[Sheryl]

I'm =not= staying at a Disney Resort so I can't get in for the extra magic hour with early entry. The day I'm referring to =is= an early entry day (Thursday) for the Main park. I hear that on those days the Cinderella breakfast time starts earlier (8:30am or was it 7:30am) - I have no idea if that is true - Does anyone know? My question is - if I call 60 days ahead and actually get the earliest time possible for breakfast - and that time is before I would normally be able to get in - it =will= get us in the park early - right? It kind of has to, right? And I'll just basically be showing up with my hopper pass...and..a ticket for the breakfast (Do you get a special ticket for those things or do they look it up on the computer? How does that work)???

I'm sorry if this question has already been asked or answered. I might be on the wrong board - and should be on the restaurant board? I wasn't sure - I'm sorry.

Thanks for the welcome on the other post, Mickey! You guys all seem so nice. You make it easy to jump in.

[MickeyMac]

Yes, you can get into the parks early. You do need your tickets and confirmation number. You will go through a security check and they will check your confirmation number as well, before coming into the park.

Good luck getting this all timed according to your wishes - I'm just danged happy that I get a PS at Cinderella's Royal Table at all! LOL!

[Sheryl]

Thanks for confirming.. oh, the agony of deciding yesterday, but after much thought I decided I would go for the Crystal Palace instead for a lot of reasons. I'm happy! I nabbed a 8:20am reservation. I started calling 5 minutes before 7am. The operator re-asked me to make sure I meant the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and not Cinderella. I said "Right, the Crystal Palace - I know the other one is the one that sells out by 7:02." She kind of did a chuckle and said no, that sells out AT 7:00am and that's why she wanted to make sure because there were barely some spots left. WOW! You =weren't= kidding!! I'm sure there was NO WAY I would have gotten one of the early AM Priority Seating or even one at all (since my party is too big) for the Royal Table.

Oh, and she wanted to know the ages of the kids.. I couldn't remember the exact ages of my brother's kids. I fumbled.. I lost precious seconds.... I even hesitated when saying my own kids ages ...LOL. Gotta be prepared!

The operator I had was really great though.. she WAS prepared for a Cinderella caller which I thought was neat.

At any rate - next mission! Find out the earliest we can get in the park with my breakfast confimation.

Thanks!!! :D

[MickeyMac]

Great job! Crystal Palace is beautiful, and to me, it's much more kid-friendly for the younger set. We sat by a window (not difficult to do) and really enjoyed it - it was very relaxing.

When is your PS time? I don't think they would bother you if you showed up early, but I don't know how early. Probably not before restaurant opening.

[Sheryl]

My Priority Seating is at 8:20am but after a day with the calculator and considering everything - I had a thought that instead of buying everyone breakfast (10 of us!!) Because that was my original plan - their surprise Christmas present. I could instead use that money to upgrade everyone from the Royal Plaza (Downtown Disney but not Disney) to a moderate DISNEY resort. I could only do that reasonably if I grabbed the Annual Passholders Discount that's out now. So I called my family to see what they thought and they said they didn't mind paying for the upgrade! Which is great - now I can get them a surprise 50 pairs of socks instead! (I'm kidding). At any rate, I made reservations with the 40% off. This is going to save me roughly $360 dollars alone because now I can buy 2 day ultimate passes (only available to resort guests) instead of 4 day hoppers for my family of 4.

Also, this gets everyone early entry - what I wanted all along.

My master plan is to hold off on buying the annual pass. I didn't need it to make the reservation, but I HAVE to show up with it when I get there, of course. I'm going to hold out until I give up hope for a comparable Florida resident discount. Still, if the Florida discount doesn't arrive I still will only have had to buy the annual for the one person who made the reservation - me! (of course!) :D

When/if the other code comes out I just have to call and change the code on my reservation.

That's my new plan! Hopefully there is no fatal flaw! I'll meet up with Pooh some other day when it's just my gang of 4.

[MickeyMac]

That is *fantastic!!* We did something similar in July and do NOT regret it.

I see that you are leaving in 29 days? Do NOT wait to get your AP's... stores don't stock them and they have to be mailed up. It takes about a week/week & half to get them (or rather, that's been our experience with our local store with several families) You don't have to pay until they come in.

And with the AP rates, I have not found a cheaper price anywhere. Just make sure you can get the rooms. I'm still waiting for Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom to open up on the 6&7th of December...

With the savings, you can head off to the Disney store and get each one their first pin to trade... they are fifty percent off and most are still ringing up locally at $2. each... cheaper than buying in the parks for $6. to $12 each... :D

[Sheryl]

OH - my counter is for the Christmas party - it's wishful thinking on my part! But my real trip is on Jan 1st - I'm meeting my parents and brother's family. My parents have NEVER been so I'm really excited. Thank you so much for the tip! - I'll hold out until Dec 10th I guess. If they don't have Florida discounts by Dec. 10th - they just aren't coming I bet.

There IS an opening for the Wilderness Lodge for checking in Dec. 6 checking out Dec. 7th. I just tried it on the Disney site. I only punched in one room but there might be more available. Maybe you should go ahead and book it (You can cancel 5 days before (right?) and get your deposit back). And then you can turn all your creative power to getting the 7th. heh. I know it sounds a little crazy - but why not work on getting one day instead of two. Just a suggestion, of course. If you do go for that, let me know and I'll help check the next day constantly.

I've booked hotels before - when I've punched in one day there would be no availablity but when I punched in two days (one covering the same day I originally wanted) - voila I could get something. Kind of strange to do the opposite and something come up. I guess Disney doesn't play favorites. That's nice!!

I'll have to look into the pin thing. I don't even know what they are exactly... LOL. Please don't be horrified.

