Only the Kids will be Whining This Time (August 2018)-FP Day Tomorrow (6/28)

Andrea1975

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 20, 2017
Hi all—in a fit of what may prove to be insanity I’ve booked flights and a Disneyworld package for late August for my hot-weather hating family. As I dig into the planning process I’m realizing I need more than my excel spreadsheet to track my thinking, and am hoping that this way I can benefit from the wisdom of the DIS collective!

The Basics
I’ll be adding day by day details in subsequent posts, but the basics are:

Tuesday, August 28—Monday September 3. We’re staying at Pop Century and have 6-day park tickets. I’m hoping for a free dining offer which I’ll upgrade to a standard Dining Plan. Currently I booked non-hoppers, but am leaning towards upgrading even if I don’t need to for the free dining deal.

The Background
So who am I? Andrea, a 42yo single mom to two great kids from the DC area. I think this will be trip #5 for me to Disneyworld, and I’ve also been to Disneyland once.
  • Trip 1—Family trip as a young child. All I really remember is the parking lot shuttle and that I was too short to ride Space Mountain, which was a bitter disappointment and probably the last time in my life I was too short for something!
  • Trip 2—Family trip as a high school junior with a cousin visiting from overseas.
  • Trip 3—Post grad school trip with 3 friends. It was October 2001 and everything was still pretty deserted after 9/11. We stayed offsite in my friend’s parents’ timeshare.
  • Trip 4—January 2016. First time in the Disney bubble (Port Orleans-Riverside Princess room). Family trip with my (now-ex) husband, his parents, and our two kids. We had to do a bit of scrambling because we were scheduled to fly and there was a massive snowstorm—so we ended up driving instead. Unfortunately, ex was (unbeknownst to me) already done with the marriage at that point so not the best travel companion. We split up about 2 weeks after getting home. My in-laws are not the easiest travel companions, so ex and I were at the parks early with the kids every morning and they’d wander in around 11 and complain about the prices and the crowds and how far away they had to park.

Which brings us to 2018! While none of us are fans of hot weather, we are Disney fans. I am really looking forward to not having to accommodate whiny adults (whiny kids I can handle!) and to planning things the way I think makes the most sense. I’m a little nervous about the heat/humidity and a lot nervous about handling both kids by myself.

The Who
So, I’ve introduced myself--who are these kids that I’m dragging with me?
  • My daughter E will be 7 this summer and has not stopped talking about our last trip since it happened. She is a lover of all thing princess and has recently swapped her Moana obsession for a Coco obsession. She’s a daredevil who isn’t scared of anything. She’s fairly adventurous when it comes to food though the typical kid favorites are also high on her list. She’s strong-willed and a bundle of energy.
  • My son J will be 4 this summer. He is on track to hit 40” tall by this summer so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he does. If not, he’s not nearly as adventurous as his sister, so we weren’t going to be hitting too many wild rides anyway. He’s a super-snuggly goofball. He LOVES Mickey Mouse and his friends, but is still very cautious about meeting characters (he prefers them from a distance.) He’s my relatively picky eater—I see a lot of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets in his future.
What’s Next
I’ll add jump links here for each day of planning—as well as other updates/planning thoughts. I hope you’ll come along with me and weigh in on my many questions!

Dining Plans
Day 1: Magic Kingdom
ADRs Revisited
Day 2: Animal Kingdom
Day 3:EPCOT and HS
Day 4:Magic Kingdom
Day 5: Hollywood Studios
Day 6: EPCOT and MK
FP Day Tomorrow
 
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People who love to eat are always the best people. ~Julia Child

Who am I to argue with Julia Child?

Dining Plans are on my mind right now because my 180+ window opens on Thursday. I know some of these may change since the official park hours/EMH schedule aren’t out, but I am feeling pretty confident about them. I’m making my reservations based on having a dining plan—if I opt not to do it I will probably cut the number of TS meals and cancel a few of these.

The kids are the biggest factor in picking restaurants. On a solo trip it would be a whole different story! I wanted places where they would be happy with both the setting and the food. I also leaned heavily away from buffets so that I don’t have to manage two kids in a buffet line by myself. I’m trying to time most things to give us a break from the heat/walking around but without having to leave and re-enter parks all the time.

