Tips, Tricks, Suggestions and any other info!

[Jae99]

My first ever post so go easy if I miss step.

Sooo I am sitting here in front of my monitor both overly excited and completely overwhelmed with my head spinning.

Where do I start? Quite literally.

My parents have decided that they are going to treat the kids and grandkids to a Disney Christmas and New Year. The rooms and dining plan are booked and and we are all set to go. We arrive on Dec 26 and stay until Jan 2.

But wait!

I am given the minor task (I say with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek) of planning our entire stay from fastpasses each day to making reservations at restaurants. I will also add at this point that I haven't been to WDW in 23 years, my wife in about 30 years, our son is 21 and visited WDW at the age of 7 and our 11 yr old daughter will be visiting for the first time.

The last time I was in WDW was at the exact same time of year so I do have somewhat of an understanding of how busy it will be. But, to say that things have changed over the last 20+ years or so is just a bit of an understatement.

I have been reading and researching as much as possible, but it is very very confusing at times.

So I sit here asking for help from the many members of this forum who seem to be the best people in the world to give this humble Disney noob some helpful advice.

Thanks in advance for all the help. I am sure it will make this process so much easier.

 

[Hakunamatata]

I would recommend setting the expectations of everyone else in the group very low. Crowded will be an understatement. Use FP+ and then try to catch a couple other attractions. Doing everything will be very difficult. I personally would hit the parks each day, catch my FP attractions then catch a couple of resorts to look at Christmas decos.

 

[Susan Savia]

Pick up one of the guide books out there....we like Birnbaums for lots of great info and tips for the parks.

 

[harveyt0206]

Before your dining reservation window opens, I would choose some restaurants that you think the entire family would enjoy (assuming you will be sharing meals as a family. Not all large groups dine together) and discussing what is most important to the group as a whole. Just remember that no matter how hard you try, you won't make everyone happy and that's okay! Patience will be your friend both during the trip and while planning. And as Susan Savia mentioned, a good guide book can really help. When my husband and I began planning our first trips to Disney many years ago, we used "Walt Disney World's Passporter". It has great checklists and folders to keep all of your documents. I would also download a park lines app. This can help you gauge which parks have the lowest crowds or which attractions have shorter wait times. The My Disney Experience app has this feature, but I find that the app is hard to use in the parks. We like the Touring Plans line app. Good luck!!

 

[jlsHouston]

The first thing I do is figure out what days I want to be at what parks. Then when I the opening for dining reservations occurs I book my dining that absolutely has to happen and are hard to obtain, like dinners at OHANA, BOG, Le Cellier. If character dining, Chef Mickey breakfast is tough and Cinderella's Table fills up fast too. Since you are going to be there over NYE and NY day, I would think the dining for those dates might be important. You mention you are going on the dining plan so I am going to assume it's the regular one that allows 1 Table Service, 1 Quick Service and 1 Snack per day per person. Keep in mind when selecting some restaurants they may require 2 TS credits instead of 1, leaving you short a day.
Once I get the most important dining venues booked, then I look at the dining options for the other meals and since you all might not be dining together every time, you could make some options up for the different groups.
With a large party you might be separating off into smaller groups and if that is the case, then I would think you are going to need input from your travel companions as to what rides and attractions are most important. You can select FP's based on the feedback you get back when the FP window opens.
There's a great thread on cakes that @HouCuseChickie has going and you might want to arrange for a cake to be delivered to one of your dining events to commemorate this trip with the family.
Sounds like a wonderful trip and a great planning adventure ahead for you!

 

[Jae99]

I would recommend setting the expectations of everyone else in the group very low. Crowded will be an understatement. Use FP+ and then try to catch a couple other attractions. Doing everything will be very difficult. I personally would hit the parks each day, catch my FP attractions then catch a couple of resorts to look at Christmas decos.

We all realize that we won't be able to do everything. I am hoping to be able to use FP's to be able to get to the more popular rides and maybe some preferred seating for the parades and fireworks. Resort hopping is a must do for me. I love Christmas and really want to see how all the different resorts are decorated.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Jae99]

Before your dining reservation window opens, I would choose some restaurants that you think the entire family would enjoy (assuming you will be sharing meals as a family. Not all large groups dine together) and discussing what is most important to the group as a whole. Just remember that no matter how hard you try, you won't make everyone happy and that's okay! Patience will be your friend both during the trip and while planning. And as Susan Savia mentioned, a good guide book can really help. When my husband and I began planning our first trips to Disney many years ago, we used "Walt Disney World's Passporter". It has great checklists and folders to keep all of your documents. I would also download a park lines app. This can help you gauge which parks have the lowest crowds or which attractions have shorter wait times. The My Disney Experience app has this feature, but I find that the app is hard to use in the parks. We like the Touring Plans line app. Good luck!!

