Once In A Lifetime Must Dos?

[ZoeBiggs]

Hi all!! Off on our once in a lifetime disney holiday in August and have just begun planning, although feel like I should have started earlier - the amount of things to do is mind blowing!! I will be travelling with an 11 and 14 year old and hubby - any recommendations for experiences or must see shows? I just don't know where to start

 

[Princess Leia]

Hi all!! Off on our once in a lifetime disney holiday in August and have just begun planning, although feel like I should have started earlier - the amount of things to do is mind blowing!! I will be travelling with an 11 and 14 year old and hubby - any recommendations for experiences or must see shows? I just don't know where to start

We all started out with that once in a lifetime trip. Just a couple of questions to help us. How long are you planning to be in Disney. Are you planning to go to any of the other theme parks? Have you the dining plan?

 

[joolz1910]

Are you staying onsite with free dining?

Everyone is different but some of the highlights for us were the dining experiences.

Apart from food, we enjoyed:
Soarin'
Illuminations
Blizzard Beach
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
The Little Mermaid show
Beauty and the Beast show
The Lion King show
Expedition Everest
Watching the fireworks from the Poly beach
Shopping at the Disney Store at DTD
POTC
Splash Mountain
The Haunted Mansion

I could go on and on and on....

 

[wilma-bride]

to the DIS. Firstly, good luck with the 'once in a lifetime' thing. My 'once in a lifetime trip' was 10 years ago. I've been 11 times since then

Presumably you have already booked. If you share with us where you are staying and whether you have any tickets booked or ideas of what you would like to see, we can probably help a bit more.

If your kids (or you) are into Harry Potter, then in my opinion you definitely need to pay a visit to Universal/Islands of Adventure.

There are so many options, though, it can definitely be overwhelming but we will need a bit more information from you before we can suggest things for you.

 

[meldud]

Hi all!! Off on our once in a lifetime disney holiday in August and have just begun planning, although feel like I should have started earlier - the amount of things to do is mind blowing!! I will be travelling with an 11 and 14 year old and hubby - any recommendations for experiences or must see shows? I just don't know where to start

We also planned a 'once in a lifetime holiday'..... errr, good luck with that!
We are now going for our 3rd trip and still have so much we want to experience.

Do you all like big coasters? How about water? Where are you staying? Just a few things so we can all bestow our knowledge on you.
I think we all love planning.

 

[juliebro]

Yes - we did a 'once in a lifetime' trip back in 2001. Three weeks ago, we got back from our 13th trip and have already reserved our accommodation for next year's!

 

[ZoeBiggs]

Lol!! So it's a it addictive then?! We're coming from the UK so it really is the once and I'm so pleased I found you all so I can make sure our time is well spent thanks to your knowledge and advice!!! I can imagine it would be very easy to miss so much.

Anyhow, we're staying at The french Quarter and have the quick service dining plan? We all love everything ride wise, the kids are eager to meet everyone they can and hubby can't wait to throw himself down the biggest waters.ode he can find! We're over for 2 weeks in August and have been counting down for months lol! The dinner show at the Polynesion sounds fab!

I've got so much to learn - just completely confused myself reading a thread about fastpass+

Definitely want to do universal and others too but feel like we should have booked a month long holiday...

Thanks all!!

 

[wilma-bride]

Lol!! So it's a it addictive then?! We're coming from the UK so it really is the once and I'm so pleased I found you all so I can make sure our time is well spent thanks to your knowledge and advice!!! I can imagine it would be very easy to miss so much.

Anyhow, we're staying at The french Quarter and have the quick service dining plan? We all love everything ride wise, the kids are eager to meet everyone they can and hubby can't wait to throw himself down the biggest waters.ode he can find! We're over for 2 weeks in August and have been counting down for months lol! The dinner show at the Polynesion sounds fab!

I've got so much to learn - just completely confused myself reading a thread about fastpass+

Definitely want to do universal and others too but feel like we should have booked a month long holiday...

Thanks all!!

Hi again Zoe, we are all from the UK here so that doesn't necessarily mean it will only be the once

Anyway, you are staying onsite at Disney. Will you be hiring a car? If not, do you only intend to do the Disney parks. If you have the quick service dining plan, you do realise that you would have to pay extra for the Aloha Dinner Show, don't you?

Check out www.allearsnet.com for dining menus, they will say whether a restaurant is Table Service or Counter (quick) Service so you will have an idea of what is included.

If you haven't already done so, set up an account at www.mydisneyexperience.com and customise your MagicBands and link your reservation as you will be able to make FP+ reservations very soon. You can make 3 FP+ reservations at one park on each day of your visit. Once you have used all three, you can then make further reservations, one at a time, using the kiosk in the parks.

