DATE: February 19-25, 2018 arriving late on the 19th so that wont count as a day.
Hotel: Disney Yacht Club
Family of Five: Mom, Dad, kids (all boys) ages 8, 6, and 4

Any help greatly appreciated from you Disney travelers.

I know fast passes are a must 60 days out.

Meal Plan? Yea or nay?

Reservations for food six months out. I assume this is when i can do character meals. Is one character meal enough?

I looked at some previous disney threads but wonder if anyone has some updated advice.

Thanks in advance

Very nice hotel! Good location, within walking distance to EPCOT AND Disney Studios. That will be helpful if you have to take a break for naps or whatever.

Try to be in line for rope drop (opening) for those parks if you can, to maximize your days there.

Your hotel also has one of the nicest pools of all Disney properties. Try to save a day for something other than a trip to the parks; lounging by the pool is a way to wind down. There is also a putt-putt course within walking distance (just past the Dolphin & Swan hotels) that makes for a nice few hours away from the parks.

Your kids will probably want to buy every toy in sight. Make note of what would be a realistic souvenir to take back, during your trips to the parks, but save the actual shopping/buying for another day...maybe a day spent in Disney Springs the day before your return. That place has EVERYTHING.

Meal plan is a bit of a devisive topic. We have benefited from it during each of our previous visits. The biggest thing is knowing your family's eating habits. For example, will your snack allowance go to waste, or is there enough variety of options your kids won't turn there noses up at? Also, familiarize yourself with the children menus that are on the dining plan. There isn't a lot of variety amongst the various restaurants.

One thing to consider is "rolling over" one of your sit down entitlements. The dining plan is based on number of nights on the reservation. If you get in late that first night, save that particular entitlement to use with another day. You will be able to eat at one if the "signature" restaurants by doing this. Yachtsman Steakhouse at your hotel is a great restaurant you might not otherwise get to enjoy if you were just using cash for meals during your stay.

Are you driving or flying? We go 3-4 times a year, season pass holders and live in Texas.

The Yacht Club is nice and well located. We stayed there when the Aggies were in the ESPN Basketball Tournament. Located next to Board Walk, the Swan and Dolphin Hotels. Short walk to back entry to EPCOT, walking distance/short boat ride/bus ride to Hollywood. EPCOT is on Monorail to Magic Kingdom.

Get the free Disney Apps for your smart phone(Guide/Maps & Wait times). Set up and use the My Disney Experience to make your Fast Passes, Dining Reservations, and your daily schedule. It will all be available on your computer and your smart phone.

Character meals: Our number one(not many we have missed) has always been O'Hana Breakfast at the Polynesian Resort. Excellent food and service, All the main characters are there and readily available to the kiddo's and adults. Had a good one at the Castle, but characters were more towards the young ladies. There's many others, just check what characters the kids like and the food offered.

We have never used the meal plan( We did have and use the Tables in Wonderland Membership-$175- get a 20% discount on up to 10members in party/same check, other rules apply, Great if you go often as we do). There's the pros and cons, but we pass on meal plans. And that's even when we take our 6 grandkids/and nieces and nephews.

Favorite restaurants: (quickies not covered)
Magic Kingdom - Liberty Tree, Cinderella's Palace, Crystal Palace
EPCOT - Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy
Hollywood - Brown Derby, SciFi, Prime Time Cafe
Animal Kingdom - Flame Tree BBQ, Tusker House
Disney Springs - Adults( Raglans, Hanger, Boathouse) Kids (Rainforest, T-Rex)
Quick Food (Earl of Sandwich, Ghiradelli's, Blaze Pizza, D-Luxe Burger)

The resorts all have some good restaurants, too many to cover.
The ESPN restaurant at Boardwalk is excellent, right across from Yacht Club.
Many more!

Schedule a break each day, a lot is available at night in each park, even Animal Kingdom now has a show.

More later

at those ages, meal plan will be a waste of money

Disney got everyone trained to the meal plan and then cut the value out of it. When you see that save up XX% advertising they don't tell you that these days you'd have to eat the most expensive item at the most expensive qualified dining option every meal to realize that saving. If you can eat steak twice a day go for it. If you generally eat lighter fare for the most part you'll lose money buying the dining plan.

Definitely make your dining reservations now.

