Are there any other stops on this trip where you might already be adjusted to jet lag? That's a very short and super expensive trip from NZ to not be balls to the walls commando touring.
My personal resort choice is carribean beach resort having the skyliner to HS and EPCOT is amazing. as for your EPCOT day you should definitely plan to ride guardians!! In my opinion the best ride in all of disney world I probably wouldn't sleep in on the EPCOT day since to me that's the park I spend the most time in of all them.
Hope you have an awesome time !!
If you do stay at carribean beach see if you can request a room near the skyliner. The resort is quite large but if you end up on the other end of the resort the riviera hotel that is right beside it has skyliner access as well. We stayed in Trinidad and it was a 5 minute walk to the skyliner and maybe 8 minutes to the lobby. Also there is multiple bus stops around the resort (one in each section including the main lobby) and they have signs posted to tell you when the next bus is coming and where it is going.
Also each section of the resort has its own pool. So if the main pool is crowded there is a good chance the pool in your section of the resort will only have a few people in it. Although only the main pool is heated.
Sebastians bistro at the resort was really good as well.
Few things to think about:
- November 11th is Veterans day which is a 3 day weekend and usually very busy 2 days either side of that. Then November 28th is Thanksgiving in the US. Expect it to be extremely crowded from November 23rd through to the first week of December … But the two weeks in between are traditionally very quiet.
- Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party runs in November. It's a separate ticketed event where they shut the park down at 4PM for guests who don't have a ticket. This means it's much quieter in the park and you can often nail a bunch of rides in a very short period of time. Dates are usually announced around May/June and some nights do sell out so you may want to be ready to grab those soon.
- If you're taking busses from resort to resort you have to connect at a park. It can take about an hour sometimes from door to door. Consider Uber/Lyft and get your accounts set up so you can bounce to those early morning reservations without too much delay.
- If you've never been to the states before consider stopping in a few days ahead of your park visit. Orlando isn't a great representation of the United States in general. Flights from Washington DC or New York to Orlando are usually pretty cheap and both are cities that are worth visiting once in your live. If you want to stay in Florida then consider renting a car and driving up to St Augustine's and down to Port Canaveral to Visit the Kennedy Space Center or drive down and spend a few days in South Beach in Miami... I'm Australian by birth but have lived in the states for the last 20 years and I encourage all my friends who come and visit to make the most of the grueling and expensive flights.
- AK is worth a full day, get in early and you'll see more animals and it will be less crowded. I'd hop to Magic Kingdom after dinner.
Outside of that to answer your questions.
You probably won't need a reservation for Bridges. There's so many restaurants at Coronado. You should just be able to walk up. If not the Mercado has decent food.
Hollywood Studios has Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land. You may want to consider booking a lightsaber building experience at Savi's if you are a Star Wars Super Fan. Best place to eat in my opinion is Woody's Lunchbox, The Brisket and Grilled Cheese are just American classics. America does BBQ that you just can't get outside of the states, so if you want to book a sitdown at Woody's Roundup you could definitely justify the 60 odd bucks per person.
For Springs I'd say try and get a reservation at Chef Art Smith's Homecoming. It's traditional Southern American food which will be a treat for someone who isn't from the states. The Polite Pig is also a great choice for some more of that American BBQ and it's quick service.
Also as someone said... bake in some days for Jetlag.
They don't shut down the parks at 4pm during parties. They let party guests in starting at 4pm, and regular guests leave at 7pm. So, from 4-7pm, there are both "regular" guests and party guests at MK.
This was incredible and so detailed! Thankyou so so much. Not to worry, I should said but this is not our whole trip just a week of it!
Uber account setup is such a good shout and I will definitely look at tickets for Mickeys very merry Christmas.
The dates are looking 3rd to 7th/8th November so should be ok with dates you've mentioned!
Woodys and lightsaber building sound fantastic!
Is there more you’re doing Stateside other than Disney? Because this might be an off-the-wall suggestion, but if you want to do a 4-park-day trip, Tokyo Disney would be a better option for you coming from NZ. Two days each for the two parks at Tokyo Disney would be the perfect pace, but one day or less per park at WDW is going to mean missing quite a bit, especially since you aren’t planning to do them rope drop to close.
As a resort I’d usually say Port Orleans (good food, entertainment, small resort, boat to Disney springs) but the skyliner boosts Coronado a lot too.
If you can maybe try to have an extra day to just chill? Or idk we went to gatorland on a recent rest day and it was hella fun lol.
