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Category Archives: Planning
I Just Clicked “Confirm Reservation”….Now What?!
Congratulations! You’ve just confirmed your vacation reservation to Walt Disney World. Feel overwhelmed? I understand. Now it’s time for the fun planning-parks, restaurant reservations, shows…it’s all waiting for you! Where to start?
1. Make ADRs. This means “Advanced Dining Reservations”. If you chose the Disney Dining Plan or the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan, you are entitled to at least one sit down meal at a Diseny restaurant. Not doing DDP or DDDP, but still want to have a character or other special meal? You still need ADRs. You can start making these when you are 180 days away from your trip. The Disney website makes it easy to make these and search for open reservations. Or, y ou can call Disney directly and they’ll help you over the phone. Even though we are doing Quick Service Dining, we still made reservations for two character meals. I made these about two weeks after I booked our vacation.
2. Plan your park days. You plan these based on the type of ticket you have-Park Hopper or Base Ticket. Park Hopper tickets make it easy to just “hop” from one park to the next. You can visit multiple parks in one day with this option. If you chose a base ticket, like we do, you can only visit one park per day. Look at your dining reservations. Where did you choose to eat and when? Let’s say you chose breakfast at Crystal Palace on your first day. You should make this a Magic Kingdom day, since Crystal Palace is located on Main Street U.S.A. Or do you want to see Fantasmic? Then check out the calendar for Hollywood Studios during the time of your stay. If Fantasmic is on the Wednesday of your trip, you’ll want to make that a Disney’s Hollywood Studios day.
3. Plan your “non park” days. Leaving a day or so in your schedule for non park fun can add to the relaxation factor of your vacation. Many resorts have multiple pools, crafts for the kids, and playgrounds. Take advantage of these activities while you’re there.
4. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique or Pirates League? These are fun experiences for your princesses and pirates. If you want your children to enjoy these experiences, then you’ll need to make reservations WELL in advance. It’s a good idea to look into and book these when you make your dining reservations.
5. Flying or driving? Soon after your reservation is made, you’ll want to decide how you’re going to get there. Start watching flight prices, or start mapping out your trip. Do you need to allot money for a hotel stay on the way down and back? Don’t forget to budget for food and gas, too. If you make a reservation for dining or another special experience on your arrival date, make sure you get to your resort in PLENTY of time to make it to your fun event!
What am I missing? Do you reserve dining or plan your park days first?
Magically Yours,
Carrie
Related articles
- Why Choose Disney’s Quick Service Dining Plan (chipandco.com)
- Disney World Dining without Reservations (chipandco.com)
Rope Drop: Love it or Leave it?
There are two groups of Disney World guests; those who hit the ground running from park opening to park close and those who wake up when they want to and leave the parks when they are ready. I want to use every minute of my vacation but, I also like sleep. I think I sit on the fence of the two groups. I will say that using Extra Magic Hours and waking up early have their advantages. First, you are squeezing out every minute of your stay! Second, because you are in the most magical place EVER. If you have been in the “sleep in” group then you might have missed out on something truly magical…rope drop ceremonies. While every park (but Epcot) has a rope drop, my favorite is at the Magic Kingdom.
The rope drop at the Magic Kingdom is a beginning of the magic for each day. Guests gather 15-20 minutes before the park opens to be greeted by the Citizens of Main Street USA. The Mayor ushers in singing and dancing citizens and eventually a train load of characters, including the mouse himself! A lucky family rides in on the train and opens the parks for the day with magical pixie dust and all!
So, now that you know what this rope drop is all about, let’s take a look at some pros and cons as you weigh your choice to love it or leave it!
pro: Early birds get the worm! This is true! If you are early, you not only take full advantage of the parks for the day but, you also get other benefits. One of the best benefits is lure of the characters who make their way directly from the train into the parks. Lines form quickly but, if you make a run for it, you can manage to meet and greet lots of characters quickly!
Con:There are a lot of people who either made it out early for the rope drop or because they belong to that first, “sun up, sun down” group. Either way, you might find a morning rush of guests and a bit of a crowd.
pro:After the crowds disperse, you pretty much have the park for the taking. I don’t waste my time at the standard “short wait” stand-by lines. Instead, I head for the big ticket rides like Space Mountain and Splash Mountain.
