<p>DH told me that Quest closed. Both of my kids loved it, so if that is so, its too bad. Actually, I just checked and it might be around. There seems to be conflicting information, so you might call Disney and ask.</p>
<p>We never changed at downtown, we went straight to whichever park from the shuttle site at Key West (right at the entrance of the hotel). The ferry took you to Downtown Disney (similiar to Yacht and Beach taking you to MGM). We were there in 05, so maybe it has changed since then.</p>
<p>You can use park hopping tickets to hope between parks using the monorail. I would vote for MGM, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. On the other hand, you could leisurely go around town, NASA,…</p>
<p>Geez, I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to be enough to do!</p>
<p>All in all I would stay on site, if it is not alot, and you have opted out of going to Universal. The parking everyday and being stuck without going back to a room mid day makes up the price. </p>
<p>Our typical schedule was at the park 1hr prior to open (different times during the yr), came back to the room at 11 until 2-3 (park is incredibly busy) had lunch went swimming, went back and stayed until closing. </p>
<p>If you split your parks 1/2 day you can get most of them done. The Boardwalk and Downtown are open after park hours (Boardwalk has ESPN, Downtown has a comedy club), they also have restaurants. </p>
<p>Kids loved the drive in movie restaurant for dinner at MGM. </p>
<p>If you book a room on Disney property you are allowed to make dinner reservations prior to getting there. When you arrive they hand you your reservation codes and times for any on site restaurant. They also allow you to load up $$$ on their room key card(will give to ea child you approve for…it worked great we gave them spending money and when it was done, there was no more) , which can be charged to them at any disney site. If you buy anything they automatically deliver it to your room, so you don’t carry it around…</p>
<p>Stop at the Disney Christmas Shop, near Liberty Tavern (best clam chowder) and they have the most beautiful ornaments, all yr. long for sale that you can’t buy even on-line.</p>
<p>They also offered a meal plan when we went there a couple of years ago. We felt that we did save quite a bit of money by purchasing it. You might look to make sure that all of places you are interested in trying are listed. The most upscale and perhaps dinner shows will cost 2 meals (read info they provide to understand, and we did not use this, but we have been there and done that when kids were younger). If you feel for the 2 days it is not worth trying to save, that could make sense too (especially if you are getting a place with a kitchen, it probably does not pay to go with a meal plan). Again, Disney reservations will explain if you ask. I think that they have designed it so that people are saving just enough by going with this plan, and it is a win,win for Disney bc vacation dollars are now spent with them rather than with someone else outside of the park (and less chance that you will buy in a place like Publix or shops outside Disney).</p>
<p>Here’s some question answers that might help:</p>
<p>Are you doing a full two day marathon, or just one day in the parks(Saturday)? Does your family do OK in one hotel room? (i.e. does someone snore, talk in sleep, make it miserable for everyone else, etc.) Are you going to leave on Sunday; if so, you will have to check out in the morning and won’t be able to use your room at all that day. </p>
<p>Let’s assume you’re leaving on Sunday (but going to the parks all day Saturday and Sunday), people don’t mind all being in the same room, and you are not spending much time in the room (although you want to enjoy the hotel amenities- pool, walks, restaurants, arcade, etc.):</p>
<p>Check in Friday night: Get a room in a resort hotel (say, Boardwalk, Wilderness, whatever). Walk around, enjoy all the sights and sounds, tour nearby areas (Beach/Yacht Club, the Boardwalk restaurants/clubs/shops, downtown Disney, pool, etc.), go out to dinner at a resort or downtown Disney restaurant.</p>
<p>Saturday: Get up early, go to the ‘early’ theme park and take advantage of the rides they have open (they don’t open ALL the rides early). Get fast passes, plan your morning well, see everything important. Halfway through the day, eat you largest meal (if you plan on eating out), relax in your resort for a little while, enjoy the pool, spa, shop, take a walk, or whatever, regroup. Next half of the day (from 4 or so on)- go to the theme park where you plan on seeing the nightshow spectacle. Go on all the rides, get a quick bite, and watch the fireworks. Get home late, go to bed.</p>
<p>Sunday: You will have to check out. Go to the theme park. Repeat the day before, except leave the returning to room part out. You may return to the hotel and use the lobby/restaurant/pool, but why? Stay in the parks until utterly exhausted, then leave.</p>
<p>People also tend to forget about the Disney cabins in the campground. I’ve never stayed in one, but I’ve heard they’re roomy and nice. Lots of walking/jogging trails, a little quieter.</p>
<p>It will be a full two day of parks. We will probably arrive Friday late afternoon. I was thinking along your lines of walk around downtown disney. The MGM is the park that opens early on Sat. No park stays open extra. What I am thinking is doing MGM in the morning and then doing a quick trip in the afternoon to Animal Kingdom. Don’t know if it is doable. Will get park hopper tickets.
