Disney advice :)

Alyssa · Guru

Disney advice :)

supergrover · Guru

We stayed at the All-Star movies and loved it. Don't get me wrong, it is like sleeping in a 5-year olds room, but it was a lot of fun. My kids loved that we went back to "Andy's room" each night. I hear the the all-star sports now has family suites which might work better is D's kids are going too. Sarah booked those in the past, she may know more about them.

We used the meal plan and loved it. Not everyone does, but we got a great deal on it. We also ate at resteraunts we could have never afforded, and character breaksfasts are included as a sit-down meal, so it was perfect. We did two character breakfasts (Crystal Palace and Tusker House). Both were totally different, but equally great.

I would wait a bit to book. We book ours over the summer, and were able to get a special on our rate. I doubt they have specials running yet for next October.

Halloween party= LOVED it. There are so many less people in the park, you can walk on to most rides. There are dance parties, and our kids got to dance with Goofy and Stitch. The parade is far less crowded. WOuld do the Halloween aprty again in a heart beat. It is a whole seperate ticket, but worth it.

My thoughts:
*buy the park hopper option. It gives you so much more flexibility.
*Get the phone app that tells you how long lines are, and also the one that sends you a test with park hours. We found this second app helpful when one park closed but we weren't ready to go back to the hotel, we could find out which parks were still open and hop over.
*Outline what you want to do, but dont' be rigid with it.
*Breakfasts are the cheapest meal at the resort food courts. If your meal plan won't cover every single meal (ours was a little short), we planned to buy breakfasts. Worked out great.
*Snack credits on the meal plan are versatile. I loved that you could get frozen lemonades on the way to frontierland. Best break on a hot day.
*We brought a lot less clothes and just did a load of laundry one night at the resort. Not everyone would want to do this, but the airline we booked had crazy bag check fees, so we packed light.
*I woudn't rent a car unless you plan to go off property to sea world, etc. the busses are crazy crowded sometimes (like after parades/fireworks), but it is included. They will also bus you for free from the airport to the resort.

And talking about this makes me want to go back so badly.
We are planning our next vacation for when the boys are 5 and 7 :) Can't wait!

I'm sure there is oodles I'm missing.

a_mastermom · Guru

Well, you know from FB that we are leaving for our 2nd Disney trip on Sunday. WE LOVE DISNEY!! Any chance you could plan a trip for late September? Disney is currently running a special offer on room rates for mid August through Oct 1st.

I am a total planner, so I like to lay out the entire trip before we go. It is much cheaper to get park tickets without the park hopper option, so you can only go to one park per day. And you will need meal reservations, so you need to know which park you are going to on each day and plan reservations accordingly. I actually created a little template that I can share with you which shows our plans for each day. It makes things so much easier when you get there! All the thinking is done in advance!

If you are staying on Disney property, there is no need to rent a car - Disney offers a free "Magical Express" service from the airport (you don't even need to pick up your luggage - it is delivered to your room!). And the transportation to/from the parks from the hotel is great.

supergrover · Guru

oh, and you totally don't need a travel agent. If you go to Disney it will literally walk you through step by step.

We didn't book our plane tickets through Disney though. We found a better deal on those on our own.

a_mastermom · Guru

I also recommend the meal plan. You get a good amount of food and you know your cost up front.

a_mastermom · Guru

And like Jenn, I booked my package through the Disney website. So easy. I booked our flights directly through Delta.

happylib · Guru

There is so much there. A good place to start is mousesavers.com. Also, go onto the disney site and request a dvd of resort info. That gets you on the special discount code mailing list. When we went, we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge for the same or less than a regular hotel. If you get one of the resorts on the lake from Magic Kingdom it is really nice and easy to get around. We took the boat over and it was so easy. Also with little ones, it's easy to go back. At night they have a light parade you can watch from the little beach there, which Elizabeth really liked.

Depending on what you decide to do you might want to check into the dining plan. For us it was worth it because we did several character meals. Elizabeth really loved them. The character meals can be pricey, and for us the cost of the dining card off set the cost of the first character meal. A park hopper pass on the tickets is also wise because not all the character meals are in the same park. This way you can do a meal in one park and then go to where you want.

If you are flying you might want to consider not renting a car. There is a magic bus shuttle that takes you to your resort. We found it pretty good, but it was crowded on the way back. We never needed a car the entire time we were at disney. You can also rent a car for a day if you need to.

Every kid is different, but Elizabeth super loved meeting and getting autographs of characters. You can buy an autograph album there and a fat pen that are not outrageously priced.

