***Official April 2013 thread*** SEE POST # 4028

[bluechic03]

P.S I am a pastor's wife too Debbie

I'm a pastor's wife too! And my hubby is a chaplain in the Air Force <3. So funny there are three of us here!

 

[ja23k]

Hi, sorry I am joining late. My husband(54) and I(42) will be taking our 2yo grandaughter April 17-27th. This is a first trip for all of us. We will be celebrating his 55th birthday and our 15th anniversary also. We talked about going just the two of us and scoping things out first, but decided we would miss her too much and spend the whole time talking about how much she would love this or that. I have ADR's made, but still deciding on where to stay. (I know I need to hurry up and make up my mind). We will be driving (23 hours one way over 3 days with a toddler,yes, I know I have lost my mind.) We are looking at POR pref., AofA LM, or POP. I also like CBR's pool and beach theme. Is it really that bad to have 2TS a day? Will we miss out on too much? Just can't seem to narrow restaurants down to one a day. Here is how it looks now:

4/17-Ohana 6:40pm
4/18 MK-Liberty Tree Tavern 12:50pm, BOG 7:05pm
4/19 AK Rainforest 11:15am, Boma 6:30pm (Anniv.)
4/20 EP-Akershus 8:15am, Garden Grill 4:30pm
4/21 HS-H&V 8:00a.m., 50's Primetime 1:10pm, Cape May 6:30pm
4/22 Discovery Cove all day, Kona 7:00pm
4/23 MK Ohana 7:30am, T-Rex 8:00pm (DH birthday, but only day and time to get TREX for granddaughter who loves dinos)
4/24MK Crystal Palace 9:45am, 1900 Park Fare 6:45pm
4/25 Cape May 7:45am, Les Chef de France 1:00pm, Coral Reef 7:15pm
4/26 Sea World and off site hotel that night

We would do nap in the afternoon
Any advice on place to stay or ADR's please let me know. I keep cutting it and then just keep working my way back up. So excited

I would love to go to that many TS in one trip, too, BUT the end result is missing a lot of park time. I think with all your reservations AND plans to take an afternoon nap, you will have very little time left to actually do anything in the parks. Most of your time will be spent eating, waiting to get in and eat, and getting yourself to your next eating destination, all while feeling extremely full. I also don't think the little one will have enough patience for it. Probably not her idea of an ideal Disney trip. I personally would keep it to only 1 TS per day. Actually, that is what I have planned for April.

I agree with everyone saying to cut out rainforest cafe. There are so many better dining options in Disney, and since you have so many of them on your list already, I really don't think you will feel like you are missing anything by not going (because you are not). Also, maybe consider only going to eat place once. Decide if you are looking forward more to their breakfast or dinner and then cut the second ADR out.

All the ADRs sound tempting, and i completely understand why you are trying to go to all of them, but I really think by the second day they will feel like they are standing in the way of your vacation.

 

[gtpoohbear]

Hi, sorry I am joining late. My husband(54) and I(42) will be taking our 2yo grandaughter April 17-27th. This is a first trip for all of us. We will be celebrating his 55th birthday and our 15th anniversary also. We talked about going just the two of us and scoping things out first, but decided we would miss her too much and spend the whole time talking about how much she would love this or that. I have ADR's made, but still deciding on where to stay. (I know I need to hurry up and make up my mind). We will be driving (23 hours one way over 3 days with a toddler,yes, I know I have lost my mind.) We are looking at POR pref., AofA LM, or POP. I also like CBR's pool and beach theme. Is it really that bad to have 2TS a day? Will we miss out on too much? Just can't seem to narrow restaurants down to one a day. Here is how it looks now:

4/17-Ohana 6:40pm
4/18 MK-Liberty Tree Tavern 12:50pm, BOG 7:05pm
4/19 AK Rainforest 11:15am, Boma 6:30pm (Anniv.)
4/20 EP-Akershus 8:15am, Garden Grill 4:30pm
4/21 HS-H&V 8:00a.m., 50's Primetime 1:10pm, Cape May 6:30pm
4/22 Discovery Cove all day, Kona 7:00pm
4/23 MK Ohana 7:30am, T-Rex 8:00pm (DH birthday, but only day and time to get TREX for granddaughter who loves dinos)
4/24MK Crystal Palace 9:45am, 1900 Park Fare 6:45pm
4/25 Cape May 7:45am, Les Chef de France 1:00pm, Coral Reef 7:15pm
4/26 Sea World and off site hotel that night

We would do nap in the afternoon
Any advice on place to stay or ADR's please let me know. I keep cutting it and then just keep working my way back up. So excited

I know that most people think that 3, and even 2 TS restaurants a day is too much, but just to offer a different opinion... we almost always do 3 TS/day AND we take an afternoon break.

