Magic Kingdom experiences two partial closures in the last week of the year for capacity

bunky666 said:

The food thing? I guess if you have kids and you think they'll enjoy the experience, it's important, but unless they do something incredibly magical and Disney, I cannot imagine caring if I eat there. I've almost never had food at Disney that was so good....

Clearly, you're eating at the wrong places. You've obviously never experienced Citrico's, BOMA, Jiko, O'Hana, Yachtsman, San Angel, Coral Reef (food is good, but the scenery and atmosphere seal this one) or... I could keep going but these are my favorites.

Spring Breaks start the next two weeks. This late February/First week of March time we go seems to be at the tail end of the slower crowd time. All the "crowd predictors" spike starting the second week in March. Last year most big attractions everywhere were complete walk-ons at all 4 parks at this same time last year, so I also think we will be perfectly fine. In fact, it will be neat being able to see what the F & G has to offer on its opening day.

If you don't care for food at Disney, you're definitely doing it wrong.

Took the words right out of my mouth. The food I have experienced at Disney is incredible. Even the food at our kid-friendly resort (Art of Animation) is above average. The dinner options are almost endless inside the parks.

Art of Animation might have the best counter service food anywhere on the property. A college friend was staying there, so we checked it out and had dinner. Considering the stuff across the bridge at Pop Century is the typical Disney counter service (which isn't bad, it just isn't particularly exciting), I was pleasantly surprised.

Raven-Phile said:

bunky666 said:

The food thing? I guess if you have kids and you think they'll enjoy the experience, it's important, but unless they do something incredibly magical and Disney, I cannot imagine caring if I eat there. I've almost never had food at Disney that was so good....

Clearly, you're eating at the wrong places. You've obviously never experienced Citrico's, BOMA, Jiko, O'Hana, Yachtsman, San Angel, Coral Reef (food is good, but the scenery and atmosphere seal this one) or... I could keep going but these are my favorites.

I said "almost never had food at Disney that was so good". Jiko's was definitely an exception. Mmmmm...Jiko's....The other ones I'm not even sure were there the last time I was there, or I didn't know about them.

Jeff, I'm almost positive I'm doing it wrong. I'll give you that. I've rarely had a BAD experience, but I haven't had many experiences above a "meh", and it bums me out a bit. *laugh*

Maybe knowledge truly IS power at Disney because I am woefully ignorant of dining options that have gotten me excited about Disney food, and apparently, there are many. And perhaps that's where the knowledge and planning comes into play. Interesting.

Edited to say sorry for the double post. Wasn't sure how to fix them all into one on a phone.

Why can't it be a matter of different tastes, preferences and expectations? Rather than eating at the wrong places or definitely doing it wrong.

Jeff said:

F&G is kind of F&W lite, and while it might get a little crowded, it's mostly people eating and drinking.

Funny; I experienced my first F&G last spring (my bar was set very low; yawn...). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of the F&W (food & beverage) elements/concepts were built into the F&G event, especially around the World Showcase. It really was a Jr. version of Food & Wine.

Adding to the "knowledge is power" notion, my friend is planning a Disney World trip... Wait for it... Three YEARS in advance! He did extensive research on when the best times to go are, which rides he needs fast pass for, how many hours he needs to spend on each park, which restaurants to eat at at exactly the right time, etc. He figures, realistically to spend about a week and do just about everything, somehow. It's crazy how much planning may need to go in these trips.

Yeah, I don't get that. I don't understand what compels people to do "everything." At no time in my life have I felt that was necessary in any context, Disney or elsewhere.

If you are John GP and are spending thousands of dollars for your once in a lifetime trip why wouldn't want to do everything?

3 years is way to long. For me it's not that I'm compelled to do everything, but I do want to maximize my time. I'm still a rope drop to close guy, but I will take the 1.5 hours-2.5 hours for a table service meal and will line up 45-30 minutes before night shows so I do have rest periods. That said I hit every attraction that I wanted to do at all 4 parks in 4 days with some repeats (and I like >90% of the attractions and shows.)

When I'm with a group I'm not as efficient as I go with the others speed, which I have no problem with.

I've yet to meet any GP that actually want to do all of the things.

I've said it a gazillion times, but all the crowd calendars, planning guides, advice websites and stuff exist for a reason.

Somebody is buying/using them.

