle traffic again (the buses suit me much better).

Once again, thanks to all. These boards are great. I've learned so much in the last couple of months which is going to turn what was going to be a good vacation, into a great one!

If your kids really want a close up of Shamu, check out the Dine with Shamu lunch at Seaworld. It is about $40 per person and you have to make reservations and pay in advance. We are planning to do it this year and we are really looking forward to it. Check out the videos on you tube. The Sea World site doesn't have much info on it.