We are going in Jan and didn't get the meal plan. The amount of food you have to get is crazy. We are planning on doing snacks we bring, breakfast in he DVC place we rented and packing a few lunches. Our almost 3.5 yo would in no way eat enough Disney food to make it worth it.

The meal plan is legitimately too much food to handle. Definitely make your meal reservations ASAP, especially if you want to eat at Be Our Guest or Cinderella's Table.

As far as character dining goes, nothing beats Chef Mickey's. It's a fun atmosphere, and you get photo ops with all the main gang, saving you time waiting in massive lines at the parks for these same characters. Plus it's located within the Contemporary Resort, which is on the monorail and very easy to get to from Magic Kingdom.

If you are planning to ride the new Avatar ride, Flight of Passage, BE SURE to make your FastPass reservation immediately on the 60 day mark. The lines are consistently over two hours, and FastPasses fill up very quickly. But it is absolutely worth the hassle....coolest ride I've ever been on (and I've been on many)!

The Yacht Club is a great resort and is within walking distance to the World Showcase entrance of Epcot.

Enjoy your trip!

I agree that the meal plan offers a tremendous amount of food - often too much for families with small kids. But, it afforded us some convenience so I wasn't worried too much about crunching the numbers to determine the financial break even point. I'd probably do it again.

I tell everyone to get a resource like the most recent edition of "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 201x". While I'm told there are similar resources available online, I prefer the book and it's fast pass guide coupled with the one, two and three-day itineraries for each park.

We followed them very closely the last time we went (2015, I think) and I don't remember standing in line longer than 15-20 minutes for any ride all week.

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I know fast passes are a must 60 days out.

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Also, book your three as soon as you can in each day - you'll get more fast passes to use as you go each day when those first three are used up. Some of the less popular rides can be fast passed later or not at all depending on the crowd.

I was a late booker and I still feel I got to ride a lot of stuff even though I didn't fast pass 60 days out because I used this strategy.

Posters here all give good advice but if you really want to immerse yourself in every tip possible then check out DIS Forums or a site/blog similar to those.

I'd say the app is a huge hit for us. Being able to check out maps, wait times, show times, Memorymaker (which is awesome but an added cost), etc.

Try to soak in the details and find the subtle "magic" touches that are everywhere. Somehow I always feel like a little kid again every time I go.

You are currently 190 days out. Have you guys determined dining yet? You have 10 days before reservations open up.

Go to universal!!!

Ive been 3 times and never did the meal plan with my 2 kids. It allows you to be a lot more flexible.

The first time we went we had "autograph books" for our boys so they could get autographs and interact with the characters making for a lot of photo ops. Of course if the lines were long we would just skip.

Did a Chef Mickey breakfast and that was a lot of fun.

Soarin' was one of our favorite rides (assuming it is still there). Go absolutely first thing in the morning as the line for that gets REALLY long.

Universal is a good stop to break up Disney.

Ive stayed a few different places and the Dolphin/Swan were nice because you could walk to EPCOT in 10-15 minutes and get to Hollywood Studios.

If you don't do meal plan, be prepared to pay $40-50-60 ( it's haven't checked prices recently) for character meals per adult and around $30 for kid. Plus 20% gratuity. When we go for a couple days, we don't do it but for 5 days plus we do.

Try www.allearsnet.com for dining reviews, menus, cost

Plan on visiting parks according to early opening hours and late magic hours - if kids can stay up late - so worth it for kids to take a nap mid afternoon and show back to park when a lot of folks are heading
out. Small lines smaller crowds, but not empty.

Get your souvenirs at a Disney Outlet Mall store or online before you go. When kids were small we would pack those with us and they'd get a gift from Tinkerbell every morning when they woke up and wouldn't ask for a thing at all the stores on site.

Ronnie said:

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I know fast passes are a must 60 days out.

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Also, book your three as soon as you can in each day - you'll get more fast passes to use as you go each day when those first three are used up. Some of the less popular rides can be fast passed later or not at all depending on the crowd.

I was a late booker and I still feel I got to ride a lot of stuff even though I didn't fast pass 60 days out because I used this strategy.

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I disagree with that strategy.