Somehow, we always still have time to do everything we want in the park. The key for us is to eat an early breakfast so that we are at the park for RD, and even amEMh when we can manage it. We tour very hard for those 3-4 hours, then we're ready for a sit-down lunch and break at the hotel. Evening trips back to the park are for dinner and maybe a couple of rides.

But we eat out a LOT at home, so the kids are used to spending a lot of time in restaurants, it's just part of life to them. We do look forward to all the unique dining experiences at WDW though, and that is as much a part of the excitement as park time. Plus, doing a lot of character meals means you don't have to spend time waiting in line for those same characters in the parks.

We don't really do CS at all, DH hates fast food, and I usually find it to be so stressful that isn't worth the small amount of time it saves. But, I know that we are in the minority there so you just have to figure out what works for you. Unfortunately, on a first trip that is very hard. We only booked 1-2 TS/day on our first trip b/c everyone said that more was too much, and we really regretted it. Remember that most meals can be cancelled with pretty short notice if you change your mind- just be sure to note what the cancellation policy is for each one.

If you are going to cut some out - I would probably skip RF Cafe (esp if you are doing T-Rex, wouldn't do both!), Garden Grill and Coral Reef.

As for where to stay, I would vote for AoA - it looks really cool, esp for little ones! We have stayed at CBR, and it's nice, but very spread out. We felt like it took forever to get anywhere. I definitely wouldn't pay more for it (than a value).

Good luck with that drive - I can't even imagine! My family is a bunch of car-wimps, we don't drive anywhere that's more then 6-7 hours away. Looks like our dates overlap almost exactly - we'll be there from 4/18-4/26

 

[rebeccaariel]

Hi Rebecca!

I'm also new to the boards and planning a mother daughter trip for me and my mom in April (2 weeks after my 30th birthday).

A couple things for you to consider: you can always make fully refundable reservation now and have a travel agent apply any discounts that come up later. We booked for free through small world vacations (no fee travel agency) and as of now don't have any discounts applied to our trip. When any come out our travel agent lets us know, or we let her know that we found one, and then she applies it to our package. We have until Feb (forget exact date) to cancel our April trip and still get a full refund (but that would be sad!). Dates can also be changed. We are sitting and anxiously waiting for discounts, too, but at least we know there is a room set aside for us! We are waiting to get airfare in case we need to change our dates and get a better discount.

Someone correct me if I am wrong - this far out, don't you need a room reservation to make ADRs? How far ahead can ADRs be made without a trip reservation number?

Fingers crossed for discounts!!!

That's a good point, I never thought of that! We've never actually used a travel agent before, but I think it's definitely something to consider. Thanks!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Does anyone else have iPhone Disboards app issues??? All of a sudden I get like 10-20 alerts on my phone at once.....several times a day and night......I don't know why it is happening. I even deleted the app and downloaded it again. It doesn't look like anything in settings will help me....

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

OMG this was happening to me too!!!
I went to setting and shut off all the alerts and notifications. It seemed to help.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[wdw71]

OMG this was happening to me too!!!
I went to setting and shut off all the alerts and notifications. It seemed to help.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Has not happened to me today but Friday it was driving me bonkers

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[pwdebbie]

I'm a pastor's wife too! And my hubby is a chaplain in the Air Force <3. So funny there are three of us here!

I know of two military chaplains (one is the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend kind of "know" and the other was a neighbor's kid back in the 80s who I haven't seen since we moved). It is a unique job.

 

[DisMom1981]

OMG this was happening to me too!!!
I went to setting and shut off all the alerts and notifications. It seemed to help.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

I don't see that option in my settings!!! You did that from your iPhone??

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I don't see that option in my settings!!! You did that from your iPhone??

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Yes DH walked me through it. I wish I could help more.

 

[DisMom1981]

Yes DH walked me through it. I wish I could help more.

I think I figured it out!!! Hoping I put a stop to it! Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I think I figured it out!!! Hoping I put a stop to it! Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

No problem. I hope it helps! It was really annoying.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Sounds good to me! Have you ever gone in December before?

