This is a copy and paste from my blog. So it is written with a more general audience in mind.
We are less than a month from our next family trip to Walt Disney World. At this point, the plans are mostly finalized. As I write this, Disney has just opened up FastPass+ availability for their latest attraction, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I was able to make a couple of FP+ reservations for the ride early this morning before the demand for FPs crashed Disney's system. So with those FPs taken care of, there isn't much left to do but wait.
For our 2012 trip (pictured above), I shared an extremely detailed step-by-step plan in my pre-trip report. I did so in the form of a countdown from Day 50 until Day 8. My plans are a lot less detailed this time around. Last trip, we were squeezing in all four parks in 5 days. It required a tight schedule to see and do everything I had planned. This time, we have 4 full days at the Magic Kingdom. So we can afford to be spontaneous.
Before I get started on the details, let me re-introduce the players. I of course am your humble narrator, lebeau. I am the planner of the party. My wife, Mindy, typically tolerates my Disney obsession. Although frankly, this trip would not have happened this year if she hadn't pushed for it. She denies it now, but this trip was her idea. For reals.
Then there's our two kids. Josie is our oldest daughter. She will be nine at the time of the trip. Perfect age. Disney charges 10-year-olds as adults. This will be Josie's fifth trip to Disney World. She's a veteran at this point and will ride almost anything. Kara is our youngest. She's recently turned 5. This will be her 3rd trip. Plus 1/2 credit from the time we went while Mindy was pregnant. Kara is really in this for the princesses. She has told us repeatedly she will not do anything that has villains. And she means it.
In 2012, my mom came along for the ride. This year, unfortunately, she can't join us. Which is a shame because having her along was a big help last time. Hopefully it works out next time. Last time, since we were a party of five, we stayed at Disney's Art of Animation in one of the Lion King suites. But since we're back down to a family of four, we'll be returning to the moderate resorts.
This year we will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside. We stayed at this resort in 2010 with mixed results. We all agreed that the grounds were beautiful. But we grew frustrated with the double beds, the sprawling layout and the crowded buses. A couple years ago, Disney renovated all of the rooms at Port Orleans including queen beds and flat-screen TVs. Part of the renovation included adding several princess-themed "royal guest" rooms. We will be staying in one of these themed rooms although the girls don't know it yet. I'm looking forward to the reaction when they see it.
We're scheduled to arrive at Orlando at 6:00 on our arrival day. I usually allow an hour to get to the resort and get checked in. From there, we are headed to Downtown Disney. Port Orleans has boats that go directly from the resort to the shopping and dining complex. We have dinner reservations at Planet Hollywood at 8:00. This is extremely late for us. But I wasn't thinking about dinner when I booked the flights. Ooops. We'll have to pack some snacks to keep the girls from getting hungry/grumpy.
While we're in Downtown Disney, we'll probably squeeze in some shopping. The girls are going to need new autograph books for all the character meet and greets we have planned. So I will let them pick them up here. The girls are both obsessed with gift shops. About a month ago, we went to the zoo and I refused to let them buy anything in the gift shop. They are STILL mad about it. So I have to budget for souvenirs and space them out over the course of the trip.
Our first full day is one of our Magic Kingdom days. The goal here is to see everything new in New Fantasyland. I have been reporting on Fantasyland for years now. Ever since 2010! A big part of this trip is that I want to report on the project now that it is finished. We will be arriving as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opens. So the timing of that really couldn't be any more perfect.
When we were there in fall of 2012, we were fortunate enough to experience much of the New Fantasyland through a soft opening. We were limited in time and had to choose between the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast sections of the expansion. The kids opted to visit Ariel which means the Beauty and the Best attractions will be new to us.
Also new to us will be the Be Our Guest Restaurant. This unique restaurant offers a counter service lunch and a table service dinner. Since it opened in 2012, it has been extremely popular and very difficult to get into. Lines for lunch are frequently up to an hour. And reservations for dinner typically disappear 180 days in advance.
Since this trip was planned about 70 days out, I had little hope of getting a reservation for the Be Our Guest Restaurant. Sure enough, when I made our dining reservations, it was booked solid for the length of our stay. But I kept checking back daily. Fortunately, my persistence paid off and I was able to book a dinner reservation on our first night.
