Mouse Travel Tips

Hello everyone:

Last week I discussed how I selected my travel date – and ended up going to Disney during the Easter holiday weekend.  Yikes!  So this week, I decided to fill you in on my next stage of planning – securing Advanced Dining Reservations and scheduling out my daily activities.

Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) allow you to book a table at Character Meals and Table Service restaurants at the theme parks, resort hotels, and Downtown Disney areas of the Walt Disney World resort.  You can make ADRs up to 180 days in advance of your trip to Walt Disney World, or up to 60 days in advance of a trip to the Disneyland Resort.  ADRs are highly recommended during peak season, and allow you to minimize your wait for a table at a popular restaurant.

ADRs can be made by calling a reservations number (for WDW, call 407-WDW-DINE), or you can book them online.  I chose to try the online booking system for this trip.  My first restaurant to try – Le Cellier Steakhouse, located in the Canada Pavillion in EPCOT.  This is one of the hardest ADRs to get, mainly because the restaurant is so small compared to others at WDW.  Much to my surprise – I got a reservation for Easter Sunday lunch!  Zippidee do dah indeed!

I also chose the Garden Grill restaurant for dinner one night (the Land pavillion, EPCOT), the Supercalifragalistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare (Grand Floridian), and a dinner at the T-Rex restaurant at Downtown Disney.  I’ll round out the rest of my meals using counter service restaurants or snacks from home.

When making ADRs, be sure and note the time and date of the reservation, as well as the confirmation number.  This can help you sort out any issues you may encounter, and can help you if you need to change or cancel reservations for your trip.

Second – I started my world famous “Spreadsheet of Death”  (also known in our family as the “Clipboard of Fun!”).  Yes – I am a bit crazy about knowing where I want to be at any given time.  So I created a spreadsheet to track:

• Parks Hours during each day of my trip, including Extra Magic Hours, Parade Times, and Fireworks shows
• Tentative Itinerary day by day – this is mainly so I can figure out which park (or parks) I want to visit each day, depending on my ADRs, Extra Magic Hours, or special events
• Preliminary budget – including airfare, hotel, park ticket, meals, and miscellaneous expenses
• Counter Service Restaurants and estimated costs – I go through the restaurant list to pick ones that have appealing menus, and note down where they are located, and approximately how much a meal will cost.  This helps me organize my budget and schedule

One thing I haven’t discussed is my hotel and park ticket selection.  Because I work for an online travel agency by day, I book my hotels differently from most other people.  However, for this trip I did reach out to a Disney Travel Agent to see what the price of my hotel/ticket/meals would be if I purchased a Disney package.  That’s always a good thing to do – compare a package price with that of purchasing each component separately.  Oftentimes, the Disney package is a better deal, especially if it includes perks like free dining, extra nights, or hotel upgrades.

That’s it for my April Disney trip planning.  I know when and where I’m going, where I’ll eat, and what I’ll do during my trip.  For next Friday’s planning report, I’ll discuss how we are planning our extended family trip to Disneyland at the end of April, 2010.

Rachel