Anyone got a Disney World/Florida holiday planned? Part 3

[McKayz]

I thought I'd start a new thread as number 2 is nearly full.

Links to old threads:

thread 1

thread 2

We haven't got ours booked yet. But we are planning on going August 2016. DH and I both turn 30 in the next 11 months so it's like a big birthday holiday.

McKayz, you can do it all spontaneously if you want. The thing with that is that you might not fit everything in and you may be going on really crowded days. If you can at least choose what days you will be doing the main parks according to the Dibb's Busy Day Guide, and then book yourself some FPs for Disney parks then that's all you really need to do. You'll always find soemwhere to eat but the reason people book meals is that if there is a specific place you want to eat then you may not get in without a reservation. For example, I tried to get a reservation for one restaurant we really wanted to visit and it was impossible, even 180 days before our trip. We usually plan everything and then have a couple of days allocated as 'do whatever we haven't had time to do so far'.

Forgot to say to Ohana that yes, 14-day Disney tickets are usually the cheapest option for Brits! (or the 7 day tickets but at the moment they're the same price as 14 days). You just have to think of it as the cheapest ticket and not that you are wasting n days.

We are staying at port Orleans riverside. We originally planned to stay at Caribbean beach but we changed it.

Im happy to plan most of it but would like a couple of days to do what we fancy when we wake up.

If you're staying onsite then you can definitely afford to have some days unplanned.

I just got back a couple of days ago if anyone wants any info . . .

Hi all

Just noticed Wilson Phillips are at Epcot during food and wine festival when we're there........we've booked RPR that night

I loved Wilson Phillips back in the day!

104 sleeps!

Basically if you are staying on-site then the first four days should be parks with extra morning hours, with fast passes booked for 10am onwards, book lunch somewhere nice about 12.30 (rainforest cafe at AK, cinderellas castle at MK) then head back to hotel pool. You can always go out for quick service meal later or visit another park if you like.

By day 5 we are getting up later, having late leisurely breakfast then heading to parks about 11ish. Quick service lunch and book a nice place for dinner. Pool usually happens every day for us. You can log onto my Disney experience from the hotel and change your fast passes if necessary- eg you get a super hot day and head to water parks.

HTH

Hi Lucas, my username is from Ohana in Lilo and Stitch but I've also been to Ohana's at the Polynesian! It was 2 years ago but I think I'm still full up from it!
I've read up thread that Discovery Cove is incredible and now I want to go there too but had a quick look and it was over £600 for one day for a family of four . So many dilemmas, don't know where we'll find the money. Am going to set up a new account this month and get saving!

Can I join?

We have (finally! Been talking about it for months) booked to go back again.

Next February, staying at Animal Kingdom Kidani village. Not stayed there before (have stayed onsite, but at different resorts) so any tips gratefully received.

Dd2 is so excited, as we will be there over her birthday. I will start planning with her soon, but I expect the day will be : breakfast at CRT or BOG, day at MK with fast passes for Rapunzel and Anna/Elsa, plus the mine train (new since our last trip), lunch at CRT or BOG (whichever we didn't breakfast at) and (in her dreams) the dessert party watching wishes to top it off. Still, I suppose that's one day I won't have to plan/make decisions for

FallingGoldfinch did you have a good time? What were the best bits?

I have been looking at the thread on The Dibb at all the pictures of the food. Not good when you are on a diet!!

We usually stay at Kidani Village. We stayed in a savannah view the first time, and it was amazing, but now we stay in standard view rooms.
Which type are you staying in?
Our room requests have been granted every time.
Our children love going to the community hall and toasting marshmallows in the evenings.
Any specific questions, just ask. We last stayed there in October last year and we'll be back again in December this year.

