90 days from today we'll be arriving at WDW. I'm so excited that I'm posting the planning portion of my trip report now! I think I have everything set, but if I make any changes I will post an update. What am I going to do with my time now that everything is planned and I still have 90 days to wait!

Travel Dates: Thursday, June 5th – Thursday, June 12th, 8 days/7 nights
Travel Method: Southwest Airlines, Magical Express, Disney Transportation
Resort: Port Orleans Riverside Resort
Accommodations: Standard View, Requested Alligator Bayou Section
Cast: Jeff – 48 (WDW 2 times),
Barb – 43 (WDW 4 times) Trip Planner & Report Writer,
Cam – 14 7/12th (WDW 3 times),
SiSi – 7 11/12th (WDW 1 time)


Cast Background:

Our summer vacations have always had to be scheduled around Cam’s baseball season, heaven forbid we miss any part of All Star season! We’ve usually visited right before the return to school in August. This year that would have translated to Saturday, August 9th to Sunday, August 17th, 9days/8 nights. However, we are using air credit that expires in June, so we need to come earlier, and we are hoping the crowds will be similar to those we are used to in late August or, cross-your-fingers, less?

I love everything Disney and would visit as much as my cash flow would allow. Jeff is an every now and then guy, he likes to try new vacation locations. Cam is getting older, but still opted for Disney when given the choice between Disney and Universal this year. SiSi, has only been to WDW once, but is eager to return. So, here we come!


Transportation Planning:

Having decided on the dates, we’ve booked our airfare on Southwest. We’ve booked the first non-stop flight out in the morning and a 6:00pm non-stop flight home, so we’ll have the most time possible on-site the first day and the last day.

We’ve previously rented a car, but found that we only used it between the airport and WDW. So, we’ve decided to skip that expense and we’ve registered to use Magical Express between the airport and WDW. Our flight arrives at 9:40am and we are hoping to be at Port Orleans Riverside by 11:30am.


Accommodation Planning:

We’ve stayed at Wilderness Lodge, Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs in the past. We like the moderate resorts for their feature pools with slides and whirlpools. We were considering both Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter. Both have cool feature pools, so it came down to accommodations. The 14 year old isn’t really going to be thrilled with having to share a bed with his almost 8 year old sister anymore (who could blame him!), so once we discovered that the rooms in the Alligator Bayou section of Port Orleans Riverside have trundle beds, we booked a room at Port Orleans Riverside and requested that it be in the Alligator Bayou section. We also requested to be as close to an Ol’ Man Island entrance as possible within Alligator Bayou, because we return to the resort most afternoons to swim and relax and have also been known to hit the pool before bed as well (when on vacation, a dip in chlorine is a substitute for a shower, right?).


Touring & Meal Planning:

We’ve charted out the park hours, extra magic hours, parades, and nighttime events (SpectroMagic/Wishes, IllumiNations, Fantasmic) for each day. We’ve followed the rule of staying away from the Morning – Extra Magic Hours Park, as getting up that extra hour early is just too early for us.

We’ve created a weekly overview with each day broken into 4 segments: Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Late Night.

Mornings, we’ve planned to eat breakfast in our room from groceries delivered by Garden Grocer (the order was placed on March 3rd for June 5th delivery). We’ve planned to arrive at a non-extra magic hours park 40 to 60 minutes before opening each morning and we’ve planned to follow customized touring plans from The Unofficial Guide’s website.

Afternoons, we’ve planned to eat lunch in the park of the morning and then head back to the resort for a swim and rest.

Evenings/Late Nights, some nights we’ve planned to have dinner in a park or monorail resort and then catch a nighttime event. Other nights we’ve planned to catch a dinner show at a resort and then return to the resort to hang out. We’ve planned to alternate late nights with early nights to keep from getting too burned out.

We’ve planned each day, including pretty much everything except potty stops!

We’ve planned what time we needed to be at the non-extra magic hours park each morning for rope drop and worked backward to determine what time we needed to catch the Disney bus and therefore what time we will need to get up to allow for quick showers and breakfast in the room. We’ve planned which attractions we will experience and in which order according to The Unofficial Guide’s website.

