Please help a first-timer with planning questions

[1osfan]

Here's some background. Almost a month ago, with no prior planning, I booked our family's first WDW vacation. I have spent hours each day over the past month on this site researching and planning. This Wednesday is our 90 day mark and we are calling for our ADRs. I keep reading on this site about people who call for their ADRs and get them for within minutes of their planned times, but I am having trouble planning those times.

A few more details. Four of us are going to WDW - my DW and I along with DD6 (a tink and princess fan) and DS2 (a Mickey fanatic). We are staying at POP from 7/28-8/6, 9 nights with park tickets for 7 days, no park hopper (yet - haven't ruled it out, but haven't added it on), no DDP (again, not yet, if the money is there, we will add this, if not, we will do CS meals). We will not visit a park on our check-in day or check-out day and we booked an extra night so we could take a day of rest in the middle. We plan on doing ropedrop as often as possible and taking advantage of morning EMH so we can spend several hours each morning in the park before heading back to the hotel for DD2's nap and our rest/pool time each day. We will probably spend a large amount of time doing character greetings as well as rides and shows and we would like to see each of the nightime shows at least once during the trip.

We are hoping to do at least four character meals during our stay - CRT and Ohana's for breakfast and Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace for dinner. If we do the DDP, the other TS meals that we are considering are Chefs de France, Le Cellier, Sci-Fi, and Tusker House.

Now, my problem. Park hours, EMH days, and Fantasmic! days are currently only available for the first 3 days of our trip. We need to make our ADRs before the rest of the hours will be released. What do we do? We planned on using morning EMH days to get extra time in the parks before naps, but without a hopper, to eat at many of these restaurants, we would need to choose which park we visit on any given day based on an ADR, but we are flexible, and do not have set days and times that we wanted for those ADRs. We would rather plan them around our park schedule instead of the other way around. For example, we can see Fantasmic! on the second day we are there(7/30), but that locks us into HS that day. We can not plan meals at MK or Epcot that day and UG says AK is the best bet that day.

Can you please give us advice on planning our schedule and ADRs without having Disney's schedule for the week.

Thanks! (And, I'm sorry this was long-winded!)

 

[Aliceacc]

As someone else going in August, I can sympathize completely!!!

Here's what I would do: take a look at the EMH hours for the last available week: the last week of July. Assume and hope and cross your fingers that the schedule wont' change, and make your ADRs based on that.

Then, Thursday, take a look when they're released. Call again and make any necessary changes.

 

[raydurz]

IMHO the park hopper option is well worth it if you can afford it. It affords so much flexibilty in doing things. Some of the parks are not as extensive as the others, so you may find yourself through the entire park, with time remaining in the day. Though that may not be the case if you're going in July. One thing with park hopper that you can do is go to AK during the day, and by the time it closes at 4pm or so, head over to HS for Fantasmic!

 

[1osfan]

I thought about that, but when I look at the morning EMH for July, it's MK every Thursday until the last Thursday of the month. Also, one week in July AK and Epcot switch morning EMH. Those are the things that are making me crazy right now.

 

[Cinderella]

Hi - definitely add the park hopper if you can afford it, then go to a non EMH park in the evening.

I may be wrong but when I've planned my last few trips - they don't seem to change the actual weekdays of extra magic hours. I may be wrong but if they haven't released them when you make your ADR's, I would just look at what weekday's EMH have been over the last few days for your particular park and plan that way.

 

[1osfan]

IMHO the park hopper option is well worth it if you can afford it. It affords so much flexibilty in doing things. Some of the parks are not as extensive as the others, so you may find yourself through the entire park, with time remaining in the day. Though that may not be the case if you're going in July. One thing with park hopper that you can do is go to AK during the day, and by the time it closes at 4pm or so, head over to HS for Fantasmic!

We are leaning towards the hopper, but the cost is making us wonder. Is it worth $150?

 

[Aliceacc]

For my family, well worth the $250.

Last year we got caught in a cold windy monsoon at Animal Kingdom. After being heros for an hour, we gave up, changed, and hopped to Epcot and had a delightful day. A few days later, we started at AK, then hopped elsewhere for the evening.

And having parkhoppers means you can end every night in the restaurant of your choice regardless of which park has smaller crowds that morning.

