flights, hotel & park tickets booked from aus :) now some questions..

[marge]

hello from Australia

so excited all the big things are booked.. now I can start focusing on the details. so trying to think of some questions I have for all the experts here so we can have the smoothest, most enjoyable trip. this is our first and will be our only trip, so want to be well prepared!

we are coming mid may 2019 - family of 3 adults with a 4 yr old daughter plus nanna

we booked a few months back now, so at regular prices. the exchange rate from aus to us is HORRIBLE!! we have saved for 5 yrs and money is so tight, so any tips on when they will release specials would be much appreciated!! we are hoping for a room discount, not interested in free dining. we are staying at POFQ. please let me know if you see a special for mid may (can I say that?)

I have downloaded the Disney app, but can't really do much yet. we can book our ADR's next week. so my main question is.. since the calendar will not be up to that date yet.. how will we know what park hours are to book dining?? we plan to go to parks with early morning extra magic hours and rope drop because I think it will be easiest with our 4 yr old to get on rides asap with no line (or little waiting) then do our fastpasses right away and then head back to hotel for afternoon nap. then we will go back for dinner around maybe 6 or 7 or head to Disney springs for dinner.. or whatever we want to do. does this sound like an ok plan?

and should we just not book our dining right away and wait until the calendar is released? (for meals so far mk we want to book dinners liberty tree tavern and tonys, epcot lunch @via napoli din @chefs de france, hs l@50s and dinner - maybe mama Melrose firework special, sorry forget the name, ak lunch @ rainforest and then do Disney springs homecoming for dinner. and then other dinners at disney springs trex café) next question is -- when I was looking at daily hours recently I noticed quite a lot of 6pm closures for special events..is this regular now? also, do they tend to change hours with little notice (for example, book a special event a month before) just worried our week will have this happen and we won't be able to go at night

for character dining. not sure if we'll do it yet. we would only do breakfast if we did one, either at Cinderella's castle or at akershus as my daughter loves the princesses, but if we got really lucky and got the first slot, would we not make rope drop? would it be rushed? or what about meeting most of the princesses at epcot.. has anyone done it like that instead? she is most interested in meeting ariel, aurora anna&elsa & Rapunzel if possible. I really want to meet Cinderella this is a really silly question, but.. does the potato casserole at akershus have bacon or meat in it? (we only eat chicken and fish, so important)

lastly, in my excitement booking the hotel, I forgot to make room requests. should I call up now and do it or wait until closer to the date? we are staying at POFQ. any tips? would like to be closest to buses firstly and or food court. not near pool. we only have standard room. for nanna would hope to not have a lot of walking or stairs, so closest to elevator. not sure what building to pick, its hard to tell maybe 5?

ok I have a million more questions, but this is a good start and thanks to those who have actually read all that! so difficult to plan a trip in general, but from overseas even trickier!! thanks in advance

 

[LUVofDIS]

Keep checking for room specials. If you want someone to watch rates for you, you can use be our guest travel agents or another Disney approved no fee travel agent. I have used be our guest, Disney pays them the commission.

As for scheduling, we tend to avoid EMH. It seems to attract more people, but rope dropping it is a good idea. We also schedule our FP starting around 11 am. That’s what sucks, you have to schedule without knowing all the details.
I am not sure if there would be any early closings for mid May. I am in Jamaica right now. Can look later. But the hours normally change as the date gets closer. Usually the hours are extended.
Not sure about the princesses. I normally don’t m&g non costume characters except when we do the castle and belles tales.
The room requests can be made closer to departure or if you go with a travel agent as stated above, they can request for you. We have done this with no luck thus far.
By the way, even though you have already booked everything, be our guest can transfer all and take control. We don’t use them anymore only because we do everything ourselves now that we know the system.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Congrats or is it cheers! Anyway, generic experience-based advice here. Flexibility is a prized necessity because things (hours, parks, FP+, closures, etc) will shift between now and when you are actually standing in front of a ride. Planning is good, being too rigid is not advisable, IMHO. Try to select a FEW (emphasis on FEW) priorities for each park and consider all the others a bonus. You are less likely to be overtaxed and exhausted after a trip that fails to meet all of your expectations if you reign in those expectations now. Also, having a Plan A, Plan B, and Plans for the rest of the alphabet, may also be advisable. You have undoubtedly heard the advice to "Not try or expect to do it all". Truer words were rarely spoken. We think some of the fun is lost in not being open to finding pleasure in new and unexpected experiences.

