englishharbour

Sounds like a good plan for your first time.

# 1 - If you are arriving at 11:00 am and are using Magical Express, you will arrive usually within an hour and a half at your resort. If you are driving from the airport in a rental car or limo, it's about the same. Only in rare and very crowded circumstances will you arrive as late as 2 p.m.

# 2 - Eat no later than 6 pm on your first day, and grab a spot for the parade no later than 7 pm for the 8 pm parade, which is SpectroMagic, followed by Wishes, the fireworks story and show, centered around the Castle. My recommendation to you is to sit at the hub in front of the castle around the circle where there is built in seating, facing the castle so you will have a birds eye view of both.

# 3 - Looks like you are at Port Orleans. You will need to grab a bus as early as possible for your 9 a.m. breakfast. If you are driving in, give yourself plenty of time to walk to the park and get to the countries, which is quite a hike.

# 4 - You won't be able to grab a fastpass for Soarin' as Future World doesn't open until 9, and you will be at your breakfast by then. However, try not to miss this. If the wait is under an hour and you have the time, go for it, after breakfast.

# 5 - Make sure you have purchased the park hopper option or you won't be able to go from Epcot to MGM later that day. Even though you believe your kids may be tired that night, I would strongly suggest viewing Fantasmic. It is absolutely marvelous. If you convert your Sci-Fi reservations into a Fantasmic Package, you will have priority seating at Fantasmic, at no charge to you. And believe me, as the stadium holds upwards of 2000 people, you will not want to wait in that line. It is well worth going.

#6 - Good thinking in regard to Animal Kingdom - get there early when the animals are fresh and it isn't so hot. Head straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari. Don't miss "It's tough to be a bug" and be careful on "Dinosaur" as it may be too tough on the little ones.

# 7 - In order to get to Downtown Disney from Port Orleans by water, you will need to be staying at the French Quarter, otherwise, you will need to go from Riverside to the French Quarter to catch the boat.

# 8 - The food at Raglan Road is quite average and very expensive. I've had dinner there twice. The atmosphere,however, is wonderful; there is live Irish entertainment but that doesn't start until 8.

# 9 - Biergarten does not offer views of Illuminations if that is what you would like. The best place for dining and viewing would be Rose and Crown in England.

That's about all I can think to add. It sounds like you would have saved considerable time and energy by using a Disney Authorized Travel Planner for your first trip, but you did well.

panhandle

Nice tips EH!
Regarding Fantasmic(Which I agree is a MUST DO!)Disney has changed Fantasmic dinner packages now. The only 3 restaurants available for this package are Mama Melrose, Brown Derby, and Hollywood and Vine
All three are now paid in advance cost is around (not exact)45.00 Brown Derby, 29.00 MM, and 23.00 per person for Hollywood and Vine. Since these are prepaid there is NO refund less than 48 hours. So if it rains and Fantasmic is canceled...your out of luck. I opted to not buy the package this year as it just didnt seem to be as good of a deal as it was in the past.

Susie50

Whew!!!

I am having flashbacks to the trips we took to Disney when our kiddies were young. I heartily agree with Gail's early comment - there are no prizes for seeing the most attractions. My husband had us on such a tight schedule, we had to run to keep up!!! The kids were happy just plodding along and soaking up the exciting atmosphere. If they missed something -- and I doubt they did! -- they wouldn't have been any the wiser.

Hubby just recently asked when we are taking the grandkids to Disney!
Ha! I bet he won't be "leading the charge" these days!

Ryan

We had a Disney Guide on our last trip (early October) as it was part of the prize we won at my daughter's school.

He reserved seats for us at Fantasmic so we were able to get there a few minutes ahead of time.

He stated that the restaurant package was not really all that great. He said they don't have the best seats and it just isn't worth the extra cost. He suggested that if we did this show again, to go a bit earlier, grab some seats, and have someone grab dinner at the food court.

Pat_in_Mich

You CAN take the boat to Downtown Disney from Port Orleans Riverside. The boat picks up there, then stops at Port Orleans French Quarter and then goes on to Downtown Disney.

shepardspie

Oh my goodness, I love these boards.

