rough itinerary advice

[in2013]

Cancel Tusker House if you can't get a good time, that 9:45 is smack in the middle of your touring morning. I would try for noon, so you've had time to hit all the biggies and won't have to rush from across the park 75 minutes after you've arrived.

Unless you're paying the premium for the excellent viewing spot, then go for it.

the kids watched some video clips from the donald's safari breakfast and they went NUTS over it. i think it's very unlikely that i'm going to be able to book an earlier time since the park is opening for EMH at 8? if we ate at say, 730, we wouldn't get there for rope drop and i've heard that getting on the safari first thing is prime time for seeing the animals?

the tomorrowland dessert party was booked for the location/fireworks viewing for the most part on the suggestion of a friend. the kids will get a kick out of sitting on a 'fancy' patio eating 'fancy' desserts while watching the 'fancy' fireworks, even if it won't be all that special for us adults, haha.

in terms of cancelling some character meals in favor of other children's activities, what other special things are there for kids to do there? aside from rides, character meetings, pools, typical park shows. are there any little 'functions' that i haven't heard about? we are going to take a little christmas sleigh ride and roast marshmallows/sing campfire songs with chip and dale. they'll get some pixie dust in their hair at the barber shop. we really would like to go to the grand floridian to admire the christmas decorations on our last day. is there anything else you can think of that would be an extra special experience for them? this is very likely the only time we'll ever go to disney. what about the little hot air balloon ride from downtown disney? there are some santa meet and greets in DTD as well. and i've heard about santas around the world at epcot. they'd like to design their own t-shirts and do the penny press machines. we have a few disney trading pins, which they are excited about.

oh, and i've got one very, very important question! lol. my daughter is 10. she turns 10 that week. so i paid for the adult meal plan for her. now...i've checked out menus...she might turn her nose up at a lot of what they offer. can she trade in her adult credit for a children's meal? i know that's a total waste of money...but i was honest about her age and thus paid the price. lol

 

[monorailsilver]

My only suggestion (I don't do dining plan) is to move your non park days to somewhere else.

I know we are tired during a Disney vacation. We do a max of 2 park days now & then take a day off. We use that time to sleep in, haha!!! and just be lazy by the pool.

 

[in2013]

My only suggestion (I don't do dining plan) is to move your non park days to somewhere else.

I know we are tired during a Disney vacation. We do a max of 2 park days now & then take a day off. We use that time to sleep in, haha!!! and just be lazy by the pool.

we are hoping to leave the orlando area entirely for a day or two and go to a nice beach. we will be in florida for much longer than just our disney portion. so we haven't quite figured things out time wise! unfortunately a beach is totally weather dependent. but my girls LOVE beaches.

for some downtime i was thinking of just going to animal kingdom on a non park and just walking around looking at the animals, exploring the walking trails. avoiding the rides and show entirely. just spend about two hours exploring and then head home.

 

[mousehunter3]

We just got back. My kids are not big eaters, but we had the dining plan. We did one TS per day, usually a character meal. We were all stuffed from that one meal. My kids liked the TS meals, but they were really eager to get back to the park/pool. I would not have done more than one per day. They usually take a couple of hours to check in, do photos, get seated, eat and have dessert, see the characters, and check out. You will not always get in at your reservation time either. We waited more than 30 minutes at the PT Cafe and the Tusker House.

I brought cereal bars and breakfast bars for breakfast on days when we had a later breakfast reservation or no CS or TS planned until lunch. That was fine for us.

We ended up with 9 CS left over. We would've had more snacks left (we ended up with 6) but we started racing through them the last two days on sodas and ice creams. We used the rest in the gift shop on suckers/candy.

I would suggest having your TS reservation at the park you are planning to be at that day and save off site meals for days you are not planning to go to a park (or Chef Mickey's is a short walk to Magic Kingdom).

Also, you can get a child meal with an adult TS credit if you want. Many places have buffet though and they can just choose whatever they want. I have a 10 year old and an 8 year old and they often traded adult for child credit because my 8 year old generally eats more and he tends to prefer healthier fare.

 

[RobRees]

You mentioned the Christmas decorations at The Grand Floridian when we went at Christmas one year we checked out as many places as we could each one has a grand display, just take the monorail around the loop to and hit all the hotels and check them out and don't forget to go over to Wilderness Lodge and check out there also..

 

[in2013]

we're taking a christmas sleigh ride that departs from wildnerness. the kids are going to love that.