Celebrating my Un-Birthday Disney Style-April 2010-New 5/3 - The TR has started!

[DisMomAmy]

I think we are all going to find that it is easier to book our ADRs -- thank goodness!

 

[eandesmom]

See I'm wondering at 180 days...do I really need to do it at 3am or can I wait till 6 my time?

Loving the park hours being out! That will help so much. It will be interesting to see if they stick to them, last year hours were changed 2 weeks prior to our trip!

And of course I didn't catch it until we got there

 

[DisMomAmy]

See I'm wondering at 180 days...do I really need to do it at 3am or can I wait till 6 my time?

Loving the park hours being out! That will help so much. It will be interesting to see if they stick to them, last year hours were changed 2 weeks prior to our trip!

And of course I didn't catch it until we got there

Hopefully 6am will be OK. I can't imagine getting up at 3am for dining reservations!

I'm sure they will change, but hopefully not by a lot. I don't mind if they add entertainment to the schedule as long as they don't move thing around too much.

 

[eandesmom]

Hopefully 6am will be OK. I can't imagine getting up at 3am for dining reservations!

I'm sure they will change, but hopefully not by a lot. I don't mind if they add entertainment to the schedule as long as they don't move thing around too much.

It's the Fireworks and Fantasmic I worry about. They can make the park hours later and add entertainment but I want to know when Wishes, Illuminations, Fantasmic and the EHM's are. Everything else I can work around!

I can't imagine getting up at 3am either and I am definitely never up at that time!

 

[DisMomAmy]

I don't know why I'm worrying about it tonight, but I'm getting a little annoyed that the April hours aren't up for MK yet.

I won't be making any ADRs tomorrow so I guess I should just let it go for tonight.

In other news, Jeff called last night just to say Hi & I shared the news of our trip with him. He was excited and it sounds like they will try to join us in Orlando toward the end of our trip. They have two tickets left from our last trip because J & K didn't end up coming. If we have a large enough condo they will just have to buy 2 FL resident tickets and food. So I guess I'll plan on them being with us for the last 3 days (Thurs - Sat). But things may change... we'll see!

 

[DisMomAmy]

It's the Fireworks and Fantasmic I worry about. They can make the park hours later and add entertainment but I want to know when Wishes, Illuminations, Fantasmic and the EHM's are. Everything else I can work around!

I can't imagine getting up at 3am either and I am definitely never up at that time!

I know what you mean - last time the Spectro times were all messed up.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

I love that you are celebrating your unbirthday! What a great idea!

(It really is a great idea-I might start celebrating my unanniversary since not only is it sandwiched between DDs bd and DH's bd-literally...Oct 5, 7, and 8 but there is always so much in October to begin with..

I love Zachary's hat on your first page...Did you get that in the parks?

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

It's the Fireworks and Fantasmic I worry about. They can make the park hours later and add entertainment but I want to know when Wishes, Illuminations, Fantasmic and the EHM's are. Everything else I can work around!

I can't imagine getting up at 3am either and I am definitely never up at that time!

With Wishes and Illuminations it is very easy to figure out when they will be, as they are always at park closing. Also EMH's stay pretty much the same so you can easily take a good guess with those and be fairly accurate. However Fansatmic if they continue the dumb schedule that they have it on well that one I will wish you luck on but if you have ever seen the Disneyland version of it skip the WDW version, it's not worth waiting to get in the theater to see it.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I don't know why I'm worrying about it tonight, but I'm getting a little annoyed that the April hours aren't up for MK yet.

I won't be making any ADRs tomorrow so I guess I should just let it go for tonight.

In other news, Jeff called last night just to say Hi & I shared the news of our trip with him. He was excited and it sounds like they will try to join us in Orlando toward the end of our trip. They have two tickets left from our last trip because J & K didn't end up coming. If we have a large enough condo they will just have to buy 2 FL resident tickets and food. So I guess I'll plan on them being with us for the last 3 days (Thurs - Sat). But things may change... we'll see!

