first trip where? when?

[soreadytogo]

Hello I am planning a trip to WDW Nov22-29. Have reservations at the Dolphin. Just wanted any 1st time tips and also where do you go-and what day. Help (I am driving my husband crazy)
I have a 7 and 10 year old. does anyone know what character meal that we might try, I have heard it is hard to get PS for them Thanks Stacy

 

[kilee]

Not all character meals are hard to get into. If you want Cindy's then, that is the hardest. However, with the right planning, you can get many of them without being up at 6am. Once you decide which meals you want to do, figure out when you have to call 60 or 120 days-- then try to call as close to that day as possible.

Also, which parks you want to do on which days will depend on if you are planning on EMH. The general rule of thumb is if you are not taking advantage of EMH then try to avoid that park for that day.

For 1st timers, try to avoid commando style. We did this our first time (thinking we had to see it all), and we were somewhat miserable. Each trip since then has been better. I can tell you these are the rookie mistakes I made: Make sure that if you want to sit for the parades-- show up at least 30 minutes early-- possibly close to 45 minutes if the park is really busy. Also, try to plan to see some of the night time events (Spectro, Illuminations, Fantasmic) On our first trip we were so tired from commando touring we left before dark everyday. Relax and have fun...afterall it is DISNEY!!

 

[nataliesdaddy]

don't worry you will be fine - go to ... chef mickeys at the contemporary - even without ps's your wait should never be more then 1/2 an hour max,,,you should still esily be able to get ps's for your dates... regardless just walk up... they wait won't be long and they will give you a pager like device so you can wonder around the floor foyer where there are shops and lots of interesting things to see

you should aslo still be able to get ps's to crystal palace which I highly recommend...

this close to tyour date it will be an act of god if you can get a ressie for cinderellas royal table at the castle...but no harm in calling anyway.... maybe you get lucky and they have a cancelation...same to be said about the APrincess storybook breakfast at epcot and 1900 park fare dinner with cinderella...but no harm in asking when you call for your other ps's

I don't know much about the other ps's but liberty tree has them, tony's has them I think...frankly there are a lot of ps character greet type of things... don't freak... unless your children will be traumatized and crushed if they can't go to the castle for breakfast you should be alright... but for sure.... go to chef mickey's

 

[nataliesdaddy]

i concur with other poster - don't go commando - if you are doing early entry days - show up ealry for them... if you are not doing early entry days avoid the park of the day that is doing early entry -


a planing tip I highly recommend to give your children a sense of control so you and they will be less frustrated when you arrive is
1) go to the disney site show it to your kids...go to eeach rides description and make a list of which rides you MUST DO, and then rides that you WANT TO DO, and then rides/events that We don't mind if we done get the time to do. or a system of prioritizing by 1s 2s 3s ...whatever way of giving yoru kids choices, and also building the expectation that there are bunch of things to do and to reinforce that there is no way to do everything so... "tell me kids" whats most important... what I did was spend a couple hours cutting and pasting the pictures and verbage of the rides into a very large list in WORD. Then I printed the list out. DD 7 years old wnet over the list and chose MUST DO's, WANT TO DO's and IF WE MISS IT WILL BE OK's. Then I went over what the must do's were and each day we did those first thing in the morning before crowds became heavy... that way you make sure you at least get those done... try to match those must do's with early morning entries if you can do early morning entry

the other thing I did was group them all geographically...example... three of our must do's were space mountain, Buzz lightyear, and tomorrowland raceway... they are all right next to eachother... toon town had no MUST DO's but it was close to tomorrowland... so first thing on early entry morning we did the batch of MUST DO''s that were geopgraphically in the same place... got them out of the way first thing... then a nuch of WANT TO DO's were over in Toon Town so we did those next...
we could have walked all the way to frontier land but if you bounce from one "MOM I WANT TO DO THIS" ride... to another without a plan you can wind up walking back and forth all day long... I mean my daughter also had MUST DO's that were in frontier land... but if we would have walked all the way over there that morning waits would have started to be long... so do rides in batches...

also take advantage of fast pass... if you do not that is a big ,mistake... you plug your park pass into an atm like device... it spits out a ticket that allows you very rapid ride access during a one hour window that will be printed on the ticket... then go do something... a ride or something that has little waits...i.e small world...or tiki room... 5 minutes prior to the beginning of time printed as your window of time for your fast pass access.... five minuted before that window starts you can get another fast pass at a MUST DO ride... so get more fast passes.... go do another semi important activity... then when you are 30 minutes into your fast pass access tyime... go to the first ride, then hit the second ride.... BOOM you get two priorty rides done fast and with very little wait.... if any... my little 7 year old was fascinated that somehow daddy was able to get her past 200 people so we could get on the ride right away.

