Need some recommendations

[saratrw]

This will be our first trip to disney and we are doing the 3 night land, 4 night sea vacation...WOOOHOO!! We are going in February. I've been spending the day trying to plan our days at the parks and have questions...

1. How long does it take to get between say Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Or, the French Quarter, where we're staying to Magic Kindgom? to Animal Kingdom?

2. Can you eat at a restaurant in a park even if you aren't attending that park that day?

3. And, any idea where I could go to find park hopper or fast past updrades for February??

And I've been calling the advanced dining reservations line and switching things around so much I decided to just ask you all and have it all settled. Here are our plans so far....
We have the dining plan that allows 1 snack, 1 quick service and 1 table service per day.

For the day we are going to Magic Kingdom we are eating breakfast (got a table for our party of 9!!) at Chef Mickeys for 8:50 am. Not sure about lunch and dinner yet.

Our MGM day we are eating lunch at 2:10 at 50's primetime cafe...Not sure about breakfast and supper/dinner.

And our Animal Kingdom day I'm thinking Flametree BBQ for lunch but don't have any idea about the table service.

I'm so confused on how far everything is from other places and just frankly have no clue. Our party is my husband and myself and son's 8 and 9 years and my sister and her husband and children 12 year old girl, and 7 and 9 year old boys. So we're looking for fun and good food!

Any tips or advice is so greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!

 

[BoosGram]

You didn't say if you were driving or not. We always fly in and use the Disney transportation, and I can tell you, if you are going to depend on the buses, definitely allow yourself PLENTY of time to get to the bus stop, wait for the bus, travel on the bus, and walk to your destination (and I'm talking easily an hour to an hour and a half and sometimes more depending on the circumstances). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy not having to drive and being in the World, I just know from experience that a lot of people don't realize how much time they will need to get from one place to another and they end up being late for ADRs and such.

I can answer one question: if you don't have Park Hopper passes, you cannot go to one park during the day and eat at another later on that day (or vice versa). We always plan our days at the park on the ressies we make, e.g., if we get Le Cellier ressies (which we did for 2/6--hooray!), we will spend the day at Epcot, since we don't usually get Park Hopper passes.

There are places online that sell discounted tickets; try checking the DIS budget thread for info on that.

 

[BoosGram]

We have the dining plan that allows 1 snack, 1 quick service and 1 table service per day.

For the day we are going to Magic Kingdom we are eating breakfast (got a table for our party of 9!!) at Chef Mickeys for 8:50 am. Not sure about lunch and dinner yet.

Our MGM day we are eating lunch at 2:10 at 50's primetime cafe...Not sure about breakfast and supper/dinner.

And our Animal Kingdom day I'm thinking Flametree BBQ for lunch but don't have any idea about the table service.

I'm so confused on how far everything is from other places and just frankly have no clue. Our party is my husband and myself and son's 8 and 9 years and my sister and her husband and children 12 year old girl, and 7 and 9 year old boys. So we're looking for fun and good food!

Any tips or advice is so greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!

OK, here's a little more: If you are going to Chef Mickey's for breakfast, that will use your TS for the day. You are also entitled to a snack (at MK, you might try a Dole Whip) and a CS (counter service) (at MK, we usually go to Columbia Harbor House). Whatever you do, either lunch or dinner will have to be out-of-pocket, since you've already used your TS for breakfast.

DHS (the old MGM) hasn't got the best quick service places, but with all the kids, Toy Story Pizza Planet may be your best bet for dinner. Either that or try Downtown Disney for Wolfgang Puck Express or Earl of Sandwich (we really liked them).

We've never had dinner in Animal Kingdom, but we love Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (yes, that would involve a trip from the park to the resort, but it's not far).

We usually get a fruit cup with our snack credit at our resort's fast service place and eat that for breakfast. With the kids and depending on where you're staying, you can go to the resort's store and get milk and cereal for breakfast.

My best advice is stay on the boards and read everything you can on the parks, resorts, and restaurants. You will learn a LOT from the experts, and always remember, you CANNOT DO IT ALL, so let everyone pick something special and just try to cover the high spots. The rest will be gravy. Oh, and allow your inner child to have fun!!!!!!

 

[saratrw]

Thanks for the tips!!

So do you think breakfast for the table service on Magic Kingdom day is a bad idea? I've read breakfast is better there (Chef Mickeys) than supper so I thought we'd just start out the day with a big breakfast. We actually just thought about getting pizza in the room one night or go pay for pizza somewhere but with Wishes at Magic Kingdom that may not be the best day to do that, huh?

And for the driving question we won't have a car. We are using Disney transportation after we fly in.

Again thanks for the responses. I guess I need to read through other peoples itinerary's to see what others do. And, we are staying at french quarter.

 

[vicki_c]

3. And, any idea where I could go to find park hopper or fast past updrades for February??

There's no such thing as a Fast Pass upgrade or ticket. Fast Passes are available to everyone, for free, once you get into the park -- they're not a special kind of park ticket.

As for hoppers, if you don't have hopping on your tickets, you can add it to your tickets for about $50 if you want it. As for upgrades, I think you're asking about discounted tickets or free park hopping deals from Disney? There might be discounts offered closer to your trip dates that you could try to call and apply to your reservation, you'll just have to wait and see.

