In this post I am going to try to bring you up to date on some of the planning I have done for the first portion of our vacation. We are arriving at Disney on 11/18 and departing for home on 12/2.
I am going to break the trip up into four parts. The first two parts actually make up what is called a Land and Sea Cruise from Disney Cruise. The third Part is what is referred to as "Post Days" (seven nights at Port Orleans Riverside). The last part is the transportation, this includes the flight down to Orlando and the transportation to and from the airport and to and from the Cruise Ship.
Part 1.
Four nights at The Polynesian Resort at Disney world. We booked a Land and Sea package through Disney cruise. This includes four nights at a resort at Disney and three nights on the cruise. We chose a category 7 (Navigators Verandah) state room. With that room choice we were able to choose from select deluxe resorts. We have stayed at a resort on Disney once before (Caribbean Beach Resort) and have toured some of the resorts, we chose the Polynesian because it is one of the resorts that is connected by the monorail and because it is close to the ticket and transportation center, this should make it easier to catch a bus to parks other than the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. We also loved the Hawaiian theme and being directly across the lagoon from Disney seems really nice.
Park tickets - As part of the package we will get a 5 day Park Hopper pass, this will enable us to go to all the parks any day that we are there. Our flight is scheduled to arrive by 10:45 so we plan on going to the parks the first day and the next three. The last day we leave for the boat around 11:00. This is my son's birthday, it would be nice to take him to the Magic Kingdom on his birthday but we haven't decided yet. If we go to the parks that day it would be only for a couple of hours.
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party - we are traveling in late November and the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) will be going on when we are there. If you do not know what this is check it out here. We bought tickets to it for the 20th. Which means that we will be going to the Magic Kingdom on the evening of the 20th.
Dining - We purchased the Disney Dining Plan for these four nights. This includes four table service meals, four counter service meals and four snacks. Typically we do not eat much for breakfast so we are planning on having breakfasts (cereal and muffins etc.) in our rooms on most days. We went to this website to look at all of the menus and to determine which restaurants we want to go to. We chose Cape May Cafe, Chef Mickey's (dinner), Boma and Crystal Palace (Breakfast). If you want to eat at a particular restaurant you really need to make reservations. Disney has changed the rules for Advanced Reservations, currently you can not book reservations until 90 days before the first day of your stay. Which means I need to determine what days I will be going to each restaurant so I can make my reservations first thing on August 20th.
Cape May Cafe - This restaurant is located at the Beach Club resort, this is in the Boardwalk area. You can walk or take a short boat ride to this restaurant from Epcot, or can take a boat ride from Hollywood Studios. We chose this restaurant because we have the "Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs" cookbook and we love the recipe for New England Clam Chowder. So we decided to try it at the restaurant.
Chef Mickey's - This restaurant is located in the Contemporary resort. From the Polynesian it is a short monorail ride to the Contemporary and Chef Mickey's. It is also easily accessed from either Magic Kingdom or Epcot. Pretty much we can go to this restaurant any night we want. We chose Chef Mickey's because we have eaten here before. We really liked the atmosphere and here you get to spend a lot of time with the characters.
Boma - This restaurant is located at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. This is a short bus ride from The Animal Kingdom or a longer bus ride from any other park. We chose Boma because we have eaten here before and absolutely loved it.
Crystal Palace - This restaurant is located inside the Magic Kingdom. We chose Crystal Palace for breakfast because we have eaten here before and the breakfast was really good. Another plus is that if you get a reservation early enough you can actually get into the park before it officially opens, this gives you some additional time inside the park and the crowds are a lot smaller.
Itenirary - So digesting all of this info I have come up with the following:
Day One (Wed. 11/18) - we will have dinner at Chef Mickey's, we are also planning on going to the Magic Kingdom.
Day Two (Th. 11/19) - we will have dinner at Boma. At this time of year Animal Kingdom closes relatively early (on this date last year it closed at 5:00 p.m.) so if I can get reservations for around 6:00 we will be going to Animal Kingdom this day, otherwise we will probably go to Epcot or Magic Kingdom and then bus over from there.
Day Three (Fr. 11/20) - this is the day of the MVMCP so I am not planning any dinner so that we can be flexible around the time when the Party starts (7:00).
Day Four (Sat 11/21) - We will eat at Cap May Cafe. Tentatively I am planning on Hollywood Studios or Epcot then we would take a boat ride to the Boardwalk area and walk over to Beach Club Resort.
Day Five (Sun 11/22) - I am tentatively planning on breakfast at Crystal Palace, then a couple of hours in the park and back to The Polynesian to catch the bus to the cruise ship. This will all depend on whether I can get an early enough reservation. I am hoping for 8:00 a.m. when the restaurant opens. If I can't get that time and the reservation is going to be too late then I go to the backup plan which is to move this breakfast to Day Three.
There is a whole lot more planning I can do around what attractions and shows I want to go to and see but there is still a lot of time for that.
Thanks for reading.
Next post: Part 2 - Disney Cruise
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