OFFICIAL April 2012 DISers! 2 months and counting!

[myasma]

Lots of activity here the last few days! I edited the first post, please double check my work and make sure I got your dates right; let me know if there's any updates needed.

We're at this weird lull in planning - our ADRs are done, we're mostly just focused on getting the trip paid off.

I know how you feel. Everything is done and planned for me too. All there is left to do is pay the final balance. After that is done with, I will be no help to anyone unless we are talking about Disney.

 

[uscgrl93]

We decided to stay an extra night, so we are now checking out on 04/05 instead. Yay! I'm still planning which days to visit which parks so I can make our ADRs! Planning on staying at POFQ right now.

 

[AKL LOVER]

I did just snag a 4pm dinner ADR there but am hoping for Brunch!

I just added a breakfast ADR @ 9:40 for Cape May on Easter morning...lots of times popped up there. It's not Chef Mickey's but thought I'd let you know anyway!

 

[momtwoboys]

made all our April adr's! We got

4/11 Boma dinner
4/12 LTT dinner
4/13 Yak n Yeti Lunch
4/14 Le Cellier lunch
4/15 Cape May dinner
4/16 Boma breakfast
4/17 Tusker house dinner
4/18 Crystal Palace dinner
4/19 Tutto Italia dinner

 

[5forDis]

Are park hours for April already available??? We will be in Orlando for a Universal trip (first time there) & going on the Disney Dream at the end of April. Now dh says we can't be in Orlando and NOT go to Disney so we have added a couple of days for Disney-time.

Last week of April for us.

 

[AJ1983]

We're going in April! Heading down April 14, staying in Orlando and doing the parks(MK,DHS,US and IOA) and some shopping, then setting sail on the Carnival Dream on April 21 (my birthday), returning back to Orlando on April 28 for either an evening flight home or an early flight out Sunday morning.

Nothing is booked yet, but we have decided on the time, the exact cruise (now just to watch for deals!), and that we are doing Orlando first, then the cruise. Now I have to watch for hotel deals for April 14-21,possibly the 28th, a car rental, and of course, buy my theme park tickets My boyfriend and I are thinking that we may purchase our theme park tickets online on Christmas morning, in lieu of having presents to open.

If anyone has any suggestions for accommodations in Orlando, it would be appreciated. We are looking for a place with preferably a full kitchen, either close to the parks (close meaning 10-15 minutes drive), or with a good shuttle service to all/most parks.

So excited! I told my boyfriend he will never see me happier then when we enter the gates of the Magic Kingdom

 

[crgfsu1]

Another one for March 31 - April 7! We are staying offiste (Windsor Hills)!! Starting to get some of my planning and ADR's done.

So far, I have
April 1 - Yak & Yeti - 3PM
April 4 - Le Chef de France - 2:50PM

decisions, decisions.....


Cathy

 

[angierae]

And so it begins, I've already started juggling my reservations. I moved our Turf Club lunch on 4/6 to a dinner on 4/2 and canceled Biergarten, as no one was particularly thrilled about it, and Friday was going to be three TS meals which was a bit too much (and five restaurants, since the teens are dining by themselves for breakfast and dinner.)

This does mean that our last full day on vacation will be the only day the four of us won't have even one meal together, which bothers me, but I can't see a good way of moving stuff around unless I juggle almost every other day. So I'm not going to let it bother me too much - we'll be spending plenty of time together that week!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Just made my ADRs and pretty much got everything we wanted, including the 8am before-the-park-opens ressies.

4/15: Akershus (8:00am), Via Napoli (6:20pm)
4/16: CRT (8:05am), Plaza (6:00pm)
4/17: Mama Melrose (12:00pm), T-Rex (6:00pm)
4/18: Ohana (8:30am), Whispering Canyon Cafe (6:20pm)
4/19: Tusker House (8:00am), Boma (6:25pm)
4/20: Kona (8:00am), 1900 Park Fare (6:20pm)

Now what do I do for the next 6 months?

And so it begins, I've already started juggling my reservations.

I'm pretty sure I'll start juggling the reservations too. What are the odds that this schedule will stay the same in 6 months?

 

[loganpaulsmom]

just did my ADR's today too.. A couple of things.. Online system was not allowing me to book except for the first day (which coincidentally when I called the ressies and had to them check, never went through)

I was smart enough to call after my first couple of NO GO's..

This time we are flying by the seat of our pants.. Usually we have about 15 ressies.. this time. only 6.. we will see how it goes..

April 15th Ohana 7:00pm
April 16th No ADR's (does anyone wanna bet there will more than likely be something there, )
April 17th La Hacienda 7:00pm
April 18th Flying Fish 7:00p,
April 19th Citrico's 7:20pm
April 20th Via Napoli 7:00pm
April 21st Chef Mickey's (9:55am, 7:00pm., this is always a staple for us, but hubby is currently on the west coast for business and we never do anything but breakfast, so I booked 2 just in case and when I talk to him later I will cancel one of them..)
April 22nd, nothing.. last day
this is the first time that I booked all dinners at 7:00pm. Since we don't really have a touring plan, but we do know we are going to be spending lots of time at SAB we want to have plenty of time to have a full day and then still time to get ready for our ADR's without rushing.. last time I had 5:30pm and 6:00pm ressies and it just seemed like we were running around all day trying to make it to our adrs.. YAY.. so excited.. 4 of these restaurants are new to us.. and this time.. I didn't book Le Cellier.. first time in the past 3 trips..

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

just did my ADR's today too.. A couple of things.. Online system was not allowing me to book except for the first day (which coincidentally when I called the ressies and had to them check, never went through)

Happy to hear that you got your ressies through!

