First trip to DW in June

[Kyradavis]

Hi everybody. I'm surprising my son by taking him to Disney World for his 10th birthday . Due to some medical issues the last few years have been challenging for him but now he's doing wonderfully and I really want to turn this trip into an amazing celebration. Thing is, I'm a little overwhelmed. Disney World is just so insanely HUGE! We'll be staying at the Port Orleans Resort--French Quarter between the 4th and 11th of June. I know we have to go to the T-Rex cafe in Downtown Disney (my son wants to be a paleontologist) but aside from that...where do I start??? I know there are books you can buy to help you plan..about a 100 of them. I thought some of you might have some insights and tips.

 

[Aliceacc]

Hi Kyra (my daughter is Kira ) Welcome, and best wishes for your son's continued improvement. Does he have any particular medical needs you need to address? You can probably find info on just about everything at the Disabilities board here.

My friend stayed at Port Orleans last year with her 7 and 9 year old boys, and loved it!!!

Well, for starters, will you get there before or after his 10th birthday? It does matter, because as I understand it (someone else please verify) if you get there before he turns 10, he still counts as a "child" not an "adult" in terms of both park tickets and the meal plan.

Are you considering the meal plan? I think it's great; we did it last year with our 3 kids and got to eat in a huge variety of places we otherwise would have skipped. It runs about $40 per day for an adult, and $10 per day for a child, for a counter service meal, a table service meal, and a snack.

OK, some general things your son may enjoy:
FOOD:
- the Coral Reef in Epcot-- one entire wall is an aquarium. It's gorgeous! We loved the food too.
- Character meals-- my kids enjoyed Chef Mikey's-- all the characters come up to your table for autographs. You can also do breakfast with Stitch at 'Ohanas in the Polynesian (easy to reach by monorail from the Magic Kingdom) I'll leave out all the Princess stuff.
- We loved the steaks at Le Cellier in Epcot; my 10 year old son is a huge steak fan. Reservations can be very hard to get, but it might be worth a try.
- This year, my son really wants to try Sci Fi drive in in Hollywood Studios.
- One way or another, try to get to the Polynesian (either the fast food Captain cooks or Kona Cafe)one morning for Tonga Toast. It's French Toast stuffed with bananas. Probably a bazillion calories-- and a bit too sweet for my taste-- but I bet your son loves it!

OTher:
- If he's a dinosaur fan, be sure to spend some time in Animal Kingdom. My kids were a bit too freaked out to do some of the dinosaur stuff there, but take a look.
- Also at AK, we loved Kali River Rapids (be warned: we got soaked! But that was the fun part!!) and the Safari. The kids aren't roller coaster fans, so we skipped those.

- Epcot: RUN, do not walk, to Soarin'. It's beautiful and fun-- like hang gliding, but you're actually only 15 or 20 feet up in the air.
- Depending on your son's medical limitations, also look at Test Track and Mission Space (green is the tamer version.)
- My kids also loved the rides in Norway and Mexico, Norway in particular. They also loved the Imagination pavillion and spaceship Earth.

Magic Kingdom:
- My son LOVED the Indy Speedway. Other big hits included Pirates of the Carribean, the Haunted Mansion (fun, not scary), Buzz Lighyear, Peter Pan's flight, the Jungle Cruise (my 10 year old son LOVED all the corny jokes) We also MADE him go on Small World, and he enjoyed complaining about how he couldn't get the song out of his head.

I botched our day at Hollywood Studios (got there late, everyone was cranky...) But get there early and go RIGHT to Toy Story Mania, as quickly as you can!

Misc: Be sure to see each park closing at least once. Wishes at MK, Illuminations at EP, and if you can get in , Fantasmic at HS. They're incredible.
- One day, when the monorails aren't packed (translation: not first thing in the am or last thing at night) ask if you can sit up front with the driver. You may have to wait for the next train, but it's cool!
- Be sure to request a wake up call and let him answer the phone.
- Ask at the desk in your resort for a "First Time in WDW" pin. It may get him a bit more personalized attention.

OK, that should get you started!