If you get there early, you won't really need fastpass even in a busy week

use the fast passes for early evening after you take a break (yes, you need to) when crowds are larger. you won't get same day fast passes that week for anything good

Another fan of yacht club. If you get a waterview room I HIGHLY recommend asking for one of the end rooms facing out to the boardwalk across the lake. That will give you a good look at epcot' fireworks plus all the lake and boardwalk lights.

Our best move (kids 8 and 6) was to schedule a day off between parks. Swim, go to downtown disney, eat, just rest and chill, etc. It really increased our enjoyment of everything.

Oh btw, the yacht clubs breakfast buffet is crazy good. You can eat there and barely think about food till dinner.

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I disagree with that strategy.

If you get there early, you won't really need fastpass even in a busy week

use the fast passes for early evening after you take a break (yes, you need to) when crowds are larger. you won't get same day fast passes that week for anything good

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Yeah I can see that strategy working too

For us, we went in July and it was packed. It was very busy from the beginning of the day. With as young as the OP's kids are I doubt they will get the benefit of rope drop unless they are very easy early rising kids.

As for same day fast passes, I don't know how we got em, but we got into some really good ones. Must have lucked out. We picked the popular ones that were absolute must sees early and then got others as we could. I guess they open some up or people cancel or something. I rode damn near everything with that strategy at the busiest time of year and we booked less than 30 days out. It works.

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Reservations for food six months out. I assume this is when i can do character meals. Is one character meal enough?

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I think one character meal is good. I know it might sound strange, but Cinderella's Royal Table would be a good one. The princesses really give a bit more attention to boys and there are a few at that experience.

My recommendations on dining (be sure to get your reservations at 180 days....it is worth it).

MK
Breakfast - Crystal Palace has a breakfast buffet with Winnie the Pooh characters. Food is solid. Book the earliest available and see the park before it opens.
Dinner - Liberty Tree Tavern is a family style Thanksgiving feast.
Quick Dining - hit up Casey's Corner for some slaw dogs and watch the fireworks. Be Our Guest is great for lunch and gets you some AC.

EPCOT - With kids, You might look into Via Napoli. It is Italian food.

Hollywood Studios - I would recommend Mama Melrose or 50s Prime Time. My kids (similar ages) love both. I think 50s is better due to the "experience".

AK - Have not really found a restaurant I love. We stick to Flame Tree BBQ and hit dinner somewhere else.

I always recommend Ohana for dinner. It is family style Polynesian and is delicious. Bring an appetite, but save room for desert.

Chef Mickey's is a cool experience, but the food reminds me of Golden Corrall. The California Grill is also at the Cotemporary. The food is a little pricey, but the view of MK is cool (especially if you want to see fireworks from a different vantage point).

If you want to pay for a good meal, go to the Grand Floridian and eat at Narcoossee's.

BTW, you are going during South Americsn tourist group season. It isn't bad at all and the parks are not packed.

Thanks for the replies.

So far it looks like i wont be doing the dining plan.
Most likely we will have a day away from disney. A different day i will be at a conference for most of the day and this will likely be a down day full of swimming.

Im looking at doing a character meal breakfast our first day there. I plan to make reservations when then 180 day window opens in a week. My kids usually are up at 7am. If i make a reservation at 8 can i take the monorail from epcot to s character meal? Will it be running at that time? Should i do an earlier time?

Also do I need to make reservations for all our meals for just regular lunches or dinners? If so where should we eat? We arent fancy eaters.

Thanks already for the advice and comments. Thanks also for putting up with my dumb questions.

Almost all of the places I recommended are Table Service restaurants and will take reservations 180 days in advance. The quick service dining that I recommended are Casey's Corner, Flame Tree BBQ, and Be Our Guest (lunch).

I would recommend Crystal Palace for your 1st breakfast. Get the kids in MK as soon as possible and get a good meal.

JHUAggie said:

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Im looking at doing a character meal breakfast our first day there. I plan to make reservations when then 180 day window opens in a week. My kids usually are up at 7am. If i make a reservation at 8 can i take the monorail from epcot to s character meal? Will it be running at that time? Should i do an earlier time?

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what character breakfast?

walking from yacht club through Epcot to take monorail to Magic Kingdom will take a LOT longer than bus from Yacht club to magic kingdom

We did the meal plans but I was reluctant even before we went on the trip. As I did my research most of what I read said the meal plans were rarely "worth it". And by worth it I mean you saved money. Some would say there is value in sitting down at a restaurant and not having to worry about what things cost, but I would actually counter that by saying it was much more annoying to go to a restaurant and have to decipher the menus to figure out what you could get through the meal plan and what you couldn't.