You will probably want to look into stroller options. It is generally cheaper to bring a cheap stroller than to rent one there. I am not sure what kiddos you will have, but we also brought our own water bottles and refilled them to save money. You don't want to bring too much and you do have to let them go through your bags going in each park.

supergrover · Guru

oh, and character breakfasts can be booked before the park actually opens. This was perfect for us. In Magic Kingdom, we were in the first couple dozen let in one morening for our breakfast. Walking down MaineStreet with it being wide open was amazing. Same with Tusker House at Animal Kingdom. Our breakfast let out just as the doors opened to the park so we beat the crowns to the safari ride. Perfect.

Erin · Guru

disney.cruise.

:)

supergrover · Guru

I also bought the book

http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-World-Guides/dp/0470632372/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1298652192&sr=8-2

And kept it with us. It was helpful to look up info as we went. We wrote our resteraunt reservation codes right in the cover so we had them with us.\\

Geesh, you totally opened a can of worms. I could talk forever about how much I love Disney.

FoxyRoxy · Guru

find time to nap and do the parades.
spectromagic and wishes are just amazing and the kids love them.

also fantasmic in hollywood studios is one of the best shows.

the halloween party is great and you see a lot of funny people.

if you stay in the value resort buy one of the souvenir cups the fist day. you can then fill it up everytime you are in the food court.

FoxyRoxy · Guru

supergrover wrote:

I also bought the book

http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-World-Guides/dp/0470632372/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1298652192&sr=8-2

And kept it with us. It was helpful to look up info as we went. We wrote our resteraunt reservation codes right in the cover so we had them with us.\\

Geesh, you totally opened a can of worms. I could talk forever about how much I love Disney.

me too.

we actually want to travel this summer and we want to change the place (we've been over 30 times to Disney) so we decide on going to Washington.

still we are finishing 4 days in the kingdom...

we can never stay too far...

Erin · Guru

We spent on day at WDW before our cruise. We stayed at all star movies based on Jenn's pictures and report ;) It was great. A little hectic and crazy, but its for the kids! We happened to go on a day where there were extra magic hours in the eve at Magic Kingdom. So, we got up, got on the bus, and got there early. We headed for tomorrowland, and basically walked right on to a bunch of stuff the boys would LOVE - the orbiter, Buzz light year, etc. We spent the morning there, then headed to toontown(or whatever that is called) and hung out there for a bit. Around 1 pm, we headed back to the hotel. We had naps and spent a couple hours in the pool which the kids thought was as awesome as disney (the pool was huge). Then around 6pm, we headed back to MK and stayed until almost 1am. We caught the fireworks, went to the other side of the park, etc. The kids were rested and unhurried.

I think my greatest peice of advice is just that you stay flexible and not rush, and realize that things that you thought the kids were going to love and be so impressed and excited for, may not register to them. It can be very disapointing to us moms. I had to peeeeel Kiera out of that pool to go back to the parks!

(there are tons of youtube videos of parents surprising their kids with a trip to disney, and the kids are less than enthused. In this one, they kids pull up in front of MK and the little boys is like "awwww, I wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese!!!" lol).

Erin · Guru

oh, and www.disboards.com is the bomb.

-- Edited by Erin on Friday 25th of February 2011 11:01:38 AM

Supafly · Guru

My advice is to take me with you. :)

Oh wait, I will have a small child to care for then, won't I. Dang it!!! Ok, my advice is take my girls too-we'll force Bill onto the plane as well. They're good kids, I swear!! ;) Heck-I'll go and leave Bill. The baby will be young and transportable, right?!?

Seriously though-I am uber jealous and hope you have a FABULOUS time!!!!

Alyssa · Guru

thanks everyone. This is super helpful.

We are only bringing the two big kids--Ethan will be 6 and Noah will turn 5 the day we are getting there. Have to stick with Oct because we are planning around Ethan's fall break at school.

So we probably won't need a stroller right? Or do even the big kids get tired? I can't really carry Ethan anymore to give him a break. He's almost my size.

I will definitely check out the sites you mentioned. And the meal plan. Totally didn't think of that. Might jack up the upfront costs but will save us in the long run.

Alyssa · Guru

Oh and Erin, we are planning this trip as a surprise and now I wonder what the kids will say. We need to decide when we are finally going to tell them.

FoxyRoxy · Guru

Alyssa wrote:

Oh and Erin, we are planning this trip as a surprise and now I wonder what the kids will say. We need to decide when we are finally going to tell them.

i always tell them on the way to the airport

they scream a lot...

Erin · Guru

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcgNBezKyZQ

This kills me....lol!

a_mastermom · Guru

Erin wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcgNBezKyZQ

This kills me....lol!

Too funny!! (Although I did feel a little bad for the mom - I could hear the disappointment in her voice).