The all New *OFFICIAL JUNE* 2011 thread! Some like it hot!

[kalee45]

Hello, June-DISers! As far as the meals go, we also have done CRT & Akershus before, but when we went we did CRT for dinner & it was not a character meal. We did get to see Cindy but it was a total surpirse, as she was just sitting on her "throne" downstairs when we were leaving after dinner (we were booked for the last sitting of the day), all by herself!It was really cool! My DD's loved Akershus. This trip we're doing CRT again becuase it's so neat to eat in the castle, & even though it's 2 TS, the tip is included & the picture. We have Chef Mickey's booked for bkfst on our departure day, but I may cancel that one to make the day less hectic, and we're doing a bkfst at Tusker House for the first time!

 

[LilRonGal]

I must be a glutton for punishment. I've decided to try Chef Mickey's for dinner on my next trip. It was between that or 1900 Park Fare, and although my son Aidan enjoys princesses, I thought he'd get more out of the Fab 5. Also, I wanted a later reservation and 1900 did not have any.

So, here are my dining plans:

Saturday June 4 - Counter meal somewhere
Sunday June 5 - Liberty Tree Tavern 5:45 pm
Monday June 6 - Garden Grill 4:30 pm
Tuesday June 7 - Whispering Canyon Cafe (my first time there!) 7:45pm
Wednesday June 8 - Chef Mickey's 7:30pm
Thursday June 9 - Whatever counter meal strikes our fancy. This day is open as far as park visiting goes, so we're just going to do and eat whatever.

We've decided that sitdown breakfasts cut into precious Rope Drop time, so we're going with all dinners this time. Breakfast will be a quick snack (cereal, cinnamon roll, etc.) so we can just GO.

I'm doing some things differently this trip. For the past four times I've gone, this was my routine:

Su - arrive, drop off stuff in hotel, hit Magic Kingdom, soak up extra magic hours
Mo - back to Magic Kingdom. Get bored by midday. Hop if I have a hopper, endure if not.
Tu - Epcot. OH YES Garden Grill!
We - Hollywood Studios
Th - Random whatever, go home

I always wanted to be wherever the evening EMH were, because I am a nightowl and therefore being at Disney World at night is awesome. But I'm going at a busier time of year than I am used to, so I want to avoid large crowds any way I can. So I plan to do Rope Drop every day (I usually sleep in), and have early evenings relaxing by the pools and stuff. Well, after the fireworks and everything. Midday breaks will be utilized if needed also. I'm skipping the Park Hopper. I rarely use it. Also, notice the lack of Animal Kingdom in my plans? If I had Hopper, I'd go for a few hours, but nothing big. This last trip, Adam (my hubby) and I went and really enjoyed the park a lot more than we anticipated. He LOVED the safari and Expedition Everest.

This time, it's going to be like this:

Sa - arrive in the evening, chill out in pool and hot tub, or hit Downtown Disney
Su - Magic Kingdom (it always has to be the first park I hit.) Possible midday pool break or nap, then back to MK for evening dinner and EMH
Mo - Epcot and GARDEN GRILL!
Tu - Hollywood Studios, then bus it to Wilderness Lodge for Whispering Canyon Cafe dinner (I am excite!)
We - Animal Kingdom all day, then dinner at Chef Mickey's.
Th - Whatever we feel like doing. We leave that evening (unless I decide to tack on an extra day, which is quite the possibility), so we'll take the day to go to whatever park we want, eat a counter meal and relax til time to go and wait for the Magical Express.

I'm interested in how this new plan will work out.

 

[anjalee6]

I must be a glutton for punishment. I've decided to try Chef Mickey's for dinner on my next trip. It was between that or 1900 Park Fare, and although my son Aidan enjoys princesses, I thought he'd get more out of the Fab 5. Also, I wanted a later reservation and 1900 did not have any.

So, here are my dining plans:

Saturday June 4 - Counter meal somewhere
Sunday June 5 - Liberty Tree Tavern 5:45 pm
Monday June 6 - Garden Grill 4:30 pm
Tuesday June 7 - Whispering Canyon Cafe (my first time there!) 7:45pm
Wednesday June 8 - Chef Mickey's 7:30pm
Thursday June 9 - Whatever counter meal strikes our fancy. This day is open as far as park visiting goes, so we're just going to do and eat whatever.

We've decided that sitdown breakfasts cut into precious Rope Drop time, so we're going with all dinners this time. Breakfast will be a quick snack (cereal, cinnamon roll, etc.) so we can just GO.

I updated your ADRs on page 1. We also really enjoy Garden Grill. My family finds that it is some of the best character interactions. Sometimes we have seen the characters three times while we have been there. They came around that often. My kids also like that it rotates and they can see the Land boat ride down below.

