Davis Family Newspaper

The Mark A. Davis Family in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

2008 Disney Trip Planning Guide

In a last minute thought, Jeanne tried to change our hotel reservations to All-Star Movies so we could be with most of the gang.  Unfortunately the resort is full, so we're staying with our original plan to stay at Port Orleans Riverside.

We've also been thinking about getting on the attractions with 24 people.  To be sure, people will have different tastes and we'll probably split up from time to time.  We're thinking of a few approaches to help navigate with so many people.

  • Mark knows the ride layout for nearly all the rides and might recommend certain approaches prior to getting in line (Fastpass or not, left versus right lines, best places to stand, etc).  This is only an opinion and people can take it or leave it.
  • Decisions on who rides with whom, and how to split up the group will be made early in the queue.  We can't get to the front of the queue and say we have 23 people.  For the most part this will be by family, so we only have to take this step when the adult/child mix is off-kilter.
  • We'll ask that restroom breaks and drink breaks be taken by everyone at the same time, if possible, so we try our best to minimize the number of stops

Check out our Disney Tips pages

More Details

Who's Coming

There are 23 people coming on the trip. 

  • Mark, Jeanne, Kelsey, Gregory, Ty (5) (Thursday 2:30pm - Thursday)
  • Matt & Stacy (2) (Thursday 11:30am - Thursday)
  • The Young Family (4) (Friday 8pm - Wednesday 1:30pm)
  • The Dave Phillips Family (7)
  • The John Phillips Family (4) (Friday late pm - Wednesday)
  • Sue & Byron Berkowitz (2) (Friday - )

There are some helpful hints about large groups at Disney.  See the link on the right in the Hot Topics box.

Where We're Staying

People can stay wherever they want, just like last time.  The Davis family will be staying Port Orleans Riverside.  We stayed at this resort in 2002 and its very nice.  For people who are renting cars, the parking is very close to the rooms.  It does not have a common shared lobby, being more of the exterior room entrance style. 

Young's, Dave Phillip's family and John Phillip's family are staying at the All-Star Movies resort.  We've never stayed at this resort, though we've had friends who have stayed there and have been very pleased.  Berkowitz's are staying at their timeshare.

Transportation

We'll be using Disney's Magical Express to get to and from the airport.  The cool part is that they take care of picking up our luggage at baggage claim when we arrive, and they take it directly to our room.  While we are on the Magical Express bus to the resort, our bags are placed on a separate truck for delivery to our room.  This takes a pinch of planning.  If we are dressed for visiting the park, we can just check in at the resort and immediately start our vacation at one of the parks.  Our bags will be in our room when we return that evening.  We did this in 2007 and it worked great.  We got out of the airport faster, and it was wonderful not having to worry about our luggage.

We are also planning on using the park bus transportation instead of renting vehicles, just like our last trip.  We found that the wait times for the bus were very short and we made some friends along the way.  One of the benefits of wearing clothing from your favorite school or sports team is that its an easy conversation starter. 

Food and Dining

The last time we went to Disney and stayed on-property we purchased the Disney Meal plan.  This turned out to be a good deal for our family.  Its not right for everyone, but we liked it.

  • It got us into more of a three meal a day routine and we did much much less snacking
  • The average cost per person per day worked out to about $38 ($10 for kids under 10).  This is a good deal compared to list prices as food costs at Disney are quite expensive.
  • We ate at some nicer places.  For us, since we have been to Disney many times, this worked out fine.  Others who might want a more intense trip might not want to spend as much time at dinner, but we enjoyed the relaxed pace.

Our plan right now is to get the standard dining plan again for 2008.  This by no means obligates anyone else.  In fact, in 2006 when we spent a day with the Melliand's, it worked out fine with them having the dining plan and us not having the dining plan, even when we shared the same table.

