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  1. #11
    anonomom is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Adding days to tickets is very easy once you're on property. Once you've used at least one day on your tickets but not all of the days, bring the tickets to the window at any park to add a day. They may possibly be able to do it at the resort, but I'm not sure about that.

    The good thing is you have until your second-to-last day to decide if you want to add another park day. You may find you're tired of the parks by day 7, at which point you can cancel your adr (24 hours in advance) and skip upgrading.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by 123LuckyMom View Post
    Those are some good ideas! We'd be adding a day into a six day hopper, so we'd be changing a six to a seven. I may look into that and see whether it's possible once I seize on a flight.

    I think dinner at Crystal Palace on our AK day is a good idea. I was reluctant to go to CP in the dark since it's so glorious in the day, and it's annoying to pay for dinner when it's the same food as lunch, but that would avoid ride time interference. If I could get an early breakfast, though, should I do that instead?

    Thanks for all the ride alternative suggestions! I need to research this, because DS is tall enough for almost all the thrill rides and loves them, but, unless she has a 3" growth spurt, DD can't go on anything but barnstormer! She's only 36"-37" now. I may post another thread going forward about how to manage that best.

    Maybe the best plan is to do nothing character related on arrival day but do CP for dinner on AK day and Chef Mickey's for late breakfast on departure day.
    It's hard having a smaller child. If she makes 38 inches, she can ride Kali River Rapids in AK and 7 Dwarves.

    Personally, I wouldn't want to get pre-opening ADR at CP just because I find you can accomplish more in the park from opening until around 10:30 and I find the full rotation at CP takes about 90 minutes, which means if you have an ADR at 8 am, you're not done until 9:30. I guess if you can get one at 7:30 am, but not unless you can get that early on a non-EHM morning. I think CP, Chef Mickey's and Aksherus, take the longest. CP is just really large, so the 2x we were there it easily took 90+ minutes for the characters to do the full rotation. When we ate in Chef Mickey's on Sat, I want to say it took 70+ minutes once we were seated. And we were very alert for characters and watched the rotation so we didn't miss anyone. (That is one disadvantage of the buffets, someone needs to watch the characters so you don't miss them because if you do, you have to wait additional.) Aksherus the waitstaff are just slow. Cindy's I find gets you in and out the fastest, it's usually really just 1 hour and we've met all the characters and eaten at H+V in 1 hour. I can't remember how long we spent in 'Ohana but I think it was also about 1 hour also. However if your DD gets into the princesses, doing an ADR pre-opening at Cindy's would finish by 9 if you had one at 8.

    We did Citricos for our arrival day, not sure what we will do in February. It's counterintuitive, but sometimes more crowded times === easier to get ADRs. I find when Disney offers the free meal plan, it's hardest to get ADRs.

    Again, I want to stress how fun the Sorcerer's Game is, it's fun trying to collect and trade the cards and you don't need any of the special (i.e. cost money) cards to successfully win the game.
    Mother to DD 10/2010

  3. #13
    jenmcadams is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by 123LuckyMom View Post
    Maybe the best plan is to do nothing character related on arrival day but do CP for dinner on AK day and Chef Mickey's for late breakfast on departure day.
    One other thought on characters - we just got back last night and did 3 days at Disneyworld last week (and followed up with 2 1/2 days at Universal). We used the My Disney Experience app to track when characters would be at official meet and greets and for the two (Winnie the Pooh Characters and Goofy/Pluto) that were super important to my kiddos, I got in line early (15-30 min ahead of time) and we were in and out (with memory maker pics which are always better than mine that I get at character meals) in about 15 min once the characters showed up. With the exception of Cinderella's Royal Palace, I never think that the character meal experiences are that much better than the meet and greets. We did Tusker House for lunch at AK and characters were ok and we also did Be Our Guest and did the Beast meet and greet afterwards.
    Mom to a DD (8/02) and a DS (6/05)

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by jenmcadams View Post
    One other thought on characters - we just got back last night and did 3 days at Disneyworld last week (and followed up with 2 1/2 days at Universal). We used the My Disney Experience app to track when characters would be at official meet and greets and for the two (Winnie the Pooh Characters and Goofy/Pluto) that were super important to my kiddos, I got in line early (15-30 min ahead of time) and we were in and out (with memory maker pics which are always better than mine that I get at character meals) in about 15 min once the characters showed up. With the exception of Cinderella's Royal Palace, I never think that the character meal experiences are that much better than the meet and greets. We did Tusker House for lunch at AK and characters were ok and we also did Be Our Guest and did the Beast meet and greet afterwards.
    Unfortunately, the MDE doesn't always work. It refused to tell me when Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were coming out and I had to ask cast members working in their meet-n-greet areas in MK. Sometimes the app is great and other times...

    In terms of meeting characters, it also depends on which characters you want to meet, some only do character meals. You can not meet and get autographs from: Lilo, Belle in her yellow dress (she takes pictures at Enchanted Tales but doesn't sign), Ariel as a human princess (you can meet her as a mermaid), Eeyore, Piglet (except at the Halloween and maybe Christmas Parties where they do meet), Cinderella's Prince (He comes out for Christmas and some of the races) and Handy Mandy outside of meals. I am unsure if Stitch is also meeting outside his character meal. He use to meet in MK and the Studios, but that might have stopped. If you're not obsessive about characters it doesn't matter, but for some people it does matter who you meet. Doc only just started meeting outside of the Disney Jr meals.

    I think Cindy's is skippable and have gotten just as good interactions at meet-n-greets, but I really like the Disney Jr. breakfast and now 'Ohana. If you don't want to split up or can't split up, I find waiting in line 30-45 minutes to meet a character unpleasant. Sure I could spend 1 1/2 or more hours standing in 3 boring outdoors lines to meet Doc, Sofia, and Jake, but I'd rather spend ~$40 and get a decent breakfast, A/C and a meal that takes only 1 hour. It's really about what your family's priorities and interests are. Stitch has a Photopass photographer with him.

    If you do decide you want to meet Princesses, I'd try Aurora, Snow White and Tiana in MK. As of right now, they're three of the easier ones to meet and if you get to their lines ~10 minutes before opening you will meet them within minutes of their opening. Tiana is currently meeting inside while the area around her gazebo is being worked on. If you meet her post the parade she will have Naveem.
    Mother to DD 10/2010

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