We’ve planned our counter service lunch locations based on where we would end our morning touring plan and allocated an hour for the lunch stop. We’ve planned to then catch the Disney bus back to the resort for a swim and some relaxing.

We’ve planned our table service dinner locations and nighttime events. We’ve planned what time we needed to be at our dinner location and worked backward to determine what time we needed to catch the Disney bus to our dinner location. We’ve allocated an hour and a half for dinners and two hours for dinner shows. We’ve planned travel time on Disney transportation to arrive for our nighttime events and what time we will catch the Disney bus back to the resort after those nighttime events.

We’ve called Disney and were able to get all our Advanced Reservations for all our table service dinners and Hard Reservations for our dinner shows and Fantasmic Dinner Package. Yippee!


Meal Cost Planning:

We’ve created a cost analysis on our food to see if the Disney Dining Plan will be a good fit for us this time. We have used it each time we’ve visited. Each time it saved us at least $300 when all was said and done.

We’ve reviewed the menus for each counter service we are eating at (Sunshine Seasons, Electric Umbrella, LottaWatta Lodge, Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn, Columbia Harbor House, Flame Tree BBQ, Toy Story Pizza Planet, Riverside Mill) and calculated the cost of the cheapest drink and cheapest entrée. We’ve multiplied that cost by 3, as SiSi will share from Jeff and my plates at lunch. She doesn’t really care for the kid selections (she has big girl taste, but doesn’t eat enough to get her own adult meal). We’ve added in 6.5% tax. We’ve totaled all the counter service meals - $225.69.

We’ve reviewed the menus for each table service we are eating at (Chef Mickey’s, Biergarten, Spirit of Aloha, 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, MaMa Melrose Fantasmic Dinner, Hoop Dee Doo Revue) and calculated the cost of 3 adults and 1 child with 6.5% tax. We’ve totaled all the table service meals - $920.34. We’ll still need to add in tip.

That’s a total of $1146.03, if we have the cheapest 3 drinks and cheapest 3 entrees between the 4 of us for each counter service lunch and we each have a table service buffet/family style meal for dinner. Will that happen? NO WAY! We probably won’t have the cheapest thing on the menu once, much less every time. Also, we don’t like to say no to snacks or desserts on vacation – to the kids or ourselves! So, this cost will only go up once we get there.

We’ve analyzed how the cost will change using the Disney Dining Plan.

We’ve calculated the cost of the same cheapest drinks and cheapest entrées and added in the cheapest desserts for the counter service lunches. We’ve multiplied that cost by 3 still, as SiSi will still share with Jeff and me. We’ve added in 6.5% tax. We’ve totaled all the counter service meals - $295.41.

We’ve calculated the cost of 3 adults and 1 child for the same table service dinners. We’ve added in 6.5% tax. We’ve totaled all the table service meals - $713.38. Because we are using 2 credits each for the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show (Category 2 Seating), we will pay for the Hoop Dee Doo Revue (Category 1 Seating) out of pocket - $206.9. We’ll still need to add in tip.

We’ve calculated the cost of the cheapest snack (water), multiplied it by 4, and added 6.5% tax. We’ve totaled all the snacks - $59.64.

That’s a total of $1068.43 that will be covered by the DDP, and that is if we have the cheapest 3 drinks and cheapest 3 entrees between the 4 of us for each counter service lunch, which we know won’t happen. We will pay $867.72 for the DDP. That means a savings of $200.71, which pretty much covers the out of pocket cost of the Hoop Dee Doo.

Assuming the counter service meals are still lumped together with no differentiation between adult and child, we’ll still have 7 counter service credits left, that we could use for mid-morning snacks that the 4 of us could share a couple of days. Which would add onto the cost of the counter service meals and also add directly onto our savings. So, we’ve booked the DDP.


Admission Planning:

We’ve booked the 8 Day Hopper with Water Park Fun & More.


