Wish Trippers...Unite!! Volume One

[oklamomof4boys]

I read somewhere that you can buy something where you eat dinner at a certain restaurant and then get priority seating for Fantasmic. Is this something worth doing?

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

I read somewhere that you can buy something where you eat dinner at a certain restaurant and then get priority seating for Fantasmic. Is this something worth doing?

It's called the "Fantasmic Dinner Package." We did it last October and it worked out great. We chose to do it because we have young children. It cut the time down that we had to wait for great seats from over an hour to half hour.

You can choose from three restaurants. The most expensive package is The Hollywood Brown Derby, then Mama Melrose followed by Hollywood and Vine being the least expensive. We did the buffet at Hollywood and Vine and were stuffed. At the end of your meal your server will give you special tickets that will get you into a side entrance for the Fantasmic show. The entrance is towards the front of the park by the gas station sign. Don't go to the regular Fantasmic entrance. The reserved seating area is on the right side of the stadium. You will still want to arrive a half hour before the show so that you can sit in the left most area of this section (and be towards the middle) but that's still so much better than waiting the hour plus especially if you have young children.

When you call to make your advance dining reservations you have to specifically tell them that you would like the "Fantasmic Dinner Package." Just a heads up, you want to book this ASAP. Ever since we got the dates for our wish trip in December I have been trying to book this package for our family and NOTHING has been available at any of the restaurants. I hope you have better luck than I did Keep us posted...

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

My family did Hollywood and Vine one year on the package, it wasn't worth it to me. We didn't like the seats, still arrived early and ended up sitting outside that section. However, I can see the benefit if you have young children. (I seem to remember them telling us to arrive an hour ahead of time which also seemed to defeat the purpose. Maybe I am misremembering.)

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Amber: I just started reading your PTR, your family is so adorable. I'm gald Sebastian is getting his wish!

 

[Bill_Lin]

When I was planning our trip, I thought that getting to a park at opening was really important. With the GAC, a lot of the reasons for this went away. We also came to appreciate our rest and a good breakfast at the village. I would advise not planning to enter a park until after orientation. You should still get there before lunch time as the parks are not far from the Village. One adult goes to orientation and the other and the kids can enjoy the village while they wait... or pack up the car for the day.

Bill

 

[oklamomof4boys]

My boys were wondering, what kind of food do they have for breakfast and dinner at GKTW?

 

[SueM in MN]

I heard that Universal is more adult oriented, so I was wondering if the kids would have any fun there. I'll reiterate, they are 8,7, and 4. Is it worth spending a day there?

You got a good review of the rides at Universal and IOA a few pages back, but I thought it might be useful to have a link to the Universal Orlando website.

I am also putting a link to the Universal/IOA Rider's Guide in case some of you Wish Trippers need information on warnings, etc. for particular rides.

 

[angie1445]

As a former cast member who worked MVMCP (I was in Celebrate the Season- best show ever), I can tell you that the likelihood of them selling out even the day of is very low. If you get your tickets now it should be more than okay. It only starts selling out early around Thanksgiving and the couple of weeks before Christmas. Definitely see Celebrate the Season, the castle stage show, it's awesome! (I admit, I am biased!)

Crystal Palace is my all time favorite eating place, of course, if you look at my user name you should see why . The food is wonderful. That was another place I worked in entertainment, and it was actually one of my favorite places to work (although most people in entertainment hate it). They have a little "parade" they do once a set (so approx. every 45 minutes) where they take the kids around the restaurant, it is adorable. For special families we have been known to get all the characters together for a group picture. It is easier to do this at the very beginning or end of the meal shift.

Angie: I probably shouldn't tell you this, but the majority of CMs don't care if your child is not with you. The way I looked at it, the family deserves some magic. Only once during my time in attractions did I see a family get turned away because the wish child didn't want to ride, and most of us didn't agree with the decision. However, if you are in the area to get fastpasses, it's not a bad idea. What you might consider doing is going up to the greeter and explaining that you are on a wish trip and the wish child does not want to ride, but you don't want to separate for a long time. I'm willing to bet that 9 times out of 10 they will let you on. (You didn't hear it from me).

Thanks so much for the info. I may go ahead and get fast passes just to be on the safe side.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

The food at GKTW is supplied by Perkins, so it's pretty much standard fare. I believe there is a continental breakfast for those on the go, and some hot options as well. It's been awhile since I've been there so I don't remember much about it. I thinks it's pretty much typical breakfast at a place like Perkins.

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

My boys were wondering, what kind of food do they have for breakfast and dinner at GKTW?

From what I hear the waffles are not to be missed ;-)

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Amber: I just started reading your PTR, your family is so adorable. I'm gald Sebastian is getting his wish!

THANKS!! I haven't been able to update it for awhile since we've been back at the hospital doing all kinds of tests for Sebastian.

Great news though, his recent Bone Scan shows no new tumors at this time. Yay!! Still hoping we will be good to go for December!

I'm back to working on our itinerary and have been trying to make ADRs everyday but I thinkI'll have to wait until we get closer and hopefully some people cancel.

 

[SueM in MN]

THANKS!! I haven't been able to update it for awhile since we've been back at the hospital doing all kinds of tests for Sebastian.

Great news though, his recent Bone Scan shows no new tumors at this time. Yay!! Still hoping we will be good to go for December!

I'm back to working on our itinerary and have been trying to make ADRs everyday but I thinkI'll have to wait until we get closer and hopefully some people cancel.

Even if you don't get the ADRs before you go, some places still will have a bit of 'extra' room. Some people don't show up, they save some spaces for walk ins. So, check in at Guest Relations at the park and see if they can help you.

