First family trip to WDW June 2009

[teacher9702]

Okay, I have decided to do a PTR because I could use all of the help I can get in planning our trip for next June. We will be settling on our dates tomorrow with our family friend. She is a DVCM and is using her points to get us our room at OKW (I think). My plan is to spend 8 days at WDW which gives us two days at each park if need be. We are also doing the dining plan. Here is the cast of characters that are going:

me--37 last time I went was 21 years ago.
DH--37 last time he went was 21 years ago also
(we were both in high school when we went and were dating)
DD--11 (will be 12 when we go) she has never been
DS--5 (will be 6 when we go) he has never been

So you could say that this is the first time for all of us to go as me and my DH don't remember much about the first time we went. I have alot of websites that I have saved in my favorites that I look at but it is still overwhelming.

I know that I need to make ADR. I plan on doing this for dinners but I need to find places that all of us will eat and is enough for my husband as he can eat So I need resturant recommendations. What is good and what should we stay away from. Also the first day we get in we are spending it at DTD...this does not count for any of the 8 days. I know from reading that there is alot to do but have no clue what is there. Suggestions?

Also how does the child swap work. My son/daughter probably won't ride some of the rides so somebody will have to stay with him/her.

As you can see I will take any and all advice I can get because I can sure use it. Please help a first time WDW guest. THANKS!!

 

[teacher9702]

Well our cast list has grown for our trip next summer. My SIL and her husband are going. They have both been to WDW but it has been some time. They will actually get there before us and leave while we are still there. Our family friend--who is booking our rooms--hasn't gotten back with us to let us know that everything is a go. She had to go back to work and swap her work days and then call Disney. She and her grandson will be down there as well but I don't know for how long.

If all goes well our trip will begin on Tuesday June 9th and we will leave on Thursday June 18th. I have decided to spend the first day at DTD which leaves us with 8 days for the parks. If I can convince my DH to do it we will spend part of one day at one of the water parks.

I do know of one ADR that we will have to make as my SIL wants to eat at the Brown Derby.

I hope I can get some advice on how to go about planning my trip. I want to enjoy my days and do as much as possible without running a marathon. My DH is already afraid that I am going to be running his butt off and he will need a another vacation from the Disney vacation. I have told him that I hope to have it planned to a T so we can enjoy ourselves with the kids.

I was wondering...my birthday is actually on that Monday June 8th. Is there any way that I could celebrate without it actually being my bday? Also is there something that Disney does for those first timers aka my kids? I want this to be extra special for them as I don't know when we will be able to go down again.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Hi my name is Ty. I will try and answer some of your questons. I would reccomend eating at Planet Hollywood in DTD, the food is remarkable and it's fairly entertaining, lot's to look at. But they also have McDonalds if you want to budget during your off day. There is tons to do at DTD, so many things for the kids to look at.

I am sure your kids will enjoy Crystal Palace at MK, I would go for breakfast because then you get into the park before it opens and you can get great castle pictures without tons of people there, plus CP is a great character meal.

Liberty Tree Tavern is a great character meal as well, it's in MK, their meal is family dining, there isn't a menu to order off of, but it reminds me of a Thanksgiving dinner.

Sci-Fi Dine in Theater at Hollywood studios is a lot of fun, kids find it fascinating to sit in a car while eating and watch old sci-fi movie reels. A great counter service place to eat is toy story Pizza planet, there pizza is so good, it also comes with salad, very fresh.

Coral Reef at Epcot is really nice, I haven't tried any other restaraunt there.

Those are just a few things that my family enjoyed.

When you check in tell them it's your birthday and they will give you a birthday button, you can save it and wear it to the parks when you go, also ask for first timers buttons for your kids.

Child swap is pretty easy, you just tell the CM at the fron that you want to do the rider swap, once you have ridden they take you a back way to be with your child while your DH rides.

I hope I was able to help some.

 

[teacher9702]

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. My DD has had plenty of softball games/tryouts but everything is over for now. I got my official phone call from our family friend Wednesday night and our first family trip to Disney is official. We are booked for June 9-18. I just can't wait.