In the interest of being thorough, I also wanted to experience lunch at Be Our Guest. Mindy was excited about the croques monsieur on the lunch menu. But we weren't about to wait an hour to get in. The girls wouldn't sit still that long. Fortunately, we were able to get a special FP for lunch at the Be Our Guest. So we will be having both lunch and dinner there on our first day.
To complete the experience, I have booked FPs for Enchanted Tales with Belle. We'll also be on the lookout for Gaston. And I intend to stop into his tavern for a Lafou's Brew. Honestly, the drink itself doesn't appeal to me all that much. But I want to be able to report on the entire Fantasyland experience. I figure between the four of us, someone in the party is bound to like the frozen apple juice drink, right?
Our remaining FastPass reservations are for the newly opened Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and the Princess Fantasy Faire. We won't be visiting Anna and Elsa there just yet. Waits for the Frozen characters regularly exceeds three hours. And I wasn't able to get FPs for the first few days of our trip due to how popular the sisters are. So we will be visiting with Cinderella and Rapunzel for now.
By the end of the day, we should have thoroughly explored all of New Fantasyland. Typically, we take a break in the mid-afternoon to allow the girls to rest. Midday is when the crowds are the heaviest and the temperature the highest. So we will return to the resort for rest, relaxation and probably a dip in the pool. This will preclude us from experiencing the Festival of Fantasy parade for now.
I am hopeful that at some point during our trip, we will be able to stay in the park late enough to catch Wishes. To date, we have always left the park before the fireworks started. I figure we have four nights to try and catch it this time. We saw the Mainstreet Electrical Parade in 2012. So I am less concerned with seeing it again this year. But maybe we will obtain a 4th FP for the parade one day when we have exhausted our allotment on rides.
On day 2, we will visit Hollywood Studios. I was on the fence about skipping this park. On the one hand, it is the home of Mindy's favorite restaurant (50's Prime Time Cafe) and her favorite ride (Tower of Terror). On the other hand, there's not a lot there for the girls. Josie can ride Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster. But she didn't enjoy them in 2012. And Kara is too short for most of the rides.
Obviously, we decided to visit the park. Four days in the Magic Kingdom should be more than sufficient. And we didn't expect to need more than one day in Epcot. So Hollywood Studios fit in our schedule almost by default. (We are skipping Animal Kingdom this year. We'll return when Disney opens the new night-time entertainment.)
As I mentioned before, this trip was initially planned somewhat hastily. I took my dining reservations as I could get them. Sometimes, availability determined what parks we visited on a specific day. I kept tweaking reservations as availability changed. For that reason, we ended up at Hollywood Studios on Friday. What I did not realize at the time was that would put us there for a Star Wars Weekend.
When I first discovered Star Wars Weekends, it was a dream of mine to go. As a lifelong Star Wars fan who frequents Disney parks, it seemed like a no-brainer. But then we had kids who could not be less interested in Star Wars. And the dream died. I had resigned myself to never going. It didn't seem worth it to deal with the crowds when no one was interested but me.
When I realized that we would be at Hollywood Studios on a Star Wars Weekend, I considered changing our plans. But eventually, I decided to leave them as they were. Like the Fantasyland Expansion, I thought it would be a good idea to cover the Star Wars Weekend here at the blog.
Because the girls aren't interested in Star Wars, we won't be participating in many of the themed events. The lines to see Star Wars characters or celebrities can be very long. We won't be waiting in them. When I looked at the list of offerings the only two that I could see doing were the parade and the fireworks.
About a week ago, Disney rolled out a new offering. It's called the Feel the Force Premium Package. For $54 per adult and $32 per child, guests will be allowed to watch both the parade and the fireworks in a reserved viewing area. There is no seating, but you can see the shows without having to reserve your own spot an hour in advance.
During the parade, appetizers will be served. During the fireworks, there is a dessert party which will include a "signature drink". Apparently there will be alcoholic options. What specifically these food offerings entail are unknown. But I decided to sign up for this package because it guaranteed that I would get to experience the parade and the fireworks without too much fuss. If the girls aren't interested, they can just enjoy the snacks and desserts.
