Disney-Bound in May!

[GriswoldDisneyMom]

Hello all! I am a newbie to this board, and a newbie to Disney vacations. My family will be taking our first trip to Disney World in May. My mother is retiring from Michelin Tire Plant in Ardmore OK after 31 years, and is taking the whole family to DW. It will be a big group trip: Mom, Dad, me, my three kids (17, 17, and 10), my middle sister, her hubby and daughter (age 10), and my youngest sister (age 27). Thus my username, because I suspect this trip may have a National Lampoons quality to it!

We are staying at Pop Century, and we will be there 5 nights and 6 days, from May 27 to June 1. We are flying out of Dallas.

Issues of particular interest right now: booking character dining and dining with an animator. (we have two artists, one serious, in the family.)

Also, wondering how easy the parks are to navigate in a motorized scooter. My dad is probably going to need one.

Looking forward to checking out all the forums here and getting all the inside scoop!

Thanks!

 

[PoohsFan1]

First off let me just say to the DIS. You have come to the right place to get valuable information for your upcoming Disney trip. You may want to hop on over to the disabilities board for your answers about the scooter question, but in my experience (went with MIL who used a scooter last March), it wasn't really that difficult to manuever around in (just watch out for the kiddos and the never ending sea of people stopping suddenly infront of you to look at either a map or the castle ). You are going to be having a blast on your trip, make sure to pick up a guide of Birmbaum's Unofficial guide to WDW (it is the best book out there for WDW newbies like you IMHO). Also, you are so lucky to be doing the dining with an Animator, my DH has been wanting to do that for a long time but with the kids, he can't justify the price, however in January 2012 we will be there to celebrate his birthday so I am thinking of maybe booking that just for him for a birthday present. Anyways, have fun and just do your homework

 

[shefrn1]

wooo hooo...we're going in may too!!!! sooo excited!!!!

have fun!!!

 

[AKL LOVER]

Congrats on your first trip! It will certainly be magical!

My family and I love character meals. It's a great way to meet a lot of characters without standing in lines in the parks (I have young kids and understandably, they hate long lines!). Here are some of our favorites:

Donalds Safari Breakfast at Tusker House in AK: Book an early ADR before rope drop and you can get into the empty park early! And you are back at the park to get right on the safari right after rope drop when you are done eating!

Winnie the Pooh and friends at Crystal Palace in MK: We really love breakfast here too. But you can see them at dinner as well.

Cinderella, Prince Charming, the evil stepsisters and stepmother at 1900 Park Fare Dinner in the Grand Floridian. The stepsisters and stepmother at this meal are the best--they are such a riot!!

And of course the Fab 5 at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary. Not everyone is crazy about the food here, but in our experiences the food has been fine. For us it's the plus of seeing these particular characters!

I've also heard that Ohana's breakfast is great--this meal has Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and another but I can't remember who (maybe Pluto). We've never eaten here and I wanted to try it on our upcoming trip, but we just couldn't fit it in. We had too many other new places to try along with visiting our favorites. So many restaurants, so little time!

Have fun planning your trip!

 

[GriswoldDisneyMom]

Hey again.

I think only one of my kids is just dying to meet any particular character, and it's my daughter, who wants to meet Goofy. We're booked at Tusker House breakfast, but not sure what time. We're also doing Spirit of Aloha, Le Cellier, and my other daughter and younger sister are dining with an imagineer.

Based on the threads I've read, my Dad using a scooter will be a bit difficult only in that you have to rent one each day at each park. They can't travel between parks unless you rent them for the length of your stay from an outside company, and then you'd have to figure out how to get it on the transportation.

 

[Chuckers]

You'll definitely meet Chef Goofy at breakfast in Chef Mickey's. Also, when we went to breakfast at 1900 Park Faire we saw the Winnie the Pooh characters and Mary Poppins.

I thought the food for breakfast at Chef Mickey's was great.. I am doing that again when I am there in May.

 

[nswisher]

If your really looking for a character meal with Goofy, then he can be found at any of the following
Cape May Cafe for Breakfast @ Beach Club in his Beach Wear outfit
Chef Mickey for Breakfast or Dinner @ Contemporary in Chef attire
Garden Grove for Breakfast @ the Swan Saturday ONLY
Garden Grove for dinner @ the Swan nightly EXCEPT Monday & Friday
'Ohana Character Breakfast @ Polynesian
Tusker House for Breakfast @ AK

but if you want, he can be found in MANY places around the parks and save your DD meal for somewhere else you may want to eat at. AK has many meet and greet areas that are set up to see specific characters throughout the day. In Epcot there is also a Character Connection meet and greet at Innoventions West, and also some characters in the International Gateway. Also if you are a card holder to the Disney Visa Credit card, you can meet and get a free 8x10 of the characters that are at Innoventions East (I believe, could be West, can't remember off the top of my head). That's just at Epcot. You can also go up to any Guest Relations and ask them, they have the answers to where the characters will be for that day and be able to give you times and locations. Also, just a little note, if your hunting down characters in the park, and find some that you would want to get pictures with, try to be there 5-10 mins earlier then the time they are to get there. It's easier to wait the 5-10 mins before they get there, then wait the 30-45 min line once people realize they are there.

Since it is your first trip, just a little more information for you, the characters will do their best to stay in character. When I went the first time, Mary Poppins sang her ever so famous Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, backwards for me. Thumper from Bambi did his foot stomping thing, and Pocahontas will ask about your wigwam. Just to name a few. Also if you go with PhotoPass, there are many different trick shots that they can do, it's fun to play around with them every now and then, but sometimes you do have to ask for trick shots.

A good site that I use for dinning, resort, and park information is allearsnet.com. They have some great information.

We will also be going from May 30-June 6. Hope you have a wonderful trip. Maybe we'll run into each other.

 

[JennisSilly]

We're going in May too =) May 7-14.

We're doing:
- Sci Fi Drive In
- Le Cellier
- 1900 Park Fare
- California Grill
- Crystal Palace
- Boma
- Coral Reef

I'm hoping to do the Wild Africa Trek, but last I checked they weren't booking beyond April 2nd. =(