I am looking into any and all food places for evening meals. Our group is going to try and get together for supper that way we can all do what we want during the day. I need dinners for 7 nights. One night we are going to the Brown Derby as that is what my SIL wants to do. The first day we get there we are going to try and eat later in the afternoon and do just a counter service to save a table service for the Brown Derby since it counts as 2. So that leaves me with 7 more dinners to plan out.

When will park times come out for that time? I have my spreadsheet ready to fill in with hours, extended hours, and parade times.

Also where can I find a list of the rides that have fast passes? I want to make sure and get this but want to do it logically since my DH will go insane if I drag him in all directions. I kinda-of would like to go and one direction and continue around till I am back at point A. Also I have read that it is best to get up early when going to Animal Kingdom. Is that correct? My DS loves animals and I want to make sure that he gets to see all that he can.

Okay so now I am going to leave it up to anyone and everyone. I need all the advice I can get about what to do, where to go first, where to eat, etc. I haven't been there in 21 years so EVERYTHING has changed. PLEASE send advice!!!

THANKS!!!

 

[teacher9702]

Well we got our first official piece of Disney mail over the weekend. It really came by way of our family friend who booked our rooms but that's just as good to me. Even though I knew we were officially going this letter made it all tooo real. We are staying in a Studio room at Old Key West. This will be my first time staying there. If anybody has stayed here and has some bits of info/advice that would be greatly appreciated. Now we just have to wait till December to make our ADRs. We know of a couple of places already...Chef Mickey's for a character breakfast and the Brown Derby with Fantasmic (I think) afterwards. I have written down a few other places that people have talked about in their TR. I am getting all the menus together so that when the time comes we have something concrete to look at.

Couple of questions:
1. When will they announce the restaurants that will be participating in the DDP for 2009 or does it stay the same every year?

2. Looking at the Brown Derby menu, my daughter who will be considered an adult will be better served to eat from the kid's menu. Will that be possible?

3. I know that tips are not included in the DDP so I was wondering what is the correct percentage to tip? I am getting my mousekeeping envelopes ready and want to put some money in envelopes for tips. I was thinking about $20 per night for our TS but have it broken down in case we don't need that much.

Thanks for everyone's help. I want this to be an enjoyable trip for my family and one that my kids will never forget. I have four books that I get to read till next summer but getting advice from people who have been there recently or many times is even better.

MeMom I have to say that I have been reading your TR and have loved every minute of it. The pictures are just making me want to fast forward to next summer so bad. In fact I have a school countdown--I teach Jr. High Special Education BD kids--because once school lets out it will only be a few weeks more till we leave. (3 weeks down/33 more to go)

 

[teacher9702]

Sorry I haven't been on in a LONG while. It has been a crazy first half of the school year. I have barely had any time to get on the computer. When I get home I am exhausted. But with only 18 weeks left of school our Disney vacation is getting closer. I also just found out Monday night that my SIL's two foster childern (hopefully will be their children-we find out next week) will be coming with us to Disney as well. So that makes our group now 10 people.

Our Disney friend called me Monday night and is taking care of a couple of our reservations for us. We are doing Chef Mickey's for breakfast and my SIL wants to do Fantasmic with eating at the Brown Derby. I think we are also going to do Le Cellier. Trying to get my husband to choose where he wants to eat at is driving my crazy. I told him that we don't have to eat with everyone every evening but I at least want reservations for dinner each night we are there. So I let him know that where ever I pick he is going to eat at. I think he will come around. I printed off most of the menus so we can look at them and decide.

My cousin is painting some canvas bags for my two kids with Mickey on one side and WDW on the other. I am going to put items in them to keep them busy while on the plane and while they are waiting at the hotel. This is all a secret. They won't know about them till we are pulling out of the driveway to head to Memphis.

For Christmas from my other SIL she gave me $50 Disney dollars to spend. She said she hates to see my wait but I told her I didn't care that was my money to spend on ME. Upon some digging I found $25 more Disney dollars that I got from my MIL in 1999. So now I have $75 to spend on ME. YEAH!! I think I am going to look into getting my kids some Disney dollars for Easter and just in general. The only problem is finding a Disney store nearby. I think all of ours around here have closed. There may still be one in St. Louis. My daughter and I went there last year around this time so I will have to have my sister check that out for me.

Thanks for reading my ramble. I have my Mickey heads all cut out. Now I get to paste them one and number them for our double digit countdown.