We never plan parks based on EMH. We do rope-drop when we can, some mornings are just not possible. Early closings, hard to say now as we were there for some early closing nights (Senor nights, etc) and we just adjusted our experiences accordingly. We had our kids there (1st trip was 7 y.o., 4 y.o., and 1.5 y.o.) and we were only minor character meal and Meet&Greet attendees. We thought they wasted too much time and money. We did, however, enjoy Chef Mickey's as a traditional kick-off to our trip.

We loved California Grill for the "fancy" dinner, the vista, and viewing Wishes (which we feel was superior to Happily Ever After(HEA)). We also enjoyed Illuminations and Fantasmic. Even our loud-noise phobic kids liked the shows, maybe because we never shoved others to get up front and our distance from the epicenter maybe made things not so loud. Try to catch the current fireworks shows if at all possible.

We also enjoyed at least one day visiting Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) and given the longer stays frequently enjoyed by international visitors, we would think you may have a few visits there.

The month of May was our favorite time. Warm enough for us to visit Typhoon Lagoon. It was not surface of the sun hot. If you can handle the swarms of some flying insects, the odds will always be in your favor.

Have a great trip.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Keep checking for room specials. If you want someone to watch rates for you, you can use be our guest travel agents or another Disney approved no fee travel agent. I have used be our guest, Disney pays them the commission.

This would work if the OP hadn't booked their trip already.

 

[Minnie Mum]

If you're determined to hit the parks on their EMH mornings, then just wait until the hours are released to make your ADRs. At worst, you'll only have to wait a couple of weeks. If you can't get exactly the times you want, grab what's available, then just keep checking back - something will eventually open up, they almost always do. May doesn't usually have a lot of night time special events requiring early closures. There might be one grad night at one park. These are usually announced many months in advance. If you're going to morning EMH on the day you want your Princess breakfast, I'd recommend a LATE breakfast. Get a juice and energy bar as you leave your resort to tide you over. That way you can take advantage of EMH and an hour or two of morning rides, and then, when the crowds increase in late morning, head over to your breakfast. If it's late enough, call it brunch, skip lunch, and have an early dinner that night.
As for room requests, it's up to you. POFQ is so small that even if you're in the farthest buildings it's less than a 5 min walk to the main building, pool, or bus. I think the important request, which you didn't mention, will be for connecting (not adjoining) rooms. You'll thank me for this when the little one naps or goes to bed early at night and the adults want to stay up.
Regarding discounts- have a look at mousesavers.com. They have a historical record of room discounts that shows the dates when discounts have been offered, and the dates when these offers were in effect. That will give you a heads up on when you might expect the spring offers to come out.

 

[yensid67]

I would suggest contacting Kingdom Konsultants or Be Our Guest(?) and ask their advice. If it were me and it meant saving money staying on property, I would cancel and rebook through them so they can watch for discounts! Don't forger to take in Epcot Flower and Garden Festival...at least 1/2 day. I know your pain when you say this is your first and only trip, its getting too expensive even for us here in the states. I stay off property to save! There are a lot of decent hotel nearby for hundreds of dollars less than a Disney resort! Hotel room will only be used to sleep and shower, so why spend a lot of money on it!? Unless you plan to have a resort day using the pool and other activities! if ya want more info on off property, send me PM

 

[JillC LI]

If you're determined to hit the parks on their EMH mornings, then just wait until the hours are released to make your ADRs. At worst, you'll only have to wait a couple of weeks. If you can't get exactly the times you want, grab what's available, then just keep checking back - something will eventually open up, they almost always do.

I wouldn't wait to book the most popular ADRs. Book them and then change them if necessary, but at least book the most important ones at the 180 day mark. There's no cancellation fee if you cancel at least 24 hours in advance.

 

[LUVofDIS]

This would work if the OP hadn't booked their trip already.

They can still do it. They converted mine over just a few years ago.

 

[tampabrad]

I would book my most important ADRs as soon as possible so you have something. If times change, you may be able to change your ADR, but at least you will have your original.

Make your room request now. It doesn't hurt. Usually room assignments are made within 5 days up to day of arrival so call or go online at that time to request again.