Couple of things:

1. We are using the Magical Express, so I am happy to hear we'll to MK earlier than 2:00pm...

2. This is great to know:
"Eat no later than 6 pm on your first day, and grab a spot for the parade no later than 7 pm for the 8 pm parade, which is SpectroMagic, followed by Wishes, the fireworks story and show, centered around the Castle. My recommendation to you is to sit at the hub in front of the castle around the circle where there is built in seating, facing the castle so you will have a birds eye view of both."

3. My husband mentioned jumping out of breakfast for a moment to grab a fastpass to Soarin' on Friday morning (or us grabbing our seats and he follows behind a few minutes later). Our reservations are for 9:00am, so otherwise we'd have to get a fastpass afterwards, which would be ok I guess...but not ideal.

4. We have the park hopper, and the dining plan.

5. We are staying at the French Quarter. Any suggestion on where to get a room (they said I can call the hotel directly 4 days in advance and request a building.)

6. I've heard Raglan Road is average. I was having trouble finding another reservation for 6 people in a downtown disney restaurant that used the dining plan (again, I have a florida relative visiting us for dinner that night). It's an early dinner (4:15), because he will have a 2 hour trip home. So unfortunately we'll miss the entertainment. Any other recommendations for that night would be great.

7. Our resevations for Biergarten/Epcot are at 6:30 - they have a 7:00 show there, which I am looking forward to. But, I think we'll be out in time to watch the fireworks from another viewpoint. Any recommendations for a good spot to grab?

Thank you!

nhinson

I just got back from a full tour of Florida (Complete with a 3 day trip to Orlanda and the parks) with my 14 and 10 year old grandsons. Sounds like you did what we did and have it well thought out. The only thing I'd like to say that made our trip much less expensive was we bought the "Meal Deal" bracelets. For $20 a piece you can eat and drink all you want all day long. We were skeptical at first but when kids (and adults) start riding rides and walking they STAY hungry. We saw families of 3 and 4 paying an average of $40-$50 per meal to eat at the part. The $20 was a real bargain. They give you these great big plastic cups (good to keep and take home) and we threw them in the book bag and everytime someone would need to fill up with water, juice or soda we could just walk into the restaurant and fill them up at no cost with our bracelets on. You can also pretty much eat anything you want and as much as you want with those bracelets on and the food was fairly decent. You can get everything from burgers and nuggets for the kids to pasta, pizza, etc. and again you can eat all you want and it includes meal, drink and dessert as many times and as often as you want to go in one of the restaurants and eat. We spent almost 13 hours at each park on consecutive days so that was a lot of eating.

Take raincoats. It rains there every day this time of year and we just kept riding. We chose the "rainy" part of the day to ride the water rides because we were already wet anyhow. But do toss some flimsy raincoats in your bookbag.

Hope you have a great time. We had a ball. I can give advise on what NOT to do on a trip like this. Never go to Disney Parks AND drive to Key West all in the same trip. We did it but I don't know how. We crammed Disney, Miami and Key West (parasailing, snorkeling and jet-skiing) into a seven day vacation. I can't begin to tell you how tired we were upon our return. I had to go back to work to get some rest.

Have Fun!!

mrpw

We just returned from WDW last week, trip with 2 adult children and 2 grandchildren and had a great time. RE: Raglan Road. We enjoyed it a lot, good choices for food, but a bit pricey. We were on the meal plan and we were able to enjoy appetizers (scallop forest for 2 very good), entree, and dessert. The desserts were VERY good!! Kids not crazy about the mac and cheese, but they are very picky. There are a few other good choices for the kids. Take the boat ride from Riverside( we stayed there). A relaxing ride and a nice change from the bus! Have a wonderful time, we did!

lolfn

regarding the fast pass, here's a little known fact because it isn't publicized. when you get a fast pass, it will give you a time period of one hour to return to ride, i.e., 1:20p to 2:20p. but it really never expires. so if you can't make it to the ride by 2:20, you can still use it later that day.

if your husband does get fast passes for soarin (my favorite ride!) prior to your breakfast, the time period could be up before you are done with your meal. if it is, don't worry about it, you can still use the passes.