I have been researching the many different restaurants and going over their menus. My parents and I are very open to trying different things and my daughter is extremely adventurous when it comes to dining for an 11 yr old. My wife and son are a bit more picky but it seems that if they don't mind steak every night almost every place has some sort of steak on the menu.

Thanks for the tips on the apps. I will definitely check those out as the My Disney Experience even has trouble sometimes while sitting at home with really good internet available.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Jae99]

The first thing I do is figure out what days I want to be at what parks. Then when I the opening for dining reservations occurs I book my dining that absolutely has to happen and are hard to obtain, like dinners at OHANA, BOG, Le Cellier. If character dining, Chef Mickey breakfast is tough and Cinderella's Table fills up fast too. Since you are going to be there over NYE and NY day, I would think the dining for those dates might be important. You mention you are going on the dining plan so I am going to assume it's the regular one that allows 1 Table Service, 1 Quick Service and 1 Snack per day per person. Keep in mind when selecting some restaurants they may require 2 TS credits instead of 1, leaving you short a day.
Once I get the most important dining venues booked, then I look at the dining options for the other meals and since you all might not be dining together every time, you could make some options up for the different groups.
With a large party you might be separating off into smaller groups and if that is the case, then I would think you are going to need input from your travel companions as to what rides and attractions are most important. You can select FP's based on the feedback you get back when the FP window opens.
There's a great thread on cakes that @HouCuseChickie has going and you might want to arrange for a cake to be delivered to one of your dining events to commemorate this trip with the family.
Sounds like a wonderful trip and a great planning adventure ahead for you!

Picking which park to go to each day seems to be the hardest part. If I have the energy I would love to hit the morning EMH's at one park and book FP's during the busier times at a different park.

Yes we are using the basic dining plan with 1 QS, 1 TS, and 1 snack. I am thinking that I might want to book our dinners away from the parks and dine at different resorts each night to get away from the bigger crowds for a while. We will always dine together each night as a family. My parents are paying for this family trip and getting together for family meals is always important to them.

Is it worth the cost of 2 credits to dine at some of the signature restaurants or would we be better off to pay for those meals out of pocket?
I was thinking of doing two signature restaurants if possible and paying for one as a thank you to my parents. Leaving some extra credits to do another signature restaurant on NYE.

We will be splitting up at times in the parks. I am hoping to book a Keys to the Kingdom tour for myself and parents, as this is the one must do thing for them.

Thank you for your help!

 

[jlsHouston]

Ah I was going to mention one of the tours. I haven't done any yet but looking forward to the Keys to the Kingdom and Safari ones at some point.

The only signature I am enamored enough to pay out of pocket on so far is Flying Fish over at the Boardwalk. At least every other visit we dine there. I love the ambiance, it is halfway kid friendly, I've never had bad service or a bad meal and the bread is out of this world. Of course my experience with signatures is limited. Have only done Narcosses and Flying Fish. I think I am going to try Le Cellier or Jiko's this time and I am going to pay out of pocket. I used my target red card to purchase $ 600 bucks in gift cards because they give you 5% on the Disney gift cards and I will use some of those to pay for our signature dining.

I would say we do more resort dining than Park dining except for TS meals and we are just now doing less character dining as the kids are getting older and the buffets are so repetitive and kind of prefer using our TS for different venues and food types.

Our favorite group TS places are OHANA for dinner and Be Our Guest at MK, followed by Boma and Sanaa at AKL. We enjoyed Whispering Canyon over at Wilderness Lodge the one time we tried it but kind of prefer Trail's End at the Campgrounds to Whispering Canyon. Similar food. The EPCOT table service choices we have done are Chefs in France (really really good) Biergarten and Rose & Crown. They were all good. We like Captain's Grill at Yacht Club but I don't care much for Cape May buffet dinner, I do like the Cape May character breakfast meal though. Wow I am making myself hungry here...

