Please help me add to my list of super quirky and fun tips!
Traveling with Grandma (active 79) and DS’s (10 & 16) plus me (50’s Mom), staying 8 nights BWV, Thanksgiving week (Sat-Sun), plus 1 night MCO Hyatt (on Fri late arrival night).
This is my list of tips received thus far:
Bring fake red gems to pretend to catch them in Philharmonic (my 10 year old will love).
bring glow sticks for AK after dark (we’ll be there for 6-8pm EEH)
Moana Journey of Water ‘scavenger hunt’ at Epcot (find all the etchings?) - I saw this in a live Trip Report on the La Cava forum.
Make Mickey ‘tie die’ shirts (paid extra) at our resort
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I’m all ears!
If helpful, in addition to the parks, we have time allocated for a monorail resort xmas tree/gingerbread house tour, a partial xmas tree walk in Disney springs, time to wander AKL while there for lunch at Saana, and attend MMVMCP and WAT.
The boys may like the Duck Tails Game but I would split the countries into 2 or 3 visits. It takes about 20 mins per country. It’s easier to see the screen on cloudier days and at night. If you have an earbud set I would connect it and give one to each. They do have captioning too. You can either play along or take the opportunity for a break off your feet while the boys play. For the most part you should be able to see them from a central point except for when they have to go into the stores for missions.
You also may want to look into doing a Capture the Moment photo shoot. They have some fun locations. If y’all like gardening and conservation the Behind the Seeds your is super fun!
If there’s a cool evening I suggest catching at least 1 resort campfire evening.
If anyone is celebrating anything get a button at the front desk. They have generic “celebrating” buttons. You can customize them.
Try samples in the drink tasting place in Epcot.
They should also have some fun holiday themed filter (amoungst others) in the Disney Play (or MDE can’t remember which) app. I would look into the Disney Play app in detail, especially if you think the boys would be interested in playing the missions in Galaxy Edge as well.
At QS with mobile order it’s ok for the boys to order off the kids menu (adults too) for picky and light eaters. Sometimes TS and a large QS lunch is too much food for me- even DH. It really puts a damper on my snacks!
In Adventureland there are carved / etched animals in the stonework - walls, pavements etc.
Train fans? Visit the Carolwood Pacific lounge at BRV (WL DVC building).
Also there’s a scavenger hunt at WL, plus check out the lobby, upstairs nooks, indoor stream and geyser.
Visit the stables at FW.
Visit Riviera if you like a) mosaics based on Disney movies &/or b) photographs of Walt on his travels in Europe.
Definitely ech checking out the resort activity calendar for AKL - cookery tours, various cultural activities, the art work (largest private collection of African art in the IS), chatting to CMs about their countries and the animals, night vision goggles …….
If you have time, I highly recommend going to WL to look at their Christmas decor and the Carolwood Pacific Railway room. This train room is in the Boulder Ridge building (that’s near the bus stops). This room is full of memorabilia about Walt Disney’s backyard train, Walt, and other trains. This quiet room has rocking chairs and a fireplace, perfect for a quiet break.
Definitely take advantage of the Boardwalk. There will be entertainment there in the evening. The community hall loans out games and has a free Star Wars pinball machine. They also have video games if you need some downtime.
I feel like Adventureland is often overlooked. The details there are amazing. It’s one of my favorite lands in all the parks. I wish there were more spots to sit and relax there. It feels like it’s designed as a walk-through land. But I love it. When Liberty Square is nixed because of Villians Land, Adventureland will be my favorite in MK.
We definitely plan to take advantage of Boardwalk goings on and 100% the Community Room ( a big selling point for me for BWV, alongside its proximity to two parks and EEH perks), and possibly the pool (weather permitting).
Having said the above, I am having serious buyer’s remorse on my non refundable David’s DVC rental, lol, specifically having the 4 of us stay in a BWV studio for 8 nights (when our MO is to spread out)! Those All Star Suites are sounding pretty good about now…so I’m comforting myself knowing we will mostly be out of the room.
