Opinions Wanted

[JimFitz]

I would like people's opinions on this trip plan and any additions or deletions you would do.

We are staying in a 2BDRM at SSR.

The Players:
Me - 32 Very Bored right now!
DW - 34 and becoming a Disney Addict
DTwinBoys - Will be 3 the end of October and only care about Peter Pan
DS - 18months and second trip to Disney.
Mother In-Law - Could not bring myself to put a D before that one!!

Here is the plan......


Saturday 10/15/05 - Leave NJ at 5:30pm. Drive all night (hate flying)

Sunday 10/16/05 - Keep Driving and arrive at WDW at 1pm. Spend afternoon at pool and maybe Down Town Disney at night.

Monday 10/17/05– Breakfast in room and Magic Kingdom at park open. Lunch at Crystal Palace 11:40am. More rides and then back to the room to nap or swim at the pool. Dinner at 5:30 in room then off to Epcot for the night. Extra Magic Hour Night at Epcot

Tuesday 10/18/05– Breakfast in the room and then off to Animal Kingdom. Lunch in the park and back to the room whenever to rest up. Dinner in the room and kids to bed early. Wife and I out to MGM for Dinner, Rides, and Fantasmic. MGM Extra Magic Hours

Wednesday 10/19/05 – Blizzard Beach if weather permitting. Down Town Disney or a Resort for dinner?? Whispering Canyon???


Thursday 10/20/05 - Day to relax at pool or go to another water park. MNSSHP at Magic Kingdom. Have dinner reservations for Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom at 4:50pm. Trick or Treat with Mickey.

Friday 10/21/05 – Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s 8:10am Magic Kingdom for the day. Still need to decide on Dinner????

Saturday 10/22/05 – Pool HOP to Poly or Boardwalk. Dinner at Hollywood and Vine in MGM.

Sunday 10/23/05 – Typhoon Lagoon. Dinner at AKL Boma 5:10pm


Monday 10/24/05– Universal Studios. Dinner in CityWalk


Tuesday 10/25/05 - MGM in morning for PlayHouse Disney show and other sights and then back to room to rest up. Magic Kingdom at night for Wishes Fireworks/ Dinner and rides.

Wednesday 10/26/05 - Check out and drive home.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I don't have any comments about the Disney portion of your trip but you should make some kind of plans for an overnight stay especially if you are traveling down I-95. I learned that the hard way when I spent 4 hours just north of Baltimore stuck in traffic when I had left in the evening for Charleston from Dover, NJ. Fortunately I HAD made a guarenteed reservation so I had a room waiting for me when I finally reached my overnight stopping point in Emporia, VA...at 3 AM instead of 11 as planned. If you are taking the I-81 detour route all you need to do is look for a stopover point in case you need one. Then just call a few hotels in the area to make sure nothing is going on (like a football game) that would fill up the hotels in the area. I'd probably check in to towns along I-77 in North Carolina for that purpose...focusing south of where I-77 crosses I-85 because there is definitely traffic around Charlotte in the AM.

Ditto for the return trip...make a plan for a bad traffic jam.

 

[tinkgrl]

Hi,

Sounds good to me!!! Have fun!

 

[sarhenty]

I totally agree with doubletrouble's comment. A "just in case" scenario could be a lifesaver, thats a long trip. We've done it ourselves multiple times from NYC and we always ended up stopping at NC (with a reservation in hand).


Tinkgrl - I LOVE your new pic of Johnny, the one lying down and looking up, ahhhh....

 

[lisareniff]

Tuesday 10/18/05– Breakfast in the room and then off to Animal Kingdom. Lunch in the park and back to the room whenever to rest up. Dinner in the room and kids to bed early. Wife and I out to MGM for Dinner, Rides, and Fantasmic. MGM Extra Magic Hours

I really like this part!! Does that put the D back in DMIL?

Tuesday 10/25/05 - MGM in morning for PlayHouse Disney show and other sights and then back to room to rest up. Magic Kingdom at night for Wishes Fireworks/ Dinner and rides.

Ending with Wishes. Nice touch!

It seems like a nice plan. Lots of down time and flexibility. Are your late nights with the kids followed by easy days? Or do they nap so are able to handle it? Mine stopped napping very early so we couldn't be as flexible.

 

[JimFitz]

Hi all! Thanks for the replies.

Yes, we do plan to have some reservations on the way down just in case. I don't want to sleep at any rest stops!

lisarenif - Yes, the kids nap and can stay up late if needed. They can also sleep in the strollers with no problems. BTW...I can't add a D to my MIL since we have to have all kids asleep before we leave for MGM!!!!!!

 

[mom2alix]

Wednesday 10/19/05 – Blizzard Beach if weather permitting. Down Town Disney or a Resort for dinner?? Whispering Canyon???


Friday 10/21/05 – Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s 8:10am Magic Kingdom for the day. Still need to decide on Dinner????

Definitely do WCC for dinner one night, it is a blast!

On Friday, your other MK day, I'd consider O'hana for dinner since you could grab the monorail and be right there. It's one of our favorites!

Have a great trip!

 

[kathleena]

Monday 10/17/05– Extra Magic Hour Night at Epcot

Tuesday 10/18/05– MGM Extra Magic Hours

Friday 10/21/05 – Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s 8:10am Magic Kingdom for the day. Still need to decide on Dinner????

Tuesday 10/25/05 - MGM in morning for PlayHouse Disney show and other sights and then back to room to rest up. Magic Kingdom at night for Wishes Fireworks/ Dinner and rides.

