First Trip May 2020: POFQ and Lots of Character Meals

[CoffeeKitten]

Hey everyone! This is my first trip and consequently my very first pre-trip report. So, please be patient as I navigate the forums as a newbie. And of course, I'll take any advice from the veteran planners.

First a quick introduction:
I'm Kitten (40) and I'm the one planning this trip. DH (38) is along for the ride and bankrolling this adventure. DD (11) thinks she is the planner for this trip, so she is very vocal about what we should do. This is her very first Disney trip and wants to do EVERYTHING!

How this all started:
After many years with no big family vacations, DH was getting frustrated. I'm a bit of a homebody and hate flying. And DH is terrible at planning and I didn't feel like planning something I didn't even want to do. He also works a ton of hours and at one point had a job that wouldn't approve any vacation time for three years!

So in May/June 2019 I said fine, let's go to Disney next year. But I knew they wouldn't want to wait a year to go on vacation. They were clamoring for a trip that summer. I really really didn't want to go to Florida during the heat of summer! So, I rented a cabin for a week in July at a vacation destination lake in our state. (Which turned out really great. Everyone loved it!)

The family was appeased and now I had a year to plan a Disney trip ... but oh how time flies!

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Table of Contents:

Dates and Resort Booked
Making ADRs
Galaxy’s Edge and Other Activities
Oh No! Everything Must Change!
Goodbye DDP
Coronavirus!!

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Dates and Resort Booked

I hadn't been on the Dis for years, so I'm ashamed to admit it wasn't my first thought when I realized I needed to plan a Disney trip. I ordered a few 2019 Disney planning books and began reading.

By this time it was mid-June 2019. From my reading, I had decided on the last two weeks in February or the end of April/beginning of May. I did a search and found a bunch of different Disney travel agents. I emailed them all. Only one of them called me back that day. She was so nice and asked me a bunch of questions about what I was wanting out of my trip.

Since it was the early days of my planning I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I didn't know the dates, or the length, or even what resort we should stay in. My head was spinning with all the choices. Well, the travel agent (TA) was wonderful! She explained the prices for 2020 weren't out yet. So I gave her a couple different dates (Feb 2020 and May 2020) and a couple different resorts (Wilderness Lodge and French Quarter). And as soon as the prices came out she sent me that info.

BTW, no other TA called me and no one emailed me back. I understand the prices hadn't come out yet, but if they wanted my business they should have communicated that back to me. When the prices did come out, I received a few emails but no one was as attentive as my first TA. She is an absolute godsend! She promptly answers emails no matter what time. And we've called and texted as needed.

I realized Mardi Gras was during my Feb dates, so I ruled that out. And POFQ's prices were so much cheaper than WL, that I could add the dining plan. So this is what I finally booked:

May 3-15, 2020 Port Orleans French Quarter, garden view.
8 day tickets, Disney dining plan and memory maker.

 

[disneyseniors]

Hi Coffeekitten: Congratulations on your first family WDW trip
We stay at POFQ and love it. The compact size is great for us because of mobility problems. The food court is great and never crowded when we go there. We are planning to go February 25th thru March 4th next year and can't wait.
Their pool is really nice, and there is a separate area at the pool where you can sunbathe, read, etc without being right at the poolside. The pool bar is close by and has nice tables to relax. The hottub is outside the pool area, but we have never used it. However, others rave about it on Disney sites. The boatride to Disney springs is a great perk of staying at POR or POFQ. We use it a lot and the ride is nice, quiet, and beautiful.
You can also use all the pools at Riverside. They are sister resorts. The Mill QS restaurant at POR is excellent! and the resort gift shop is huge and IMO has the best selection of other gift shops. We used to stay at POR, for many years, and absolutely love that resort, but had to try a smaller resort. We love POFQ, but miss the ambience at POR.
There are also carriage rides you need to schedule before arriving, and these originate at POR. They are a lot of fun and beautiful. The carriage goes through FQ and it's fun to watch the horses go by.
Just relax and have a great time.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have about POR, POFQ, or Disney

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Hi Coffeekitten: Congratulations on your first family WDW trip
We stay at POFQ and love it. The compact size is great for us because of mobility problems. The food court is great and never crowded when we go there. We are planning to go February 25th thru March 4th next year and can't wait.
Their pool is really nice, and there is a separate area at the pool where you can sunbathe, read, etc without being right at the poolside. The pool bar is close by and has nice tables to relax. The hottub is outside the pool area, but we have never used it. However, others rave about it on Disney sites. The boatride to Disney springs is a great perk of staying at POR or POFQ. We use it a lot and the ride is nice, quiet, and beautiful.
You can also use all the pools at Riverside. They are sister resorts. The Mill QS restaurant at POR is excellent! and the resort gift shop is huge and IMO has the best selection of other gift shops. We used to stay at POR, for many years, and absolutely love that resort, but had to try a smaller resort. We love POFQ, but miss the ambience at POR.
There are also carriage rides you need to schedule before arriving, and these originate at POR. They are a lot of fun and beautiful. The carriage goes through FQ and it's fun to watch the horses go by.
Just relax and have a great time.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have about POR, POFQ, or Disney

Thanks for the info. I liked how POFQ had a smaller footprint. And the carriage ride sounds so cool! I also love Creole food and ... beignets!