Pandas, hat sounds like a lovely day for your DD! You will find it very hard to get reservations for BoG though - I did it on the dot of 180 days and there were only tables for one :( Though I'm offsite so it will be a bit easier if you're onsite.

hat = that :)

McKayz - we felt we got lots less done than usual with the new FP system. It is quite restrictive but I guess that's the idea - keep you in the shops .

The best thing was, without a doubt, the new Harry Potter bit at Universal - it's even better than Hogsmeade, which was fantastic anyway.

Queues for Seven Dwarfs mine were incredible - even first thing in the morning; by later in the day, it could easily be over two hours. Same for meeting Princesses, so if you want to do those, definitely FP.

Be Our Guest restaurant - we couldn't get reservations beforehand, despite trying every day, but did get them in the park. When we went in, we were so glad to get a seat in the main hall that we didn't look around, but, actually, the rooms to the left and right are nicer, so look there first. Food isn't spectacular for vegetarians, but it's a lovely place.

So I flew with Thomsons and the dreamliner yesterday, I couldn't fault anything about the plane, air hostesses were lovely even offered me extra wine as I had a screaming 1yr old. What was a total pain was there was a group of unsupervised teenager/young children behind me who were a total pain in the butt! The mum only checked on them every few hour's

At immigration the beagle was on sniffer duties and of course stopped at me but I didn't have any banned foods so wasn't too scary!

It took from getting off the plane, immigration, car hire etc and reaching the hotel..3hours. I've got my double buggy with me and my 1yr old dd wasn't in it once! so my arms this morning are killing me.

I've been awake since 3.40am, the plan today is Walmart to run round throwing thing's in the trolley like its all free Hollywood studios then pool.

Ohanarama and anyone else who has done the ohana character breakfast.

Can I ask did you get to meet stitch there? I have heard rumours you do but most of the fan sites don't seem to list him

We haven't done Ohana but met stitch hiding behind pillars by himself once - I'm sure it was at Epcot.

Good to hear you're there safe, Dog, were you able to collect the pushchair when you left the plane before security? I'm considering a back sling for those very reasons, hope your arms recover soon!!

Enjoy HS!!!

Strawberry No you get the pushchairs with luggage, our carseat was last off too. I really thought it had been lost as the luggage belts had stopped and there was nothing left but eventually a guy came thru the doors carrying my carseat and someone's buggy.

We didn't see Stitch this time but on a previous trip, he was at Hollywood Studios up where the drawing bit is (can't remember what that's called). Just before you get in line to go into a talk about Mulan, he was waiting and there was hardly anyone there. I think they often draw him as one of the examples, so perhaps that's a place to catch him?

Ooh, Baymax, thanks. I have a feeling I'll be plaguing you with questions

We are in a 2 bed Savannah view. Where would,you recommend we request for? Dc are (will be) 11, 9 and 3. 11 year old has severe ASD, so more like a 4 year old (ie won't be going anywhere independently!)

Is it properly walkable between Kidani and Jambo house? I keep reading conflicting views on this. Presumably if we want to wander between the two, we should request for a room on the nearer curved bit of Kidani?

Lucas, yes, ADRs for BOG are not easy to come by. We ate lunch there last time - they were just trialling lunch ADRs, and I got lucky - but it would be nice to go back. I know dd2 wants to, as Belle is her favourite (well, original favourite, she now has Anna/Elsa and Rapunzel on the favourites list too ). I know they are only trialling breakfast at the moment, so will keep an eye on that, otherwise we might try dinner.

CRT is a must. Done that before too, but we all enjoy it, and ds gets a big fuss made of him as he shares a name with one of the relevant princes . Dd2's birthday falls halfway through our stay, so we should get lucky with the ADRs, given that we can book 180+10 as staying onsite. Fingers crossed. She'll surprise me and request Rainforest cafe or somewhere now (we'll eat there too, I expect).

Toffeelatte - I'm sure we saw stitch at Ohana breakfast.

