Anyone got a Disneyworld / Florida holiday planned - Part 4

[ChippyMinton]

Hope no-one minds if I start another thread as the old one is full?

Or are you all in Orlando now?

Been to Animal Kingdom today, our first day at the parks, it is hot and humid but been cloudy with showers which has been nice actually, no searing sun. Our FP were Kilimanjaro Safari (nice one to do first thing) Expedition Everest (really good roller coaster) and Kali River Rapid (DD didn't want to go on so we swerved that). We'll go back another night to see the Tree of Life light show. Tomorrow is Epcot.
Jet lag has hit us harder than expected, I was up at 3am, we were shopping in Walmart at 6.30am. The immigration queues yesterday were 1hr45. 3yo DD did really well considering how tired and hungry we all were.

After reading all the stuff about fast passes I panicked a little. In the end we found that you don't need to book ahead. We just used them on the day at the fast pass booking thingies. We were there two weeks ago, so it was a fairly busy period.

We also found that there was only one occasion where we should have booked somewhere to eat, and that was the Coral Reef at Epcot. By the end of the day we were too tired to go back to the world showcase for food, and there wasn't much choice nearer the exit. We just went back to our hotel and ordered pizza.

We found eating out much cheaper away from the theme parks. Our favourites were Sweet Tomatoes and Pei Wei.

Re Fastpasses - this is what we do:

Magic Kingdom - Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain
Animal Kingdom - Safari, Everest
Epcot - Test Track, Frozen, Soaring (they've introduced tiered FP+ though so you can't choose all three any more)
Hollywood Studios - Toy Story Mania, Rock n Roller, Tower of Terror (again tiering can be an issue)

For dining we tend to reserve

MK - Be Our Guest or Crystal Palace
AK - Tusker House
HS - 50s Diner or Sci Fi
Epcot varies - I like the Tapanyaki place

Neither of us likes the really big rides that have the longest queues, so maybe that's why we didn't have a problem with not booking ahead. The Big Thunder Mountain is my top limit.

You couldn't get me on the Space Mountain ride for anything. I made the mistake of going on it 30 years ago at Disneyland California and hated it then.

I did the Hogwarts ride at Universal and felt horribly sick.

So I'm about to book my ADRs, and this is my loose plan. Excuse all the abbreviations - I've been lurking around the DIBB

Day 1 Arrive late evening and eat at POR food court.

Day 2 HS for early EMH. QS and snack credits for breakfast & lunch. Mama Melrose Fantasmic package or Sci-Fi Diner.

Day 3 AK for early EMH. Snack breakfast, Flame Tree BBQ lunch, Tusker House character dinner.

Day 4 Going to Kennedy, so will dine at either POR or Disney Springs (QS).

Day 5 All day at MK, hoping for 8.30 character breakfast at Crystal Palace. Lunch at Be Our Guest. Ohanas for dinner , then back to MK for Wishes and evening EMH.

Day 6 All day at Epcot. Princess lunch at Akerhus. Dinner at Rose & Crown, Hacienda de San Angel or Teppan Edo. Illuminations.

Day 7 Leaving the day unplanned. California Grill for last night dinner.

Day 8 No plans - see what credits are left on the DDP

We weren't overly impressed with the Rose and Crown meal. Loved Teppan Eko though

Teppan Edo does look fun, and something different. Too many choices

We flew back on Friday and I'm really pleased with how things worked out. I had a spreadsheet for which days we would do which parks and planned FP around this, we tended to get to parks for rope drop and so could do a couple of rides before things got too busy and then had FP kick in. I don't think we queued for longer than 40 minutes at any Disney park all holiday (apart from Space Mountain which was an hour but that was due to a problem).

We loved Animal Kingdom, the safari was amazing and we did it both during the day and at night which was very different. The Star Wars fireworks at Hollywood studios were fantastic and a real highlight of the holiday for the boys.

We stayed in a villa (no way was I sharing a hotel room with 3 boys plus DH!)

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Teppan Edo is definitely on my list - apparently kids love it even though it isn't kid-themed, because of the entertainment element.

We are staying at POR too Chippy - going to try out Boatwrights this time as it's meant to be a hidden gem in the table service category. We've stayed there a few times and never thought to go so definitely well hidden! Going to book it for a Saturday night as I learned my lesson going to the parks on a Sat night last time - Magic Kingdom was insanely busy even though it was a quite time of year.

Also booking Tusker House dinner, Be Our Guest breakfast, Beaches and Cream, The Boathouse at Disney Springs, Ohana Character breakfast and Ohana for dinner. Haven't been to any of these before except Ohana which was wonderful.

Also the restaurants at Animal Kingdom Lodge are supposed to be some of the best on site. Too much choice!

*quiet time of year

180 days till we fly :)

So today our ADR booking opened - hadn't realised we would be able to do the whole week today, thought it would be one a day.

But no all done. Its the first time we have done DDP but have worked out we will have 7 table service per person when there - and as we will be at Universal two days, we could afford to use some extra ones the other days.

So we have booked:

Magic Kingdom - breakfast at Royal Table (2 x DDP) and dinner at Be Our Guest
Epcot - Akershuh for dinner
Animal Kingdom - Tusker House for breakfast
Hollywood Studios - 50s Prime Time diner
Polynesian - breakfast with Stitch at 'Ohana's not he day we leave

We will eat at Universal two day, and will then have 7 quick service meals each and 14 snacks. We will probably use one of the QS ones the night we arrive.

