Help Me Plan My Disney Vacation!!

[hodgesda1]

My wife, kids (16 and 12) and I are heading to Orlando for our twice a year Disney vacation. We consistently have the same routine every time we go, but this time we want to do things we haven’t done or just make it a little different than usual. I will be chronicling our journey throughout and want know what everyone else is interested in doing or has done on past trips. I would love to be able to take all of your ideas and suggestions and let you know how they worked for us. There will be times when the kids go off on their own and my wife and I will be able to do the things that the kids feel are boring as well as family oriented things. I am open to all suggestion and tips.



Our one and only tradition we have always done and will always do is the park opening at MK and then straight to Space Mountain (this is only on the first day, not every day of the vaca). After that we have no plan. I would love a lot of feedback to keep us busy trying and seeing new things.





We have Annual weekday passes so we only go in the offseason and during the week. We do not have waterpark passes and do not plan on purchasing them as well as we have no plans of going to Universal. We will go to Seaworld one of the days, but Seaworld could be an event for Saturday the 26th. We are not staying on property, but we did get a good deal on a condo close to the parks so the commute will not be bad.

Our plans so far for the food situation will be to cook breakfast at the condo (unless we can find a way into Chef Mickey’s one day), probably eat on property somewhere for lunch, and then dinner at the condo. I am more than interested in the different places everyone has eaten on property and if one or two are truly intriguing we could change our current plan to try something new. A few of our favorite places to eat are Cooke’s of Dublin in DTD, The Contempo Café in The Contemporary, and the ABC Commissary in DHS. I would like to hit up Be Our Guest for lunch one day, but we have no solid plans for dining. I have tried to get reservations at some of the restaurants, but we didn’t decide on this trip until last week and it is a little short notice to get the good reservations.

A couple things I am focusing on this trip are doing Disney on a budget, how being a Florida resident can help with cost as well as how being in the military can help with cost. Other than that I am willing to shell our some $$$ for food if I am truly convinced by someone that we should try a particular dining option. (I just won’t put that in my Disney on a budget post).



I truly hope to receive many comments, as I will be planning our vacation off your ideas and then posting how it all went down.

Day 1 at Disney will be 20 May 2013 and we will be heading back home 26 May 2013.

You can follow along here on DISBoards, on twitter @nsidetruth and the same on instagram.

 

[hodgesda1]

So here is where we sit. We will be leaving Panama City FL (driving) for Orlando on the evening of the 19th. I have to work that weekend and the kids have a swim meet so it will be a late night of driving.



We’re staying at Villas of Fortune Place in Kissimmee for the week. My discount got us 7 nights for less than $400 and it is a 2 bedroom full kitchen. I have never stayed there so I am only hoping it is what we are looking for. The reviews are good, most of them.







May 20 –

• Opening ceremonies at the MK and then straight to Space Mountain
• Going to try and get lunch at Be Our Guest (depending on the line)
• Spend most of the day wandering, some rides, many character pics

That’s about a far as I’ve gotten so far in our planning.







Having been to WDW so many times and rushing through all the same things it will be nice to just take our time and explore the hidden treasures of Disney. I have been watching YouTube videos and reading a lot of posts on what to do at Disney and I keep seeing things I didn’t even know where there. It is going to be like my first time. I am more of a Disney fanatic than anyone else in my family. I get tears in my eyes watching the opening show for the MK every time. Disney brings up so many good memories form my life. I do not remember a bad time at Disney ever.







Any pointers, suggestion on things to do or stay away from, ideas that you may have wanted to try but never did, or just any comments will be appreciated.

Thanks again for reading.

 

[hodgesda1]

We’re 6 days out from our WDW vacation. I have been looking at the route we will take to get there. I have driven this route more times than I can count, but I still have to put the plans in a logical order. The distance from Panama City FL to the resort we are staying at in Kissimmee is 378 miles which, according to Google maps, will take 5 hours 47 minutes. Because we will be traveling on a Sunday evening I think, even with stops, we can do it in that time, minus the hour time change. Same state, two time zones. I hope to get on the road around 3pm CST which will put us at in our room about 10pm EST. Just enough time to get some sleep and rise early for rope drop at the MK.

The problem with traveling at night is that the kids, and my wife, will sleep on the drive and when we get there they will be wide-awake and I will be exhausted. I am going to try to keep them all awake the entire drive. The main reason for keeping them awake is so I can stay awake. I have to be at work at 5am that morning so I will already be tired. The one good thing about a WDW vacation is that no matter how tired you are you keep going and don’t realize it until after the vacation.