Daily Planning:

Day 1 – Thursday, June 5th – Travel, Magical Express, Sunshine Seasons, Epcot

Arrive at Orlando Airport at 9:40am
Transfer to WDW on Magical Express
Check-In at Port Orleans Riverside around 11:30am
Lunch at Sunshine Seasons at 12:30pm
Tour Epcot from 1:30pm to 4:30pm
· The Seas w/ Nemo & Friends
· The Seas Main Tank & Exhibits
· Turtle Talk w/ Crush
· Circle of Life
· Living w/ the Land
Dinner ADR at Chef Mickey’s for 5:35pm
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Early to Bed


Day 2 – Friday, June 6th – Epcot, Electric Umbrella, Biergarten, IllumiNations

Breakfast in Room
Tour Epcot from 9:00am to 11:30am
· Pick up Fastpass for Soarin’
· Test Track
· Mission : Space
· Honey I Shrunk The Audience
· Soarin’
· Ellen’s Energy Adventure
Lunch at Electric Umbrella at 11:30am
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Dinner ADR at Biergarten for 6:30pm
View IllumiNations at 9:00pm
Late to Bed


Day 3 – Saturday, June 7th – Blizzard Beach, LottaWatta Lodge, Spirit of Aloha

Breakfast in Room
Tour Blizzard Beach from 9:00am to 12:30pm
Lunch at LottaWatta Lodge at 12:30pm
Relax at Port Orleans Riverside
Dinner HR at Spirit of Aloha for 5:15pm
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Early to Bed


Day 4 – Sunday, June 8th – Magic Kingdom, Pecos Bill, 1900 Park Fare, SpectroMagic, Wishes

Breakfast in Room
Tour Magic Kingdom from 9:00am to 12:00pm
· Splash Mountain
· Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
· Pirates of the Caribbean
· Jungle Cruise
· Enchanted Tiki Room
· Country Bear Jamboree
Lunch at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Café at 12:00pm
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Dinner ADR at 1900 Park Fare for 6:10pm
View SpectroMagic Parade at 9:00pm
View Wishes Fireworks at 10:00pm
Late to Bed


Day 5 – Monday, June 9th – Magic Kingdom, Columbia House, Crystal Palace

Breakfast in Room
Tour Magic Kingdom from 9:00am to 12:30pm
· Space Mountain
· Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
· Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
· Peter Pan’s Flight
· Mickey’s PhilharMagic
· It’s A Small World
· The Haunted Mansion
Lunch at Columbia Harbor House at 12:30pm
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Dinner ADR at Crystal Palace for 6:15pm
Kids Choice:
Tour Magic Kingdom (if kids wish to) from 8:00pm to 10:30pm
· Monsters Inc, Comedy Club
· Stitch’s Great Escape
· Mad Tea Party
· Snow White’s Scary Adventure
· Cinderella’s Golden Carousel
· Dumbo The Flying Elephant
Late to Bed
or
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Early to Bed

Day 6 – Tuesday, June 10th – Animal Kingdom, Flame Tree BBQ, MaMa Melrose’s, Hollywood Studios, Fantasmic

Breakfast in Room
Tour Animal Kingdom from 9:00am to 11:30am
· Pick up Fastpass for Expedition Everest
· Dinosaur
· Flights of Wonder
· Maharaja Jungle Trek
· Expedition Everest
· Pick up Fastpass for Kilamanjaro Safari’s
Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ at 11:30am
Tour Animal Kingdom from 12:30 to 3:15pm
· Pangani Forest Trail
· Kilamanjaro Safari’s
· Festival of the Lion King
· Finding Nemo – The Musical
· It’s Tough To Be a Bug
Dinner HR at MaMa Melrose’s Fantasmic Package for 4:20pm
Tour Hollywood Studio’s from 6:20pm to 7:40pm
· Muppet-Vision 3D
· Star Tours
· Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
View Fantasmic at 9:00pm


Day 7 – Wednesday, June 11th – Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Pizza, Hoop Dee Doo

Breakfast in Room
Tour Hollywood Studios 9:00am to 12:00pm
· Pick up Fastpass for Rock N Roll Coaster
· Tower of Terror
· Rock N Roll Coaster
· Great Movie Ride
· Toy Story Mania (if open)
· Backlot Tour
· Lights, Motors, Action
Lunch at Toy Story Pizza Planet at 12:00pm
Swim at Port Orleans Riverside
Dinner HR at Hoop Dee Doo for 5:00pm


