I am traveling to Florida 4/23-5/4, and will be at Disney 4/30-5/4 with my husband and 5 year old. This is my first Disney trip in almost 20 years. This is a first Disney trip for my husband and 5 year old.
I am hoping for some advice on this park and dining plan. We are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge and have the deluxe dining plan. Is it overkill to do both Jiko and Le Cellier (with a 5 year old) or should I pick one? It’s a lot of TS credits. Should we do a dessert party?
4/30-
Drive in from Naples and leave rental car
Hotel Day
Dinner: Sanaa at AK Lodge 6:45pm
5/1-
Breakfast - Ohana at the Polynesian Resort 8:25am
Monorail to Epcot
Lunch - food and drink booths at garden festival
Dinner: Le Cellier steakhouse in Canada 7:40pm
Evening: illuminations 9pm, and then back to hotel
5/2-
Animal kingdom: 9 am rope drop
Breakfast: Tusker House 10:10 am
Break Late afternoon at hotel
Dinner: Jiko 5:35 (2 TS)
After Dinner: back to AK for river of light
5/3-
Magic Kingdom: arrive early for magic hours 8-9am
Breakfast: Be our guest 10:10am
Dinner: Crystal Palace 7pm
Evening: fireworks 9pm
5/4-
Hollywood Studios
Breakfast: Hollywood and Vine character dining at 8:30 am (half hour before park opens)
Lunch: Woodys Lunch Box
Partial park day until 3pm
4pm - Depart on Magical Express
I’d skip Ohana, have a quick breakfast and then rope drop Epcot. The travel time from AKL to Ohana and then Ohana to Epcot will waste a lot of valuable morning park time (not to mention making it a more exhausting day). Also, if you plan to do multiple Tier 1 rides at Epcot (Frozen, Soarin’, Test Track and Character Spot), it will really help to get there at RD.
I think it’s ok to plan on Jiko and Le Cellier, but it depends how your 5 year old is at nice restaurants. My kids would do well with it, but I know others that would not. By the way, I think the food at Jiko is amazing. It’s my second favorite WDW restaurant after California Grill.
Looks like you have a few long days planned without mentioning breaks. Can your 5 year old handle the long days?
I was wondering whether Ohana was too ambitious. Maybe we will just have breakfast at the resort.
I think my 5 year old can handle the full days but we are going to have a hotel break mid afternoon as a back up plan if we need it. I don’t want to go back with the trek back to animal kingdom lodge but if he seems like he needs it we will. And probably will need to rent a stroller. We did a week at an ocean resort this last summer and while different he was managing pretty full days of ocean, boardwalk, rides for a full week. He doesn’t nap and I think if I get him off his feet for a long dinner he will recharge for the evening. He is good for restaurants too do I’m not concerned there.
You should not do a dessert party with deluxe dining. Why are you doing deluxe dining? I don’t even see enough meals booked to use them all. It’s a lot of food for most people. You have a relatively short trip where a lot of time will be spent eating. I do agree to do
garden grill instead of ohana.
Doing the dining plan for my husband mainly, and secondly to not worry about the food costs while there. Husband is not that Disney excited, and he preferred the idea of our regular all inclusive vacation, but he was excited about the good restaurants. He is on board for the trip because he knows my son will love it, but he doesn’t think he will like it much (which I think he will when he gets there). I think I come pretty close on credits with the 2 costing 2 each; definitely more than the basic plan. If I added it up right we should have 2 meal credits left over each and I planned 2 meals a day. That is probably what I’ll eat, but my husband and son will still want lunch some of those days which I figured would eat the remaining credits.
I’ll drop Ohana and look at garden grill. Where is the reservation finder? They only have a 9:05 now which I wouldn’t do if we rope drop because we should hit rides.
I would think that even a 9:05 ADR puts you ahead of what you had. Anytime before 9 is also good because I’ve read that they seat you early most times.
Can anyone confirm that for a 9:05 ADR that they will let you in at 8:45 or earlier?
Another opened at 10:20 I snagged so I think we will do that for brunch unless a before park opening one opens. I’ll just get my son a snack to eat at the hotel to hold him over. That way we can rope drop and hit as many rides as possible for a little over an hour and then break.
I booked around that time a few other days as well. Is this a good plan or is it better to try to watch for early reservations those days? I was estimating an hour for a sit down breakfast 90 minutes for a sit down dinner. Does that seem about right?
What time would you book the first fast pass for those days? Assume it doesn’t make sense to waste in the first hour when the crowds will be slimmer. And then we will breakfast most days so 11:30 or 11:45 I’m thinking?