Ideal Itinerary

[cmurphy4]

Hi - I am brand new to this forum and to Disney trip planning. (We've been once before but only for 2 days) Our trip is planned for February and I'm really getting into planning this out. I would love to get advice from you about what you think the "Ideal Itinerary" for 6 days at Disney World would be.
Here are some things you should know:
- Our kids are 7 (girl) and 4 (boy).
- We are staying at the Pop Century
- We will have a car
- We will have 6 full days there (starting on Feb 15th) plus a morning.
I'd like to know:
- What your week would look like - which parks on which days (also waterpark?)
- Which character meals
- What kinds of clothes to bring
Thank you!!

 

[mommyflower]

Just want to Welcome you to DIS. I have been to disney many times, but when we go in dec 2003 it will only be my second time with my ds who is 2 1/2. It is a completely different experience with kids. I have never been in feb. or dec. for that matter. I too, am not sure what clothes to pack. As far as planning your days, since you are staying onsite I would take advantage of extra magic hour. That is when each park opens one hour early on specific days. We haven't done it yet because last year when we went it wasn't available, but we are planning on it this time. 6 days is a good amount of time. What kind of passes will you have? We will have annual passes because we will be back in feb for 4 days with my parents and then cruising!! We like to do one park in the morning, take a break at the hotel after lunch, and then on to a different park in the afternoon. It is hard to say exactly what to do which day until the official calendar for feb comes out. It is usually out three months before. For example december's just came out last week. You need it to know when the parades and fireworks will be. You could look at last years just to get an idea. I would put a link for it here but I don't know how. Just look around the DIS site and you'll find it. If you like I can share my itinerary with you as soon as I finish it, which should be in a day or so.
As far as character meals, I don't have any recent exprience with them. We do plan to do some in december and I plan to report back here then. You can make priority seating arrangements 90 days before the day you want to eat on. This is probably a good thing to do for any character meals you definitely want to do.
We don't do the water parks with our ds yet, but when we did we only planned half a day for it.
Sorry this is so long! I know it can be overwhelming planning a WDW trip. Just ask lots of questions. I'll be glad to help the best I can and I'm sure you'll get a lot of other great advice here.

 

[Samandmom]

Hello, we will be there the same week as you. I have been in February before. It is chilly in the early morning and the evenings. During the day it was warm enough for shorts. This time I don't plan on bringing to many clothes. We have four of us now to pack for. I will have to do laundry. Plus we are staying a little longer. I agree about it being hard to plan an itenery before the hours come out. I would reccommend you take two days for MK. One full day for AK. One full day for MGM and one and half days for EPCOT and the other half you could use for a waterpark. The week you are going is President's week. It is going to be buisy. I would suggest you use Extra Magic Hour. (park opens an hour earlier on certains days to resort guests)
Character meals all depends on which charcters you are looking to dine with. I like Donald's for breakfast at AK (Donald, Goofy, Mickey) Crystal Palace at MK has pooh and friends. Does your daughter like the princesses? If so you might want to do a princess breakfast. I would make PS arrangements depending on which park you will be at that day.
I love Ohana's dinner it is not a character meal but great family restaurant. They have hula contest and cocunut races. The food is excellent.
You said you will have a car. We also will have a car but plan on mostly using Disney Transportation. We will be staying at the Poly. I would reccomend using Disney Transportation to make your life easier.
I hope I have helped some.

 

[cacgac]

My family of 4 visited this August. We also were there for 6 days. Spent two in MK, 1 in MGM, 1 in Epcot, and 1 in AK. My advice is to get to the parks early, but also take a day inbetween or even towards the end for a down day. To relax, shop, swim, and just hang. The kids get very tired. Even though we took a down day mid way thru, on our last morning to AK my ds cried when he had to get up, I knew we had sort of pushed it . Even though they are pricey do Character Breakfasts, we did Crystal Palace in MK, and did a fun lunch at the Sci-Fi diner, but I was sorry we didn't do Donald's Breakfst at Restarauntasurus.
Have fun, and really planning is half the fun!!

