Arriving Thursday Jan 2, hopefully early flight so planning 1/2 day at AK. Staying at Kidani villas. Leaving Sat Jan 11, not sure what time flight will be or what we might do that day, park-wise. But after obsessively looking at crowd levels (both here and on UT which sometimes are very contradictory!), planning 2 days per park + 1 day side trip to Universal, drafting and tweaking and scrapping and re-drafting and changing and tweaking the plan way too muchā¦ here is where Iām at for park days and most of the planned meals (some QS included). We are NOT hopping.
REVISED plan:
THURS: HS D: Mama Melrose
FRI: AK B: Sanaa (QS), L:(QS?) D - Tiffins/Lion King package
SAT: EP [B: Ale & Compass OR PPO Akershus], D-Chefs de France
SUN: MK B:EMM$$, D-Columbia Harbour House (QS)
MON: HS L-50ās Prime Time; D-Hoop Dee Doo 6:15
TUES: Universal - none
WED: AK Brunch: Tusker House (~10:30) (ROL package), D: Satuāli (QS)
THUR: EP B:PPO Garden Grill, L-(QS?), D-Via Napoli
FRI: MK L:BOG, D-Skipper Tree Canteen
SAT: ?
Original plan:
THURS: AK - D-Satuāli (QS)
FRI: HS - D-Mama Melrose
SAT: Universal
SUN: EP - B-PPO Garden Grill, L-?(QS?), D-Via Napoli
MON: HS - possible EMM$$? L-50ās Prime Time; D-Hoop Dee Doo 6:15
TUES: MK - B-EMM$$, D-Columbia Harbour House (QS)
WED: AK - B-PPO Tusker House, D-Tiffins/ROL package dinner
THUR: EP: B-(PPO?) Akershus, D-Chefs de France dinner
FRI: MK: L-BOG,D- Diamond Horseshoe
SAT: ?
Iām hopeful that I can sell dh and especially 2 teen sons (16 & 18) on the early mornings, lol.
PPO at Tusker and Akershus - are you doing that for ride advantages, or just to get the meals out of the way? I like to schedule character breakfasts at the end of the breakfast period so I can get in a few rides and then not feel rushed seeing all the characters. The exception is Garden Grill where they rotate through quickly. You donāt really feel rushed on that one.
I like the general idea of basically two meals a day. Have you considered the Fantasmic package for Mama Melrose? Just a suggestion.
My family canāt do all early mornings (five in a row would have us all a mess). However they are totally sold on the concept of PPO breakfasts now that they know it gives them a RD line advantage. And EMM MK is awesome. I prefer TSL at night - not sure if DAH is a possibility for your family but it may give you the same āpark to ourselvesā feeling without another early morning.
Hmmmā¦ I thought it sounded good, and we havenāt done it on our prior 2 trips. Iām trying to mostly pick places we havenāt been to yet. We did Liberty Tree Tavern our 1st trip, and Crystal Palace both prior trips. Iām open to suggestions! Iām not completely opposed to going a place weāve been before, but want to exhaust all the decent options that we havenāt been to, firstā¦ lol.
Weāve never done a PPO, but Iād like to try it and use it for the ride advantage also. Both of the restaurants are on my āIād like to try thisā list but not my āI absolutely MUST go hereā list.
If you are looking for Pandora advantage with the Tusker PPO, I have read that there really isnāt one. Iām sure it can be helpful for other parts of the park though. Akershus can give you an advantage at FEA if you are finished fast enough.
I think the rule of thumb is to plan on 90 minutes for a character meal.
We saw Fantasmic on our first trip. It was fine, but we donāt feel the need to do it again.
I will probably cut back on the early mornings, lol. Iām undecided about the TSL EMM so maybe eliminate that, and possibly Akershus also, which would mean only 3 EARLY days and a little more spread out. I am a naturally early riser but fairly worthless after about 7pm lol. My kids get up pretty well for school so I know they CAN do it, but not sure if they will be grumpy about it when we are on vacation. I mean CāMON youāre at WDW, there is FUN TO BE HAD - GET MOVING!
You know, maybe what Iāll do with some of these is book double reservations - one PPO and one a little bit later. Then I can decide if I want to keep the PPO depending on how I do on fastpasses. If we are good for FPP then I drop the PPO and keep the later one, but Iāll have the PPO if we need itā¦
Yes! I ate there so no one has to ever again because it was terrible. Awful. Worst meal in the world. The only positive was my waiter was nice (and even told me to skip dessert there) and there was plenty of glorious air conditioning. Please go to Skipper Canteen instead. Unique food and environment. Even for picky-ish eaters like me.
LOLā¦ wellā¦ in light of that vivid and heartfelt review, I will defer to your experience on this matter! Skipper Canteen honestly wasnāt even on my radar (not sure why) but I just looked it up, and both the atmosphere and the menu look great! I think thatās the winner!!
It is really delicious and unique. I tried DH bc I was trying to visit new places and it was just so truly horrid I want to help others avoid making that mistake. The ācoldā sides were just sitting on the bar for servers to grab. Cold, hard cornbreadā¦ ugh the flashbacksā¦
Agree with @PrincipalTinker ā¦ I ate there in Fall 2017 just to get out of the heat and it is NO where what it was in itās earlier days. It wasnāt bad for what I used it for but I definitely wouldnāt include it n an a plan or make an ADR for it.
way too muchā¦ here is where Iām at for park days and most of the planned meals (some QS included). We are NOT hopping.
. I also vote for a late breakfast at TH.