Which day for EE and which for Plaza Inn breakfast?

[Dukland]

Okay, everyone here is so good, I thought I would pose this question. Which day should we do EE, which for ToonTown Madness, and which for Plaza Inn breakfast?

Okay, we have 5 day hoppers, and will be there M-F, 7/31-8/04. So, we have one EE, one ToonTown Madness, and we would like to have breakfast at the Plaza one morning. Now, we will be arriving at our hotel late Sunday night, like 12 AM, and our kids are 2.5 years and 5.5 years old, so I am not seeing us taking advantage of anything too early on Monday. I am not sure if TTM is on the same days as EE or not. If we did EE on Tues, maybe TTM on Wed, and breakfast at the Plaza on Thurs, around 10 AM? And if we can manage it, maybe trying to get into DCA on Friday morning? (since they open part of the park 1/2 hour before their regular hours, right?)

We are not typically morning people, but I am sure I can get everyone moving. Especially since that would mean short lines in FantasyLand.

Thanks for any input!

 

[caimakale]

What hotel are you staying at and what timezone do you live in?

I can't remember what days they do TTM, but Monday or Tuesday morning would be a good time to do your early entry and then the character breakfast on Wednesday (non-EE day). If you are staying at one of the disney hotels, you can get EE Mon., Tues., & Thurs. (There is also EE on Saturdays but you won't be there on Saturday).

 

[Dukland]

We are near Tacoma, so we won't have a time change.
We will be staying at the Tropicana, so it will be an easy, quick walk to the gates of Disneyland.

 

[samkj]

I would do the last sitting at the Plaza Inn on your EE day. EE in July/August will probably be 7am (normal openning 8am) so if you can eat at 10-10:30 you have 3-3 1/2 hours to get a lot done at the park, then sit down to breakfast afterwards. We like to do our character meals early in our trip, so we know which characters we need to make a special point of seeing in the parks.

 

[HydroGuy]

They recently changed TTMM days. I think they are now M/W/F/Sat. If you were not getting in so late I would do EE on Monday. That leaves Tue/Thurs for EE. And it will be at 7AM. We were at DLR Aug 1-4 2005, which was a Mon-Thurs, and we had a blast.

I would go with the idea that the earlier in the trip the better for EE. As the week goes on you will be a bit more tired, and all else being equal you will have more energy on Tue than Thurs.

With the age of your kids, you may want to do FantasyLand twice. Thus one time would be EE, and the other would be Wed or Fri (no one has EE and those days). On that day you would want to be at DL before the 8AM opening. (Throw ice cubes in their beds!)

That would leave TTMM for Wed or Fri - whichever day you do not do FantasyLand day #2.

Assuming you followed the above schedule, that would make Thursday morning a good sleep in morning and DCA day, because it is an EE day at DL.

So what day to you do your breakfast? Not sure what time you want to do breakfast. Based on that time would influence best day.

 

[Dukland]

So what day to you do your breakfast? Not sure what time you want to do breakfast. Based on that time would influence best day.

I was thinking that 10 AM would be a good time for breakfast. Or in true Hobbit-style, "Second Breakfast". LOL My children are small, but their stomachs are never-ending. (Unless it's a vegetable, of course!)

I really appreciate all the tips. I just want to make sure we can relax because we planned well.

 

[HydroGuy]

I was thinking that 10 AM would be a good time for breakfast. Or in true Hobbit-style, "Second Breakfast". LOL My children are small, but their stomachs are never-ending. (Unless it's a vegetable, of course!)

I really appreciate all the tips. I just want to make sure we can relax because we planned well.

Well then, think about this:

Monday - wake up late and arrive late at DL. Either start at DCA if you can stand to skip DL on day #1 (that would be hard), or do your breakfast on Monday morning and plan to not get in a lot of rides today. If at DL, do a fast loader like Small World (lines should not be too bad at 11AM-Noon - maybe 20 minutes max). I am assuming here that you and spouse are skipping headliners because of young kids - if not, grab a FastPass for something before your breakfast and then another one after you are done with breakfast.

Other good late start DL rides are:

Mark Twain
Columbia Sailing Ship
Tom Sawyer Island
Tiki Room
Pinocchio
Snow White

And your kids may like Buzz Lightyear, and you can FastPass that.