Yes I haven't been since March and now they allow more FP's than 3 per day so I would agree hit a park early and do some rides with short stand by lines before the crowds descend and then FP your favorite rides at the next park. I now always park hop but I use to just do one park per day. Park hopping is nice for taking advantage of extra magic hours and dining...

 

[Andrew C]

Our favorite group TS places are OHANA for dinner and Be Our Guest at MK, followed by Boma and Sanaa at AKL. We enjoyed Whispering Canyon over at Wilderness Lodge the one time we tried it but kind of prefer Trail's End at the Campgrounds to Whispering Canyon. Similar food. The EPCOT table service choices we have done are Chefs in France (really really good) Biergarten and Rose & Crown. They were all good. We like Captain's Grill at Yacht Club but I don't care much for Cape May buffet dinner, I do like the Cape May character breakfast meal though. Wow I am making myself hungry here....

Hah, we did like half of these restaurants during our April trip this year. All great choices.

 

[jlsHouston]

Hah, we did like half of these restaurants during our April trip this year. All great choices.

Yah one thing about WDW, the dining is really pretty decent and lots of variety to be had. Yes it's pricey, but not any higher than other resorts I've been to. And I don't think I've ever had "bad" service. Well maybe once but not bad enough that I even remember it.

 

[Jae99]

Ah I was going to mention one of the tours. I haven't done any yet but looking forward to the Keys to the Kingdom and Safari ones at some point.

The only signature I am enamored enough to pay out of pocket on so far is Flying Fish over at the Boardwalk. At least every other visit we dine there. I love the ambiance, it is halfway kid friendly, I've never had bad service or a bad meal and the bread is out of this world. Of course my experience with signatures is limited. Have only done Narcosses and Flying Fish. I think I am going to try Le Cellier or Jiko's this time and I am going to pay out of pocket. I used my target red card to purchase $ 600 bucks in gift cards because they give you 5% on the Disney gift cards and I will use some of those to pay for our signature dining.

I would say we do more resort dining than Park dining except for TS meals and we are just now doing less character dining as the kids are getting older and the buffets are so repetitive and kind of prefer using our TS for different venues and food types.

Our favorite group TS places are OHANA for dinner and Be Our Guest at MK, followed by Boma and Sanaa at AKL. We enjoyed Whispering Canyon over at Wilderness Lodge the one time we tried it but kind of prefer Trail's End at the Campgrounds to Whispering Canyon. Similar food. The EPCOT table service choices we have done are Chefs in France (really really good) Biergarten and Rose & Crown. They were all good. We like Captain's Grill at Yacht Club but I don't care much for Cape May buffet dinner, I do like the Cape May character breakfast meal though. Wow I am making myself hungry here...

Yes I haven't been since March and now they allow more FP's than 3 per day so I would agree hit a park early and do some rides with short stand by lines before the crowds descend and then FP your favorite rides at the next park. I now always park hop but I use to just do one park per day. Park hopping is nice for taking advantage of extra magic hours and dining...

Thanks for the help!

I will take all the advice that I can get.

Park hopper passes seem to be the way to go to maximize our time during this busy period. Being able to take advantage of EMH's seems to be pretty vital.

 

[jlsHouston]

Thanks for the help!

I will take all the advice that I can get.

Park hopper passes seem to be the way to go to maximize our time during this busy period. Being able to take advantage of EMH's seems to be pretty vital.

Don't worry. I've never been at Christmas which is suppose to be packed, but I have been at 4th of July, different weeks in late July and early August, late October, Thanksgiving week, Spring Break and Easter. Except for that short little trip we took in late October, every single trip to WDW I've ever done is practically wall to wall bodies. But even when the parks are super busy, we have a blast. I think except for the cold weather at Thanksgiving, it is my favorite time to go because all the Christmas decorations are out. Osbourne Lights are simply AMAZING. Last Thanksgiving we had enough "before" and "after" days that we also were able to do a Mickey Christmas Party thing at MK, and we did a Candlelight Processional dining event at EPCOT.
Anyways I'm fixing to experience my first Star War event at HS in less than 24 hours and staying over the memorial day weekend holiday, so here I go for another busy time at WDW. And I'm the person that hates crowds and won't stand in line....but I still always go when it is busy.

