Please help with my June 29/30 Itinerary

[wiscmama]

Hi all!

I've been reading the Dis since we went to WDW 2 years ago. I planned a great trip with all the wisdom I gathered here. Now, I'm planning a DL trip the end of June and I am terrified!! I know it's going to be very busy, but the plans are solid. I need help with my itinerary.

June 29th: Traveling with DH, me, DS (8) and DD (4). In addition, we have a young couple who will be with us. We do not have EE/MM tix. We won't need to do Space Mountain. I was planning on doing FL first, but after reading the EE/MM forum, I'm not sure anymore.

We have to do PP, but when???

We also have to do Jedi, Princess & Pixie Hollow. How can I do all that early?

June 30th: My DS's 8th birthday. My 50s-something parents are joining us for this day (just to complicate my life more!! )

I'm thinking about Goofy's Kitchen for a character dinner (help? is this worth it?). We have Toontown tix to get there early, so then I'm missing rope drop at FL. We will park hop over to DCA for soarin' and TTM.

I'm seriously having stress dreams over repeating the great trip I planned to WDW...they all have high expectations!! (also, am trying to get our laptop going to download RideMax, but may not be able to do so....)

Thank you for all, any help!!!

Michelle

 

[tdashgirl]

We also have to do Jedi, Princess & Pixie Hollow. How can I do all that early?

The Jedi has several shows - so you could do a Pixie Hollow wait 1st thing and then catch a later Jedi show. There's a thread somewhere here with Jedi tips. It is chockfull of tips to get picked, I suggest you check it out

As for princesses. I personally don't like PFF. It's so crowded and waiting in those lines to see princesses ... ugh. Not my cup of tea. I like making reservations for Ariel's Grotto, enjoying a sit down meal and air-conditioning, while the princesses come to our table. It's worth the $$ IMO. I also really like the food there(Tri-tip ... drool...) so that helps

 

[Eeee-va]

Make sure you get there well before rope drop each day. The parks will be crowded but the good news is that I think a lot of the stuff you're interested in doing has less appeal to the Annual Passholders who will be descending on the parks. And crowds should be light for the first couple hours regardless.

If your son can tolerate the princesses, and if you don't think he'd be mad that it would take away from his special day, then I would do Ariel's Grotto instead of PFF/Goofy's Kitchen. From what I understand, some boys really like Ariel's Grotto because they sometimes get special attention paid to them (and yes, some little boys are ladies' men at heart ). PFF is nothing special to look at, really, until you're through the line (and even then, it's not great). With luck you can keep your 4-year-old from needing to go through it.

The crowds at Pixie Hollow do seem to have died down somewhat, from what I understand--I'd still get there early, but unless you can stay until midnight, I'd want to do Fantasyland first on the non-Magic Morning (right?) day on Wednesday, instead of camping out for Pixie Hollow. (Early in the day I think you'd be looking at maybe a 30 minute wait, which I wouldn't camp out to avoid.)

That said, if your heart is set on doing Fantasyland first on Tuesday, then aside from Peter Pan's Flight and Dumbo, it should be all right--maybe not great, but OK.

I wouldn't worry about the Jedi Training Academy; just show up to the show of your choice and bring a folded-up sign so your boy gets picked. I'd do one on your first day, or earlier in the day Sunday, so in the unlikely (OK, I've never heard of it here) event that your son is not chosen with his sign, you can come back.

Personally, I would make as many lunch and dinner dining reservations as you feel comfortable making/as are in your budget. Or at least, certainly two if you can swing it. (More than two might be excessive unless you do a very late breakfast and then an early dinner due to the sheer amount of food, unless you split plates, which you can't even do at character meals.) Sit-down restaurants are going to have about the same number of people in them whether crowds are heavy or just moderate, and they can be great experiences. So if you could do Ariel's for the princesses and then Goofy's (or wherever) for your son's birthday, that might be ideal. Goofy's is a buffet so for a little kid, that might be more special than Ariel's anyway. Make sure you get a birthday button for him too! You can get it on Tuesday if you like so he can wear it all day Wednesday.

I'm not sure what PP is? If you mean Peter Pan, then rope drop on Wednesday, definitely.

For Soarin' just get into DCA pretty early one day and get FPs. For TSMM you're pretty much looking at a 45 minute wait regardless (with some exceptions) so I'd just suck it up and do it. By your dates we should know the traffic flow for TSMM with WoC in play (if Fastpasses for the show are offered first thing in the morning, people will get those and then quite possibly head over to TSMM, making short lines first thing in the morning and long lines later). We just don't know.

You CAN try to do TSMM at DCA's opening but I'm not sure I would unless your kids really can't wait that long. (And even if you do it at opening, you have to wait around until the park opens and then hustle over there; with your kids I doubt you'll be anywhere near first in line and so your overall wait time would still probably be 45 minutes.)

If you have any interest at all in World of Color I'd look into the WoC dining packages--you can reserve now, read the reviews, and if it turns out they won't work for you, then just cancel. But I get a feeling that the reservations will sell out eventually--almost certainly if it turns out the seating area offers GOOD viewing of the show--so that's why I'd get them now if you think there's any chance you might want to do it.

Just some ideas. Be prepared and you will have fun.