In the end, unless you get the most expensive menu items wherever you go I'd say you're unlikely to save any money. And as our trip went on we found that we weren't eating near as much as we'd planned for so then we were stressed that we had all of these extra credits and we ended up just buying a bunch of random stuff on our last day.

It became a nuisance and it might have saved us $100. Maybe.

Regarding meal strategy - we rarely had a sit down breakfast we brought snacks with us for the room and had those in the morning, and some days I would go down and get us some pastries or something. Lunches were typically quick service meals there are tons of options at all of the parks. Three nights we did a nice sit down dinner and the other two we did quick service. We also had lunch at Cinderella's Castle. It was $200 for all of us (covered by meal credits though) but it was a pretty cool experience.

You can bring whatever food/drink you'd like into the parks. Bring bottled water and snacks and you'll be off to a good start. If the lines are long it's nice to have something in your backpack for the kiddos while waiting. Also, bring or rent a double stroller! We had one for our 7 and 4 year old and it was a life saver. Not too expensive.

This became my go-to website for day planners, meal suggestions, and whatever else. I thought they were on point and agreed with a lot of their recommendations after the fact.

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/

Also at Epcot each one of the "Countries" have a kids activity. If your kids complete the activity they can get a stamp. Kind of like a passport. I cant remember if we brought those books for our kids or if we bought them there. Keeps the kids occupied while you and the Mrs. grab a drink.

BMX Bandit said:

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Ronnie said:

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I know fast passes are a must 60 days out.

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Also, book your three as soon as you can in each day - you'll get more fast passes to use as you go each day when those first three are used up. Some of the less popular rides can be fast passed later or not at all depending on the crowd.

I was a late booker and I still feel I got to ride a lot of stuff even though I didn't fast pass 60 days out because I used this strategy.

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I disagree with that strategy.

If you get there early, you won't really need fastpass even in a busy week

use the fast passes for early evening after you take a break (yes, you need to) when crowds are larger. you won't get same day fast passes that week for anything good

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I've always done it your way; not booking a FP+ until after 11am and being there at rope drop for the 3rd e-ticket ride and the other stuff. But, Disney has put so much more of the ride capacity into FP+ now that a lot of people are reporting success with headliners/e-ticket FPs early and catching secondary rides after FP opens back up to you after that 3rd one is used. I wouldn't be willing to try it at peak times though.

I believe Disney started with 1/3 of ride capacity in FP+ but it is now 2/3.

JHUAggie said:

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Thanks for the replies.


Also do I need to make reservations for all our meals for just regular lunches or dinners? If so where should we eat? We arent fancy eaters.

Thanks already for the advice and comments. Thanks also for putting up with my dumb questions.

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For any sit down/table service meal you want to eat in a park you need to make reservations. Disney started a $10 no show fee a couple years ago that has helped tremendously with being able to get a reservations. Before that people would book something in all 4 parks to have something no matter where they ended up that day.

You still need to book 180 out for the better/most popular character meals. You can cancel up to 24 hours out for no charge.

With boys those ages are you going to try for more than one sit-down meal a day? The key to getting in and out of meals quick regardless of table or quick serve is be there by 11:45 for lunch and 5:45 for dinner.

The other advice I have is to take a lot of family walks in the 8 weeks before your trip. You are going to walk 5-10 miles a day at Disney and spend hours standing in lines.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Although some of the character meals sound cooler, my boys are most into the classic Disney characters as the youngest is fixated on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Therefore it looks like we will be at Chef Mickey's. Our boys are all boy and don't have any interest in princesses. If there were a Toy Story/Pixar character meal, then that's what we would be doing.

I assume there is no way to do the Ohana character meal breakfast at Animal Kingdom and then make it to Magic Kingdom or Epcot in time for opening. Plus I assume we would have to purchase a park hopper pass if we did that. I don't think we will make it to Animal Kingdom otherwise, but who knows at this time.

Someone asked earlier and we will be flying, arriving around 930pm. Will pick up rental and plan to head straight to hotel upon arrival. Will get groceries during the following day during an afternoon break for the kids.