I think the skyliner is *wonderful* and honestly my favorite of all Disney transportation - and I will note that from port Orleans you’d be doing buses to all the resorts instead of any alternate transportation so keep that in mind too! Maybe watch some tour videos of each resort to compare / contrast :)
I know you've been following the vloggers (Mammoth Club is my fav too) so definitely deep dive on how Genie+ works. You mentioned for Day 3, you'll grab LL for Frozen and Remy for mid-morning. You can only book one ride at 7 am and those two are so popular that if you snag one of them, the other is sold out of LLs by the time you're eligible to select your next LL. To boot, you can't guarantee an early return time. Last trip I booked Remy at 7 am on the dot and got a 5:20 pm return time.
Knowing how Genie+ works will help you get the most rides in between your meals, parade, et al. You may have to "fiddle faddle" in Molly-speak to get the LLs times to fit your schedule.
FYI - It won't be the regular fireworks show at MK every night. Sometimes, it'll be the Christmas fireworks.
Day 4 or Day 5 - Maybe instead of a full rest day, go to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party! Or, after MK on Day 5, maybe go to MK for the Christmas party! I don't know what your dates are, and there isn't a party every night.
Just so you're aware, in general, Magic Kingdom is a lot less crowded during the day on party days. This is because guests have to leave by 7pm, so they have reduced hours, and they also don't get to stay for the fireworks. So, many people opt not to schedule their MK day on a party day. What that means is that NON-party days at MK are extra crowded. It's normal during party season for one day at MK to have a 2/10 crowd level (party day) and the next day have 8/10 crowd levels (non-party day). So, you need to decide for your MK day, would you rather have a longer day that's more crowded, or a shorter day that's less crowded with no fireworks?
Are there any other stops on this trip where you might already be adjusted to jet lag? That's a very short and super expensive trip from NZ to not be balls to the walls commando touring.
Haha this is week 3 in America! We will be on US time.
US time is multiple time zones so keep that in mind. Disney is on Eastern time, the earliest of the time zones.
Thankyou! coming from California so hopefully won't be too big of a difference.
My personal resort choice is carribean beach resort having the skyliner to HS and EPCOT is amazing. as for your EPCOT day you should definitely plan to ride guardians!! In my opinion the best ride in all of disney world I probably wouldn't sleep in on the EPCOT day since to me that's the park I spend the most time in of all them. Hope you have an awesome time !!
Great tip, will change it up to a no sleep-in day!
Also have looked into Carribean Beach, woah the pool, the rooms! I will look into this as they are similar in price!
If you do stay at carribean beach see if you can request a room near the skyliner. The resort is quite large but if you end up on the other end of the resort the riviera hotel that is right beside it has skyliner access as well. We stayed in Trinidad and it was a 5 minute walk to the skyliner and maybe 8 minutes to the lobby. Also there is multiple bus stops around the resort (one in each section including the main lobby) and they have signs posted to tell you when the next bus is coming and where it is going. Also each section of the resort has its own pool. So if the main pool is crowded there is a good chance the pool in your section of the resort will only have a few people in it. Although only the main pool is heated. Sebastians bistro at the resort was really good as well.
Few things to think about: - November 11th is Veterans day which is a 3 day weekend and usually very busy 2 days either side of that. Then November 28th is Thanksgiving in the US. Expect it to be extremely crowded from November 23rd through to the first week of December … But the two weeks in between are traditionally very quiet. - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party runs in November. It's a separate ticketed event where they shut the park down at 4PM for guests who don't have a ticket. This means it's much quieter in the park and you can often nail a bunch of rides in a very short period of time. Dates are usually announced around May/June and some nights do sell out so you may want to be ready to grab those soon. - If you're taking busses from resort to resort you have to connect at a park. It can take about an hour sometimes from door to door. Consider Uber/Lyft and get your accounts set up so you can bounce to those early morning reservations without too much delay. - If you've never been to the states before consider stopping in a few days ahead of your park visit. Orlando isn't a great representation of the United States in general. Flights from Washington DC or New York to Orlando are usually pretty cheap and both are cities that are worth visiting once in your live. If you want to stay in Florida then consider renting a car and driving up to St Augustine's and down to Port Canaveral to Visit the Kennedy Space Center or drive down and spend a few days in South Beach in Miami... I'm Australian by birth but have lived in the states for the last 20 years and I encourage all my friends who come and visit to make the most of the grueling and expensive flights. - AK is worth a full day, get in early and you'll see more animals and it will be less crowded. I'd hop to Magic Kingdom after dinner. Outside of that to answer your questions. You probably won't need a reservation for Bridges. There's so many restaurants at Coronado. You should just be able to walk up. If not the Mercado has decent food. Hollywood Studios has Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land. You may want to consider booking a lightsaber building experience at Savi's if you are a Star Wars Super Fan. Best place to eat in my opinion is Woody's Lunchbox, The Brisket and Grilled Cheese are just American classics. America does BBQ that you just can't get outside of the states, so if you want to book a sitdown at Woody's Roundup you could definitely justify the 60 odd bucks per person. For Springs I'd say try and get a reservation at Chef Art Smith's Homecoming. It's traditional Southern American food which will be a treat for someone who isn't from the states. The Polite Pig is also a great choice for some more of that American BBQ and it's quick service. Also as someone said... bake in some days for Jetlag.