those are some initial thoughts

 

[snuggles]

Welcome to the Dis! You are staying at a great place! The location is great and those new beds are wonderful. I would definately make a must do list. At MK, my dd's (16 and 21) like to do Buzz, Space Mtn, Splash Mtn, Big Thunder Mtn, (do you see a pattern here? ) and still love the rides in Fantasyland. The Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise are still favorites too. Hit MK early and be prepared to leave when the crowds start getting thick. Epcot is the place to go for an electronic postcard home. Innoventions is where thats found. They take your picture to put on the card.. very cute. Be sure to send yourself one too. We usually find ourselves taking a good bit of time at Epcot. So much to do there and the boys will love exploring all the different areas. MGM and AK we can usually do in half a day. Have a wonderful time and be sure to read all of our trip planning boards.

 

[lentesta]

As far as "which park, which day?", try this:

www.TouringPlans.com/BestDays.htm

It's an interactive website that tells you the best days (and worst days) for each park, depending on your specific trip information.

Hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Len

 

[Harambe]

Also agree with curbing your need to do everything. Please plan some down time in your schedule. For example, sleep late one morning - walk over to the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast - go back to the Dolphin and enjoy the pool. Then pick which parade you really want to see and go to that park after lunch (do not pick the EMH park for that day!!!).

Another option: Go to the EMH park for that day. Have a ball - until about noontime. Pick a restaurant in the park to make a PS at for a big lunch. After your lunch, go back to the Dolphin and hang out for the remainder of the day. Swim - check out the arcade - or walk over to Fantasia Gardens to mini-golf. You can even go to Boardwalk and ride the four-person bike around! Then a quick supper and off to bed. You'll sleep like dead people! This works great with MK - have lunch at Cinderella's Castle (not a character meal but you'll be eating in the castle which is way cool!).

My DH would always complain that we paid so much for the park passes that we should be in the parks rather than poolside - but I pointed out that we were paying a pretty penny for the resort as well so why not enjoy it! Now he has been converted!

Have fun! This is your first trip of many!

 

[uncle al]

I too agree with the "don't try to do everything", first of all you can't do it, and even if you could - you would probably kill each other in the process. On our first trip to WDW we tried it & it almost made us never want to go back. I said almost!

As far as character meals... try Breakfast with Goofy & Friends over at the Beach Club. You're right there, maybe you do that on a pool day. Get up, head over to the BC have breakfast - back to the pool - at parade time head over to MGM or MK and catch the parade stay till closing, then back to the resort.

You are so close to MGM & Epcot I recommend heading over to those parks - catch a few attractions (the MUST DOs) then leave. Since you are so close you can do that almost "at will". It is kind of neat to have those two parks "right at your doorstep". Take advantage of it.

One last suggestion with regard to MK... we have discovered that as our kids have gotten older we use E-Ticket nights as our MK day. E-Ticket nights are reserved for WDW Resort guests only. The tickets are an additional chrage (this is terrible but I can't remember the cost & we only did it May). There are not that expensive <$20?). MK stays open until 1:00am (for those with E-Tickets). The most popular rides are open (Space Mountain, Alien, Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Big Thunder Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and I'm sure there are others). There are practically no lines - in May we road Space Mountain 6 times in a row (rode, got off, back in line, rode,etc...), same at Big Thunder except we never even got off the ride- just stayed on over & over until we were tired. So here's what we like to do. We head over about 4:00 - 5:00 in the afternoon do all of the things we want to do that will not be available during E-Ticket, then we watch the parade and wait till park closes then we do the E-Rides. I will tell you that we haven't done it in Nov - so you'll just have to check on hours & when (or even if) they will have an E-ticket night. You can purchase tickets right at the resort. Even if you don't use it this trip - file it away & next trip you might be able to take advantage. And since it is your first trip you may want to give MK a full day anyway.

 

[buckeye]

We stayed at the Swan last year and really loved it! Your kids will love the pool and you will love the location. My advice:

Take advantage of the Extra Magic Hour. Be one of the first on the bus/boat in the morning. You can get so much done by noon and then have some great pool time.

Use Fastpass!! Familiarize yourself with which rides have it.

Don't miss Illuminations at Epcot.

Don't plan so many MUST DO activities that you don't have time to wander and explore and veg out at the Dolphin. I think the resort is a big part of the whole Disney experience.

Have a super time!!!

 

[soreadytogo]

WOW! Thanks for all the great advice. I can sense how much each of you really love the Disney experience! I'm sure I will have more questions. So I'm off to plan Thanks again Stacy D