Con:It is stinkin’ early. Maybe too early. Coffee helps here
pro: It is a great way to get you in a magical mood. I love the cheery songs and dancing that the Magic Kingdom rope drop provide. On mornings like those, I can learn to be a morning person.
Cons:Those songs have an uncanny ability to get stuck in your head. Like all day. Again, coffee is strongly suggested.
Maybe this swayed your choice. Maybe you’ll give the Magic Kingdom rope drop a try next time you are in the parks! Don’t hit the snooze on this daily celebration!
Ashley of disneydonerightblog.com
Related articles
- How to Tour the Parks – Floating through the Magic Kingdom (chipandco.com)
- Top 10 Things To Do at Night in the Magic Kingdom (chipandco.com)
Planning some down time with your kids? Use the Resort Playgrounds!
You’ve heard it suggested before; “Plan some down time away from the parks.” Often, a break in your day is suggested by visiting your resort pool or taking a nap. Or if you’re taking an entire day off from the parks, you may be planning on a monorail ride, a meal at another resort, some shopping at Downtown Disney or trying out other free things to do. But have you ever let your kids play on the resort playground? They’re almost always empty! This is a great way to let your kids run off some steam, while you sit nearby and watch peacefully. Think about it, you may have just pushed them in a stroller for an entire day, and they barely did any walking themselves! Turn that scenario around! Let them run around on a playground, while you do the sitting!
On our most recent trip to Walt Disney World, we had two “non-park” days. The first thing we did after eating breakfast was head to a playground! We stayed at the Yacht Club which doesn’t have a playground of its own anymore, so we walked over to the Swan & Dolphin hotels. They have a nice playground with 2 slides, and it’s all in the sand! There was only one other child playing while my two kids ran around. My kids loved this change of scenery. They weren’t strapped into a stroller, there weren’t any loud noises from nearby attractions, and they didn’t experience visual stimulation overload with a “sea of people” swarming around them. They loved being outdoors and feeling free! And I enjoyed it too!
The playgrounds inside the theme parks can be so crowded! I usually don’t let my kids play on them in fear of “losing one” in the chaotic mix of kids. The resort playgrounds are quiet, entertaining for kids, and free to use! From what I’ve heard, the two best resort playgrounds on Disney Property can be found at Coronado Springs Resort and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Next time you’re in Disney World, check out a Resort Playground with your kids!
In addition to writing for Chip & Co., Terri also writes for her blog Walt Disney World Hints. You can follow WDW Hints on Facebook too!
Related articles
- Planning a Non Park Day at Disney World (chipandco.com)
- Resort Hopping – Taking the Monorail Express (chipandco.com)
Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare
If you’re looking for a character meal with maximum food and fun for minimum price let me suggest the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian.
My daughter and I ate there in February 2012 for the first time and really enjoyed the food as well as the opportunity to meet Mary Poppins, Pooh, Tigger, Alice & the Mad Hatter. Yep, that’s FIVE characters!
Once you check in on the bottom floor of the Grand Floridian Resort at 1900 Park Fare and they take you to a backdrop where you can get your family 
photograph made while you wait.
The photo is not included in the price of your meal. They bring it around while you’re eating to buy if you want.
Your host then calls your name and takes you into the dining room to be seated. The wait-staff then come and take your drink order and you’re dismissed to the buffet which is AWESOME!
It’s honestly one of my favorite breakfast buffets at Walt Disney World.
And the stars of this delightful treat for the senses?
STRAWBERRY SOUP!! 
LOBSTER BENEDICT
and CINNAMON ROLLS 
This breakfast was not as crowded as many of the other character breakfasts I’ve been to, so we saw all of the characters twice AND they didn’t rush to get on to the next table. And it was so fun meeting the characters. Especially the Mad Hatter who you RARELY see in the parks.
We really had a great time and would recommend it to anybody wanting maximum time with characters and one really delicious breakfast!
Oh, one last weird thing. If you bring a stroller they take it when you go inside and put it on the OUTSIDE deck behind the Grand Floridian. So don’t be shocked when your stroller is gone. Just ask the person at the front desk to point you in the right direction or look for the signs.
