Help with general itinerary

[bdubs419]

I just booked a trip for February (using my friend who is a Disney TA).

We are staying in a cars suite at AOA. I have two boys (one will have just turned 5 and the other will be almost 7). This will be the first trip for my boys and for the adults it will be the first trip since we were kids.

I am getting SO overwhelmed trying to research everything. We are doing the meal plan w one quick service, one table service and 2 snacks a day. My friend just booked the table service reservations since I know we are “late” since many people book reservations 6 months in advance. I realize we probably can’t get into a lot of the best restaurants and honestly I am OK with that. We aren’t going for the food, more for the experience.

I have no idea what makes sense for meals (if table service for lunch OR for dinner) makes the most sense for us because I have no idea if we will power through the day or take a break and go back to the hotel in the afternoon. If we take a break, I’d think a later dinner could work (late for us would be like 5:45/6ish) but if we are powering through Id think sit down lunch or early dinner (5pm) would work best. I think just the fact that we are planning meals each day stresses me out when I don’t know what state we will all be in. Please feel free to provide comments on the below..:

Here is general itinerary so far:

2/1 arrival. Hang out around the hotel. Head to Disney Springs (not a theme park, just restaurants and shopping district) Dinner at T-Rex Cafe 5 PM

2/2 Magic Kingdom all day, no break. Right now I Have brunch at Chef Mickey's 12 noon but I will keep trying for an early dinner instead like 5 PM. This is the best Mickey and friends meal. It's at the Contemporary resort just outside of Magic KIngdom on the monorail but really easy to get to.

2/3 open morning. Maybe Magic Kingdom to hit the park when crowds are low. Midday break. Epcot afternoon/evening. Dinner at Garden Grill with Chip n Dale and friends at 5:35

2/4 Hollywood Studios all day, midday break after lunch but return for the night show (it's one of the best). Lunch at Mama Melrose Italian 12:05 PM. This lunch gives you preferred seating for the show at 8 PM so you don't have to wait as long. They give you vouchers to come back for the show.

2/5 Animal Kingdom morning through probably 1 PM or so just after lunch. Midday break. Dinner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort on the monorail at 5:15 PM. This is one of our favorites. Then Magic Kingdom just for the fireworks at 8 PM. The monorail is a 15 minute ride to Magic Kingdom so this would be very easy to do...

2/6 open morning. Epcot afternoon/evening for dinner at Coral Reef 5:35 PM. This is a fun restaurant it is like eating inside of an aquarium.

2/7 Magic Kingdom to finish off the trip. IF you see the fireworks after Kona on Wednesday then don't stay for them tonight. Dinner at Crystal Palace in the park at 4:55 PM with Pooh and friends.

Thoughts???

[bdubs419]

To note, I really doubt we will make it to any 8pm shows. I know my friend put one on the itinerary (which I plan on taking off). I really don’t want my kids to be too exhausted to enjoy things. We will try to do fireworks one night though!

[nicolewi]

We were there in March and my kids had just turned 4, 6, 8 and 10. We also stayed at AoA and loved it. The Cars pool area is super cute!!

Your trip looks good to me, but is a lot more low-key than ours. That is fine if it's what you want. We ended up staying until close most nights and did long days, using meals for a break. We didn't get to the parks super early any day, but we did arrive a couple times just as they had started letting people in. I couldn't imagine doing a mid-day break b/c you lose sooooo much time with traveling back and forth, so we never ended up doing that. Our schedule worked for us but I know it doesn't work for everyone.

I don't think you have enough time in the Animal Kingdom. I would think you would want to stay there all day. You can try to get fast passes for Flight of Passage, there's the safari, the Lion King show...all of that takes a long time. Also, it is cool to see Pandora at night if you are there after dark.

Definitely don't miss the Magic Kingdom fireworks show! It was amazing!

[bdubs419]

Oct 28, 2019 9:55:36 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

We were there in March and my kids had just turned 4, 6, 8 and 10. We also stayed at AoA and loved it. The Cars pool area is super cute!!

Your trip looks good to me, but is a lot more low-key than ours. That is fine if it's what you want. We ended up staying until close most nights and did long days, using meals for a break. We didn't get to the parks super early any day, but we did arrive a couple times just as they had started letting people in. I couldn't imagine doing a mid-day break b/c you lose sooooo much time with traveling back and forth, so we never ended up doing that. Our schedule worked for us but I know it doesn't work for everyone.

I don't think you have enough time in the Animal Kingdom. I would think you would want to stay there all day. You can try to get fast passes for Flight of Passage, there's the safari, the Lion King show...all of that takes a long time. Also, it is cool to see Pandora at night if you are there after dark.

