Advice for a *~Magical~* Vacation?

[Ducky_Love]

Hi Everyone,

I was hoping you all could give me some advice on my "game plan" for DL. I live in Orlando.. so I know how important planning is to a Disney vacation! This is my first trip to DL that I have had time to plan properly (last time was just thrown onto the tail end of a business trip at the very last minute)

If anyone knows of other things I should schedule please reply. All advice is appreciated!

Tuesday (April 25th):
Our plane lands at LAX at 11:00am. We are renting a car and driving to DL to check into our hotel (Embassy Suites Anaheim South). After check-in we are planning to head to DL for the remainder of the day. (*I am also going to call on March 25th and try to get seats for the Fantasmic Dessert Buffet for our first night in DL*)

Wednesday (April 26th):
No specific park plans for the day, but a dinner reservation at Granville's Steakhouse at 6:00pm.

Thursday (April 27th):
8:40am reservation at Storytellers Cafe, then off to 10:00am opening of California Adventure. Rest of the day is for roaming parks.

Friday (April 28th):
No specific park plans for the day, but a dinner reservation at Hook's Pointe at 5:40pm.

Saturday (April 29th):
Our flight departs at noon.. so a long drive back to LAX! I'm not sure if I have enough time to "plan" anything this morning.


So~ what do you think? :veryconfu and THANKS!

 

[netenyahoo]

This this an adults only trip or are there kids going too?

 

[Ducky_Love]

Five adults, the youngest being 23 and the oldest being 40ish.

 

[Littlebit]

If you plan to see Fantasmic on that first night, make sure to plan time for a nap...you've got a 3-hour time change 8pm PST will be 11pm EST to your jet-lagged bodies...after waking up EARLY that morning, traveling, etc...you're going to be TIRED.

Give yourself time to walk around DTD, which is as big as our West Side and Marketplace combined, but with many chain and "local" shops that we don't have here. Also take time to walk around the DL hotel...besides a nice garden, they have a few hotel-exclusive pieces of merchandise in their gift shop.

And I know how old the 40-ish one is (grin).

 

[netenyahoo]

I was going to mention eating at Blue Bayou, but it will be closed along with POTC. HM at DL is getting some neat new enhancements soon, so that should be fun. You are going to have plenty of time to ride all the rides as many times as you want. I would recommend taking it easy and explore both parks, hotels and DTD. You may want to take the Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour. You get to go in the lobby of Club 33 and see behind the scenes at the Tiki Room. I have heard you may get a ride on the Lilly Belle on the railroad which would be a neat experience. Either way I would recommend asking a CM at the Main Street station if you can ride in it. Have a great trip!

 

[carolina_yankee]

Three full park days should give you plenty of time. However, as a fellow East Coaster, I'd recommend the Fantasmic buffet one of the following nights. We hit the ground running last year and found ourselves hitting a brick wall. Pixie Dust kept us going, but we ended up dropping things from the rest of our trip to recover.

The Fantasmic Buffet is really worth it if you don't want to stress. We sat in the pavement section and were very pleased, though we might try the balcony seating this summer. Note, though, that given timing, you can't see the fireworks from the Hub and do the dessert buffet in the same night, for either seating. You can see the fireworks from the Fantasmic dessert areas, but it's not the same - no good view of the castle.

You also might want to sample CA earlier to see just how much time you want to spend there. Some people are charmed by the park, others are indifferent. There's some great stuff (Soarin' - Epcot's version is a clone, Aladdin, California Screamin', Grizzly River Rapids, Tower of Terror is OK compared to Florida, but not as good IMHO) but it can be hard to make it a full day by itself if you're not all that into it. I'd recommend opening it one day and then closing DL. The next time, do something else early and close CA. It's lovely at night, particualrly if the Electrical Parade is running.

Dirk