FastPasses at Hollywood Studios are tiered. So you can't get FPs for all the good rides in advance. We decided to get FPs for Toy Story Mania because it is really the only ride at Hollywood Studios Kara enjoys and lines are insanely long. We may queue up for TSM at rope drop so we can ride it twice. There's just not much else there for our youngest one.
We also got FastPasses for Star Tours. It's a Star Wars Weekend. How can you not? Josie really liked Star Tours in 2012. Kara should be tall enough to give it a try for the first time if she wants to. Maybe she will like it too. If so, that will make two rides for her at this park.
Our third scheduled FastPass is for Tower of Terror. It's Mindy's favorite ride in the world. Josie rode in 2012, but didn't like it. She wants to give it another try this year. Maybe she will like it better. There is no way Kara will ride it even though technically she is tall enough.
Dinner is of course at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. We have eaten there every single trip since our honeymoon in 2003. For Mindy, a trip wouldn't be complete unless it included a visit to the Prime Time Cafe. We have yet to have a bad experience there.
There aren't a lot of must-do attractions for us at this park. We will fill the rest of the day with things like Disney Jr. Live and Muppetvision 3-D. We'll ride the Great Movie Ride because that's what you do. Josie enjoys it but Kara doesn't. We may sit through the Backlot Tour again just because. Or watch the Beauty and the Beast show.
Despite the fact that Kara loves Ariel, we will probably skip the Little Mermaid show. Kara was scared of the Ursula animatronic in the Little Mermaid ride and refuses to entertain the idea of ever riding it again. The Little Mermaid show features a bigger and scarier Ursula puppet. So we will probably opt out.
If the opportunity presents itself to take in a little more of the Star Wars Weekend atmosphere, I will try to do so. At a minimum, I want to pick up a T-shirt for the event so I can make all my geeky friends jealous. Okay, maybe just Daffy.
We may or may not stick around for the last show of Fantasmic! We saw the show in 2012, so it's not a priority. If we still have gas in our tanks, we'll probably stick around. But if everyone is running on empty, we'll probably go back to the hotel and avoid the crowds.
On Saturday, we are back at the Magic Kingdom. We will be meeting with one of Mindy's friends and her husband. I have never met this couple before, but Janelle sends packages to the girls every holiday. Although the girls have never met Janelle in person, they are big fans.
Because we will be meeting up with others, I'm not planning to take our usual afternoon break this day. It doesn't seem right to abandon them back at the park or to ask them to take time from their day to ride a bus back to our hotel. So this is the day when I am planning to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade.
Other than that, plans are fairly fluid. We have FPs for Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder Mountain just because those are popular rides which typically have long waits. I imagine we'll do things like the Hall of Presidents and Country Bears just to get out of the heat. We may also venture out to Tom Sawyer Island to let the kids run around for a while.
We have dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace. We have never eaten there before at least in part because of Mindy's irrational hatred of Winnie the Pooh. The buffet should ensure that even Josie, our extremely picky eater, will be able to find something she likes. This may be a day we turn in a little early since we are skipping our afternoon break.
Our fourth day is at Epcot. Like Hollywood Studios, Epcot has a tiered FastPass system. Basically, this means you can only reserve one useful FastPass in advance. We have chosen Soarin' since it tends to have the longest lines in the park.
Josie rode Soarin' for the first time in 2010. She didn't like it. She rode it again in 2012 and liked it a lot. So she wants to ride it again. Kara is probably where Josie was in 2010. We may get her to ride it. But I doubt she'll like it. So I probably won't push very hard.
The other big ride we could all potentially enjoy is Test Track. Test Track was closed for refurbishment when we went in 2012. So this will be our first opportunity to see the latest version. The plan is to hit Test Track at rope drop and then use our FastPass for Soarin'.
All of our FastPasses are early in the morning. With our afternoon break, our day is divided between Future World in the morning and World Showcase at night. There aren't a lot of attractions that offer FP in the World Showcase. And the FastPasses that are offered are in the same tier as Soarin'. So the plan is to use all of our FastPasses in Future World in the morning and then try to schedule a fourth FP for Maelstrom in the evening.
