This First Timer To WDW Just Finalized Her ADR's!

[JustGottaGoDisney]

I am so excited! I have been nothing short of overwhelmed, but now I finally have all of our ADR's and dining set.

Thoughts? Remember I am a first timer so I am fairly clueless still!

Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Main Street Bakery
Pecos Bill (up for change)
Liberty Tree Tavern - 8:00 while at MVMCP- I looked at the party itinerary and this seemed to work fine with that.

Wednesday - Animal Kingdom
Donald's Buffet
Flame Tree or Tusker House - Lunch
Earl of Sandwich at Disney Downtown

Thursday - Morning at MGM/Epcot at night with EMH
POP Century counter service
50's Prime Time Lunch
Garden Grill Dinner

 

[Tamickey]

First of all since you found disboards, you are definitely not clueless! Second, relax! After several trips to WDW I think that planning is a lot of the fun for me, but it's easy to obsess over it! I think your plans sound just fine, have a great time!

 

[gigi1313]

wow, for a first timer you did a great job! your plan looks perfect! will you be on the dining plan? also, as far as counter-service in mk, i would go w/whatever you are nearest to...
ENJOY!

 

[JustGottaGoDisney]

wow, for a first timer you did a great job! your plan looks perfect! will you be on the dining plan? also, as far as counter-service in mk, i would go w/whatever you are nearest to...
ENJOY!

Yes. We are on the dining plan. I did find this to be a wee bit tricky to make sure I did not go over too much. I think I finally got it to my total of 12 TS and 12 CS! That was some work.

Now I can sit back and plan more of the fun stuff!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

You did great- have a wonderful time!!!!!!!!!!

 

[stacy6552]

Plan looks good. What time is your PS for Donald's? Hopefully not right around opening. The gate there is narrow and easily bottle-necked. If you want to dine like a pro, make it for as far before opening as you can get. Beat the crowds in and be ready to play when the park opens.

 

[JustGottaGoDisney]

Plan looks good. What time is your PS for Donald's? Hopefully not right around opening. The gate there is narrow and easily bottle-necked. If you want to dine like a pro, make it for as far before opening as you can get. Beat the crowds in and be ready to play when the park opens.

We were able to get a seat before the park opens! Yeah! Glad to know I did the right thing.

 

[hegs65]

Hmmm... I hate to be a downer, (and these are just my thoughts) but your first day looks like it is going to be very long and exhausting . You didn't mention who you will be traveling with but, judging from the amount of meal credits you have, I assume you are a family of 4. It is generally not a good idea to plan a full day at the park and then stay for the whole night of the party -especially when you have such an early breakfast scheduled for the next day. The general advice I have received in regards to planning around MVMCP is to have a leisurely day by the pool or do a little shopping at DTD, come back and have a rest. (something we did not do on our first trip which made for some very cranky kids-live & learn I guess) Then, (and I am not sure if you are aware of this,) at 4:00 you can head over to the park and use your MVMCP ticket to enter (no other ticket required -they will give you a wristband.) Either that, or I would definitely cancel the early ADR for the next day. Also, are you sure you want to take 1 1/2 hours out of your party time to sit in a restaraunt-especially at 8:00? (another mistake we made-it took FOREVER!) That is prime time to do any rides that you want because the parade will be going on and everyone will be at it and the rides will be empty.. By the time you are done with dinner it will be time to line up for the 2nd parade. Again, these are just my thoughts-we did the commando route and it proved disasterous for us. I just wanted to give you some advice that might help your first time be a magical one! Have a wonderful time! Oh by the way, when are you going? We will be at MVMCP on Nov 29th. I can't wait! It is just dh & me-Yahoo!!!!

 

[JustGottaGoDisney]

Hmmm... I hate to be a downer, (and these are just my thoughts) but your first day looks like it is going to be very long and exhausting . You didn't mention who you will be traveling with but, judging from the amount of meal credits you have, I assume you are a family of 4. It is generally not a good idea to plan a full day at the park and then stay for the whole night of the party -especially when you have such an early breakfast scheduled for the next day. The general advice I have received in regards to planning around MVMCP is to have a leisurely day by the pool or do a little shopping at DTD, come back and have a rest. (something we did not do on our first trip which made for some very cranky kids-live & learn I guess) Then, (and I am not sure if you are aware of this,) at 4:00 you can head over to the park and use your MVMCP ticket to enter (no other ticket required -they will give you a wristband.) Either that, or I would definitely cancel the early ADR for the next day. Also, are you sure you want to take 1 1/2 hours out of your party time to sit in a restaraunt-especially at 8:00? (another mistake we made-it took FOREVER!) That is prime time to do any rides that you want because the parade will be going on and everyone will be at it and the rides will be empty.. By the time you are done with dinner it will be time to line up for the 2nd parade. Again, these are just my thoughts-we did the commando route and it proved disasterous for us. I just wanted to give you some advice that might help your first time be a magical one! Have a wonderful time! Oh by the way, when are you going? We will be at MVMCP on Nov 29th. I can't wait! It is just dh & me-Yahoo!!!!

I appreciate the input. Would you happen to have any other dinner suggestions for the night of MVMCP?

 

[michellex2]

Last year we did counterservice at Pecos Bill's at 5 pm prior to the party then wandered over to Tomorrowland and caught the 6:15 pm show. This year we scheduled a 5 pm ADR at Kona's at the Polynesian.

 

[Anewman]

I was wondering why you feel that AK is a full day park but MGM and Epcot would be Half day parks?