I bought the unoffcial guide off amazon yesterday. It should arrive tomorrow so hopefully i wont have to ask so many dumb questions. Trick will be to keep the book hidden as we plan to tell the kids at Christmas.

Thanks again for everyone's help. Keep the suggestions coming.

February 10-16 - some moderate crowds due to Mardi Gras and many Louisiana districts being out

February 17-19 - President's Day Weekend is very busy, especially with it overlapping so many longer winter breaks

February 20-25 - the heaviest crowds of President's Day Weekend will subside as Princess Half Marathon crowds show up

February 26-28 - light crowds to finish up February

They did not discuss the South American tours, a pain as they stay together and can be a royal pain/rude.

This period will be busy, we've been 3 times during this and the last one was CROWDED!!

Our times to go now fall before Easter (absolutely not during), early/mid May, 3 weeks in Sept after Labor Day weekend, and the two plus weeks after Thanksgiving.
We live in Texas, season pass holders for 12 years, and go 3-4 times a year.

My Disney Experience App is free and has everything you need at your disposal.(reservations, fast passes, itinerary, events, cost, maps, wait times.

Be familiar with each park, it can save you a lot of steps if you know where things are located. Schedule things with a mind towards less walking between locations.

Certain events, like parades, can create terrible movement problems.

The suggestion of not making early FP I disagree with. If you're early at the park when it opens, head to a major ride and go standby line and have a FP for another major ride in the first hour. At EPCOT you can only make Soaring or Test Track, not both. At Hollywood you get one of Toy Story, Rocking Roller Coaster, or ?. If you don't get good FP times continue to go back and about changing, we've been very successful at making changes by continued checking the site (this also goes for dining reservations.)

Enjoy the experience, we will be there in October (Wine Festival & Florida game), again in December for Christmas (to bad the Osborne Lights are gone from Hollywood), and back in March for the Flower Festival.

Why are you renting a car? Use the Disney Magic Express.

Maybe he'd prefer the capability to move around without having to wait on transportation. Disney can move you around on their property, but it will add time to your day.

Rental cars in Orlando are cheap. It's worth it to us to not have to wait on busses.

For Fantasmic at Hollywood. We've always made reservation at one of the restaurants that offer the Fantasmic dining package that gives prime seating for the show, no hazzle, don't have to stand in line and prime seats.
You can Fast Pass, but it takes out your prime Fast Pass time, because they go fast. Cost about $40-60 for adults and kids $22-32 (available at Brown Derby, my favorite, Mama's, & Hollywood and Vine. Check it out, we still use it and we've seen Fantasmic probably 30 times.

Being at the Yacht Club, ESPN restaurant is right across the lake, short walk, no reservations required. Does get busy at Lunch & dinner hour. Check it out early, hour wise, good food and large portions.

Added touch is the Atlanta Braves have Spring Training at the Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney. Games kick off about the last part of your stay. One of the Disney Marathons will occur during your stay, so they should have a good sports equipment offer/sales at WWSports complex.

^^^
Disney started a Fantasmic Dessert Party. Booking opened up yesterday.https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/08/reservations-open-today-for-fantasmic-dessert-vip-viewing-experience-at-disneys-hollywood-studios/

We attended the dessert party for the ending of the Osborne Lights. It was good food and drinks, plus the sitting was excellent. May have to try this versus the dinner. The seating for Fantasmic is the good part.

It looks like you might already be settled on your character meal but the food is really much better at the Tusker House breakfast in Animal Kingdom and it is the same characters as Chef Mickeys, but in safari attire. Another good breakfast option is 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian. Also better food, slightly cheaper(used to be), and also on the monorail. The characters are Pooh, Tigger, Mad Hatter, Alice, Mary Poppins and sometimes Piglet.

Yes you do need to make reservations for any sit down meals you plan. We like Via Napoli in Italy for pizza at Epcot. Very kid friendly as well. Also Flame Tree BBQ in animal kingdom (this one is counter service, no reservation required) and has beautiful lake side seating the winds back behind the restaurant. Haven't really found any favorites at Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom. There is a small counter service place in liberty square in Magic Kingdom that serves waffles with Nutella and bananas or strawberries if you want a quick breakfast in the park. Can't remember the name. Sleepy Hollow maybe.

Allears.net has copies of all the park and resort menus so it is a useful resource. Also has pictures of the resort rooms, etc.