 

[iluvMainStMagic]

Here are some articles about Christmas & New Years at WDW that I have saved...just in case They were written before FP+ came online fully, but the basics for planning and touring still hold, I think.

by Tom Bricker (photographer extraordinaire and I think, member of this site)
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-christmas-ultimate-guide/#more-6540 (Feb 2013)
and
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/new-years-eve-disney-world-tips/ (Dec 2013)

from an AllEars newsletter (Jan 2013):
http://allears.net/ae/issue696.htm This one has some good tips

 

[Jae99]

Don't worry. I've never been at Christmas which is suppose to be packed, but I have been at 4th of July, different weeks in late July and early August, late October, Thanksgiving week, Spring Break and Easter. Except for that short little trip we took in late October, every single trip to WDW I've ever done is practically wall to wall bodies. But even when the parks are super busy, we have a blast. I think except for the cold weather at Thanksgiving, it is my favorite time to go because all the Christmas decorations are out. Osbourne Lights are simply AMAZING. Last Thanksgiving we had enough "before" and "after" days that we also were able to do a Mickey Christmas Party thing at MK, and we did a Candlelight Processional dining event at EPCOT.
Anyways I'm fixing to experience my first Star War event at HS in less than 24 hours and staying over the memorial day weekend holiday, so here I go for another busy time at WDW. And I'm the person that hates crowds and won't stand in line....but I still always go when it is busy.

Star Wars Weekends do look like a lot of fun for sure. As a fellow Star Wars geek I would definitely battle the crowds to experience it.

 

[Jae99]

Here are some articles about Christmas & New Years at WDW that I have saved...just in case They were written before FP+ came online fully, but the basics for planning and touring still hold, I think.

by Tom Bricker (photographer extraordinaire and I think, member of this site)
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-christmas-ultimate-guide/#more-6540 (Feb 2013)
and
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/new-years-eve-disney-world-tips/ (Dec 2013)

from an AllEars newsletter (Jan 2013):
http://allears.net/ae/issue696.htm This one has some good tips

Thank you! I will definitely have a look.

 

[CheshireCat12]

Why not have your kids look at the restaurant list with you on the official Disney website? At their age, they will want to have input. Choose something they want most, something you want most, and something for your parents too. Book those as your family TS meals. Be open to new things! That is part of the fun of Disney dining! BTW, you didn't say what resort you are staying at- it could be there are some great spots right at your front door!

 

[Jae99]

Why not have your kids look at the restaurant list with you on the official Disney website? At their age, they will want to have input. Choose something they want most, something you want most, and something for your parents too. Book those as your family TS meals. Be open to new things! That is part of the fun of Disney dining! BTW, you didn't say what resort you are staying at- it could be there are some great spots right at your front door!

Ahhh I did forget to mention where we were staying. My bad!

We will be staying at the All Star Music Resort and will be driving down to WDW from Toronto Ontario.

My daughter is heavily involved in looking at the restaurants to visit (she is a burgeoning foodie).We had originally planned to not tell her, but trying to do all the planning without her finding out what was going on seemed next to impossible.

Damn kids being to technologically adept! haha!

We have been looking at menus and discussing where we might want to go and what different types of cuisine she would like to try. My parents have mentioned that they would like to go back to The Brown Derby and beyond that it has been left up to me. It seems that all the restaurants have some sort of entree that would cater to most people.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[Jae99]

I would also love some suggestions on how to transport ourselves around the resorts. I understand that buses do run from the All Star Resort to the different parks, but with us having access to a vehicle. Would we be better off a times to use our vehicle to get to different parks and resorts or just travel with the provided Disney transportation?

 

[Andrew C]

Ahhh I did forget to mention where we were staying. My bad!

We will be staying at the All Star Music Resort and will be driving down to WDW from Toronto Ontario.

My daughter is heavily involved in looking at the restaurants to visit (she is a burgeoning foodie).We had originally planned to not tell her, but trying to do all the planning without her finding out what was going on seemed next to impossible.

Damn kids being to technologically adept! haha!

We have been looking at menus and discussing where we might want to go and what different types of cuisine she would like to try. My parents have mentioned that they would like to go back to The Brown Derby and beyond that it has been left up to me. It seems that all the restaurants have some sort of entree that would cater to most people.

Thank you for the advice.

Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canada pavilion at EPCOT would be perfect for you.

Here are a list of my favorites that are a bit different (kind of, haha)
-Sanaa at ALK
-Tusker House at AK
-Akershus Boyal Banquet Hall at EPCOT
-Be Our Guest Restaurant
-Rose & Crown at EPCOT
-Artist Point or California Grill for signature dining
-Pecos Bill for quick service