I don't think POFQ has elevators.

 

[Tuvalu]

I don't think POFQ has elevators.

There are elevators in every building; the shaft is either in the middle or on an end.

 

[marge]

Thanks everyone for suggestions. Thinking to just avoid parks w/ emh as suggested and go at rd. Trying to book my adr's now and just my luck -- technical difficulties. I can't ever see cinderellas royal table (which i desperately wanted to book for my daughter!) Ever being offered. Is it possible it's booked out 180 days and i logged in at 6a?!? I did everything else i wanted, but we didnt have many hard to gets. Is thisca normal occurance for booking issues? Inwill cry if this happens on fp booking! Ta.

 

[Master Yoda]

There are elevators in every building; the shaft is either in the middle or on an end.

Correct. All buildings at POFQ have elevators. At Riverside only the Mansions have them. Alligator Bayou does not.

 

[Master Yoda]

Thanks everyone for suggestions. Thinking to just avoid parks w/ emh as suggested and go at rd. Trying to book my adr's now and just my luck -- technical difficulties. I can't ever see cinderellas royal table (which i desperately wanted to book for my daughter!) Ever being offered. Is it possible it's booked out 180 days and i logged in at 6a?!? I did everything else i wanted, but we didnt have many hard to gets. Is thisca normal occurance for booking issues? Inwill cry if this happens on fp booking! Ta.

Yes. When you stay at a Disney resort, you can book up to 10 days worth of dining from your 180 day check in mark (hence the name 180 + 10). This causes some of the more popular places to be booked solid around 183-185 days out.

Try for later in the trip or look at another princess meal. Cinderella's Royal Table is not really the end all be all it is made out to be.

 

[Master Yoda]

@marge

Check out the link below. It is an unofficial fan page for The Port Orleans Resorts. While "unofficial" it has a bazillion times more information on your resort than Disney's own website.

https://www.portorleans.org/

Call and make room requests as soon as you can. You will want to make them general in nature (eg ground floor, near transportation, etc) and order them from most to least important. If nanna has special needs, make sure they are noted in your requests. If you make any changes before your trip, have the cast member read back your requests to insure they follow the change.

I personally like early EMH, but I avoid late EMH. Most people do not want to get up at 6 am to make a 8 am EMH and you can get a lot done in those first few hours. Regardless, I would highly recommend being at the park no later that 1/2 an hour before it opens. Early bird gets the worm at WDW.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Welcome, OP
I agree with all of the above advice, especially the link to POR/POFQ. That site is invaluable to us, as we always stay at POR or more recently, POFQ.

POFQ is a very nice resort. NONE of the buildings is far from the food court or buses. I took an evening walk from our building #2 one night and walked the entire resort to bldg. 7 in about 15 minutes. I did stop to look at the courtyards, fountains, etc in each section.
I was concerned about the walk, too, having stayed at POR. POR is huge and there can be a lot of walking at that resort. But POFQ is quite compact, so I don't think you will have a problem anywhere on property.

One of the "perks" of POFQ, is that you can walk along the riverside to POR and take advantage of HeeHAw Bob's show, or just wander around there beautiful resort. It is our favorite resort. The quick service restaurant at POR is the best on any property, IMO. The one at POFQ is smaller, but fine.
Have a magical trip.

 

[LUVofDIS]

I was able to score a Royal Table just the other day for our stay in early December, it took me many tries, I could only do it one of three days during our stay. You need to try every day, multiple times a day. We have always gotten things this way, including FP's.

 

[me_stitch]

OP, just curious how many days you were staying?

 

[LUVofDIS]

We will be there for eleven days, one day is a wasted travel day as we will not arrive until late at night.

 

[Shouldigo12]

I highly doubt anyone would consider me an expert, but I'll give some pearls lf wisdom.
1. Try to avoid EMH, since a lot of people have the same idea as you and it leads to the parks being more crowded on those days. Ropd drop is a good idea though.
2. When it comes to asking the forum for dining suggestions, be aware that there is virtually no agreement on which restaurants are good and which suck. Looking up reviews on other sites (I usually use The Disney Food Blog) will probably be more useful. No offense to the good people on this site! There's just a lot opinions and it can be hard to sort through them.
3. Also with dining, DO NOT make a reservation for every meal. Its expensive and annoying to have to worry about getting to the restaurant on time.