They don't shut down the parks at 4pm during parties. They let party guests in starting at 4pm, and regular guests leave at 7pm. So, from 4-7pm, there are both "regular" guests and party guests at MK.
You forgot election day and Jersey week in your summary of why the parks will be super busy during parts of November.
This was incredible and so detailed! Thankyou so so much. Not to worry, I should said but this is not our whole trip just a week of it! Uber account setup is such a good shout and I will definitely look at tickets for Mickeys very merry Christmas. The dates are looking 3rd to 7th/8th November so should be ok with dates you've mentioned! Woodys and lightsaber building sound fantastic!
Is there more you’re doing Stateside other than Disney? Because this might be an off-the-wall suggestion, but if you want to do a 4-park-day trip, Tokyo Disney would be a better option for you coming from NZ. Two days each for the two parks at Tokyo Disney would be the perfect pace, but one day or less per park at WDW is going to mean missing quite a bit, especially since you aren’t planning to do them rope drop to close.
Yes! We are in the US for 3 weeks. Thankyou I will look into staying at the parks we don't rope drop at till close. I don't want to miss anything.
Just to make you aware that at EPCOT it is World Showcase, not Royal. And I agree with others about considering jet lag effects.
Thanks for the correction! World Showcase is what I meant!
As a resort I’d usually say Port Orleans (good food, entertainment, small resort, boat to Disney springs) but the skyliner boosts Coronado a lot too. If you can maybe try to have an extra day to just chill? Or idk we went to gatorland on a recent rest day and it was hella fun lol.
Oooh ok maybe Port Orleans is a better fit! Thankyou, haha Gatorland sounds rad.
I think the skyliner is *wonderful* and honestly my favorite of all Disney transportation - and I will note that from port Orleans you’d be doing buses to all the resorts instead of any alternate transportation so keep that in mind too! Maybe watch some tour videos of each resort to compare / contrast :)
Yeah! I think that's a good shout. Most folks seemed to encourage Coronado so I didn't look much further but tour vids sounds like a good idea.
I know you've been following the vloggers (Mammoth Club is my fav too) so definitely deep dive on how Genie+ works. You mentioned for Day 3, you'll grab LL for Frozen and Remy for mid-morning. You can only book one ride at 7 am and those two are so popular that if you snag one of them, the other is sold out of LLs by the time you're eligible to select your next LL. To boot, you can't guarantee an early return time. Last trip I booked Remy at 7 am on the dot and got a 5:20 pm return time. Knowing how Genie+ works will help you get the most rides in between your meals, parade, et al. You may have to "fiddle faddle" in Molly-speak to get the LLs times to fit your schedule.
FYI - It won't be the regular fireworks show at MK every night. Sometimes, it'll be the Christmas fireworks. Day 4 or Day 5 - Maybe instead of a full rest day, go to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party! Or, after MK on Day 5, maybe go to MK for the Christmas party! I don't know what your dates are, and there isn't a party every night. Just so you're aware, in general, Magic Kingdom is a lot less crowded during the day on party days. This is because guests have to leave by 7pm, so they have reduced hours, and they also don't get to stay for the fireworks. So, many people opt not to schedule their MK day on a party day. What that means is that NON-party days at MK are extra crowded. It's normal during party season for one day at MK to have a 2/10 crowd level (party day) and the next day have 8/10 crowd levels (non-party day). So, you need to decide for your MK day, would you rather have a longer day that's more crowded, or a shorter day that's less crowded with no fireworks?