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?

Does anyone know the height restrictions for some of the bigger rides? I may need to manage the expectations of my 6 year old

All the height restrictions are in the wdw and Universal websites

I'm going in a month, and I really want to book Margaritaville for my birthday, I've never managed to eat there as it always has a huge line, but I can't find where I do this?

Mary - looks like you can book this on Open Table :

www.opentable.co.uk/jimmy-buffetts-margaritaville-at-universal-citywalk

Hope that works!

So we want to do the magic Kingdom fireworks, but I don't want to get to 10pm without a wine on holiday, we've booked be our guest at 8:40, the earliest booking for the week we're there! Will that give us time to go to the fireworks?

Haven't been on here for a few weeks. I've been hanging around on the dibb but don't find it's as friendly as mn.

I've booked all our adrs now. Very pleased and relieved to have got everything we wanted! Including a bog lunch and CRT breakfast.

Am wondering about animal kingdom. Aside from the safari what would people recommend as things we should not miss? Have a tusker house lunch adr, planning to go straight to safari when we arrive. We have 3 children who will be 8 6 and 4 when we travel.

Hello all!

Can I join you please? Have been poorly with a chest infection for nearly a month now (on my 2nd lot of antibiotics and thankfully it seems to be working!) so to cheer myself up, I've booked a trip to Florida in Feb.

We're spending 6 nights at Cabana Bay, Universal (one of my favourite hotels!) and then 5 nights at Animal Kingdom lodge and then ending the holiday with a 3 night Disney cruise on Disney Dream.

We are so excited, we went last Feb, did a cruise on the disney dream and stayed at cabana bay and loved it - so looking forward to going back again!

Countdown 105 days....

That sounds amazing!!!!

If it's not too rude... can I ask what you paid? I would love to do that (go often but always just do Orlando area ahdcsray in villas with a park ticket package..) xx

Hello all!

I've also been taking some time out from Disney Planning but we too have just booked a cruise on the Disney Dream at the end of our 3 week stay next August, (yay!) so I'm getting back in track!

artyfarty what was your Disney cruise like last year? Obviously pretty good otherwise you wouldn't have booked again

105 days to go.....how fabulous!!

We're stayng at the Royal Pacific for a night, went last year and totally got,the Orlando bug!

marypoppins we pad £2200 for our 3 night Bahamas cruise for 2 adults and 2 children, through Thomson.

Hello all, can't wait till Easter when we go too. Staying offsite in a villa and taking our extended family with us. We could only afford this by booking 432 pp indirect flights via Canada! It will be exhausting a new experience, but needs must.

I love florida.

So excited - my ADR day is Saturday! I've been planning for it so long it felt like it would never arrive. Plus it means only 6 months left to wait! Just hope I can get everything now sets up every internet-connected device in the house

Moon did you get all the times you wanted in your reservations or did you have a backup plan?

I wonder about Animal Kingdom too, it's a park I don't think we've ever got the best out of. Though rumour has it that the new Rivers of Light night time show will be debuting in November after months of delays. I'm planning on booking Tusker House for dinner then hopefully seeing that, so it will be an evening in the park as well. That might be a good move for the safari elements too as the animals should be more active.

Arty your trip sounds brilliant - have you stayed in the Animal Kingdom Lodge before? Am considering it for the next trip and would love to hear opinions on it. You've all got me wondering about Disney Cruises now...

Hi All,

How are you plans going? I'm afraid to admit, that I am becoming slightly obsessive about it, and spend most of my time on the My Disney Experience app or on dibb.co.uk! Has anyone used the vacation planner on Dibb? It's really helpful! You can connect your ESTA's and plane info, ADR's etc! Here's the link if anyone is interested: www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/planner.php

MaryPoppinsPenguins, the total of the holiday was around £9000 which includes all the accommodation, tickets for Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, Seaworld and Discovery cove dolphin swim package, flights plus the Disney cruise for the 4 of us. Luckily we have the DDP when we are staying at disney and of course all the food and soft drink beverages are free on the cruise ship