I don't think it's a stretch to believe the whole Disney thing can be overwhelming to the average visitor and that maximizing the experience is a priority.

I think that's very true. People want to maximize the experience. But I've never met anyone who wants to do everything there is and spends 3 years planning it.

Before our first trip as a family last March, I would say I actually started any research/planning about 6 months out, and it consisted of 1) asking all of you for advice, and 2) using about two other websites that had free wonderful tools like crowd calendars for each park, tips on FastPass + necessity for various attractions, etc. Those sites are very, very useful and proved to be highly accurate in everything they suggested/predicted.

Did we do everything? Not even close. Did we want to? I suppose everyone wants to walk away saying they did it all, but that was never our goal. We just wanted to have fun doing something different that we knew the girls would lose their minds over. We dedicated one day to each of the four parks, and at AK and HS we certainly did everything (more than once), but not at MK or Epcot.

We did do everything we really wanted to do, though. And yes, I must admit that having never been in charge of organizing a Disney trip it did feel a bit overwhelming at first, but only because so much about it was new. The dining, the FastPasses, not being familiar at all with the layouts of the parks (which was actually fun, though)...there was a learning curve. This second time around has been a breeze in comparison. I have to hand it to the customer service at Disney as well. I'm sure I asked some silly "first-timer" questions, but every person I chatted with and talked to was immensely helpful in making the process feel easier.

This time around we've decided to skip HS and AK altogether, and we're spending two days each at MK and Epcot with a Disney Springs day in between so we can just relax.

Before the dawn of the internet and the advent of Disney planning guides, three years was too long. With all of that info available its way too long. 15 minutes research a month over three years is more than necessary.

Would be interesting to see if that family spent that much time planning other vacations. My wife loves planning trips. She spends countless hours researching various places we go. It isn't so much necessary planning as it is something she enjoys doing. Much like we here like spending time here. Would have been a great travel agent before the internet.

To me when I hear someone say they want to do everything, they really just mean everything they want to do. I don't see how its possible to literally see/do everything at all 4 Disney parks in 7 days. And as Steven Wright said "You can't have everything. Where would you put it."

Three years is obviously overkill. Hell, things will change so much in three years.

But when you have to make dinner reservations 6 months out, I don't think 7 months is unrealistic for someone going in to the experience cold.

And yes, I think we all know what "everything" means - all the big stuff that everyone does and associates with WDW along with personal interests - "maximizing the experience" is a better term.

I think the whole "do everything" mentality is more prevalent at Disney based on both the rarity and the cost of the experience. This isn't hitting up the local Six Flags for a day.

The idea that you wouldn't put some kind of effort into making sure you got a good experience is the foreign idea to me.

We usually start planning our family vacations (20+ people) about a year in advance. Mostly because we try to get either 1 big house to stay in or if multiple houses are needed, we want them next to or at least close to each other. That's the biggest factor in our advanced planning. The places we generally need/want to stay, get booked up pretty quick. And, most places won't take reservations more than a year out. I rarely have anything to do with the planning of these trips other than voting on the narrowed down selection of places to stay/go.

In regards to Disney World. I'm definitely in the group of people who "don't get it" or "do it wrong". 2006 was my first Disney World visit since I was a kid who couldn't remember such things. Every subsequent visit since 2006 has been less fun. Mostly because every year it seems to get more and more crowded, and I have apparently have not been doing enough planning. I spent the most time I ever had planning my most recent trip which was Late January/Early February 2015. We chose that time based on our available schedule and the fact that it was supposed to be one of the slowest times of year. Perhaps it was. But, even at that, it was way to crowded for my taste. If I ever go again, I should probably just plan on hiring someone to plan my entire trip and itinerary for me, because I don't have the time or patience to figure it out myself.

Lord Gonchar said:

But when you have to make dinner reservations 6 months out, I don't think 7 months is unrealistic for someone going in to the experience cold.

This example sucks. With one or two exceptions, most of the year, you don't need to do this since they started requiring credit cards to guarantee reservations.

I suppose some people want to do "everything," and my issue with that is that it's a crappy way to vacation. There is some amount of planning for any trip, and as is the case with almost any city, there are some basics to learn. WDW isn't that special. I'm cruising to Alaska this summer. Am I planning to nail down every waking moment? Hell no. Am I making sure I know what's available and prioritizing a few things? Of course.