 

[DisneySweetTooth]

Sound’s like great choices so far. I’m so excited for you and your family on your first trip! It may feel overwhelming at times, and things may not always go to plan, but if you can embrace the idea that it isn’t always going to be perfect, you’ll have an amazing time.
I think getting the dining plan was a great decision on your part if you are indeed planning on lots of character meals. And totally agree with PP regarding the Port Orleans resorts.

 

[apartment j]

Hi @CoffeeKitten , I am joining in and am looking forward to reading about your planning process. I'm excited to hear it all from the perspective of a first timer! I have never visited the Port Orleans resorts so I can't comment on them, but I do stay onsite at other Disney resorts on average 3 trips per year for a week or more each time, so hopefully I'll be able to comment on other aspects of your trip. HAPPY PLANNING!

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Sound’s like great choices so far. I’m so excited for you and your family on your first trip! It may feel overwhelming at times, and things may not always go to plan, but if you can embrace the idea that it isn’t always going to be perfect, you’ll have an amazing time.
I think getting the dining plan was a great decision on your part if you are indeed planning on lots of character meals. And totally agree with PP regarding the Port Orleans resorts.

You are so right. I'm doing the planning work now but we are ready to ditch it if we have to (because of heat, long lines or general crankiness.) DD will only be 11 years old one time at Disney, so I'm sort of indulging her on this trip with all of the character meals.

Hi @CoffeeKitten , I am joining in and am looking forward to reading about your planning process. I'm excited to hear it all from the perspective of a first timer! I have never visited the Port Orleans resorts so I can't comment on them, but I do stay onsite at other Disney resorts on average 3 trips per year for a week or more each time, so hopefully I'll be able to comment on other aspects of your trip. HAPPY PLANNING!

Thanks, I can't wait to read your input. I know some of my plans and choices will seem naive to Disney veterans, but we will enjoy it regardless and do better on the next trip (and the next, and the next ).

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Making ADRs

I knew I had to quickly decide what table service restaurants we wanted to go to. Because we were getting the DDP that meant we had 12 table service credits for this trip. After a lot of additional reading, research and family discussions we decided on the following:

Chef Mickey’s - dinner (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy)
The Crystal Palace - lunch (Eeyore, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger)
Sci-Fi Dine-In - lunch
Mama Melrose’s - lunch
Teppan Edo - lunch
1900 Park Fare - breakfast (Mary Poppins, Alice, The Mad Hatter, Tigger,& Winnie the Pooh)
Artist Point - dinner (Snow White, Evil Queen, Dopey, and Grumpy)
Be Our Guest - lunch
Trattoria al Forno - breakfast (Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel, and Flynn Rider)
Akershus Royal Banquet - lunch (Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Princess Aurora, and Ariel)
Cinderella’s Royal Table - lunch (Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Jasmine)
‘Ohana - breakfast (Mickey, Stitch, Lilo, and Pluto)

For this trip, we plan on three days at MK, two days each at Epcot and HS, one day at AK, and a few rest/resort days thrown in.

My DD is 11 and this is her first trip so we made a conscious choice to do every character dining experience she wanted. After all, she’s only 11 once!

At the 180 day mark, my TA scheduled all my ADRs and I got the dates and times I was hoping for. A few weeks later, I realized I forgot to get the Fantasmic! package for Mama Melrose’s and had only booked the regular dining. So, the TA rebooked that one. I wasn’t super happy about the time but it was the only one available. I continued to check back until I was able to get a time closer to a time we would actually want to eat lunch.

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Galaxy’s Edge and Other Activities

The books I read about planning a Disney trip didn’t have any information about Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge (SWGE). So I began reading online from this forum and different Disney blogs. From my reading, I realized I would need a reservation for Oga’s Cantina and to make a droid or lightsaber.

Yet another call to my TA and she booked all those things for our HS days.

Because we are staying at POFQ, I also had my TA call and schedule a horse-drawn carriage ride at Riverside.

