Maps are memorized, mommy's nuts! Disney here we come!

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I don't know how you handle souveniers, but my parents always tell us the amount of "souvenier money" we have on the first night. It's up to spend it whenever/however we want, but when it's gone, it's gone. Anything else we want has to come out of our own money.

We're going to try something like that. The kids are young but they know a bit about money so we'll give them a "budget" and let them make decisions about what they want. We'll guide them of course but if they insist they want something, they can have it until their budget is gone. Then they're done. Is that too harsh? DD is a spender and DS is a saver. Should be interesting!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

First, YAYYY for Paid in Full emails!!

This day sounds lovely, nice and restful. I swam with the sharks at TL! It's fun, but they're mostly bottom-feeder types and don't look scary at all . My DH LOVED Disney Quest (and he was 22 last time he went! ) I wasn't a fan but I never like arcades. There are some pretty fun things though. Check on your ticket... it seemed to me that when we used it we could do water parks and DQ in the same day.. I could definitely be wrong though.

As for what to do after TL, I like to play it by ear. You never know until you get there what you might have missed previous days -- some ride that was down or a line that was too long. If there's really nothing you missed, check the crowd reports/predictions for DHS that night and the next to see which is the less busy night to go to Fantasmic. If it's this night, then do that, that way on the busier night you're free to wander the park and ride the rides while almost everyone else is lining up for the show.

Thanks! I'll check about the water park & DQ thing. Good advice to play it by ear!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

We haven't been to Downtown Disney, but I'm going to make sure we go on our next family trip. My DDs would absolutely love the Lego store!

My DDs weren't interested in the Kim Possible missions at Epcot last year... but I now wish we had done it. I think they would've had fun with it, and I've read that you get a lot if "inside" info about the countries. Maybe we'll have to do that next time, too!

Personally, I am not a fan of the Fantasmic! show. We saw it on our first trip 3 years ago, and once was enough for me. I honestly don't remember much about the show itself (so I guess I didn't think it was that great, if I can't remember any of it, LOL) I don't like how you have to get there 45 to 60 minutes in advance if you want a decent seat, and I also don't like how there's just one way in. Which means there's just one way out! I nearly had a panic attack when the mass exodus started... the whole crowd trying to leave the theater at the same time! I was so afraid of losing sight of one or both of my DDs!

Again, that's just my take on F!... lots of people seem to love it.

Thanks for the heads up about F! And thanks for the Kim Possible tip. I've seen the KP stations on the Epcot map (practically memorized) but I haven't heard much about them so wasn't sure if they'd be applicable to my kids. Sounds like they would add some interest and fun for them!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

We love EPCOT-with the ages of your kids I would recommend doing the Kim Possible missions to be able to move through the World Showcase. Totally fun and interactive, and when you want to take a break or stop you can.

I just noticed that you mentioned the KP missions first! Thanks! Great idea! It's nice to hear that it would be good for my kids ages! Thanks again!!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I'm following along!

Sounds like you have some great plans and love the idea of incorporating the tips!

Thank you!!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I'm sleepy tonight (pain meds making me drowsy!) But I've been excited to post about our plans for our DHS day. I'll do a short one then maybe add to it later.

Day 5 - DHS - Movie making magic extravaganza!

I'm not sure who to believe about this park. Some find it very disappointing, some absolutely love it! I remember having a lot of fun here on my previous trips (which seem like lifetimes ago!) I also think that we'll have very positive attitudes about it all. You can't go to HS and expect what you get from MK. They're different. Variety is good, right?

For this morning, I won't know how early to expect to get up because it totally depends on what we do the night before (which is totally up in the air!) So we might go to HS early, take an afternoon break, go back for Fantasmic! (If we didn't see it the night before.) Or we might just go a bit later and stay through. Who knows!

One thing that is for sure is that we'll be at our 12:30 lunch ADR at Mama Melrose. Again, I've heard mixed reviews about this restaurant. Most say it's fine but not fantastic. I'm ok with that. There's not really an abundance of choice at HS. My family loves eating in restaurants but we're not food connoisseurs by any stretch. We should be fine! The menu looks like we'll be able to be satisfied. Hello! Pasta and pizza (well, flatbread, same thing, right?) - I wish I could eat these everyday!!

I'm pretty sure we'll enjoy all of the rides and shows we do (and I'd like to do them all, of course!) Our priorities will be ToT, Toy Story and the Beauty and the Beast show. But everything else looks fun too! (Although I got some good tips that Drew Carey and the Caspian attractions should be at the bottom of our list or skipped all together!)