Tuesday - EE day, arrive at the DL gates at 6:45 at the very latest - 6:30 is better. Head straight to FantasyLand and ride Peter Pan, then Dumbo, and then Alice in Wonderland. Then maybe Mr Toad or Tea Cups. Then others in FL as you desire. After it turns 8AM, do Jungle Cruise and Winnie the Pooh. Or head to Toontown when it opens at 9AM - unless you want to save TT for the TTMM day. If you go to TT at 9AM go straight to Mickeys House, then Minnies House, then Gadgets Go Coaster if interested, then let your kids explore TT at leisure. If you think your kids are up for Pirates of the Caribbean, do that by 10-10:30AM - the line will be 5-10 minutes.


Wed - TTMM day. Need to arrive at DL gates early to get to TT at 8AM. So arrive by 7:45AM at the latest. Might be a good day for your breakfast.

Thursday - sleep in and start day at DCA. For sure for sure see Turtle Talk with Crush at the Animation Studios. We went at about 2PM and got into the next show without waiting more than 5 minutes. See Aladdin show. I haven't gone on Monsters Inc yet and do not know how appropriate that is for two-year-olds.

Fri - No EE for anyone - do second round of FantasyLand - lines will be short first thing in the morning - arrive at gates at 7:30AM if possible.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dukland]

HydroGuy, that totally helps! Thanks so much!!

We will also be doing a Princess Dinner at Ariel's Grotto, so I was thinking we may do that on Monday evening. If we do that, we will do breakfast at the Plaza on Wednesday. That sounds perfect. I wasn't sure which days TTM was offered, so didn't know how to plan for it.

When we went last year, dh and I would split up sometimes, and each take a kid, so they could each do what they wanted. And my ds, who was only 19 months at the time, absolutely LOVED POTC! Ds liking that ride so much is one big reason why we are taking our trip in August, rather than in May. We didn't want to miss POTC. So we will be doing that for sure. DD did HM last time, and we will see if Ds will be up for it this time or not. We all rode Buzz Lightyear, as Buzz is a favorite of Ds', too, and the kids are looking forward to Monsters. Dh and I each took turns with the kids, while the other rode Indiana Jones. We are definitely doing that one again!

Thanks again for the tips. We didn't get to see Tiki room last time, and a few other things we just didn't get around to. I'd like to do it all this time, if possible. Hopefully it's possible with a 5 day hopper, no matter how busy the parks are.

 

[HydroGuy]

I checked a resource I have and confirmed TTMM on M/W/F/Sat. If you want to know for sure from a more authoritative source contact DLR. You should have plenty of time for everything in five days. We did everything at DL last August, and most everything at DCA except Bugs Land. And our kids are older so we did all the headliners 2-4 times. And we did all the shows and parades. I am guessing you will be skipping a lot of rides that may be for older kids, so you should have no problem with everything else - if you can get out of bed!

If you went in 2005 you know the DL Parade of Dreams will be a good one for your kids. The Disney Electrical Parade at DCA is also a good one. The Remember Dreams Come True fireworks show and Fantasmic may be too intense for a two-year-old.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We'll be there in a month and we also get TTMM. What is this one all about? We may have to skip it since we'll only be there three nights.

We also get priority viewing for a parade. Which one is recommended? We'll skip Electric Parade since we've seen that at WDW.

 

[Dukland]

I've never been to TTM, but my understanding is....ToonTown opens later than the rest of the Park. And, if you have passes, they open it early, just for those with passes. So it's a lot less crowded. What that means is, not much of a wait for rides, and even more important, not much of a wait for Character meets, with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, and Chip and Dale. (We saw Chip and Dale there, but I don't know if they are always there)
So if you are planning on getting autographs for any of these characters, TTM is a must. Plus my kids just loved looking through the "houses" of the characters. Minnie's was cool, and Mickey's, of course, was very cool!

 

[HydroGuy]

We never did TTMM ourselves. I understand that there are some special ceremonies by the DL characters that are fun. As TT opens one hour after DL, TTMM is one before TT opens and thus the same time as DL itself opens. Some people who have done TTMM have not thought it was worth the time. So it is not a no-brainer to do like EE is.

 

[hlbtimes2]

If you plan on riding Rogers cartoon spin, and visiting Mickey and Minnie at their houses, then morning madness is not a waste of time at all! You can easily ride the few ride, meet the characters, watch the parade and ceremony- and be out before the hour is up! Its cute, fun and saves time.

 

[HydroGuy]

If you plan on riding Rogers cartoon spin, and visiting Mickey and Minnie at their houses, then morning madness is not a waste of time at all! You can easily ride the few ride, meet the characters, watch the parade and ceremony- and be out before the hour is up! Its cute, fun and saves time.

Second hand here vs. your first hand, but I thought that the TT rides were not open during TTMM. Only the ceremony and characters. Are you saying the rides are open during TTMM? If so, then that is good to know.