Sunday morning, son has to get to the airport by 6 am for his flight back to school. The rest of us will do Epcot. Maybe pop into Disneyworld since it is open late that night. Then have to drive one family member back to friends about 1.5 hours from Orlando. We will sleep in this town Sunday night. Monday am the rest of back to airport for flight home.
Granted I haven’t ran this by any of my opinionated family members.
Doubleplay- The ride breakdown by park is great.
Looked into the cabins but they only sleep 4.
We have slept 5 in a room on plenty of occasions. The Villa would be nicer but will have to weigh the extra cost.
Dinner reservations are not something they are not good at planning ahead. But I am going to remind them about the last trip to Disneyland when all the places in Downtown Disney had 2 hour waits.
And both of my girls get cranky if they aren’t fed.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t think that they have dinner reservations, even though I called it a reservation. I think it is labeled something else (preferential seating perhaps). I would pick out the meals with times and put in my name, if one changes one’s mind, I don’t think it is a big deal. Otherwise, if you want a certain restaurant you might end up with dinner at 4pm, or 9pm, and if they’d like to eat somewhere between 5-7pm you might not get in where you’d like. It sounds a bit stressful, of a trip. Too bad you can’t take more time.</p>
<p>They do have reservations, but we didn’t do a plan. After we booked the hotel I called the reservation line, told them which on-site we were staying at, and when we arrived for check in, we were handed our reservation numbers with times (exact 7:00. 6:30, etc)</p>
<p>Northeastmom- It is alot of work for just a few days. DisneyWorld is not the main reason for the trip to Florida it is getting added on due to it being the one time we are going to be in this area with a little extra time. My husband would never fly across the country to do a theme park vacation.
Plus at the prices of the parks, food and lodging I don’t think I can afford more then a couple of days.</p>
<p>mom60, I understand. The only time we got to see Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland was years ago when had free plane tickets because we were bumped from a flight! Everytime we have gone to FLA (except once, when we had an amazing airline ticket price of $25/pp nearly 20 years ago) we have driven. Here is some info that I got from a Mouseplanet, but it is possible that this is not current:</p>
<p>"“Priority seating” is the term that Walt Disney World’s cast members use for table service restaurant reservations. Simply put, you can’t get traditional reservations for most restaurants at WDW. Instead, you are given a priority seating time which is different than conventional reservations. Having a priority seating time at a WDW restaurant does not guarantee that an empty table will waiting for you when you arrive. Instead, it means that you will be given the first available table of the type you’ve requested after your arrival (as long as you get to the restaurant at least five minutes before your scheduled priority seating time). However, if several other folks with priority seating have arrived ahead of you (even if they have a later priority seating time), you’ll stand in line.</p>
<p>The reason for this odd arrangement is that many people over the years were making reservations and skipping them. The restaurants were forced to honor those reservations, but often ended up holding tables for people that didn’t show up (we’re talking up to 40-60% no shows here). That being the case, Disney cooked up this priority seating concept. It works, as long as you know what your priority seating really means."</p>
<p>Well, after all, you know what the acronym EPCOT stands for…
Every Person Comes Out Tired.</p>
<p>You will be.</p>
<p>DisneyQuest Chicago did close…DisneyQuest Downtown Disney is still open.</p>
<p>Mom60 – Your ‘plan’ sounds pretty good but I would do Animal Kingdom in the a.m and Disney Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM) in the afternoon. Animal Kingdom is a very small park by Disney standards and tends to become unmanagably full right after lunch. Get to AK early…do everything…and then leave to make a priority seating at the Studios as there aren’t many good places to eat inside AK and lots of good places at the Studios…I esp. like Prime Time as you are served by “Mom” and get to watch ol’ time TV goodness. </p>
<p>You can take a monorail from Epcot to MK and vice versa. World Showcase is open later 'til 9pm…leave after the fireworks to go to MK and stay another 2 hours (or so) until their fireworks which are not to be missed. </p>
<p>We tend to go to Disneyworld in the spirit of commandos storming an enemy position…take no prisoners! It’s not everybody’s cup of tea but no matter how you handle it, it’s something everyone should do. Egypt has the Pyramids, China the Great Wall…we have DisneyWorld, the epic expression of our culture.</p>