Disney

Jena503

We're going to Disney in June and staying at the Ft Wilderness cabins.

This was a somewhat spontaneous trip, and I'm usually more of a planner so I feel like I'm scrambling a little bit to catch up. I have not been to WDW since my one and only trip in 1983!! But DH, SS and MIL who are all going, have been several times, so hopefully we won't make a big mess of things.

 Here's the sit-down meals we have reserved (we have the dining plan)

5pm Akershus with princesses

7:20pm 1900 Park Fare Happily Ever After

6:20pm Sanaa (DH's choice, it's father's day)

6:10pm Boma

noon Whispering Canyon Cafe

5:25pm Kouzzina

I know having the 2 character meals back to back isn't ideal, but I couldn't make it work any other way. The only other one I wanted was Chef Mickey, but it's booked up (we only decided to do the trip 60 days out, so I'm just glad we got princesses. DS won't mind, he loves princesses too)

Any opinions on our meal schedule? We're not really sold on Kouzzina or Whispering Canyon if there's something better we should try to get. I've head that Animal Kingdom is really just a one day thing or even less. Are we going to regret having to trek out there 2x for dinner?

We'll be driving in (16 hours, ugh), so the first day will be a half day at Epcot, but we don't have plans for which parks to go to after that. We do plan to go back to the room for nap time and we have park hopper so we can go somewhere different after naptime.

Oh, and what disney board do you like to read for this type stuff?

ETA: our last two meals are now Mama Melrose and Liberty Tavern. We got the Fantasmic Package with Mama Melrose. Maybe the kids will be too zonked to see it, but I figure this way we stand a chance and we don't lose anything if we don't make it.

 

 

 

FemShep

I think your schedule looks fine.  You've chosen good restaurants, especially if your party has adventurous eaters.  A few notes:

Sanaa and Boma are at Animal Kingdom Lodge, not the park.  The AK park doesn't really take a full day, although there's a great playground in the park for younger kids where you can kill lots of time.  

You're eating at lots of hotels.  Disney transportation is great for getting to and from parks, but sucks to get to different hotels.  Plan to drive your own car. 

Don't forget pool time in addition to naps!  And if your kids like water, the water parks are very good. 

Allears.net is a great site for all things Disney.  They've got tons of editorial content, a great section on new park additions, and message boards that have lots of reviews and info.

Have fun! 

Disneygeek77

I really like this blog.

https://www.easywdw.com/

The author tells you what park  is best every day and why.  We are using his suggestions  when we go there in the Fall. 

The only other thing I can suggest is to  get there early, like before the park opens.  You can get a lot more done in one or two hours in the morning than you can in the afternoon once it becomes more crowdwd. 

cole2144

I am going in Sept so I`m in the planning mode as well. We are staying at the Art of Animation. If you are a planner like I am I highly recommend the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. It`s amazing, it has different touring plans for families of all ages. Also the BEST site for answering your Disney questions is on Disney`s own site, It`s called the Mom`s Panel and they know everything there is to know about Disney vacations and if they don`t know, they will call and find out. Also you can submit your questions to them.

ali2005jason

The boards I read are disboards.com. It's a message board type website and you can ask questions if you need too. I've learned lots from it. Have fun!

trizzie

If you really want Chef Mickey - keep checking and i mean every day. People change their reservations right up to when they leave. We booked last July to go in September. I got a CM reservation a week before we left.

I also recommend the Unofficial Guide to Disney (especially his touring plans!) and disboards.com.

jlw2505

I am planning a fall trip right now and also read the Unofficial Guide to Disney and 2nd or 3rd that book and I also have been using Disboards.com a ton.  The suggestions that stand out the most to me from others that have gone with young kids so to only do 1 sit down table meal a day as it is a lot of sitting for the young kids and it can take a long time - time you will lost out of in the parks, especially if you are planning to eat at a hotel or a park that you are not spending the day at.  Plan for down time in the afternoon (like after lunch) to swim/nap.  We are only doing Magic Kingdom on this trip as we are doing the Disney Cruise as well so I can't really comment on the places you have picked out - I have heard a lot of people say that Animal Kingdom is only a half day park and you can easily do 2 days at Magic Kingdom.  For us, we are taking a very relaxed plan to the trip - we know we will miss a ton of stuff but my girls will be 4 1/2 and 6 when we go and we are planning the trip for them - hence why we are only doing Magic Kingdom.  We plan to be at the pool one or two afternoons and plan a rest time each day.  We are doing 2 sit down meals (Cinderella's Royal Table on Friday night and Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Poly on Thursday night).  We will be at Disney from Thursday late morning until we leave on Sun.  We are keeping Sat totally open as far as meals so we can just go with the flow.  Just have fun and try not to stress about seeing and doing it all.  We plan to go back when the kids are older and then do more of the other parks and plan for longer days and such.

AmyC925

Lurking...

Boma is delicious! My husband didn't like it as much as I did because he doesn't like dried berries or anything sweet in his dinners. That being said, he LOVED Boma breakfast (we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Villas).

If you want to go to Chef Mickey's, you CAN still go without reservations, you may just have to wait a while, so go early.

Remember to check out the boardwalk at night, there are performers there.

I have also heard great things about the Ohana dinner (I think it's the Spirit of Aloha) it is a show and dinner...my friends go EVERY time they go (and they have a Disney timeshare) and it's on our plan for our next trip.

Jena503

Thanks ladies!

We have the Unofficial Guide book, thanks for the recommendation and for all the boards to check out!

Driving to the hotels is a great idea - DH and MIL have been several times, but they've never had a car there and I don't think we would have thought of this. Kinda makes me want to do more hotel meals if driving there is faster!

We definitely plan to take a nice long break in the afternoon and don't expect to see everything. We plan to hit all the parks, but that doesn't seem like too much since we have 7 days to do it and there seems to be at least one really cool thing  for the little ones in each park. We'll see how it goes!