NWMR- Any last minute disneyworld tips?

jc&cat · June 2014

We are going next week. DS is 5.5 years and DD is just shy of 3 years (hooray, she gets in for no cost!).

In short, we are staying off-site and have a car rented. The only things we have scheduled ahead of time is the princess breakfast which the kids are pumped for. Otherwise, we are trying to make maybe 1 or 2 dinner or lunch reservations (ie. Coral Reef in Epcot) but finding that we may have missed our opportunity to reserve. I didn't do alot of reserving up front and i hope we don't get stuck eating pizza and chicken fingers for lunch How crowded do these restaurants get? Do they allow for walk ups?

We will go at the kids' pace and honestly we won't get to see it all in 4 days. With our time is it worth going to Animal Kingdom? That is the only park I never visited so can't really make the call on going there and if the kids are too small to be interested. I heard the safari is cool but can't see DD sitting that long.

DD is eager to see the princesses but this Elsa/Anna 4-6 hour wait is something she doesn't even have to know about. I heard the lines for other characters are slightly shorter thanks E & A's popularity.

Any other tips or little known gems we might miss?

Thanks!

jc&cat · June 2014

Thanks ladies!! Fabulous tips! We are staying in a hotel with suites and a kitchette. I have no problem brown bagging it so we're not bound to the park food and can just plop down when we want to eat.

Thanks for the parking tip-- I was wondering if we would have to pay 2x if we left and returned the same day.

groovygrl · June 2014

1. Since kids have no idea what is there and don't know what they're missing, just do things you can get on fast pass or that have short lines. 2. Skip Elsa and Anna and give her some excuse about them being away, etc. If she asks. Seriously. We didn't go to Epcot so that helped but I never even told dd hat they were an option. You see so many princesses at the castle that it fills the need

3. If there is a specific meal you want, hit the reservation site a couple times a day, it was a great tip I got, closer to the date ppl start canceling and moving things around and they open up. I got into a lunch I wanted like a week before our trip that way. 4. We didn't do animal kingdom with our four yr old twins, I heard it was kind of big and tiring and I wanted to do something more unusual and disney oriented. We were only there three days. I figure we will do ak when they're a little older. 5. Get the autograph books with the photo slots, it makes for a super cute keepsake if you get the character autographs and put the photo next to it.

shannm · June 2014

If you do animal kingdom, the tusker house is great. Lots of characters and a great buffet. I kind of disagree with a PP...I found disney food not to be your typical park food. And at the right places was actually quite wonderful.

shannm · June 2014

Also, if your kids are able to stay up, fantasyland around parade/fireworks time is much less crowded and was a lot of fun at night.

laurakaz13 · June 2014

Don't go! Kidding. Sorry. I just don't like that place at all.

BC&LM · June 2014

Try to get a Fastpass for Anna and Elsa if there are any left. They are in Magic Kingdom now, not Norway in Epcot anymore.

You can get restaurant reservations still if you aren't trying to get the most popular places. The popular places do not typically take walk-ups. Also, some of the resorts near the park have good restaurants that often have open spots for lunch, like Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.

Use your Fastpass Plus!

Animal Kingdom is great for kids. I would go there before Hollywood Studios. It does get HOT there in summer, though.

justjinny · June 2014

I haven't gone to Disney with kids yet, but do remember a few pointers from our last trip.

If you are going to do the safari, try to get there right when the park opens. You'll see more animals earlier in the morning. We ate an early lunch at the Tusker house also and thought it was really good, just basic stuff.

In Disney World, there's some seating on the second level at Pinocchio's restaurant. It's nice to get up and away from the crowds at that time of day. I can't say the food was memorable, but having a break from the crowds was.

When our kids are old enough to go, we are planning to split the day in half and leave the park during lunch time & for a nap. I think nap/lunch time in the middle of the day was the absolute worst time to be at the parks, even as an adult!

MNgirl326 · June 2014

Do you have fast passes set up for any rides? Even if you are off site, you can set up your fast passes before hand. If not, you can do it at the kiosk's there, but you may have to stand in line.

easyWDW has some great info on what rides to do fast passes with and what ones to skip

Bring snacks into the parks. Seriously, the bulk of our money went towards food - 2 coffees, a juice and a couple doughnuts -$30. if you can find the Brita water bottles that have the built in filters in the straw (I got mine at Target) get those, then you can fill up water from anywhere and it tastes great.