We are staying at Old Key West - never stayed there before (only done Animal Kingdom Lodge as normally stay in a villa and last time stayed at Hard Rock). Hopefully ideal for us as we have booked a one bed villa there as taking DD's friend with us.

Can't believe I've only just found you guy. We go 2 weeks today! 😁 Staying at Rosen inn at pointe. Starting to panic that I'm not organised 😳 Xx

Hula We're staying at OKW for the first time too. Usually stay at Kidani Village.

DS and DDs need tickets as they don't have annual passes, so we booked them a 1 bed with deluxe dining plan and a studio for us.

After a week we move to Kidani with no dining plan.

I'm going next month, can not wait!

Not doing Disney this time (done it last September) so doing Universal again plus Seaworld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica

Can I join in too?

We're about to book for August 2017. Me and dh are complete Orlando virgins. DC's will be 12 and 10. I know it will be more expensive but we're thinking of booking with Virgin holidays. We feel a bit bamboozled with all the info online and a nice Virgin lady will walk us through it . We haven't had a family holiday in 4 years so we feel we deserve it!

Anyway, we're thinking def - Universal (new water park there looks amazing!) and youngest is really into HP these days. Kennedy Space Centre, Discovery Cove at Sea World, and the Hollywood Star Wars part.

Questions - how many days for Universal? We like to take our time.

Where to stay? - we'd like a hotel as the last I want is to self cater on holiday. Would like to stay very near or on site. Lovely hotel with nice pool etc so we can chill for a few days. We're not hiring a car so will need good shuttle transfers.

Years ago mumsnet recommended us our last foreign holiday and it was amazing. MN is great for this kind of sharing.

We go in October. Still lots to think about, as we only booked a few weeks ago.

Any tips for the flight? - what to take onboard, best approach to meals and sleeping with a 7 year old. We fly with BA, so hopefully the food and inflight entertainment will be ok.

Lumberjack we have booked with Virgin this time and it has been totally worth it so far. We flew Virgin before but booked with Thomas Cook - this time I checked and it actually worked out cheaper to go through Virgin themselves as they must have better prices on their own flights. And the perks do make things easier - doing Twilight check-in and getting rid of the bags the night before made things so easy. And they have the shortest flight path Gatwick to Orlando, 8-9 hours when in the past I have often done 11-12. Our Virgin travel agent has been brilliant, she basically searched and re-booked the whole thing so we could get free Disney Dining Plan, even though we were already booked. Excellent service!

I'm trying to book flights for July/August next year, including an infant that will sit on my knee, but looking at sky scanner etc they're charging full price for him.

Is there anyway around this?

You'll only get charged a tiny amount for an infant. Skyscanner gives you the average price per person. If you go further through the process you'll see what the actual cost is.

That's good to know MerricatsHouse. I know a few friends who have been and booked it all themselves and they have totally confused me with their opinions on what/what not to do. They told me never to go through a travel agent (I'm thinking of lying when they ask!).

We're not experts at holidays as me and dh are both self employed and don't get away often, so we'd like it all to be easy. These friends of mine seem to spend a year planning on their own. I'd like just to get it all booked.

We're to see Liz at Virgin Holidays tomorrow.

Exciting Lumberjack , have fun! (I even love the booking part of it)

For the record, I always book every other kind of holiday myself online etc and never use a travel agent, but with Orlando there are just so many elements to consider I would always go to an agent, just so it's all done and in one place. And I've done it loads of times, still wouldn't want to sort everything out myself. Easy is the way to go. There's enough planning to be done just in researching the fun stuff!

Can I join this thread, tho not doing any if the theme parks??

We are planning to tag a day in Orlando, either side of a week on the gulf coast. I'd like to go to Disney Springs and TRex on the last night but don't think we'll stay in Disney resort. Do I need to make advance reservations for this? Can I do that if not a Disney guest?

Never been to Disney, even as a kid so a bit

You will NEED to book the TRex place - it gets very busy and without a reservation you will be looking at an hour's wait or more, ime. I guess it may depend on when you are travelling, but school holidays - definitely!

To do so you can book online at disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/disney-springs/t-rex/

You don't need to be a Disney hotel guest to book, and for Disney Springs you don't need a valid park ticket either.

You can book anytime from 180 days in advance - the sooner the better for popular restaurants like this. Go online (or phone) as soon as you can close to the opening time - 1am UK time I think it is.

At the moment you can book up to the 28 February 2017. I just did a quick dinner time search and the only available time for a party of 4 is at 8:30pm.

lumberjack - we have done through a travel agents and booked independently for Disney. The price varies and independent isn't always cheapest, in school holidays, we have found.

Last February the cheapest option for us was via Virgin Holidays. That was to fly direct and stay at Hard Rock Hote. However we did NOT get the theme park tickets through VH as they were a fair bit dearer that way. We bought Disney tickets via the Disney website, and Universal ones via a verified ticket agent.

For the coming February we are staying at a Disney hotel and have booed through the Disney Website itself - it was over £1000 cheaper than VH and I couldn't get hotel and flights cheaper independent of each other either. The Disney website also gave us a 'free' dining plan plus we got tickets via them. We will buy Universal tickets via an agency and express passes from the US website.

Actually - I lie. We have never been INTO the travel agents - we have booked it via the VH website itself.