If you only plan to do the main Disney parks, you will have plenty of time to see and do a lot of what is on offer.

My main advice would be not to try and cram in too much but I would definitely recommend making some time to visit Universal and Islands of Adventure.

Depending when in August you are visiting, you may find the parks are quite crowded. It can also be incredibly hot and humid in August so the best thing to do is hit the parks early, take a break around midday/early afternoon and then return to the parks in the evenings when it has cooled down a bit. The parks will be open longer in the summer months so you can benefit from the longer evening hours. The general consensus is to avoid parks with EMH (extra magic hours) or, if you intend to visit a park with morning EMH, make sure you get there early (when EMH starts) or you will have lost the advantage.

Again, feel free to ask more specific questions if you have them.

 

[Kath2003]

Lol!! So it's a it addictive then?! We're coming from the UK so it really is the once and I'm so pleased I found you all so I can make sure our time is well spent thanks to your knowledge and advice!!! I can imagine it would be very easy to miss so much.

Oh you'll be going again, don't worry

Universal is GREAT for kids of that age - don't miss it! Given that you have limited time, it might be wise to book one of the three Universal hotels that offer an express pass with a stay, which significantly reduces your waiting time for most rides. One night would give you two days of Express Passes which is usually worth the cost of the hotel itself.

August is HOT and BUSY. Prepare yourself, and don't try to do it all. On that line, buy some VERY, VERY comfortable shoes and be prepared to walk a lot (won't be a surprise to you if you usually do, but some people find walking 6-15 miles each day a shock to the system!). Plan an early night on your first full day (second night) as we find this is when jet lag hits. If we have an early meal and pack in early (9pm) for the night, we feel fine after that.

Do a character meal, and maybe some other sit downs too. Quick service is fine and there's lots of choice but I think two weeks would stretch it for me...

 

[meldud]

Hi again Zoe, we are all from the UK here so that doesn't necessarily mean it will only be the once

Anyway, you are staying onsite at Disney. Will you be hiring a car? If not, do you only intend to do the Disney parks. If you have the quick service dining plan, you do realise that you would have to pay extra for the Aloha Dinner Show, don't you?

Check out www.allearsnet.com for dining menus, they will say whether a restaurant is Table Service or Counter (quick) Service so you will have an idea of what is included.

If you haven't already done so, set up an account at www.mydisneyexperience.com and customise your MagicBands and link your reservation as you will be able to make FP+ reservations very soon. You can make 3 FP+ reservations at one park on each day of your visit. Once you have used all three, you can then make further reservations, one at a time, using the kiosk in the parks.

If you only plan to do the main Disney parks, you will have plenty of time to see and do a lot of what is on offer.

My main advice would be not to try and cram in too much but I would definitely recommend making some time to visit Universal and Islands of Adventure.

Depending when in August you are visiting, you may find the parks are quite crowded. It can also be incredibly hot and humid in August so the best thing to do is hit the parks early, take a break around midday/early afternoon and then return to the parks in the evenings when it has cooled down a bit. The parks will be open longer in the summer months so you can benefit from the longer evening hours. The general consensus is to avoid parks with EMH (extra magic hours) or, if you intend to visit a park with morning EMH, make sure you get there early (when EMH starts) or you will have lost the advantage.

Again, feel free to ask more specific questions if you have them.

This ^

I'm so excited for you. I remember how in awe I was the first trip, but sooooo pleased I found this board. We would have missed so much if I hadnt known even some of the stuff on here.

We are taking our 13 DD and 14 DS and they love different things. We wrote this short list of our awesome must do fave thing in Disney;

DH - Kilamanjaro safari, Animal Kingdom
DS - Mission space, Epcot
DD – meeting characters
Me – Electrical parade, Magic Kingdom

and we all came up with somewhere out of Disney too.

Me - Harry Potter, forbidden journey, Universal
DH - Discovery Cove
DD - Bilge rat falls, Universal
DS – Men in Black, Universal

But there are so many things we cannot miss off our list this time round and we are going to try a few new things like an air boat ride and a trip to Kennedy Space Center.

Happy planning!!

 

[ZoeBiggs]

Been on and registered and sorted out the bands - so cool!!

We haven't hired a car but are still going to try and get out and about, and I'm really liking the idea of booking a night at Universal, it does seem to make sense.

I am aware that dinner shows and character meals etc will cost extra to the plan and that's fine - it is a on e in a lifetime trip after all LOL!!!!!

