CP regulars headed to Disney

I fixed it chaindog! :)

I'll echo Jeff as well. It is not practical to see everything in a single trip. (unless it was a month long...)

Pick your fights as they say.

I look forward to hearing how it went for you!

Oh, and if you're doing a week, it's not a bad idea to take a break at the midpoint. I know it feels like you really need to get the most out of that day's ticket, but being extra casual and getting into a park "whenever" makes it a lot easier to finish to strong.

On our last trip we decided to reserve a day in the middle of the week with no parks planned at all. At first it sounded odd, but ended up being best idea for us. We got to enjoy every inch of the resort, took a run around the area, and then leisurely headed over to Disney Springs.

Definitely doing that again in the Spring.

Reservations locked in for Savi's Workshop, Droid Depot and the Cantina!

I like the idea of a day where we kind of take it easy mid-week. I'm thinking with my son's age, Epcot is probably going to have the least to hold his interest, so our tentative plan is to hit that on our 3rd day in-park - go in early to use our fast passes, see what we want to see in the morning, then call it a day and play at the pool until we head back for dinner reservations and fireworks in the evening.

My advice is to skip Disney. Get an ocean front resort, rent a poolside cabana, tip you waiter/waitress very well so that they are at your beck and call, and enjoy the sun and palm trees.

I guess we are not a Disney family.

There's an extremely active, useful discussion board for all things Disney planning. Check it out:

www.disboards.com

I went for the first time this past May. My suggestions are:

- Be prepared to walk. A LOT. I walked a total of 45 miles in 5 days. If you're not used to walking/standing a lot, prepare an exercise regimen so that by the time you go on your trip, you can comfortably walk 6 miles at a time. Wear comfortable, broken-in shoes.

- Bring a water bottle. Florida can be hot even in January (although it can also be cold - check the weather forecast and be prepared to bring shorts AND a winter jacket.). Make sure you keep hydrated, the Florida sun is hot.

- If you can't get a Fast Pass for Flight of Passage, plan on doing rope drop - that's the shorthand term for being there right when the park opens (which means you should actually show up at the gate about an hour before). I did rope drop and rode FoP twice in an hour and a half. It's worth the effort - IMO the best ride in Walt Disney World.

- I packed a little 'emergency kit' with Band Aids, blister bandages, aspirin, Cold-Eez, Tums, Gold Bond powder, and bug bite cream, and carried it in my crossover bag. It was a lifesaver!

- If you're planning on doing water rides, pack an extra pair of shoes. Nothing worse than walking around in wet, squishy shoes!

- When you watch the special shows - the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom, Fastasmic at Hollywood Studios, the Festival of Fantasy parade, etc. - you'll feel an urge to pull out your cell phone and record the show.

DON'T. All of those big special shows have, for the most part, already been professionally filmed and are up on YouTube. When you hold up your cell phone to get that shaky, low-res recording, not only are you focusing on that and not the wonderful show in front of you, but you're blocking the view of everybody behind you. Find out in advance what shows you want to see, and then check on YouTube to see if it's already been filmed and is up there. Chances are pretty good it is, and if it is, it's better quality than anything you could film. Put your phone away and enjoy the show!!

The same goes for the rides. It's a Small World, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, etc., have all been filmed. Many, many times. So if there's any ride you're curious about, eg, "Will Flight of Passage give me motion sickness?" You can check it out beforehand. Comes in very handy!

- Plan a down day. You'll appreciate having a day to slow down, relax, check out the other resorts, go to Disney Springs. And sleep. Sleep is good, and you probably aren't going to get enough of it otherwise.

- About two weeks before you leave, buy a couple of bottles of Airborne chewable tablets, and start taking them. You can take up to 9 tablets a day, but I did 6 and was fine. They'll boost your immune system and lessen the chance of you coming down with something before, during, and after your trip.