Our plans for Epcot are also relatively open. There's not a lot in Future World that qualifies as a must do for the girls. And the best way to experience World Showcase if to explore the pavilions. So we will mostly just go where our interests take us.
The biggest exception is Mulan. The girls have become very interested in Mulan since our last trip. So we are going to make an effort to see her. Unfortunately, Mulan is out mostly during our afternoon break. So when we return to the park in the evening, the China pavilion will need to be our first stop.
We have dinner scheduled at Akershus that night. We ate there in 2012 and enjoyed it primarily for the princess interactions. It's pretty much one-stop shopping where the princesses are concerned. Typically you can expect to see Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Snow White and Cinderella. But substitutions happen sometimes.
I was less impressed with the food last time. It was edible. But not all that exciting. No one left hungry, but I don't think anyone was stuffed either in spite of the fact that the meal is all-you-care to eat.
I'm a little concerned about Josie at this meal. She is pickier than she was in 2012. But last time she filled up on desserts. I didn't even get to taste the chocolate mousse because she inhaled it faster than the waiter could replenish it.
Like Wishes, we have never stayed long enough to watch Illuminations. Perhaps this will be the night we finally see the fireworks show. But if everyone is tired, I won't push the issue. Sometimes knowing when to call it a night is half the battle.
Our last two days are at the Magic Kingdom. I have scheduled Fast Passes to see the sisters from Frozen on both of our final days. That way if for any reason something goes wrong on the first day, I have the second set of FPs as a back-up. I doubt we will seriously visit Anna and Else twice, but then again you never know. Kara in particular is obsessed with Frozen these days.
On the morning of our fifth day, I have scheduled breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table inside the castle. There is a pretty high likelihood I will cancel this reservation. Breakfast at the castle is an expensive affair and we will be paying for it out of pocket. We've eaten there twice in 2010 and 2012. The princesses offered are mostly the same ones you see at Akershus.
So why make the reservation? Frankly, it's hard to get. So when I saw it, become available, I decided to snag it. This way, I have the option to go should we decide we want to.
Our non-Frozen FP selections are currently for Peter Pan and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We already have FPs for both of these attractions earlier in the trip. So we may change them to something else if we decide we don't want to experience them a second time.
Essentially, our last two days in the Magic Kingdom will be spent doing anything we missed in the first two days and re-experiencing our favorite attractions.
Dinner on Monday night is scheduled at Chef Mickey's. We ate there in 2012 and the girls loved the character interactions. The buffet doesn't appeal to me all that much, but my picky eater will be happy.
After dinner, we may or may not return to the park. We'll just have to see how much energy we have after a meal with Mickey.
Our last day at the Magic Kingdom is almost completely up in the air. I have the Frozen FPs just in case. The other two are for the mountains (Splash and Big Thunder) in Frontierland. This is all open to change.
Our final dinner of the trip is scheduled at Tony's Restaurant. I struggled with this one. It's not the most popular restaurant in Disney World. At one point, I considered switching dinner to Ohana. That is a much harder reservation to get, so I felt lucky when it suddenly became available. I e-mailed Mindy to see if she wanted me to switch our reservations. But to my surprise, she did not want to switch.
The more I thought about it, the more I was okay with Tony's. For one, we have never eaten there before. So it will be nice to try something new even if it doesn't turn out to be a family favorite. Also, you can't beat the location. Tony's is conveniently located on Main Street. To get to Ohana, we'd have to leave the park and take a monorail to the Polynesian Resort. We will be doing this to get to the Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. Resort hopping two nights in a row seemed like a little much.
Finally, Ohana presented some problems for our picky eater. The menu did not appeal to her at all. I have been assured that Ohana will accommodate picky eaters. But Josie is fairly hard to please. She likes pasta and sauce, so Tony's seemed like a safer bet.
This last day in the parks is basically a victory lap. One final opportunity to make sure everything we wanted to see and do has been crossed off our list. All the characters we wanted to meet have been met. And one final opportunity to re-experience our favorite attractions before heading home.
