First Post and First Vacation

My family and I (we have 3 kids ages 9, 6, and 4) just begun the 60 day countdown to our first Disney World vacation, so I thought it was about time I jumped in and made my first post!

I’ve been reading and learning a lot from these posts, so allow me to start by saying thanks to everyone for the great advice.

Now that our ADR, FPs, and Touring Plans are made, I’d love to hear some feedback! We are staying 6 nights from 9/14 to 9/20 at the Contemporary (Garden Wing) with the Disney Dining Plan (the mid-tier plan).

Here are our touring plans that include our dining and fast passes:

  • Epcot (9/14; arriving around noon) - Epcot

  • Animal Kingdom (9/15) - Animal Kingdom

  • Magic Kingdom Day 1 (9/16) - Magic Kingdom - Day 1

  • Typhoon Lagoon (9/17; we have Chef Mickeys at 8:40am and Ohana at 4:40pm)

  • Hollywood Studios (9/18; we are staying away from Star Wars to avoid the crowds, as we booked this trip before Star Wars was announced…) - Hollywood Studios

  • Magic Kingdom Day 2 (9/19) - Magic Kingdom - Day 2

Also, our 6 year old daughter turns 7 on 9/17, so I’d love any extra advice for that day. Thanks in advance!

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They look good, but you are missing one BIG thing unless your family is not into them that you will need to allow time for: Character meet and greets…some are very time consuming so you should ask your kids who they want to see and then incorporate that into plans…we are taking our 2nd big family trip at the end of August/early Sept…have fun!

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Your assumption was correct: we are not in to Meet and Greets. We did intentionally schedule a couple of Character Dinings in order to give them the opportunity to meet some. Thanks for the response. I hope you all have a blast!

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A simple solution for your daughter’s birthday is to let the restaurants know about the birthday ahead of time in the notes area of the reservation. They like to acknowledge things like this, and when you let them know in advance, you never know what type of magical things they will do for you/her. Grabbing a birthday button at MK from guest relations on the 16th sure wouldn’t hurt either.

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@dsollie That’s a great idea. We’ll do that for sure. Thank you!

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You can also order a birthday cake made & decorated by Disney and delivered to the on-site restaurant of your choice. I did this for my daughter’s 13th birthday a few years ago. It was a great surprise as they brought it out and made a big deal about her. You do have to take the cake with you or trash it when you leave. Luckily, I had made a late dinner ADR so we got to take it back to our room and eat birthday cake for breakfast the next day or two.

This is what I did -

This is what I found today - (You may still be able to do both, but I only found this)
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/cake-orders/

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When I click on the HS TP I get your AK plan again?

@sbbradshaw Fixed that! Not sure what happened there. Thanks.

@darkmite2 Cake for breakfast?! I’m in! She’ll love that Mickey cake. I’m adding to our Ohana reservation. Thanks!

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I got one with Merdia on it - her favorite. She burst into “happy” tears.

Just looked at your HS day (we too plan to avoid Star Wars so was especially interested in your plan.) It says you will have to wait 71 minutes for TSMM? Are you sure you want to do that? Can you get there for the 6am rope drop or earlier than 9am?

@sbbradshaw We are not early risers for sure! I haven’t played around with the times to see what would happen if we got there at 8am (or earlier). My guess is that one hour earlier will save us a lot of time in line. I’ll see what I can figure out.

Or maybe look for a same day FPP drop… though it would be later in the day I know since you have the FPP for SDD later…

@sbbradshaw The wait times drop a lot with an 8am arrival: (EMH) Hollywood Studios

What’s a FPP drop?

Wow - this might blow your mind --follow this link - if it doesn’t work, search for that wording.

Current same day FP drops

On you AK day - do you just ride the train without actually visiting the affection section or animation experience?

My kids were same age as yours on our first visit and they enjoyed the affection section a lot.

Not sure if the train ride itself worth the time though…

@sbbradshaw Ummm… that’s huge advice! Thanks!

that link is more about how to pin the post so do be sure to search further on the topic. It can be a game changer.

@eug2506 Yes, that was the idea. Since the MK train will be closed on our trip, we thought we’d use this as a “substitute.” We’re not “animal watching” people. It’s been several years since we’ve been to a zoo, so we decided not to do that part of AK.

I’ll check out the affection section though!

You may already know this, but you can look at the wait time data for each ride on each day. This might help you figure out if there’s a better time to do something w/out a FPP

https://touringplans.com/hollywood-studios/attractions/toy-story-mania/wait-times/date/2019-09-18