We are also trying this strategy this time. We are doing rope drop each morning we are there (we are morning people-at least at Disney ) except for one morning we have an ADR at Tusker House when AK opens. We are going to try and just eat snacks/ use snack credits for breakfasts so that we can do things faster in the morning.

I think your plan looks good. We are also just exploring the resort this year before we start in on the parks. We have a room only for POFQ the first day we get there so that we can just relax and enjoy the slow pace of the hotel before we go full steam ahead the next day. Then we will check into AKV-Kidani for the rest of our trip. We are trying this approach this year. We will see how it works for us.

 

[nvsnot]

anjalee6,

Cancel Coral Reef on the 11th. I've booked Garden Grill @ 5:35 instead . After reading the positive reviews and realizing it is a character dinner, I decided my group would enjoy this more.

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

Ugh! With all this snow in New York, June can't get here fast enough.

 

[anjalee6]

Ugh! With all this snow in New York, June can't get here fast enough.

We are working on our second snow day this week. We haven't had as much snow this year as you guys though so it has been fun. But I agree, summer is needed sooner rather than later.

 

[anjalee6]

anjalee6,

Cancel Coral Reef on the 11th. I've booked Garden Grill @ 5:35 instead . After reading the positive reviews and realizing it is a character dinner, I decided my group would enjoy this more.

It's all changed. Yeah, we really like the Garden Grill for the characters.

 

[Cindy-rella]

anjalee6,

Cancel Coral Reef on the 11th. I've booked Garden Grill @ 5:35 instead . After reading the positive reviews and realizing it is a character dinner, I decided my group would enjoy this more.

We are trying new things this trip, but have done Garden Grill several times. We really enjoy it! Have a great time!

 

[LuvGoofy!]

LuvGoofy- I've also been trying to get Ohana's for dinner but could only find 8:50 and it's just too late for us. We ate there on our last trip and it was one of my favorite meals. Right now I have breakfast booked there, I couldn't believe they were all booked already.

I went ahead with 8:35 for dinner @ O'hana, but that may change. I seen somewhere here on the DIS today that Allears.net updated O'hana's menu and they have taken the wings and dumplings off (I hope this isn't true, because I loved both of them.) I was shocked there were already to booked too though! Oh well, that's just life. I can't wait for JUNE!!

Hello, June-DISers! As far as the meals go, we also have done CRT & Akershus before, but when we went we did CRT for dinner & it was not a character meal. We did get to see Cindy but it was a total surpirse, as she was just sitting on her "throne" downstairs when we were leaving after dinner (we were booked for the last sitting of the day), all by herself!It was really cool! My DD's loved Akershus. This trip we're doing CRT again becuase it's so neat to eat in the castle, & even though it's 2 TS, the tip is included & the picture. We have Chef Mickey's booked for bkfst on our departure day, but I may cancel that one to make the day less hectic, and we're doing a bkfst at Tusker House for the first time!

CRT is so cool and I think everyone should do it at least once (especially those with little girls!) We loved Tusker House breakfast meal. My DD absolutely loved Daisy Duck! I believe this is about the only meal that she is at! We booked Chef Mickey's for breakfast this year because we haven't been there yet! And we are doing Akershus, we haven't done it yet either! So, looking forward to June!!

 

[anjalee6]

Third snow day in a row today. I have way too much time on my hands to change plans around!

 

[kalee45]

How do you New Englanders & Northwesters do it with the snow days?! It would drive me crazy to have my kids at home at unplanned times! Not to mention as I am a nurse I'd be stuck bunking at work. The only experience we had with it was the 3 back-to-back hurricanes which resulted in 4 "make-up" days being added to future school calendars. But those days at home with no power, wet or slightly flooded (unsafe to play in ) streets, & antsy kids were a real drag! Our whole neighborhood cheered (really!) when the power came back on!

 

[mommyoftwinz]

anajalee6- looks like I'm just north of you. My kids actually went back today but had a 2 hour delay, we got 12 inches up here so they were home yesterday. Now they are calling for another storm mid-week. It helps to come on here and think of JUNE!!! It can't come fast enough. Now I'm hoping they don't have to make up snow days. Last year they had to make up 5 days.

 

[mommyoftwinz]

How do you New Englanders & Northwesters do it with the snow days?! It would drive me crazy to have my kids at home at unplanned times! Not to mention as I am a nurse I'd be stuck bunking at work. The only experience we had with it was the 3 back-to-back hurricanes which resulted in 4 "make-up" days being added to future school calendars. But those days at home with no power, wet or slightly flooded (unsafe to play in ) streets, & antsy kids were a real drag! Our whole neighborhood cheered (really!) when the power came back on!