I want to take a moment to say how much I love having a TA call Disney for me to book all the ADRs and other activities for me. And after installing MDE on my phone I realized my birthdate was wrong and the TA even made the call to get that fixed. And I was able to ask her opinion on the ADRs I wanted and double-checking I had done the math on my TS credits correctly. And when a new discount came out, the TA called and managed to get an additional $300+ dollars off our room rate.

So, I would definitely recommend a TA for anyone that hates to talk on the phone or wants help booking ADRs and FastPasses.

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Oh No! Everything Must Change!

I had planned on showing what my expected schedule would be for my trip, but a major life change happened and it has affected my trip plans.

My DH got a new job! We don’t have to cancel our trip but because of the company he now works for I had to cancel our existing room reservations because I booked them through a TA. Then with DH’s assistance we rebooked our trip. We found an availability at POFQ but our dates had to change.

Our new trip is now May 11-23.

We actually debated canceling our plans. I didn’t want my hardworking TA to lose her commission. But only an idiot would willingly pay more money than she needs to. So unfortunately, we did make the decision to cancel our original package.

I checked the crowd calendars for our new dates and rebooked all my ADRs by myself. (Turns out it’s not so hard. )

Here’s the new updated schedule:

Monday: Check-in day and dinner at Chef Mickey’s 7:35 PM
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom and lunch at Crystal Palace 1 PM
Wednesday: Hollywood Studios, Droid Depot 11 AM, Sci-Fi Dine-In 1 PM, Oga’s Cantina 7 PM
Thursday: Rest day; breakfast at 1900 Park Fare 9:25 AM and dinner at Medieval Times 7 PM
Friday: Epcot and lunch at Teppan Edo 1 PM
Saturday: Magic Kingdom and lunch at Be Our Guest 1:10 PM
Sunday: Rest day; Cocoa Beach
Monday: Hollywood Studios, Savi’s Workshop 11 AM, Mama Melrose’s 12:45 PM
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom and lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table 1:10 PM
Wednesday: Rest day; breakfast at Trattoria al Forno 10:05 AM and dinner at Artist Point 6:55 PM
Thursday: Animal Kingdom
Friday: Epcot and lunch at Akershus 1:20 PM
Saturday: Check-out day and breakfast at ‘Ohana 7:30 AM

I still need to call and reschedule our carriage ride for Sunday evening. It would also be nice to either move the Artist Point ADR to Sunday or earlier on Wednesday so we can take advantage of Painting on de Bayou at POFQ from 6-8 PM on Wednesdays. But right now I can't find any openings.

With the money we saved, we also booked a second trip in September for a week at Wilderness Lodge. Be on the lookout for a pre-trip report!

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Goodbye DDP

As I previously posted, I had to cancel my original reservations. I changed from a Disney package that included DDP to a room only rate. Excited about the great discount I got on the room, I was on the lookout for a good deal on food. Everyone talks about getting DDP if you are going to do a lot of character meals. So I decided to compare out of pocket versus DDP.

I used the menus posted at AllEars and priced out what it would cost for my family at the various restaurants and counter service locations. I chose expensive items that we probably would have ordered using the dining plan. It was very time-consuming to do the calculations for my 12-night trip! But when I was done, I saw I would save at least $400 if I paid out of pocket. And I will definitely save a lot more than that because I doubt we will always order three full entrees or the most expensive things. And we are eligible for other discounts at some locations.

I’m glad I originally planned for the DDP because otherwise I would have never planned for so many table service meals. And I don’t mind the splurge for this big first trip.

 

[CoffeeKitten]

Coronavirus!!

Whoa, lots of craziness happening! I can't believe Disney World is closed until the end of the month. I'm hoping that no cancellations will effect my May trip. But DH isn't sure we should go anyway.

As it is, we don't have any tickets purchased right now. (That's a whole other story since we only needed tickets for our HS days.) We don't have any FP+s yet, but in light of recent events that is the least of our concerns. Disney park tickets are nonrefundable (usually, can't say what Disney is doing for those affected by the March cancellations), so we are waiting for a date closer to our trip before purchasing tickets.

It is really nice that we have until five days before check-in to cancel our trip if common sense dictates, and still get a full refund. I checked resort prices for our May dates and found a new cheaper discount for our resort. But calling the reservations number was insane! Waited on hold only to receive a message that they were only modifying reservations in March. Called the next day with a five minute wait and the Cast Member wouldn't touch our reservation since it wasn't in March. Oh well, it was worth a try.

So I went online and booked my resort at the cheaper price and cancelled my old reservation. Yippee! Easy to do since I didn't have to worry about losing FP+s. And it was very, very nice to have an additional ten percent off discount.