 

[mousescrapper]

OK,

my first thought is see if you can look up historic crowd levels for your week there from 08 to give you a base. Also you can research which days typically are the most crowded for the parks.

second I give you a huge up for not going to the parks on your arrival day and departure day....it works well not to schedule too much w/ little kids in tow on those busy travel days. And a rest day good for you.

3rd let's start w/ your arrival day.

that's seems to be the most logical choice for your Chef Mickey's dinner meal. What time are you arriving in MCO?

4th a rule of thumb for picking your times IMHO

try and pick your dining times at the begining of each meal opening. such as breakfast in CRT try for the 8:05 am seating and you get in the park before it opens which is cool and if you do get that opening time you'd be done eating just as the park is opening and off to DUMBO!

so breakfast always try for within the 1st hour of opening, lunch generally starts at 11:30 and you can sometimes get an 11:15 and be one of the 1st to be seated and eating. dinner try for the 4:30-5:00 range...again early.

also try to KIM the character meals you want to allow at least 1 hour to 2 depending on the time of day.

5th

your rest day...do you kinda have a day in mind? why not choose that to be your O'Hana breakfast morning. maybe a 9:15 time so you're not neccessarily rushing out the door on a bus over there.

6th ok typically people say you should avoid MK on Mondays and Saturdays...so maybe go w/ this...not knowing any crowd levels or anything....JAT
Tues 7-28 no park CM's dinner
Wed 7-29 MK CRT breakfast pre-opening if you can
Thurs 7-30 AK (go w/ the UG here) and just go ahead and schedule an early lunch at Tusker house you can cancel it later
Friday 7-31 possible Epcot day and one of your TS choices
Sat 8-1 your rest day and O'Hana breakfast
Sun 8-2 possible DHS day (sci-fi lunch)
Monday 8-3 any park but MK, but if MK do your Crystal Palace dinner
Tuesday 8-4 MK ? CP dinner? or Epcot one of your TS choices here I'd go w/ a lunch time again
Wed 8-5 repeat park choice no TS
Thurs 8-6 departure day no park other option for CM, but do a late breakfat 11:00 am-ish?

Hope that helps....

 

[1osfan]

your rest day...do you kinda have a day in mind? why not choose that to be your O'Hana breakfast morning. maybe a 9:15 time so you're not neccessarily rushing out the door on a bus over there.


Hope that helps....

The only plans we have for the rest day are to relax and try to get as much rest as possible. We were thinking a little time at DTD and maybe driving (we are driving to WDW) to the disney outlet store (in Kissimmee?). Other than that, we were thinking that the pool at POP would get a lot of use this day. I love the idea of O'hana this day. I had not thought of that.

Thanks for all of your suggestions! They are great!

 

[mousescrapper]

The only plans we have for the rest day are to relax and try to get as much rest as possible. We were thinking a little time at DTD and maybe driving (we are driving to WDW) to the disney outlet store (in Kissimmee?). Other than that, we were thinking that the pool at POP would get a lot of use this day. I love the idea of O'hana this day. I had not thought of that.

Thanks for all of your suggestions! They are great!

Your welcome....please post again and tell us what you decide and what you get....I won't delete the sub for now....

and hey I have over a year till I can be planning my days and ADR's for our next trip...so I'm happy to stay busy and keep in the Disney mode!

 

[P&B's Mom]

You are obviously on a budget and need to think of that first with any decision. If it were me, I would choose the DDP over the Park Hopper. The biggest reason I think this might work best for your family is for a couple of reasons. First of all, you say that character meals are important. These are expensive and you will be money ahead because of your kids. This is where we really made the DDP work for us. Second, you plan on hitting a park in the morning, taking a break, and then go back only some nights. This will work nicely, even without park hoppers. Actually, last year our LEAST fav days were the days that we hopped. I know it works for some people, especially if you want to walk over to Epcot if you are staying nearby or monorail to MK if you are near there, but you are at Pop--this really doesn't make sense for you.

With your character meals, I would not choose to go to a character breakfast if you are going to an EMH park. The reason is that you will be in your meal while others are enjoying the rides. For these days, you might want to choose the last breakfast/first lunch meal for these character meals. You will be ready for a break by then and your family will thank you for the AC. If you are doing dinners, make your ADRs for before 5:30 pm--you will be thankful later.

