Timing Questions for Experienced WDW Visitors

[perturbatrix]

Hi. I am new to this board. We have a trip planned to WDW in September. We arrive on Monday, Sept. 22 and leave on Saturday, Sept. 27. We are staying at a deluxe resort, have 4 day park hopper tix, and got the deluxe dining plan.

How much time should we budget for meals? I have ADRs as follows:
Narcoosee's (dinner)
Chip n Dales Harvest Feast (lunch)
CRT at MK (lunch)
Donald's Safari Breakfast at AK
Hollywood Brown Derby (HS) (dinner) with Fantasmic Show
Tony's Town Square (lunch)
Chef Mickey at Contemporary Resort (dinner)
1900 Park Fare character breakfast at GF

The rest of our deluxe dining plan we plan to use the counter service meals because if we make any more reservations we won't get to see the parks!

How do the EMHs work? I'm not sure how to take advantage of them. I am especially confused by Epcot because it says that Future World is open from 9-7 but that the World Showcase is open from 11-9pm. The EMH for Epcot that week would be Tuesday morning and Friday night.

I've checked out the first-timers thread and the "what wouldn't you do again thread" but didn't see anything regarding how much time it actually takes to get through seatings with ADRs.

How long does it take to get to various parks? Does the monorail go to all of them? Am I crazy to think we can do AK and HS in one day? My twins are 4. Others have told us to just plan on spending all our time in MK so we planned 2 days there.

Any advice/suggestions would be very helpful!!

 

[swillis]

Hi there
I can answer some of your questions:

As for the dinners and how much time you should allow, you should plan on at least an hour for each meal. The sit down dinners may take a little longer, and the buffets may take a little less. I would plan on at least 1.5 hours for a character dinner because they characters are coming to your table at all different times and sometimes you may find that your "waiting" for one last character to come and visit. (Sit the kids on the outside of the tables at the character dinners to allow for easy character interaction)

The monorail only goes to Magic kingdom and Epcot. It also goes to several of the hotels (Polynesian, Contemporary and Grand Floridian) You would take a Disney bus to get to the other parks, and all the hotels have them running on a continuous basis.

I'm not an expert on the EMH because we avoid them, but the Future World part of Epcot closes at 7pm, while the World Showcase stays open until 9pm, which is when Illuminations (fireworks/lazer lightshow) occurs. Don't miss this if possible, it is a beautiful show.

I think kids at the ages of yours would enjoy the Magic Kingdom and MGM best. Lots of preschool characters at MGM (or HS as it is now called) I don't think you can do both of those parks in one day because the things that would really interest your kids at HS are the shows, and since they are at various times throughout the day, you might have to spend a good amount of time in the park to see them all.

Hope this helps you some, I'm sure the other Dissers will be offering their advice as well. Have fun!

 

[yecats]

As stated above, I find most of my TS places took 1.5 to almost 2.0 hrs in total time for eating and waiting to be called when having an ADR (longest waits for me were for TonysTS and CRT off of your list). CS places you'll generally be in and out of within an hour.

Monorail only goes to MK and Epcot after transferring at TTC which will add in a small wait time to go from park to park. To get to AK and HS you'll be taking the bus from the resort and/or front of park area and those waits/transfer times can be anywhere from 15 to 30 mins at most.

Epcot has 2 parks to it technically: future world and world showcase. As your kids are young you may want to skip the world showcase altogether as the walk around is nearly 1 1/2 miles not to mention that 4 yr olds will probably not want to sit for several 20 minute movies about a country (Canada, France, china and US) and their not going to be interested in shopping for cultural items (perfumes, jewelry, tea sets, etc.). I think I would stick to the rides they could do in the world showcase and then wait around until 9 pm to see Illuminations around WS.

I also wouldn't advise splitting a day between HS and MK. Each of those parks honestly require a full day plus. My suggestion to you is to honestly make a list of must see rides/shows/parades and fireworks for each park and stick to it as best as possible. You'll find that if you choose not to wait around to watch a parade you'll be able to work in an additonal ride or two;however, your kids will honestly love the parades especially at their age but this will eat an honest hour off of your time in the parks. When you add up the times for entering the park, obtaining stroller for kids, sitting for meals and waiting around for parades and fireworks there will be a good 3 to 4 hours of time already gone from your general play in the parks. AK is also the largest of all the parks so by the time they close in the early evening you will be very tired from the additional walking.