 

[Metro West]

 

[Disneydonnam]

Welcome to the boards. I hope you and your son have a great vacation.

 

[Kyradavis]

Thank you so much Aliceacc! I know just from your description that my son will LOVE the Coral Reef restaurant! There was a scene in Mall cop where the "hero" set off an explosion in the Rain Forest Cafe (after closing) in order to thwart the bad guys. My son, completely indignant, stood up in the middle of the theater and cried out, "Wait a minute, what happened to all the fish in the aquarium!" He's also a big steak fan so we'll be heading to Le Celllier. And a Sci-Fi area of Hollywood Studios? My son will be beside himself with joy! Actually everything you suggested sounds great, right down to the First trip to Disney World pin.

We will be getting to the resort a few days before his birthday, good to know he'll get the child's rate. He is doing so well right now that I don't believe we'll have to worry too much about his being restricted by physical limitations (although his grandfather will be accompanying us and he definitely will). However his experiance with surgeries and medical uncertainties has made him a bit anxious in general. He's getting much better in that regard but I seriously doubt we'll be doing any rollercoasters or seriously scary rides. But he might make an exception for the Dinosaur ride since he does love them so much.

Again thank you for all your help. I'm just so excited about this trip!

 

[smiths02]

If your trip is June 4th and you want to eat at all those popular restaurants (Le Cell especially!) You need to call and make reservations NOW! You are already past your 90 day mark of March 6th....so you may not get LeCellier...407-wdw-dine is the number

If you are eating at all those restaurants, the Dining Plan may be a good idea for you...

 

[serene56]

The Unofficial Guide to Disney is my Bible- I get it from the library. Having that book allows a free subscription to Touringplans.com

I agree with the above poster.
Make your reservations for dinner yesterday.

 

[Aliceacc]

Good points. I somehow overlooked the "June" part.

And if you can't get all the ones you want, don't fret. There are a zillion wonderful restaurants.


go up to the top of this page and click on "Dining" for an idea of what's out there. But call for your dining reservations today; you can always add on tomorrow.

 

[Kyradavis]

I never would have known that I needed to make meal reservations this far in advance but because of your posts I made the calls to Disney Dinning (and The T-Rex Cafe) and managed to get reservations at Le Cellier and priority seating at T-Rex Cafe on his B-Day. Thank you for helping get this all together!

So now that I've taken care of the dinning....what about the shows? I'm from San Francisco and I've heard that at Disneyland you need to be right at Sleeping Beauty's castle in order to fully appreciate the fireworks show and that you had to have good seats for Fantasmic to really enjoy that as well. Is the same true for those events in Disney World? Is there any way of getting reserved seating for Fantasmic (again, a friend of mine told me she did this at Disneyland so I figured I should ask about it)?

serene56--I will definitely get the Unofficial Guide To Disney!

 

[MarkinNM]

to the boards!!!​

What a AWESOME B-day present!

 

[Aliceacc]

Hi Kyra, it's me again.

I'm not sure about the shows, but here are 2 things your son will probably like:

a) since you'll be there for his birthday, he gets a special perk: (oh, and he can also get a special Birthday Pin, like the 1st time in WDW pin)

http://www.wdwinfo.com/Disney2009Celebration.htm#birthday

b) The Kim Possible Adventure at Epcot (I can't wait to try this with my kids):

http://land.allears.net/blogs/dnews/2008/08/new_interactive_attraction_at.html

www.allears.net also has info about the shows. Last year we did the Fantasmic dining package. This year I think we'll skip Fantasmic-- my 2 girls were just too frightened. I have read that, because of the limited showings this year, you need to be there EARLY to get a seat. But the show is wonderful... well worth the wait!

You can see Wishes (MK's fireworks) from lots of places. We found spots on Main Street, looking up at the Castle, and thought it was wonderful.

Illuminations (Epcot's fireworks/laser show) can be seen from any place in the World Showcase near the lagoon.


Also, would you consider joining a Photopass share?
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2116504
I did one last year with my sister and my friend, and it was great!! We ended up with something like 350 photos on the CD, some of which had wonderful special effects.