I was reading some of the other posts and like the idea of a character meal at a resort on your non-park day. 'Ohana, Cape May, and Chef Mickey are great choices.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[1osfan]

You are obviously on a budget and need to think of that first with any decision. If it were me, I would choose the DDP over the Park Hopper.

First, I appreciate all of the great replies! This board is a life-saver.

We would love to do the DDP, but we have come up with three drawbacks that are weighing on us.

One, since all of the TS meals need reservations, we would have to make all of those reservations this week. That locks us into a specific park each day, but the schedule is not out for most of our trip. I feel that if we do the DDP, we also need to hop.

Second, doesn't making reservations every day limit what you can do in the park? Since this is our first trip, we have no idea where we will want to spend our time. I feel like the restaurants we choose today will dictate our touring schedule for our trip.

Three, the cost is a factor. Our original plan involved a couple of TS meals (namely the four character meals I mentioned), eating many breakfasts and some lunches in the room, and filling in CS meals for the rest. When I crunch the numbers, I see us spending a couple of hundred dollars more if we do the DDP, namely because we would not eat that many TS meals otherwise.

I would love to do the DDP; I have heard so many great things about it. I just worry about these.

Thanks again!

 

[DisneyDebbie]

Just to give my opinion, I didn't like the DDP, we ate alot more than usual, and it took us a little while to get our energy back. We did late breakfast at Crystal Palace (10:30), then we had early dinners (5:00 or so) at Chef Mickeys, Italy in Epcot, and a late dinner at Whispering Canyon. One late lunch at Coral Reef (around 3:00). I kept the mornings open for rope drop. I just felt that we always had to stop what we were doing to get to our meal on time. The kids wanted to ride Test Track again, well we did, but then had to run through Epcot to get to dinner. For another meal, we were trying to leave MK, but everything was roped off for the parade, and we had to go around the whole park, again running to get there on time. We did enjoy the food and atmosphere of the restaurants though, and it was a good deal for the amount of food we ate. For our next trip, we are doing 2 Chatacter TS, breakfast and snacks in the room, and then I'll have a plan as to which CS's will be a good fit for our family.

I think doing the TS meals on a nonpark day is a great idea.

Happy planning!

 

[1osfan]

Just to give my opinion, I didn't like the DDP, we ate alot more than usual, and it took us a little while to get our energy back. We did late breakfast at Crystal Palace (10:30), then we had early dinners (5:00 or so) at Chef Mickeys, Italy in Epcot, and a late dinner at Whispering Canyon. One late lunch at Coral Reef (around 3:00). I kept the mornings open for rope drop. I just felt that we always had to stop what we were doing to get to our meal on time. The kids wanted to ride Test Track again, well we did, but then had to run through Epcot to get to dinner. For another meal, we were trying to leave MK, but everything was roped off for the parade, and we had to go around the whole park, again running to get there on time. We did enjoy the food and atmosphere of the restaurants though, and it was a good deal for the amount of food we ate. For our next trip, we are doing 2 Chatacter TS, breakfast and snacks in the room, and then I'll have a plan as to which CS's will be a good fit for our family.

I think doing the TS meals on a nonpark day is a great idea.

Happy planning!

Thanks for your response! You just described my DDP fear. I'm afraid that we will feel rushed and that we do not need all of those TS meals.

Thanks!

 

[ms*mountaineer]

This is how we decided on the DDP - we made a list of the restaurants we KNEW we wanted to go to. The costs of the meals and menus are available online - so we could see how much it was going to cost us to eat there. Then figure out the cost of the DDP. Pick the cheaper option. It happened to work out for us that the DDP was cheaper - because of how many restaurants we wanted to go to. It may work out cheaper for you to just pay for the meals you want. But that's the way to decide - pick the cheaper option.

We like having the park-hoppers. It's very nice being able to decide to do something else later in the day - or go to two places in one day. Having that freedom was worth it. Did we hop that much? No - just a couple of times - but the freedom was worth it to us.

I think mousescrapper gave you a great idea for an itinerary! That's a good place to start.

