I'm so confused:( Lots of ???

[Littlemotherhaywood]

I know where we want to eat and where we want to visit, but I am just stumped as to when to visit where. When we there in December we didn't get to see AK (it was pouring after our safari so we left and it rained all day) and MK was so packed we hardly saw any of that. I wanted to fit those two parks in first to insure that we would get to see them and I've left a day open at the end of the week to revisit any park we want. We ended up doing Epcot two days on our last trip and I do have it planned as there is still so much we want to do. I'm just wondering if I should aim for the extra morning hours (except MGM because we want to see Fantasmic again and the kids won't last that long) or not. I definitely want to avoid the evening hours because the kids will be total cranks by then and the crowds (even in the beginning of Dec.) were awful last year by evening. So far I have AK as our first park on Saturday, a down day Sunday, MK Monday, Epcot Tuesday (extra morning hour), down day Wednesday, MGM Thursday and extra day for whatever Friday. We also have five plus options left so we wanted to hit the waterparks but I don't really care how long we go or stay there.

Will AK be that bad on Saturday? I figure we're pretty safe with a Monday for MK. We're not really all day kind of people. My ds will be almost a year older than our last trip, but it was still pretty rough for him and we just want to relax.

Also, we want to do Crystal Palace in MK. Is it better to do breakfast or lunch? We completely missed the parade last time and really want to see it so a late, late lunch is out of the question. We could do dinner, but I think my kids will better behaved earlier in the day and more receptive.

Also, I can't decide if we should do O'hana with Lilo and Stitch or go for dinner. This would be on an off day. I suppose that should probably be in the dining forum so I'm sorry

I am so detail oriented and I have never had a harder time on anything. I've been working on this for three weeks and I still can't find a happy medium. I guess I need someone to say it's okay to not go certain places just because I could be there longer, etc...

Any advice would certainly be appreciated.

Also wanted to add we will have a car this time. We did Disney transportation and it was great but with a tired toddler, a stroller, and a plethara of other stuff to carry around, it was a pain.

 

[vsimeone]

Hi Kimberly... We must be neighbors. I am in NE Ohio too! Are the dates for your upcoming trip in September? I'm not sure but I think you will find smaller crowds at that time than even the first part of December. I'm no expert. I think your schedule looks good. My only suggestion would be to maybe move something so you could hit MK on Wednesday (which you have as your "down" day) because the Best Days website lists Wed as a good day for MK.

I have never eaten at Crystal Palace so I can't answer that question. For O'Hana, my kids were 13 and 16 last time we were there so we did dinner. If you kids are younger - and it's not a park day - they might enjoy the character dining. We still did our fair share of that on our last trip!

I don't feel like I helped much but I know you will have a great time whatever you decide. Do some planning but don't overly sweat it. Some things are just designed to go with the flow!

 

[mmeb144]

As far as the crowds go, get there early! Look at the unofficial guide and use one of the touring plans. You should be able to hit a lot of the big attractions before the crowds get too bad. If your family doesn't want to do a particular attraction, just skip it. It really is ok not to do it all.

AK is a park that truly has to be taken at a slow pace. It is a wonderful place, but you miss a lot if you run from place to place. There's a lot of entertainment available. Pick up a times guide to check it out.

I can't answer all your questions, but I'll take a stab at the Crystal Palace one. I personally like breakfast there. I've done supper. It's ok. If you can't get breakfast, take a lunch or supper. The character interaction is worth it, even if the meal is a bit less than wonderful. You won't starve, but it's not the best ever.

If you can't get into O'hana on your off day, try Chef Mickey's (Contemporary) or 1900 Park Fair (Grand Floridian). You still get characters and you can visit another resort.

Don't stress over this stuff. You can't make any ADRs yet, anyway.
Just relax on your vacation. You'll be so grateful for this wonderful family time together.

Marie

 

[mommystieg]

We visit WDW in early June so I am no help when it comes to what parks/what days. We have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner at Crystal Palace--our favorite is breakfast; especially if you can get an ADR for the first seating at 8:05 am. There are lots of great photo ops on Main Street with no extra people and if you time it right you can be in Fantasyland before the masses make it up Main Street at opening. We are trying the breakfast at 'Ohana in June but the dinner is also one of our favorites. With younger kids you would probably want the earlier seating (I think it is 5:30) -- I think we usually end up spending at least an hour and a half dining and that can be no fun with tired kids. We are really looking forward to breakfast with Lilo and Stitch, though. HTH--happy planning

 

[Littlemotherhaywood]

Thanks everyone. I guess I am probably way overanalyzing things Easy to do when you're going to the World, lol. I will aim for breakfast then at CP. I would love to get the first seating, but I'm afraid we'd never make it. My kids are kind of lazy in the morning, lol. I'm going to call my adrs in on Monday so I still have a little bit of time to work with them. I just don't want to wait much longer with the free dining promotion. We had really funky meal times on our last trip and there was no free dining.