Is it possible to get to dinner on time?

[musketeer]

Timing question. I've done the magical express thing many times, but never this exact combination, so I'm not sure if our dinner reservations are possible.

We land in Orlando at a few minutes before 3pm. Have to get to Caribbean Beach resort to check in, won't even go to the room, just right on the bus to the Magic Kingdom where we have dinner reservations at 5:40 at Tony's. Is this possible to make?

We've stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort 2 other times, but once we rented a car, and once we took the magical express but at around midnight, and I don't recall the timing of it.

The additional factors are fastpasses for immediately after dinner, so I don't want to push dinner back if I don't have to. And I purposely picked Tony's because it's right in front.

Tough problems to have, I know.

 

[stevehousse]

Never eaten there, but from what I've read, it's not very good, maybe that's not true.

Always remember that with online reviews for anywhere, more people are apt to complain than compliment. Always take every review with a grain of salt and make judgment for yourself!

 

[CheshireCat12]

Personally I think that if your flight is on time, you will make it. But if your flight is at all delayed, there is a good chance you won't make it. I would move the ADR to a later time (7 or 8:00) to be sure. I would not make an ADR within 3 hours of scheduled flight arrival. Maybe 5-6 hours. Of course you could leave the ADR time alone, chance it, and cancel before the ADR time if you know it won't happen.

 

[Dwarful]

How many people in your group and any little ones that might add some bumps in the road? If not, then as others have said it might be close...but fingers crossed it is possible. Would online check in shave any time off of the check in process? If so, I'd do that as well. We always add on the half day start and departure days because the cost is so minimal compared to the overall cost of the vacation. Good luck....you will have to let us know how it all turns out.

 

[laynalee07]

Disney will hold all ADR's for at least 15 minutes past reservation time. Some place even a little longer.
An extra 15 minutes could possibly go a long way in your situation!
Hope everything works out for you. Have a great trip!

 

[JohnD]

That's way too tight. I think you would be better off getting a later ADR at a restaurant in Downtown Disney or a resort. Even better: don't have an ADR. Just show up and put your name on a waiting list. Sit at a bar until your name is called.

Don't you want to unwind just a little after your flight? I think you're putting yourself under too much pressure.

 

[musketeer]

Don't you want to unwind just a little after your flight? I think you're putting yourself under too much pressure.

No. WDW is not an unwind vacation in our minds. The Disney Cruise four months later is when the unwinding can occur.

 

[musketeer]

And I don't really understand what there is to unwind from anyway. It's a 30 minute drive to the airport. Roughly 2 hours sitting at the airport. 3 hours on the airplane. Another 30 minutes sitting on the bus... It seems like sitting and taking it slow is the last thing we'd want to do.

 

[Foolish Mortal]

Way too many things can go wrong here, unfortunately. The only way I see this working is if your flight gets in early, your Magical Express bus is loading when you walk up, no traffic, you walk right up to a check in CM, and the most unlikely.....an MK bus pulls in the second you get to the bus stop. Other than that, no problem. Being a gambling man, I just don't see that many things happening. And if it does, please PM me lottery numbers when you can.

Also, what time of year ? storm delays. Leaving from what airport ? Philly in the afternoon, absolutely zero chance !!

 

[rangerbob]

From experience I know that it will take 30 minutes from landing to taxiing to the gate and getting off and then then monorail to the terminal. I greet families for Give Kids the World at OIA weekly and it is normally 30-45 minutes (US & Canada) 2 hours for international until we see them from the time that the board shows that the plane has landed. Most of the time I've seen most planes either early or on-time.

 

[Tom]

From experience I know that it will take 30 minutes from landing to taxiing to the gate and getting off and then then monorail to the terminal. I greet families for Give Kids the World at OIA weekly and it is normally 30-45 minutes (US & Canada) 2 hours for international until we see them from the time that the board shows that the plane has landed. Most of the time I've seen most planes either early or on-time.

Good point......"Arrival Time" is quite arbitrary....and very loose. So, the starting point can be off by 30 minutes.

 

[George]

The easiest way to get to dinner on time is to just get to dinner before the time dinner is going to be eaten. For example, if dinner is starting at 5:40 PM, I would get there at, say, 5:27 PM. Even though, not precisely, 5:40 most would consider this on time. Whereas, if you show up at say, 6:17 PM most would say you are not on time for dinner (once again, assuming 5:40 is on time as posited in our example). I hope this helps.

 

[epcot2004]

We cut a reservation close a few years ago. The Auto Train was late (as usual) and we rushed to get to Via Napoli and arrived only a minute or two early only to find plenty of open tabels. Unlikely to find open tables at Tony's but personally I would rearrange. Why start your tip off with extra stress? I think under the best of circumstances your chances of making that reservation are 50-50 at best. We don't even go to a park the first day anymore unless we arrive early and still have most of the day which is rare. Plenty of great places to eat without stressing and rushing!

 

[George]

See, therein lies the problem, I really DIDN'T seek advice. I asked how long it would take to go from two different points. Advice would be asking what restaurant to go to, or what hotel to stay in. Some people answered the question, but then it went into this unsolicited advice on how dumb it was to "waste" a day, which I think is nonsense. Then it turned to how I'm causing my family so much pain and suffering, and why don't I do things to relax and unwind.

