Ok, I have hotel and airfare booked, I'm ready for suggestions on what to do

[mariza]

Thanks for putting up with all my questions and changes of opinion so far! I finally have my flights booked, :boogie: but our first technical day in Disney, we don't get in until after 10pm. First full day will be a Sunday and staying until the following weekend. DD must see Star Wars (not necessarily the Star Tours ride as I think it will be too fast/scary for her) but I know she will want to see the parade and do the Jedi Training. We will be there for Star Wars weekends. Should we try to cram this in on the first Sunday or wait until the end of the trip? Does anyone know if they do the Star Wars parade on Fridays or just Sat/Sun?

I do have ADR's booked (we got the meal plan), but I booked them VERY blindly, so I'd appreciate your input on what you loved, what I should add and what to skip.
Saturday: Supposed to be at Park Faire at 6pm, but we will still be flying
Sunday: Hollywood and Vine for lunch (HS)
Monday: Crystal Palace for breakfast (MK)
Monday: Garden Grill for dinner (Epcot) need to change this as we don't have park hoppers
Tuesday: Captains Grill at Yacht Club for dinner
Wednesday: Crystal Palace for dinner (I don't know how I ended up booking here twice!)
Thursday: Tusker House at AK for breakfast
Friday: Chef Mickey's for dinner
Saturday: ???

Anyone been to the BBQ at Ft. Wilderness?
I need to sit down with my books and start figuring out which character meals are which.

[crl]

I'm pretty sure dinner at Chef Mickey's is not a character meal, just in case you were going for that. We went there for breakfast and it was our favorite meal of the week.

My favorite ride was Soarin at Epcot and everyone else from 7 year old ds to 60+ year old grandparents loved it too.

Catherine

[LD92599]

I'm pretty sure dinner at Chef Mickey's is not a character meal, just in case you were going for that. We went there for breakfast and it was our favorite meal of the week.

My favorite ride was Soarin at Epcot and everyone else from 7 year old ds to 60+ year old grandparents loved it too.

Catherine

Dinner at chef mickey is a character meal, fyi. We ate their twice on our last trip.

[JTsMom]

Have you looked at crowd calendars yet? I'd base where to eat/which park we were in on that. It makes such a huge difference, and with your DD's sensory issues, I think it would make an even bigger difference. Sunday is usually a good MK day, so think about that.

I know nothing about Star Wars, so I'm no help there.

Crystal Palace used to be great, but lately has been so-so. What time is it? If it's before the park opens (like 8), I might do it just for that. I definitely would not do it twice. Also, it tends to be a loooong meal. Takes the characters forever to make the rounds. Pooh characters

BBQ gets pretty bad reviews. Have you considered Hoop Dee Doo if you want to do Ft. W?

Ohana is my family's absolute favorite, so I might throw that in if you can get it. We haven't done dinner, but that's supposed to be good too.

Allears lists all of the characters with the meals.

I can't remember- did you end up with DDP? If not, I might not do so many sitdowns. How do your kids do in restaurants?

Tusker House is fun. I can't remember all of the characters but def. Daisy, Donald, maybe Goofy? Pluto? Maybe Mickey?

Chef Mickeys- it's nice to see all of the characters, but I don't love the food. It's also loud, a fast moving. The characters breeze right by. This one has Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto.

Garden Grill is great! Single best character meal for interaction if you ask me. The kids get loads of one on one time. It's also peaceful, which is nice.

[maiaann]

My favorite ride was Soarin at Epcot and everyone else from 7 year old ds to 60+ year old grandparents loved it too.



:yeahthat: Get a "fast pass" though because it sold out when we were there. You'll LOVE it!!!

We ate at the Boma (yum!) at Animal Kingdom and also Ohana (Lilo & Stitch character breakfast is fun).

[bubbaray]

I highly recommend the Disney DVDs if you have time to order them from the website.

Don't forget that there are single rider lines and also the rider swap passes (can't remember what they are called right now, its on the DVD).

We really love character dining, its a lot of fun. My girls love the BBB makeovers, but I've now started doing them myself in the hotel room (go to the dollar store for hairpieces & colored extensions) and some light glitter. You could totally do a pirate makeover yourself too for cheap.

I also recommend getting any kids costumes at Target or whatever before hand, the park ones are crazy expensive. Stalk the Disney store website for sales on t-shirts and stuffies before you go.

[JTsMom]

The DVD's are on youtube too. Not sure the 2011 one is up, they don't change much from year to year.

[sste]

Whoa, that is alot of character dining!! Are you on a meal plan?

