Just booked our disney trip, May 2011...???????????????

[thomsonmum3]

Well today I have just booked our trip to disney, I will be going alone with my 3 children who will be 10, 8 and 6, will be 7 while in disney, We are staying at the port orleons, going for 14 nights from 11th may.All booked though virgin and i hope I got a good price of £5,393, including disney dining pass and transfers/passes.

Now this is where I need help on where to eat, what to do etc etc, will be spending my entire free time on this board as you were all wonderful when planning our trip to euro disney.

Jane

ps I plan on not telling the kids until the morning we are leaving, am i mad or what!!!!

 

[2Tiggies]

Hi Jane

Congratulations! You are in for such a wonderful time!

At this stage you may want to check the park hours for the time you are there. Here is a link to the May 2011 hours

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/may11.cfm?requesttimeout=1000

The degree to which we all plan our stays and days varies greatly. Are you using the QSDP or did you upgrade to the regular dining plan? If you are on the regular plan or if you want a few table service (TS) meals you would do well to at least decide roughly which ones and how many you want and then plan your parks so that you don't end up trying to get from one side of the World to another for a dining reservation (ADR). Reservations are released 180 days out so if you do want character meals or sit down meals, that would be priority at this stage as you are already a little past the release time for the reservations.

Which Port Orleans are you staying at? FQ or Riverside?

Surprising the kids: not nuts. I did it this year in October for my daughter. My Pre Trip report on the big surprise is here:

http: //www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2554735

 

[skelfbsfb]

Just like to say welcome to the dis, would also like to say well done on getting booked.

 

[wayneg]

Welcome to DISboards Jane.

Your price, to book room with Disney.co.uk at POR & tix & DDP the cost would be £2,740.00 meaning you have paid £663pp for your flights. Not cheap but you have not paid way OTT.
You are probably more comfortable booking a package with Virgin this time, you have the benefit of reps and being able to pay deposit now balance later. If you go again, sorry when you go again look at booking it yourself, for probably a nice saving over VH.

Just checked your dates VA flight only full price £2,139.76 or Miles and Money £1,770.76 (& 8,000 miles)

So make sure you join VA flying club https://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/index.jsp because you could have done exactly the same trip for about £4400 (using you miles gained on this next trip & Quidco for cashback)
Actually you could have got an even better holiday(IMO, not everyones) and stayed at Old Key West or Saratoga Springs for exactly the same price with the better dining plan ( A deal with Disney which Virgin don't offer)

All that is for your next trip.

As for not telling the kids, thats your personal choice, Lee above did it this year and was a success, for us 100% not something I would do, I can think of nothing better than planning a holiday with the kids, next August we are going with our 3 year old God daughter, already talking about meeting characters and the Princesses, older children I would involve in the dining choices and what they want to do.
No wrong or right way to do it (as with everything concerned with a trip to Florida) but planning as a family is part of the holiday to me.

Ask as many questions as you can think of.

 

[dixonsontour]

Welcome to the DIS

Make the most of the next few months to plan plan plan - the time will fly by.

If you are doing the regular dining plan not the quick service you need to book reservations asap as they open 6 months out. If you are sticking with the included QSDP then I recommend spending time on the restaurant boards on here. You can get some geat options if you know where to look - not all burger and fries.

 

[dixonsontour]

For the birthday boy ask at check in for a birthday badge and get him to wear it - you may get some extras like a free cupcake in a restaurant and at the least lots of birthday wishes.

 

[2Tiggies]

For the birthday boy ask at check in for a birthday badge and get him to wear it - you may get some extras like a free cupcake in a restaurant and at the least lots of birthday wishes.

And to add to that, if you do make dining reservations, you can note the celebration on the ressie as well and they will give him a bit of attention when you go to the restauarant.

 

[princessjodiebo]

congrats on booking !!!
we are flying out on the 12th may and are also staying at port orleans french quarter !
we booked our package with virgin though it did help that my mum got us a nice discount

if you have a preference let virgin know as i was able to swap from riverside to french quarter no problem !
i just wanted to be in a smaller resort plus i know lots of people are saying that for buses etc its better to be in the french quarter as you are picked up first .
as a fellow orlando newbie i can thoruoghly reccomend these boards - every question i asked no matter how small has always been answered and i am looking forward to asking loads more stuff !!!

enjoy your planning

 

[team harris]

Well today I have just booked our trip to disney, I will be going alone with my 3 children who will be 10, 8 and 6, will be 7 while in disney, We are staying at the port orleons, going for 14 nights from 11th may.All booked though virgin and i hope I got a good price of £5,393, including disney dining pass and transfers/passes.

Now this is where I need help on where to eat, what to do etc etc, will be spending my entire free time on this board as you were all wonderful when planning our trip to euro disney.

Jane

ps I plan on not telling the kids until the morning we are leaving, am i mad or what!!!!

Happy planning.