I am also in the process of making sure I have enough electronics to properly document this vacation. Here is a photo of what I am taking. The only thing missing is the 3 iPhones we have. If this isn’t enough stuff to capture every aspect of our vacation than I am not sure what we can do. I love to take pictures, video, and do a little podcasting while I sit around and rest. I’m looking forward to doing a lot more sight seeing this time around.



Next time I will talk about some ideas of things we have never done, but want to this time. Maybe I iwll get some thoughts from the rest of the clan. They haven't gotten really excited yet, but since we leave in less than a week I think the excitement will begin to bubble over.

Til next time
Dave

 

[hodgesda1]

The problem with planning is the fact that you want to do everything when you only have time for some things and when you try to do everything you miss many things.

Our original plan of not doing Universal is still accurate, but visiting the Disney water parks has come up again. Here is my thought…. I can get a one day one water park pass for $51 each OR I can get an annual FL resident after 2pm pass for $60 each OR we just stick with our plan of not going to the water parks. Well, the not going to the water parks doesn’t sound fun, but I could probably find something to do with that $240 I would spend on water parks. This decision is killing me.

Here is the situation with my family and water parks. We have been to Blizzard Beach, but not Typhoon Lagoon. The weather will probably be in the upper 80s low 90s the week we are there so we will want to get wet I am sure.

We’re already torturing ourselves by staying off property. Why make things worse by not spending some time at a water park? This conversation will continue, I’m sure, until we get there next Monday.

Thanks for listening to me ramble in my head and if you have an opinion on this please let me know.

Until next time

Dave

 

[hodgesda1]

I did not have to work today so I have been planning and reading all day. Since this is my first PTR I am not sure how much or how little I should post. People seem to be stopping by, maybe reading a little, maybe not… One thing I have noticed over the past 2 days from my reading is that everyone seems to be introducing there Disney travel partners. So, with that being said, I will do the same.

So, for me --- I am David, I am the biggest Disney fan in our house. It may be hard to believe since I have a 16 and 12 year old. I spent the first 10 years of my life living in southern California and frequenting Disneyland. At 10 years old my family moved to FL where Disney World became my new passion. We currently live in Panama City FL (only a 6 hour drive) and try to get to Disney about twice a year. I have been in the military for 17 years first the Marines and now the FL National Guard. Military always has good deals for Disney. When I retire I would like to move to Orlando and work at the parks. (I would be happy picking up trash there)




My wife is Anne. She enjoys Disney, but would be happy vacationing anywhere as long as it was a vacation. She spent 14 years in the Marines (how we met) and taught elementary school for about 5 years and currently homeschools our two kids. She has been hired on by a private school here in Panama City as a technology coordinator for next school year. So vacationing in the off season may go out the window.



My daughter Dannielle is 16 and acts like a 16-year-old girl. Her parents (Anne and I) are not cool. Nothing is funny or exciting unless it was her idea. You know, the normal 16-year-old girl thing. She does love Disney, but now that she is older she would rather be there with her friends and not her parents. Too Bad Dannielle. Once we get there she will change her attitude and have a good time. Happens every time. Over all (or overall, is it one word or two) anyway back on track, she is a very good and responsible teenager that gets good grades (even with her mom being her teacher – cat fight). So I don’t give her too much of a hard time. And she’s daddy’s little girl.



Finally there is Gabriel who is 12. He loves video games. That is all……………… OK, maybe there is a little more. He does enjoy Disney, but he and his mother don’t like to try to cram everything at every park into one day just to say we did like Dannielle and I. Gabe and Anne need a break every day. I believe there is time for a break when we are dead. Gabe likes to sight see so wandering the parks looking at stuff and just relaxing fits him well or riding the rides or whatever. He doesn’t have to run from ride to ride and act like he’s 5, like I do.



So with all that being said, you can come to the conclusion that I am the big kid, Anne is the responsible one, Gabriel is Anne’s class pet, and Dannielle is 16.

That is the family. I have to work tomorrow so I may not get another post in until later tomorrow evening, but it has been fun writing even if I am talking to myself…..Hello, Hello

Til next time

Dave

 

[hodgesda1]

Four days til vaca. I’m saying 4 days since I’m not counting today and I’m not counting Sunday, the day we start diving.

I have an exciting addition to our trip. I was able to find reservations at the Crystal Palace for the 22nd at 10am. For most people, including me, 10am is a late breakfast, but I reserved it anyway.