As for EMH, I would attempt to use the days for MK and be the first to head over to ride WTP, PP and dumbo and obtain fastpasses ASAP (ie, if your standing in line for WTP send husband over to PP to obtain FP then ride dumbo then FP time should come up for PP afterwards). A little planning and plotting are needed in limited times. Don't try to push in everything as your kids are young and will need breaks but try to plan as best as possible and realize that most rides and their waits will be at least an hour each (depending on time of year your there) and if there shorter then you will have a little extra time in the end.

I hope this helps. PS when you head in to HS your mainly going to want to do the shows with your kids that age. You will need to grab the park map with show times and figure them out ASAP in the am as all the big shows will only play 3 to 6 times a day before everyone heads to Spectro to end the night.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Hi. I am new to this board. We have a trip planned to WDW in September. We arrive on Monday, Sept. 22 and leave on Saturday, Sept. 27. We are staying at a deluxe resort, have 4 day park hopper tix, and got the deluxe dining plan.

How much time should we budget for meals? I have ADRs as follows:
Narcoosee's (dinner)
Chip n Dales Harvest Feast (lunch)
CRT at MK (lunch)
Donald's Safari Breakfast at AK
Hollywood Brown Derby (HS) (dinner) with Fantasmic Show
Tony's Town Square (lunch)
Chef Mickey at Contemporary Resort (dinner)
1900 Park Fare character breakfast at GF

The rest of our deluxe dining plan we plan to use the counter service meals because if we make any more reservations we won't get to see the parks!

How do the EMHs work? I'm not sure how to take advantage of them. I am especially confused by Epcot because it says that Future World is open from 9-7 but that the World Showcase is open from 11-9pm. The EMH for Epcot that week would be Tuesday morning and Friday night.

I've checked out the first-timers thread and the "what wouldn't you do again thread" but didn't see anything regarding how much time it actually takes to get through seatings with ADRs.

How long does it take to get to various parks? Does the monorail go to all of them? Am I crazy to think we can do AK and HS in one day? My twins are 4. Others have told us to just plan on spending all our time in MK so we planned 2 days there.

Any advice/suggestions would be very helpful!!

Most TS meals will take 1 - 1.5 hrs. Once I had a meal take two hours but that was an exception.

Four year olds will LOVE MK and also probably AK. My suggestion is that you go for the morning EMH. It makes a huge difference getting there for the opening. The evening EMH are a little late for four year olds and are still crowded. In the morning when the park opens you have little to no wait. The whole park is not open for the EMH, at check in you will get all the info and it will tell you what is open in each park for both morning and evening EMH. In the morning EMH you just go in with your key/ticket.

For your kids ages at MK morning EMH I would go on Buzz Lightyear and the Speedway in Tomorrowland and the Fantasyland rides that have long waits in the afternoon like the Tea Cups and Dumbo. I can't say it enough, the morning is the time to go on the Tea Cups and Dumbo, lol.

When the crowd grows in the afternoon I like to go back to the hotel for lunch and swimming but if you stay there are some good things to do. Tom Sawyer's Island is great in the afternoon when the crowds have grown. There's also a show in front of the castle during the day that's really good, you'll get a list of the times when you enter the park. Philharmagic, Country Bear Jamboree, Liberty Bell Riverboat, It's a Small World are all good during crowded times. Get Fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise and really any ride that offers them as far I'm concerned.

You could do AK and HS in one day probably but it will be a long day. I actually think you might be better off adding a day or two on to your tickets so you can do some half days. You can add days on even after you've purchased your tickets and once you hit four days it's not so much more money for five and then it's not so much more money for six.

You have Donald's breakfast in AK which will take part of your morning. There's lots of fun things to do in AK.

HS I don't love but there are stunt shows, musical shows, the Muppets 3D movie that your kids will enjoy. Some of the shows are only shown maybe three or four times a day so it can be difficult to fit in only half a day.

As others have stated, Epcot is not as interesting for four year olds. There are a bunch of fun things in Future World but the World Showcase may not be enticing for their age. I love it the most but for little kids, not so much. I would stick to the countries Mexico, Norway and China and maybe that's enough for them. Mexico and Norway each have a fun boat ride and China has a great acrobat show.

You didn't mention what hotel you are staying in but my family loves to rent a boat. We used to rent a boat in DTD that all four of us went on together. Now we rent by the WL and each get our own. Also the four person surrey bike is fun to rent at several spots.

Have a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[AMaloy314]

You have had lots of great advice and information from previous posters.

I don't know your exact circumstances, but just in case you are not aware of the current discounts......

If you can book your package and arrive just 2 days earlier (Sept 20), you can get the basic dining plan for free/ or a discount off the Deluxe Dining Plan.

How do I know this? We will be there the same time you will.

Have a great time!