Our son turned 7 whilst on holiday a good few years ago. We booked a character breakfast (Chef Mickey) and sneaked in a Mickey Mouse watch for Mickey to give him. This was done for him at the table and although Mickey is not allowed to touch the present (???) the waitress made sure that the gift appeared from Mickey. Everyone sung him a happy birthday and he had a small cake with a candle.
We then went into MK for the day where everyone made a fuss - shops called him over to the phone for birthday messages from characters, parade cast members made a bee-line for him etc.. We booked an early evening meal at Cinderella's Castle and (Pure luck admittedly) Cinderella escorted him to our table. Again another cake and candle along with a large card for us all to sign for him. We ended the day with Wishes fireworks!

It was a really realy LONG day, but truly magical day (for all of us!) and to this day he still thinks Mickey gave him the watch!

I would make sure that everywhere you go, staff are aware of his birthday!

Hope he has a fantastic day!

 

[thomsonmum3]

Thanks for the warm welcome, I got told by the travel agent that you can't make reservations until you hit the 3 month to go mark, so have I missed out on the best places, have upgraded from the qdp to the ddp, its a huge minefield for me.
Going to tell the kids at easter!! my youngest has a brain condition and panics on going to new places,so the longer I can prolong her not knowing the better, but telling her a few weeks before would make a huge difference.
Would love to have birthday tea at cafe mickeys, as ds had his at euro disney a few yrs ago and can still remember it!!
Will be asking loads of ??'s as can't get my head around the ddp stuff.

thanks again.

jane

 

[wayneg]

Dining reservations can be made 6 months out, no idea why they are telling you 3 months. 6 months is for anyone, you don't even have to be staying onsite or have a holiday booked. You can just goto http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/reservations/dining/ and book any you want(some require credit card deposit)

If you have not seen it this is next years DDP brochure, lists all the places you can eat at and gives you some info about it. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/me...alog/WaltDisneyWorld/en_us/PDF/2011Dining.pdf

Its still not a complete list as some of the restaurants dont sign upto the DDP until the New Year, they will be added in next few weeks.

 

[thomsonmum3]

Thanks wayne for all the info you are giving me, I am now having doubts that I will be able to do this alone(daft I know as I can tow a caravan, taken kids on holiday for yrs by myself but NEVER on a plane or abroad),
Thankfully I am a planner by nature so will have the days sorted before we go, started keeping a disney journal for this.

what are the best places to eat with children, and I have noticed that some places like the castle etc you need 2 tokens per meal, so that would leave me paying out for meals, (which is fine).

As I say this is a minefield for me and don't know where to start.

Once I can get out will be asking the travel agent to change to the french quater of the hotel.

Thanks again.

 

[wayneg]

First thing is don't start to worry about your trip, lots of us on here will help you with any questions/concerns you have. You still have plenty of time to plan

Food, read reviews on here http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=127
The Castle restaurant has never interested us, everyone enjoys different dining experiences, for 2 credits we love Hoop Dee Doo Revue see post #377 & #378 in my trip thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2524489&page=26

A good place for info on Port Orleans is Andre's site http://www.portorleans.org/

 

[princessjodiebo]

i have never been a planner when it comes to holidays but we all sat down as a family and made a plan of where we were goping on each day and then made our dining reservations around it
i am so much more relaxed knowing that its all done so now all i have to do is sit and wait for my ticker to go down
it is a minefield but as i said before everyone on these boards is so helpful its nice to come on and be able to get excited about it with people who understand about disney magic

 

[WiganTony]

Hi and welcome,

what are the best places to eat with children, and I have noticed that some places like the castle etc you need 2 tokens per meal, so that would leave me paying out for meals, (which is fine).

When we were on the DDP in August (12 nights) we purposely booked a 2TS credit meal (at Hoop de Doo - would have cost $180 for the three of us if paying ourselves ) and a couple of breakfasts so that we could have a couple of days over at Seaworld and not have to worry about using up all credits or having to get back to a Disney restaurant for a meal.

As noted above, it woud be useful if you have an idea of which parks you want to visit on particular days, then work any dining reservations around these parks. For example, if at Magic Kingdom, I would suggest booking a Table Service Meal at one of the MK restaurants or at one of the Disney Resorts adjacent to MK (Contemporary, Grand Floridian or Polynesian). Similarly, if at EPCOT, one of the park restaurants or you can walk to the Boardwalk in about 10 minutes where there a quite a few other resort hotels and restaurants.

This will save a lot of wasted time travelling to other areas of Disney.

... so have I missed out on the best places, have upgraded from the qdp to the ddp, its a huge minefield for me.
Would love to have birthday tea at cafe mickeys, as ds had his at euro disney a few yrs ago and can still remember it!!

It is always worth checking availability using the on-line system. You can specify a time range (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and the system will let you know of available times for your chosen restaurant and alternative restaurants.

For the birthday tea, may be worth booking Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary Resort (perhaps on a day visiting MK) - it's a buffet and only one TS credit.

Enjoy.