Let me start by saying that this was my family's first trip to Walt Disney World. I wanted to get as much out of it as I could and planned it pretty much on my own, my travel agent was little to no help in planning it.
We arrived on Sunday 1/25 and left on Saturday 1/31. Staying at Caribbean Beach Resort with the Deluxe Dining Plan. But in order to only have the right amount of dining credits that we needed, I had to break up my reservation into 3 continuing reservations. First was for Sunday night, no dining plan. Second was Mon - Thurs - Deluxe dining plan. Third was for Friday night, no dining plan. This gave us each 12 table service meals and 8 snacks to use Monday - Friday. I had everything planned out.
Monday - Breakfast 8am at Citricos (Cinderella's Breakfast)
Dinner at Boma
Tuesday - Breakfast 8am at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
Dinner Coral Reef
Wednesday - Breakfast 8am at 1900 Park Fare
Dinner - Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review
Thursday - Breakfast 810am at Crystal Palace
Dinner at Chef Mickey's
Friday - Breakfast 9am at 'Ohana
Dinner was left open and we ended up at Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney
This lead to our first snag. Since we had continuing reservations from Sunday and our dining plan kicked in on Monday. We couldn't use the Dining plan on Monday so I had to pay for our meals, this wasn't a big deal, but caught me by surprise. They explained that reservations run through Midnight, so our Sunday-Monday reservation didn't ended until 12am Tuesday. Since this happened, we didn't get our refillable cups until Wednesday. By the way, those were pretty useless since they can't be refilled in the park.
Since we had so many early breakfast reservations and we didn't want to miss them, I decided to rent a car. THIS WAS THE BEST DECISION THAT I MADE THE ENTIRE TRIP. I will never go back without having a car. I returned it Friday morning and we used Disney transportation Friday. This would have wasted so much of out time. With the car I was able to run out to Walmart, (2nd snag, the toll booth wasn't working so I had to run through the toll). I was also able to run over to Port Orleans - Riverside and pick up some Magic Cookie bars.
We pretty much got to do everything that we had planned on doing.
Met all of the Princesses and a couple Princes, some 2-3 times.
I was able to get a Fast Pass for Anna and Else (my daughter was very exciting when we walked up to the entrance, I kept it a surprise).
Enjoyed our trip very much. Crowds weren't bad expect waiting for the parades at Magic Kingdom (this was nuts).
Hotel was okay, we had the Pirate room, but didn't spend anytime at the resort besides sleeping and used the pool one night.
Now that I know what to plan, our next trip will be even better.
Rides we rode
Big Thunder Railroad, Seven Dwarf Mine Ride, Space Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, Both Toy Story rides, Enchanted Tails with Belle, Little Nemo Ride, Talk with Crush, Lilo's Great Escape, Dinosaur, Test Track, Mission Space, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Expedition Everest, Great Movie Ride, Hall of Presidents show, Haunted Mansion, Played on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, It's a Small World, Kilimanjaro Safaris, PhilarMagic, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Muppet Vision 3D, Pirates of the Caribbean, Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Star Tours, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tomorrowland Speedway, TriceraTop Spin, Lion King, Nemo Musical, Frozen Celebration, and Under the Sea.
I might be missing a few
Characters we met
Cinderella (3x)
Ariel (2x)
Jasmine (2x)
Aladdin
Tiana
Nevin
Snow White (3x)
Belle (3x)
Pocahontas
Elsa
Anna
Rapunzel
Aurora
Tinkerbell
Mulan
Alice
Mad Hatter
Mary Poppins (2x)
Chip and Dale
Buzz Lightyear
Woody
Mr. Incredible
Frozone
Pooh (3x)
Tigger (3x)
Eeyore
Piglet
Mickey (at least 4 times)
Minnie (at least 4 times)
Goofy (at least 4 times)
Pluto
Donald (at least 3 times)
Daisy
Duffy (after he was done signing, he threw the pen on the ground. Handler said it was an inside joke)
Gaston
Mike and Sulley (Their handlers were the rudest people we say/met at Disney)
Peter Pan
Phineas and Ferb
I think that's it. Both kids filled up 2 autograph books with 0 duplicates
We arrived on Sunday 1/25 and left on Saturday 1/31. Staying at Caribbean Beach Resort with the Deluxe Dining Plan. But in order to only have the right amount of dining credits that we needed, I had to break up my reservation into 3 continuing reservations. First was for Sunday night, no dining plan. Second was Mon - Thurs - Deluxe dining plan. Third was for Friday night, no dining plan. This gave us each 12 table service meals and 8 snacks to use Monday - Friday. I had everything planned out.
