Hokeyboy

Oh be nice. I ironed your red t-shirt for you last summer, and you didn't even cry ONCE during Small World!

Hokeyboy

Hollywood Studios, you mean For that, grab a FastPass first thing and then go hit Tower of Terror and Rock-and-Rollercoaster, then have a churro.

Nice!

TheBigDave

With an 8-year-old, you're a little limited. But there are two tours your family can do. There's the Living Seas Aqua Tour that lets you snorkel in the aquarium. And there's the new Wild Africa Trek walking tour which takes you into the safari ride and lets you get up close to the animals. I've heard a lot of positive feedback about that Animal Kingdom tour.

If you're doing that many expensive restaurants, definitely get the Tables In Wonderland card. It'll save you money.

Check out the Fireworks Dessert Party at the Magic Kingdom. Here's a review with photos:

http://land.allears.net/blogs/michae...t_party_1.html

If you're celebrating anything, or you just want a surprise at dinner, special order a cake. Average cakes will run around $20-$50, and the elaborate custom design cakes run around $50-$100. Here's some details and photos:

http://disneytravelbabble.com/how-to/order-cake/
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2118274

Over the past 2-3 years, I've heard a lot of Disney fanatics talk about hiring a local professional photographer to follow the family around WDW for a couple hours. One name that keeps popping up is The Roots. They specialize in weddings, but I've seen them do normal family sessions. I'm not sure how much they charge, but I'm gonna look into it for our next family trip. Here's their blog with Disney photo sessions.

http://rootweddings.com/blog/category/disney/

TheBigDave

One of our favorite restaurants in WDW is the Yak & Yeti in the Animal Kingdom. It's a great location for lunch. And if you time it right, the 2nd story window tables give you an excellent view of the midday parade.

Another fun activity is to take the whole family to Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club Resort and try to finish off the Kitchen Sink. It's also a great place for lunch. The hamburgers are often rated as the best in WDW. You can do this place on an EPCOT day. It's just a short walk from the back gate between England and France.

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Love the Sci-Fi Dine In. But instead of eating a full meal, we usually go around 2-3pm for a snack. We get milkshakes and split a couple appetizers. The onion rings and the spinach & artichoke dip are both really good. I was never impressed by their lunch/dinner items in the past. But I hear they have a new menu that gets good reviews.

If you're going to Disney Studios and plan on doing Fantasmic, consider booking the Fantasmic Dinner Package. You can eat lunch or dinner at Mama Melrose and Hollywood Brown Derby, or the dinner buffet at Hollywood & Vine. Then you get a special seating section at Fantasmic. On the downside, the seats are on the sides of the amphitheater. But at least you don't have to wait 90 minutes jam packed in that horrible line.

TheBigDave

I forgot to add this. If you have to do the character meet & greets, the best place is Character Spot in the Innovations West pavilion at Epcot. The big five are there, all in one place. You get one right after another. Usually the lines aren't too long, unlike at the Magic Kingdom. And you're inside with the air conditioning.

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Charlie Goose

If your daughters like the princess characters, get pictures with them in the morning.
After lunch, Cinderella, Jasmine, and the rest usually reek of bourbon and Marlboro Lights.

JimRochester

I love asking the people who are trying to push one of the huge double strollers through the crowd right after the parade "are you freaking kidding?" But I don't think I said freaking.

In the Magic Kingdom there is a stage off the beaten path where groups from around the country go to perform. I never realized it was there until a few years ago my daughter's dance school performed there and we got to see her and several other acts. The kids do a great job. These are very high level performers. It's a shame it's so hidden. The only people there tend to be the parents of the kids performing. Hokeyboy might know where it is, I don't remember.

Hokeyboy

^You're probably thinking of the one in Tomorrowland, that's where the school bands/choruses end up. There might be others though, but that's usually the big one.

Pizza

I loved the Sci-Fi Dine-Inn though I found it odd that they didn't offer popcorn. Seems like a no-brainer for a place like that. Plus, I'd change the menu to be a little more reflective of drive-in food fare instead of pasta and ribs. I'm nitpicking as I did love the place. There's also a great hamburger buffet place in Frontierland that was actually reasonably priced and was near the Song of the South ride. (Funny that the ride is okay to do but not release the actual film on DVD.)

Groucho

If you do this right when Epcot opens, you can go right through. Send a runner to go get Soarin' fast passes at the same time. After 11 am or so, the wait time jumps up to about hour.

tasha99

Oh no--you can't show up late for fastpasses anymore? That always turned out to be my touring plan (after all the tourguide mike, touring plans, and Ridemax spreadsheets): grab fast passes in the morning but stand in line for all rides, go to hotel for nap, then come back in the evening and use all the fastpasses. Never got turned away doing that, and it worked awesomely.

I'm going to start planning a Disneyworld trip, too. My daughter wants me to take her there for a week for her 21st birthday, and I think I will.

Only advice I have for your trip is to check out disboards.com. It's like cruise critic, but for Disneyworld/land.

Also, I would consider renting a room at Universal for the day you spend there. The Universal express line you can buy used to be only one front of the line for each ride, but the room rental was unlimited line cuts. Seems worth it to me.

Have a great trip!

wlmowery

Downtown Disney is fun for shopping. Also, the Cirque show is fabulous. Took my wife there for her birthday a couple years back, ended up on stage with the bike rider jumping over my head. Wife loved it. The AMC theater at Downtown Disney now has Dine-In theaters with first run films (under 18 requires a parent). Food was just ok (better than most theater food, but not up to normal Disney fare), but you can get cocktails, drinks or snacks served to you while watching (or you can stuff yourself on desserts). Watched the Hunger Games there in March (while eating a rather large meal.... seems a bit inconsistent) when I flew us down to Florida for a week.