Definitely don't miss the Magic Kingdom fireworks show! It was amazing!

Ha yeah I think I’m probably hoping for a bit more low key just based upon my kids. I mean maybe they will surprise me and will be able to hang better than expected but we shall see!

Hmm yes I wondered that too about Animal Kingdom, maybe that day we will just stay there all day (not take a break) and go straight to dinner.

Thank you for all the other tips too!

How long did you find it took to get from AOA to MK? AK? Did you use the gondolas at all to go to HS or Epcot?

[nicolewi]

It would be a lot easier to do Kona from the MK or Epcot, so that you are on the monorail. Maybe you could do Epcot on the Kona day and AK on the other day. You would have to change or skip Garden Grille.

[CrazyLucky]

We went when my kids were 5 and 7. It was awesome. Did you get the Memory Maker? Do it. The one thing that is definitely worth the cost.
Did you get something to have the characters sign? We just went with autograph books, but we saw all kinds of clothing and some mats, like you would put around a picture to frame it. I guess my biggest advice is to not overplan. I know that's hard, but it's sooo much for the kids. We have a picture of me with DD on my shoulders, and her head is on my head and she's sleeping.
I think your half day in AK might be enough. We loved the safari, so do that for sure. Are your kids into the big rides? The roller coaster at AK is fun.

We had a great time. It's such a fun age for that kind of trip. You'll have a blast.

[bdubs419]

Oct 28, 2019 10:22:45 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

We went when my kids were 5 and 7. It was awesome. Did you get the Memory Maker? Do it. The one thing that is definitely worth the cost.
Did you get something to have the characters sign? We just went with autograph books, but we saw all kinds of clothing and some mats, like you would put around a picture to frame it. I guess my biggest advice is to not overplan. I know that's hard, but it's sooo much for the kids. We have a picture of me with DD on my shoulders, and her head is on my head and she's sleeping.
I think your half day in AK might be enough. We loved the safari, so do that for sure. Are your kids into the big rides? The roller coaster at AK is fun.

We had a great time. It's such a fun age for that kind of trip. You'll have a blast.

Memory maker? No idea lol. I guess I should ask if that was included in the package cost. I need to learn about a lot of these things!

Haven’t even thought about signatures yet but thanks for the tip!

Also I totally get what you mean about not planning too much. I think the planning of meals etc is stressful because you don’t know what to expect and things can change.

[Covergirl82]

We stayed at Poly in Dec 2018 and ate at Kona. It was ok, but not my fave. We don't like seafood, though. If you do, you may really enjoy it. We had breakfast at Ohana (character meal (Lilo, Stitch, Mickey) and food is served family-style), and we really liked it. Ohana also serves dinner.

Another monorail option that we really like is 1900 Park Fare (buffet) - morning characters are Alice in Wonderland, dinner characters are Cinderella, Prince Charming, Evil Stepmother, and Stepsisters. The Stepsisters are hilarious. The strawberry soup (which they serve all day) is so yummy. We've gone there the last two trips (once for dinner, once for breakfast), and we made a dinner reservation there for our April 2020 trip.

For meal times, we generally stick to eating around when we normally would at home. Because we eat dinner earlier (5:30-ish), it's easier to get reservations (at least at the 180-day mark).

For getting from one resort to another for a dining reservation using Disney busses and/or monorail, plan on at least an hour, if not a little more.

AK is a half-day park for us. We do the safari first thing while it's cooler out and always go on Kali River Rapids. We went to the Lion King show last trip (kids were 7 (almost 8) and 9.5), but I think that was a one-and-done for us.

Just make sure you consider travel time for midday breaks. You could spend 45 minutes to an hour (each way) waiting for/riding on the bus to/from your resort. Because of that, we have at least one full resort day so that we have lots of time at the pool and could also take a nap if we wanted to.

[mccallister84]

I will say that when we went two weeks ago my Dad struck up a conversation with a waitress at Chef Mickeys. She shared that she tries very hard not to work the dinner shift because everyone is breaking down.

[nsl]

Historically I've preferred to make our table service reservations for lunchtime on park days because it guarantees a set inside an air-conditioned restaurant where we'll spend at least an hour. For my boys, that's usually a much-needed break in the middle of an overstimulating park day.

Hollywood Studios would be hard for me to spend a full day at even now, and my kids are old enough to ride everything. Star Wars land is cool (I was there two weeks ago), but even with that I'd pick a full day at Animal Kingdom over Hollywood Studios. There's a lot more atmosphere at AK, and more to see and do outside of rides for young kids, plus some genuinely good food for everyone.

