Help me make the most of our DDP

[Shelly888]

If this is your thing and you are bored I would love some help, advise, opinions, etc......

THis is what I have so far:

1/27~Arrive @ MCO at 1pm ADR @ Sci-fi at 4:40 Fantasmic @ 6:30

1/28 RD @ MK

1/29 ADR @ Tusker house at 8:15...day at the park...ADR @ Boma 4:30

1/30 Epcot

1/31 Epcot

2/1 MK

2/2 HS ADR @ Cape May Buffet 5 pm

2/3 +2/4 @ UNiversal Studios

2/5 ADR @ CHef Mickey's at 5 pm Pirates and Pals cruise @ 6;30 to see Wishes

2/6 Fly home, ideally an earlier flight as DS has school the following day and we have a 2 hour drive home.

Some of my ideas: Breakfast at CP on 2/1. The 2 Epcot days are giving me a hard time. I think we will split into 2 days Countries one day, and future world another day. I have 2 ADRs for the FW day but aren't sure about them. One is lunch at San Angel Inn and the other is Garden Grill at 5 pm same day dinner. I also have an ADR for Chefs de France @ 12 noon, for the country day. I also have Mama Melrose planned for lunch on the HS day as well.

I think what is throwing me for the loop are the rave reviews I have heard about counter service in WS~ the moroccan cafe, and there was one more I cannot remember, and wonder if we should use some of our qs meals in Epcot instead of ts for lunch....but we will still need to use 2 days of DDP.

Is anything sticking out? Should we try a dinner show? Any must haves? We aren't park hopping, so we need to either dine at the park we are going to or hit a resort, we very well have a rental car.

I have been very lucky scoring pretty much any reservation I want, but I am thinking time will be running out shortly and need to get things figured out soon.

 

[catne]

If this is your thing and you are bored I would love some help, advise, opinions, etc......

THis is what I have so far:

1/27~Arrive @ MCO at 1pm ADR @ Sci-fi at 4:40 Fantasmic @ 6:30

1/28 RD @ MK

1/29 ADR @ Tusker house at 8:15...day at the park...ADR @ Boma 4:30

1/30 Epcot

1/31 Epcot

2/1 MK

2/2 HS ADR @ Cape May Buffet 5 pm

2/3 +2/4 @ UNiversal Studios

2/5 ADR @ CHef Mickey's at 5 pm Pirates and Pals cruise @ 6;30 to see Wishes

2/6 Fly home, ideally an earlier flight as DS has school the following day and we have a 2 hour drive home.

Some of my ideas: Breakfast at CP on 2/1. The 2 Epcot days are giving me a hard time. I think we will split into 2 days Countries one day, and future world another day. I have 2 ADRs for the FW day but aren't sure about them. One is lunch at San Angel Inn and the other is Garden Grill at 5 pm same day dinner. I also have an ADR for Chefs de France @ 12 noon, for the country day. I also have Mama Melrose planned for lunch on the HS day as well.

I think what is throwing me for the loop are the rave reviews I have heard about counter service in WS~ the moroccan cafe, and there was one more I cannot remember, and wonder if we should use some of our qs meals in Epcot instead of ts for lunch....but we will still need to use 2 days of DDP.

Is anything sticking out? Should we try a dinner show? Any must haves? We aren't park hopping, so we need to either dine at the park we are going to or hit a resort, we very well have a rental car.

I have been very lucky scoring pretty much any reservation I want, but I am thinking time will be running out shortly and need to get things figured out soon.

OK, first off, you'll be very, very lucky to make it to Sci Fi by 4:40 if your plane is landing at MCO at 1:00. Even if your plane lands just on time, no delays getting luggage or rental car...well, that's going to be quite a rush to pull that one off - airport to hotel to park in less than 4 hours...can be done, but will be hectic. Do you want to start your vacation off like that after traveling for hours? But have to warn you, even if you make that restaurant reservation, there's a good chance you will not get into Fantasmic. IF you get seated within 10 minutes of your ADR, say by 4:50, it will take you at least 45 minutes -- again, if you're lucky and get seated that quickly, and then if service goes bing-bing-bing, and they ring up the ticket on a timely basis, etc.- it may take as little as 45 minutes, but wouldn't bet money on it. Most Table service we've eaten at --about 35 of them--has taken closer to an hour once we were seated. Anyway, best-case scenario - 45 minutes -That will take you up 'til 5:35. It will take you 15 minutes to get from Sci Fi to the top of the Fantasmic theater...which would then be 5:50. You'll be lucky to get standing-room-only at just 40 minutes before show time. The lines begin forming 90 minutes before the show these days. In the past 1.5 years since they've cut back on performances, we have gone to Fantasmic 4 times...during slow times of the year. All general seating was gone at 45 minutes before show time -- only thing left was standing-room-only and reserved seats for the ticket-holders. Three of those occasions had a 2nd show on the schedule for that night -- made no difference on the crowd at the first show, still packed. So I guess bottom line, if you REALLY want to see Fantasmic that night, get counter service & make sure you're getting to the Fantasmic theater entrance by 5:30 at the latest.

On your Epcot and DHS days (or any days, for that matter) would not schedule two table service restaurants any closer than 6 hours - we made that mistake on our first trip with dining plans...portions are big, you'll be full for a long time. So if you're doing a noon table service, don't schedule dinner before 6:00 p.m. We also love the Tangierine Cafe (Morocco counter service) as well as Sunshine Seasons/The Land in Future World for counter service. You mention some scenarios that have a lunch reservation and then a dinner reservation at 5:00...unless those lunch ressies are for 11:00, you're not going to be hungry at 5:00.

On MK day, breakfast at CP before park opens is very nice -- the restaurant is not full, so plenty of character time, and it's lovely to be in the park before the crowds swarm -- nice opportunity for castle pictures without a crowd of people in your pics. For dinners, you might want to look at monorail restaurants -- handy to hop the monorail from MK (or resort boats) for Polynesian, Grand Floridian or Contemporary and some good choices there...Kona Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe, and The Wave are all favorites of ours. If you're eating an early dinner and the parks open late, you can just hop the monorail back to park after dinner.