 

[disneyjanet]

We are staying at POP from 7/28-8/6, 9 nights with park tickets for 7 days, no park hopper (yet - haven't ruled it out, but haven't added it on), no DDP (again, not yet, if the money is there, we will add this, if not, we will do CS meals). We will not visit a park on our check-in day or check-out day and we booked an extra night so we could take a day of rest in the middle. We plan on doing ropedrop as often as possible and taking advantage of morning EMH so we can spend several hours each morning in the park before heading back to the hotel for DD2's nap and our rest/pool time each day.

I think you have a pretty good handle on things. My only suggestion is if you are doing rope drop at emh parks I would really consider getting the hoppers and going to a different park for the evenings after your break as the emh park is definately going to be busier for the rest of the day. If you don't want the hopppers consider going to a non-emh park at rope drop instead. I live on the West coast and have generally avoided early morning emh because with the timezone changes it is really early for me and have had good luck avoiding crowds. The one time I went to morning emh I really regretted it. My party was slow moving that day and we arrived at 8:30 for a 8am opening and it was the busiest park we had seen all week. As a first timer I think you would be totally fine without the hoppers if you avoid emh parks.

Janet

 

[ShannonMB]

Just wanted to chime in with what has worked for us.

We love the dining plan on our first ever trip, and here is why. We didn't really know much about what we were reserving (didn't know about the DIS then ), but that sit-down meal each day was SOOO relaxing and such a special treat each day. If you are considering at least 4 table service meals, I would do as a PP said, add up the cost and compare. Of course it depends from family to family if it's worth it $-wise. We continue to love the dining plan, because we love food and we love trying all new places on our trips. That may not be your interest! But it's become a big part of our trips.

We don't use park hopper (YET). Since we just got back from our 2nd trip in Feb (planning number 3 for Nov), we still don't feel we need them. Honestly we still need a full day at each park (2 at MK) to see what we really want. As we go on more trips and determine what we are okay with skipping now and then, we will start to hop. But until then, for US, it is way too much stress thinking, "should we hop? We haven't hopped. We paid $50 to hop. Sure, we are having a fun time here and there's still so much to see, but, maybe it's less crowded at another park? We should probably hop. Should we hop?" Adds wayy to much pressure to make sure you're doing the right thing, for us newbies. Of course many people LOVE to hop and wouldn't do it any other way! But I just wanted to point out to you why not everyone thinks it necessary or actually prefers it.

Best of luck on your first trip. You are WAY ahead of the game from where we were with our first trip, and we had the time of our LIVES. You are in for a GREAT one!!!!

 

[1osfan]

Just wanted to chime in with what has worked for us.

We love the dining plan on our first ever trip, and here is why. We didn't really know much about what we were reserving (didn't know about the DIS then ), but that sit-down meal each day was SOOO relaxing and such a special treat each day. If you are considering at least 4 table service meals, I would do as a PP said, add up the cost and compare. Of course it depends from family to family if it's worth it $-wise. We continue to love the dining plan, because we love food and we love trying all new places on our trips. That may not be your interest! But it's become a big part of our trips.

We don't use park hopper (YET). Since we just got back from our 2nd trip in Feb (planning number 3 for Nov), we still don't feel we need them. Honestly we still need a full day at each park (2 at MK) to see what we really want. As we go on more trips and determine what we are okay with skipping now and then, we will start to hop. But until then, for US, it is way too much stress thinking, "should we hop? We haven't hopped. We paid $50 to hop. Sure, we are having a fun time here and there's still so much to see, but, maybe it's less crowded at another park? We should probably hop. Should we hop?" Adds wayy to much pressure to make sure you're doing the right thing, for us newbies. Of course many people LOVE to hop and wouldn't do it any other way! But I just wanted to point out to you why not everyone thinks it necessary or actually prefers it.

Best of luck on your first trip. You are WAY ahead of the game from where we were with our first trip, and we had the time of our LIVES. You are in for a GREAT one!!!!

I guess we have been looking at hopping differently. I figured that we would want the flexibility of the hopper in case we made a mistake in planning and wanted the flexibility to change parks for the evening. I fear that will we take a second day somewhere and be finished at lunchtime and be stuck with that park instead of going someplace else. Then again, I can't imagine having enough time in any of the parks. My biggest fear is the unknown. Since we have not done this before, I really don't know what to expect and I looked at the hopper as insurance, I guess.

 

[mousescrapper]

Hope I'm not be nosey w/ my advice!