More Disney World
Le Blog
We are less than a month from our next family trip to Walt Disney World. At this point, the plans are mostly finalized. As I write this, Disney has just opened up FastPass+ availability for their latest attraction, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I was able to make a couple of FP+ reservations for the ride early this morning before the demand for FPs crashed Disney's system. So with those FPs taken care of, there isn't much left to do but wait.
For our 2012 trip (pictured above), I shared an extremely detailed step-by-step plan in my pre-trip report. I did so in the form of a countdown from Day 50 until Day 8. My plans are a lot less detailed this time around. Last trip, we were squeezing in all four parks in 5 days. It required a tight schedule to see and do everything I had planned. This time, we have 4 full days at the Magic Kingdom. So we can afford to be spontaneous.
Before I get started on the details, let me re-introduce the players. I of course am your humble narrator, lebeau. I am the planner of the party. My wife, Mindy, typically tolerates my Disney obsession. Although frankly, this trip would not have happened this year if she hadn't pushed for it. She denies it now, but this trip was her idea. For reals.
Then there's our two kids. Josie is our oldest daughter. She will be nine at the time of the trip. Perfect age. Disney charges 10-year-olds as adults. This will be Josie's fifth trip to Disney World. She's a veteran at this point and will ride almost anything. Kara is our youngest. She's recently turned 5. This will be her 3rd trip. Plus 1/2 credit from the time we went while Mindy was pregnant. Kara is really in this for the princesses. She has told us repeatedly she will not do anything that has villains. And she means it.
In 2012, my mom came along for the ride. This year, unfortunately, she can't join us. Which is a shame because having her along was a big help last time. Hopefully it works out next time. Last time, since we were a party of five, we stayed at Disney's Art of Animation in one of the Lion King suites. But since we're back down to a family of four, we'll be returning to the moderate resorts.
This year we will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside. We stayed at this resort in 2010 with mixed results. We all agreed that the grounds were beautiful. But we grew frustrated with the double beds, the sprawling layout and the crowded buses. A couple years ago, Disney renovated all of the rooms at Port Orleans including queen beds and flat-screen TVs. Part of the renovation included adding several princess-themed "royal guest" rooms. We will be staying in one of these themed rooms although the girls don't know it yet. I'm looking forward to the reaction when they see it.
We're scheduled to arrive at Orlando at 6:00 on our arrival day. I usually allow an hour to get to the resort and get checked in. From there, we are headed to Downtown Disney. Port Orleans has boats that go directly from the resort to the shopping and dining complex. We have dinner reservations at Planet Hollywood at 8:00. This is extremely late for us. But I wasn't thinking about dinner when I booked the flights. Ooops. We'll have to pack some snacks to keep the girls from getting hungry/grumpy.
While we're in Downtown Disney, we'll probably squeeze in some shopping. The girls are going to need new autograph books for all the character meet and greets we have planned. So I will let them pick them up here. The girls are both obsessed with gift shops. About a month ago, we went to the zoo and I refused to let them buy anything in the gift shop. They are STILL mad about it. So I have to budget for souvenirs and space them out over the course of the trip.
Our first full day is one of our Magic Kingdom days. The goal here is to see everything new in New Fantasyland. I have been reporting on Fantasyland for years now. Ever since 2010! A big part of this trip is that I want to report on the project now that it is finished. We will be arriving as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opens. So the timing of that really couldn't be any more perfect.
When we were there in fall of 2012, we were fortunate enough to experience much of the New Fantasyland through a soft opening. We were limited in time and had to choose between the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast sections of the expansion. The kids opted to visit Ariel which means the Beauty and the Best attractions will be new to us.
Also new to us will be the Be Our Guest Restaurant. This unique restaurant offers a counter service lunch and a table service dinner. Since it opened in 2012, it has been extremely popular and very difficult to get into. Lines for lunch are frequently up to an hour. And reservations for dinner typically disappear 180 days in advance.
Since this trip was planned about 70 days out, I had little hope of getting a reservation for the Be Our Guest Restaurant. Sure enough, when I made our dining reservations, it was booked solid for the length of our stay. But I kept checking back daily. Fortunately, my persistence paid off and I was able to book a dinner reservation on our first night.