Have a great trip!

 

[stitch4336]

Hey Wiscmama - we'll be there those same two days! If you see 4 people having WAY too much fun in Mickey tye-died T-shirts that will be us That is of course if I don't mess up my tye-die shirt - never done them before but we have good directions from another post on the DIS!

We are doing the same thing you are doing - picking our favorite things and trying to make a plan for only two days. For us World of Color is something we wanted to do, so we made their special dining reservation at Ariel's Grotto so we could get preferred seating for the show. Ariel's Grotto for dinner now is only thw WOC package and has NO characters - so says the cast member when we made our ressies. So, if you do want to do AG as an alternative to PFF - make sure to get a lunch ressi so the princesses are there!

Is Goofy's Kitchen worth it? We think so, especiallyo if you've never been. I believe it has one of the better atmosphere's of the character dining experinces. It is loud and a little wacky - so if you are looking for quiet - this isn't it! It is one of if not THE most expensive character meals. The dinner buffet is good - has prime rib and lots of other choices - we always leave stuffed. The characters there vary, but we've seen Goofy (of course!), Pluto, Hook, Mulan, Snow White, Gipetto, Max (Goof's son), Aladin and Jasmine that I can recall.

make sure to stop at City Hall on the first day and get your DS a birthday button to wear! Cast memebers and even stragers will wish him happy brithday! He'll also might get singled out at street shows, etc - those little buttons garner a lot of attention

For Jedi Training - as already said - make a sign! Be creative and then have an adult hold it over your son so it's seen above the rest. Tell your son to jump up and down and look REALLY excited. Get everyone in your group involved pointing and yelling for him - be as "goofy" as you can be My nephew really wanted to do it and he's VERY quiet - but all of our antics and our sign helped him to get on stage

Something new we're going to try this time since our trip is so short is the Verizon Mobile Magic App (not sure if there is an AT&T or iphone version yet?). This is supossed to give us real time wait times, character locations, etc. We're hoping to get the most out of our two days and use the App to help us get in all our "must do" list.

Good luck with your planning

 

[Lissame]

We'll be there for the evening of the 29th and all day on the 30th too

My son has been chosen for the Jedi show all three times he's tried for it, jumping around and making lots of noise helps. Definitely read the Jedi thread.

As for an iPhone version of Mobile Magic--it's called MouseWait and it's free.

 

[stitchy626]

Hey Wiscmama - we'll be there those same two days! If you see 4 people having WAY too much fun in Mickey tye-died T-shirts that will be us That is of course if I don't mess up my tye-die shirt - never done them before but we have good directions from another post on the DIS!

We are doing the same thing you are doing - picking our favorite things and trying to make a plan for only two days. For us World of Color is something we wanted to do, so we made their special dining reservation at Ariel's Grotto so we could get preferred seating for the show. Ariel's Grotto for dinner now is only thw WOC package and has NO characters - so says the cast member when we made our ressies. So, if you do want to do AG as an alternative to PFF - make sure to get a lunch ressi so the princesses are there!

Is Goofy's Kitchen worth it? We think so, especiallyo if you've never been. I believe it has one of the better atmosphere's of the character dining experinces. It is loud and a little wacky - so if you are looking for quiet - this isn't it! It is one of if not THE most expensive character meals. The dinner buffet is good - has prime rib and lots of other choices - we always leave stuffed. The characters there vary, but we've seen Goofy (of course!), Pluto, Hook, Mulan, Snow White, Gipetto, Max (Goof's son), Aladin and Jasmine that I can recall.

make sure to stop at City Hall on the first day and get your DS a birthday button to wear! Cast memebers and even stragers will wish him happy brithday! He'll also might get singled out at street shows, etc - those little buttons garner a lot of attention

For Jedi Training - as already said - make a sign! Be creative and then have an adult hold it over your son so it's seen above the rest. Tell your son to jump up and down and look REALLY excited. Get everyone in your group involved pointing and yelling for him - be as "goofy" as you can be My nephew really wanted to do it and he's VERY quiet - but all of our antics and our sign helped him to get on stage

Something new we're going to try this time since our trip is so short is the Verizon Mobile Magic App (not sure if there is an AT&T or iphone version yet?). This is supossed to give us real time wait times, character locations, etc. We're hoping to get the most out of our two days and use the App to help us get in all our "must do" list.

Good luck with your planning

Hi Stitch4336, so when are we going to make those shirts?

To all taking the two day trek....anyone want to meet up for a ride or two? That is if we can squeeze it in of course

 

[wiscmama]

Thanks so much for your suggestions so far!!! I was really worried about getting into that first Jedi Training (my son just has to do that), and now knowing we can go to any show, I feel like that frees things up for me a bit.

Will definitely get him a birthday button! Thanks!

I think it's going to be hard to avoid those princesses, is there anywhere else we can meet them (other than AG?)??

So, you guys would avoid Fantasyland on MM since we don't have it but give up our 'early toontown entry' into Toontown to do those rides on Wednesday???? Toontown will be a definite as we didn't get to do that at WDW two years ago.

Does FL slow down at night (after our HoJo hotel break)??

Although I'm stressing over details, I'm very excited to be taking our first DL trip and SO MUCH appreciate your comments!!!!