Epcot EMH hours on Monday are the morning - sounds like you are thinking evening?
MGM EMH hours on Tuesday are the morning - sounds like you are thinking evening?
MK EMH hours on Friday are the morning - just be aware if you plan on getting there later
There are no Wishes fireworks on Tuesday 10/25 due to MNSSHP - I know because I will be there.

Check the park hours on the DIS home page and you will see.

 

[JimFitz]

Epcot EMH hours on Monday are the morning - sounds like you are thinking evening?
MGM EMH hours on Tuesday are the morning - sounds like you are thinking evening?
MK EMH hours on Friday are the morning - just be aware if you plan on getting there later
There are no Wishes fireworks on Tuesday 10/25 due to MNSSHP - I know because I will be there.

Check the park hours on the DIS home page and you will see.

Ugh!!! I confused the morning with the Night!!! Thanks for pointing this out to me. Exactly the reason I posted this. I need to do some rework

 

[kathleena]

Ugh!!! I confused the morning with the Night!!! Thanks for pointing this out to me. Exactly the reason I posted this. I need to do some rework

I was thinking maybe something had changed with the times and went to the WDW and DIS park hours charts before I answered. I tried to find all of them for you, but don't know if I did.

I was disappointed with the no Wishes on MNSSHP nights myself!

BTW - you can still put a D with the MIL - it can just mean something else in your head! lol

 

[manning]

Hi all! Thanks for the replies.

Yes, we do plan to have some reservations on the way down just in case. I don't want to sleep at any rest stops!

lisarenif - Yes, the kids nap and can stay up late if needed. They can also sleep in the strollers with no problems. BTW...I can't add a D to my MIL since we have to have all kids asleep before we leave for MGM!!!!!!

Go ahead, add the D to MIL. After all if it wasn't for her your wife wouldn't have been around for you.

 

[ramkam]

We stayed at VWL in June. We had dinner at the Liberty Tavern in the Magic Kingdom one night. DW and I agree this may have been the best dinner we have had in a Disney theme park other than at Club 33 at Disneyland.

 

[Laurajean1014]

I did not see EPCOT on your list. Are you going to include it? Dinner at WS? Illuminations?

 

[JimFitz]

We stayed at VWL in June. We had dinner at the Liberty Tavern in the Magic Kingdom one night. DW and I agree this may have been the best dinner we have had in a Disney theme park other than at Club 33 at Disneyland.

We are seriously considering Liberty Tavern

 

[JimFitz]

I did not see EPCOT on your list. Are you going to include it? Dinner at WS? Illuminations?

We have Epcot on Monday night but no plans to eat there. I really like Epcot and we will get there at least twice this trip for a few hours. It's hard with the kids being under three, there is not much for them to do there. We will definately do Spaceship Earth and my wife and I will take turns on Soarin and TestTrack.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Your kids should like Innovations. They are gearing it to younger guests. And can make great photo ops. Also, I liked stopping in each country to continue the Mask. My son was in Kindergarten one year, and he brought that in as a "Show and Tell" item.

The class loved it and so did the teacher. She didn't realize that Disney is a great learning center.

 

[kathleena]

We are seriously considering Liberty Tavern

LTT is yummy. I would recommend. On the MNSSHP nights - I'm not sure you can get in. I think the open the restaurant just for the party and the folks going to the party book it right up early. We've had our ressies there since the first day they sold the tickets.

Gosh, Jim - sorry I've been your bearor of bad news today!

 

[CarolMN]

Ugh!!! I confused the morning with the Night!!! Thanks for pointing this out to me. Exactly the reason I posted this. I need to do some rework

You probably would have been disappointed in the evening EMH anyway. From what I've read over on the Theme Parks Board, the evening EMH parks are very, very crowded - not at all like the early morning hours. Appears more folks like to stay up late than like to get up early!

Have fun -

 

[JimFitz]

Gosh, Jim - sorry I've been your bearor of bad news today!

I guess I need to cancel my trip!!

Actually, I am glad you pointed these errors out to me. I did some switching around and plan on doing LTT at least one night for dinner. We already have Crystal Palace booked for MNSSHP on 10/20

 

[kathleena]

I guess I need to cancel my trip!!

Actually, I am glad you pointed these errors out to me. I did some switching around and plan on doing LTT at least one night for dinner. We already have Crystal Palace booked for MNSSHP on 10/20

Whew! I was thinking you might think I was a real stinker!

And I agree with CarolMN re: EMH. I think they are awful! In March we tried to go to MGM EMH Sun night. Near the finale of Fantasmic - we jumped up and headed out before the crowd and got right on ToT. By the time we got off - the wait time was 40 minutes! We went to TheGMR and the line was all the way out into the courtyard! FInally about 90 minutes into EMH the lines for RNRC and ToT were down to a reasonable wait.

A couple of weeks ago - MGM was even worse than in March! EMH started at 8:30. We didn't go into Fantasmic thinking we could get on the rides while everyone was in there - WRONG!!!!!. They had FPs for ToT starting at 8:30 and were out of them by 9:00. The wait time for ToT was over 40 min and for RNRC was over an hour! They did a special Fantasmic at 10pm because the first one filled up before 8pm. When we got out - Tot was still at 30 min and RNRC was at 40min. This was at 10:30 mind you!

We didn't do any EMHs after that - not morning or evening. We decided they promote it so much that we would do opposite parks and take our chances.

I will say they are monitoring the EMHs much better though. They now run your room key thru a machine before giving you a wristband. And they require a room key for everyone - even the kids.