In the interest of being thorough, I also wanted to experience lunch at Be Our Guest. Mindy was excited about the croques monsieur on the lunch menu. But we weren't about to wait an hour to get in. The girls wouldn't sit still that long. Fortunately, we were able to get a special FP for lunch at the Be Our Guest. So we will be having both lunch and dinner there on our first day.
To complete the experience, I have booked FPs for Enchanted Tales with Belle. We'll also be on the lookout for Gaston. And I intend to stop into his tavern for a Lafou's Brew. Honestly, the drink itself doesn't appeal to me all that much. But I want to be able to report on the entire Fantasyland experience. I figure between the four of us, someone in the party is bound to like the frozen apple juice drink, right?
Our remaining FastPass reservations are for the newly opened Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and the Princess Fantasy Faire. We won't be visiting Anna and Elsa there just yet. Waits for the Frozen characters regularly exceeds three hours. And I wasn't able to get FPs for the first few days of our trip due to how popular the sisters are. So we will be visiting with Cinderella and Rapunzel for now.
By the end of the day, we should have thoroughly explored all of New Fantasyland. Typically, we take a break in the mid-afternoon to allow the girls to rest. Midday is when the crowds are the heaviest and the temperature the highest. So we will return to the resort for rest, relaxation and probably a dip in the pool. This will preclude us from experiencing the Festival of Fantasy parade for now.
I am hopeful that at some point during our trip, we will be able to stay in the park late enough to catch Wishes. To date, we have always left the park before the fireworks started. I figure we have four nights to try and catch it this time. We saw the Mainstreet Electrical Parade in 2012. So I am less concerned with seeing it again this year. But maybe we will obtain a 4th FP for the parade one day when we have exhausted our allotment on rides.
On day 2, we will visit Hollywood Studios. I was on the fence about skipping this park. On the one hand, it is the home of Mindy's favorite restaurant (50's Prime Time Cafe) and her favorite ride (Tower of Terror). On the other hand, there's not a lot there for the girls. Josie can ride Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster. But she didn't enjoy them in 2012. And Kara is too short for most of the rides.
Obviously, we decided to visit the park. Four days in the Magic Kingdom should be more than sufficient. And we didn't expect to need more than one day in Epcot. So Hollywood Studios fit in our schedule almost by default. (We are skipping Animal Kingdom this year. We'll return when Disney opens the new night-time entertainment.)
As I mentioned before, this trip was initially planned somewhat hastily. I took my dining reservations as I could get them. Sometimes, availability determined what parks we visited on a specific day. I kept tweaking reservations as availability changed. For that reason, we ended up at Hollywood Studios on Friday. What I did not realize at the time was that would put us there for a Star Wars Weekend.
When I first discovered Star Wars Weekends, it was a dream of mine to go. As a lifelong Star Wars fan who frequents Disney parks, it seemed like a no-brainer. But then we had kids who could not be less interested in Star Wars. And the dream died. I had resigned myself to never going. It didn't seem worth it to deal with the crowds when no one was interested but me.
When I realized that we would be at Hollywood Studios on a Star Wars Weekend, I considered changing our plans. But eventually, I decided to leave them as they were. Like the Fantasyland Expansion, I thought it would be a good idea to cover the Star Wars Weekend here at the blog.
Because the girls aren't interested in Star Wars, we won't be participating in many of the themed events. The lines to see Star Wars characters or celebrities can be very long. We won't be waiting in them. When I looked at the list of offerings the only two that I could see doing were the parade and the fireworks.
About a week ago, Disney rolled out a new offering. It's called the Feel the Force Premium Package. For $54 per adult and $32 per child, guests will be allowed to watch both the parade and the fireworks in a reserved viewing area. There is no seating, but you can see the shows without having to reserve your own spot an hour in advance.
During the parade, appetizers will be served. During the fireworks, there is a dessert party which will include a "signature drink". Apparently there will be alcoholic options. What specifically these food offerings entail are unknown. But I decided to sign up for this package because it guaranteed that I would get to experience the parade and the fireworks without too much fuss. If the girls aren't interested, they can just enjoy the snacks and desserts.