So the current plan/thinking for my 6 TS meals (in rough order):
  • Dinner at Ohana—I think the kids will like the games and I’ve never been
  • Late breakfast or early lunch at Tusker House—this is my biggest uncertainty right now
  • Late Breakfast at Akershus (on an Epcot AM EMH day)—we did this last trip and it was a big hit for everyone
  • Dinner at Coral Reef—my son LOVES aquariums
  • Lunch at Sci-Fi—I definitely want a reservation for HS since I’m concerned about Toy Story Land crowds, and I think the kids will get a kick out of the cars and movies
  • PPO Breakfast at Garden Grill—I figure this will get us in and set up for Soarin’ (if my son is tall/brave enough) since we’ll be making FP for a different park this day
  • Lunch at BoG—ok, not a TS but listing it here since I’ll need a reservation. We did breakfast here last trip and the kids liked the setting.

Does this seem like a good mix? Anything obvious I’m missing?

In terms of booking priority when my window opens, I’m thinking
  • Ohana (arrival day so most likely to be booked up)
  • BoG (always difficult)
  • Garden Grill (hoping for PPO, so more limited options)
  • Sci-Fi (worried about Toy Story Land crowds)
  • Akershus
  • Coral Reef
  • Tusker House

Does that seem like the right order?
 
In terms of booking priority when my window opens, I’m thinking
  • Ohana (arrival day so most likely to be booked up)
  • BoG (always difficult)
  • Garden Grill (hoping for PPO, so more limited options)
  • Sci-Fi (worried about Toy Story Land crowds)
  • Akershus
  • Coral Reef
  • Tusker House

Looks like the right order to me! I suggest moving Tusker House up above Coral Reef and Akershus though. Epcot restaurants are the easier reservations to get.

PPO Garden Grill is always a good choice! Remember that you can get the POG juice here for breakfast! That alone made the reservation worth it in my book!

Akershus I was able to get for a 10 am reservation 2 days before so I don't think that you will have any difficulty there.

It all sounds wonderfully tasty though!
 
Argh! Up early to do my dining reservations, and just my luck:

March 1, 2018
We are currently unable to make new Resort hotel reservations and book, modify or cancel any dine reservations online and over the phone. You may still purchase tickets and make FastPass+ selections. Thank you for your patience while we work to improve your future experience. We apologize for any inconvenience.
 


Argh! Up early to do my dining reservations, and just my luck:

March 1, 2018
We are currently unable to make new Resort hotel reservations and book, modify or cancel any dine reservations online and over the phone. You may still purchase tickets and make FastPass+ selections. Thank you for your patience while we work to improve your future experience. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Did you try the app? Sometimes you have better luck there!

I got the same message hit ok then it let me in!
 
Did you try the app? Sometimes you have better luck there!

I got the same message hit ok then it let me in!

Thanks for suggesting it. Sadly, the app isn't working either right now. At least the site and app are now letting me get to the point of searching--but the app just tells me there is no availability for any restaurant at any time (which seems a little unlikely!) and the website says to call.

It'll get there!

Update--between the App and the website, lots of refreshing, and signing in and out a few times I managed to get everything I wanted! And I got my daughter on the school bus too (I was confirming my Ohana ressie at the bus stop!)

Dumb question--the reservations I made from the app have defaulted to being for 3 adults (instead of 1 adult and 2 kids). I've added my kids as the guests, but it now lists them as being 18+. I assume this doesn't actually matter and when I show up with two obviously kid-aged people we'll be charged correctly? Is there some way to change this that I'm not seeing?
 
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Day One--Travel and Magic Kingdom

Tuesday, August 28

We’ll be getting up at the crack of dawn to catch a 6 am flight. The good news is that we live 15 minutes (if that) from the airport (though I’ll have to leave time for long term parking shuttle). My plan is to let the kids sleep in their travel clothes and eat breakfast at the airport so they can sleep as late as possible.

Our flight lands at MCO at 8:15 and we’ll be using DME to Pop. I’m guessing we’ll get there around 10 and our room won’t be ready so we’ll leave our carryons and head in. We’ll have hopefully snacked enough on the plane that we don’t need to stop for food and can be at the park by 11. This will be the first of three partial days in MK, so we don’t need to hit everything. MK is scheduled to close at 6pm this day so I'm hoping the crowds will be a little lighter that day.
My plan is to focus on Adventureland and Frontierland and stay relatively low-key since we’ll have had an early start.

Fastpass Schedule (obviously these are general times until I can book):

11-12ish: Jungle Cruise

12-1ish: Pirates

1-2ish: Splash Mountain (My son is a little timid, so I'm mildly concerned that he'll be upset by the drop on this ride and/or being splashed. But I showed him a ride video and he loved it, so hopefully it won't be too scarring...)