DisTip#? (forgot which number I'm at, oh well!): Get Toy Story Mania FPs as early as possible because they can run out quickly. (And I'd have a super disappointed 5 year old if he doesn't get to do the Toy Story ride!!)

We'll have our CS dinner (Starring Rolls or Pizza Planet...although maybe not pizza, it depends on what we all chose for lunch!)

Early to Fantasmic! to get a seat, assuming we didn't see it already the night before. We're aware of the crazy line and now scared of the hectic exit. Hopefully the kids aren't too scared of the show! (I recently read a TR with of a mom with a 5 year old who hated every minute! Oh oh! My dazzling Fantasmic! fantasy is fading fast!)

A full day in DHS should be plenty! I just hope it doesn't wear us out too much for AK!

 

[teekathepony]

Don't believe anyone until you get there! haha, it may not be my favourite of the Disney parks, but I DO still love it! It's an amazing park with lots of little interesting things that are very different from the other parks. You are absolutely right -- this isn't MK and you can't expect them to be the same!

I've eaten at lots of restaurants with less than stellar reviews and still enjoyed my food very much. I'm like you, no connoisseur!

Some people absolutely adore Fantasmic! Different strokes for different folks, it's not my thing, but it may very well be yours. Also, if you sit in your seat for a while after the show is over, take some funny pictures of your group in front of the set or talk about tomorrow's plans or something, wait for most of the crowd to clear, then leave it's so much easier. Yep, you will be later than a lot of people getting to the bus and therefore to your resort, but for me personally I'd much rather this than pushing through lots of people. Last trip after Fantasmic DH and I left the theatre late and took our time wandering around HS on our way out, taking some fantastic nighttime pictures with no tourists in them.

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Just caught up! You plans sound really great so far. Are your kids scared of the villains? If not, they shouldn't have any problem with Fantasmic! When I saw it on my first trip, I was 9 and so afraid of the evil witch in snow white so I kind of flipped out and cried But I absolutely LOVE Fantasmic now at 14.

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Don't believe anyone until you get there! haha, it may not be my favourite of the Disney parks, but I DO still love it! It's an amazing park with lots of little interesting things that are very different from the other parks. You are absolutely right -- this isn't MK and you can't expect them to be the same!

I've eaten at lots of restaurants with less than stellar reviews and still enjoyed my food very much. I'm like you, no connoisseur!

Some people absolutely adore Fantasmic! Different strokes for different folks, it's not my thing, but it may very well be yours. Also, if you sit in your seat for a while after the show is over, take some funny pictures of your group in front of the set or talk about tomorrow's plans or something, wait for most of the crowd to clear, then leave it's so much easier. Yep, you will be later than a lot of people getting to the bus and therefore to your resort, but for me personally I'd much rather this than pushing through lots of people. Last trip after Fantasmic DH and I left the theatre late and took our time wandering around HS on our way out, taking some fantastic nighttime pictures with no tourists in them.

Well said! The night time pictures idea is great too! I don't mind hanging back and enjoying our way out of the park rather than pushing and shoving our way through crowds. Why do people get so pushy? Are they worried about not getting a bus back to their resort? Don't they send plenty of buses eventually? Unless you're ridiculously later than park closing, they don't say, "Sorry out of luck, call a cab." Do they?

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Just caught up! You plans sound really great so far. Are your kids scared of the villains? If not, they shouldn't have any problem with Fantasmic! When I saw it on my first trip, I was 9 and so afraid of the evil witch in snow white so I kind of flipped out and cried But I absolutely LOVE Fantasmic now at 14.

OH NO!!! My son has a particular fear of female villains. He absolutely HATES them. He loves Cars, Toy Story, even Lion King and Princess and the Frog (no female villains). But he hates the queen in Snow White, the stepmother in Cinderella and cried all through Tangled because he didn't understand how a "mother" could be so mean. He doesn't have many nightmares but did have a stage when every nightmare was because Cruella DeVille was coming! Also, he heard a friend of a friend was coming over named Ursula and ran to me in terror and asked how that could possibly be her real name!!! We might be in trouble then! Maybe I'll send DS and DH back to the resort and DD and I will enjoy Fantasmic! We'll probably let DS decide when we're there. He can always see it when he's older and less sensitive. On that note, DH tentatively okayed DD's and my plan to return to Disney in 2013 and 2016!! Yay! (That's assuming he enjoys this upcoming trip!)

