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@T.H.O.U.: @Charm54: Bumping this again. Any dining suggestions for MIL's birthday? It doesn't have to be a character dining or a super fancy place. Maybe Ohana? Or something else? Maybe one of the AK restaurants?
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@Anagram: Do you want something at a park or just somewhere on property?
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@T.H.O.U.: I guess I'm open to either? We haven't made a touring plan yet, so if it's in a park, I would probably just pick that park to be in all day.
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@Anagram: Honestly I would figure out your plan for that day and then work around that for your restaurant.
Ive heard flying fish is amazing.
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@Anagram: I love helping plan out touring plans so let me know if you need input!
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@Anagram: I've heard amazing things about Ohana - we are trying it next week on our trip (we leave in 4 days!!!!) so I will let you know.
My parents love the 50's Prime Time Cafe at Hollywood Studios- it reminds them of their childhood. The waiters are hilarious and we always have a lot of fun there.
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@Anagram: Le Cellier in Canada in Epcot is supposed to be fantastic. One of these trips, I'd like to try it.
Another option is to do the Luau at the Poly.
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@looch: Le Cellier is delicious !!
Another idea might be Boathouse at Disney Springs... it's delicious and the view is beautiful. You could then take a drive in one of their vintage amphicars ... a bit $$ but would make it a special experience ! http://www.theboathouseorlando.com/amphicar/
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@Anagram: Yak and Yeti @ Animal Kingdom was super yummy!! Great air-con break in the middle of the day. Service is friendly and relaxing. Be sure you have reservations- don't just walk-in- there was a huge line. We still waited about 5-10 mins.
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@808love: @Charm54: @looch: @T.H.O.U.: I'll look into all of those, thanks! MIL is sometimes vegetarian but usually eats chicken and fish. I probably should have led with that but I forgot, haha. So I think Le Cellier would be out. I'm going to compare menus for Flying Fish, Ohana, Boathouse (and maybe that newer southern restaurant at DS), and the restaurants at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
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If we have only 4 main days in the parks (not counting arrival or departure days), would you all do Magic Kingdom twice and skip one of the other parks, or do each park and for days at parks with less toddler friendly stuff to do (maybe AK and HS), make it a half day and then just swim in the resort pool or do DS at night?
Or is it better to get a 5 day ticket and use the 5th day for either the arrival or departure day and plan a half day in the park? For example, we are flying down on a Saturday and one of the flights arrives as early as 10am. Factoring in Magical Express time, we could be at our resort by maybe noon? So we could do a half day at a park then.....?
Suggestions? Trying to plan out at least which parks we're going to on which day, and then make 1-2 advanced dining reservations.
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And for reference, our girls will be newly 2 and 4 by the time we go. They both know/love Frozen, but other than a couple of other characters (Cinderella, Snow white), they aren't terribly familiar with other Disney stuff. So it wouldn't kill us to miss out on say, the Disney Jr stuff at HS. But I think epcot is a must do for us, because of the frozen ride and sing along.
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@Anagram: I would do MK twice and skip HS. My dd3 LOVED Epcot last year so definitely don't skip that one.
Animal Kingdom I would agree could be a half day, but now that Avatar land is opening and they have Rivers of Light you could spend a full day there .
We are doing 6 days next week ... 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot (one full day and one evening for dinner and fireworks), 1 day HS (just dh and I for a morning to do our favourites while dd stays back with her grandparents) and 1 day AK.
On your arrival day you could do the pool for the afternoon, then go to a park for dinner and a few rides in the evening. Disney Springs is always fun to do on arrival/departure days too, if you don't want to add the extra park day to your tickets - though once you get past 4 days, it's usually only 10-20$ to add a 5th or 6th day.
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@Anagram: This is our first trip with kids, so I'm certainly not a pro, but this is our plan with staying 5 nights. We are planning to really take it easy and only accomplish a couple things at each park because I don't want to overdo it with my kids. They are not stellar travelers, terrible sleepers when we are away from home, and not great eaters, so basically we are going to keep things as chill as possible. Anyway, here's our plan:
Thursday: fly in at 1 pm, ME to resort, hang out and look at animals around resort, dinner at resort that night
Friday: Magic Kingdom - try to get there as early as possible (extra magic hours that morning). Head back to resort for nap. Back into Magic Kingdom for dinner at BOG.
Saturday: Animal Kingdom - we are specifically going there even there aren't a lot of kid-friendly rides because my kids are huge animal lovers. I think they will be happy to do the safari and just walk around looking at everything the rest of the time. Character lunch there, then will head back to resort for nap/swim.
Sunday - Bon voyage breakfast with Rapunzel and Ariel, then recover the rest of the day. Just swimming and watching the animals at AKL.
Monday - Epcot early in the morning. Lunch at Coral Reef, then head back to our resort. DH and I are going back into Epcot for dinner, while the kids hang out with grandma and grandpa.
Tuesday - fly out early
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@Anagram: Check out Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge... I've heard amazing things, especially for vegetarians.
Sanaa is at AKL also and is DELICIOUS. If you request a window table you can watch the animals on the savannah (as long as you go before sunset). My dd loved seeing the giraffes walk right past us as we ate.