The heat was a bit of a worry (but not that much!!!) but seeing as the schools won't let the kids out in term time anymore we didn't really have much choice , but I think if we play it right like the suggestion of mornings and evenings with a break in the middle of the day, we should be ok

Why is the general consensus to avoid the park with emh? I'm assuming it makes it a lot busier?

And thank you for the clarification over the fastpass, I think things are gradually becoming clearer!!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

I would just say that the most impressive stuff for us the first time we went was the parades, the opening show at Magic Kingdom is amazing as is their afternoon and evening parade and fireworks. Honestly if you never went on a ride you would be in awe of the parades, then Illuminations at EPCOT, Fantasmic at DHS and the afternoon parade at AK.

The Electrical Water Pageant by the monorail resorts is also worth a see.

Add in some meals, rides and lots of sunshine (hopefully) and I'm sure you'll have an amazing trip (and I'm another addict who won trip one to a place I didn't want to go then planned trip two as a 'once in a lifetime' return and will hopefully be back for trip 8 in 61 days )

 

[chmurf]

Why is the general consensus to avoid the park with emh? I'm assuming it makes it a lot busier?

there are 2 kinds of guests. Onsite and Offsite.

Crowd Calendars and Planning sites are made for both Onsiters and Offsiters but only offer one recommendation.

Offsiters can't do EMH, so when they come to the EMH park, onsiters already make lines and have a 1 hour headstart. For offsiters EMH parks are to avoid.
But for onsiters, EMHs are a perk guests should use (not every day, but at least one in a while)

If you're an onsiter and are willing to hop to another park come mid-day, then EMH are quite interesting.
If you're an offsiter, run away from those.

But planning/crowd calendar sites will tell you to avoid EMH parks, because they talk to everyone, and not everyone stays onsite and has access to EMH.

 

[Princess Leia]

I always let my children be involved in planning the holiday. The first time we went I printed out copies of the park maps and we all highlighted our must dos. For a first trip you will want to fit in the parades and evening fireworks. The water parks are great fun. In summer we would just go for a morning and try to get the big slides done first. Universal and IOA are also great.

 

[~Piglet~]

We had our 'Once in a Lifetime' trip in 2005

You will find plenty of advice and information on the boards. Enjoy your holiday and pace yourselves! there is no way you can do it all in one trip (or several!!) I would have a list of a few 'must do's' for each Park / attraction you are planning to visit and go from there.

I'm sure you will have a fab time no matter what you see/do and there is always next time for the things you have missed....

 

[mackay_j]

Once in a lifetime - good luck with that! - ours was 14 yrs ago - 8 trips ago

Have a great time!!

 

[pampat]

Ha yes, my first trip was 1981! Been back most years since then. Daughter and husbands first was 1991 and we've been back two or three times a year since then. Somehow, you will always find your way back!

One tip I have is to take time to people watch and take in the atmosphere. Have some real 'stop and smell the roses' moments when you can just catch your breath and take in the fact that you are actually THERE!!!

Pam

 

[missnic07]

When in August do you go? We go for the first time this August too!

 

[ZoeBiggs]

When in August do you go? We go for the first time this August too!

We travel out on the 18th!! Can't wait!! When do you go? I didn't realize quite how much planning I would need to do lol, really enjoying the build up tho!!

 

[Sencybil]

You'll have a wonderful time. But you won't manage everything. We had 2 full weeks of only Disney, at a quieter time of year, and there were still several things I wanted to do that I didn't get around to - and we're not big coaster people so didn't spend much time on some of the attractions with the longest wait! Just warning you....

I would recommend that you investigate all the QS menus and plan out some you really like the sound of. Its easy to get absorbed in the parks and just grab whatever is nearest when you're hungry, but there are some great options, and going to them will take you to parts of the estate you might otherwise miss. Lunches might be great for you as its a good idea to leave the parks for the afternoon anyway. I particularly enjoyed seeing Animal Kingdom Lodge, the Grand Floridian and the Boardwalk area, the Contemporary Resort and Art of Animation - and each of those has QS options that will help to vary what you eat. Also, Be Our Guest is a must do in my view for a QS lunch. Also its fun to use the other transport like monorail and ferry rather than just the bus between French Quarter and the Parks.

For a show, we loved Hoop-De-Doo Review, and I would pay extra for that one if I went again.

Loved the waterparks too, don't miss those.

Snacks - research these too, there are so many wonderful treats that are included in your QS dining plan, I'd never have found most of them if I hadn't known about them before we went (funnel cakes, cinnamon rolls, dole whips, caramel corn, hot fudge sundaes, mickey bars, caramel frappuucinos....)

Yeah, I'm all about the food!

Happy Planning!

Sencybil xx