I know, it's so frustrating!! When the park hours came out for November (was supposed to be 90 days) they came out one park at a time over a span of a week!

That's great news that hopefully family will be able to join you towards the end of your trip!

 

[eandesmom]

With Wishes and Illuminations it is very easy to figure out when they will be, as they are always at park closing. Also EMH's stay pretty much the same so you can easily take a good guess with those and be fairly accurate. However Fansatmic if they continue the dumb schedule that they have it on well that one I will wish you luck on but if you have ever seen the Disneyland version of it skip the WDW version, it's not worth waiting to get in the theater to see it.

This is where we got messed up last year though, they changed Illuminations on one day and Wishes on all (if memory serves), moved up one hour earlier. The EMH night of Illuminations wasn't at park closing, it was an hour before reg park closing and at park closing the other nights.

I'd timed all our ressies to hit them on certain nights that we were at those parks and instead, we missed them every night! We'd have been ok for the 2nd night of Illluminations attempt if we'd have been seated on time for our ADR. Just missed it!

They didn't change the EMH dates and they didn't change closing hours at Epcot but some of the MK night closing was pushed out later which moved Wishes earlier I think...I can't recall exactly but I know it was moved and as a result dinner was smack in the middle of it.

We saw Fantasmic in '04 at WDW, have not seen the DL version. If I can get an ADR package, we will do it. If not, likely not. I remember those lines. If we do it will be a spontaneous second showing type thing.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I love that you are celebrating your unbirthday! What a great idea!

(It really is a great idea-I might start celebrating my unanniversary since not only is it sandwiched between DDs bd and DH's bd-literally...Oct 5, 7, and 8 but there is always so much in October to begin with..

I love Zachary's hat on your first page...Did you get that in the parks?

Hi Patricia!! Glad you made it over here.

There is a child is Alex's class who has a summer birthday - her mom always brings treats into school on her half-birthday so she doesn't miss out on the school party (or have it lumped together with all the other summer birthdays in June). Isn't that fun!!

With Wishes and Illuminations it is very easy to figure out when they will be, as they are always at park closing. Also EMH's stay pretty much the same so you can easily take a good guess with those and be fairly accurate. However Fansatmic if they continue the dumb schedule that they have it on well that one I will wish you luck on but if you have ever seen the Disneyland version of it skip the WDW version, it's not worth waiting to get in the theater to see it.

Thanks for reading!! MK hours finally came out this morning. Wishes is actually scheduled at 10 every night during my week and the park closes at 11 one of the nights??

I don't know what they are doing with the evening entertainment schedules... I can't keep up. We've never been to DL. We'll skip Fantasmic again this year. We saw it in 2006 and I think it would freak Zach out a bit. Plus the park just gets too crowded.

I know, it's so frustrating!! When the park hours came out for November (was supposed to be 90 days) they came out one park at a time over a span of a week!

That's great news that hopefully family will be able to join you towards the end of your trip!

It was kind of funny yesterday - I've never seen so many park hours come up within a few hours - 3 months for all 4 parks, plus both waterparks. With the exception of MK that came up today for April. Now May should be coming up sometime this week.

This is where we got messed up last year though, they changed Illuminations on one day and Wishes on all (if memory serves), moved up one hour earlier. The EMH night of Illuminations wasn't at park closing, it was an hour before reg park closing and at park closing the other nights.

I'd timed all our ressies to hit them on certain nights that we were at those parks and instead, we missed them every night! We'd have been ok for the 2nd night of Illluminations attempt if we'd have been seated on time for our ADR. Just missed it!

They didn't change the EMH dates and they didn't change closing hours at Epcot but some of the MK night closing was pushed out later which moved Wishes earlier I think...I can't recall exactly but I know it was moved and as a result dinner was smack in the middle of it.

