My family of 4 (DH, DS4, DD2 and myself) are taking on WDW for the very first time April 2016 and I need some advice on the structure of the plan we have created already and the possibility of re-arranging the cosmos if needed…
We will be touring with another family that has a little one right in the middle of our two littles and they are experienced WDW APs but I want to get lots of different perspectives, so here I am!
We have been DLR AP holders for the last 2 years and try to make the 9-10 hr drive 1x a month to curb the addiction we as a family have developed for all things Disney, so tackling the scale of WDW planning has been a little daunting. We do have ADRs in place but an opportunity to re-arrange has presented itself in that we may have one additional adult ( Grandma to the kid from the family that will be touring with us) that is interested in coming and we can’t just tell grandma, sorry the ADR date has passed there’s no room at the inn…
Here are the specific things I’m wondering:
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To park hop or not? I initially voted no to a) save money b) we have two littles c) it’s our first trip and I don’t think we’d be very effective at while learning the ropes d) the scale of WDW is just much more massive than the DLR we are used to and e) we probably won’t be renting a car because we don’t necessarily want to tote around the required car seats if we can use free shuttle and MDE transportation since all we are doing is WDW. Now after reading trip reports, I’m re-thinking my logic because if we splurge on park hopping and are already taking a hotel midday break we may be able to park hop without missing much in the way of transportation AND we can then make use of EMH which we completely threw out when designing our plan for the 180 ADR. Our friend basically said since I wasn’t planning on having a hopper option we should avoid EMH park like the plague. So any insight you have about why you park hop (or why you don’t) would be greatly appreciated.
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Car rental vs. uber and does anyone have any idea if Uber cars near/around WDW have car seats? We are trying to avoid lugging extra things through the airport and it would make my DH so happy not to have to bring car seats. So could we rely on uber and look for drivers with car seats in order to make ADRs? Or would renting a car really be our best option?
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This is what we have planned in terms of park days/ADRs ( planned with no park hopping, avoiding EMH and some insight from CLs here and recommendations from easyWDW for parks to visit). Sanity checking for potential mis-steps or potential disasters welcomed!
Day 0 Mon 4/4- overnight flight arriving to MCO 5am next day
Day 1 Tues 4/5- DSH CL 4 (planning on late arrival but if RD is possible, will be a plus) WCC 9:45
Day 2 Wed 4/6- Epcot CL 3 potentially not doing RD to conserve from prior day’s arrival to late night. GG 11:00, followed by face stuffing at F&G all night ending with Illuminations
Day 3 Thur 4/7- MK CL 6 rope drop welcome show all the way. Completly free ADR day.
Day 4 Fri 4/8 AK CL 5 RD again. Ohana 8:15 ADR after AK closes.
Day 5- Sat 4/9 1900 PF Supercalif. Bfast 8am. Monorail to Epcot CL 7. More face stuffing at F&G for evening. Prob won’t make RD either so just realized we’re not likely to RD Epcot.
Day 6- Sun 4/10 AK CL 8. Lazy day at AK. 12 ADR at Tusker House. Planned for either pool time or Disney Springs time. Whatever family votes for.
Day 7- Mon 4/11 DSH CL 7. No ADRs. No plans yet. Maybe RD depending on how rested, how we are doing with time change… (We are in MT time two hours behind ET).
Day 8- Tues 4/12. Last park day. CRT 8:25 ADR. So MK with CL 6 and BOG 6:25 for dinner. Close the park down is hopeful plan. Again depends on what family is up for.
Day 9- CM brunch ADR 11:35. Leave for MCO 2:30ish (flight leaves 5:40).
Any insight from all you wonderful experts is welcome!
:: pen poised ready to take notes ::