BaconAndAvocado The cruise was amazing, so much to do and see for all of us and very relaxing. Our highlights were the food (simply amazing), the activities on board, especially the Midship Detective agency, which takes you across the ship which involves enchanted art! and Castaway Cay, disney's private island which is just like something you dream of! It definitely add's something

MerricatsHouse Haven't stayed in Animal Kingdom before, but I did lots of research on the all the Disney hotels and I thought this one would suit us best as we all thought Animal Kingdom lodge was our favourite park and the thought of being able to see Giraffe's from your balcony was just too enticing! What ADR's have you booked? I've managed to book Rainforest Cafe, Sanaa, Boma for breakfast, Sci-fi dine in, Coral Reef and hoping to go to Tappan Edo and Beaches and Cream for lunches.

Arty - same here, I have been totally obsessed with the planning this time and have spent months on researching the dining as have never had DDP before. It's been lots of fun though and has kept me going during the looooong wait for the actual holiday! Now I have to start looking into the parks more closely, as have never been with a kid before so never did the small-child-aimed stuff. With a 4 YO it's going to be a bit of a departure I think, but fun. Not going to book loads of Fast Passes 60 days in advance, but will have to get the major things - Frozen ride and Toy Story.

Still a few days to go until I get to do my ADRs, but here's what I am hoping to get:
Be Our Guest (Breakfast)
Ohana (Dinner & Character Breakfast)
Sanaa
Boma (Dinner)
Tusker House (Dinner)
Teppan Edo
Beaches and Cream
Cape May Cafe
Brown Derby (For Fantasmic)
Boatwrights (as staying at POR, supposed to be a hidden gem)
The Boathouse & Art Smith's Homecoming (Disney Springs)

I have a few off site nights planned and a few gaps left for spontaneity's sake. If I can get most of these I will count myself pretty lucky - A LOT of listing and reading and narrowing down of options has gone into that list!

What I do need is recommendations on where's best to eat on the Universal complex, if anyone has any tips? Will definitely be there / on the City Walk for at least one lunch.

They all sound great...I'd forgotten, I've also booked Be my Guest for breakfast, it will be interesting to see what it's like as I've heard mixed reviews.

What are your offsite choices? Ive got Red Lobster, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden as possibles. In terms of Universal, I think the following are worth considering:

Hard Rock Hotel
Cinnabon for a quick breakfast
Toothsome Emporium for amazing milkshakes/desserts!
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville
Cowfish for great burgers and Sushi
Bubba Gump
Panda Express for a cheap chinese, the orange chicken is legendary!

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the Universal tips! Will have to check some of these out today. Offsite choices so far are Outback Steakhouse, possibly a rib place like Smokey Bones, Red Lobster. I was also going to try out Fogo de Chao (a Brazilian churrascaria (?) place where they bring skewers of meat to the table) as it was a new concept to us. However, we have since discovered a churrascaria place opened near to us and have been there, so it won't be a new experience and can play it by ear on that one.

My focus tends to be on steak, ribs and lobster when in Orlando, which is why I've tried to get some diversity into my Disney choices! I am particularly curious about Teppan Edo as have not been to a hibachi place before.

Wondering now how many of these intricate plans will get kept to and what will go by the wayside...it seems inevitable!

I've booked to go August 2017, we have a villa with pool in a complex about twenty minutes from Disney.

I've been reading the Dibb and honestly I'm already feeling overwhelmed and beginning to wonder if I wouldn't rather just sit by a pool for a couple of weeks!

Has anybody just kind of gone with the flow a bit, not prebookjng all the restaurants and just deciding what to do day by day? I want the holiday to be slightly relaxing and spontaneous.

Is it even possible to turn up at a restaurant without pre-booking?

We will have the 14 day park tickets and universal tickets.

elvisola haha yes you can do some spontaneous stuff in Florida.

But if you go in August, like we did last year it's definitely worth booking the Disney and Universal restaurants as they get incredibly busy.

We also stayed in a villa and never had a problem getting a table,straight away at local restaurants , although we do eat early at 5:30ish.

Next year we are going for 3 weeks so, although I love the planning side and well have an itinerary, we also plan(haha) to have a few more lazy days too.

The Dibb can be a bit overwhelming......the best bit of the Dibb is the Busy Day Guide which, for August 2017, will be available in January.

