First Post!

[jwalsh]

Hi!

I'm coming into the home stretch of my countdown to our departure flight from LaGuardia (two days, to be exact ) ! I have been looking through the DIS boards often for the past month, when I found out my family would be going to the World for our second time ever and first in four years!! I decided to make an account just to help with some last-minute stuff. He are some details about our trip:

Resort: Yacht Club (Can't wait for Stormalong Bay!)

9/29 -- Arrival/Check-In/Disney Springs
9/30 -- Epcot
10/1 -- Magic Kingdom
10/2 -- Resort and pool day
10/3 -- Hollywood Studios
10/4 -- Leave

Our district has break for rosh Hashanah 10/3 and 10/4.

So... any recommendations in general? What's changed since 2012? (other than New Fantasyland, Disney Springs) We have some table service reservations and I know that you should always look out for people cancelling their ADRs a day or two before, any can't-miss restaurants? Thank you all!!

P.S. Sorry if i'm posting this thread in the wrong place, I'm new to working my account and everything! Thanks again!

 

[nursejackie]

We stayed at the Beach Club last year and Stormalong bay is the best Disney pool IMHO. Being able to walk to Epcot was also a big positive for us (especially as the queue is much smaller than at the main entrance). We have eaten at Beaches and Cream in the past, which we recommend, so didn't eat there last year but you can also stroll over to the Boardwalk for good food options. I have to have brownie cheesecake from Boardwalk Bakery every year.

We didn't do our research and headed to the bus stops to go to Hollywood Studios, and soon found out you can't get the bus! It's either boat or on foot, so we opted to walk, which was rather nice. Hollywood studios is a shell of its former self, with even more attractions/areas closed since our last visit, which is very disappointing. You may find you don't need a full day there now

Magic Kingdom is as special as ever, with great attractions/dining, although we are biased as it's our favourite place to be in the whole world. Dinner at Be Our Guest is our number one dining experience, as you can meet the Beast afterwards, but we also love The Plaza for table service and Sleepy Hollow for our must do - fruit and nutella waffle.

Epcot has also seen some closures and there are rumours of big changes in the future, but a leisurely stroll around 'the world' enjoying the ambience/shopping/eating of all the countries is hard to beat. We always have pizza at Via Napoli and have treats from Germany's caramel shop. We also eat at Yorkshire fish and chip shop, anywhere in France and Kringla bakery for school bread. Soarin' has a new movie from June 2016 and Test Track has been upgraded and is much improved. Of course the new Frozen ride is now open but we have a 9 year old boy who insists he is NOT going on it!

We do not spend as much time in Animal Kingdom as we do in the other three parks. Expedition Everest is our number one attraction, closely followed by Dinosaur, it's tough to be a bug and Kali River Rapids (in December, we are mad!). We have yet to experience animal kingdom at night so looking forward to it in December. As for eating, this is our least favourite place, and usually stick to Yak and Yeti local cafe but have a booking for Yak and Yeti restaurant this year.

We personally love to visit other resorts to dine out. We recommend Narcoosee's (our Christmas dinner every year), Grand Floridian Cafe (surf and turf burger and dessert plate), Whispering Canyon cafe (more food than you can ever eat), The Wave at Contemporary, and for quick service we also enjoy Port Orleans Riverside and AKL The Mara.

Have a wonderful trip. 10 weeks and 3 days and counting until we go (10-15 Dec AKL, 15-26 Dec OKW)

 

[jwalsh]

We stayed at the Beach Club last year and Stormalong bay is the best Disney pool IMHO. Being able to walk to Epcot was also a big positive for us (especially as the queue is much smaller than at the main entrance). We have eaten at Beaches and Cream in the past, which we recommend, so didn't eat there last year but you can also stroll over to the Boardwalk for good food options. I have to have brownie cheesecake from Boardwalk Bakery every year.

We didn't do our research and headed to the bus stops to go to Hollywood Studios, and soon found out you can't get the bus! It's either boat or on foot, so we opted to walk, which was rather nice. Hollywood studios is a shell of its former self, with even more attractions/areas closed since our last visit, which is very disappointing. You may find you don't need a full day there now

Magic Kingdom is as special as ever, with great attractions/dining, although we are biased as it's our favourite place to be in the whole world. Dinner at Be Our Guest is our number one dining experience, as you can meet the Beast afterwards, but we also love The Plaza for table service and Sleepy Hollow for our must do - fruit and nutella waffle.