FastPasses at Hollywood Studios are tiered. So you can't get FPs for all the good rides in advance. We decided to get FPs for Toy Story Mania because it is really the only ride at Hollywood Studios Kara enjoys and lines are insanely long. We may queue up for TSM at rope drop so we can ride it twice. There's just not much else there for our youngest one.
We also got FastPasses for Star Tours. It's a Star Wars Weekend. How can you not? Josie really liked Star Tours in 2012. Kara should be tall enough to give it a try for the first time if she wants to. Maybe she will like it too. If so, that will make two rides for her at this park.
Our third scheduled FastPass is for Tower of Terror. It's Mindy's favorite ride in the world. Josie rode in 2012, but didn't like it. She wants to give it another try this year. Maybe she will like it better. There is no way Kara will ride it even though technically she is tall enough.
Dinner is of course at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. We have eaten there every single trip since our honeymoon in 2003. For Mindy, a trip wouldn't be complete unless it included a visit to the Prime Time Cafe. We have yet to have a bad experience there.
There aren't a lot of must-do attractions for us at this park. We will fill the rest of the day with things like Disney Jr. Live and Muppetvision 3-D. We'll ride the Great Movie Ride because that's what you do. Josie enjoys it but Kara doesn't. We may sit through the Backlot Tour again just because. Or watch the Beauty and the Beast show.
Despite the fact that Kara loves Ariel, we will probably skip the Little Mermaid show. Kara was scared of the Ursula animatronic in the Little Mermaid ride and refuses to entertain the idea of ever riding it again. The Little Mermaid show features a bigger and scarier Ursula puppet. So we will probably opt out.
If the opportunity presents itself to take in a little more of the Star Wars Weekend atmosphere, I will try to do so. At a minimum, I want to pick up a T-shirt for the event so I can make all my geeky friends jealous. Okay, maybe just Daffy.
We may or may not stick around for the last show of Fantasmic! We saw the show in 2012, so it's not a priority. If we still have gas in our tanks, we'll probably stick around. But if everyone is running on empty, we'll probably go back to the hotel and avoid the crowds.
On Saturday, we are back at the Magic Kingdom. We will be meeting with one of Mindy's friends and her husband. I have never met this couple before, but Janelle sends packages to the girls every holiday. Although the girls have never met Janelle in person, they are big fans.
Because we will be meeting up with others, I'm not planning to take our usual afternoon break this day. It doesn't seem right to abandon them back at the park or to ask them to take time from their day to ride a bus back to our hotel. So this is the day when I am planning to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade.
Other than that, plans are fairly fluid. We have FPs for Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder Mountain just because those are popular rides which typically have long waits. I imagine we'll do things like the Hall of Presidents and Country Bears just to get out of the heat. We may also venture out to Tom Sawyer Island to let the kids run around for a while.
We have dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace. We have never eaten there before at least in part because of Mindy's irrational hatred of Winnie the Pooh. The buffet should ensure that even Josie, our extremely picky eater, will be able to find something she likes. This may be a day we turn in a little early since we are skipping our afternoon break.
Our fourth day is at Epcot. Like Hollywood Studios, Epcot has a tiered FastPass system. Basically, this means you can only reserve one useful FastPass in advance. We have chosen Soarin' since it tends to have the longest lines in the park.
Josie rode Soarin' for the first time in 2010. She didn't like it. She rode it again in 2012 and liked it a lot. So she wants to ride it again. Kara is probably where Josie was in 2010. We may get her to ride it. But I doubt she'll like it. So I probably won't push very hard.
The other big ride we could all potentially enjoy is Test Track. Test Track was closed for refurbishment when we went in 2012. So this will be our first opportunity to see the latest version. The plan is to hit Test Track at rope drop and then use our FastPass for Soarin'.
All of our FastPasses are early in the morning. With our afternoon break, our day is divided between Future World in the morning and World Showcase at night. There aren't a lot of attractions that offer FP in the World Showcase. And the FastPasses that are offered are in the same tier as Soarin'. So the plan is to use all of our FastPasses in Future World in the morning and then try to schedule a fourth FP for Maelstrom in the evening.