 

[bigdisgrandma]

THANKS!! I haven't been able to update it for awhile since we've been back at the hospital doing all kinds of tests for Sebastian.

Great news though, his recent Bone Scan shows no new tumors at this time. Yay!! Still hoping we will be good to go for December!

I'm back to working on our itinerary and have been trying to make ADRs everyday but I thinkI'll have to wait until we get closer and hopefully some people cancel.

Hooray, Hooray Isn't it amazing how such a thing like no new tumors is the most wonderful thing to hear. I think it looks like a go for December for your family. Take care...isn't your new baby girl coming soon?

Have a marvelous day.
Denise

 

[oklamomof4boys]

After reading other's reports about not being able to get their ADRs, I was a little worried. Amber- early December must be much more crowded than mid November.

Anyway, I was able to get : 11/17 Prime Time Cafe- light lunch
Hollywood and Vine - Fantasmic Dinner Package ( the boys really wanted to eat here so I figured we would go ahead and do the the package)
11/18 Crystal Palace- 5:00pm
11/20 Biergarten-lunch

I also went ahead and ordered our MVMCP tickets.

Now I can relax a bit and get ready for Disneyland in a couple of weeks!

Amber- so glad that Sebastian's bone scan was good!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

Nathan's cardiologist told us last week to " use our best judgement" when it comes to what rides Nathan can ride. ( This has been a very frustrating thing over the years- we had one cardiologist tell us he can ride anything, another tell us nothing that scares him enough to raise his blood pressure or jars him around enough to hit him in the chest to this latest advice. I network with parents around the world whose children have the same disease and the advice regarding this varies greatly.) Luckily, Nathan is not a big thrill seaker and, of course, we will err on the side of caution. We know from DL that he is fine on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder ( that is about as adventurous as he gets and he loves those). He was fine on Indy but didn't like it too much( I think more scary than too intense). We have already decided that if he doesn't want to ride it, we won't gently encourage him to ride it.

But on those rides he wants to ride but we are unsure of the intensity, would they let part of our party ride and then if my husband or I determine it to be safe enough, would they then let one of us ride it again with Nathan?

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Hooray, Hooray Isn't it amazing how such a thing like no new tumors is the most wonderful thing to hear. I think it looks like a go for December for your family. Take care...isn't your new baby girl coming soon?

Have a marvelous day.
Denise

She should be making her debut any day now Can't wait to buy her first set of mouse ears!

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

After reading other's reports about not being able to get their ADRs, I was a little worried. Amber- early December must be much more crowded than mid November.

Anyway, I was able to get : 11/17 Prime Time Cafe- light lunch
Hollywood and Vine - Fantasmic Dinner Package ( the boys really wanted to eat here so I figured we would go ahead and do the the package)
11/18 Crystal Palace- 5:00pm
11/20 Biergarten-lunch

I also went ahead and ordered our MVMCP tickets.

Now I can relax a bit and get ready for Disneyland in a couple of weeks!

Amber- so glad that Sebastian's bone scan was good!

Thanks! We are over the moon about the scan! We loved Prime Time and Hollywood and Vine had so much to choose from! We even took some of the rice krispy treats with us for snacks for later...Shhh

As for our dining I have been calling every day. I was able to make some ADRs ...just not all the ones I wanted. I'm still finding it hard to believe because having lived in Florida and visited Disney during the same time of year before...it was dead the first few weeks in December. As a previous poster suggested, maybe it's all those Pop Warner kids making reservations. In any event I'll keep trying.

We were able to get:

*Donald's Safari breakfast on Sunday, December 7th for 8:30 a.m. -I'm jazzed that our time is before park opening so by the time we are done eating we can go right next door and ride Kilimanjaro when the park opens at 9:00

*Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine for 8:45 a.m. on Monday, December 8th. Does anyone know if we show up earlier than our ADR time if we can get through the park entrance or if we have any shot of being seated earlier? If not then we'll just cancel because we want to be done eating by park opening at 9:00 a.m.

*Dine with Shamu at Sea World early seating, on Saturday, December 13th

*Chef Mickey's Breakfast at 7:30 on Sunday, December 14th. This is the day we fly home and I'm not sure when our flight will be but I went ahead and make the ADR anyway since it was the only date/time available to whole time that we are there.

Still trying for:

*Chef Mickey's for Dinner on Saturday, December 6th. If we can do this then we'll cancel the breakfast on the 14th.

*The Fantasmic Dinner package at ANY of the Fantasmic restaurants for Monday, December 8th. If we just can't get in we'll buy some sandwhiches at Starring Rolls and take them to the stadium to eat.

*Liberty Tree Tavern for Dinner Wednesday, December 10th. This is our favorite. We all love the food there --especially the kids.

 

[twinmum]

Hello fellow Wishers! I just thought I'd let you know that I finally got around to posting updates to my pre-trip, including some pictures so you can meet our family!

Hope some of you will come on over and meet us properly!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1883215

Alison

 

[Ppufi]

GKTW food is delicious! You do not want to miss the dinner they have on Thursdays, the turkey dinner for their Christmas evenings. It is really great stuff, I recommend filling up on breakfast before you hit the parks. It keeps you full till dinner!

 

[Bill_Lin]

Wow, that is a lot of ADRs. I don't think I have ever seen so many. You should have a ton of fun. On our trip, we could really only afford the one at the Castle. Plus, we were INTENT on hitting as many rides/ attractions as possible and ate on the run.

I totally agree about eating a filling breakfast at GKTW, even if it means hitting a park later. It is really good to have a nourishing meal at the beginning of the day to keep everyone's energy up.

Bill