Is this Disney trip OK?

[Anonymous]

We are about to book a Disney trip for early May. There will be two parents and one early elementary child (who is not very interested in character dinners or water park stuff, which makes things much easier).

Staying in a courtyard view room at Wilderness lodge for 4 nights (leaving mid-morning on the 5th day).
Planning to go to a park on the day of arrival and the 3 days we're fully there. No park hopper, just one park per day. This seems smart and manageable for a first time visit?
Debating the one snack/one quick meal/one seated meal dining plan, which seems limiting and pricey.
Will definitely get the $150 insurance, which covers last minute cancellations in full and includes airfare refunds.
We plan to take the free transit from the airport.

Any words of wisdom?

[Anonymous]

Get park hoppers and ditch the meal plan. That gives you a lot of flexibility to eat what you like, when you want to. Epcot has good food, but kind of dull for a little kid all day. Animal Kingdom closes early, so if you do that, you're done for the day. Your kid may get enchanted by one ride, and you want to so that first thing in the morning before doing what you want for the rest of the day.

If you have the Disney App, you can make dining reservations on the fly. The only time I wouldn't rely on this method are the. Dry busy weeks, which I don't think May is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get park hoppers and ditch the meal plan. That gives you a lot of flexibility to eat what you like, when you want to. Epcot has good food, but kind of dull for a little kid all day. Animal Kingdom closes early, so if you do that, you're done for the day. Your kid may get enchanted by one ride, and you want to so that first thing in the morning before doing what you want for the rest of the day.

If you have the Disney App, you can make dining reservations on the fly. The only time I wouldn't rely on this method are the. Dry busy weeks, which I don't think May is.

this is good advice

[Anonymous]

I'd go to either the disboards or easywdw's forums and run this past the gurus there.

Personally I don't think park hoppers are a good idea. Also you may think your kiddo isn't interested in character meetings but they may change their mind when there.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with above. Get the park hopper. It is worth being able to move around freely. Also, the meal plan isn't worth it. Is it fun? Yes, but unless you eat the way it allows you to (appetizers and desserts every meal, multiple snacks) it doesn't make monetary sense. Believe me, I ran the numbers (ie looked up menu prices)

Also, book all reservations as soon as you can.

[Anonymous]

We did a courtyard view room at the Wilderness Lodge with my two early elementary kids for four nights in October. Very similar to your trip. We did not have a car and just used Disney Transportation, which was fine -- the boat option from Wilderness Lodge is great.

We did not do park hoppers. We did not do a park the first afternoon we arrived -- we went over to Fort Wilderness instead, looked at the horses in the stables, and did dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue (which was really fun if you are looking for something special that's not a character dinner). An afternoon at a park would have been doable, though.

We did our first full day at Magic Kingdom, then second day at Animal Kingdom (we did do a character dinner at Tusker House) and then back to Magic Kingdom for the last day.

We did not do a dining plan and liked the flexibility, although we had booked some meals (Hoop dee Doo, Tusker House, and one dinner at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge). It was a wonderful trip -- totally manageable, and I was happy we didn't try to do too much (like park hopping or all four parks). You will have a great time!

[Anonymous]

Meh. No park hopper, no meal plan, no insurance. All a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Another vote on no park hopper. Going between parks takes time. Just spend your day at one park and see everything at that park. Don't waste time moving between parks.

[Anonymous]

We did the park hopper, but only because we were staying near Epcot and had most of our dinners there, even when we had done another park during the day. It was also during the food and wine expo, and we wanted to be able to check that out freely. Would not do the dining plan again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a courtyard view room at the Wilderness Lodge with my two early elementary kids for four nights in October. Very similar to your trip. We did not have a car and just used Disney Transportation, which was fine -- the boat option from Wilderness Lodge is great.

We did not do park hoppers. We did not do a park the first afternoon we arrived -- we went over to Fort Wilderness instead, looked at the horses in the stables, and did dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue (which was really fun if you are looking for something special that's not a character dinner). An afternoon at a park would have been doable, though.

