I've ha luck booking at the 180 day mark. Have gotten reservations to the royal table my last 2 visits with no trouble

At least one of the moms wants to take the girls to the Royal Table breakfast. I think I'd rather do Chef Mickey's or Ohana, but we'll see what happens. Our 180-days-out date is this coming Thursday. I don't think we'll have a decision by then. Hopefully the demand for these places and the dinner shows won't be too bad in late September.

You can do more than one character meal. They are all different and have their own feel to them. We did royal table, chef mickeys and Hollywood and vine. I could have done without Hollywood and vine but they are Disney jr charecters and I have a 4 yo. We do chef mickeys every time we go and is my favorite

Dining reservations are easier to get these days and I think the new credit card hold for some of the meals is the reason. The signature restaurants, dinner shows, and all character meals require a credit card number to reserve them. (A few of them even require you to pay in full when you book - the 2 dinner shows and Cinderella's Royal Table, I think.) If you do not show for your reservation and didn't cancel a full day before, then Disney will charge your card $10 per person on the reservation. We made two ADR's for this upcoming trip that required that - Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. I personally like this because it keeps people from double or triple booking for the same meal. In the past many people would book several for the same time to cover their bases if they weren't sure what park they would be in. This made it hard for others to get in. For our 2008 trip I called 180 days out at 7 am to get the times we wanted. For this upcoming trip, we didn't even decide to do it until we were past that window. I booked online at about 135 days out from our trip and there were lots of great time available still. We got Crystal Place at 8:05 am - perfect time. This is our favorite time to eat there because you get to enter Magic Kingdom more than an hour before everyone else and get great pics on Main Street with very few people in the background. We enjoy breakfast with Pooh and friends and then beat the crowd to Fantasyland at Rope Drop.

Also, I want to second Tour Guide Mike! We used him for our 2008 trip and found his advice to be great! He had abandoned his site for a while after the death of his sister, but he is back better than ever and is updating like crazy and is working on new touring plans that take all of the recent changes into consideration. His best park days guide is the best! Well worth the money! I've never used Touring Plans, but just finished reading the book (checked out from library) in anticipation of this trip. I've been reading online though that people had problems with their recommended park days lately and other glitches. This is just what I've heard. I will not use touringplans because Tour Guide Mike worked great for us and Josh from easywdw.com seems to confirm Mike's picks. Apparently touring plans contradicts sometimes. I will go with the proven for us and the consensus of several sites. I like these two because they tell you WHY they give the advice they do - their reasoning behind it.

88 Plano Ag - Quick question - How recent was your last trip with the Unofficial Guide and Touring Plans (their website)? Just curious about your experience. The comments about problems with their recommendations have just been recent from people that seemed to have used them in the past. I enjoyed the book though.

We last used the guide a year ago during a spring break trip. Prior to that, Christmas of 2008, spring break 2003 and believe it or not, our honeymoon March of 1988.

I've always had great luck with them; hadn't heard that things were not working with the book.

we used touring plans last may and it was spot on!! we would run into miserable people at our hotel who had gone to a different park that was packed.

It will be interesting to see what the touring guides' solutions are to the enforced fast pass return times. Collecting fast passes as soon as possible and using them past return times was a large part of their strategies.

Part of why I like Tour Guide Mike is he plans around the un-official guides' advice, as much as possible, as he knows they are the biggest touring plan source.

We can start making reservations tonight at midnight. We decided to go ahead and upgrade the dining plan. We're definitely doing the Luau and the travel agent recommended doing the the night that we do Animal Kingdom because it closes the earliest. We want to do a character breakfast the first morning we're there. We're trying to decide between Ohana and Chef Mickey's. The girls also want to do a princess meal (breakfast or lunch). They're between the Royal Table (MK) and the Akershus (Epcot).

Any recommendations/advice on Ohana vs. Chef Mickey or Royal Table vs. Akershus? Is the Royal Table really worth two table credits?

I would go for Chef Mickey's. It is really awesome and all the great characters are there. They have a very good breakfast buffet, and then you can take the tram back to MK for the day.

We decided to go to Askerhaus instead of the Royal Table when my daughter was 5. She loved it and had her picture taken with Jasmine, Ariel, Alice, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty. The princesses do vary, but we felt there was more bang for the buck and we did not have to give up two meal reservations. If the girls' favorite is Cinderella, you may want to go to the Royal Table. My daughter's favorite was Aurora (sleeping beauty), so it was fine. The food is also really good at Askerhaus.

We also went when my daughter was 8 years old. At this point, she was really over the princesses. She was much more concerned with the rides. We did the Garden Grill character meal with Chip and Dale on that trip.

I thought a few pictures of the Askerhaus character meal might help. Also, I forgot about Snow White

It's a good thing I don't have a daughter (or kids for that matter), because if I did...I'd probably be broke.

Thanks for the pics. Maybe I can pass those along to the rest of the family.

It is easy to spend money on them. It is really hard to say no when they look at you with the big eyes. However, I love Disney, and it was not hard to decide to take her. My husband and I had a fabulous time as well, both times that we've been.

I hope you're visit is fun as well.

we loved Akershus! I preferred breakfast at CM to dinner at Ohana...you cannot start off a day at WDW any better than that!!

Was at Disney last week. We did a character breakfast at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom and really enjoyed it. The safari characters were great and breakfast buffet was outstanding. We had breakfast at Chef Mickey's on our last day and really enjoyed that one as well. Great start to the day!