I'm a SAHM so I'm flexible but I feel for all those working parents that have to juggle schedules. I can't remember the last time they had a full week of school. I think it was before Christmas.

 

[anjalee6]

anajalee6- looks like I'm just north of you. My kids actually went back today but had a 2 hour delay, we got 12 inches up here so they were home yesterday. Now they are calling for another storm mid-week. It helps to come on here and think of JUNE!!! It can't come fast enough. Now I'm hoping they don't have to make up snow days. Last year they had to make up 5 days.

Yeah...we used our last snow day today and I'm worried about next week's snow too. We had 10 inches hear but there were 46 schools in our county that still had no power today so that is why we were out. I don't want to have to make up snow days. We originally planned our trip for June 19 (we get out on hte 15th), but then I thought about snow days and moved our trip back a few days. Being a teacher, I thought that was the best decision. Come on June!

 

[mommyoftwinz]

Yeah...we used our last snow day today and I'm worried about next week's snow too. We had 10 inches hear but there were 46 schools in our county that still had no power today so that is why we were out. I don't want to have to make up snow days. We originally planned our trip for June 19 (we get out on hte 15th), but then I thought about snow days and moved our trip back a few days. Being a teacher, I thought that was the best decision. Come on June!

Our schools get out June 7, that's a half day so we're pulling our kids out for 1 1/2 days figuring they wouldn't be missing much, rather miss the that then in the middle of the year when they are doing work. I was hoping the crowds will be lighter and perhaps a tad bit cooler. We'll just have to see, I just really hope they don't add days.

 

[LilRonGal]

I updated your ADRs on page 1. We also really enjoy Garden Grill. My family finds that it is some of the best character interactions. Sometimes we have seen the characters three times while we have been there. They came around that often. My kids also like that it rotates and they can see the Land boat ride down below.

We are also trying this strategy this time. We are doing rope drop each morning we are there (we are morning people-at least at Disney ) except for one morning we have an ADR at Tusker House when AK opens. We are going to try and just eat snacks/ use snack credits for breakfasts so that we can do things faster in the morning.

I think your plan looks good. We are also just exploring the resort this year before we start in on the parks. We have a room only for POFQ the first day we get there so that we can just relax and enjoy the slow pace of the hotel before we go full steam ahead the next day. Then we will check into AKV-Kidani for the rest of our trip. We are trying this approach this year. We will see how it works for us.

Have you ever stayed at POFQ? I love it. I love how it's small and quiet and has a hot tub! After flying on Airtran, I think I will really enjoy the hot tub.

I agree with you 100% with Garden Grill. The characters are ALWAYS great there, they take their time with you, and they really go out of their way to make the experience unique and special for everyone. It's a must-do on all of my trips.

Thanks for maintaining this thread. I'm having a lot of fun with it!

 

[anjalee6]

Have you ever stayed at POFQ? I love it. I love how it's small and quiet and has a hot tub! After flying on Airtran, I think I will really enjoy the hot tub.

I agree with you 100% with Garden Grill. The characters are ALWAYS great there, they take their time with you, and they really go out of their way to make the experience unique and special for everyone. It's a must-do on all of my trips.

Thanks for maintaining this thread. I'm having a lot of fun with it!

You're welcome about the thread! I love doing it. I stayed at POFQ when it was still French Quarter and Dixie Landing so it's been quite a few years and we have never stayed there with our kids. We have shown my son pictures and he really wants to try out the sea serpent pool. He thinks it looks really cool. I like to try new things, so we are considering POFQ "new" to our family this year. Glad that you like it there. I picked it for the small size. I don't want to drag our kids all over the resort for just the first day.

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

We recently stayed at POFQ (December '10) and loved it. The renovated rooms (Bldgs 7, 6 & 4) have 2 queen beds and they're gorgeous. The kids got to use the slides one day when the weather went up to 70, I let them play in the pool for an hour and they loved it. I love how small the resort is, but in hindsight, I'd take the bus to POR to use their food court. There's a ton of info on the resorts on portorleans.org

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

Is it June yet??

I am so over snow and cold. I want to be at the Poly, feeling the warm sunshine on my face while sipping a fruity, girly drink. 140 days!!

 

[mkleinbe]

Hi all! I've been MIA lately. We've done lots of changing to our plans so I'll have to update those later when they are more finalized. Don't want to put too much work on anjalee. My oldest daughter was disappointed that we weren't going to do CRT this trip. My mom is such a softy and loves that Tori still believes in the "magic" so she book breakfast for us and is going to surprise Tori with it on her birthday. I think she'll be so excited.

Ok, I've got pages and pages to catch up on. I'll be back.