We saw Fantasmic in '04 at WDW, have not seen the DL version. If I can get an ADR package, we will do it. If not, likely not. I remember those lines. If we do it will be a spontaneous second showing type thing.

Luckily I always shoot for 5pm dinner ADRs so I shouldn't have any problems with the timing of the evening entertainment. But I can see where that could cause major problems - even if they just move the time by a little bit.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I love that you are celebrating your unbirthday! What a great idea!

(It really is a great idea-I might start celebrating my unanniversary since not only is it sandwiched between DDs bd and DH's bd-literally...Oct 5, 7, and 8 but there is always so much in October to begin with..

I love Zachary's hat on your first page...Did you get that in the parks?

Oh & that's Alex in the hat... we got it at the gift shop outside of Animal Kingdom.

 

[eandesmom]

Luckily I always shoot for 5pm dinner ADRs so I shouldn't have any problems with the timing of the evening entertainment. But I can see where that could cause major problems - even if they just move the time by a little bit.

And therein lies our challenge. 7pm is early for us EST...it's like eating at 4! We are normally 7-8pm eaters on vacation so we do run into the fireworks issue nightly. I'll be making 7pm ressies for the whole trip I think, or at least on nights we hope to see fireworks. Last time our earliest was 7:15 at Biergarten and that was the night they moved Illuminations from 9 to 8!

 

[mousescrapper]

Glad your wait is over on the MK hours...that is odd about the Wishes time

I'm w/ you on the scheduling dinner close to 5 pm....glad we aonly have to adjust by one hour never really though how much that effects people on the West coast like eandesmom....

sounds good that jeff Karen and maybe the kids can join you agian...

I would just book the ADR's on those last days w/ them in mind and then you can always decrease it later if needed...and make some party of 4 really happy. But you know it would be harder to add on 4.

good luck w your ADR's...are you going online each day or calling?

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Everone!! When I got up this morning I checked in on the DIS and TGM to find that the ADR situation was a disaster!! The whole online system was down. People were waiting on hold for an hour - AFTER trying to get through for hours. Yikes!! What a mess. Then I went and spent a couple hours at school volunteering in Zach's class. Now I'm back home for a bit and it looks like things have maybe improved a bit. I think the online system is back up. I hope things settle down before I have to make my first ADR tomorrow.

The good news is that the MK hours for April came out this morning. Now I have to rework our itinerary based on some things that I didn't anticipate.

Here's what I had initially expected for EMH/entertainment schedules (with the current updates in red):

Monday 4/26 - Originally planned to see Gramma. AK am EMH/DHS pm EMH. 9pm Spectro.

Tuesday, 4/27 - Epcot/EMH am - no Spectro/no F! so we can pretty much go anywhere except Epcot today. Spectro scheduled at 9pm/F! scheduled at 8:30pm.Parks today: AK at rope drop/mid-day break/Chef Mickey's 5:00/MK for Wishes (skipping Spectro this year) (ADR day is 10/29) Epcot still OK - MK maybe?

Wednesday, 4/28 - AK/EMH pm & spectro (no F!) so we will avoid AK & MK today. No spectro or F! tonight.
Parks today: DHS (maybe not rope drop?)/Hollywood & Vine - late breakfast?/mid-day break - depending how early we started the day/Epcot (ADR day is 10/30) Should try to visit MK for Wishes since there's no Spectro.

Thursday, 4/29 - MK/EMH am & F! (no spectro) so we'll avoid MK & DHS today. Spectro at 9pm/No F!
Parks today: Epcot at rope drop/Teppan Edo lunch 11:00ish - early night in, do some laundry, swim, get a good night's sleep (ADR day is 10/31)
DHS is now OK for pm.

Friday, 4/30 - Epcot/EMH pm & Grad Night at MK (closing at 7pm) (no spectro or F!) F! scheduled at 8:30pm.
Parks today: Early breakfast at Crystal Palace (good day for MK since the park closes early and we park hop - crowds should be low)/mid-day break/DHS (ADR day is 11/1) Definitely still want to visit MK this morning or Saturday morning but DHS may not be a good plan tonight!