We have been to Disney about 20 times and never done a character meal of any sort. We haven’t even done a table service meal. I am not good with sticking to a schedule so we eat whenever we eat and that usually entails counter service.

So, after not being able to find an ADR anywhere for a restaurant we liked, I decided to stop filtering by park and just did a general search for breakfast reservations. The first one I saw was O’hana at the Polynesian and was intrigued since I have read a lot of good reviews. What I realized was that most of the reviews were for the dinner not the breakfast. After more research I realized that I am a pancake, waffle, eggs and juice kinda guy and not so much on the pork and potatoes. Meat and potatoes is fine for dinner, but not my thing for breakfast. With that being said I continued to search and read reviews and when I got to Wednesday I saw it!!! 10am, Crystal Palace, breakfast, characters, pancakes, waffles (chocolate chips), eggs, OJ. I immediately researved it and began searching for an earlier seating, but nothing. We are all excited about our first character breakfast regardless of time.



Yesterday I wrote that the rest of the family was not really excited yet about the Disney trip, but by the evening that had all changed. Dannielle (too cool for school 16 year old) all of the sudden brought out all the Disney CDs we have and said that was all we could listen to the rest of the week. Then the Disney movies came out. We now have to watch a different Disney movie each night until we leave. When I told them I got the ADR for Crystal Palace you would think they just won the lottery. So, the excitement is kicking in sooner than normal. I’m likin it.



All things Disney have now come out at our house. We already have Disney everywhere from pictures to snow globes to my usual coffee cup so it has been exciting to see them get excited.





The latest news is that I have to work this weekend, but I was able to get approved to be off Sunday so we can leave a little earlier. I would leave right now if I could.

Until next time,

Dave

 

[hodgesda1]

I forgot to post a pictuer of our dining place for the 22nd.

 

[hodgesda1]

So, it's been a couple days since I posted anything. Planning is still in process even though we leave for Orlando this evening, I hope (more on this below). Everyone is getting so excited to be in vacation in a World like no other.

I have been working, but haven't been too productive over the past week. It is difficult to concentrate on work when your mind continually pulls you to all things Disney.

I have been watching and listening to a lot of reviews on the things we would like to do on this trip. One of the things I am interested in is trying the “kitchen sink" at Beaches and Cream. I am a huge fan of ice cream in general so this is tight up my alley. I think this will be on our third day.

The other day I said I was able to get a reservation at Crystal Palace. I was pumped about the reservation, but not the time. 10am is a little late for me, but yesterday I was able to find a 830 reservation. So, I booked it and cancelled my other reservation and all was right in the world.

Yesterday on my way to work I realized the vehicle we are planning to drive to Orlando was starting to over heat. I didn’t have time to check it our when I got to work, but before I headed home I looked and found a pin hole in a tube behind the water pump that is impossible to get to without taking just about everything out of the engine compartment. This was depressing mainly because this is the vehicle with the best AC and we don’t want to sweat to death on our vacation.

This is before I took it apart - I can't get my hand in that little area



So, I got the vehicle home and too everything apart and realized that my wife and kids are out of town until this later the next day. Now I have a vehicle in my driveway that is completely taken apart and I have no way to get to the parts store to get what I need to fix it. It’s only an easy fix if you have the parts you need.

After I took it apart - there's the leak!!



Anyway, this morning I thought to call a friend and they are coming over to drive me to Autozone to get what I need to, hopefully, complete the repair before my wife and kids get home and then the vacation will go as planned. There will be more on this later since I am writing while I wait on my friends to get here.

So nervous about getting this done in a timely manner so our vacation isn’t slowed or even ruined. I think my daughter keeps some pixy dust in her room so I will go look and see what we can find.

Until next time,

Dave

 

[hodgesda1]

Her is the latest of the car. It is fixed. I think. Well, seems to be fixed. Nothing leaking so that’s good. No overheating so that’s good too.

My wife and kids will be home from their weekend trip in about 15 minutes and then a little last minute packing and grabbing the things we forgot to pack and we will be off.

For those of you who pray, please pray the car is really fixed.
For those of you who hope, please hope that my car is fixed.

My next post will be from Orlando.

The weather channel says 60% chance of rain tomorrow, but we don’t care. We have ponchos and with the temps so hot we will dry quick when the sun comes out.

Until next time (at Disney),

Dave

 

[hodgesda1]

It's taken me a little over two months to get a post up about the trip. Obviously the trip is over. We had a great time, but there were some issues that we will fix for next time (October hopefully).