- Accept that something will go wrong. It always does. In my case, our outbound flight was delayed 4 hours due to bad weather. We were supposed to get to Orlando at 5:30 p.m. and didn't get there until after 9:30. Fortunately it happened at the beginning of the trip and it was about the only bad thing to happen, but something always goes wrong and you just have to roll with it.

- Have a great trip!!!

So I've started spending some time on disboards.com checking things out.... that's a lot of information to sift through. The plan is starting to come together, and we've got our advance dining reservations booked. Feeling pretty good about what we were able to get based on which ones I hear the are difficult to obtain.

We were able to book 4 Character meals : Chef Mickey's for Brunch (we fly in Friday night, this will be our first meal Saturday morning), O'Hana for breakfast (with Lilo and Stitch), Garden Grill for dinner (Chip, Dale & Mickey) and Hollywood and Vine for Breakfast (with the Disney Junior crew).

We also booked dinners at 50's Prime Time Cafe, Sci-Fi Drive In, and Jungle Skipper's Canteen, as well as a late lunch at Be Our Guest and a lunch at T-Rex for our day at Disney Springs.

Looks like you're going to have a great time!

Agreed, schedule in a "down" day, where you have no plans, if you can, so that you can just "go with the flow" of the day.

If you have an opportunity, dine at Kona Café at the Polynesian. It's always a must do dining destination on my trips to the World. The food is wonderful. You can check out the menu by Googling Kona Café Disney World.

Here's a few more things I forgot:

- Remember to tip!! A lot of people work very hard to make sure Disney guests have a great time. Anyone who handles your bags, eg bus drivers and the red caps at your resort, should be tipped $2-$3.

Anyone who handles a special request for you should be offered a tip, generally $2 or $3.

If you're getting maid service, leave a few dollars on the dresser with a clear note stating that it's for the maid every day (because the person cleaning your room might change from day to day.)

Cast members at the parks are generally discouraged from accepting tips, but they're usually very helpful and you'll often find them doing nice things for you without being asked. This is called "Pixie Dust" and you should at least offer a tip if a cast member helps you out. If you receive Pixie Dust you can acknowledge the cast member who helped you on Twitter, using the hashtag #castcompliment.

My own PIxie Dust story happened when I was in the Emporium in Magic Kingdom looking for a Moana pin for a friend of mine. I couldn't find a single one in the store, and a very nice cast member offered to look in the back room for me.

About ten minutes later he came out with his hand behind his back and said, "I have bad news and good news. The bad news is, we don't have any single Moana pins, just these - " and he showed me a card that had a set of Moana pins on them, with different characters from the movie including Moana. " - the good news is, I asked Mickey Mouse and he told me you can have this for free."

It was a $30 pin set! I was thrilled. :-) I tried to tip him, but he wouldn't accept it.

- There are several grocery delivery services that will deliver food/supplies to your resort hotel room. I used this to order fresh fruit, breakfast cereal, and pop for my room and it came in very handy! There's a board dedicated to grocery delivery on Disboards.

- Give yourself a few days after you come back to decompress before you go back to work. You're going to need it!

AndyG said:
We were able to book 4 Character meals : Chef Mickey's for Brunch (we fly in Friday night, this will be our first meal Saturday morning), O'Hana for breakfast (with Lilo and Stitch), Garden Grill for dinner (Chip, Dale & Mickey) and Hollywood and Vine for Breakfast (with the Disney Junior crew).

We also booked dinners at 50's Prime Time Cafe, Sci-Fi Drive In, and Jungle Skipper's Canteen, as well as a late lunch at Be Our Guest and a lunch at T-Rex for our day at Disney Springs.

Curious - I counted 9 meals booked. I believe you said you are staying a week? Are you on the regular dining plan or deluxe dining plan?

Regular comes with 1 quick service and 1 tabke service per night. So if you are staying 7 nights, you only have 7 table service credits. I would caution against paying out of pocket for too many meals - most families find the dining plan more than enough food. Or you can leave a couple of less important meals at the very end and cancel at least 24 hrs before if you find you have too many other credits to fit those meals in.

