Help or Criticism on Our WDW Plans (NOV)

[shmmrname]

GROUP INFORMATION
Myself (30) and my wife (32) will be taking our niece (16) down to WDW on Saturday, and we will be staying at Coronado Springs Resort. We will be taking advantage of the "Free Dining" offer. My sister (26) and brother-in-law (27) will arrive on Tuesday night, and they will be staying at All-Star Movies Resort. They will not have the Disney Dining Plan.
My wife and I had tried to go to WDW every year or every-other-year, but both health scares and financial issues have forced us to wait much longer than we ever wanted to. This will be our first trip in 5 years. We have taken my niece before, 8 years ago. The couple meeting us (my sister and brother-in-law) have also been to WDW with us.
We loosely follow 'Touring Plans', and we have a pretty good idea of how to navigate the crowds and such. We're also trying to be realistic with our plans, to avoid wearing ourselves out too much. This is the first time we've 'scheduled mid-day breaks, and we hope it will pay off (we've taken them in the past, but only after we've been worn down mid-way through the trip... we hope scheduling them near-daily will avoid that).



Does anyone have any suggestions? Did I make any horrible mistakes?

 

[LostPrincessKarleigh]

Be sure to check in the WDW website to double check show times and EMH for your days. It's showing that Fantasmic is only playing at 6:30pm on 11/25.
Other than that, looks like a great trip! Have fun!

 

[shmmrname]

Be sure to check in the WDW website to double check show times and EMH for your days. It's showing that Fantasmic is only playing at 6:30pm on 11/25.
Other than that, looks like a great trip! Have fun!

Ah, thanks... I hadn't looked up the new/current times yet. We started the planning a few weeks ago, but we've had to do a ton of changes to accommodate the other people in our party. I'll have to look at the up-to-date hours for sure, those are kind of important, especially if you look at our Extra Magic Hour plans. Ugh!

EDIT: So far, there's nothing huge that's changed... so we should be good. If there's not 2 Fantasmic! shows that night, we'll have to suck-it-up and go to the only one showing.

One thing we are hoping for, is extended hours at the Magic Kingdom. We've stayed during Thanksgiving week before, and during that trip, nearly every day Magic Kingdom had its hours extended to midnight. It was glorious, but we know we can't rely on it to happen again either.

 

[zurgandfriend]

Looks very good, I sitting here with my coffee and high fiber breakfast and I see breakfast at the Kona café, have the macadamia pineapple pancakes, sausage and a press pot of coffee for me. Enjoy!

 

[olinecoach61]

Looks like a solid plan, breakfast at kona is a great way to start, I would go for the tonga toast, yummmmmm!

 

[shmmrname]

Looks very good, I sitting here with my coffee and high fiber breakfast and I see breakfast at the Kona café, have the macadamia pineapple pancakes, sausage and a press pot of coffee for me. Enjoy!

The first night we're there is always just strange feeling after a long drive. And, sometimes it's hard to get in the groove of morning touring on a WDW vacation. Tonga Toast on day one should help speed that up!

 

[shmmrname]

Looks very good, I sitting here with my coffee and high fiber breakfast and I see breakfast at the Kona café, have the macadamia pineapple pancakes, sausage and a press pot of coffee for me. Enjoy!

Kona Cafe was the last thing we planned, and it just kind of made complete sense. Now that I look at it all, it's almost perfect that it fit in right there on day one and MK. Can't wait!

 

[tare]

Sounds like a good plan. Ever thought if the hoop dee???? One of my favs!!!!

 

[75disney]

I have gone over Thanksgiving week for the several years and I will be there the same week as you (staying at POR). Your plan looks good, since the parks will stay open late that week. My only concern for you is Thanksgiving Day. You really needed to book an ADR around the 170-180 day mark. I just checked the dining site and almost every restaurant is booked for Thanksgiving. I know that you are holding our for Cali to open up its ressies, so keep checking daily. I would book some place in the interim so you are not eating chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers in the American Adventure like we did on our first Thanksgiving at Disney (booked the trip late, couldn't get any ADRs for any place good...). Good luck and hopefully we both will have a wonderful week!