 

[Skylarr29]

i know this is long but here is my ideal trip for dd age 4 in dec , also www.wdwig.com helped with all my planning ( this is a very expensive version)


MONDAY
-11:15am Chef Mickey’s PS#
-1:30 pm Wonderland Tea Party Reservation #
-Check into the Wilderness Lodge Reservation #
-4:00pm drive to Epcot for the Candle light Processional @5:00pm
-7:00pm dinner @ Le Cellier Steakhouse
-Tapestry of Dreams Parade
-9:00pm Illumination around the lagoon

TUESDAY DECEMBER
-Animal Kingdom
-8:00 Donald’s Breakfastosarus character breakfast PS#
-Dinoland U.S.A.
-The Boneyard playground
-Tarzan Rocks Check map for show times _________
-Primeval Whirl FP
-Triceratop Spin
-Camp Minnie-Mickey
-Festival of the Lion King Check map for show times _________
-Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends Check map for show times _________
-Characters
-Africa
-Get faces painted at Harambe Village (near entrance to Kilimanjaro)
-Kilimanjaro Safaris FP
-Pangani forest Exploration Trail
-Wildlife Express to Rafiki’s Planet Watch
-Asia
-Flights of Wonder at Caravan Stage Check map for show times _________
-Maharajah Jungle trek
-Discovery Island
-The Tree of Life
-Discovery Island Trails
-It’s Tough to be a Bug FP
-Lunch @ Rainforest Café
-Go back to the hotel for the afternoon
-6:00pm Cirque du Soleil 6/5
-Ghirardelli’s

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER
-Magic Kingdom
-00:00am Cinderella’s Royal Table PS# 8/5
-Visit the Horses in Main Street’s Car Barn
-Pictures in Town Square Exposition Hall
-Mickey’s Toontown Fair
-Get faces painted at Pete’s Paint Shop
-The Barnstormer
-Mickey’s Country House
-Visit the Judge’s Tent to meet Mickey and have our picture taken
-Toontown Hall of Fame
-Minnie’s Country House
-Fantasyland
-Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel
-Sword in the Stone Ceremony check map for show times _________
-Peter Pan’s Flight FP
-It’s a Small World
-Dumbo the Flying Elephant
-Story time with Belle in The Fairy Tale Garden check map for show time________
-Mad Tea Party
-The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh FP
-Snow White’s Scary Adventure
-Mickey’s Philharmagic
-Visit Ariel’s Grotto to take pictures with The Little Mermaid
-Tomorrowland
-Buzz Light Year’s Space Ranger Spin
-Astro Orbiter
-Space Mountain
-Frontierland
-Goofy’s Country Jamboree @ The Diamond Horseshoe Review
-FrontierLand Shootin’ Arcade
-Country Bear Jamboree
-Splash Mountain FP
-Thunder Mountain FP
-The Haunted Mansion FP
-00:00pm lunch @ Crystal Palace PS# 9/4
-Adventureland
-Jungle Cruise FP
-The Enchanted Tiki Room
-The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-00:00pm Medieval Times Dinner Show
-9:30pm watch the Electric Water Pageant down on the dock

THURSDAY DECEMBER
-9:15am-12:00am Pirate Cruise (Dress as a pirate) Reservation # 9/5
-9:45am breakfast @ Grand Floridian Café (Mommy and Daddy only)PS# 9/5
-10:45am Parasailing (Mommy and Daddy only) Reservation# 9/5
-MGM Studios
-Beauty and the Beast Live check map for show time ________
-Voyage of the Little Mermaid
-Play House Disney check map for show time ________
-Star Tours FP
-2:00pm lunch @ 50’s Prime Time Café PS# 9/5
-Jim Henson’s Muppet Vision 3-D
-The Great Movie Ride
-Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster FP
-Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame check map for show time ________
-Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set adventure
-6:00pm Ft. Wilderness petting farm
-7:15pm The Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review dinner show PS# 12/05/2006
-9:30pm Hayride

