We planned a trip in 2011 and 2 weeks to the day that we were scheduled to leave for our trip our oldest daughter fell and broke her arm. She had to have surgery and a year of therapy. :( My brother found out in 2012 that he had leukemia so we could not go last year either and we are FINALLY ready to go now. We are booked for the last week in May! :) Yeah~!
I do not remember what all we had planned on trying on the last trip. So this is like starting over on the planning and the kids are older now and everyone's taste has changed etc. So what would you recommend for dining, shows etc for girls that will be 6 and 8 when we travel. I am so excited to get it all planned out, but overwhelmed at the same time! I would love any guidance anyone can offer. I would really like to get our reservations nailed down. I know last time I had waited and I wasn't able to get reservations for some of the stuff we wanted. We will be staying at the Polynesian if that helps. Thank you so much in advance!
we used some tips and stuff from the unofficial guide/website, but for that age I would think BBB, Cinderella's Royal table (ours were younger and older than that when we went last and we did Pirate's League and Harmony Barber shop 1st hair cuts), we really liked the character breakfast at O'hana, there will only be a few rides they can't do due to height restrictions...what are they into? What foods do you want to eat? meal plan?
Definitely do Bbb and Cindella's Royal Table. If you are using a dining plan, the restaurant is two table service credits each. I went with my 5 yo niece and 9 yo nephew, and they were both enamored. If it's too pricey, or you can't get in, there is a Princess dinner at Akershus in Epcot's Norway. It's only 1 credit, and is often easier to get into. May is only 5 months, so people have already been able to book CRT for a month for the time you are going.
If you want a neat experience, try getting into Crystal Palace before MK opens for the day. Youg eat to go into the park while it is almost completely empty. Just make sure it is not EMH in the morning that day, or it will be busier with hotel guests in the park. But you get the experience (and photos) of a nearly empty Main Street. The meal is a Pooh character breakfast.
Make sure to plan down time back at the hotel. Kids (and adults) get tired fast when you spend all day in the parks. If you get out early, head back around noon-1pm to the hotel, take a nap, hit the pool, eat some lunch away from the park, then head back to the parks around 4-5. Plan for a nap especially if you are hoping to do late night park hours.
It can be really easy to any to just power through, but it's sensory overload for kids. Excitement, loud sounds, tons of people, bright colors, rides, foods, it can be a lot.
Try to plan to be at MK at opening at least one day. They roll out on the train with singers, dancers, and costumed characters for a fun song, then the characters are right there for autographs.
You can pick up autograph books online or in any of the gift shops. Or you can even design your own. I do digital scrap booking, so I made about 50 different 4x6" images, then got them spiral bound at shutterfly. The pages were photos, but a sharpie worked just fine, and we got a ton of compliments on them. I put together 3 of the books to have characters sign, each different, and each had their names on the cover. The kids loved having them :)
we did our first day as half a day at epcot (3pm-ish arrival), full day at MK, full day at Epcot, 1/2 day at HS, full day at MK, 1/2 day at AK, rest then to DTD, final day 1/2 day at MK, picked up candy with leftover snack credits at goofy's candy company in DTD and headed out.
We didn't have park hoppers- I wish we had, but it wasn't my vacation (I took the place of a cheating stbx on an already paid for trip), and I didn't have enough myself to pay for the upgrade after setting aside money for airfair (I had a few weeks notice).
Anyway, I do recommend getting one, so you can bounce between parks. We only did about 2/3 of a day at AK. It closed early, and we didn't get there until around 10am, and up until noon, we spent the morning between Tusker House, and getting my autistic nephew his GAC. It wasn't a favorite park for us adults, or the kids.
Oh- one last thing we did that was a real sanity saver. There are tucked away playground type areas in each of the 4 parks, some more hidden than others. These are a GREAT place for kids to run off extra energy, and have some unstructured time.
AK: Boneyard in Dino Land
Epcot: Several rides in Future Land exit into play areas, like Imagination.
HS: Hony I Shrunk The Kids playset
MK: Tom Sawyer's Island
The Boneyard and TS's Island were our favorites. They weren't busy, and the kids could just run and play. For as much walking the kids do in the parks, it's nice for them to just be able to run.
Crystal Palace is Pooh and friends. Cinderella's Royal Table is inside the castle, with the Princesses. The girls will love being in the castle- it's a wonderful meal, with lots of Princess interaction (they will come around to each table to pose for photos, talk with the family, and sign autographs.
Quoting AliIzzyMom:
I am mobile right now do I will explain more later. We do have the park hoppers and we are doing the meal plan. Not the quick service but the next one up. I booked a breakfast with Cinderella--is that in the crystal palace? It is for 805...it is before the park is open.
BBB starts out at around $55 for hair/makeup. For $60, they add in nails (btw, you get to keep all the makeup at the end, which is kiddie style makeup). You can go more expensive by adding in things like t-shirts, tutu's, costumes, and photos.
There is also the Pirates League, which is a bit cheaper at $30- the kids can get made over as a pirate or a mermaid. These are much more colorful make overs than BBB, but there's just something fun about being made over into a Princess for the day.
When we had my niece done, we brought a costume with us (they do allow that), and every where we went for the day, CM's referred to her as a Royal Princess. On the bus from DTD back to MK, the driver made an announcement over head about how there was a royal princess on board. SO cute!
Quoting AliIzzyMom:
How much is the bbb?
Polynesian has the Luau show which is nice with okay food. Adults and kids will enjoy the Pioneer hall Hoopty Do Review. I think dining at Chef Mickey's breakfast is a must and you can take monorail right over to contemporary. We love California Grill and have been everytime we visited since trying in 2002. It's also in the contemporary. Everything else is good but those are our favorites. What type of food do you like? Magic kingdom also has Crystal Palace breakfast with Winnie the poo and friends. MK also has the dinner with princesses in the castle. If your girls like that it might be nice to schedule that dinner after a bippity boppity boutique appointment. The whole package is roughly $200 but if you have own gown, etc you can just do hair and make up. Prayers this trip goes as planned and gentle suggestion for the trip insurance that covers nearly every situation including incremental travel weather and needed lodging.
Only 3 park days and 2 pool days??
- AliIzzyMom
on Jan. 5, 2013 at 4:42 PM