Related articles
- Table Service in the Parks vs the Resorts – Which is Better? Part 1 (chipandco.com)
- Is Disney World Character Dining Worth it or is it Overpriced? (chipandco.com)
Which Disney World Guide Is Right For You?
The Walt Disney World Resort is huge, and it can be a complicated destination to navigate. The properties boast four theme parks, two water parks, more than two dozen hotels, a campground, a shopping district and more than 200 dining locations. It can all be a little overwhelming to returning visitors, let alone first timers. That’s why planning your Disney vacation is so important, and why Disney World guidebooks are so popular.
But with all the options available, which guide is right for you? I’m going to look at three of the most popular to demonstrate the differences and hopefully help you decide which fits your experience level and travel style.
The Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa is huge, detailed and brutally honest. The Unofficial Guide’s 2012 version features 854 pages of text, charts and drawings, but no pictures. There is a companion volume of pictures available, but the Unofficial Guide itself is photo-free, rather devoting all its space to information.
If you like charts, this is the guide for you. Want to know how long it takes to get from any resort, using any transportation option to the front gate of any park, down to the second? There’s a chart. Which rides are scary for what age child? There’s a chart. Room rates, sizes and amenities? Ticket options? Average cost of a day at Disney? Ratings of rental car companies? This book has a chart for just about everything. The authors use a team of researchers and feedback from hundreds of readers to give you a very balanced and often brutally honest look at what exactly lies in store for a family vacationing at Disney World. They look at options both inside Disney World and off-property, offering valuable insight.
This is a very informative book, and surprisingly entertaining to read, given the density of information. The quotes from readers peppered throughout the book often left me in stitches. The downside is the sheer mammoth size, which is a bit intimidating, and the tendency of the authors to look at a Disney vacation as an exercise in mathematics and cost-savings that could turn off many people that aren’t exactly Type A personalities.
On the other end of the spectrum, we find Birnbaum Guides’ Walt Disney World 2012, the Official guide to Walt Disney World. This book is less than 300 pages of much bigger type and features many photographs from all over the Walt Disney world property. Being the Official Guide, this is written with the cooperation, and approval, of the Walt Disney World Resort. It is very up to date and includes all the basic information on accommodations, dining and the parks.
The flip side of that is that you will not get one word of criticism. Disney World is a truly magical place, but it has its ups and downs like the rest of the world. Birnbaum is all ups and no downs. Honestly, while this book is fun to page through and get your family all excited about your trip, it doesn’t have any information not easily available on the Disney website, and much less than is available on fan sites all over the internet, including Chip & Company.
PassPorter’s Walt Disney World is a third option and is quite a departure from both the Official and Unofficial guides. The PassPorter guide offers more pictures and color than the Unofficial Guide, more honest reviews than the Official Guide and is unique in that it also serves as a travel planner and scrapbook.
The authors, Jennifer, Dave and Allison Marx, don’t provide the depth of detail that marks the Unofficial Guide, and aren’t nearly as addicted to charts and graphs, but they do a very good job of honestly portraying Disney World’s best and not so great. The back of the book is composed of cardboard stock pages designed with pockets to hold tickets and other memorabilia and forms for recording both plans and remembrances.
I used this book as a planning guide on our last week-long trip a few years ago without taking advantage of the scrapbook-type features and felt I completely got my money’s worth. This year, I plan to use the whole book as a way to make writing about my trip easier on my return.
No one guide is going to be right for everyone. Whether you are looking to plan every second of your vacation like the D-Day invasion or you just want pretty pictures to help you feel the magic before you leave, there is a guide for you. Or, of course, you can do like me and buy them all! One never can have too much Disney on the bookshelf, I think.
This guest post was written by our good friend Jeffrey. He is a father, husband, Disney fan and refugee from the real world. While planning his next Disney trip, he enjoys bringing the Magic into his life in all ways possible, including his personal blog, Pooh Sticks.
Related articles
- Which Disney guidebook or online subscription is right for you? (chipandco.com)
- When is the Best Time to Visit Walt Disney World? (chipandco.com)