Day 8 – Thursday, June 12th – Typhoon Lagoon, Riverside Mill, Magical Express, Travel

Breakfast in Room
Tour Typhoon Lagoon 9:00am to 12:30pm
Lunch at Riverside Mill at 1:45pm
Transfer to airport on Magical Express at 3:00pm
Depart Orlando Airport at 6:00pm

:D good for you . the port is the only place i will stay.if you have the time you must !! try & give bob jackson in the river roost lounge a chance it is all family
material & he gets the kids involved . he performs wed - sat you wont regret it. also the boat ride to dtd is soooooooo relaxing

It sounds like you and your family are going to have an awesome vacation and having it all planned out is a great way to get in the spirit early.

Relaaxed - Is Bob Jackson comedy? We'll have to stop by on one of our early nights.

Wow - you're so organized! It sounds like a terrific trip, and 90 days really isn't that far away. I can't believe June is only 90 days from now!

The one thing I'd change is your plan to arrive at the parks 40-60 minutes before opening. Unless you like to stand around for that length of time doing nothing but waiting, that's not a good use of your vacation time. If you arrive 10 minutes before rope drop that's plenty of time. Personally I find standing harder on the legs than walking....so standing in line waiting for the turnstiles to open is not something I'm going to do!

livetovacation - fabulous planning, I salute you!! Personally, I would always try to get to the park at least 30 minutes before opening, although the 4 times I got there 60 minutes early it did seem unnecessarily soon. However, that first golden hour in the parks is critical to avoiding queues for the rest of the day IMHO. I hope you have a wonderful time! Will you let us all know if on the DDP there is still no differentiation between adult and children's credits please? Oh, and given the age of your children, for one of those afternoon swims why don't you give them a change and take the boat over to POFQ and use their pool as you are able to use both. (Or walk it, it's a beautiful stroll). Variety is the spice of life!!

Sorry - I meant no differentiation between children/adults credits at CS places. The technology will not let me edit my above post, despite repeated attempts :mad:

Sue & Scooby - I will plan to arrive around 30 minutes prior, maybe less if Disney tranpostation is running behind. I basically just want to be there to get a good spot at rope drop and go from there each morning.

Scooby - I'll plan to head over to French Quarter to use their pool at least one day, now that I know I can. I've got a couple days where we'll have 3.5 to 4.5 hours back at the resort, so that should be plenty of time to cummute and swim.

Sue - I read your last two trip reports and they were great.

Scooby - Yes I will let you know about the CS credits for adult vs childs. I am hoping it runs the same way it used to as one bank of CS credits.

Yes Bob Jackson Is Comedy & Sing Along . His Show Is Very Popular So If You Can Try & Get There Early. He Performs 8:30-12:00 Wed-sat

Scooby - Yes I will let you know about the CS credits for adult vs childs. I am hoping it runs the same way it used to as one bank of CS credits.

Thank you. I've got the free DDP so will pay for adult CS if I need to to make the children happy but I'd like to know if I don't have to! The very 'English' bit of me will probably stop me asking when I get there - paying unnecessarily would be less painful than asking :(

Wow!!! Yes, I wish I was going with you!!!! My friends think I am a crazy planner and then when everything goes so well they understand.

Good planning makes the Disney experience so much better!!!

One additional thing that we always like to do is visit Downtown Disney in the evening.

The Disney store there is amazing as are many other shops & sites. You could possibly squeeze it in on the evening of Day 7???

You could even travel there by boat from your resort area which is lots of fun too!

Have a Disney-O time!!!

Susie from Boston

Wel'll be at Riverside when you arrive, but we'll be leaving 6/7. We have stayed there before and loved it. Also, I like the crowds and the weather much better in early June rather than August.

Wel'll be at Riverside when you arrive, but we'll be leaving 6/7. We have stayed there before and loved it. Also, I like the crowds and the weather much better in early June rather than August.