On the other hand, deluxe is 3 credits per person per night. Or 21 table service meals per person for a 7 night stay.

Have fun! CP is a blast but Disney is on a whole other level :)

Be Our Guest is a Quick Service credit for breakfast and lunch.

Oh, and I say screw scheduling a "down day"... run at the tempo that feels best.

We're on the standard dining plan. We check in on a Friday and out the following Saturday, so we have 8 nights. We have 8 table service meals booked, plus the quick-service reservations for Be Our Guest and a reservation for the drinks at the Cantina. I'm hoping between our meals and snacks on the plan we won't have any out-of-pocket dining costs except for the Cantina and some tips.

On the day you go to magic kingdom, if you get there at opening you can do all the rides on the left side of the park with little wait. Book fast passes for mine train, peter pan and space mountain in the afternoon.

Better yet, skip Peter Pan. I will never understand the hype. If you use a Fast-Pass on Peter Pan, you should be excused from the Fast Pass system.

But if it really tickles your fancy, do the opposite. Be there at opening, and make a b-line for Fantasy Land.

So I wanted to bring this thread back from the dead to thank everyone that gave advice and help in planning. We had an AMAZING week at Disney. Our second day there, my son told me it was the best day of his life. Hard to put a price tag on that. A few thoughts post mortem....

- You weren't kidding about the walking. We had 7 days in-park, and according to my fitbit I logged 84.5 miles during those 7 days.

- If you are heading there anytime soon, give serious consideration to the Skyliner resorts. We stayed at Caribbean Beach, and from our room could be at Hollywood Studios in about 10 minutes, and Epcot in about 15. No way in the world that's happening on a bus. It also was great for me as an early riser - since we had park hopper tickets I could go to Hollywood Studios and ride the "grown-up" rides there (and check out Galaxy's Edge) while the family slept in, and be back easily to grab breakfast with them once they awoke.

- Speaking of Galaxy's Edge. Rise of the Resistance is like no other ride I've ever been on or seen. I don't want to give anything away, but it's seriously next level amazing. It integrates screens, animatronics, and live actors in a way that you're not always sure which one of those things you're looking at. Super impressive. If you're a star wars fan, the build-a-droid thing was cool, and the build-a-lightsaber was even better. It's more akin to a religious sacrament than a retail shopping experience.

- The food was spectacular. We did have some dining left at the end, so we loaded up on snacks to bring home for people. I never really was bothered by the food options at CP, but having done Disney now I might view that differently next summer when we head to the point.

- I did hit most of the coasters, and realized how spoiled we CP regulars really are! Getting off Rock N Roller coaster, dudes were high fiving and talking about how amazing that was. From my perspective, it was okay. Just okay.

Looking forward to heading back to CP this summer, but we had such a good time I am sure that this won't be our last trip to Orlando!

I’m glad it went so well! We’ve had great weather lately as well, save for a random day or two here and there. It’s so different than a Cedar Point trip that it’s definitely possible to love both equally without even feeling like it’s a comparison.

I did "Rise" two mornings in a row last week. Both times it was so much it was hard to take in.

When the door opens and the First Order takes control. It was literally a punch in the chest. Both times.

It's amazing.

Agreed on Rise of the Resistance. Even the way they did the boarding groups was stellar.

It is a great attraction.

Talking Disney has me thinking again how CP could really use an indoor, well themed attraction. Could be one of many things: log flume with large indoor sections, Space Mountain style coaster, haunted house attraction, etc. When I bring this up several people here state CP can’t afford something like that. I still don’t understand that, the coasters they build are pretty expensive. Also this ride could be run in any weather condition, something CP needs. CP already has plenty of size and speed, I mean really, you can’t get much more exciting than Maverick, Millenium, Dragster and Steel Vengeance. It’s time to add another dimension to the park lineup. Indoor + Theme.