Overwhelmed

[shelikesmorningglories]

So ex-dh and I are bringing the kids to Disney in late January,arriving on a Thursday am and coming back on a Monday night(5 days).I have been to several of the "savers" sites but am completely overwhelmed.

Here is what we are looking for:



1)decent in-park hotel with a filling free breakfast each day

2) at least one character meal-it does not have to be the Princess one...

3)best site for airline tix to Orlando

4)best buffet restaurants in park

5)a recommended schedule for 5 days

[egoldber]

1)decent in-park hotel with a filling free breakfast each day

Unless you get the Dining Plan, none of them have "free" breakfast. And even on the dining plan, you basically pay for it ahead of time. The food courts at the Value and Moderate resorts offer the most economical breakfast options.

2) at least one character meal-it does not have to be the Princess one...

There are so many. What are your fav characters? Anyone who is a "must see"?

3)best site for airline tix to Orlando

I think any of the on-line sites offer competitive ticket prices.

4)best buffet restaurants in park

This very much depends on your tastes, I think all the park buffets are designed to appeal to very mainstream tastes. They also offer "family style" dining where food is brought to your table and you share. It's all you can eat as well.

5)a recommended schedule for 5 days

In 5 days I would go to the MK twice and the other parks once.

[shelikesmorningglories]

=
There are so many. What are your fav characters? Anyone who is a "must see"?



I think any of the on-line sites offer competitive ticket prices.



This very much depends on your tastes, I think all the park buffets are designed to appeal to very mainstream tastes. They also offer "family style" dining where food is brought to your table and you share. It's all you can eat as well.


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Thanks! As far as characters go,any female character is fine.Minnie Mouse.Daisy.Alice.Mary Poppins. And as far as food,the kids and I like pizza,chicken,Chinese and mac/cheese.So the buffets should work.

[fivi2]

Have you been to the disboards? That is the best site for everything! It is overwhelming, so I spent a lot of time just reading old posts (on different boards) and just trying to digest it all. You will notice a lot of topics repeat.

(We are planning a short trip and haven't been yet, so I can't actually help you with your questions!)

[Rainbows&Roses]

I am an avid internet researcher and was completely overwhelmed with disboards and all the other message sites when I started planning our trip. I bought a few guidebooks and started there. It was much less overwhelming and then I went to the internet sites for more information.

[kimbe]

1) Any in park hotel is going to be a good bet for a Disney trip. You'll get extra magic hours and you will be able to use bus transportation. There isn't much free at Disney so no free breakfasts.

2) Character Meals. As Beth said there are tons. Our favorites are Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary -- Mickey, Donald, Goofy,MInnie, Pluto; The Garden Grill at the Land in Epcot Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale; The Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom Pooh Characters.

3) Depends on where you live. We use Southwest because they are the cheapest for us, they fly direct and you can cancel/change without paying a fee. (You just get the credit for another flight.)


4)Our favorites are Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom, The Garden Grill in Epcot, Bittergarten (sp) in Epcot. I know that this isn't in a park but Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge is fantastic. For a great list of meals and menus and prices go to www.allears.net. very simple, to the point website with up to date menus. You will have to make reservations 180 days before your arrival for ANY sitdown dining that you want...if you don't have reservations you are pretty much out of luck and there is little chance you'll be able to walk into a sitdown resturant.

5)Schedules are hard and depend on where you are staying, extra magic hours, what age your kids are, what kind of kids you have, even what tickets you have, whether you are going to go back someday or not etc. I agree with Beth also --- 2 days in Magic Kingdom definitely, and one day in the other parks depending on your kids. DD didn't go to Disney Studios until her third trip because she wasn't into anything there. We only popped in there our last trip for the Playhouse Disney show and then left. You may want to do two parks in one day and then take a break day to relax a bit.

HTH --- hope that we can help more once you get things going!

[fivi2]

One other thing I thought of - as far as breakfast goes, we will probably pack some cereal bars (or oatmeal which you can make with the hot water from the coffee maker) to eat breakfast in our room a couple of days. We will also pack some of the snacks my dds like to carry into the park. Just to save a little.

[kimbe]

We always bring lots of snacks with us so that we don't HAVE to eat at the parks all the time. (I can't eat like that for a week that is for sure!) You can easily bring a box of cereal and a case of milk boxes to have cereal in your room.

If we rent a car, we stop at the store and get fruit, but if we don't we get groceries delivered from www.gardengrocer.com. They deliever right to your room. Their prices are a little higher than the grocery store obviously, but much cheaper than on property prices. We usually get organic milk and yogurt, orange juice, cases of water and fruit. The savings on water alone pays for the rest of the groceries.