We did our first full day at Magic Kingdom, then second day at Animal Kingdom (we did do a character dinner at Tusker House) and then back to Magic Kingdom for the last day.

We did not do a dining plan and liked the flexibility, although we had booked some meals (Hoop dee Doo, Tusker House, and one dinner at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge). It was a wonderful trip -- totally manageable, and I was happy we didn't try to do too much (like park hopping or all four parks). You will have a great time!

This is very helpful! I had actually looked at Tusker House, because my son has a favorite stuffed elephant named Tusker. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I would do Epcot on arrival day. Think you have a good plan. Do 1 park per day. Don't think you need parkhopper. Check out some resort meals and downtown disney. I would not do the meal plan unless it was free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would do Epcot on arrival day. Think you have a good plan. Do 1 park per day. Don't think you need parkhopper. Check out some resort meals and downtown disney. I would not do the meal plan unless it was free.

I am thinking we will begin with Epcot when we arrive, do Magic Kingdom the 1st full day, then Animal Kingdom on the 2nd full day, and let our kid decide the 3rd day itinerary. I know if we stay on property at a cool resort he will want to take advantage of all of that stuff too, so not doing park hopper helps to alleviate the pressure to do it all (which we don't have to, and don't really want to).

I also think I will ditch the dining plan - thanks for this advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did a courtyard view room at the Wilderness Lodge with my two early elementary kids for four nights in October. Very similar to your trip. We did not have a car and just used Disney Transportation, which was fine -- the boat option from Wilderness Lodge is great.

We did not do park hoppers. We did not do a park the first afternoon we arrived -- we went over to Fort Wilderness instead, looked at the horses in the stables, and did dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue (which was really fun if you are looking for something special that's not a character dinner). An afternoon at a park would have been doable, though.

We did our first full day at Magic Kingdom, then second day at Animal Kingdom (we did do a character dinner at Tusker House) and then back to Magic Kingdom for the last day.

We did not do a dining plan and liked the flexibility, although we had booked some meals (Hoop dee Doo, Tusker House, and one dinner at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge). It was a wonderful trip -- totally manageable, and I was happy we didn't try to do too much (like park hopping or all four parks). You will have a great time!

This is very helpful! I had actually looked at Tusker House, because my son has a favorite stuffed elephant named Tusker. Thank you!

Tusker House was fun for a character dinner because it's the "classic" characters (Micky, Donald, Daisy, Goofy) -- my kids weren't into princesses or other character meetings, but they liked this. I hope you have a great trip -- we loved the family time and really felt the Disney magic!

[Anonymous]

Avoid character meals like the plague, unless you kid has their heart set on meeting someone. They are so...slow. I couldn't believe we were wasting hours of our expensive part tickets to get a picture.
And I'd say yes on park hopper. For one thing, Epcot is half a day, and you'll be annoyed if you're stuck there longer. Plus, you'll never know what you're kid will really like. There was a ranger badge collecting thing at Animal Planet that my son loved, and we ended up spending a day and a half there. You never know...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would do Epcot on arrival day. Think you have a good plan. Do 1 park per day. Don't think you need parkhopper. Check out some resort meals and downtown disney. I would not do the meal plan unless it was free.

I am thinking we will begin with Epcot when we arrive, do Magic Kingdom the 1st full day, then Animal Kingdom on the 2nd full day, and let our kid decide the 3rd day itinerary. I know if we stay on property at a cool resort he will want to take advantage of all of that stuff too, so not doing park hopper helps to alleviate the pressure to do it all (which we don't have to, and don't really want to).

I also think I will ditch the dining plan - thanks for this advice.

Letting the kid decide the 3d day itinary sounds like a nice idea, BUT you really need to try to get fast passes in advance for certain rides. I would suggest at least taking a guess at what the third days will look like and get passes for the more popular rides that day - you can always alter your fast passes at a later date.