[MickeyMac]

What a cool idea, Sheryl!

I'm actually booking through Mousketrips, Mickey's new site. We currently have ressies at the All Stars (and yes, only doing one room) but would like to do the last two at WL (or AK or Poly as default). I can only do it if we can get the AP rates, and I want to be careful and not loose our room at the All Stars, so don't want to book for one night and then cancel. Mickey is keeping an eye out, and if we don't get it, we don't get it. I'm not even going to consider it until we leave in two weeks.

I look at it this way... if it doesn't happen, that means we have to go back, right? hehehee!

[Sheryl]

Ah, I see. You know what I do - granted it's unconventional, but when I'm in the same situation, I book one reservation in my husband's name and then a second different reservation option in my name. (Mickey, please don't ring my neck for suggesting that). heh. But you are right- you, for sure, don't want to cancel any reservation before you have or can make an acceptable other reservation. But then again, =you= don't have to worry about that stuff because Mickey will take care of all of that for you! A big plus of using a travel agent! They can stake out the options for you.

HEY! You know what you =could= do - instead of moving up in style, you could start off in style and move down. You know, if it wouldn't bum everybody out. I mean, at least that way you would get exactly the resort you want for the luxury night(s). And maybe the overwhelming effect of being at a luxury resort =is= best felt at the initial arrival...when you are all excited and awe struck.

It's just a thought!

[MickeyMac]

LOL Sheryl! You are *totally* cracking me up... eight posts so far, and five of them trying to get me into my dream resort... heheheee - you are too cute! :D

We have so much booked those first couple of days - we go to the MVMCP on the first, and then my son's birthday at DisneyQuest - we won't be around!!! :D

The funny thing is, I'm so not worried - everything on this vacation is soooo coming together - I'm feeling like if we are meant to have it, it will happen.

[Sheryl]

:D Well, you know I'm working on mine too and you helped me! Today I had to call and split my reservation into, get this, 3 reservations. Because I want that 2 day ultimate park hopper, and you can't get it if you are staying more than one night (if you stay 2 nights, then you would have to get a 3 day, etc). You always have to buy one more day than the number of your night stay. So success with that! Got the 2 day (by staying one night on one of the reservations)! I'll tell you if they kick me out of my current room and move me to another. That would be funny. Well, in retrospect, maybe not at the time. At any rate, two day ultimate park hoppers are $120 or so for adult (in advance).

Oh, but I got a great tip! For the ultimate park hopper, you can check in at 12:01AM that day! No kidding. I mean, chances of your room being ready are slim to none. haha. oh, I shouldn't laugh - maybe it isn't slim to none, how would I know? But at any rate, the computer just has to register that it's current time is on that day (past midnight) and you can get your tickets and you are set to go when the first thing opens that day! You know, nevermind that your room might not be ready for 15 hours. :p However, like I indicated, I currently have the ultimate hopper night for the second night so I can just walk downstairs after midnight on the first night and get it.

Ah, but now I found out the Royal Plaza sells ultimate hopper passes as well. It would cost $60.00 cheaper (per family) to stay there.

What will I do. What will I do...... tick tick tick...

[grammy]

I read all of your postings quickly but wanted to share our recent experience. I had investigated park hopper passes EVERYWHERE before we left -- including visiting our local Disney store. We were going to arrive at AK about 7AM and stay for two nights (3 days). All the prices were very high and the Disney Store could not sell park hoppers without a 3 night stay????? The sticking part was the "hopper" feature. Go figure. When we arrived at AK that morning early, we bought 3 day park hoppers for about $130 each adult and a little less for each kiddo. It was much cheaper and easier than any of the other options. Who knew???? And when we arrived, we checked our bags at the front desk and they were in our room when we arrived that night from the park. The park hopper card is also your room key! Cool! And you can charge anything at any Disney facility and it all magically gets delivered to your room and is billed on your final room bill.

Disney has made a fine art of taking our money. The funny thing was that we were just happy at how convenient it all was!

:) :) :) :)

[mickaholic4077]

What I was wondering as I read all these posts is if you have your priority seating for 8:20 on an extra magic morning,and you all get into the park early(say 15 minutes before the ps,)what's to stop you from ignoring the ps and just start going on the rides? Did you have to secure your ps with a credit card? If you did NOT have to do that,then I don't see them doing anything to you for going on the rides early. I don't think that Disney will have anyone escort you to the Crystal Palace to make sure that you do use the ps. Then again,I could be wrong.

[wdwspider]

Originally posted by mickaholic4077
What I was wondering as I read all these posts is if you have your priority seating for 8:20 on an extra magic morning,and you all get into the park early(say 15 minutes before the ps,)what's to stop you from ignoring the ps and just start going on the rides? Did you have to secure your ps with a credit card? If you did NOT have to do that,then I don't see them doing anything to you for going on the rides early. I don't think that Disney will have anyone escort you to the Crystal Palace to make sure that you do use the ps. Then again,I could be wrong.

That wouldn't really be getting into the park early either would it, I'm not sure I follow you. However, on a non early entry day, they do escort you to Breakfastasarus.

[mickaholic4077]

My point was say the MK was the extra magic park one day and the official public opening was 9 AM. That means the park opens at 8 AM for resort guests. If you have priority seatings for the Crystal Palace breakfast for 8:20,(and weren't a resort guest),and your whole party got there,say 15 minutes early,if they did NOT take a credit card when you made the p.s.,what was to stop someone from ignoring the p.s. and just going on the rides if your party wasn't escorted from the main gates to The Crystal Palace? I can't see anyone saying anything along the lines of,"Stop,you can't go on the rides!!"