Newbie needs itinerary help!

[Castillo Mom]

Our trip is coming up in about 4 months and I've started to put together a rough draft for our itinerary but I'm starting to get stressed out since this is our first trip. A little background: We're a family of 5 that includes me, hubby and 3 boys ages 10, 12 and 14. We fly in on 8/13 and will stay overnight near the airport, and then the next morning transfer to the BC. We check out on 8/23. We have 9 full days as I've made a 1 night room only reservation for our last night so that we don't waste a day on our UPH tickets. If anyone would like to take a look at my first draft and make any comments or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it!

8/13/04 Arrive in Orlando at 6:30 p.m. and take shuttle to Embassy Suites for 1 night stay.

8/14/04 Rise early and transfer to the BC. Check in and head to MGM for EMH. Lunch at either Sci-Fi Dine In or Beaches & Cream, swim/rest then Epcot in the evening for Illuminations.

Here's where I get a little nervous. If the limo picks us up at Embassy Suites at, say, 6:30 a.m., will we have enough time to load up our luggage, make our grocery stop and check in in time to make it to EMH? Grocery stop should be quick since I'm faxing a list to Albertsons the day before so that all we have to do is pay for our order when we get there.


8/15/04 EMH at MK-MGM in the evening for possible Fantasmic! Dinner pkg. (Hollywood and Vine).

8/16/04 Water park/Pleasure Island. We may take the kids to Disney Quest for a couple hours and when hubby and I go to PI, they can go back to the resort. DS will be 15 by then and he's very reponsible, so this shouldn't be a problem.

8/17/04: Epcot World Showcase-we'll sleep in since we'll have been out late the night before and they don't open until 11:00 a.m. from what I understand. Water park in the late afternoon, maybe around 3:00.

8/18/04 EMH at Epcot/Future World-Boardwalk in the evening.

8/19/04 Water Park-Downtown Disney in the evening.

8/20/04 AK-MK in the evening.

8/21/04 Not sure which park(s) yet.

8/22/04 Not sure which park(s) yet.

I haven't plugged in our dining choices yet because I'm having a hard time with that too, but these are our "must dos":

Breakfast:
Cape May Cafe
Fresh
Boma-maybe

Lunch:
Beaches & Cream
Sci-Fi Dine In
Crystal Palace-maybe

Dinner:
Boma
Ohana
Chef Mickey
Cape May Cafe
Whispering Canyon-maybe

Sorry this is so long, and I thank anyone who had the patience to read through it. So tell me what you think!

 

[krissy3483]

Unfortunately I wouldn't consider myself experienced enough at all to be able to answer a lot of your questions, but the one thing that did stand out for me was checking into the hotel and then going to EMH. From my own experience and what a lot of people say around here, it can sometimes take a while to check into your room, as they have to clean them and such. I don't know if I would count on making it to EMH after checking in, as you may not be able to check in until 11 or so. Sorry I can't help you more, your itinerary does look like a look of fun though, enjoy your stay!

 

[yecats]

Wow looks great so far. Truly sounds like your going to have a good time.

As for the extra's, you may want to take them for a game of Mini-golf as it is located across the street from either the Dolphin or Swan. I would also suggest spending a bit of time in Fort Wilderness. There is a buffet dinner, you can pay for hay rides if you want or attend the sing-a-long smores cookout with Chip and Dale (smores packs can be bought in the area where held.

Do Chef Mickeys and leave enough time to have to go out on the observation deck on 4 and watch Wishes from there as it gives a great overview of all of MK and the fireworks.

I also would tell you to try Boma in AK as I think your kids would love the whole AK hotel feel.

Well sounds like your going to have a great time.

 

[yecats]

Sorry but forgot about the whole transfer question. I think that it is doable but more than most likely your probably going be 20 or 30 minutes late. There are a lot of if factors, if the limo arrives on time, traffic in a.m., groceries available, if the hotel will have a full staff on at that time, etc. You'll be able to do an early check-in and leave your luggage/groceries with bell services. I checked in early around 8:20 to PORS and room wasn't ready so had to leave everything with bell services and check back later on to see when room was ready. If everything goes your way, you may get to MGM around 8:20 or so.

 

[my3princes]

You have a busy trip planned. We had an ambicious itenerary our first trip too. I personally don't recommend planing everything to the last detail. I was so stress trying to keep up with the itenerary that I didn't have a lot of fun. Now we go with a basic idea of what we will do, a few PS's, but not a morning/afternoon/evening plan. You may be having so much fun at the park that you're at in the am that you will not switch. As for the water park in the afternoon, that might not happen. We were there last August 10 - 21 and many days the water parks were closed to admission by noon. The disney bus drivers would announce it as people boarded to that no one would head over and be disappointed. By the way it rained all but one day of our trip and the water parks still filled to capacity. Every Disney vacation is magically no matter what you accomplish in a day. With 9 days on property you should be able to do most of what you want, but don't stress or push the family too much, everyone including yourself will be more happy. These boards have great info for newbies and experienced WDW travellers so keep reading and a lot of this info will stay with you and guide you as you go along. I'd love to hear if others have had similar experiences with overplanning.

 

[HaleyB]

I don't know if your first morning will work or not... yet. But we are playing beat the clock our first morning too. We are staying at HIFS the night before and checking in at PC our first morning, then trying to make it to CRT for our 9:30 PS. We plan to leave HIFS by 7am to make it in time, based on lots of great advice here.

One thing you might want to do is have a plan B ready. If you can't make EMH you may want to go to another park. That is the advice most people gave me... because it is a trade off- extra hour early on, extra big crowds later in the day...

Also with the ages of your boys, you might want to plan a whole day for Disney Quest....

 

[Castillo Mom]

Hmmm, hadn't even considered mini golf and didn't realize it was so close to where we're staying. That might be a nice break from the parks.

Yes, I know we're cutting it close our first day, but from what I hear, FL Tours is very prompt, but I'm going to call them the night before to stress the importance that they pick us up on time.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Castillo Mom]

bump