First trip - October plans revised!

[indycindy]

I posted my trip plans a couple of days ago and got a lot of great feedback, so I have made some changes and I would like to know how you all think that these plans look.

Everything that I havve read says that the most important thing when going to WDW is to get to the parks as early as possible. We are a family of early risers during the school year. I have to be at my job by 7:30, and I drop my girls at school on my way. My husband has to be at work usually between 3:00am and 4:00am every morning. Also, we NEED a big breakfast to get us started.....that's why I scheduled all of the early morning breakfasts. I called Coronado Springs directly and they said that the Consierge would make SURE that we got to our early morning ADR on time. Apparently they do a shuttle bus for those who have extra early ADRs. We decided not to rent a car and will be relying 100% on Disney's transportation.

My girls will be 7 and (almost) 10 when we go. My husband is going with us and the reason I got the Deluxe Dining Plan is because he wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy himself if we had to pay as we go. This way, he won't be looking at the prices on all of the menus!
I used touringplans.com to plan what days to go to which parks (on 5 of the days I am going to the park that they most hightly recommend, and on two of the days I am going to one of the middle parks, but I never chose to go to a park that they predicted would be the most crowded that day. I also am using their personalized touring plan option to create tourning plans with the exact attractions that we are interested in. I realize that this will be something that we follow loosely, but I LOVE that they give you a general idea of the best order in which to see each attraction.

Your thoughts on this plan would be greatly appreciated!

Day 1 (Friday, October 11, 2013): flight arrival in Orlando airport at 5:20pm
Check in at Coronado Springs
Dinner at 8:00pm Maya Grill
Go to bed right after dinner.

Day 2: Magic Kingdom Day (use personalized touring plan)
Breakfast Chef Mickey's 7:00am
Lunch at Be Our Guest (get in line around 1:00pm)
If we are exhausted after lunch, we might go back to the room to rest until dinner.
Dinner My current ADR are for Artist Point 7:05pm, but Hopefully I can change this to California Grill at 7:30pm when they start taking reservations again, and then watch Wishes from there. This would be our only chance to see the regular Wishes instead of the HalloWishes.



Day 3 Animal Kingdom Day – stay all day - (use personalized touring plan)
Breakfast Boma 7:30am
Dinner Jiko 5:30pm
If we aren't too tired after dinner, we might go to Downtown Disney

Day 4 Epcot Day - (use personalized touring plan)
Breakfast Akershus 8:10am
Snacks for lunch at Food and Wine booths.
Back to resort for an afternoon break if we are tired.
Dinner at Monsieur Paul 7:15am
IllumiNaions at 9:00pm
MNSSHP 7:00pm-midnight (if we last that long….)
HalloWishes!!!
Counter service or snacks for dinner


Day 5 Magic Kingdom Day - (use personalized touring plan in the morning, but not at MNSSHP)
Breakfast 1900 Park Fare 8:10am
Lunch Cinderella's Royal Table 2:00pm
After lunch, return to resort to rest and get ready for MNSSHP
MNSSHP 7:00pm-midnight (if we last that long….)
HalloWishes!!!
Counter service or snacks for dinner

Day 6 Hollywood Studios Day – short day, only 3-4 hours in park- (use personalize touring plan)
Sleep in! Breakfast in hotel room or use “snack credits” at resort.
Go to Hollywood Studios whenever we get up and going (probably 11:00ish)
Dinner Hoop Dee Do Revue – 4:00pm
If we aren’t too tired after the show, and if there is time, we might go back to HS and watch Fantasmic, but it’s ok if we miss it. If there isn't time to go back to HS, we might go to Downtown Disney

Day 7 Epcot – no touring plan this day, unless I make one on my phone the night before – this day will be just for revisiting what we want to see again and for trying to see what we haven’t seen yet. Breakfast Captain's Grill 7:30am
Use snack credits for lunch at the Food and Wine booths.
If we are tired in the afternoon, or if the girls feel like swimming, we can return to resort to rest & swim in the afternoon
Dinner Narcoosee's 7:50pm - Hopefully get a window table to watch HalloWishes with our dessert!

Day 8 (Friday, October 18, 2013) Magic Kingdom – no touring plan this day, unless I make one on my phone the night before – this day will be just for revisiting what we want to see again and for trying to see what we haven’t seen yet.
Breakfast The Wave 7:30am
Lunch Crystal Palace 2:35 pm

Flight departure from Orlando airport at 7:40pm

 

[CtDisneyGuy33]

Wow, this sounds like a great trip!!

As I look your itinerary, you have lots of great restaurants planned. Most of these, are on my hit list for early October.

