ADRS HELP!!!!

Hi Trisha. In terms of timing, it depends on your form of transportation. Are you relying on WDW buses or are you renting a car?

Welcome, Trisha!! Congratulations on your upcoming trip!!

I've done an 8:30am landing and been in a park before 11, but I only had myself and 2 other adults to deal with. You should be able to make a 1:00 ADR, but you may want to give yourself more clearance time-wise on your first day just so you don't feel rushed or miss it if your flight would be delayed for some reason. I would say allow an hour and a half from landing to hotel arrival. That puts you 11:00. Check-in will take 10-15 minutes even if you do online check-in ahead of time. POR is a fairly large resort and we found the room numbering system to be a little bit awkward there. Depending on what section you are staying in, you may lose 15-20 minutes finding your room and putting your things down (assuming your room is ready--otherwise you'll just be checking in your carry-ons and personal items at Bell Services, which is considerably faster). Since this is a first trip for most of your family, they may get a little bit distracted by all of the wonderful sites at the resort. Always plan on a 20-minute wait for a bus. Our experience at POR was that the buses never took this long, but two years later at a different resort, we had a few 30-minute waits. The ride to AK is about 12-15 minutes from POR. That puts you at the park entrance at around 12:20. Tusker House is near the back of the park in the Africa area--I'll estimate a 5-minute walk--as long as the exhibits on the way to Tusker House don't grab anyone's attention. So, you can make it if everyone is on a mission to get there and no one deviates from the. With some lucky timing, you could make it to the park as early as 11:30, but you definitely don't want to count on that!!

For Ohana, if you have park hopper, you can walk or boat to EPCOT, walk through EPCOT, monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center, and switch monorails (or in theory, walk) to the Polynesian. But that will take forever (probably an hour or so) and it's much more efficient to bus to the Polynesian.

As for your other ADR's, we've only done Sci-Fi and Akershus. We felt like Sci-Fi was just "ok". There was nothing bad about our meal, but we weren't blown away. The food was average, the entertainment was not our cup of tea (I booked it for DH because he is a huge sci-fi fan. I couldn't have cared less about the theme here and he was underwhelmed by it), and the restaurant is kept very dark because of the movies. Based on the other reviews I've read, most people seem to really like it, so I think it may have just been us that day. It wasn't a bad experience and I would try it again if other people in my party were interested, but I won't beat down the door to go again. The good news is that it is one of the less expensive table service options at HS, so if you're not on the dining plan, it's a win on that front.

We did Akershus for lunch and LOVED it. The cold bar and the desserts were the real standouts for us food-wise. The princesses were really great, too, but we don't have any kids and we aren't over-the-top princess people. We were just there because I wanted to try Norwegian food and to me, it was worth the premium we paid for a "character meal" to try the food. If you're trying to meet lots of princesses too, this is a WIN for sure. If princesses are your only objective here, I would recommend the less expensive breakfast option.

Hi Trisha and

Well I think you might be pushing it for Tusker house at 1pm for lunch if you don't get in to MCO until 9:30. Are you using Magical Express? I'm not sure how long it takes to get to the resorts from MCO, but then you will have check-in and such and then getting on a bus and getting to AK if you don't have your own car.

For Ohanas' like Alice said, you can boat to EPCOT, walk through EPCOT and catch Monorail to T&TC then walk to Poly, but she is correct on that taking an hour , been there done that. Take the bus or a cab, Bus is free, cab is $20 or so.

Welcome to the boards. For advice on first day planning we budget 4 hours from landing before we plan on doing anything. Our first night meal is traditionally Crystal palace we have only had lunch and dinner there but we really enjoy it the characters are very engaging. Your meal in Norway will include a couple different pictures with Belle that are great free keepsakes. My family has fun there and the youngest in the party is 44. Don't ask Ariel if she wants a thinga ma bob. She already has 20. I have not been to the other places on your list but I'm sure that will be awesome.

Just a little opinion. But I don't think the boat to Epcot and walk to the monorail is a great idea for first time visitors or small children. It's a lot of walking and a lot of gift shops and attractions to get past as you are going to have to walk around half the world showcase and through future world. And like mr hub says this take take forever.

just get a bus from hs to the poly. That's got to be the easiest way.

Welcome...Your girls might enjoy the fun atmosphere at 50's and T- Rex....Just a thought...Even for lunch...

Welcome! If you want to try Tusker House (the characters are great), you may want to try for 1:30 or 2:00 to give yourself a little extra time. You could probably make 1:00 but I agree with Alicemouse, you may feel rushed. If all goes smooth, you can always try to get seated earlier than your ADR.

It all depends on how your timing is with Magical Express once you get to MCO. It is a hike from the gate areas to the ME. My flight in February landed at 8:50am and I walked right on the ME by 9:15 and was at my resort before 10. Other times I had to wait for the ME.

I always plan on 1 1/2 hours from arrival at MCO to arrival at BWV, so it should be about the same time or less to POR. As mentioned previously, a bus from HS to Poly is the easiest, but if you have your heart set on a monorail ride before O'hanas, take a bus from HS to MK, and get on the monorail there to the Poly. Also, after dinner, you can take the monorail back to MK, to catch bus back to POR.

to the board! It's a great place here. I'm not gonna put in my 2 cents, I agree with all of the above. Besides, I'm not a go to the park on the arrival day kind of girl. We usually plan (also because our drive) to just arrive, sleep then go go go in the morning!

Welcome!

We arrived at MCO at 9:30AM and were in AK by 11:30AM. This was also on a Wednesday and it was just the two of us. I just think it all depends on your family and how fast you can check in and drop your stuff. We literally dropped our carry on bags in our room and walked back out to catch a bus....

wdw magical express is great, we have never taken longer than 1 1/2 hr to get to our resorts, the journey from terminal to ME is roughly 20 min depending on the terminal you come in and the bus ride is 30 min from mco to dw then could be another 15 to 20 min depending on the resort, but it is a lot of hustling and then check in could slow you down. you probably would not have time to go to your room first just right to the park, but it can be done.