Posted on 04/04/2012 6:52:33 AM PDT by RangerM
Thinking about surprising the family with a Disney trip later in the year (around October), but haven't been there before.
Anyone have any suggestions? Did you (would you) stay on the Disney property itself? If so, where and would you recommend/avoid it?
I've been on the website, and they have packages available, but while I'm not looking to spend myself into oblivion, I'm not looking to go at bottom dollar either.
plenty of parking at onsite resorts. Use their transportation because they drop you off and pick you at the front gate of each park.
Let the Disney folks take as many pictures as they want to. you will get a picture card your first picture and they will scan it every time someone takes a picture of your family and you can sort through them and by the cd later if you want to.
plenty of parking at onsite resorts. Use their transportation because they drop you off and pick you at the front gate of each park.
Let the Disney folks take as many pictures as they want to. you will get a picture card your first picture and they will scan it every time someone takes a picture of your family and you can sort through them and by the cd later if you want to.
The 5 year old might be tall enough to ride all the rides except maybe a few.
When she gets tired or you’re in a hurry after a parade or Fantasmic or something, throw her up on Dad’s shoulders instead of fooling with a stroller.
Mickeys Not-So-Scary Halloween event is WELL WORTH THE EXTRA COST. The parade is fantastic, the dress-up atmosphere is just pure FUN. If I had to pick one time to go back to DisneyWorld it would be for the Not-So-Scary Halloween event!
If the budget allows it plan now to let the girls buy their favorite Princess costumes in one of the Disney shops, to wear that night. Even the 10 yr old. The girls will never forget! My teen still has “Jasmine” tucked away in her closet, and had her photo taken with Aladdin and “Jabar” wave to her from a parade float!
Still strongly recommend staying on a Disney property (we loved Pop Century), just park the car and forget it. That convenience of no driving, no parking, no trying to make a offsite hotel shuttle schedule, and getting to use the parks an hour before anyone else, is priceless, and a family of 4 can fit in one room
AAA used to sell discounted parking passes for those who drove and had to park at a Disney park
If you have extra days, go over and stay at Loews Universal onsite hotel and try out Universal- because of the express passes for Universal onsite hotel guest we never go any other way!
This may all blow over by October, and you could have a great vacation. OTOH, things could get stirred up something ugly in the month before the election...
Disney Packages
start here: http://www.mousesavers.com/packages.html
“A lot of people like Disney’s vacation packages because they are convenient and worry-free. However, it is important to note that the standard full-price Disney vacation packages are designed for convenience rather than savings. In most cases you will NOT automatically get a discount by purchasing a package! It is frequently cheaper to book a “room only” reservation (ideally with a discount) and then buy the package components (tickets, meals, etc) separately.
However, Disney sometimes offers special promotional package discounts, particularly in the off-season.”
Excellent advice. I was last at WDW in Nov 2010, and we’re going again in March/April 2013. (BTW, looked you up over on DISBoards. I’m a member there too).
Let me add that you can bring in a cooler of food, put it in a locker near the front of the parks, pick it up for lunch and put it back after lunch. The cost of the locker isn’t 25 or 50 cents you might find elsewhere, but the dollar or so (I can’t recall the amount now) is still cheaper than the expensive Disney food.
I’ll also add to make the most of your Fast Pass options. Fast Pass allows you to get a specific time to return to a ride and jump on a much shorter line. But you can’t just go around and stock up on Fast Pass tickets. Your ticket is locked out of more Fast Passes for a short time after getting one Fast Pass. That time will be printed on the Fast Pass ticket. But it is an incredible time saver, especially on popular rides, but you do have to plan ahead.
For example, Soarin at EPCOT is very popular. The line grows to an hour or longer very quickly, and Fast Passes go quickly too. So you really have to plan to get to EPCOT early, go straight to Soarin in ‘The Land’ and get your Fast Pass, then come back anytime after the time given on the Fast Pass ticket. And you can ignore the end time on the ticket. They will accept it any time after the start time until the park closes.
You will be there when it is still Daylight Savings Time, so sundown will be around 8 with fireworks at Epcot at 9 and Magic Kingdom at 11. Magic Kingdom Light Parade (awesome) will be one before fireworks and one after. (usually)
There will be a throng of people waiting for the monorail to the parking lot afterwards which can be quite a daunting sight.
However, in typical Disney fashion, the people are moved quite quickly.
We now live 45 minutes away from Disney. All our out of town friends know this and we have been to Disney World a total of 28 times in the past six years.
Took some of our British friends there in March of last year and watched the fireworks every night at both Epcot (watch them from the American Pavilion where they also have food for starving kiddies and outside seating to dine and watch fireworks) then monorail to the Magic Kingdom and catch their fireworks on the street in front of the railroad station and Magic Kingdom exit.
Get to the monorail station, to the car, and home in under an hour.
Best way we have found to do the parks is Magic Kingdom (best days are Mondays and Tuesdays), Epcot the next day, Animal Kingdom the third day, Hollywood the fourth day and then decide which park you want to do over.
HINT: Use the railroad in the Magic Kingdom to get from one place in the park to another.
Best rides and restrooms are near the railroad station in Frontierland that has Big Thunder Railroad roller coaster and Splash Mountain nearby.
Catch the train at the entrance and go to these first as they get packed early! Then hop on the train and go to Tomorrowland and hit Space Mountain roller coaster and the Grand Prix.