Epcot has also seen some closures and there are rumours of big changes in the future, but a leisurely stroll around 'the world' enjoying the ambience/shopping/eating of all the countries is hard to beat. We always have pizza at Via Napoli and have treats from Germany's caramel shop. We also eat at Yorkshire fish and chip shop, anywhere in France and Kringla bakery for school bread. Soarin' has a new movie from June 2016 and Test Track has been upgraded and is much improved. Of course the new Frozen ride is now open but we have a 9 year old boy who insists he is NOT going on it!

We do not spend as much time in Animal Kingdom as we do in the other three parks. Expedition Everest is our number one attraction, closely followed by Dinosaur, it's tough to be a bug and Kali River Rapids (in December, we are mad!). We have yet to experience animal kingdom at night so looking forward to it in December. As for eating, this is our least favourite place, and usually stick to Yak and Yeti local cafe but have a booking for Yak and Yeti restaurant this year.

We personally love to visit other resorts to dine out. We recommend Narcoosee's (our Christmas dinner every year), Grand Floridian Cafe (surf and turf burger and dessert plate), Whispering Canyon cafe (more food than you can ever eat), The Wave at Contemporary, and for quick service we also enjoy Port Orleans Riverside and AKL The Mara.

Have a wonderful trip. 10 weeks and 3 days and counting until we go (10-15 Dec AKL, 15-26 Dec OKW)

Thank you so much! (sorry for the late reply.) We will definitely check out the boardwalk, especially on the evenings of the days we go to Epcot and DHS, since it's right by the walkways there. We're considering leaving DHS in the afternoon, since we have an ADR at Sci-Fi Dine in but no dinner reservation. (Especially if it's hot, we will likely return to Stormalong Bay!)

You have already convinced us to go to sleepy hollow.

We have a FastPass for test track early in the morning, but not soarin, so we'll try to get to rope drop and head there. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure they now have an interactive queue? Same Frozen situation here.

This time we're substituting our half AK / half resort day to a full resort day.

I'll look into all the restaurants you mentioned. We were previously consi
the Wave but not sure how long the bus/monorail takes to get there (MDE app said 66 minutes...could that be possible?)

Hope you have a great trip too! Thanks again

 

[nursejackie]

I cannot see it taking 66 minutes to get to the contemporary. You just jump on the bus to MK then walk along the path to the hotel which is literally minutes away. We haven't been to Soarin' since they have renovated it earlier this year so it may well be interactive now but as they have added another screen it shouldn't be as long a wait, especially at rope drop.

We have an 8am breakfast booking at garden grill so we can enter the park at 7.50am when it doesn't open until 9am! We pay up by 9am and make sure we are first in the queue at Soarin' , sneaky eh?! Then we can book a fast pass for test track as they are tiered together.

 

[jwalsh]

I cannot see it taking 66 minutes to get to the contemporary. You just jump on the bus to MK then walk along the path to the hotel which is literally minutes away. We haven't been to Soarin' since they have renovated it earlier this year so it may well be interactive now but as they have added another screen it shouldn't be as long a wait, especially at rope drop.

We have an 8am breakfast booking at garden grill so we can enter the park at 7.50am when it doesn't open until 9am! We pay up by 9am and make sure we are first in the queue at Soarin' , sneaky eh?! Then we can book a fast pass for test track as they are tiered together.

Thank you! We have reservations for Captains Grille two days and we'll probably get quick service the other days, so no early park entry for us.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Nice strategy nursejackie

Enjoy ur trips everyone!

 

[Andrew Head]

Sounds like a blast! We're going in December. Can't wait!

 

[jwalsh]

Nice strategy nursejackie

Enjoy ur trips everyone!

Sounds like a blast! We're going in December. Can't wait!

Awesome! Have a great trip!

 

[Kay Bieber]

I cannot see it taking 66 minutes to get to the contemporary. You just jump on the bus to MK then walk along the path to the hotel which is literally minutes away. We haven't been to Soarin' since they have renovated it earlier this year so it may well be interactive now but as they have added another screen it shouldn't be as long a wait, especially at rope drop.

We have an 8am breakfast booking at garden grill so we can enter the park at 7.50am when it doesn't open until 9am! We pay up by 9am and make sure we are first in the queue at Soarin' , sneaky eh?! Then we can book a fast pass for test track as they are tiered together.

Genius! There's so many strategies I wish I knew!

 

[sjcampbl]

Have a great time!

 

[nursejackie]

Genius! There's so many strategies I wish I knew!

We used to do the same at Crystal Palace (8am breakfast booking, enter main street 7.50am) when the park was due to open at 9am, but as we go in December Disney changed the opening times to 8am a few weeks before so we lost the benefit. Now we do the same at Garden Grill. I am sure it works in all the parks, e.g. 8am at Hollywood and Vine in HS or Tusker House in AK. It's lovely walking through the parks when they are completely empty early in the morning.

 

[Angel Rae]

Have a great trip