Our plans for Epcot are also relatively open. There's not a lot in Future World that qualifies as a must do for the girls. And the best way to experience World Showcase if to explore the pavilions. So we will mostly just go where our interests take us.
The biggest exception is Mulan. The girls have become very interested in Mulan since our last trip. So we are going to make an effort to see her. Unfortunately, Mulan is out mostly during our afternoon break. So when we return to the park in the evening, the China pavilion will need to be our first stop.
We have dinner scheduled at Akershus that night. We ate there in 2012 and enjoyed it primarily for the princess interactions. It's pretty much one-stop shopping where the princesses are concerned. Typically you can expect to see Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Snow White and Cinderella. But substitutions happen sometimes.
I was less impressed with the food last time. It was edible. But not all that exciting. No one left hungry, but I don't think anyone was stuffed either in spite of the fact that the meal is all-you-care to eat.
I'm a little concerned about Josie at this meal. She is pickier than she was in 2012. But last time she filled up on desserts. I didn't even get to taste the chocolate mousse because she inhaled it faster than the waiter could replenish it.
Like Wishes, we have never stayed long enough to watch Illuminations. Perhaps this will be the night we finally see the fireworks show. But if everyone is tired, I won't push the issue. Sometimes knowing when to call it a night is half the battle.
Our last two days are at the Magic Kingdom. I have scheduled Fast Passes to see the sisters from Frozen on both of our final days. That way if for any reason something goes wrong on the first day, I have the second set of FPs as a back-up. I doubt we will seriously visit Anna and Else twice, but then again you never know. Kara in particular is obsessed with Frozen these days.
On the morning of our fifth day, I have scheduled breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table inside the castle. There is a pretty high likelihood I will cancel this reservation. Breakfast at the castle is an expensive affair and we will be paying for it out of pocket. We've eaten there twice in 2010 and 2012. The princesses offered are mostly the same ones you see at Akershus.
So why make the reservation? Frankly, it's hard to get. So when I saw it, become available, I decided to snag it. This way, I have the option to go should we decide we want to.
Our non-Frozen FP selections are currently for Peter Pan and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We already have FPs for both of these attractions earlier in the trip. So we may change them to something else if we decide we don't want to experience them a second time.
Essentially, our last two days in the Magic Kingdom will be spent doing anything we missed in the first two days and re-experiencing our favorite attractions.
Dinner on Monday night is scheduled at Chef Mickey's. We ate there in 2012 and the girls loved the character interactions. The buffet doesn't appeal to me all that much, but my picky eater will be happy.
After dinner, we may or may not return to the park. We'll just have to see how much energy we have after a meal with Mickey.
Our last day at the Magic Kingdom is almost completely up in the air. I have the Frozen FPs just in case. The other two are for the mountains (Splash and Big Thunder) in Frontierland. This is all open to change.
Our final dinner of the trip is scheduled at Tony's Restaurant. I struggled with this one. It's not the most popular restaurant in Disney World. At one point, I considered switching dinner to Ohana. That is a much harder reservation to get, so I felt lucky when it suddenly became available. I e-mailed Mindy to see if she wanted me to switch our reservations. But to my surprise, she did not want to switch.
The more I thought about it, the more I was okay with Tony's. For one, we have never eaten there before. So it will be nice to try something new even if it doesn't turn out to be a family favorite. Also, you can't beat the location. Tony's is conveniently located on Main Street. To get to Ohana, we'd have to leave the park and take a monorail to the Polynesian Resort. We will be doing this to get to the Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. Resort hopping two nights in a row seemed like a little much.
Finally, Ohana presented some problems for our picky eater. The menu did not appeal to her at all. I have been assured that Ohana will accommodate picky eaters. But Josie is fairly hard to please. She likes pasta and sauce, so Tony's seemed like a safer bet.
This last day in the parks is basically a victory lap. One final opportunity to make sure everything we wanted to see and do has been crossed off our list. All the characters we wanted to meet have been met. And one final opportunity to re-experience our favorite attractions before heading home.
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