Yes, it was wonderful. We drive, and there was a crazy blizzard that passed through the carolinas up to Ohio, and it gave us an extra day in DisneyBut the weather was awesome, and crowds were great (other than the Saturday before Christmas that we were unaware was a 10 crowd level!! We had temps in the 80's when we checked in and they were 60 when we left and we had on jackets and pants. The christmas decorations were amazing- cant wait to see them again.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Hope you all are safe on the coast. Its coming at us now- already people with no power, and CLE airport just cancelled all flights. Schools are closing... yikes, nervous hate losing power. Heres hoping we are all on here tomorrow safe and sound (with power) back to trip planning.

 

[Alice Royal]

We're starting to feel the effects up in NH...rain is heavy, winds are crazy, power flickered for a moment. Hoping to avoid an outage, since we have no phone or Internet without power...

 

[hopefan12]

I've always wanted the opportunity to see my grandchlidren see WDW for the first time. However, we would not even begin to think about taking any of the ten of them without their parents along. You are very brave! Dh and I do spend the whole trip talking about which grandchildren would enjoy which activities, but we know we just could not handle them (or even one) without their parents.

Now, my personal opinion. You said this is your first trip. It looks to me like you are trying to squeeze in every restaurant that you want to try into one trip. I think you will be overwhelmed with food. Especially on those days where I see three ADRs. That's a lot of food in one day! I assume you plan to book a package with the DxDP?

Of course, once you get there and see how the pace is with your dgd, you can always decide then to cancel some ADRs -- you have to give at least 24 hours notice. So if you are really set on all these restaurants, go ahead and book them, but be willing to be flexible and cancel if you need to.

Afternoon breaks are absolutely essential. If she is able to get her nap in each day, that will be big help. With my grandkids, I'd never consider a dinner later than 5:30 or so. Are you sure those later evening ADRs will work for her? In particular I am looking at your Coral Reef ADR for 7:15 p.m. This restaurant is notoriously slow. You might not even get seated until 8:00 p.m. or later and your meal will be very long and drawn out. If there was a single ADR to get rid of, that would be my choice. (Oh wait, that was my choice! As soon as dh told me we didn't really have to go there again, it was off my list in a flash. )

Our grandaughter already lives with us full-time and we are her primary caregivers while her mom works full-time and goes to college. It is hard for her to get away and we already asked and she doesn't want to come (I know, why would somebody say no to Disney?) So, I am not worried about keeping up with her. As for late ADR's she is already used to that schedule because we eat late after things my husband or I have at church. She is also used to getting up early so breakfast ADR's will be ok too.She will usually crash about 3pm and is usually up late with us. I know this is a horrible schedule, but at least it is consistant which she really needs.

 

[pwdebbie]

So far so good here in the PA mountains. The wind really picked up in the last hour or so. So has activity on the scanner I listen to -- lots of trees coming down now throughout the county. I hope I can sleep tonight! The sound outside is amazing.

 

[gtpoohbear]

Our grandaughter already lives with us full-time and we are her primary caregivers while her mom works full-time and goes to college. It is hard for her to get away and we already asked and she doesn't want to come (I know, why would somebody say no to Disney?) So, I am not worried about keeping up with her. As for late ADR's she is already used to that schedule because we eat late after things my husband or I have at church. She is also used to getting up early so breakfast ADR's will be ok too.She will usually crash about 3pm and is usually up late with us. I know this is a horrible schedule, but at least it is consistant which she really needs.

I absolutely agree that sticking to the schedule she is used to is your best bet. That's what we try to do with our ADRs. We are late dinner eaters too- during the week it's usually 8-8:30 because that's when we all get home. On the weekends or vacation we try to eat a little earlier, around 7 or so. I know most wouldn't think that ideal with a 2 year old, but again, as long as its what they are used to, it works fine.

 

[hopefan12]

I know that most people think that 3, and even 2 TS restaurants a day is too much, but just to offer a different opinion... we almost always do 3 TS/day AND we take an afternoon break.

Somehow, we always still have time to do everything we want in the park. The key for us is to eat an early breakfast so that we are at the park for RD, and even amEMh when we can manage it. We tour very hard for those 3-4 hours, then we're ready for a sit-down lunch and break at the hotel. Evening trips back to the park are for dinner and maybe a couple of rides.

But we eat out a LOT at home, so the kids are used to spending a lot of time in restaurants, it's just part of life to them. We do look forward to all the unique dining experiences at WDW though, and that is as much a part of the excitement as park time. Plus, doing a lot of character meals means you don't have to spend time waiting in line for those same characters in the parks.