For transportation, I would allow a minimum of 1 hour to get from most places to another using Disney transportation. Obviously that wouldn't apply for MK to one of the MK resorts or Epcot to one of the Epcot resorts, but for most of the other farther apart locations it will.

 

[BoosGram]

Thanks for the tips!!

So do you think breakfast for the table service on Magic Kingdom day is a bad idea? I've read breakfast is better there (Chef Mickeys) than supper so I thought we'd just start out the day with a big breakfast. We actually just thought about getting pizza in the room one night or go pay for pizza somewhere but with Wishes at Magic Kingdom that may not be the best day to do that, huh?

And for the driving question we won't have a car. We are using Disney transportation after we fly in.

Again thanks for the responses. I guess I need to read through other peoples itinerary's to see what others do. And, we are staying at french quarter.

Not saying that doing Chef Mickey's is a bad idea, I just wanted to be sure that you knew you were using your big ticket meal for breakfast. Since you're new to WDW, there's a lot to know! And you've definitely found the best place to get the info. The DIS really rocks!

Have you checked into using Magical Express? (That's a service that takes you to and from the airport to your resort. For free. ) We use it every time we can. I'm fairly certain you can take advantage of that since you're staying at FQ. You do have to call Disney ahead of time with passenger and flight info and they'll send you tags for your luggage.

Definitely keep reading the DIS; you won't believe how much info you'll get here (great tips, great information, and lots and lots of opinions). The worst mistake anyone can make before going to Disney is not educating themselves about WDW!

Don't get discouraged and keep asking questions; we were all newbies once .

 

[saratrw]

Not saying that doing Chef Mickey's is a bad idea, I just wanted to be sure that you knew you were using your big ticket meal for breakfast. Since you're new to WDW, there's a lot to know! And you've definitely found the best place to get the info. The DIS really rocks!

Have you checked into using Magical Express? (That's a service that takes you to and from the airport to your resort. For free. ) We use it every time we can. I'm fairly certain you can take advantage of that since you're staying at FQ. You do have to call Disney ahead of time with passenger and flight info and they'll send you tags for your luggage.

Definitely keep reading the DIS; you won't believe how much info you'll get here (great tips, great information, and lots and lots of opinions). The worst mistake anyone can make before going to Disney is not educating themselves about WDW!

Don't get discouraged and keep asking questions; we were all newbies once .

Thanks for the kindness! It really is overwhelming! My sister and her family are going and I'm kind of the one incharge of planning, which is fine, I enjoy it, I just don't want to mess up.

We were thinking of doing one table service breakfast, lundh and dinner. We have 3 days at the parks. So we have 8:50 am at Chef Mickey's for breakfast...would you all recommend changing that do dinner? we want to see Wishes so we could try to switch it to before that begins so we're done eating by that time.

Then our reservations for lunch at MGM is at, I believe, 2:10 for lunch.. Excited for that!

So I'm trying to figure out dinner for the day we're at Animal Kingdom. It will be our last night before the cruise so even going downtown Disney or to another resort would be fine. Any recommendations for the kids in our group?? Or, is there a restaurant that first timer's just shouldn't miss??

 

[mommyintn]

Thanks for the tips!!

So do you think breakfast for the table service on Magic Kingdom day is a bad idea? I've read breakfast is better there (Chef Mickeys) than supper so I thought we'd just start out the day with a big breakfast.

If you are going to Magic Kingdom that day I would actually go to Crystal Palace for breakfast and that's actually in the park at the end of main street. You can get reservations starting at 8am. We stayed at Port Orleans on that trip and we caught a bus right after 7am and were at MK at about 7:25 (so we were a bit early). Chef Mickey's is great but if the parks are opening at 9am that's going to cut into your park time. We did Chef Mickey's for dinner and really enjoyed it, if you can bump up your breakfast time at Chef Mickey's I'd do that.

 

[angiengary]

We loved Chef Mickeys and the Crystal Palace. I don't think you can go wrong with either of them

My fav resturant is Coral Reef thanks to the free dining plan

 

[BoosGram]

Thanks for the kindness! It really is overwhelming! My sister and her family are going and I'm kind of the one incharge of planning, which is fine, I enjoy it, I just don't want to mess up.

We were thinking of doing one table service breakfast, lundh and dinner. We have 3 days at the parks. So we have 8:50 am at Chef Mickey's for breakfast...would you all recommend changing that do dinner? we want to see Wishes so we could try to switch it to before that begins so we're done eating by that time.

Then our reservations for lunch at MGM is at, I believe, 2:10 for lunch.. Excited for that!

So I'm trying to figure out dinner for the day we're at Animal Kingdom. It will be our last night before the cruise so even going downtown Disney or to another resort would be fine. Any recommendations for the kids in our group?? Or, is there a restaurant that first timer's just shouldn't miss??

Since we're empty nesters, we haven't been to WDW w/small kids in a long time, so I'm going to leave answering the kid-related questions to the experts in that field .

On another note, I hope you enjoy the cruise; we went at the beginning of September (accompanied by the lovely Hannah). The one thing we absolutely love is Castaway Cay; it's just a little slice of heaven . Don't forget to check out the DIS threads on the cruise, too. There may even be a thread started for the cruise you're on (check it out ahead of time; you'll feel like you have friends on board already if you get "talking" to them before).

You can PM me if you like; I'd be happy to answer any questions I can.