Please critique my itinerary - First trip back in 15 years!

[Kbosch]

Hello from NY!

I will be headed to WDW from September 28th - October 3rd 2019, with my husband, 3 kids (DS age 6, DD age 4 and DS 2 turning 3 while we are there), my mom, step-dad and sister staying at CBR.

My family had annual passes when I was in my teens and we would make the 20 hour drive 4 times a year; we were probably the only kids that complained about going to Disney.

My last trip was sometime around 2005. It will be my husband and kids' first time there! It's been hard for me bc so much is different since the last time I was there, plus this will be my first trip focused on the kids. I've been reading as many blogs/forums/FB groups as I can get my hands on; paid for Touring Plans, etc.

These boards have been so helpful - I've done a lot more reading than posting! I was wondering if someone could look at my itinerary and give me some pointers? Not sure if I have parks scheduled on the “right” days; if it will be too hard to get ADRs for some of these restaurants, etc. My husband is a teacher and will only be staying Saturday – Tuesday; the rest of us will be there Saturday – Thursday so I was trying to fit all of our “must do’s” into the first 4 days.

I’m also worried about all of our Sit Down dinners. Our plan was to have 2 of our rooms upgrade to the Deluxe DP, but now I’ve seen people having issues with sharing their credits.

TL;DR – please critique if you can lol

Saturday – Flight gets in at 11:30am, Taking Magic Express; Check In CBR. AK by 3pm hopefully. Counter Service Dinner in AK
Sunday – MK (park closes at 6); lunch at BOG, Dinner at O’hana
Monday -HS; Minnie's Seasonal Dining for Lunch, Pool Break, Epcot for Dinner at Coral Reef & Fireworks
Tuesday - EPCOT; Lunch at Akerhaus; Pool; DH Leaves for Airport; Back to HS for Fireworks?
Wednesday - AK; Lunch at Rainforest, Pool, MK for fireworks
Thursday – Check out of CBR; MK til 2pm-ish; Magic Express to Airport and Flight home at 6:30

 

[pitpat]

looks good to me. I probably wouldn't do as many table service lunch followed by table service dinners, but that may work for your group.

 

[TwinkleKS]

Personally, I wouldn't hop from park to park and have a pool break every day. But that varies family to family on their style.

Transportation eats up a lot of time. It all depends on how you hit the buses, etc. But think of it this way, you leave your room at 8:00, it takes an hour before you are actually in the MK. So now it's 9:00. Let's say you eat lunch at 12:00, so you get three hours in. Then with kids, etc. give yourself an hour at BOG, it is 1:00. Now you want to go to the pool. It takes an hour to get back to the hotel and get in swimsuits, so you hit the pool at 2:00, swim for an hour and it is 3:00 - shower, change, nap whatever and it is 4:00, you want to plan on an hour to get to O'hana (may not take that long obviously). So you are at O'hana at 5:00, eat until 6:30 and are back at the hotel at 7:30, having only really spent three hours at MK. By driving your own car you may cut down some on transportation times, but it won't completely go away, especially to and from parks.

We normally do two table service meals a day, but we make sure and spread them out with six hours at least in between them. If someone is hungry during that time period we get a snack. For example we may do breakfast in Epcot at 10:00 then eat dinner at a resort at 7:00 ... that gives us from like 11:30 - 6:00 where we have park time.

You are also there during the Halloween party time and might want to consider buying tickets for that event.

 

[SG131]

I think get rid of coral reef or Hollywood and vine and you will be fine with the mid level dining plan. I wouldn’t do more than one TS in a day, it’s a lot of food and a lot of wasted time. Personally, I’d get rid of coral reef since H&V offers characters and that saves you from some character lines. Don’t forget BOG is technically counter service at lunch.

I am with the above poster and wouldn’t go back to the pool that much especially in a short trip, however I know some people like that.