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@twodoghouse: oh I didn't realize the Bon Voyage breakfast was a thing--and that's at our home resort! So I may look into that. Lo1 has never seen Little Mermaid, but maybe by end of August she will have. Thanks for that info!'
And how are you all getting around? Did you rent a car?
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@Anagram: We are planning on using the AKL bus in and around the park. I don't want to mess with our car seats in a rental car. According to the Car Seat Lady it's ok to use the Disney transports sans car seat, so I am going with that advice. I'm still a little nervous about that, but my husband especially does not want to worry about dragging our huge car seats through the airport!
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@Anagram: Also, I'm basically pushing Disney movies on my kids for the next two months so they'll be excited about everything. They've actually seen quite a few Disney movies, but I usually don't encourage them to watch movies every day! Even the movies that seem a little scary or not up their alley, I'm showing them music videos of the best songs and they're finding that fun. Mother of the year over here forcing screentime on them for the sake of our vacation, haha!
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@twodoghouse: I agree about big car seats. We are planning to use Disney transporation too...The only thing I wonder about is if we want to do dinner at another resort at night. I'm thinking about begging to borrow a friend's Immi Go car seat for LO2 and being risky and maybe just looking for a mifold or something for LO1 (who will be 4 at that time). I know that's not the safest, but if it's a one time thing I may do it. NOt sure....
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I always plan one day for just hanging out at the hotel pool, it's honestly the highlight of the trip for my son, and has been since he was small! I bring his puddle jumper (I know, more junk) and goggles.
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@Anagram: The only thing I'm really worried about getting to is the Bon Voyage breakfast at Boardwalk, since we are mostly going to eat dinner at our own resort. I've heard Uber is the best option to get to and from quickly. I know you can request an Uber with car seat, but since we have two 2 year olds, I think we'd need to get two separate cars. I'm not even sure how many Ubers actually carry car seats. I guess taxi is an option too? I'm hoping to just make the bus situation work for us, even if it takes forever to get to and from.
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@looch: Have you ever had an issue with the puddle jumper in the resort pools? I want to take ours, but they will take up a lot of room, so I want to make sure they're allowed before packing them.
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@twodoghouse: Never had an issue using them at a resort pool. They usually have life vests available, but the puddle jumper is more familiar to my son so we use that.
I pack it pretty compactly, the main problem I have is making sure it is dry before taking it home.
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Ive never done it, but shuffling around Disney property sounds like a big hassle with kids. By the time you would do the park during the day, back to the hotel at night, and then go out again for dinner? Thats a lot of extra work. Just realize that "disney property" is very large and expansive. So it could take 20 minutes to get from point a to point b.
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@twodoghouse: Yes, we used/brought our puddle jumpers with us to the resort pool but they do have the life jackets available there too.
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@looch: @T.H.O.U.: Thanks for the puddle jumper info!
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@twodoghouse: That sounds like a great itinerary. I agree you could probably cram another half day at a park in there but with 2 small kids its better to take it easy.
We love animals but AK is hard to get around. Definitely get your fast pass for the safari ride as early in the morning as you can.
The petting zoo at AK requires a long train ride out there (nice because its shaded though) but requires a pretty long walk from the train station back into the petting zoo. I really wish we hadn't wasted so much time on that because it was just goats mainly and the goats knew to stay in the fenced off area to avoid too many kids.
The Dino area up front at AK is pretty good. DS (age 2) really liked the dino ride (basically like Dumbo). The playground area at AK is nice but again, just a playground.
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@T.H.O.U.: I think the only resort we might run into transporation difficulty with is MK, since we are staying at Boardwalk. We can walk to Epcot, boat to HS if we decide to go there), and I think AK we are planning on just half a day. We are planning on coming back for a nap each day, so I'll let you know how it goes. My kids don't nap well on the go, so I figure even if it takes 30 minutes each way, that's pretty similar to a regular day at our house where they have a 30 min walking trip to drop LO1 at school each morning before heading out for LO2a activities, then home for lunch and nap, and back out in the afternoon for the walk to LO1s school and out to play at the park.
@twodoghouse: Does Uber in Florida have Uber family? I can't find out online. I live outside NYC and Manhattan has Uber Family (with a car seat), but Uber here in NJ doesn't have it.I've also googled for DW car services with car seats and haven't found any yet. Any info you've found on that?
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@T.H.O.U.: I actually really enjoy the bus system and use it all the time for mid day breaks ... by the time I take a monorail, tram, load my kids in the car, stress about traffic and directions and parking, I always wish I had just hopped on a bus. So we rarely drive to the parks anymore, unless we are staying off site of course.
It IS a bit harder to get to another hotel for a meal ... pre kids we would just get a cab, but now we just take the extra time and transfer somewhere. I'm on vacation so am not going to stress about an extra 20 minutes !
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@T.H.O.U.: Thanks for details about the petting zoo. That's great info! I had it on my list of things to check out, but will probably scratch it. That long of a trip just to see some goats doesn't really seem worth it!