Beware of "the monorail is only 15 minutes" thinking. While the ride isn't long, going from the resort to the TTC takes a bit (plus waiting for the monorail to arrive) and then you have to transfer to the MK. I hadn't ridden the monorail in years and was shocked at how time-consuming it actually was, even when we weren't battling fireworks crowds.

[janegold]

Animal Kingdom is definitely a full day for us. Pandora is awesome at night. The sunset safari is also good.

[nsl]

One other thing you might want to keep in mind re: dining reservations is that a lot of people change their mind mid-trip (especially the day of a reservation) and you can get a table at most table-service restaurants if you're willing to keep an eye on the app. It may seem like a lot of places have no availability now, but unless you want Be Our Guest or Cinderella's Royal Table you might be surprised what you can find while you're in the parks.

Also, a tip about cancelling reservations: you incur a $10/person charge if you cancel within 24 hours of a reservation, but the charge does not apply if you modify the reservation to a different day and then cancel it after the modification is processed. So if seats at a restaurant you really want to eat at (or at a time/location that works better for your family) pop up, you can push your current reservation into the future, make the new reservation, and then cancel the modified one without having to pay extra.

[bdubs419]

Oct 28, 2019 19:25:29 GMT -5 nsl said:

One other thing you might want to keep in mind re: dining reservations is that a lot of people change their mind mid-trip (especially the day of a reservation) and you can get a table at most table-service restaurants if you're willing to keep an eye on the app. It may seem like a lot of places have no availability now, but unless you want Be Our Guest or Cinderella's Royal Table you might be surprised what you can find while you're in the parks.

Also, a tip about cancelling reservations: you incur a $10/person charge if you cancel within 24 hours of a reservation, but the charge does not apply if you modify the reservation to a different day and then cancel it after the modification is processed. So if seats at a restaurant you really want to eat at (or at a time/location that works better for your family) pop up, you can push your current reservation into the future, make the new reservation, and then cancel the modified one without having to pay extra.

Thanks, this is super helpful! I think for us this will be a learning trip to see what works for us (breaks/no breaks, lunch vs dinner reservations). We will see how the first day or two goes and then I definitely will see if I can change things up for the rest of the time if need be. It’s reassuring to know we can tweak things. I thinks it’s the whole planning so much in advance that stresses me out!!

[curbsideprophet]

I would not leave MK in the middle of the day just to go to Chef Mickey’s. If you are leaving and going elsewhere that is a one thing. But if you are going back into the MK right after it does not seem worth it to me.

Will you have a car? How do you plan to get to Kona? If you are at AK that day I would try Boma or Sana’a at AKL if you want a resort restaurant.

[bdubs419]

Oct 28, 2019 22:11:58 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

I would not leave MK in the middle of the day just to go to Chef Mickey’s. If you are leaving and going elsewhere that is a one thing. But if you are going back into the MK right after it does not seem worth it to me.

Will you have a car? How do you plan to get to Kona? If you are at AK that day I would try Boma or Sana’a at AKL if you want a resort restaurant.

Thanks! Is it that tough to get to Chef Mickeys from MK? I know my friend/TA is trying to switch this to an early dinner. She has an alert set up for this.

I honestly don’t know how you get from either AK or from AOA to Kona. We will not have a car. I will ask my friend. This reservation does seem a bit random but I think she’s hoping we will also do the fireworks at MK that night and that maybe it’s not terrible to get from Kona to MK. If it’s that complicated maybe it makes sense to do a lunch table service at AK that day?

[bdubs419]

Ok update, we will pay to Uber to Kona to help cut down on travel time.

[mccallister84]

Oct 29, 2019 7:06:11 GMT -5 bdubs419 said:

Oct 28, 2019 22:11:58 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

I would not leave MK in the middle of the day just to go to Chef Mickey’s. If you are leaving and going elsewhere that is a one thing. But if you are going back into the MK right after it does not seem worth it to me.

Will you have a car? How do you plan to get to Kona? If you are at AK that day I would try Boma or Sana’a at AKL if you want a resort restaurant.

Thanks! Is it that tough to get to Chef Mickeys from MK? I know my friend/TA is trying to switch this to an early dinner. She has an alert set up for this.

I honestly don’t know how you get from either AK or from AOA to Kona. We will not have a car. I will ask my friend. This reservation does seem a bit random but I think she’s hoping we will also do the fireworks at MK that night and that maybe it’s not terrible to get from Kona to MK. If it’s that complicated maybe it makes sense to do a lunch table service at AK that day?

Well you will get lots of conflicting advice. For us, it was totally worth it to leave MK and go back. We had a 12:55 reservation and since we had started at 7 am everyone was ready for a nice long break. When I was there the monorails came every 5ish minutes so we never waited long. And you can walk to the contemporary and back to the park if you desire. We took the monorail back just to be sure that we were getting back after the parade ended - we didn’t want to try to be re entering the park when it was coming down Main Street and everyone went back feeling really refreshed.