We arrived without any issues. The car made it and is still running just fine. As I mentioned before we decided to stay off property. It only costs me $350 a week for a 2 or 3 bedroom at many different resorts in Orlando. That is a huge saving from staying on property, but there is many benefits of staying on property that outweigh the cost.

We got to out resort around midnight on the 20th and once we were checked in we were asleep. It was a descent resort. It was more like an apartment complex, but for what we paid it was great. two bedrooms and full kitchen. The downfall was that the resort was about 30-45 minutes from Disney, depending on traffic. This was a hassle because of wasted time. We like to go back to the room around mid day and rest before we head back to the parks in the evening. Being so far away we did not stay with our plan each night.

Day 1 is always the same for us. We arrive at the Magic Kingdom for the opening ceremonies and then head to Space Mountain. The rest of the morning we just wandered around and rode a few rides. Around two we headed back to the resort to rest. The kids just wanted to go to the pool so I slept and they swam. That evening we headed back for the fireworks and a few rides to complete day 1.



The rest of the week was pretty much the same. It rained in the afternoon every day we were there. A couple of the days we only hung out half the day at the parks and some of the days we came back in the evening. We like to spend a lot of time at Downtown Disney as well as the Boardwalk.



We did manage to order the Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Creme at the Beach Club Resort. It was huge. Anne and gabe had a little while Dannielle and I finished most of it. We felt pretty ill for a couple hours after that.



I had planned to write every day I was there to keep track of what we did second by second, but that fell through as soon as we got to Orlando. I am great at planning, but not so great at following the plan. We did get some of the plan accomplished like my daughter wanting to get her picture taken with all 11 princesses.

It took all week to accomplish the princess plan, but it was accomplished on that last evening we were there.

Tips for princess pictures:

One big tip is that if you are planning to get your picture taken with the main 3 princesses you need to get a fast pass. The wait for standby was about 70 min the entire time we were there. Our fastpass got us in in about 15 min. The good thing about these princesses is they are inside so the sun and rain are not a factor.

Most of the princess lines are outside and in the heat. Merida was a long line, about 45 min, and in the heat. The line is next to trees so there is some shade, but still hot.

All the times for the princesses are posted so I would suggest getting there about 15 min before they start and you will be one of the first in line. The princesses only stay out for about 45 min before taking a break. The attendant will stop people from getting in line at a certain point. We were on our last day and needed Mulan and Snow White. The Snow White line was long and the attendant wasn't letting anyone else jump in so we went and waited for Mulan. We were first to in line (there was actually no line) for Mulan and then headed back for Snow. When we got there the end of the previous line was about to be done and a new line was starting. We jumped in that line and waited for her to go inside and then return.

The indoor princesses are Ariel (Magic Kingdon), Cinderella - Aurora - Rapunzel (Magic Kingdom all together)



The outdoor princess with some sort of cover are Jasmine (Magic Kingdom, not indoors, but under cover), Pocahontas (Animal Kingdom, the line is under a lot of trees so it is shady)



The outdoor princess with the line in the direct sunlight are Snow White (EPCOT), Belle (EPCOT), Mulan (EPCOT), Tiana (Magic Kingdom), and Merida (Magic Kingdom, there are trees, but depending on the time of day you may be in the direct sunlight)



On the 22nd we had reservations at The Crystal Palace. It was a great time even if it was over priced. The food was not all that great, but the experience was awesome. We had never done a character dining so it was a good idea for us. We were able to get pictures with Pooh and friends. We probably won't do that character dining again, but it was a great one time thing.



We were at the Magic Kingdom for the 24 hours of magic. We did not show up at 6am or stay til 6am, but we were there for some of it. The funny thing about it is the fact that I love Disney, but hate crowds. As you can see from the pictures there was a bit of a crowd. We were stuck in people traffic for quite some time. We were parked at EPCOT since that is where we were earlier in the day so we took the monorail back. They were parking people at EPCOT that night because the parking lot at the Magic Kingdom was at capacity. I think the Magic Kingdom itself was beyond capacity.



We have done Disney so many times that we are always looking for new things to do while there. This time it was the princesses and character dining. Next time it will be something else. A couple days ago I found out that I will be transferred to Gainesville which will put us less than 2 hours from Orlando. We may be visiting more than twice a year once we move. I am looking forward to the day I retire and get a job sweeping trash in the Magic Kingdom.

We are starting out planning for an October trip to Disney. Depending on how the move goes and what my schedule will be. We like to be there around Halloween because the crowds are pretty low and its just a nice time to be there. I will be starting a new PTR as soon as I know for sure when we are going.