Has anyone been to Disney World in the last year or two? We are going in in May. Trying to decide on meal plan, travel agent, no travel agent, book thru Disney, what is a must see (3 and 6 year olds), what is okay to miss, anything really.......
We had a big vacation planned for there this year... it was a nightmare trying to coordinate everything. Thank GOD we decided to shitcan that plan and are going on a cruise instead.
I love how the travel agent we took the time to go and visit and call back later never even bothered to return our phone calls... thanks, Spears Travel in Bartlesville. Never again will you get our business. Guess I didn't dress up enough to impress them to think I could actually afford a whole-family Disney vacation. Hahaha. I'd used them at least once in the past and was.... well, I guess adequately satisfied, although I didn't like the choice of hotel they ended up putting us in. But this time, they didn't even take us seriously when we tried to get them to set us up a trip for 7 people for 11 nights in Orlando at the parks.
So... just a side note - Spears Travel in B'ville wasn't interested in my business, for whatever reason.
<edit> Oh, and we lost like $2k we had already paid in tickets with United Airlines, too. So screw them. lol
I love how the travel agent we took the time to go and visit and call back later never even bothered to return our phone calls... thanks, Spears Travel in Bartlesville. Never again will you get our business. Guess I didn't dress up enough to impress them to think I could actually afford a whole-family Disney vacation. Hahaha. I'd used them at least once in the past and was.... well, I guess adequately satisfied, although I didn't like the choice of hotel they ended up putting us in. But this time, they didn't even take us seriously when we tried to get them to set us up a trip for 7 people for 11 nights in Orlando at the parks.
So... just a side note - Spears Travel in B'ville wasn't interested in my business, for whatever reason.
<edit> Oh, and we lost like $2k we had already paid in tickets with United Airlines, too. So screw them. lol
I had the opposite experience that tridiot had. Best vacation ever with kids. We did ours thru disney and stayed at the grand Floridian. We got the dining plan it was very easy. If you stay in their resort you get extra hours- random parks open a hour or 2 early or late for only guest staying in their resorts. Best time to ride the most popular rides because there is no lines!!!
So many must sees. Mission space,Star Wars star tours, tower of terror not for kids tho, Snow White ride, too many classics to list.
You are gonna sweat in your eye a little when you see those little ones at that place.
So many must sees. Mission space,Star Wars star tours, tower of terror not for kids tho, Snow White ride, too many classics to list.
You are gonna sweat in your eye a little when you see those little ones at that place.
It's almost as easy to book through Disney than to mess with it. Everything on property is ridiculously expensive. We have gone twice, the first time we stayed off property (it was a stopover on our way to the keys) in a VRBO condo. Awesome place, cheaper than a hotel with 3 bedrooms and a private pool. We also learned you can take lunch into the park so as to save even more. Second time we stayed in a suite in the "Disney Boardwalk." If the company hadn't eaten part of that trip, I would still be paying for it. Someone we knew rented a car and we dropped $100 at Target for groceries. (A character breakfast will run you $100 for 2 adults and three kids under 8.)
If you stay off property, stop by your local AAA to get upfront parking ($15 a day regardless.) Just plan on one or two things you "have" to see. The kids will tire quickly and if you try to push them it will be miserable for everyone. If you just go with the flow and enjoy what you can, the whole trip will go a lot better. (Just watch the other people who try to push too much having breakdowns all over the place... Then think to yourself, is squeezing in one more ride worth that?)
On property you can run back and grab a quick nap, just expect to pay for the convenience in higher priced hotel and food cost. (They also had "extended hours" for on property people. I never saw them turn people away, so not really sure how that works once they are already in the park.)
The new wristband system makes everything painless. If you want, they will pick you up/drop you off at the airport and as you can imagine, they have the system worked out pretty well.
If you stay off property, stop by your local AAA to get upfront parking ($15 a day regardless.) Just plan on one or two things you "have" to see. The kids will tire quickly and if you try to push them it will be miserable for everyone. If you just go with the flow and enjoy what you can, the whole trip will go a lot better. (Just watch the other people who try to push too much having breakdowns all over the place... Then think to yourself, is squeezing in one more ride worth that?)
On property you can run back and grab a quick nap, just expect to pay for the convenience in higher priced hotel and food cost. (They also had "extended hours" for on property people. I never saw them turn people away, so not really sure how that works once they are already in the park.)
The new wristband system makes everything painless. If you want, they will pick you up/drop you off at the airport and as you can imagine, they have the system worked out pretty well.
Best two vacations we've been on with the kids. Everything is spotless, organized and most efficiently run social machine you'll ever encounter. Meal plan, yes......book through Disney, yes. Take what ever flight you can that does not involve Delta or Atlanta. We flew American the second time.
Stayed at the Wilderness Lodge the first time, Caribbean Beach resort the second time.........the beach resort is cheaper, the Wilderness is nicer. Do stay on site, this allows you to enter the various parks before the larger crowds get there. We hit the parks when opened, stayed till the masses arrived about 11am............had lunch, swam, took a nap, then hit the parks again in the evening.
Not sure if you have daughters, if so, breakfast with the princesses is a must......book now, it will fill up if it's not already. My wife has Disney booking down to an art, ask away if you have questions. She did everything online.
Epcot and Hollywood Studios/MGM or whatever it's called now is our favorites. Your kids ages will enjoy Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.
Stayed at the Wilderness Lodge the first time, Caribbean Beach resort the second time.........the beach resort is cheaper, the Wilderness is nicer. Do stay on site, this allows you to enter the various parks before the larger crowds get there. We hit the parks when opened, stayed till the masses arrived about 11am............had lunch, swam, took a nap, then hit the parks again in the evening.