 

[StephaniexMarie]

OH NO!!! My son has a particular fear of female villains. He absolutely HATES them. He loves Cars, Toy Story, even Lion King and Princess and the Frog (no female villains). But he hates the queen in Snow White, the stepmother in Cinderella and cried all through Tangled because he didn't understand how a "mother" could be so mean. He doesn't have many nightmares but did have a stage when every nightmare was because Cruella DeVille was coming! Also, he heard a friend of a friend was coming over named Ursula and ran to me in terror and asked how that could possibly be her real name!!! We might be in trouble then! Maybe I'll send DS and DH back to the resort and DD and I will enjoy Fantasmic! We'll probably let DS decide when we're there. He can always see it when he's older and less sensitive. On that note, DH tentatively okayed DD's and my plan to return to Disney in 2013 and 2016!! Yay! (That's assuming he enjoys this upcoming trip!)

Awww!! Poor guy. Your son reminds me of me when I was younger. And I'm not even kidding you, I used to have nightmares about Cruella DeVille! In them, she'd come take my parents away in the middle of the night and I was all alone. (Don't ask ) But it was pretty scary when I was 5.
That might be a good idea for him to skip it then. I was going to suggest you warn him about it in advance and maybe he could cover his eyes & ears..but I don't know. There's a whole villain sequence and it might not be pleasant.

But that is really great news for 2013 & 2016! Don't you just LOVE planning more trips before you even had your upcoming one? I know I do. My mom and I planned two whole weeks at CBR for next July 2 weeks ago.

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I'm so excited about our AK day! But I forgot one thing that I want to do in HS - the Block Party Bash! I hope I don't forget to plan for that when we're there!

Ok, so Day 6 is our only scheduled Animal Kingdom day and I'm nervous about that! For some, you might be thinking, "Why? There's not much there anyway." I know that some people consider this a half-day park but we won't! I'm worried that we'll miss out on stuff because it closes at 6:00 and we have a 5:20 ADR at Tusker House. We'll have to get everything done between 8 am and 5 pm (and that's if we make it early enough for the EMH!) What's the big deal? The big deal is that my kids and DH and I had to be literally shooed out of the zoo the last time we were there because my kids LOVE animals so much and took FOREVER!! So, combining zoo-type exhibits with rides will equal (for us) NO TIME! I really want to do everything here so badly. I love it all! And I've also heard the shows are great. You see, my kids could actually spend the hours of 8-5 at Rafiki's Planet Watch alone and not be bored. I can hear people already start disagreeing with me. "Oh no, that's pretty boring," they'll say. Trust me, not for my kids. They can watch an ant colony for 90 minutes! (Ok, that's an exaggeration but you get the picture right?)

So how to do it all? I'll take suggestions (you were all so helpful with Epcot ideas too!) Here's what I'm thinking:
- start in Africa (get the safari done when cool, I think that's so obvious I don't have to change the font and write it as a formal "tip"!)
- see everything in Africa
- head over to Rafiki's then Asia
- see everything in Asia
- Do EE and Dinosaur
- Don't forget about the parade, Festival of the Lion King and Nemo

I know it seems easy enough, but like I said, my kids could spend hours on one animal exhibit. I'll just have to keep reminding them that there's more to see. (But I really really didn't want to be a dictator this trip!) Maybe I'll give them each a map and track our progress on it so that they can get a sense of it. Just thought of that!

For food, I don't know how this will work out but Flame Tree BBQ is most highly recommended for our QS meal and then we'll have our Tusker House buffet. I foresee eating a lot of meat this day!

I'm so excited about this day!

The evening (after our buffet dinner) is when I want to tour around AKL a bit and then we'll head to DD and maybe Disney Quest. I know it's a lot but the dinner will have been a rest. And we can sleep a bit late the next day because it's another "free" day to do whatever we want. Sort of a bonus day! Just in case any of the other days don't go exactly as planned, we'll have a back up. It will also be our last full day. Well, that went by quickly! (Imagine how I'll feel when I'm living it for real and not just in my head!)

 

[teekathepony]

Animal Kingdom takes us a long time too, and we often do more than one day. I could spend forever in front of the Tigers and Gorillas.
I love the idea of giving the kids a map so they can track their progress. On the Disney site they can each make their own customized maps and highlight the attractions they each want to see, that might also keep them moving. I'm doing Tusker House too, I tried it for the first time last year and lovvved it.

 

[ZFamily5]

Your DHS and AK plans look great! Try as hard as you can to get to AK for EMH that morning, it's a big park and your kids will love to explore every detail, especially since you said they love animals!

 

[Disneychix]

Hello! Just found your PTR and I'm enjoying all your tips and highlights!

I have one early Tip for you to add- Make sure you go to the B side terminal to get to DME. I've seen many people looking a little lost at MCO and I always try to help them get to the B terminal.