 

[disneygirl76]

GROUP INFORMATION
Myself (30) and my wife (32) will be taking our niece (16) down to WDW on Saturday, and we will be staying at Coronado Springs Resort. We will be taking advantage of the "Free Dining" offer. My sister (26) and brother-in-law (27) will arrive on Tuesday night, and they will be staying at All-Star Movies Resort. They will not have the Disney Dining Plan.
My wife and I had tried to go to WDW every year or every-other-year, but both health scares and financial issues have forced us to wait much longer than we ever wanted to. This will be our first trip in 5 years. We have taken my niece before, 8 years ago. The couple meeting us (my sister and brother-in-law) have also been to WDW with us.
We loosely follow 'Touring Plans', and we have a pretty good idea of how to navigate the crowds and such. We're also trying to be realistic with our plans, to avoid wearing ourselves out too much. This is the first time we've 'scheduled mid-day breaks, and we hope it will pay off (we've taken them in the past, but only after we've been worn down mid-way through the trip... we hope scheduling them near-daily will avoid that).



Does anyone have any suggestions? Did I make any horrible mistakes?

Looks good! AK Counter Service - we like Yak and Yeti. We were at WDW on Thanksgiving one year and if you are looking for a "traditional" spread, we ate at 1900 Park Fare. It had all the trimmings and was a good time. As for making an ADR that day, when I was planning for that trip, I called the minute phone lines opened and 1900 Park Fare was my 3rd choice. ADR's for that date were very hard to get, more then normal b/c a lot of people wanted to have "Thanksgiving" dinner, whether it was a traditional meal or something else.

 

[shmmrname]

Sounds like a good plan. Ever thought if the hoop dee???? One of my favs!!!!

We've thought about it a little, but we're not sure if it will work this trip.

I have gone over Thanksgiving week for the several years and I will be there the same week as you (staying at POR). Your plan looks good, since the parks will stay open late that week. My only concern for you is Thanksgiving Day. You really needed to book an ADR around the 170-180 day mark. I just checked the dining site and almost every restaurant is booked for Thanksgiving. I know that you are holding our for Cali to open up its ressies, so keep checking daily. I would book some place in the interim so you are not eating chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers in the American Adventure like we did on our first Thanksgiving at Disney (booked the trip late, couldn't get any ADRs for any place good...). Good luck and hopefully we both will have a wonderful week!

Thanks. We're going to try to get a backup ADR this weekend for sure.

 

[wolf359]

I think your plan looks good! We've started scheduling in a little mid day down time in our own vacations and it does make the week go a lot smoother.

I think the biggest issue is the lack of reservations on Thanksgiving. Looking over what is available right now, it looks like your back up plan might have to include traveling to Epcot or Downtown Disney for dinner. It would probably be best to book something now and keep checking back (as in several times daily) for something to open up in the Magic Kingdom resort area.

 

[shmmrname]

I think your plan looks good! We've started scheduling in a little mid day down time in our own vacations and it does make the week go a lot smoother.

I think the biggest issue is the lack of reservations on Thanksgiving. Looking over what is available right now, it looks like your back up plan might have to include traveling to Epcot or Downtown Disney for dinner. It would probably be best to book something now and keep checking back (as in several times daily) for something to open up in the Magic Kingdom resort area.

We made a Raglan Road (DTD) ADR for a backup plan. I loved Raglan Road on one of our last trips, but honestly there weren't much options. We're going to see if any Liberty Tree Tavern spots ever open up, but we'll be fine at Raglan Road if we have to be.

 

[KCheatle]

Looks like a great plan! My only recommendation would be on the night you are eating at Whispering Canyon, I would recommend taking the bus from CS to MK, and then hopping on the boat from MK to WL. I think that would be the easiest way to get there. Same thing for GF, except, obviously, you'd take the mono from MK. It seems, though, that a lot of people who have not stayed at WL are not entirely aware of how convenient the boat from MK to WL really is. Have a great trip!!

 

[shmmrname]

Looks like a great plan! My only recommendation would be on the night you are eating at Whispering Canyon, I would recommend taking the bus from CS to MK, and then hopping on the boat from MK to WL. I think that would be the easiest way to get there. Same thing for GF, except, obviously, you'd take the mono from MK. It seems, though, that a lot of people who have not stayed at WL are not entirely aware of how convenient the boat from MK to WL really is. Have a great trip!!

Thanks!
Yes, I planned on using the boat for the WL dinner. There's really no 'easy' way to go to resort-to-resort, so we always try to take advantage of the ones that have boat or monorail access. Plus, I just think that boat trip at night can be very, very pretty.