Please critique my itinerary!

[VickiL]

We are going on our first-ever trip to WDW July 25-30. Group is me (Mom), age 43, DH age 45, and DS age 9. We are flying in to Orlando and staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We are not planning to rent a car but will use Disney transportation the whole time. We have 5-day PH passes.

Monday, 7/25 - arrive at resort around noonish. Play around and swim a little first, or just head straight to MK! Take the monorail from MK to CR.
Dinner - Chef Mickey's at 6:40
After dinner - back to MK for EMH - see Spectromagic at 9:00 and Wishes at 10:00

Tuesday, 7/26
Morning EMH at MGM. Tour MGM in the morning to take advantage of this.
Lunch - Sci-Fi Dine-in
Go back to the CBR around 4:00-5:00 to swim, rest, shower.
Dinner - Boma at the AKL. Taxi better than bus from CBR?
Go back to MGM for Fantasmic at 9:00 or 10:30

Wednesday, 7/27
Morning EMH at MK. Tour MK all day.
Lunch - Crystal Palace char. lunch. (We will get to see Pooh Bear! Yeah! LTT would have been the same char. we saw at Chef Mickey's. Good swap!) Be finished in time for the parade at 3:00.
Go back to the CBR around 5:00 to swim, rest, shower.
Dinner - Whispering Canyon around 8:00 p.m. Take a taxi from the CBR.
After dinner - ???

Thursday, 7/28
Evening EMH at Epcot
Tour Epcot all day
Lunch - maybe Electric Umbrella
Dinner - Le Cellier
After dinner - watch Illuminations

Friday, 7/29
Evening EMH at MK
Morning - tour AK
Lunch - Restaurantosaurus or Flame Tree Barbecue
Go back to the CBR around 5:00 to swim, rest, shower.
Dinner - Ohana
After dinner - MK until it closes

Saturday, 7/30
This is the day we leave. Our travel agent suggested doing Downtown Disney for lunch & shopping before heading to the airport.

Sunday, 7/31
Back home and depressed that the trip is over!!!!!!! All that laundry!!!!!!!!!!

So, all you DISers, what do you think? Is this doable, or do you have any suggestions? Would you change anything?

Also - how many people develop a plan like this and then find your family revolts and won't stick to it?????

 

[golfgal]

First thing I see is that you will be at the parks late your first night then up early for EMH the next day. You are going to be pretty tired, so you might want to consider that. It will probably be close to midnight before you get to bed after a 10:00 wishes, bus ride and getting back to your room.

Boma is at Animal Kingdom Lodge, not at the park. If you are getting to AK at 3 or so and then planning on dinner at AKL, you won't have much time to do anything at Animal Kingdom. You might want to consider eating at Flame Tree at AK instead of hopping over to AKL for dinner then back to AK for EMH.

For most of your plans, you are cutting your travel time pretty short. I would plan on an hour for travel time, which includes bus waits, riding the bus to your stop then getting into the park or what ever and then walking to where you are eating--this takes some time. For example, if you are going to arrive at your hotel at 5:00 to swim, then shower and get to Whispering Canyon by 8:00, you would need to leave your resort no later then say 7:00. You would need to ride to MK and then transfer to the Wilderness Lodge bus and go to Wilderness lodge. It might not take quite an hour, but better safe then sorry.

 

[Bob P]

Hi VickiL,

I agree with golfgal about your travel times. WDW transportation is great, but it is not the most time-efficient way to get from one resort to another. One way you can get to WL quicker from CBR is to take a taxi. It's about a ten minute ride and will cost about $15.

Bob

 

[VickiL]

Thanks for the info on where Boma is. DH didn't seem to like the layout of that day much, either. I think I'll rework this some.

Not quite back to square 1. Just a little tweaking!!!

 

[Bride2Be0705]

I agree with the times... I'm trying my hardest to do this myself, leaving enough time, but there are a few times we will be cutting it close.

Good luck!! And enjoy your trip!!

 

[kakjoe]

You may want to check about your Liberty reservation. Unless something has changed the character dining used to be only at Dinner time at Liberty Tree. Hope it works out.

 

[Bob P]

You may want to check about your Liberty reservation. Unless something has changed the character dining used to be only at Dinner time at Liberty Tree. Hope it works out.

Good point, Kakjoe. I missed that!

 

[IGetAKickOutOfFlik]

My one observation is that you're using up a full day's worth of park passes on arrival day, seemingly just to see Spectromagic and Wishes. Doesn't seem all that economical.

 

[VickiL]

Thank you for the heads-up about the LTT. It is dinner only.

More tweaking! Stay tuned! And THANKS A MILLION!

 

[VickiL]

My one observation is that you're using up a full day's worth of park passes on arrival day, seemingly just to see Spectromagic and Wishes. Doesn't seem all that economical.

Would you use the 5th day on departure day instead? It only cost about $3.50 or something ridiculous to add another day to the 4-day tickets I originally thought I would get.

 

[Bob P]

...or you could go to the MK instead of "play around and swim!" Then you could jump on the Monorail or walk to the CR for dinner and go back.

Not sure what time you'll be arriving at the CR though...

 

[Rpsemont]

I have not gone during the summer and usually stay away from busy times. but I'm not sure I'd plan to stay the day at MK after an AM EMH. From reading posts of Easter week, and my personal experience Pres week, I'd do the Morning EMH at MK, and stay only until it gets too busy, then either head back to your resort or over to AK.

 

[VickiL]

Ok, DISers, I've tweaked it a little. I took out AK from Tuesday because we'll be there all day Friday anyway. And I swapped the char. lunch on Wednesday. Now we get to see Pooh Bear! I just edited my original post. Any more comments?

Rpsemont - good suggestion about hopping to AK if MK gets too crowded on Wednesday. We'll keep that in mind!

BTW -- Y'all are awesome! Thanks so much!

 

[10drum]

Le Cellier is a great place to eat.

When we plan dinner & illumination I make a PS at the Rose and Crowne for 7:30 to 8pm and ask for a veranda table. Great place to eat & watch Illumination.

I do like the food, at Le Cellier better than R&C.

 

[marriedmarylander]

Sounds good.. Did you edit the post (basedon reading the other responses). Di you move Boma? Boma is a great restaurant and it's awesome.