Monday - Breakfast 8am at Citricos (Cinderella's Breakfast)
Dinner at Boma
Tuesday - Breakfast 8am at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
Dinner Coral Reef
Wednesday - Breakfast 8am at 1900 Park Fare
Dinner - Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review
Thursday - Breakfast 810am at Crystal Palace
Dinner at Chef Mickey's
Friday - Breakfast 9am at 'Ohana
Dinner was left open and we ended up at Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney
This lead to our first snag. Since we had continuing reservations from Sunday and our dining plan kicked in on Monday. We couldn't use the Dining plan on Monday so I had to pay for our meals, this wasn't a big deal, but caught me by surprise. They explained that reservations run through Midnight, so our Sunday-Monday reservation didn't ended until 12am Tuesday. Since this happened, we didn't get our refillable cups until Wednesday. By the way, those were pretty useless since they can't be refilled in the park.
Since we had so many early breakfast reservations and we didn't want to miss them, I decided to rent a car. THIS WAS THE BEST DECISION THAT I MADE THE ENTIRE TRIP. I will never go back without having a car. I returned it Friday morning and we used Disney transportation Friday. This would have wasted so much of out time. With the car I was able to run out to Walmart, (2nd snag, the toll booth wasn't working so I had to run through the toll). I was also able to run over to Port Orleans - Riverside and pick up some Magic Cookie bars.
We pretty much got to do everything that we had planned on doing.
Met all of the Princesses and a couple Princes, some 2-3 times.
I was able to get a Fast Pass for Anna and Else (my daughter was very exciting when we walked up to the entrance, I kept it a surprise).
Enjoyed our trip very much. Crowds weren't bad expect waiting for the parades at Magic Kingdom (this was nuts).
Hotel was okay, we had the Pirate room, but didn't spend anytime at the resort besides sleeping and used the pool one night.
Now that I know what to plan, our next trip will be even better.
Rides we rode
Big Thunder Railroad, Seven Dwarf Mine Ride, Space Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, Both Toy Story rides, Enchanted Tails with Belle, Little Nemo Ride, Talk with Crush, Lilo's Great Escape, Dinosaur, Test Track, Mission Space, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Expedition Everest, Great Movie Ride, Hall of Presidents show, Haunted Mansion, Played on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, It's a Small World, Kilimanjaro Safaris, PhilarMagic, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Muppet Vision 3D, Pirates of the Caribbean, Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Star Tours, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tomorrowland Speedway, TriceraTop Spin, Lion King, Nemo Musical, Frozen Celebration, and Under the Sea.
I might be missing a few
Characters we met
Cinderella (3x)
Ariel (2x)
Jasmine (2x)
Aladdin
Tiana
Nevin
Snow White (3x)
Belle (3x)
Pocahontas
Elsa
Anna
Rapunzel
Aurora
Tinkerbell
Mulan
Alice
Mad Hatter
Mary Poppins (2x)
Chip and Dale
Buzz Lightyear
Woody
Mr. Incredible
Frozone
Pooh (3x)
Tigger (3x)
Eeyore
Piglet
Mickey (at least 4 times)
Minnie (at least 4 times)
Goofy (at least 4 times)
Pluto
Donald (at least 3 times)
Daisy
Duffy (after he was done signing, he threw the pen on the ground. Handler said it was an inside joke)
Gaston
Mike and Sulley (Their handlers were the rudest people we say/met at Disney)
Peter Pan
Phineas and Ferb
I think that's it. Both kids filled up 2 autograph books with 0 duplicates