FRIDAY DECEMBER
-10:00am Grand Adventures in Cooking Reservation# 9/6
-Go to Contemporary, breakfast @ Concourse Steakhouse (Mommy and Daddy only) 9/6
PS#
-Disney’s Winter Summerland
-Shopping @ Downtown Disney
-Back to the resort for naps
-5:45pm character dinner @ Liberty Tree Tavern PS# when buying tickets for Party
-Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
-Watch the special edition of fireworks

SATURDAY DECEMBER
-Epcot
-8:45am Yuletide Fantasy Tour (Mommy only) Reservation # 8/8
-9:00am Princess Storybook character breakfast@ the Akershus Castle in Norway
PS#
-Spaceship Earth
-Mission: Space
-The Living Seas
-Living with the land
-Imagination
-Honey, I Shrunk the Audience
-Test track
-Body Wars
-Cranium Command
-Universe of Energy
-3:00pm character Ice Cream Social PS# 9/7
-Swimming
-Fireworks Cruise aboard the Breathless Book on 9/7

SUNDAY DECEMBER 7TH
-8:30am character breakfast @ ‘Ohana PS# 9/8
-Water Mouse Boats
-Fantasia Miniature Golf
-A surrey ride around crescent lake
-Lunch @ ESPN Club
-Theme park of choice
-Go to MGM for Fantasmic and Osbourne Spectacle of Lights
-Dinner @ Sci-Fi Dine In Theater 9/8

MONDAY DECEMBER 8TH
-Magic Kingdom
-9:30am Disney’s Family Magic Tour Reservation # 8/10
-Barber Shop
-Go into Kodak Camera Shop take picture with the cartoon props
-2:00pm Richard Petty Driving Experience(Daddy only) Reservation #
-7:00pm Campfire Sing Along and movie @ the Meadow Trading Post in Ft. Wilderness

TUESDAY DECEMBER 9TH
-character breakfast @ 1900 Park Fair (Mommy and daughter only) PS# 9/10
-Manicures and Pedicures (Mommy and daughter only)
“Do whatever we didn’t get to do day!”
-Lady Bug Release
-4:30pm Pony rides @ Ft. Wilderness
-6:00pm Carriage Ride 10/10

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10TH
-Sleep late
-11:00am check out
-Have lunch @ Whispering Canyon café
-Leave for home

 

[Aisling]

Skylarr29,

The Tapestry parade has been discontinued.

 

[cmurphy4]

Wow! Thanks for all the great advice.
In regard to the idea of a day away from the parks, I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking go to parks for 3 days, then take a day off, then go to parks one or two more days.

I was thinking about doing some more laid back things on the days off - like miniature golf or swimming (if warm enough) or bike rides.
There doesn't seem to be a consolidated list of things like this in the Disney website so if you have advice on that also I'd love to hear it.

Thanks for the detailed itinerary - that is very helpful.

 

[sln88]

I don't know if it will be warm enough in Feb, but on our 'off' day, we went to Typhoon Lagoon. It was pretty relaxing and a shorter day that the parks are.

I am not a character meal expert, but will give you my 2 cents on the 3 we did on our trip.

Breakfast at Cape May. I really wanted Chef Mickey's but could not get a ps. I thought the food was great. I don't like breakfast food too much, but I thought it was all good. I wished I had more room in my stomach for more! yum. The characters were chip, dale, goofy. They were ok, but nothing exciting.

ice cream social at garden grill. Ice cream was ok, but I really thought the characters were great here. Mickey, chip, dale and pluto. They came around twice, 2 at a time, and acted silly with the kids. Our waitress was really nice too.

Baskervilles breakfast buffet. I had a 1/2 price voucher from ebay, so it was only about $7 for adults and $4 for kids. Goofy and Pluto were there. I thought the food was icky. Characters were ok.