Hi guys!

[Prince55]

Hello!
We have a trip planned, it's a surprise, and I need to talk about it! I can't use Facebook pages as it would give the game away as too many of our eldest's friends are on Facebook so she may find out! So this is my "safe place"

I guess I can't say too much but I'll try, I'm a mam, from near Newcastle upon Tyne. There's Dad, and we have 2 children. We've never been to Disney before!

We fly out on 23rd Nov from Manchester for 2 weeks. We're staying onsite at Coronado Springs Resort and we've upgraded the free dining plan to the DDP for those all important character meals! We hit our 180 day mark last Monday!

Absolutely love this site!

[candycat75]

Hi and welcome

[geggsthepeggs]

Hi Prince55! How exciting, can't wait to hear more once you're able to spill!

[belfastbabe]

Hi and welcome! Hope you enjoy your planning- I've never been on ddp before but have certainly enjoyed some character meals .I stayed at Coronado springs some years ago and thought it was a beautiful resort. When do you plan on the big reveal? I'm sure you're bursting with excitement!

[Prince55]

Thank you for your replies! I'm not sure if "post quick reply" is the correct button, so here goes. Please all let me know if I'm not following correct etiquette!

Thank you for the lovely welcome! Me and my partner are so excited, we have these giddy moments thinking OMG WE'VE ACTUALLY BOOKED IT! We're planning on telling them once the summer is done, and the nights start drawing in. We figured we'd like to tell them when there's not much time left, but enough time for them to get excited about it!

[theCMG]

Hi Prince55 and welcome

[Rabel]

Originally Posted by Prince55

Hello!
We have a trip planned, it's a surprise, and I need to talk about it! I can't use Facebook pages as it would give the game away as too many of our eldest's friends are on Facebook so she may find out! So this is my "safe place"

I guess I can't say too much but I'll try, I'm a mam, from near Newcastle upon Tyne. There's Dad, and we have 2 children. We've never been to Disney before!

We fly out on 23rd Nov from Manchester for 2 weeks. We're staying onsite at Coronado Springs Resort and we've upgraded the free dining plan to the DDP for those all important character meals! We hit our 180 day mark last Monday!

Absolutely love this site!

See more...

How exciting. Make sure that you get the first visit badges (they call them buttons) when you check in or go into the parks for the first time.

Now for my (unasked for) thoughts! Hope you don't mind.

We love the Crystal Palace character meal (winnie the pooh etc) but discovered (thanks to people here) the 1900 Park Fayre which was great (Alice, Mad Hatter, Pooh, Tigger and Mary Poppins). We also thought that Cinderella's Royal Table was worth it (food and interactions with the princesses - Jasmine drew flowers with my little boy) - beware that they arm the kids (and hopefully you) with swords or wands.

I would love to read how you get on as I'm just about to try and book a trip for December 2020. Really hope that Jingle Bells Jingle Bam is running then (and that son overcomes fear of fireworks). I think that you will also be there for Festival of the Holidays at EPCOT that looks lovely (remember that you can use 1 Quick Service credit for 3 snacks at the booths as long as you get all three from the same place). If you get chance also think about getting the friendship boat from outside the magic kingdom over to Wilderness Lodge and look at the decorations there (it is supposed to be the prettiest but all of the resorts seem to have lovely decorations). We did the boat ride in May and saw the sunset over MK from the boat.

You will have the best trip ever!

[Prince55]

Aw this is so nice of you to pop some tips in! Really appreciate it! Any thoughts you've got, feel free to post them, we appreciate the time taken to give us these tips!

[minnie29]

Hi, welcome to the DIBB
You must be so excited with it being your first trip. One of my favourite places to eat (we stayed at AKL on the DDP in April) was La Hacienda in Mexico, Epcot - the food was beautiful! Also, Sanaa over at Kidani village in Animal Kingdom Lodge is lovely
I hope you have a fab time x

[Rabel]

Ooh, another few thoughts!

Shopping: Remember the Disney Character Outlets - there is one in Premier Outlets on Vineland which isn't too far from Disney - they do branded Disney merchandise cheaper than the parks (although some things are full price). I got a Minnie baseball cap in there for $5 rather than $25 for example. There is a Walmart around there as well if you want to get more normal USA produce (it is v big).

Disney Springs is lovely to walk round and there are some very nice quick service meal places (Blaze Pizza, Earl of Sandwich). If you have left over snack credits and want to take bags of sweets home with you then Goofy's Candy Company is a good place to get a variety of sweets (or World of Disney). Others have redeemed their snacks at Ghiradelli's chocolate place next to World of Disney. There is also a Christmas Tree Trail at Disney Springs which is lovely (well it was in Jan 2018) and you can see Father Christmas there.

Food: In terms of snack credits on the dining plan, the general feeling is that it is worth using them on anything over $5. I like filter coffee so, whilst I could use a snack credit to pay for it, generally I will pay for it in cash. Watch out for the prices as I think it is a 6.5% sales tax that you have to pay on top (e.g. $2.99 coffee becomes $3.18).

The paper straws they now use seem to be useless and disintegrate very quickly. You can buy reuseable straws from Amazon before you go if that is likely to be a problem (or get them there, but I think that they were around $10 for 4 in the parks).

The refillable mugs are great. You can get different designs and coloured lids to tell them apart and refill them in all of the resort hotels (we did this in Port Orleans, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, Grand Floridian, Contemporary Hotel, and Wilderness Lodge). The best drink selection (and cupcake selection) was in the Grand Floridian Cafe, but the Wilderness Lodge quick serve (I think that it is called the Roaring Fork) did a brilliant grilled cheese sandwich and lovely campfire cupcake. The cupcakes vary around the parks and resorts, are very large and the frosting is sweet and plentiful (we tend to share the cake between us).

Characters: we saw some families use a story book as an autograph book when we were last there. They would turn the book to the page with the character on it and get them to sign that rather than a dedicated autograph book. I thought that was a nice idea. The characters seem to get along a lot better with a wider pen (so not a normal biro). The MyDisneyExperience app allows you to identify when and where characters are meeting.

Freebies: My first visit badges or other badges noting what you are celebrating are a good idea. If you have small kids and take an indelible marker with you then you can write a contact number on the back of the badge and pin on child or bag. We have a runner so felt that we wanted to use that (plus a leash at points).

The Animal Kingdom has Wilderness Explorer where you go around and find out information at various places in the park and they give you stickers. A nice way of spending some time looking at the animals and surroundings rather than just racing towards the rides. Similarly EPCOT has the kidcot tables and you can collect information cards and stickers from the different lands before returning to get an additional postcard. I preferred the Kidcot places as the kids could interact with cast members from different places (and colour in the pictures on the back of the cards).

Things to possibly buy before you get there: Bubble wands are $25 plus tax there, but they may be cheaper (particularly if the Disney Store has them and there is a sale on). Autograph books or story books. Waterproof ponchos or plastic rain coats are a lot cheaper here or outside of the parks.

There are some great Christmas trip reports in the Trip Report area (which I may have been binge reading this last week) so it is worth a visit over there.