So I’m planning a trip for Feb 2019, six days in the parks. I’ve gotten ahead of myself with my plans but I forgot to build in a night for me & DH to get a sitter and go out one night (he’ll probably be a little disappointed, I’m already tired thinking about it!).
Kids will be 5 & 7. So I’m thinking I may need to drop either ROL or Fantasmic to make that happen. I’ve booked dining packages for both (H&V for Fantasmic and Tusker House for ROL).
This is our second trip (went last February as well) and we only saw HEA last time. We’ll go again, so I don’t really need to see both this trip, but I just am having a hard time making this decision so if one of them is not worth seeing please tell me!
This is what my plans look like:
Sat 2/9 - arrive MCO 10am, hang at resort, dinner at 1900 PF
Sun - RD MK, mid-day break, back to MK and try to stay through HEA
Mon - EMH AK, then to Epcot for the afternoon (not planning on staying for Illuminations, too late, but will probably be there until at least 7ish)
Tue - RD AK, stay through ROL
Wed - MK after lunch, stay through HEA if we didn’t make it on Sunday (I guess we could go out this night and I could push us through on Sunday to make sure we see it)
Thu - HS at lunchtime, stay through Fantasmic
Fri - EMH MK, rest of the day is open (but don’t want last night of vaca to be our “night out”)
Sat - leaving
Feel free to offer any other advice on these plans!
I vote F!. I really like F!. ROL was good too in its own way, but I didn’t think it was too exciting. Of course it was pouring while I watched it last May. I’m not planning on it for our next trip.
Could you go out Sunday? Will the kids go to sleep with a sitter? That may make for an earlier evening for the kids since you have an early morning Monday. Otherwise I would pick ROL due to better food at TH.
I imagine H&V is a must for the characters? I would go with which is most convenient, as until you see them you won’t know which you prefer. Fantasmic gets lots of love, but we weren’t overly impressed, and carrying my sleeping DD5 out afterwards wasn’t fun. I’m not sure if it’s changed but we used our Fantasmic dinner pass a few days after our ADR.
Personally I would pick ROL over F!, but I think F! would be more enjoyed by the kids. And if you’ve seen neither, F! should be considered a “must see”. After 20 years I’m a bit tired of it, but it is a Disney classic and everyone should see it at least once.
I’ve also heard that F! can be intense and scary for little ones, so consider if your kids scare easily. We’ll be there for the first time in December and are planning on skipping it for my DDs 4, 6, and 8, but I think they’ll enjoy RoL.
I preferred F! over RoL which I didn’t find as impressive, but as you can see both are worth watching at least once so you can make your own choice. F! has Disney characters in it, RoL has no characters. Would that be a selling point for your little ones?
Fantasmic! My kids 3 & 5 loved it. ROL is beautiful, but kind of slow. Also, I find AK the hardest to spend a full day at (is it hotter than the other parks)? So forcing yourself to stay from RD to ROL will factor into how much you enjoy it.
Thanks! I couldn’t get back on the site last night. It seems like my kids might like F! better, so I think I’ll go with that. I might keep the ADR for the dining package for Tusker House because I think the food sounds good, or is it not worth it? Do you think we could use the dining package to go to ROL on other night? Our Friday night is open and my husband loves AK so we could maybe go back Friday night and finish out the trip with ROL.
Good point, I was a little concerned about the full day at AK. I’m trying really hard not to overdo it. My DH wasn’t fully on-board with another Disney vacation so I’m trying to build in enough downtime and not exhaust us too much!
I’m not that concerned with the characters - we are planning H&V lunch which is Minnie so I think it’s the same characters as Tusker House anyways. I was just picking the dining so I wouldn’t have to waste fast passes on the shows. My kids are more about princesses and villains than the traditional Disney characters. It would be great if we could use the ROL dinner pass on a different day, so I’m going to see if we could do that!
I can’t recall hearing anyone say they’ve used their ROL pass on another night, though there is no harm in asking. What about breakfast at H&V for the Disney Junior characters?