We are only doing 2 rope drops (MK and HS) at the beginning of our trip (Sun & Mon), and then mostly late nights with next day late arrivals. So I’m thinking my Mom (grandma) and I just need to find a nice coffee corner in the morning to hang out in to avoid tripping over sleeping kiddos on the latter days of our trip.
Truth be told, I’m torn on Wilderness Lodge and all the S’mores stuff. The reality is we belong to a mountain club in the front range of Colorado - that comes with a truly lovely mountain lodge with accompanying vistas, and a year round s’mores pit - so that’s something we get organically pretty frequently in our lives. Lovely times around that fire pit for sure. Do the fire pits have a CM? Certainly the ‘hi ho’ energy of CM would be a game changer.
My Mom even lives at 8,000 feet in a small mountain town in SW Colorado.
However, I have been thinking of departure day, and Whispering Cafe for breakfast is on my radar. Departure day is still a big TBD.
I agree about it being just a walk-through land, it’s a single path with no detours except to rides.
Paris on the other hand has an amazing Adventureland. It’s like they looked at TSI and recreated it, with multiple paths, bridges, even the caves which are entwined into the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse story - which is central to it.
And then they have the whole Pirates part with a skull cave, pirate ship and lake. Not to mention the rope bridge which makes the one in WAT look like child’s play!
Disney Paris was definitely very cool. Agree on Adventureland there. We went for just 1.5 days, but we went in the afternoon/evening on our first day after everyone had cleared out and gone back to Paris and EVERY single ride was a walk on. The next day was another story, lol. That first afternoon/night, my boys had a LOOOONG interaction with ‘Jack Sparrow’. It was so chill and cool and fun…
I have done this in the past and when I asked my TA to book for an upcoming trip this month, we both gasped at the current price. We were able to get one night at CSR for nearly half the price (using the currently available discounts).
I was going to use points, only 15K for one night, which is refundable. I have loads of Hyatt points. but…yes, you are correct, cash price is pricey! I wouldn’t mind the add’l advance LLMP day if I booked on property for sure.
Actually, my plan was to book a points room, and then monitor JT’s amazing dedicated DVC rental string as we got closer to our dates to try to find something maybe at BC, BWV, or Poly for that one night. I’m traveling Thanksgiving week so hotel discounts are few and far between. I just priced out an All Stars Family Suite vs. my DVC rental, and it was $4.5K for 8 nights vs 3.7K for my BWV studio.
But we are like minds. I am not ruling out a one night stay on property if the money is right.
@ co res - not sure if this fits into your plan, but we will follow our first night plan again this summer from last trip… we stay in a 1 BR or 2 BR for an extended stay. But for the first night, when flying in later in the day, we moved into a Value. Even if it wasn’t the most comfortable for everyone, we were able to check out a different resort and then first thing in the morning drop our bags to be transferred to the long term resort while we rope dropped and spent the day at the park. Coming back from the park and moving into a Deluxe was a great surprise for the whole family, especially when we were able to use Disney transportation for the whole experience.
Makes sense. We are getting in super late-think 1am. (I can’t take my 16 year old out of school this time of year).
Normally I wouldn’t do that and just fly in on Saturday but coming from Denver so much can go wrong and my plans have us at EP for the afternoon. Better to get there however late and sleep in - and mosey over to BWV in time for a noon EP entry.
I’ll keep my eye out fir something reasonable on property. Right now when you include tax, even value resorts are kind of pricey.
DW, DD9, DS7 and I will be staying at BLT for 4 nights this fall. DW and I were discussing flying in late the night before and staying at a Value for 1 night.
Will WDW move our luggage from the Value to BLT of we drop it off at Bell Services at the Value in the morning?
Will the Value night be included when calculating our 7 days out to book LLMP and LLSP? I recall in the days of FP+ there were issues with the second part of split stays resetting the booking period.
I haven’t looked much at the park. But all of that sounds amazing.