I loved Crystal Palace for an early lunch - - I think we went at 1135. Food was fair/fine. At that point in the day we were ready for a long, leisurely downtime type thing. And my kids are very young so the pooh character parade, etc was extremely sweet and slow pace was good for character first-timers. But, I think the pacing might have bugged me at breakfast (I would want to start touring) or dinner (all of us somewhat tired). Just a thought.

Garden grill I liked quite a bit - - ask to sit on the lower level when you get there. You are closer to the rotating scenery. The food is a little better than the crystal palace. Agree with the great character interaction.

One thing to consider is that with only two character meals . . . my kids were becoming kind of character-jaded by day 5.

[TwinFoxes]

OP, do your kids like characters? We did a lot of character meals, but DDs are ALL about Mickey. Crystal Palace was leisurely, to put a good spin on it, glacial is another way of looking at it. :) But we actually didn't mind too much, it was dinner our first night, and PP is right, it's a good starter character meal. I would not eat there twice.

We did the backyard BBQ. The food was actually pretty good, I think doing that type of food in large quantities is easy. My girls LOVED it. They got to dance with Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, and Goofy. Dance, as in on the dance floor holding hands with the characters, doing a conga line with them. Serious intense character interaction. It was like being up close with rock stars. There was quite a bit of a crush and DDs were small, so I had to keep a very close eye out, since there were bigger kids there too. The reviews I read before we went were positive. But if your kids aren't that into characters, I think it would be a waste of money, it's expensive.

I would look at crowd estimates too before figuring out which parks to do when. When exactly are you going?

Are you interested in Fantasmic? It's a terrific show. There's a dinner package that gives you priority seating, but you can also just wait in line for seats.

I'm not into Star Wars, and neither are DDs (yet) so I can't help you there either.

[bnme]

If SW stuff is important, I would go the first weekend. My kids are usually pretty burned out by the end of the week. Post a review, I have always wondered how it is - all the Disney characters in SW costumes is so cute!

My parents have done Mickeys BBQ and enjoyed it. Food was OK. They think it would be great for the kids. The only reason I haven't done it is because it doesn't seem to fit our schedule.

Not sure what you re looking for with dining. We have done CM and CP and like them both but my favorite characte meal is breakfast at Ohana. I only do character breakfasts as I am not a fan of Disney's lunch/dinner buffet. Other favorites are Mexico in Epcot and we like Tony's in MK for convenience and a break from the park (typical commercialized italian). I have always wanted to try Ohana for dinner and Sci Fi in HS for their atmosphere. We tend to eat more counter service. Have a great trip!

[mariza]

Thanks everyone! We are on the dining Plus package, I don't necessarily have a want/need to do a character meal every day, I just went along with what the Disney agent was suggesting. DD is not interested in Princesses and though DS does like them I think he'd be ok with skipping a Princess meal. He'd like them if we saw them in the park, but he probably wouldn't even think about it if we didn't see any. They are more into the "classic" Disney characters and the Disney Pixar (toy story, Nemo, etc.)
I'm going to look into tour-guide mikes tour plans as JTsMom suggested too. Just figured I'd see what you all liked. Thanks!

[TwinFoxes]

I meant to mention, you should request the free vacation planning DVDs. People think they are one way Disney makes their pin code list. :)

PP mentioned Boma at AKL. I liked it too, and we finished eating at dusk, and went out and looked at the animals on the "savannah". They had night vision goggles (we didn't use them). It was a lot of fun, it's really pretty. I liked Boma better than dinner at Ohana, but we were seated where we couldn't see any of the entertainment other than the conga line.

[JTsMom]

If you're going to do TGM, don't even think about the dining until you figure out for sure which park/which day. I enjoy the character meals a lot, but it's not worth sacrificing good touring for, kwim? The difference between a good crowd and a bad crowd day is really remarkable! It changes the whole feel of the day imo. It's just so much more pleasant when it's not crowded. It's not just the rides either- it's all of the walking, the restaurants, everything. On our first family trip, we hopped for meals a couple of times, and it is SO not worth it. Way too much time wasted.

I've heard Park Faire is a really fun meal, so if you can get that back, it might be a good choice. Le Cellier in Epcot is popular, but it's a big time sucker. A lot of people like the Italian place at Epcot, but we thought it was just ok. The English pub is a good place to watch Illuminations, so some choose it just for that.

50's Prime Time is fun, and the food is pretty good. We had a so-so experience at Sci Fi- fun concept, mediocre food. BTW, on the touring side at DHS, the last time I saw TGM's plans for there, he did not have Toy Story MM included, so know that it has to be your #1 priority at DHS.

Are you doing Downtown Disney? T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe (RFC is also at AK) are popular.