@Anagram: I'm from a smallish town so I'm not very familiar with Uber! I didn't know there was a distinction between Uber and Uber with a car seat being Uber Family. Do you use a different app? I haven't read anything about other car services that include car seats.
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We are going from Saturday-Thursday, and MILs birthday is Tuesday. We could plan:
Saturday arrival day: Hang out at resort OR 1/2 day at park
Sunday: Epcot
Monday: MK
Tuesday: AK (this day is MILs Bday)
Thursday: decide if we need another day at MK or go to HS
Friday: Fly out. -
@twodoghouse: no, it's just a button that pops up on your regular Uber app. Like if I am logging in from my zip code, I will usually have a choice of UberBlack, UberX, UberPool, or sometimes Uber XL. Uber black is a larger vehicle, Uberx can be anything like a small sedan, Uberpool is ridesharing with strangers, Uber XL has to be a van or 8 seater SUV. So I click whatever I want (usually Uberx or Uberpool to save $). But when we are in NYC, one of the choices that pops up is Uberfamily. And I can choose that one, and a car with the ImmiGO car seat installed will come.
So people in my town use the 1-3 car services here that offer car seats (they aren't uber and they are random car seats owned by the drivers, who all have kids. UberFamily all use the standard Immigo car seat) for airport drop off/pick up stuff.
Surely there's got to be SOME car service that works at Disney world with car seats? If not, what a market for it!
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@Anagram: Thats a busy schedule!
Honestly for the extra $20 or so I would maybe consider breaking it up. Because 4 full days in the park back to back is a lot.
Sat. Day 1 - 1/2 day at Epcot or AK
Sun. Day 2 - Epcot
Mon. Day 3 - MK (I agree with trying to do MK on a Monday instead of weekend).
Tues. Day 4 - AK (and maybe this be a shorter day so that you can leave early for MIL dinner.)
Wed. Day 5 - MK again for sure!
Thurs - Depart. -
@Anagram: I would for sure do the first travel day and stay at the resort, I looked it up, there's a ton of stuff to do there, like the pool, the playground, there's an arcade!
Are you doing Wednesday at the resort? It's missing from your plan...
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@looch: ah...lol...no I just missed a day when typing, haha.
We're There Saturday-Thurs, so it's:
Saturday arrive
Sunday: Epcot
Monday: MK
Tuesday: AK (MILs B-day, so half day at AK and her Bday dinner somewhere early evening).
Wednesday: either HS or MK again
Thurs: Fly outDH has already said he may stay in the resort with LO2 on Wednesday and skip whatever I do with LO1. So I'll see how LO1 does on the other days and then decide.
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@Anagram: that looks good! Where you're staying so close to Epcot, I might consider going there on Sat evening for dinner and rides, maybe stay for Illuminations...that would make your Sunday Epcot day a little more low key. Especially with MK on Monday, you probably will want to be in bed at a half decent hour Sunday.
The boardwalk area is so fun in the evenings! I can't wait to hear how you like the resort section as we very well might end up there next year too.
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I would get a four or five day pass. The first day is good for relaxing and just hanging by the pool or Disney Springs.
I would definitely do all parks -shorter hours at HS and AK if you want. Don't skip HS. It has Disney Jr. show. This would be a good first day park as it is small unless you wanted to go for the magic castle day on the first day. AK is good for the end because it is a wonderful unexpected culture/animal experience. It is my fave.
Five days is nearly or the same as four days with special promotions so check that out. <Undercover Tourist> It is a nice safety net to have a backup day in case something goes wrong. I would do Epcot twice if you are leaning toward grown up time or MK twice if you are leaning to kid time. It is great you will have family coming so they can babysit!! -
@808love: that's funny, I was going to say get a 3 day pass, you can always add a day if you want to, but once you have a 4 day, you're wasting one of them, you can't give it back.
I don't think there's any way to "game" the system with park tickets...but now I always follow the excellent advice that came from @THOU in another thread, to think of it as I was spending money on at least 2 Broadway level shows. I actually gave that advice to some people we met while on vacation at Universal...they were shocked by the admission prices at WDW, but when I said if they plan it so they go to at least 2 shows, they're actually getting their money's worth!
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@Anagram: They do have uber family and it's fairly easy to get a cab with a car seat because in Florida, it's a law that children have to be in car seats, even in cabs (that's not the law in NYC). For a large family though, you would need uberXL and I'm not sure if you can get a car seat through XL. You could always split uber rides. You can also ask the doorman to get a cab for you since I've read that uber family is hard to secure (and not a guarantee that you'll get one when you need one), but since I prefer to have someone in place before (because I am neurotic). I didn't read all the way up to see what you need it for (airport, transportation to parks, how many people, etc.), but here the places I plan on calling:
http://www.orlandoairporttowncar.com/
http://www.calltaxicabs.com/
http://www.taxi4hire.com/
http://www.orlandotaxiservice.com/ -
@twodoghouse: We will be staying at AK in November and I can't wait to hear about your experience!!! I am mostly worried that the bus will take forever to get places, but figure we'd take a cab in the mornings for any early reservations we may have (planning on two early days). I am also currently pushing everything Disney on my eldest daughter as well!
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