We really love the World Showcase at Epcot. Last time at Epcot we tried the restaurant in Morocco. Was quite good. We typically eat at 3 or more of the Epcot World Showcase restaurants when we visit. I love eating late as the crowds are lower and we have already seen the fireworks/lights displays too many times to count.

Personally, I'd love to do some of the behind-the-scenes stuff sometime, so you may want to check out the available tours.

We were not overly impressed with Universal. We spent 1/2 a day visiting the Islands of Adventure Park. We enjoyed the Suessland (I'm a Dartmouth grad so Dr. Suess is like family and my wife loves Suess). We did the Harry Potter world. Had a similar experience to those mentioned above. Slow moving line during outside wait, then they rushed us through the interior of the castle due to their poor crowd management skills. Did like the butterbeer and checking some of the stores. The other lands were very meh....

We used to love Sea World, but it seems that they are losing their touch. Too expensive for a day visit there anymore given what the park offers. They did add a new roller coaster, but it seems like it was at the expense of the animal exhibits.

Pointyskull

Just got back the other day from a four-day trip.

1. Do not miss the MK fireworks. Stake out a spot in front of Cinderella's Castle for the best view. Get there early and do not miss the pre-fireworks light show on the castle. Out-fucking-standing.

2. Best food bargain: Animal Kingdom Yak & Yeti's food stand: orange chicken for $9 and some change. Enough to feed three people.

3. Secret: EPCOT's Soarin' is open one hour after close, though it's not advertised. A cast member told us it's because Test Track is closed until November. So when the crowd is leaving after the Illuminations fireworks head over to The Land pavilion - don't worry that it looks like it's closed - and you'll be greeted with no line at an attraction not to be missed. We rode it 4 times back to back. Then we were the only four on the Disney bus back to our rooms at Pop Century.

4. There are 54 different possible combinations for the Hollywood Studios 3D Star Tours Star Wars ride. Probably the best 3D I have ever seen, and a ride that you should visit as often as possible.

5. Don't put too much belief into the posted wait times. Many times an attraction listed as 10 or 20 minutes was literally a walk-on most of the time.

6. Sci-Fi Diner at Hollywood Studios



Wear comfortable shoes, use Fast Pass and enjoy....

Pointyskull

Big Thunder Mountain is currently closed. MK is revamping and creating a new runaway 7 Dwarves mine train ride...

Groucho

Wow, I was just there a month ago and it was still open. I'm glad too, because that ride was a favorite of my kids.

Pointyskull

Not sure when it closed. We were there on May 7th and it was shut down.
Yeah, I was a little bummed out - but the "secret" extra hour of Soarin' was worth it - at least for our group....

Matt

Some guy on a Star Wars nerd board I read is apparently gonna spend $300+ to travel from New Jersey to Orlando tomorrow so he can buy $500+ worth of build-a-droid action figure parts that are only available at Disney World.

So there's that.

Hokeyboy

Which won't be open until early 2014. FFFFUUUUUUU--

Hokeyboy

Take this for what it's worth...

In 2005 I had lunch at the Morocco Restaurant. I was visiting with my sister, who's an MD. We were staying at the Contemporary, sunning at the pool, when I started to feel some light cramping. I went to the shop to pick up some Pepto and head back to the room. This must have been around, oh, 4pm or so.

The last thing I remembered was walking up the hallway to my room...

The next thing I remembered was it being about 5 hours later, staring up into the faces of a team of paramedics, with my sister's pale and fear-stricken face behind them. My vitals had completely dropped. I apparently had spent hours in the bathroom with my body expelling everything inside me, then my fever shot up to over 104 degrees, and I collapsed. I was too weak to lift my arms. Thankfully my sister, as a doctor, was able to handle things until the paramedics showed up. By that point (as my memory was returning and the fever dropping) I had pretty much stabilized. Anti-biotics and fluids were the order of the day.

The lamb at the Moroccan restaurant had given me a Staph infection of unbelievable nastiness. That used to be my favorite Epcot restaurant. Haven't been back since. Disney, to their everlasting generosity and compassion, took the dinner charge off of our vacation invoice. I guess that's the best I could have hoped for.

Pointyskull

I thought the the sign said 2013. It's part of the big Fantasyland expansion....

brainee

I thought the new coaster (Manta) was pretty awesome. Very cool how it was integrated with an animal exhibit - the queue weaved it's way through a gigantic aquarium (featuring, among other things, mantas!). The aquarium can be toured by people not interested (or too small for) the ride as well. I'd never been on a flying coaster before, so that was a new experience. Interesting and unusual way to ride a coaster (being suspended face-down underneath the tracks). Very smooth ride with g-forces different from what you're used to on a normal coaster.

Two other "big" rides (Kraken and Atlantic) are tucked away at the back of the park, so it didn't feel like it was taking away space for animal exhibits. And the only other major ride, a flight simulator, was also integrated with an animal display (arctic animals). And there were still plenty of animal exhibits and shows to fill up your day. For me at least, I think Sea World has a nice balance as it is between rides, shows, and animal exhibits. My biggest complaint was the sub-par dining options in the park.

Hiro11

Just to be clear, BTM is reopening this month. The 7 Dwarves Mine Train is a brand new ride (and a brand new "mountain") being created in the new Fntasyland, not a replacement for BTM. Your post makes it sound like the latter.

Pointyskull

I thought BTM was being replaced
Glad to hear it's not going away...!

Groucho

I liked the ride, but as soon as that thing locked my legs in I immediately felt claustrophobic and didn't fully come down from it until the ride was over.

Trout

Damn, that is one of the rides I always look forward to.