We would love to do the DDP, but we have come up with three drawbacks that are weighing on us.

One, since all of the TS meals need reservations, we would have to make all of those reservations this week. That locks us into a specific park each day, but the schedule is not out for most of our trip. I feel that if we do the DDP, we also need to hop.

Yes if you go w/ the DDp you need to make those ADR's and you are kinda locked into those TS's at the parks....but there is one trick around it. If you make a couple ADr's for the smae restaurant but on diff days you can decide further in which day you are visiting the parks and cancel the one's you don't need. Now the probalem w/ this is you are holding up the potential for another quest to dine at that time...but if you just do that till the rest of the park day info is out...it may work for your advantage. The 2nd problem is I wouldn't want you to fieel even more overwelmed or worried about have double the ADR's to decide on.

Second, doesn't making reservations every day limit what you can do in the park? Since this is our first trip, we have no idea where we will want to spend our time. I feel like the restaurants we choose today will dictate our touring schedule for our trip.

I do not think having TS's everyday limits what you can do in the parks...if you plan your day and times right. By dinning at the early hours of each set...you will be back out in the park when the majority of people are sitting in dinning...does that make sense? Yes it can dictate which parks you go to w/ no hopper but I really don't think you need it

Three, the cost is a factor. Our original plan involved a couple of TS meals (namely the four character meals I mentioned), eating many breakfasts and some lunches in the room, and filling in CS meals for the rest. When I crunch the numbers, I see us spending a couple of hundred dollars more if we do the DDP, namely because we would not eat that many TS meals otherwise.

The cost is a great factor as is your eating preferneces...w/ never being at the world you are at a disadvantage of not really knowing how much you think you'll eat vs how much you will eat. I agree w/ another poster about pricing out your 4 TS meals you know you want to do and then compare that against the standard DDP plan...see what the differnece is. KIM for sure the DDP plan at the kid rate per night alone is less than 1 of your TS meals. For your kids it could be a savings...but I know the adult price does seem a little high. You should also consider the factor of convience of having your food pre-paid (except for tips) and if you are planning to do some meals like quick B or L in your room...you can stretch that DDP and end up not paying for any food OOP besides what ever groceries you are bringing or getting from a garden delievery service.

I would love to do the DDP; I have heard so many great things about it. I just worry about these.

Thanks again!

As like anything w/ Disney there are pluses and minuses...you just have to weigh the odds for yourself.

I think mousescrapper gave you a great idea for an itinerary! That's a good place to start.

Thank YOU!

I Since we have not done this before, I really don't know what to expect and I looked at the hopper as insurance, I guess.

IMHO I wouldn't consider the hopper insurance but an extra additive to the mix....I think for your 1st trip, never being there...I'd skip the Hoppers. Some people love it or hate and other have mixed views.

Based on your plan of days w/ the mixture of in park and out of park...I really think you can accomplish probably what you are hoping to see and do (even though I don't know your goals or must do's) Ultilizing non-EMH days as rope drops you can still get alot done before lunch, by using FP's, and various other strategies.

Don't worry about making a mistake w/ your days. There will be crowds and lines at any of the parks...soem worse than others. But knowing you are already looking at a crowd guide like the UG you have a 1-step advantage going in.

Hope that helps.

and just so you know, I have toured w/ hoppers and w/out...and actually feel a non-hopper trip w/ little kids is much more managable. By arriving at rope drop or park opening and touring thru lunch or mid day you can see alot and still have a nice long rest in the afternoon. or take a break and just go back to the same park you started at.

as well I have gone w/ kids w/ no DDP, w/ the DDP and the QSDDP....I didn't know any differnece the yr w/out a DDP and loved having the great meals especially the character ones on the DDP...no way would we have had 4 character meals paying OOP but did fell alittle tied to the TS schedule. and the QSDDP was great...we really enjoyed it and ate at 3 TS by OOP.

looking forward to your decision.

Happy Planning...don't sweat it...you are proably doing alreayd way more than many newbies....you guys will have a wonderful trip w/ or w/out the DDp and/or Hoppers.

 

[srwarden1928]

You could always look at the recommended days on touringplans.com
This will cost you about $8 if you dont have the UG book, well worth it to me. That can help you decide which park which day. They are out until part way through next April. They can change, but its a good place to start.