any tips for staying off site

[nancel.5]

We finally decided that we were better off staying off-site. Much cheaper and we can get a suite with 2 separate bedrooms and a kitchen. WE have 3 children ages8,7, and 4 and they can eat free at the hotel. Do you have any special tips ? Which park on which day? My 4 year old loves Cinderella so the character breakfast is a must. Can we get there if we are staying off site? What time does the park open and what time does the breakfast start? We are driving from NJ so we will have our own car. Any tips would be appreciated. This is our first trip to Disney and we will be there 6/22-6/30.

 

[grover]

Do you know yet where you will be staying off-site? I believe that if you want the cinderella character breakfast that you will have to book it exactly 60 days prior to the date you want, as this is a very popular breakfast! On our last trip animal kingdom opened up a little earlier than the other parks-8:00, MK-EPCOT-MGM all opened at 9:00 and the water parks at 10:00 so it depends on where you want to go! Continue to read these boards and you will get tons of tips!! It will make your trip much more enjoyable if you are familiar with wdw!
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[mommyinwi]

Hi! We are also going June 22-June 30! We are staying offsite (renting a vacation home) for the same reasons you are. There are 6 of us, so we would've had to get 2 rooms at most of the resorts. We stayed offsite last time as well, Jan.2000. We didn't do any character meals that time, although I would like to do the Crystal Palace breakfast this time. I agree with the other poster, you have to call 60 days in advance and just keep trying. Have a wonderful trip!!

 

[crusoe2]

Your best bet for getting ressies at the castle will be to call as soon as the Disney Dining office opens exactly 60 days ahead of time. The DIS has a priority seating calculator you can use to figure out when your 60 day mark will be. The link is on the left side of the homepage. They usually do book priority seatings for before park hours and this is a good way to get into the park a little early. I think the earliest time available will be about 8:00 and park opening is usually at 9:00.

I've tried getting to breakfast at the castle from off-site and it didn't work out well for us. What I would recommend is to allow at least 30-45 minutes to get from the MK parking lot to the castle. So if it takes 15 minutes to drive from where you are staying to the parking lot toll booth, leave your hotel about an hour before your PS time. After you go through the toll booth, you will either take a tram up to the gate or walk if you get to park close enough. If you take the tram, you may have to sit there awhile waiting for it to fill up. Apparently they have to have a certain number of passengers before they will make a run up to the gate. After you get to the gate you will probably need to find a CM and show proof that you have a PS in the park before they will let you board the monorail. (Your proof will be your priority seating number so be sure to have it handy.) The resort monorail will probably be the only transportation running to the park and it will be making stops at the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian before going on around to MK. Once you get off the monorail you will have to go thru the security check and then once again show proof that you have a PS before they will let you go thru the turnstiles into the park. (At least, that has been the procedure lately.)

It is hard to predict how long all of this will take but obviously it would be better to get there too early than to miss your PS (like we did ). And if you have extra time then your first stroll up Main St. can be nice and leisurely.

Hope this helps - if you have more questions feel free to pm me and I'll try to answer them.

 

[MulanMom]

Crusoe2,

My heart goes out to you for you missing that PS! We'll be going to Cindy's from off-site this time and I want to thank you for your warning. I forgot how awful it is to get to MK for an earlier-than-park-opening reservation. I'm sure it won't make you feel any better, but for folks staying on-property and not at an MK resort, getting to MK under the same circumstances can be just as difficult.

I hope you get to go on a future trip!

Sharon

 

[crusoe2]

Thanks Sharon. That was a pretty disappointing experience and got our day off to an awful start. On the bright side, tho, my DH was willing to do just about anything to make it up to me since he was the one who had wanted to stay off-site. We spent the rest of the week at the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[karenloo]

Hi. I left you a post at your other message, where you asked for advice about staying at POR or HIFS. I voted for HIFS, and see by this post you had already made that choice. Guess I should have scrolled down a little further in the list of posts! Anyway, as to your other questions, it's a very easy ride to MK parking lot from the hotel, but don't forget, you have to park at the Ticket and Transportation Center and then take a monorail or ferry to the park itself, which can be time-consuming. So leave plenty of time if you have a breakfast reservation. What time the park opens depends on the time of year you're visiting (I don't know offhand what the hours are for the time you'll be there) and, I suppose, how busy the parks are at that time (from reading these boards, it seems Disney has been tinkering with park hours quite a bit lately). Since Disney had done away with early-entry last I heard, I'm not sure how that will affect park traffic on any particular day. It used to be so easy - you just avoided the early-entry park at all costs and that was that. The one thing I know for sure, is stay away from MK on Saturday. No matter what time of year, or how crowded or "empty" the parks are supposed to be, Saturdays have always been big crowd days for MK. Hope that helps a little!