Just a ballpark, what are you expecting food costs to be? I don't mean to pry, simply wondering as you have an amazing list of places to eat here!!

 

[tsaintc]

Indycindy, this looks more manageable based on my experiences. But, I have a few more questions/comments if you don't mind. If you do, feel free to ignore the rest of my post. Either way, I hope you have a great time.

1. Do you have tickets for MNSSHP? If so, you should plan on being in the park no later than 6/7pm. Also, this is one of my kids' favorite Disney experiences (we have done this now 3 times). In addition, the 'Boo to You' parade is my personal favorite (over Xmas as well). If you do have tickets, you really should consider changing your plans to be at the party from the start. DO NOT believe the negative hype; your kids will love this event.

2. I noticed that you have very little DHS time planned, including a late start. Unless you do not like this park based on personal experiences or do not plan on doing the thrill rides (ToT/RnR), once again DO NOT believe all of the negative hype about this park. This is my daughter's (age 13) favorite park and my son's (age 10) second favorite and they have been to the 'World 10+ times. Although it may have lost some of its continuity over the years, the atmosphere of this park is amazing.

3. Monsieur Paul sounds great, but not sure how the kids will receive it. I have heard mixed reviews, including the two on this site, about this place. Also, there is a dress code posted, but not sure if they are enforcing it.

 

[indycindy]

tsaintc - When you read it, I forgot to post Day 5, so I added it. That is the day that we are going to MNSSHP. I haven't bought the tickets because they haven't gone on sale yet. The only reason that I even think it will be that night is because I saw on the Disney Website that the Magic Kingdome closes at 7pm on that day, so I assume that is for MNNSHP. I DId schedule that I wanted to go home that day to rest and change into costumes after Cinderella's Royal Table. I am SUPER excited about MNSSHP! I know that we will love it, but I doubt if we will be able to stay until midnight (we usually go to bed pretty early!).

I will read some more about HS - it's just not very appealing to me....I DO want to go, but I scheduled it on our "sleep-in" day because I figure that we won't need a whole day there. I could move my Hoop reservations back to the 6:15 show, but then we DEFINITELY wouldn't be able to make it back to HS by Fantasmic..... Maybe we could get up earlier and go there earlier. According to touringplans.com, we can get all of the attractions we are interested in pretty quickly.....thank you for the advice. One of my girlfriends who goes to WDW every year said that she had avoided HS every year because she didn't think her girls (same ages as mine). Finally last year, one of our other friends convinced her to take one of their days to go Hollywood Studios and she did, and she loved it. Maybe I WILL make everyone get up a bit earlier that day.

 

[Clamman73]

So there's no more breakfast served at Maya Grill at Coronado??? They had a goods eggs benedict...

 

[indycindy]

No, Clamman, I called and asked! Eggs Benedict is my FAVORITE! I told my husband that I was choosing restaurants based on whether of not restaurants had eggs benedict and creme brulee I was SOOOOOO hoping to have breakfast at my own resort. I'm bummed that they stopped serving breakfast :-/

 

[Joshua&CalebDad]

The one and only thought I have is that you need to be sure that you are accounting for approximately 90 minutes per meal that you are having at a table service restaurant and that you are spacing eating times far enough apart. One table service a day for my family was more than enough (in food and time that it took up). We were on the Plus plan that gave us a one snack credit, one quick service, and one table service credit per day. We had plenty to eat between the one table service and one quick service per day. By the end of the week we were sick of food.

We ate at fantasic table service restaurants (Crystal Palace, BoG, Le Celliers, O'hana's, etc.) and great quick service locations so the food was great, it was just alot of it.

Aside from that it looks as though you are on the ball. Good luck and have a great time.

 

[Jo DeVil]

Day 4 Epcot Day - (use personalized touring plan)
Breakfast Akershus 8:10am
Snacks for lunch at Food and Wine booths.
Back to resort for an afternoon break if we are tired.
Dinner at Monsieur Paul 7:15am
IllumiNaions at 9:00pm
MNSSHP 7:00pm-midnight (if we last that long….)
HalloWishes!!!
Counter service or snacks for dinner


Day 5 Magic Kingdom Day - (use personalized touring plan in the morning, but not at MNSSHP)
Breakfast 1900 Park Fare 8:10am
Lunch Cinderella's Royal Table 2:00pm
After lunch, return to resort to rest and get ready for MNSSHP
MNSSHP 7:00pm-midnight (if we last that long….)
HalloWishes!!!
Counter service or snacks for dinner

Are you doing MNSSHP twice or is it a typo? Twice would be great.