Buzz Lightyear and Stitch rides were a disappointment. There is also a slow moving sort of train ride that goes around and through other rides on an elevated railway through Tomorrowland. It is a nice respite from walking and standing and is never a long wait to get on.
Animal Kingdom, if you can get on Mt. Everest quickly do so. It gets packed and stays packed.
If you can't get on, get a FastPass (or whatever they call it now) and go to the Safari ride.
Then go directly to The Lion King show and get a front row seat.
ALERT: A must see is the Flights of Fantasy bird show!
WARNING: No seat backs at either of these, just bench seating, so go before you get tired.
Epcot, head for Soarin' first, then GM test track. Universe of Energy features Ellen Degenerate (forewarning) but it is interesting to see the kids reaction to having a dinosaur sneezing on them.
Hollywood was MGM when we went. I guess they dropped their sponsorship. Hollywood Hotel and roller coasters are great.
And, it will still be rather warm when you go, so check out the water parks for a tremendous wave pool, gentle one mile long tube ride, swim with sharks (really small ones, but hey, your friends won't know when you tell them) and slides.
And if you have the extra time and money, a great show is the acrobatic Cirque du Soleil — La Nouba performance in Downtown Disney.
ENJOY!
Go here: http://www.shadesofgreen.org/
It's a Walk to the monorail, on the golf course next to the Polynesian.
My parents took the whole family to Disney/Epcot 2 years ago. One of the best vacations I ever had.
We rented a 2-3 year old 4 bedroom condo maybe a couple of miles away. It was incredibly cheap something like $500-600 for 7 days because these were new units that never sold and they just wanted to cover their maintence cost. Went through a local Real Estate co. It had a swimming pool/fitness facilities etc that was included.
I have heard you can get them even less than that from a private owner.
For the moment, I live directly between DW and KSC. For me, it’s about an hour either direction, with average traffic.
Keep in mind you need to calculate your “Total Cost of Experience” ... this is why the Disney owned resorts have been so competitively priced IN TOTAL COST since the recession began.
The free food, free transportation, etc type of offers can really add up to substantial savings on your time, money and hassles.
I’d suggest signing up for as many traveldiscount offers websites/forums as possible using a brand new email address, because you need the deals and the amount of spam mail is overwhelming, you can abandon a new email address after the trip.
flyertalk.com has a US/Florida/Orlando subforum which is always a good place to look.
One more thing, do NOT stay at the Nickelodeon Suites Resort. It is the most overrun gross place in Florida. Think 10000 kids eating ice cream and then running around touching every surface in the place in 110 degree weather.
IF you have interest in the “rent a private residence” per diem or per week, check out vrbo.com first off. check out www.homeaway.com/ secondly.
The vrbo.com thing is great is
1. you are driving to Orlando and/or
2. you have two or more family groups sharing a trip together, it’s possible to rent for example 5bdrm/4bth mcMansions that sleep 14+ for really really cheap, within 5 miles of Disney World’s gates, in Kissimmee, or South Orlando.
I used to live in South Orlando and my real estate agent managed a slew of these properties.
1. find out if the candlight processional is at the time you are there.
2. Check into one of the meal plans. It is worth it and a good way to control expenses without feeling like you are controlling expenses.
3. Don’t go during homosexual weekend in june. (security over there hates it due to the out of control public freakiness and having to protect the family fun nature of the park.)
Hopefully you won’t be there during a gay wedding and have to explain to the children why the two guys are kissing. I suggest Dollywood! You can spend two days there doing the educational/entertainment thing then hit the rides. Do it on a Monday/Tuesday when the crowds aren’t so bad.
We did the parks for 3 days and the Disney Boat for 4 days.
Stayed at Disney All-Star Music section. Our room was next to the largest drum set in the world and next to Disney Sports. The three pools in the area are wonderful. Buy the limitless $8 cup for soadas all day.
As someone said before that early 10 AM is wonderful. We were back at the pool during the hot time around 1 PM.
We had a rental car and drove to the Ocean on third night and stayed where the boat is. We told the kid that we had to go home the next day and we just wanted to see the Disney Boat. So, in the morning we went and got on the boat (only to visit) before going home.
You should have seen the look on his face when the boat pulled away from the dock and we told him we were going to go on it for 4 days.
One night at Kissimmi we ate and watched a Renaissance Jousting match. They split the arena into 8 sections and you root for your knight. Had chicken and soup with no utensils.
Best vacation of all time.
If you can afford it, staying on-site is the better option. You really get into the whole Disney “immersion” without breaking that reality by dipping back into the real world. You could literally be completely within the WDW system from the time your plane lands in Orlando to the time you departing flight leaves.
If the type who likes all-inclusive vacations, you can also get room + ticket + dining packages.
Other on-site perks include “extra magic hours” which allows early entry or staying late at the various parks (typically one open early and/or one open late each day) and any in-park purchases can be sent back to your resort so you don’t have to lug it around all day.
But, on the whole, on-site is more expensive, and the rooms are of smaller size than what you’d get out in the general Orlando area. Also, if you plan on doing Universal and/or Sea World as well, that total immersion isn’t going to be a big deal for you. Having done both, I definitely prefer on-site, however.
Keep your eye open for discounts — there’s almost always some discount or other for off-peak times (such as October) on room rates or even adding the dining package for free to a rack-rate room.
Within an hour and a half drive
I guess all these things are...."within an hour and a half's drive" was clear only in my mind.
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