 

[WRLeGrand]

It is probably a little unrealistic to plan a pool break most (if not all) days and two parks for CBR. If you are doing Disney transport, like someone mentioned above, it does eat up more time that you would expect. You have to walk from the park to the bus location, and vice versa.

Maybe on the Day your husband leaves, go back to MK for fireworks and maybe a couple of rides you can grab on the app. That would free you up the following day to take in AK as long as you want, then go back to the resort and have afternoon/evening to swim and pack to leave....

No matter what you plan you will have a blast!

 

[ElizabethG]

I would also get rid of Coral Reef. I'm not a fan of the restaurant in the first place. There are so many great places to eat in Epcot and that is not one of them. Several of the quick service places are better.

I would also consider Tusker House instead of Rainforest. Tusker House has gotten mixed reviews lately, but I have never had a good experience at Rainforest.

DFB (Disney Food Blog) has a lot of restaurant reviews (on YouTube) that give you good information.

I think you would be better off with the regular dining plan, too.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

As others have said, you're going to spend a LOT of time traveling with that much park hopping and breaks scheduled. Here's what I would do:

Saturday - no changes
Sunday - no changes
Monday - full day at DHS with H&V lunch or dinner
Tuesday - full Epcot day with Akershus lunch
Wednesday - morning at AK with breakfast or lunch at Tusker House, pool in the afternoon, MK for fireworks
Thurs - no changes

 

[eeyoresmom]

Well, I think she was planning on sharing Deluxe credits amongst guests in 2 rooms. I would have a back up plan in case that goes away, I think it might. I definitely dont think you'll be able to share kids credits with adults so the regular ddp may be your best option. Your kids are at the right age to get some monetary gains from the regular ddp. On the subject of transportation. Last Dec. DD and I drove our own car to the TTC. We had an ADR at 'Ohana before the Christmas party. It took us 90 minutes to get from OKW to the Poly for our dinner. The parking situation at the TTC was convoluted and the monorails and boats from MK to the Poly were jammed because MK was closing early. It was nuts! I always advise people to not attempt dining in resorts unless its a monorail or Epcot resort and you are in THAT park that day but sadly, that advice did not serve us well.

 

[fbarker]

I would also get rid of Coral Reef. I'm not a fan of the restaurant in the first place. There are so many great places to eat in Epcot and that is not one of them. Several of the quick service places are better.

I would also consider Tusker House instead of Rainforest. Tusker House has gotten mixed reviews lately, but I have never had a good experience at Rainforest.

DFB (Disney Food Blog) has a lot of restaurant reviews (on YouTube) that give you good information.

I think you would be better off with the regular dining plan, too.

OP just be careful of all the food opinions. This is a perfect example. My wife and I eat at Coral Reef almost every trip and we always have a very good meal. But beyond that you will have the aquarium that will provide lots of entertainment for the young ones. I am sure you could even request a table up close to they can see better. So I would vote for you keeping Carol Reef.

 

[Kbosch]

As others have said, you're going to spend a LOT of time traveling with that much park hopping and breaks scheduled. Here's what I would do:

Saturday - no changes
Sunday - no changes
Monday - full day at DHS with H&V lunch or dinner
Tuesday - full Epcot day with Akershus lunch
Wednesday - morning at AK with breakfast or lunch at Tusker House, pool in the afternoon, MK for fireworks
Thurs - no changes

Thank you everyone for their comments! I think since we had to get the park hopper passes with the free dining I was trying to fit more parks in. We used to do that a lot when I was younger but we would also be at the parks during school breaks when every park was open to 11 or 12pm; since most of the parks close by 8 or 9 (and my kids won't last much longer past that anyway) I'll have to re-think. Thanks!