We've begun making reservations.  For the most part we'll be splitting up into smaller groups of 4 - most of the Disney restaurants cannot handle large parties.  See the chart below for the restaurants and times.  For more information on the menu for each restaurant, go to www.wdwinfo.com

What this might mean for our family trip

If we do indeed have 20 or more folks going on this trip, it will be impossible to have big group dinners.  We're thinking that we'll set up some itineraries for dinners and will encourage others in the family to make their own reservations at the same time at the same restaurant.  We might not be able to sit close to each other, but we certainly can enjoy the same type of experience.  Some folks might find our choices to be too expensive or not what they are looking for.  No problem - we'll just separate for dinner and get back together later on. 

Park Itinerary

The rationale for this itinerary is based primarily on our experience.  Magic Kingdom is too crowded on weekends and we've found it can sometimes be nearly impossible to move around.  Hence we stay away from Magic Kingdom on the weekends.

We've had mixed results with Animal Kingdom, so we've left that to last.  Animal Kingdom closes early at 5pm.  People with Park Hopper passes can go to another park, if they wish, for the evening.

  Park & Hours Dinner Special Event
Thursday Magic Kingdom
9-7		   Magic Kingdom Christmas Party - 7-midnight
Friday Islands of Adventure    
Saturday Epcot
9-9:30		 Teppanyaki at 6:45pm 9:30pm EPCOT Fireworks
Sunday Disney Studios
9-8 		Hollywood & Vine at 6:20pm 6-8pm Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights

Extra Magic Evening Hours
Monday Magic Kingdom
9-8
 Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge at 5:25pm 8:00pm Wishes Nighttime Spectacular

Extra Magic Evening Hours
Tuesday Animal Kingdom
9-5		 4:15pm - Yak & Yetti Potential Mickey's Xmas Party at Magic Kingdom (extra admission of $55 per person)
Wednesday Epcot
9-9:30		 4:45pm - Mexico 9:30pm EPCOT Fireworks
Thursday Travel   Travel

 

Magic Kingdom

There is a special Christmas Party on selected nights.  It requires separate admission and is a little expensive.  It includes a special parade, snow falling on main street (really cool effect), cookies and hot cocoa, and a special fireworks display that was awesome.  We felt it was very crowded for the parade and we don't know that we will do this again, but others might be interested.

Disney Studios

The Osborne Family Christmas Light display is the most incredible thing we've ever seen.  The story behind this display is that the Osborne family (not the Ozzie Osborne family - a sane family) started decorating their property with thousands of lights.  Neighbors complained as the light display got more and more elaborate - so the Osborne's bought their neighbors houses and decorated them too.  Eventually the display evolved to a dramatically huge extent (perhaps they aren't sane after all).  They donated the whole setup to Disney.  The display includes over 5 million lights and large effects, all timed to music.  Its nearly impossible to describe.  A must see!!

EPCOT

The festival of lights is a terrific choral concert with orchestra, with the Christmas story read by a celebrity. The Illuminations fireworks event is the normal show.  But at the end, they do an additional fireworks display to an arrangement of "Let There Be Peace On Earth" that is the most emotionally charge arrangement I've ever heard.  Even now I get choked-up remembering the incredible crescendo, the brilliant explosions timed to the music, the inability to even talk about it without getting emotional.

Pictures from 2007

Click on the picture below to go to Picasa to see our photo album from 2007.

Disney World 2007
 

Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios

Right now we are planning one day at Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios.  There are some neat attractions here: Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Men In Black and Twister.  Generally we are not huge fans of the parks, and we usually zip through them.  Other folks might want to spend two days if they'd prefer.

Since we are doing the bus transportation at Disney, we done some research on the best way to get there and it appears that renting a vehicle for this one day is the best choice.  There is a National Car Rental location at the Disney Car Care center, and some sites have mentioned that they have a pick-up and drop off service for the Disney Resorts.  This will limit our flexibility with our itinerary. Once we reserve the vehicle, that will be the day we go to Islands of Adventure come heck or dangnation.