Also, if you have a DS who needs to ride TSM make sure you get to DHS at rope drop or not more than 20mins soon after. Those FPs are gone very very quickly!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Hello! Just found your PTR and I'm enjoying all your tips and highlights!

I have one early Tip for you to add- Make sure you go to the B side terminal to get to DME. I've seen many people looking a little lost at MCO and I always try to help them get to the B terminal.

Also, if you have a DS who needs to ride TSM make sure you get to DHS at rope drop or not more than 20mins soon after. Those FPs are gone very very quickly!

Thanks for the tips!!! Is there easy to follow signs to get to DME once we land? (I guess I just assumed there was!)

Also, I guess our DHS day will have to be an early one then!

Thanks again!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Animal Kingdom takes us a long time too, and we often do more than one day. I could spend forever in front of the Tigers and Gorillas.
I love the idea of giving the kids a map so they can track their progress. On the Disney site they can each make their own customized maps and highlight the attractions they each want to see, that might also keep them moving. I'm doing Tusker House too, I tried it for the first time last year and lovvved it.

Your DHS and AK plans look great! Try as hard as you can to get to AK for EMH that morning, it's a big park and your kids will love to explore every detail, especially since you said they love animals!

Thanks girls! I wish we had more than one day to do AK! Well, maybe we could go back on Day 7 or 8!! I'm so excited about Tusker House too!

 

[ZFamily5]

You'll love the Tusker House breakfast! We went in 2001 (I was 5) and it was amazing! We just got back from a trip with a couple of animal lovers and we spent a day and a half at AK to finish most of the things we wanted to do.

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I just saw that Block Party Bash has been replaced by Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun. So I want to do that at DHS - can't forget! I also want to do the Jammin' Jungle Parade at AK while we're there. Why did I miss these in my original posts?

Ok - Day 7:

This day is another "free" day of sorts. Once again, after a couple of days of wanting to be at the parks as early as possible, it will be nice to sleep in and relax a bit in the morning. Our only commitment this day is our 1900 Park Fare character meal with Cinderella's Family at 5:30 pm. I'm so looking forward to this. I've heard great things about the step-sisters, especially. Once again, I'll want to check out the resort. We'll be eating at all the deluxe resorts throughout our trip and I'm looking forward to touring them and dreaming about one day maybe staying at them!

So our plans for the day are of course tentative. It totally depends on how our week went. If all goes according to plan, it will be a Blizzard Beach afternoon and then MK after our ADR for the evening. But of course, we'll ask ourselves a few questions before we commit to this.
I.e.:
- Did we tour around Downtown Disney yet?
- Did we enjoy our resort yet?
- Are there any major attractions we missed at any of the other parks that we were disappointed about? (If there were more than one, we'll have to choose as we don't have Park Hoppers.)
- How's the weather?

Like I said, this is an extra day to make sure we got to do everything we had our hearts set on. I'm glad we have it. It will make the previous days less stressful and hectic if we know we have more time!

That pretty much brings the trip to a close. On Day 8 I assume we'll have to be waiting at POP for DME back to MCO around 1 ish (3:30 flight to Detroit). We could do a park this morning as we have 8 day MYW tickets. If we do, BONUS! I'm hoping so (a good time to head back to AK, in my opinion.) But DD and DS just told me they want to spend a lot of time at POP's 3 pools so since I haven't scheduled a heck of a lot of time for that, maybe we'll do that before heading to the airport. I'll need time to pack (although packing for home is easier! I just cram it all in and make sure the hotel room is empty - not stressful at all compared to leaving for a trip!)

Writing about packing for home and heading north is making me sad and we haven't even gone to Disney World yet! Oh boy, I'm in for it! Major let down when this is all done! I guess I'll just have to jump right in to my trip report to keep the magic going! Looking forward to that!

 

[spartankid34]

Writing about packing for home and heading north is making me sad and we haven't even gone to Disney World yet! Oh boy, I'm in for it! Major let down when this is all done! I guess I'll just have to jump right in to my trip report to keep the magic going! Looking forward to that!

Haha, I'm already convinced that there needs to be another trip being planned when we get home because I'm going to have major planning withdrawals..maybe a cruise, hmmm, lol!
Your plans look so good so far! I was in the same boat about AK, I first thought one day would be enough, but then I started looking at it all and decided that we needed at least another half day. I've been looking at my park plans lately and thinking that I overplanned, but once I get there I know it'll be nice to have some kind of plan that can change if it needs to be....that's what it sounds like you're doing with your rest days! I've added some later starts to our days based on early mornings the day before! I can't wait to hear about your trip