[bdubs419]

Also changed our reservation on 2/6 to Teppan Edo instead of Coral Reef based upon personal preferences. It will be my husbands Bday so I thought hibachi could be fun. Also my kids have never done hibachi before.

[nicolewi]

bdubs419, we ate at both Coral Reef and Teppan Edo. While we had great experiences at both, I think your kids will really enjoy Teppan Edo.

People did tell me to stay on site for meals, and that was generally good advice. However, we did go from MK to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian for dinner one night and that was super easy and a nice break. Another time, we went from AK to Sana'a...we knew that would be more of a hassle so we just planned for that. We took the bus there, but a Minnie Van back to AoA. We also started one morning late with brunch at Trattoria al Forno and then walked into Epcot. I guess if you are going off-site, just make sure you plan to make it as convenient as possible, because it can be a big time suck if you don't plan carefully.

[curbsideprophet]

Oct 29, 2019 7:06:11 GMT -5 bdubs419 said:

Oct 28, 2019 22:11:58 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

I would not leave MK in the middle of the day just to go to Chef Mickey’s. If you are leaving and going elsewhere that is a one thing. But if you are going back into the MK right after it does not seem worth it to me.

Will you have a car? How do you plan to get to Kona? If you are at AK that day I would try Boma or Sana’a at AKL if you want a resort restaurant.

Thanks! Is it that tough to get to Chef Mickeys from MK? I know my friend/TA is trying to switch this to an early dinner. She has an alert set up for this.

It is not tough per say, but is could be time consuming. It is easy to walk to the Contemporary from MK but if you are at the back of the park you will need to leave more time to get there. The meal itself is also time consuming. The meal is okay, but not sure I would go out if my way for it. However my max is one or two character meals a trip and I know others do way more than that.

[bdubs419]

Oct 30, 2019 21:51:10 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

Oct 29, 2019 7:06:11 GMT -5 bdubs419 said:

Thanks! Is it that tough to get to Chef Mickeys from MK? I know my friend/TA is trying to switch this to an early dinner. She has an alert set up for this.

It is not tough per say, but is could be time consuming. It is easy to walk to the Contemporary from MK but if you are at the back of the park you will need to leave more time to get there. The meal itself is also time consuming. The meal is okay, but not sure I would go out if my way for it. However my max is one or two character meals a trip and I know others do way more than that.

Hmm now you have me wondering if 3 is way too many. At first I just figured we were doing it for the kids. I didn’t realize how long they can be. Can I ask what is probably a dumb question? Do they really need to last that long (I think I saw somewhere an hour to an hour a half sometimes)?

[Covergirl82]

Oct 31, 2019 7:51:17 GMT -5 bdubs419 said:

Oct 30, 2019 21:51:10 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

It is not tough per say, but is could be time consuming. It is easy to walk to the Contemporary from MK but if you are at the back of the park you will need to leave more time to get there. The meal itself is also time consuming. The meal is okay, but not sure I would go out if my way for it. However my max is one or two character meals a trip and I know others do way more than that.

Hmm now you have me wondering if 3 is way too many. At first I just figured we were doing it for the kids. I didn’t realize how long they can be. Can I ask what is probably a dumb question? Do they really need to last that long (I think I saw somewhere an hour to an hour a half sometimes)?

Sometimes they last that long because of waiting for all the characters to come around.  We have done 4 character meals in a trip, but part of that was because we weren't sure how long DD would be interested in princesses, so we wanted to go to Cinderella's Royal Table and Akershus in one trip.  We also went to 1900 Park Fare (dinner) and Tusker House that same trip.

[curbsideprophet]

Oct 31, 2019 7:51:17 GMT -5 bdubs419 said:

Oct 30, 2019 21:51:10 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

It is not tough per say, but is could be time consuming. It is easy to walk to the Contemporary from MK but if you are at the back of the park you will need to leave more time to get there. The meal itself is also time consuming. The meal is okay, but not sure I would go out if my way for it. However my max is one or two character meals a trip and I know others do way more than that.

Hmm now you have me wondering if 3 is way too many. At first I just figured we were doing it for the kids. I didn’t realize how long they can be. Can I ask what is probably a dumb question? Do they really need to last that long (I think I saw somewhere an hour to an hour a half sometimes)?

Not including travel time to the restaurant we generally plan for

60 minutes for a table service meal
90 minutes for a character meal
2 hours for a signature meal

They do not always take that long but they certainly can. You can easily wait 15 minutes just to get inside at Chef Mickey’s. If you want to see all the characters (which is what you are paying for) it can take some time.