 

[Kbosch]

Well, I think she was planning on sharing Deluxe credits amongst guests in 2 rooms. I would have a back up plan in case that goes away, I think it might. I definitely dont think you'll be able to share kids credits with adults so the regular ddp may be your best option. Your kids are at the right age to get some monetary gains from the regular ddp. On the subject of transportation. Last Dec. DD and I drove our own car to the TTC. We had an ADR at 'Ohana before the Christmas party. It took us 90 minutes to get from OKW to the Poly for our dinner. The parking situation at the TTC was convoluted and the monorails and boats from MK to the Poly were jammed because MK was closing early. It was nuts! I always advise people to not attempt dining in resorts unless its a monorail or Epcot resort and you are in THAT park that day but sadly, that advice did not serve us well.

Yes, actually we were planning on doing the upgrade in one room with two adults and one room with one adult and then using some of the adult credits for kids. I didn't want to worry about trying to use child credits for an adult if we did it the other way, but I'm worried they're cracking down on any sharing at all so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Hmm worried about doing Ohana Sunday then. I will def think of a backup plan. Thanks!

 

[ElizabethG]

OP just be careful of all the food opinions. This is a perfect example. My wife and I eat at Coral Reef almost every trip and we always have a very good meal. But beyond that you will have the aquarium that will provide lots of entertainment for the young ones. I am sure you could even request a table up close to they can see better. So I would vote for you keeping Carol Reef.

I agree that food opinions will definitely vary. That is one of the reasons I recommend the YouTube videos (DFB has a positive review of Coral Reef FWIW). You can see the place and meals and get a better idea if it fits your tastes.

I didn't say so, but my opinion to get rid of Coral Reef was based on the two sit down meals (for lunch and dinner) on the same day.

My personal opinion is that the food is bland. The last two times we were there we waited over and hour past our ADR to be seated. That said, we have not been there in over two years now because of it and they can change over time.

 

[a742246]

Everything looks good, my only advice is to take everything nice and slow. I know my GK at that age liked the pools better than the theme parks. Maybe have lunch at your resort for one day.

 

[Kbosch]

Everything looks good, my only advice is to take everything nice and slow. I know my GK at that age liked the pools better than the theme parks. Maybe have lunch at your resort for one day.

That's partially what I'm worried about - we'll get down there and my kids will want to spend every day, all day in the pool! Lol

 

[eeyoresmom]

Yes, actually we were planning on doing the upgrade in one room with two adults and one room with one adult and then using some of the adult credits for kids. I didn't want to worry about trying to use child credits for an adult if we did it the other way, but I'm worried they're cracking down on any sharing at all so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Hmm worried about doing Ohana Sunday then. I will def think of a backup plan. Thanks!

Assuming sharing credits between adults is still allowed you will probably be better off doing that, but paying out of pocket for kids meals since they are much cheaper. An adult credit is worth around $35 on the deluxe plan currently. You will not spend that on almost any kids meal. If sharing is still allowed you should figure out how many adult credits you need for the trip, it looks like 5 adults and 5 TS meals, so 25 credits. If you put 2 adults in a room with the dxddp you would have 30 credits, enough for another TS. Of you think you'll use all the snacks you may want to do 2 adults and 2 kids on the dxddp. Another option would be to pit just one adult in the room with the dxddp and use those credits for the most expensive TS meals. IF sharing is still allowed you have several options, you just have to do the math

 

[Kbosch]

Assuming sharing credits between adults is still allowed you will probably be better off doing that, but paying out of pocket for kids meals since they are much cheaper. An adult credit is worth around $35 on the deluxe plan currently. You will not spend that on almost any kids meal. If sharing is still allowed you should figure out how many adult credits you need for the trip, it looks like 5 adults and 5 TS meals, so 25 credits. If you put 2 adults in a room with the dxddp you would have 30 credits, enough for another TS. Of you think you'll use all the snacks you may want to do 2 adults and 2 kids on the dxddp. Another option would be to pit just one adult in the room with the dxddp and use those credits for the most expensive TS meals. IF sharing is still allowed you have several options, you just have to do the math

Yes, that is my problem. THE MATH! lol