Advice for friends please!

[Bobbi_Can]

Friends of ours have never been to Disney and our staying onsite. I've been to Magic Kingdom several times, and Animal Kingdom once but I have always stayed offsite, so I don't know how to help them plan. They are staying at All Star Music from Feb. 18-22. They have the Deluxe Dining plan, but do not have park hopper tickets. They are two adults in their early 40's and a 15 year old girl. Their only "must-dos" are Magic Kingdom and they want to hit Toy Story Land at Hollywood studios. Any suggestions on an itinerary? We will be there as well but we are arriving at our rental house in Kissimmee on the 15th, so we'll meet up with them for a Disney day at least once.

 

[Sue M]

You haven’t said how many park days they’re planning. If they have deluxe dining they should have all their ADRs reserved 180 days ahead. That’s a lot of food! And fast passes 60 days ahead. Without park hoppers they’ll have to be careful on planning what restaurants to go to if in the parks. I always add hopper option.
For a first visit Ideally: 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day DHS and 1 day AK. If they only have 4 days I’d do 1 day each park. There’s more to DHS than just Toy Story. Tower of Terror, Aerosmith Coaster, Star Tours, Indiana Jones show, Beauty and Beast, Little Mermaid shows, Muppets, etc
I recommend buying WDW The Unofficial Guide. It a great book about how to plan and tour WDW. When I first started going to WDW it was my bible! Well worth the price. They include various touring plans for each park, incl 1 day plans, and touring for teens.

 

[mort1331]

As PP asked, need to know their type of tickets and length. I would almost be recommending to them to down grade their dinning plan. Save a ton of money for extras that they might want.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I agree too on downgrading the dining plan. If they are only there 5 days ADRS are going to take up a lot of their time.

 

[DavidL]

I will also echo the comments on downgrading the dining plan. Friends of ours went to Disney with their 2 young girls and had the dining plan. They spent so much time at dining reservations that it chewed up a lot of their time and they didn't get on to many of the signature rides.

 

[papertraveller]

And I'm gonna join the chorus!

We hadn't used the dining plan in quite a while, and had Quick Service only on our last trip. We had to work to get the value out of it.

The Deluxe plan is a lot of food. I'd recommend downsizing at least just to the regular plan.

My only other recommendation is to advise them to use that 60-day window for FastPass+ -- to the minute of 7 a.m.! Toy Story Land is actually quite small -- just three attractions and some cute theming around, but there's not much more to see if you don't have the FP+. I would recommend that they plan for their 'must do' attractions at the end of the trip -- and certainly the toughest FP+ to get these days are Flights of Passage at Animal Kingdom (and IMHO one of the best at WDW right now), and Slinky Dog Dash (which is cute, but short!). The Magic Kingdom FP+ will not be as difficult to snag.

Also, please remind them of the size of WDW, and how long it can take to get from one location to another. That may factor into their ADR choices.

 

[Bobbi_Can]

Thank you for your responses. I did state in my previous post that they are there for 5 days and do not have park hoppers. They plan on doing the parks every day.

They are already out of luck on a lot of the dining options they were looking for, reservations are not available for their time period. If they call right away, will they be able to downgrade their dining plan? They have never been before, and I don't think they truly understood how big Disney World in its entirety, how many options there are for food and activities and that it is not just a quick hop, skip and a jump from one area to another. They did not fully realize the amount of planning that can be involved. They were going to take it day-by-day, but realize now that they have to plan at least what days they want to do each park and figure out their fast passes and are now feeling rather panicked about planning it all. I've never stayed on-site and have only planned one-day visits to the various parks. We stay off-site as it is too much for us to do two park days in a row so we stagger our park days in between a day or two of rest at our rental home. So, I can only help them with so much. I can't comment on Disney Transportation or the resorts, extra magic hours, etc. I can help with some suggestions, and how the fast passes work and share our experiences, but can't help with them with more than that.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Thank you for your responses. I did state in my previous post that they are there for 5 days and do not have park hoppers. They plan on doing the parks every day.

They are already out of luck on a lot of the dining options they were looking for, reservations are not available for their time period. If they call right away, will they be able to downgrade their dining plan? They have never been before, and I don't think they truly understood how big Disney World in its entirety, how many options there are for food and activities and that it is not just a quick hop, skip and a jump from one area to another. They did not fully realize the amount of planning that can be involved. They were going to take it day-by-day, but realize now that they have to plan at least what days they want to do each park and figure out their fast passes and are now feeling rather panicked about planning it all. I've never stayed on-site and have only planned one-day visits to the various parks. We stay off-site as it is too much for us to do two park days in a row so we stagger our park days in between a day or two of rest at our rental home. So, I can only help them with so much. I can't comment on Disney Transportation or the resorts, extra magic hours, etc. I can help with some suggestions, and how the fast passes work and share our experiences, but can't help with them with more than that.

Yes, they can call and have the reservation modified --the last time we stayed on site both of our kids and their spouses joined us and ONE reservation was even able to be modified online.

Give them a link or two to look at menus that are user generated instead of Disney's since they will often include pictures of menu boards letting them see what their credits will work for. One thing I can think of in specific is the counter service in France has several items listed as snacks that could be a meal if you pick 2 and i believe they get 2 each a day.

Allears Menus

Disney Food Blog Menus
**this one is daunting in it's size but VERY detailed with pictures of lots of the items included**


ALSO tell them to check out this website and pony up the money for a year's subscription, there are lots of codes to be found to lower the cost to around $10. They will be able to either create a touring plan, follow one of the canned ones OR not bother and just use the "lines app" that gives ACCURATE wait times based on what people actually time. Might be something their daughter could enjoy using. It will also help them figure out which FP+ to get after their 3 have passed. There is also a section of menus that we found helpful since it is searchable (is that a word?!?!?)by location, what you want to eat, type of restaurant etc. I've been going to WDW since 1971 and we chose to get this to help out our kids plan trips with Disney virgins and i will NEVER again go without it!

Touring Plans