OK, now I have a job for you: After you buy the Unofficial Guide,go to www.touringplans.com and take a look at their crowd calendar. See which parks are likely to be less crowded on the days you're there. With a son with medical issues and your father, it may be a good idea to take the crowds into consideration. While touring plans is a subscription site, it's the companion site to the book. You can get access to lots of their info, and decide whether or not it will suit your family.

 

[Kyradavis]

Thank you, thank you and thank you again! You really have helped me pull this all together!

 

[mecllap]

Kyra -- looks like you'll be there for Star Wars Weekend at DHS, so plan to go DHS at rope-drop Friday, Saturday, or Sunday -- your son will love it). If he's outgoing, get up front and tell him to be enthusiastic for the Jedi Training Academy, to try to get chosen for it (it might help if he has his birthday button on) -- you can try again if he doesn't get in the first time. If you're out front of the gate before opening, there are stormtroopers up on the gate doing a cute preshow (at least there have been in years past). Do a search on here about SWW (there's usually not a whole lot of info on the WDW official site). (there's also info here: http://sww.studioscentral.com/main/ )
There will be lots of SW characters to get cute photos with (I recommend Photopass, but using your own camera is fine also).

 

[Kyradavis]

This morning my son was up before me and on the computer. As usual he was on the internet researching topics about dinosaurs and endangered animals. When I did get out of bed he pulled me over and showed me the Disney World website with all the information on Animal Kingdom. "I know we can't afford it right now but some day I would really love to go there," he said. "And I know that if we DID go we still wouldn't be able to afford one of the Disney hotels with the cool water slides and that's okay. As long as we can go some day."

It was everything I could do to keep myself from telling him that I am surprising him for his B-Day with a trip in June and that we will be staying at the Disney New Orleans French Quarter hotel (complete with a super cool water slide).

Last year he was diagnosed as bipolar and put on medication. Still he was struggling with his moods in school. The teachers couldn't handle him and I couldn't handle them not handling him so I pulled him out and started homeschooling him. I'm a single self-employed mom and at that time all my money was going into making sure he was okay. Then I took him to a neurologist (rather than just his regular pediatrician or psychiatrist) and we discovered that his problem had been totally misdiagnosed. He wasn't bipolar but had a small noncancerous brain tumor. I was told it was operable. So we had it removed, he's fully recovered (both from the surgery and the needless medication I had him on before). He's been through so much and now, with this trip, I feel like I'm making one of his dreams come true not to mention giving him a traditional childhood experience (which he hasn't had enough of).

So again, thank you for helping me make this a wonderful trip. I owe you one

 

[Kyradavis]

Mcllap: We will so be there! He LOVES Star Wars! last halloween he was Luke!

 

[Aliceacc]

Ah, man, Kyra, you've both been through a LOT!!

I had a mastectomy in September and just finished 6 weeks of radiation, so I have some tiny inkling of what you've been through. (And I've taught one or 2 high school kids who were bipolar, and seen the whole medication merry-go-round.) It's incredibly rough. You have my sincere sympathies, and my congratulations on getting through all that sane.

 

[DWFan4Life]

I just wanted to say welcome to DISboards and may you have a great time, have fun and enjoy in your upcoming trip. Looking forward in hearing more from you.

Have a nice and fun planning.

 

[Disneymom2266]

I am so excited for you to take him! Maybe you can call customer service at MK, and tell them about your story, you may be able to get yourself and your son to ride on the Grand Marshall float at the parade. It`s definitely worth a phone call!!

 

[livsoph]

Sounds like a fun trip! What a nice surprise!

 

[rlahansler]

Hi, my family of 4 (husband/myself and two kids ages 9 and 6) are going to Disney for are very first time 9/26/09-10/4/09. We purchased DVC points thru friends of ours at AKL Villas. We also added on the Dining Plan. Does anyone know if we can add our park tickets on now or do we have to wait until we check in. A DVC person told me yesterday that our park tickets will be on a seperate card than our room and dining plan and we cannot add the tickets now? Does this make sense?