We'll take a lunch break and I’m leaning towards Pecos Bill's since they have mobile ordering which will be a lifesaver with 2 kids in tow!

We’ll fill in any other free time with other rides and attractions in the area (or out of the area depending on FP luck). I'm excited to be able to try out using MDE to adjust fastpasses and hopefully get additional ones since I wasn't able to last time we went.

After the first set of rides, I had been thinking about watching the Festival of Fantasy parade (2 pm) since we'll basically be in position. Now I'm thinking that since it's a short day maybe we should really just focus on rides My kids love a parade, but we'll have at least one other opportunity.. I think ultimately it will depend on the weather forecast for this day vs Friday.

After we make it out of the park, we'll get the monorail (assuming it’s running) or boat to the Poly for our 4:15 pm dinner reservation at Ohana. After dinner, I’m assuming everyone is going to be tired and cranky so we'll go find our hotel room and have an early night.
 
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Joining in! My four-year-old was nervous about Splash Mountain last year but ended up loving it! I hope your son does as well!! I loved being able to use the app last time for additional FP+. We were able to get three or four more for our group of 10. A few we had to split up into over-lapping times. I also loved the mobile ordering!
 
Joining in! My four-year-old was nervous about Splash Mountain last year but ended up loving it! I hope your son does as well!! I loved being able to use the app last time for additional FP+. We were able to get three or four more for our group of 10. A few we had to split up into over-lapping times. I also loved the mobile ordering!

Welcome! Did you guys do Soarin? I can't decide how he'd do with that one either.
 
Not on our 2017 trip, it was one day only in MK. On our 2015 trip, my daughter was 5 and she really liked it. This year's trip will be the first time riding Soarin' for myself and m two youngest.
 
ADR's Revisited!

I decided after I booked my initial ADRs to create a backup plan in case I can convince my mom to come with us this summer. I was able to rebook almost all of my reservations for 4 people--except Ohana and Be Our Guest. So I snagged some backups and will cancel depending on what we end up doing.

Also realizing I never actually posted the results. So here is the ADR plan.

Tuesday 8/28: 4:15 PM Dinner at Ohana (3)
Wednesday 8/29: 10:35 AM Breakfast at Tusker House (4)
Thursday 8/30: 10:30 AM Breakfast at Akershus (4)
Friday 8/31: 11:45 AM Lunch at Be Our Guest (3); 5:30 PM Coral Reef Dinner (4)
Saturday 9/1: 11:30 AM Lunch at Sci Fi (4); 5:30 PM Biergarten (4) backup for the Ohana dinner
Sunday 9/2: 8:05 AM PPO Breakfast at Garden Grill (4); Backup Be Our Guest 1:25 PM Lunch (4)

If I end up canceling Ohana, I'll probably play around with booking something else for that night and cancel the Biergarten backup. I just wanted to have something lined up in case of a last minute decision, and my Mom is German so I thought Biergarten might be fun.
 
Discount Day

Disney just released some discounts for the time I'm traveling so I went ahead and rebooked my existing reservation. Right now the best deal they're offering for me is kids dine free--which saved me about $300 over the same package with no discounts and about $220 more than the room only discount. I'm still hoping for actual free dining, but this is better than nothing and I was able to keep the same room category!

One thing I'll have to figure out is whether to do park hoppers if I don't get a free dining offer. The kids free package doesn't require park hoppers. My current plan has us using them on 3 of our 6 days. I could save $240 by refiguring our plan to just do 1 park a day.

Budget Update
Airfare (for 3): $558 (paid)
Airport Parking: $119 (worst case--considering some other options)
Disney package: 6 nights at pop century, 6 day tickets, DDP $2600-2900 depending on discounts/parkhopper ($200 paid)
OOP Tips/food: $125
Other: memory maker, souvenirs $200
Total: $3600-3900

Total Paid: $758
Remaining to pay: ~$3150
Vacation Account Balance: $3163

So--YAY. I still have enough to cover the worst case planning scenario, and I'll be earning more before the trip to cover any unexpected costs that come up.
 
Following along! The beginning of your trip overlaps with the end of ours!

To answer your question about the dining reservation, it doesn't matter that it says 18+ for your kids. When you check in at the restaurant, you can correct them!
 