And my family will come join you at POR when the Shula's leave. We arrive on the 8th, and are staying until the 20th. I am so glad to see other people planning out day by day (90 days in advance) so I know I am not the only crazy one. We also requested the AB section and are planning on getting to the bus stops around 8 each morning to start our day so I'm sure we'll see you around. Less than 3 months - we're excited!

Shula - from your message, can I get excited that the crowds are less in June than in August? And that the weather isn't as hot?

It is so great to hear the excitement in all your plans. I cannot wait to hear more.

Hey all,

First off, to all, thanks for all the positive comments on my organization. My husband makes fun of me for having everything so planned out so far in advance. I am glad someone understands me. Maybe in off-season, people can "do Disney" without a plan, but I know I need to have a plan during the summer if I want to see as much as possible, without spending all the time in lines, and if I want to eat at any Table Services. I acutally have my plans in an excel workbook with a page for each day that will be in my pocket each day. It lists what time we need to be where the whole day.

From the comments, I added some things to our plans...

All Days - We'll plan to arrive at the park of the morning 30 minutes before opening, or later if Disney Transportation is running slow.

Day 2 - Friday, June 6th - We'll take the boat to PO-FQ to use the Dabloon Lagoon pool in the afternoon.

Day 3 - Saturday, June 7th - We'll see Bob Jackson's show at PO-RS at 8:30pm.

Day 7 - Wednesday, June 11th - We'll take the bus to DTD to shop after the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. Then we'll take the boat from DTD to PO-RS.

Thanks for all the great advice so far!

Barb

Shula - from your message, can I get excited that the crowds are less in June than in August? And that the weather isn't as hot?

I have only been to the World once in June and once in August but from our experience June was much better and by far. The humidity in August just makes standing in lines unbearable. In June we had brief rain showers almost daily but the humidity was barely noticeable. I also wonder if the weather had something to do with my perception of the crowds. It just didn't seem like we had to wait in as many lines in June. (and we were there 6/8-6/14)
I'm hoping for even smaller crowds on this trip too, we arrive 5/29.

Thanks for getting me started on replying to threads. I read them daily, just been bashful about making comments! Hope you have a great trip. I am sooo ready for May to be here just to say I go on vacation this month!
Michelle

I just had to share...

Last night my daughter and I were watching tv and the commercial came on where the mom turns into a kid again at WDW. My daughter turned and looked and me and said, "maybe you'll turn into a kid again too!" How magical is that?!

I've been tivo'ing anything Disney park related and watching it with her and she is really getting excited. Of course, I'm already way too excited.

Barb

Love it! My bday is 5/17, 12 days before our trip. I told my family all I want to do for my big day is have a Disney marathon. We've also got all the Disney shows on our dvr and thanks to "Season of Disney" on the Travel Channel we'll have even more to watch, not to mention the home videos too! I couldn't resist, my family would NEVER have agreed to do this if it wasn't my bday.

Yippee!

Not that I'm counting...

3 weeks from today!

I'll be putting the final touches on our daily plans this week and start the shopping/packing process.

Yippee!

Not that I'm counting...

3 weeks from today!

I'll be putting the final touches on our daily plans this week and start the shopping/packing process.
one week for me until PAM BRODY , BRITISH INVASION , LEON GREGORY , COWSILLS , GARY PUCKETT , & THE GREAT BOB JACKSON & SARA , SARA. :D

Yippee!

Not that I'm counting...

3 weeks from today!

I'll be putting the final touches on our daily plans this week and start the shopping/packing process.

I am very excited for you!! Can't wait to hear your trip report. Your posts make me think we plan the same way, which makes me feel better about myself ;) Have you found the Steve Soares web site? I thought I had finished with my planning weeks ago until I happened upon this the other day. I tried to post you a link but am a technological idiot - sorry. The site gives you all the show times at the parks though. Very good for last minute obsessing I feel :D

Yep, I have the link. I pulled the times a couple of weeks ago, but will be going back each week now to make sure I have the most up-to-date times. I'll also be checking Disney's Official Site for park times, emh, etc. each week as well. I know - OCD!

I have never heard of Steve Soars and I would love to have this link. My husband and I are going to WDW in just 9 days and this sounds like a site I would love.

Thanks
Ellen