I've been reading on the boards that some were having problems with online reservation system with a server error message. Just out of curiosity, did you have problems before or after linking your exisiting resort/package reservation to the dining reservation system?

I know what you mean about adding more restaurants. I've already added a couple more since I last posted.....which was only 2 hours ago!!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

We are also going in April!!! So excited about this trip b/c we weren't sure if we were going AGAIN. DSs and DH wanted to do a cruise.
But I won yet again.
Our dates are 4/14-4/22 Yay!!!! staying offsite this time

 

[pwdebbie]

My ADRs are done! Had a hard time picking restaurants this time because we don't want "gourmet" food -- if we can't pronounce it, we generally don't eat it. Dh is a shellfish lover and very few reasonably-priced restaurants actually offer shellfish. Reluctantly I made a reservation for Cape May Cafe (our first experience was wonderful while our second was totally disappointing, so maybe the third time they will redeem themselves). His birthday we'll be an 'Ohana and our anniversary (35th) will be at Le Cellier. Trying Liberty Tree, 50s Prime Time, and Tony's for the first time. Boma and Biergarten are must-do and we're giving Coral Reef try number three (first try was terrible for dinner service and second visit was at lunch and it was good, so we are doing another lunch). We enjoyed Tusker House the last time but I was disappointed to see that it is going to be character dining for lunch next April, scheduled it any way.

Whole trip will get cancelled if (1) old dog doesn't die and (2) room-only codes don't come out and (3) dh's health doesn't improve (he's disabled and not doing too well right now but this could pass as it has before). Gee, with all those caveats, I'm not even sure why I made the ADRs! Wait, I know why -- it is always better to plan positively for the future and have hope than to sit back in despair.

 

[angierae]

Changed our ressies AGAIN. We saw on the park hours that MK is having EMH until 2am on Friday, April 6th, and we're going to want to do that. However, we had Akershus breakfast reservations on Saturday. Uh, no.

So we moved Akershus to Thursday morning (it's going to be a three meal day, I might explode) and we're going to do Brown Derby for lunch on our check-out day.

(I'm under the impression we can leave our luggage with the resort, check out, then come back to the resort later to catch Magical Express; right?)

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Changed our ressies AGAIN. We saw on the park hours that MK is having EMH until 2am on Friday, April 6th, and we're going to want to do that. However, we had Akershus breakfast reservations on Saturday. Uh, no.

So we moved Akershus to Thursday morning (it's going to be a three meal day, I might explode) and we're going to do Brown Derby for lunch on our check-out day.

(I'm under the impression we can leave our luggage with the resort, check out, then come back to the resort later to catch Magical Express; right?)

Yes that's right we've done that a few times

 

[Princesca]

Hey everyone! I'm a newcomer to this thread. Until today, I was over in the November 2012 thread, but circumstances have caused us to bump our trip up (what a shame, eh?) and now I have a boatload of planning to do in a much shorter time!

It's going to be me, my DH, my sister and her boyfriend and my niece, and my mom. Our current plan is to stay in two (hopefully connecting) rooms at Pop Century.

Since there are 15 pages to this thread and I am coughing my head off with bronchitis, could someone answer a couple of questions for me?

1) Are there any deals out for April? I was sad to see free dining extends only through the end of March...

2) How's the week of April 21-28 in terms of crowds? One of the sites I looked at said it was one of the ten best weeks, but I've seen contrasting opinions too.

3) I only need to make one reservation - at Akershuh's, preferably for breakfast. Do I have a prayer of still getting in there? I don't know how many days out I am.

 

[Princesca]

Also, I'm a subscriber to the MouseSavers.com newsletter but I've been deleting it for now because I thought I was going in Nov. 2012! I wanted that Undercover Tourist link just to price them out. Is there anyone who still has it that could price tix for me?

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hey everyone! I'm a newcomer to this thread. Until today, I was over in the November 2012 thread, but circumstances have caused us to bump our trip up (what a shame, eh?) and now I have a boatload of planning to do in a much shorter time!

It's going to be me, my DH, my sister and her boyfriend and my niece, and my mom. Our current plan is to stay in two (hopefully connecting) rooms at Pop Century.

Since there are 15 pages to this thread and I am coughing my head off with bronchitis, could someone answer a couple of questions for me?

1) Are there any deals out for April? I was sad to see free dining extends only through the end of March...

2) How's the week of April 21-28 in terms of crowds? One of the sites I looked at said it was one of the ten best weeks, but I've seen contrasting opinions too.

3) I only need to make one reservation - at Akershuh's, preferably for breakfast. Do I have a prayer of still getting in there? I don't know how many days out I am.

We think that's a great week to go! We are there during the last week of April almost every year. Last year we switched to February because Easter was late, but we'll be back this year.

As far as deals, I'm not really sure... I don't think there's anything out for that late yet.

You are just in time for your ADR! Tomorrow is 180 days from April 21st! If you get a deposit down on a resort reservation today, you can make that ADR tomorrow. You can always change the reservation later if you find a better deal. If you aren't ready to make a reservation, you'll just have to wait until 180 days from which ever day you are looking at for your ADR. You should be OK either way.

 

[Princesca]

I probably won't be -quite- ready to make a resort reservation today. My tentative plan is to book the rooms through AAA. It's my understanding that if some package is offered later, they can upgrade you if there is package availability left.

Right now I'm trying to get an idea of the costs for our new trip date. So you haven't found the crowds to be a problem that week?

 

[auprincess]

We were originally going in June, but have moved our trip to April 14-22. Now that I've made our dining reservations it is starting to feel a little more real! I know it will be crowded, but I'm hoping it won't be as bad since it is the week after Easter (I think easywdw rates everyday as a 5, except our first day, but we won't be going to a park that day). Still hoping for a discount ~ but we'll be going whether one comes out or not.