Following along! The beginning of your trip overlaps with the end of ours!

To answer your question about the dining reservation, it doesn't matter that it says 18+ for your kids. When you check in at the restaurant, you can correct them!

Good to know. I figured that had to be the case, but it still seems weird. I should know better to expect logic from Disney IT.
 
My time has been eaten up by Spring Break--even though I wasn't doing anything exciting! With no further ado:

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

Wednesday 8/29

After a (hopefully) early night, we should be up early (the kids normally get up around 6). We’ll grab a bite at the hotel (I plan to bring along some basics like granola bars and fruit or we can use some snack credits to stock up with some stuff) and should make it to Animal Kingdom near opening time. I’m not concerned about being there early as we don’t need to rope drop any of the Pandora rides.

I thought we might start the day with a Navi FP, gawk at Pandora a bit, and then get out of there before the lines and crowds keep building.

9:30-10:30: Navi River Journey FP (which we'll use on the earlier end)

10:35 ADR at Tusker House, hoping we might be starting to get lunch items after our first round. Afterwards we’ll hang out in Africa for a bit:

11:30-12:30: Kilamanjaro Safari
1:00 or 2:00—Festival of the Lion King Show (depending how we’re running on time)

We'll play any other time by ear depending on how our timing is working and the weather. We might take the train out to Planet Watch (J loves trains) and meet Rafiki, or just hang out and look at animals and the Tree of Life and eat ice cream.

To wrap up our day we’ll use our last FP for:

3:00-4:00: Kali River Rapids

I want to put this at the end of the day in case we get soaked, then we're not stuck in wet clothes all day. If we're not soaked, and feeling hungry we’ll hit Flame Tree or Satuli Canteen, otherwise we’ll just get QS after getting back to Pop. If we get back early enough, we'll hit the pool and just have a mellow afternoon.
 
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I love Tusker House. And a 10:35 ADR is perfect for getting breakfast and lunch (and at the breakfast price lol)
 
Day 3: Epcot EMH and Hollywood Studios??

Thursday 8/30

This day will start bright and early with extra magic hours at Epcot (EMH starts at 8). Another morning of eating some easy breakfast items while we get ready in the room and then head to the bus stop as soon as we're ready.

I had originally been planning to get FP for Epcot on this day—but now I’m strongly leaning towards skipping the Epcot FPs and instead using them for Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. Frozen and maybe Soarin’ are the only really critical FP wants here, and we have EMH this morning and a PPO at Garden Grill on a later day, so I’m thinking we can hit both of those rides before they have long lines.

My current plan is to arrive for EMH rope drop (8 am) and head straight to Norway to ride Frozen (maybe 2x?) and meet Anna and Elsa. I keep seeing conflicting info about whether the meet is open for EMH or just open at 9-can anyone confirm?

We have a reservation at Akershus at 9:50 am so we’ll probably have some time to kill. If it looks like we’ll have enough time we might head over to visit a certain purple dragon. I’m trying to avoid having to trek back and forth across the park, but I don’t want to spend an hour waiting around in Norway if everything goes smoothly and quickly. I guess otherwise we'll just try to check in early (or try to avoid spending all my money in the Frozen gift shop).

After we eat, World Showcase should be close to opening. We’ll backtrack to Mexico for the 3 Caballeros ride, and then meander through--with a likely prolonged stop at the trains in Germany. We might do some character meets, watch some performers, and we’ll definitely do some snacking. Food and Wine starts this day—if the lines aren’t crazy and the kids are up for it, I’d love to sample some booths! I’m not counting on this to be possible though. After some time in World Showcase we’ll make our way out of the park. We have another ½ day in Epcot later in the week, so not trying to make it to the Land or Seas pavilions today. I'm also not worried about hitting every single country in the showcase--really just want to wander through in a low key way and let the kids drive the pace so they don't get bored.

By early afternoon, I want to make it over to Hollywood Studios to hit whatever FP we were able to get for Toy Story Land. We have another HS day later in the trip, so I’m hoping we can get both TSMM and Slinky Dog between the two days. I’m planning to try for Slinky Dog for our later HS day to up our chances. Of course, that still leaves the Swirling Saucers ride—we’ll see how everything goes I suppose! In an ideal world:

FP: 2pm Beauty and the Beast

FP: 3-4 pm Toy Story Midway Mania

FP: 4pm Voyage of the Little Mermaid

I know the shows don’t really need fastpasses, but there are limited Tier 2 options here that work for our family. QS dinner either in the park (maybe checking out Andy’s Lunchbox if the menu sounds appealing) or back at the hotel and time to settle in for the night. This is going to be a long day for the kids, and we have another early start on Friday
 
This PTR got a little derailed by real-world happenings, but now back to Disneyworld! In the intervening weeks I was able to score free dining for my reservation--got to keep my room and dates and it all worked perfectly. So that knocked almost $300 off my planned budget. Yay!