Saturday, 5/1 - DHS/EMH am & Grad NIght (closing at 7pm) at MK (no spectro or F!) F! scheduled for 8:30.
Parks today: AK/mid-day break/Epcot?? or whatever everybody wants to do (MK will be closed in the pm) (ADR day is 11/2 - if I have any, we'll probably leave the day open for more flexibility) Definitely should avoid DHS tonight but it's our last night & the kids don't LOVE Epcot - can't go to AK at night, can't go to MK. May have to bite the bullet and face the crowds? But will we regret it??

I had factored Spectromagic & Fantasmic! into my itinerary so I have some changes to make. I don't know if we need to avoid MK on a Spectro night (skipping it this year) because it's showing 4 of the 5 nights that week that the park is open past 7 (Grad nights Friday & Saturday). If we do avoid it, our only night to visit MK would be Wednesday - which I'd planned for a waterpark. I suppose we could do both but the kids could be tired after the waterpark.

Fantasmic! is on completely different nights than I had planned. I still think Zach wouldn't like it so we'll skip it. And based on the horror stories I've heard about the crowds we want to avoid DHS entirely on those nights. Which leaves us with only Wednesday or Thursday night for an evening at DHS. Maybe Monday morning (it's an EMH pm). (We like to do a rope drop at each park and an afternoon/evening.)

Why do we torture ourselves & build awesome itineraries before park hours come out?? Uggghhh!!

I'll post my newest itinerary later today. My first call/online ADR will be tomorrow morning.

 

[mousescrapper]

Amy,

I don't think MK is actually all that bad on Spectro nights...maybe just me...

but here is a thought you are planning on skipping it anyways yes? so you could actually tour Tomorrowland (SpMt, Buzz, LF, TTA, speedway) and Adventureland (POC, JC, Tiki room) during the parade

everyone (well just about everyone would be lined up to view the parade and those areas of the park will be practicaly empty...

we love Spectro...and try not to ever miss it. Hopping over from Epcot to see Spectro at MK in 08 was nutty but just this past March I really don't think the crowds were bad.

JAT

 

[Charleston Princess]

Good luck tomorrow morning! Are you trying to get Chef Mickey's?

 

[DisMomAmy]

Replies later... My good friend/neighbor came over tonight to get started on our Christmas/scrapbooking projects so I haven't had the DIS time I would have otherwise. Made good headway on my project but not too much more time spent on my itinerary. So the plan for morning is to make ADRs for Monday 4/26. Original plan was for Epcot am/DHS pm but with an EMH pm at DHS I think we'll just flip it around. I'm going to make a brunch ADR at H&V, which shouldn't be a problem, and a dinner ADR for Teppan Edo. I'm sure we won't do both on the same day but I just don't have it all figured out yet and don't want to risk losing out on Teppan Edo.

I'll be back in the morning to let you know how I made out.

 

[jordanyosh]

Amy,

I wish you much luck tomorrow. Hopefully, things will have settled down a bit!

I, too, am having to look at my itinerary again because for once, they've extended hours at MK on many nights that I'm there. It'll give us more flexibility.

I've heard from a few people that F! nights are really busy now at DHS. Did you hear that they are thinking of going back to more nights of F! because on non-F! nights revenue is down? Or were you the one that posted that...?

 

[eandesmom]

Amy!

Oh my goodness, those hours changes really did a number on your itinerary! I hope that the system settles down by tomorrow. Personally I didn't find Spectro to impact the overall crowds other than right around Spectro times BUT it was so darn busy that whole week I think it was irrelevant.

Not much help am I!

I had heard the same rumor about more F! nights....and showings...I hope so. It would really help balance things out.

Good luck tomorrow and have fun scrapping!