We made our reservations this morning. We can still tweak them between then and now, but we at least have our names on the lists. The girls are eating in the castle the first night we get there. We're all doing Chef Mickey's the very next (the first) morning. The next night (Thursday) we'll be going to the Spirit of Aloha dinner.

Another thing we're considering is the "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party". Anyone know much about that?

I did the Holloween party at disneyland and the Christmas party at disneyworld. They were fun to do once but don't know if I will do again . If your already there go for it

It seems like the Halloween party has a lot of perks: 5 hours in MK with short lines, special fireworks and parades, tons of candy, and some of the more unique characters like the villains (i.e.,Cruela De Vil and Captain Hook) and uniquely dressed characters (i.e. pirate Mickey).

Would you say the lines at the Halloween party were shorter than usual?

Yes the lines were shorter and you are correct on the perks. We took a picture with all 7 dwarfs at once during the Christmas party.

If you have never been I would do it, it is a different experience

Ohana has been my favorite restaurant. Thought it was better than the more expensive spirit of aloha luau. Rockin roller coaster is my favorite ride - short but intense. Know several who have ridden who didn't realize they went upside down multiple times. Enjoy.

quote:

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It seems like the Halloween party has a lot of perks: 5 hours in MK with short lines, special fireworks and parades, tons of candy, and some of the more unique characters like the villains (i.e.,Cruela De Vil and Captain Hook) and uniquely dressed characters (i.e. pirate Mickey).

Would you say the lines at the Halloween party were shorter than usual?

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Disney now sells so many tickets to the special parties they aren't the value they had been but at very select times. Times like 3 or more weeks before the actual holiday and on Tuesdays- Thursdays. If you're a fan of the Villains is the only reason I'd spend the money on MNSSHP outside of the mentioned time frame. You could add park hopping option for the same or less than the party tickets I believe.

Now going to MK the day of a party and leaving at 7-8pm is a great way to go. People without party tickets don't want to go to a partial hours day at MK and those with party tickets aren't concerned with going early or until the party starts. Get there at park opening in the morning and schedule a 6:30 dining resv. and you can walk out after the party has started and see some of the party extras. The party time crowd will be the biggest crowd of the day.

Watching the special fireworks from the Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian launch is cool on party night. Get to a dock 15 minutes before the fireworks you want to see and just stay on the boat as it circles the lagoon. The right side of the boat is where you want to sit. Fort Wilderness' beach is another good place to watch the MK fireworks from and they pipe the accompanying music through the speakers there.

If anyone wants help planning a Disney vacation, I'm a Disney Travel Agent and love to help people plan.

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You'll get no fee planning services, free gifts, and an awesome referral program.

Our agency supplies you with all the know how to do Disney right(tips and tricks, information on which parks to visit and what rides to ride), and some great insider tips and tricks!

vm, regarding the Princess breakfast options ... we did both on our last trip. We really liked both but considered Akershus to be the better option because we felt the princesses interacted more with our kids than at the Royal Table. Each of the princesses stopped by the table and chatted with our girls at both, but at Akershus there was a big singing prance through the dining area with the kids following one of the princesses - the girls had a great time at that!

Plus the Akershus food was tastier than at RT.

Our next trip we will likely only do the Akershus and forgo the 2 credits off the dining plan for RT.

Also if your kids are into Harry Potter go to Universal Studios for a day. Great park and fulfills your HP needs!

ttt so I don't lose

How packed is disney mid august? I read somewhere that east coast schools start early august so that helps with the crowds quite a bit. We want to go the week before school starts.

Good sized crowds & very hot

Crowd guestimates


http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/august-disney-world-crowds.html

thanks - i'm liking mid-late august. you guys stay at home.

ttt again

Thoughts?
2 in 50s, 2 in 30s, 3 yr old, 4 yr old
Plans so far for November:
Fly in mid afternoon on Friday 11/9
Friday Evening: Downtown Disney including Festival of the Masters and dinner

Saturday 11/10:
Cinderella's Royal Table Breakfast
Magic Kingdom for day

Sunday 11/11:
EPCOT with International Food and Wine festival

Monday 11/12:
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Pleasure Island evening for 30s

Tuesday 11/13:
Resort or Disney Quest or Universal Studios
Dinner show

Wednesday 11/14
Disney's Hollywood Studios

Thursday 11/15:
Bibbidi Bobbidi Botique from Downtown Disney Marketplace (crown pkg)
Magic Kingdom repeat
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas parade at night 7pm to midnight

Friday 11/16:
Fly out



[This message has been edited by Clavell (edited 7/2/2012 8:40p).]

We just got back from Disneyworld. My brother took his girls to the Cinderella Breakfast and the Boutique. I'll ask him what his girls thought of it. My parents ate several sit down meals, one at The Canadian restaurant and one at the under the seas one. They were disappointed in both. My daughter and I ate all our lunches at various fast food places on property and I was satisfied with the flavor and quality of all of them. Even if they were a little overpriced. For us it was about $12 each for every meal. The way I looked at it, we were there to enjoy the rides and displays, not to waste time eating.

One thing I wish I had started doing sooner while we were there was getting the stamped pennies. They have the machines in all the parks with different images on all of them. For 51 cents you got a keepsake of that particular occasion.

Some things I thought were neat:
Soaring Ride in Epcot
Safari Ride
Bird show
Monsters, inc laugh floor
Light show and fireworks at Magic Kingsom

I'll edit to add the others when I get to the office.

Clavell- I thought they closed the clubs at Pleasure island...

Whoops, looked it up your right. Closed 4 years ago. Oh well.