Day 4: Magic Kingdom and Dinner at EPCOT


Friday 8/31

This will be our prime MK day. It’s morning EMH (8 am) which should work great for us. Again, we’ll start with a small snack in the hotel, and I want to grab cinnamon rolls at Gaston’s once we’re in the parks.

My main goal for EMH is to do Peter Pan to go through the interactive queue—afterwards we’ll focus on knocking out a bunch of Fantasyland rides and possibly meet some princesses before the crowds start. I plan to get a FP for Mine Train later in the day so we won’t have to worry too much about that.

8-10:00—Fantasyland rides

10:00-11:00—Enchanted Tales with Belle

11:00-12:00—SDMT

11:45—Be Our Guest Reservation

12:30-1:30—FP for Haunted Mansion

Afterwards, scope out a place in Adventureland to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade at 2 pm and then head to the hotel for a break.

After we’ve had a bit of downtime, we’ll be on our way to Epcot for a 6:10 pm dinner reservation at Coral Reef. I know this has mixed reviews, but my son loves aquariums so this is all about the setting. After dinner, if the lines are short and the kids aren’t melting down we might do the Nemo ride and/or Turtle Talk before going to the hotel to sleep. Food and Wine Festival will be in full swing, so we will be staying far away from the World Showcase on a Friday night. Not sure if that means that maybe some of the ride lines will be short around dinner time as people might head to that side of the park? Here’s hoping.
 
Day 5: Hollywood Studios

Saturday 9/1

This is not currently an EMH day for HS. Most of the rest of August has had EMH morning hours added, so I’ll be keeping an eye on it, but of now it’s a 9 am opening. Another quick breakfast in the room and make it to the gates for rope drop day. I am struggling mightily between heading straight to Toy Story Land to get in line for whatever TS ride I didn’t get a FP (probably TSMM) for or going to sign up for jedi training. My kids are both just starting to get into Star Wars and I think they’d get a kick out of it. My son will have just turned 4 though—so I wonder if he’s a smidge young? I think we’ll have to watch some videos before and see if they’re up for it. It may be a game day decision after watching the lines in Toy Story Land for the previous few days.

We have an 11:30 lunch reservation at Sci Fi, and I plan to get FPs for Muppet Vision and the Frozen Sing along in addition to whatever I can get for TSL. I know the shows don’t really need FPs, but since I have nothing else to use them on here, I figure I may as well. If nothing else it’s a chance to sit and rest and escape the crowds. The actual timing of all of these is going to be really dependent on how things go on the morning of June 29th!

I’m guessing this will be a tiring day and we’ll head out of the park on the early side.
 
Day 6: Final Day! EPCOT and Magic Kingdom

Sunday 9/2

We have a bright and early PPO breakfast at Garden Grill this morning (8:05 am). After eating I plan to hit Soarin’ (assuming my son has been enjoying rides) and Living with the Land, head to the Seas Pavillion for Nemo and Crush, and then ride Figment and Spaceship Earth on our way out. Farewell EPCOT. Next time we see you everyone should be tall enough for all the rides.

We’ll be heading over to Magic Kingdom for our final afternoon. I have a backup reservation for Be Our Guest at 1:25* (if we’re using it we’ll need to do some heavy snacking beforehand) otherwise we’ll probably hit up Columbia Harbor House. After lunch, we’ll be using fastpasses for Peter Pan, SDMT, and Buzz Lightyear. Then we’ll ride anything else that strikes our fancy and stay as long as the kids’ spirits hold up. We’ll eat…somewhere, and trade in any remaining snack credits at the hotel.


Travel Day of Sadness

Monday 9/3

We fly out of MCO at 9:35, which means getting DME around 6:30. In good news, we should be home by lunchtime, and then I need to get everything and everyone settled for the first day of school on Tuesday!


*It's looking unlikely that my mom will come with us, so this BoG reservation will likely be canceled. I may hold onto it until the day before in case my kids LOVE the castle and want to eat there again.
 

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