IF you have a smart phone, download the My Disney Experience App, it has wait times on there

Get there early. Like Rope Drop if you can. This is how we toured MK and it worked really well. WE went past fantasy land ( we had FP for Enchanted Tales with Belle, and Peter Pan set for later that day) and we instead went and did Adventureland and Frontier land rides first, then haunted mansion, then took a break ( Tom Sawyer island is a great place to put out a blanket and have a little nap/rest time) then had an early dinner and di fantasy land and tomorrow land.

Have a plan. Have a list of rides that you MUST do. You are right, you won't get to do anything. But the problem is - it is so big and overwhelming, if you don't have a plan, you can wander around and see nothing.

Restaurants can be hit or miss- we ate at Pinocchio's' Village Haus, and Pecos Bill and we ate at off times (we used snacks to tide us over until we off times for food)

I did a ton of research before we went (it was winter and I had nothing else to do before our trip) If you need any other info, I would be happy to help . Have fun!!

MNgirl326 · June 2014

oh and if you can swing the cost- Memory Maker is amazing. I would be happy to answer questions on that, if you are interested.

Tink112011 · June 2014

We went to Florida in April, and the only Disney thing we did was Animal Kingdom for one day. DS was about 2 years 4 months, and it was fantastic!

They don't have many rides, but a few short train/safari rides that are enjoyable. They're not too long at all for little kids. DS's favorite part was the fossil/bone dig, which is essentially just a huge playground and sandbox.

I would say that Animal Kingdom would be totally worth it for your LOs!

We were impressed with the walk-up food at Animal Kingdom. For lunch, we found a joint that offered personal pizzas along with a side salad. It was better than I thought it would be, and they know how to get a ton of people through the line very quickly.

BC&LM · June 2014

laurakaz13 said:

Don't go! Kidding. Sorry. I just don't like that place at all.

Boo! Disney is awesome!

bunny731 · June 2014

Thought since my kids go to the zoo quite a bit that animal kingdom would be Ho-hum. I was wrong. The safari was definitely one highlight of our trip---plus the boneyard was a nice hangout for them, too. The kids liked the impromptu music festivals they had. We planned on going to Epcot but skipped it, it is just too cerebral and a lot of walking for our young kids this time around. We will go ahead when the kids are a little older and hit Epcot then. We got there at rope drop a couple days and rode rides before the parks became fully flooded then scheduled fast pass between 11-1pm when people were flooding the park and had a late lunch. A couple days we headed back midday for a rest and came back out. We avoided the fireworks and parades for several of our days there so we could sweep through rides the kids wanted to ride again. In MK at the beginning of the park---you can take the train to tomorrow land/fantasyland, there is a small path that is not used by many people that lets out just to the left of space mountain. It is a nice way to avoid the main path. There was a 3-4 hour wait for Anna and Elsa which just boggles my mind that people would actually wait that long for a brief character greet. Even with a fast pass was 45-60 minutes. I had a hard fast rule we would not wait 30 minutes for any ride. I signed up Ds#1 to go to Jedi training and fight Darth Vader which ended up being the frightful Darth Mal... He enjoyed it but I feel that Darth Mal is the kind of person you teach your children to stay away from. go to the dollar store and bring ponchos. Enjoy,

bunny731 · June 2014

Also unbelievably my kids favorite ride was the Peoplemover in MK it was the most requested-never a wait- inTomorrowland. They could have rode that thing for days. There is a place in fantasyland behind dumbo that spits out water that worked wonders for uplifting my hot kids in the middle of the day. It's hot... They dry off fast.

MammaBear81 · June 2014

Download the my disney experience app, it will tell you where the characters are and which lines have shorter waits. Popluar restaurants usually do not take walk ups. It's worth calling 24/48 hours in advance because if you don't cancel your reservation 24 hours in advance you have to pay a cancellation fee, so there are people who cancel their reservations in that 48/24 hour window to avoid the fee (worth a shot!) You can also book reservations with the MDE app and it will show you what is available rather than just blindly calling around to see if there is anything open.

If you can get a meal at Akershus (Norway in epcot) that has many of the princesses at the character meal. If you go to a buffet place your under 3 year old will eat free. If you REALLY want to see anna and elsa try to get a breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace in MK for 8am, you will have to miss a character or two (winnie the pooh) but if you get out of there by 8:55 you can basically walk right up to the front of the line before the other people are let in the park. We didn't plan it that way (when we booked anna and elsa were in Norway) but we waited 15 minutes to see them, it was a wonderful surprise (on mothers day no less!).

Bring water bottles to refill, you can get free cups of ice water pretty much anywhere, saves a TON of money on buying drinks.

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NWMR- Any last minute disneyworld tips?

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