We don't really do CS at all, DH hates fast food, and I usually find it to be so stressful that isn't worth the small amount of time it saves. But, I know that we are in the minority there so you just have to figure out what works for you. Unfortunately, on a first trip that is very hard. We only booked 1-2 TS/day on our first trip b/c everyone said that more was too much, and we really regretted it. Remember that most meals can be cancelled with pretty short notice if you change your mind- just be sure to note what the cancellation policy is for each one.

If you are going to cut some out - I would probably skip RF Cafe (esp if you are doing T-Rex, wouldn't do both!), Garden Grill and Coral Reef.

As for where to stay, I would vote for AoA - it looks really cool, esp for little ones! We have stayed at CBR, and it's nice, but very spread out. We felt like it took forever to get anywhere. I definitely wouldn't pay more for it (than a value).

Good luck with that drive - I can't even imagine! My family is a bunch of car-wimps, we don't drive anywhere that's more then 6-7 hours away. Looks like our dates overlap almost exactly - we'll be there from 4/18-4/26

Thanks everyone for your help. I agree with you that for us the restaurants are part of the fun as much as the parks. It is a chance for us to eat together something that is not fast food like we do so much at home when things are busy and a chance to eat without my husband getting a phone call or called away for something. I decided to take everyone's advice and kind of meet in the middle. Here is how it stands now for ADR's:

Wed. 4/17 arrival day (check out resort and goof off) Ohana 6:40pm
Thurs 4/18 MK- Liberty Tree Tavern 12:50pm, BOG 7:05pm
Fri 4/19 AK Tusker House 8:05am, Boma 6:30pm
Sat 4/20 EP Akershus 8:15am, Boatwrights 7:30pm
Sun 4/21 HS 50's Primetime 11:30am, Sci-Fi 5:30pm
Mon 4/22 Discovery Cove (My #1 bucket list-swim with dolphin) Kona 7:00pm
Tues 4/23 MK Ohana 7:30am, T-Rex 8:00pm
Wed 4/24 MK ,WP or check out Orlando Crystal Palace 6:30pm
Thurs 4/25 EP Chef de France 1:00pm, Cape May 6:45pm
Fri 4/26 Seaworld
I am really leaning towards POR Riverside Alligator Bayou preferred with pull down alligator bed for the little one. I also like the looks of their food court better than A of A. Does this schedule look any better? Thanks for the imput!

 

[ja23k]

Our grandaughter already lives with us full-time and we are her primary caregivers while her mom works full-time and goes to college. It is hard for her to get away and we already asked and she doesn't want to come (I know, why would somebody say no to Disney?) So, I am not worried about keeping up with her. As for late ADR's she is already used to that schedule because we eat late after things my husband or I have at church. She is also used to getting up early so breakfast ADR's will be ok too.She will usually crash about 3pm and is usually up late with us. I know this is a horrible schedule, but at least it is consistant which she really needs.

To me that sounds like the perfect Disney schedule. You are training her well!

 

[ja23k]

Thanks everyone for your help. I agree with you that for us the restaurants are part of the fun as much as the parks. It is a chance for us to eat together something that is not fast food like we do so much at home when things are busy and a chance to eat without my husband getting a phone call or called away for something. I decided to take everyone's advice and kind of meet in the middle. Here is how it stands now for ADR's:

Wed. 4/17 arrival day (check out resort and goof off) Ohana 6:40pm
Thurs 4/18 MK- Liberty Tree Tavern 12:50pm, BOG 7:05pm
Fri 4/19 AK Tusker House 8:05am, Boma 6:30pm
Sat 4/20 EP Akershus 8:15am, Boatwrights 7:30pm
Sun 4/21 HS 50's Primetime 11:30am, Sci-Fi 5:30pm
Mon 4/22 Discovery Cove (My #1 bucket list-swim with dolphin) Kona 7:00pm
Tues 4/23 MK Ohana 7:30am, T-Rex 8:00pm
Wed 4/24 MK ,WP or check out Orlando Crystal Palace 6:30pm
Thurs 4/25 EP Chef de France 1:00pm, Cape May 6:45pm
Fri 4/26 Seaworld
I am really leaning towards POR Riverside Alligator Bayou preferred with pull down alligator bed for the little one. I also like the looks of their food court better than A of A. Does this schedule look any better? Thanks for the imput!

That looks a lot less stressful than the first schedule