Strawberry - a sling is a must, if you have dc small enough. I'm half considering taking ours for ds, and he'll be 3.5! But then we have other considerations as dd1 has SN, so it is useful to be able to ensure one dc is still and where they should be!

Mine is a large 2.5 Pandas and she's a bolter so I think I will!! Your dd2 has excellent taste in princesses!!

I am not looking forward to MCO Dog at least you're through the worst of it now. How's the weather?

Pandas,

It is definitely possible to walk from Kidani to Jambo, we do. It takes a maximum of 10 minutes to get from one hotel entrance to the other. We walk past the bus stops then follow the pavement. It is possible to take the elevator down to the parking level at the far end of Kidani, meaning you can walk inside for much of the way.

The buses for all parks stop at Kidani first, then go to Jambo House, so you could also use one of the buses to get between the 2. The bus for Downtown Disney goes to Jambo first.

We had 2 bed villa Savannah View the first time, room 7624. The view was fantastic! You should request the lowest floor, as that gives a better view of the animals. I will never forget making coffee in the kitchen then turning around and seeing a giraffe looking straight at our room.

If you think you'll use the pool, request a room near the Rafiki elevator. These are close to the lobby and a very quick walk to the pool.

The community hall room is never very busy (we're usually the only family in it). There is a pool table and football table and several crafts available.

The cast members are all very cheerful and it's honestly one of my favourite places in the world.

Toffeelatte, we've always seen both Lilo and Stitch at 'Ohana

Thank you for all the stitch replies

PandasRock: Do you mind me asking whether you have been since the DAS card thing happened and whether it worked ok for you? What do you do in between waits and do you try and schedule your fast passes to tie in?

Also how was flying in with a child with SN? Did you ask/get special assistance through the airport? SO many questions I may overwhelm you with them

DS has SN. Diagnosised ASD but increasingly looking more mobility related with speech and language and audioprocessing difficulties

Yeah to stitch at Ohana!!!

Thanks Baymax. I will pore over resort maps, and plot your info!

Toffeelatte, we used the DAS, yes. (And no worries at all about asking - please do!)

We found it fine. We booked our fast passes according to what rides we wanted to do, and around mealtimes etc first. We usually try to do a table service lunch, as it gives us a good break in th middle of the day, and a sit down out of the heat to recharge etc.

We found it was easy to schedule getting a time on the DAS around the FP times. So eg we would arrive to do our first FP, but before entering the queue would collect a time on the DAS. We then rode the FP ride, which, even with FP would take a good half hour by the time you've walked there, parked up buggy (in our case), got into the queue/scanned all magic bands (and again, in our case, if you have had a 5 minute chat with cast members as dd1 must ), waited maybe 5 mins, ridden the ride, got through the shop area afterwards, and collected the buggy again. Usually we would have a 30-45 min time on our DAS, so b the time we got back to the ride, it would be good to go.

Ride it, collect another DAS time and go to next FP, or lunch (if the right time). And so on. Occasionally it would work out that we had the whole 40 mins or so to wait - perfect time to stop for a snack! Last time we did have to do parent swap a few times, as ds was only 16 months old, so that took up time too.

There is so much to do in between wait times aside from snacking - look around for hidden mickeys, get some Photpass photos done, have a drink/ice cream/loo stop, at MK play in the splash zone by storybook circus, or just take in the scenery and detail of everything all around.

MCO is a nightmare airport. There is no way around that. And the double bag drop/escalators/train between the two halves is not easy. But we managed it. The sniffer dogs are a nightmare for us, as dd1 is dog phobic, but mention that and you get treated as though you are trying to avoid screening so we have to get her through it.

I don't think we had special assistance (tends to be a wheelchair airside, so not a great deal of help) but we did use any assistance offered, eg getting the elevator up to the train rather than battle the escalator with luggage. And we hired a porter as it made life a LOT easier. Dd1 travels well, generally, but the wait is not easy for her. We did get bumped for passport/immigration as she was getting anxious so that was good.