I think most would split MGM and AK and devote a full day for Epcot, we were in and out of AK rather quik when compared to the multiple days at Epcot, Mgm and MK.

 

[Kristina]

I totally agree with Hegs65, this is very important advice. My boyfriend and I went to the party on Oct. 6th and had the most wonderful time! We rested that day, waking up naturally when we were rested and later did DTD before going to the park around 4pm. We have AP's but really wanted to stay until midnight so that's why we took it easy. Then the best part, we had a wonderful meal at Crystal Palace, with our ADR around 5:30 pm! It was so cool, there were a lot of kids and adults there who already were dressed up for the party and together with the food and the characters it was so festive and wonderful! But where ever you eat, a nice relaxed morning before the party is important if you don't have the luxury of time to go to the park in the late afternoon.

You're all going to have such fun! Remember to get plenty of candy too! We sure did, haha ! Plus you will love love the Pop, it's just an awesome resort! I couldn't believe it when I saw it the first time, and it's so cool at night

Also, I think everyone should have a meal at Crystal Palace, every trip! The place is just beautiful and all the kids are so cute to watch as they interact and hug Pooh and the gang. The food is great as well !

 

[JustGottaGoDisney]

If I cancel the TS at LTT, will there be counterservices open the night of MVMCP or will we need to eat earlier in the day?

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I would keep LTT. The only change I would make is at Epcot instead of Garden Grill I would pick one of the World SHowcase restaurants. My favorite would be LeCellier. Have fun.

 

[Kristina]

Here are all the food places listed in the map I brought home with us . Remember too, if you change your mind about any of your table service places when you are there, that you can go to the guest services windows when you get to a park, and ask them if they have any openings at any other restaurant, and they will check for you.

Main Street

Casey's Corner
Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
Main Street Bakery
Tony's Town Square Resturant

Frontierland

Pecos Bill's Cafe
Westward Ho- quick bites
Frontierland Turkey Legs

Liberty Square
Liberty Tree Tavern
Sleepy Hallow

Fantasyland

Mrs. Potts Cupboard- ice cream


Tomorrowland

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
The Lunching Pad- quick bites
Aunie Gravitiy's Galactic Goodies- smoothies

Adventureland

no food, just candy and plenty of it

 

[hegs65]

I am pretty sure that an earlier ADR at LTT or Crystal Palace is probably out of the question at this point so I would either do a quick counter service at Cosmic Rays around 4-4:30. (remember you have snack credits and can get free cocoa & cookies if you get hungry later) or you could try to get the earliest dinner ADR (I suggest no later than 5:30 if possible) at one the restaurants on the monorail such as Kona Cafe, Ohana, Chef Mickeys or Concourse Steak house. If you have young kids, and you want to have the "character experience" to get the party going then I would suggest Chef Mickeys or Ohana. I believe most of these open for dinner at 5:00 which means you will still be spending at least an hour or 2 eating but at least you would be at the party by 7 -7:30 at the latest. This way you will still be very close to the park, and you will still be having a TS dinner but won't be wasting precious party time. For us, we are planning on being at the park by 4:00 and are just doing Cosmic Rays because I felt we missed so much last time. I hope you don't think I am trying to be a know-it-all with all these suggestions. This will be my 4th trip (2nd this year actually) and I still feel I have a ton to learn. I am just trying to pass along some valuable advice that I wish was around the last time I took my family to MVMCP. We would have enjoyed it so much more. This time I am determined to get it right! As a side note, I am not sure if this is your thing or not, but if you have a chance, try and catch the Candlelight Processional at Epcot. It is by far a truely beautiful experience. It is THE reason we are going back. Even if you don't want to wait in line for a seat, (it can be a 2 hour wait) grab some dinner and sit outside the American Pavillion and listen to the concert-it is amazing!

 

[kizmac]

hegs65 has some great advice! I also agree that it's best to stay around the hotel that day and get to the party around 4:00 when you can get in with your party ticket. Eating at 8 is going to cut a ton of time out of the party. I don't know if this is an option for you or not since you are only there for 3 days. Is there any way you could add on one day for your trip? Then you could save the park ticket that you planned on using the morning of the MVMCP for a full day at Epcot which I do think you need. You also may be better combining MGM and AK for a day. Are you traveling with kids? If so the early breakfast is going to be very hard after being out till almost 1 am the night before.

Another thing I wanted to add is with the short time you have for your trip and being your first time there, maybe the dining plan is not for you. You will spend a good amount of time eating. If seeing the parks is more important you may want to skip the meal plan and just do counter service. The meal plan is awesome, but having just done it in September and it was our 6th family trip to WDW and we had 8 days, I found it did keep us from doing some stuff we would of loved to do but didn't have time because of our dining schedule.

Some cs we love are Columbia Harbor House (be sure to go upstairs to eat! Much quieter and relaxing) & Cosmic Rays at MK. Flame Tree at AK, and Sunshine Seasons at Epcot.

Just some thoughts and I know they probably aren't options. Regardless, you will have a wonderful time!

 

[dcgrumpy]

I was wondering why you feel that AK is a full day park but MGM and Epcot would be Half day parks?

I think most would split MGM and AK and devote a full day for Epcot, we were in and out of AK rather quik when compared to the multiple days at Epcot, Mgm and MK.

well if AK is open 9-5 and Epcot is open 9-12 you can spend just about the same amount of time in each of the three parks. They can leave MGM at 3 or 4 and still have 8 hours at Epcot