I used it last year and never felt it was too busy.

Good luck!

Ahh thanks! I saw a thread that mentioned a book that was like a bible for Orlando so I ordered that from Amazon and will have a read.

I know I will probably need to have a rough plan at least of which days to do each park and research the absolute must - have restaurants to go to and get them booked.

I just wanted to also have some spontaneity as well, thanks so much for reassuring me.

I am off to have a good read of this thread!

elvis this is the first time I would have been to Orlando and booked anything tbh. We booked a couple of Disney restaurants when we got there and never had an issue eating offsite, which we did the rest of the time. One thing we did learn is that places are busier on Friday / Saturday nights as local people will go out too. We have always been spontaneous before and never found it a problem BUT have never been in August so can't adjust for that.

I think it all looks very overwhelming and everyone goes on about planning, but lots of people don't plan that much and have a great time anyway. Personally I love the planning bit because it's how I'm wired (and had to do dining planning to get the use out of Dining Plan), but if I didn't I wouldn't have stressed it too much. It's only really essential if you have places you definitely want to eat at or strict times you have to eat. If you don't mind going with the flow, then you can go with the flow IYSWIM.

Got back on weds from Orlando - if anyone is planning to eat at Bubba Gumps, T. rex, rainforest or yak and yeti I would highly recommend the Landrys card. You pay $25 for it which gets credited to your card and you also get $25 credit in your "birthday" month. The key benefit is that it gives you priority seating i.e the next table so you don't have to book.

We're booked at the Beach Club next October with DDP which came "free" with the booking. It now looks to be better value because of the falling £. If you have any on site dining options that you really want to try then you will need to adr them.

If you're not bothered then you can use the app to book while you're there. DDP gives you far more food than you can eat but we swapped some of the table service for signature restaurants which made better use of the credits for us.

Planning works better for us at Disney, Universal is less problematic on that front especially if you stay at Universal and have the FOLP. I would always book the fast passes at Disney though especially if you have young kids - it makes such a difference not to have to queue for ages.

Next year for ADRs - Cali Grill for fireworks, Teppan Edo, Jiko, Sanaa.

The milkshakes were amazing at Toothsome, loved Cowfish.

What was the weather like MissBee? Thinking of swapping to end of October for the next one. Am totally jealous you are staying at the Beach Club - that's the dream hotel!

It was lovely Merri. In the 80s, sunny with a breeze, so perfect park weather. And not busy.

Are you doing the character breakfast at Cape May? Did you get the rest of the ADRs you wanted?

If you're thinking of Universal, Gringotts is amazing and my 7 year old loves his interactive wand🙂 Kong is new this year and I thought that was good too. Of course next year Volcano Bay will be open and I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Sounds lovely MissBee - I think October is a go next time! Would really like to do the last week plus the first bit of November to catch the Christmas decorations going up. We are going to Universal mainly for Harry Potter, so I am desperately trying to get my 3YO to at least be aware of it for when we go. He has got to the point where he pipes up occasionally with 'Yer a wizard Arry!' - so signs are positive!

We are doing Cape May for buffet dinner and Character Breakfast at Ohana. I got everything I wanted (so far, two more days to book for), except for Chef Art Smith's Homecoming which doesn't have booking availability past December at the moment . Will have to keep checking as I REALLY want to go there. Also had a problem with Brown Derby on the Fantasmic Dinner package, the latest time you could book dinner for was 4.30pm. That's too early for us so I booked the restaurant anyway and am hoping I can get them to add it on when I get there, will beg the concierge!

I even found myself booking some extra stuff - booked for Le Cellier even though it wasn't in the plan, and decided to go to Morimoto Asia on one of the spare days. We are bound to be oversubscribed somewhere!

Sounds fab😀 Keep checking!

The HP training seems to be going well 😉 - I'm sure he'll love it particularly Diagon Alley, with the fire breathing dragon. The interactive wands are very good as well for younger children.

I'm jealous- can't wait to go back!

369 sleeps still

Amusing myself reading trip reports on the Dibb. First time going at Christmas next year, am so excited to see all the decorations.

Has anyone else done that time of year? What's the weather like?