We know what we're doing. This'll be our 9th trip there in the past 10 years, we know how to do it, we know how to keep our sanity. We know what we like to do, we know what we are capable of, we know what we want to see, what we can miss, what time to wake up in the morning, what time to leave, we know how to get the most out of the old and new fastpass system, we know many of the restaurants, we know many of the resorts, we don't need park maps, we know what we are doing. I've traveled there many different ways. By air and taking the mears shuttle before magical express. By air and magical express as it is now. By ground from my grandma's house on the gulf coast. By air and renting a car from orlando. By air and renting a car from Tampa. And even driving all the way from Michigan. So I know all the ins and outs of getting there

I simply asked if it was possible based on others experiences. I didn't ask if the wdwmagic message boards approved of our plans.

Of course, I don't own these boards, or this thread, people can say whatever they want. But this is the kind of thing that typically happens, and when I posted this, I had a feeling this would happen. I knew it would turn into advice that I didn't need nor want.

And I'm going to ask another question in another thread here shortly that is nothing more than a "how long does it take to get from one point to another", and I know it's going to turn into this again. The good news is, I know the answer will be in there somewhere.

I guess I can just ask that now, how long does it take to travel from MGM to Epcot via the boat? I'm sure it's slower than the bus, and I know I can walk and also take a taxi. But we want to ride the boat since we've never done that before. We have dinner reservations at Chefs de France the day we plan to go to MGM, and I specifically planned it that way so we could take the boat and get dropped off at nearly the exact right place at Epcot.

I'd set aside an hour. You can wait up to a half hour for the boat and it will stop at all the EPCOT area resorts before going to EPCOT. The good news is that back entrance to EPCOT by the BC is really convenient for Chefs de France access.

 

[Tom]

I guess I can just ask that now, how long does it take to travel from MGM to Epcot via the boat? I'm sure it's slower than the bus, and I know I can walk and also take a taxi. But we want to ride the boat since we've never done that before. We have dinner reservations at Chefs de France the day we plan to go to MGM, and I specifically planned it that way so we could take the boat and get dropped off at nearly the exact right place at Epcot.

In our experience, the boat takes at least 20 minutes, but I would allow at least 30. It stops several times between the two parks, and is very slow moving.

The nice thing is that it will drop you off mere feet from France, so including the turnstiles, it's just a few minutes from the boat to the restaurant, in case your crunched for time. Much better than being on a late bus and having the half-mile trek back there from the front entrance. I've done that more times than I care to admit, and hope to never do it again.

Of course, the 20 minutes is the RIDE time. You could end up finding a queue that's 2 boats long. Not likely....as I've never waited more than one boat....but possible.

I'd allow 45 minutes for the total process, and just be excited when you get there early

 

[Tom]

I'd set aside an hour. You can wait up to a half hour for the boat and it will stop at all the EPCOT area resorts before going to EPCOT. The good news is that back entrance to EPCOT by the BC is really convenient for Chefs de France access.

I said 45 minutes. So, it's 45 minutes. Not an hour.

Maybe 57 minutes, max. 58 TOPS.

 

[musketeer]

"We land in Orlando at a few minutes before 3pm. Have to get to Caribbean Beach resort to check in, won't even go to the room, just right on the bus to the Magic Kingdom where we have dinner reservations at 5:40 at Tony's. Is this possible to make?"

No. If you know everything, why did you bother to ask?

Nowhere in there was I asking for advice. I asked if it was possible. I didn't ask if I should waste a park ticket day. I didn't ask if people on here know if my family will be ok with it or not. I simply asked if the timing is do-able. As I said way back in the original post, we've done it many times, but I never really paid attention to the timing before. It as a simply 5 word question with some background.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

What exactly is meant by this? How is making dinner reservations and trying to make the most of our time there "micromanaging". Doesn't everybody who uses these boards try to make the most of their trips? Doesn't everybody make some effort to plan? Is it micromanaging if how we make our plans doesn't meet the approval of those on here? I don't understand what this means.

There is planning in my party, but only to an extent. I am not a big fan of my magic plus as a result and for the fact WDW has weather sensitive attractions. I don't think you getting the most depending Disney Transportation for leaving the airport. I had aunts that waited a long time for Magical Express and going to their hotel.


My other planning is giving me a lot of time for airplane flights for ADR's. I was on airline flights that landed in Orlando late 3 times because of weather, or problems with the plane itself like engines.

I honestly think you are not giving yourself enough time if something goes wrong.

 

[mousehockey37]

Good intentions would be answering the question without accusing me of trying to ruin the vacation for my family by making plans for dinner.

Both @JohnD and myself have said you won't make it. Again, we've said you WON'T make it. Don't know how else to tell ya.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Is there still a $25 charge per person for missed ADRs? If OP is okay with this charge, it seems to be up to him/her. Good to know there is such a wide diversity of opinion here. Super TypeA all the way to super laidback. Fun to read what the experts predict. Please do let us know how things work out.

 

[JohnD]

Then, "No". But you don't want to know why because that would be offering advice which you didn't ask for and besides you've done this 9 times before.

But if we offer why we don't think you can make it based on our experience--that's why you asked on this forum from knowledgable people--you utterly reject anything offered.

Good luck with your plan. It's your "vacation."