Not sure if you have daughters, if so, breakfast with the princesses is a must......book now, it will fill up if it's not already. My wife has Disney booking down to an art, ask away if you have questions. She did everything online.
Epcot and Hollywood Studios/MGM or whatever it's called now is our favorites. Your kids ages will enjoy Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.
Book thru an agent , Best thing to do & know what you or your kids like for the Best experience. The bands are the best thing to happen lately. No more carrying cash, cards or carrying ride fast passes & such. Just swipe , pay & ride. Having one doesn't get you into everything , you have to know what you can/can't do. Ride Fast passes are on your band so no more waiting in the long lines.
Some of this is dependent upon the length of your stay, budget, etc. We JUST did a two-day Disney/two-day Universal vacation and it wasn't enough time to do what we wanted. 3 & 3 would have been better. Anyway, here's my two pennies:
1. Book through Disney
2. Buy the meal plan. You have to book two nights at their resort to qualify for the meal plan, but it's worth it. You can buy one day of meals for each night you're in their resort. You get a full service sit down meal, one "quick" meal, a snack & an unlimited drink cup.
3. Do the sit-down meal at Ackershus (sp?) at Norway in Epcot for dinner with the Princesses. (That's what we did so I can speak for the breakfast thing)
4. You have to have a reservation for the Princess dining. Make it AS SOON AS YOU'RE ALLOWED. We eff'ed around and made ours last minute and they were booked solid three weeks before we were supposed to be there. We FINALLY got a reservation for just my wife and our two girls just TWO DAYS before our only night in the park. I had planned on taking our 2yo son and just going to eat someplace else. When we got there to check in for dinner, we asked the hostess if they had room for all five of us. She did us a solid and worked us in without the reservation for all five. I reciprocated with a nice tip that she was clearly surprised to get. The experience was worth it. My daughters are still young enough to be into the Princesses and they were amazed.
5. Get the Park Hopper
6. Get the Photo Pass
7. Get the bracelets (Sit down and set up your MyDisney account with your wife, then sit down with your kids and let them pick their character avatars and bracelet colors)
8. Download the app to at least one of your phones. You can log into your MyDisney account from there and it'll give you live wait times for rides and character meet-n-greets.
9. If you rent a car and drive to the park from the resort, do not pay for parking. The front desk will give you a parking pass for your dash if you ask for one.
10. If you take their transportation, it leaves on generous intervals and doesn't take long to get your from the resorts to the parks.
11. When you go to Magic Kingdom, get to the monorail or boat dock NLT 7:15 if you're going to do the morning welcome ceremony that they do. We jacked around and missed it.
12. When you do the Fast Pass thing, you have to reserve a ride and a time. It may seem like a pain in the neck, but do it. You won't regret it. You only get 3 Fast Passes per park, per day. (This is something Universal does WAY better than Disney)
13. If you can hang (and by you, I mean your kids and how they react to being up that late) the fireworks show at 10/10:30 is awesome.
14. The characters don't walk down the street and do meet-n-greets like they used to. The are either indoors or out, you have to find them, you get in line, and hopefully they don't have to take a break before you get up there because they WILL close the line and say sorry but X will be back in 20 minutes. The up side is that the maps are marked with the locations where they're going to be. You just have to get there and get in line.
15. Fly Allegiant. Non-stop from Tulsa to Orlando/Sanford is roughly 2-1/2 hours & $80 one-way. You pay for everything (checked bags, seat selection, etc., etc.) but it's still cheaper than multiple layovers or even non-stops with United, SW or the lot.
If you've got the time, Kennedy and the Apollo V & Atlantis exhibits are worth the price of admission if you're a space geek.
I hope that helps. Have a good time. Even as an adult who's not nuts for Disney, I had a great time myself and was in awe of quite a lot of what I saw. The best part for me was seeing my kids and wife have so much fun.
1. Book through Disney
2. Buy the meal plan. You have to book two nights at their resort to qualify for the meal plan, but it's worth it. You can buy one day of meals for each night you're in their resort. You get a full service sit down meal, one "quick" meal, a snack & an unlimited drink cup.
3. Do the sit-down meal at Ackershus (sp?) at Norway in Epcot for dinner with the Princesses. (That's what we did so I can speak for the breakfast thing)
4. You have to have a reservation for the Princess dining. Make it AS SOON AS YOU'RE ALLOWED. We eff'ed around and made ours last minute and they were booked solid three weeks before we were supposed to be there. We FINALLY got a reservation for just my wife and our two girls just TWO DAYS before our only night in the park. I had planned on taking our 2yo son and just going to eat someplace else. When we got there to check in for dinner, we asked the hostess if they had room for all five of us. She did us a solid and worked us in without the reservation for all five. I reciprocated with a nice tip that she was clearly surprised to get. The experience was worth it. My daughters are still young enough to be into the Princesses and they were amazed.
5. Get the Park Hopper
6. Get the Photo Pass
7. Get the bracelets (Sit down and set up your MyDisney account with your wife, then sit down with your kids and let them pick their character avatars and bracelet colors)
8. Download the app to at least one of your phones. You can log into your MyDisney account from there and it'll give you live wait times for rides and character meet-n-greets.
9. If you rent a car and drive to the park from the resort, do not pay for parking. The front desk will give you a parking pass for your dash if you ask for one.
10. If you take their transportation, it leaves on generous intervals and doesn't take long to get your from the resorts to the parks.
11. When you go to Magic Kingdom, get to the monorail or boat dock NLT 7:15 if you're going to do the morning welcome ceremony that they do. We jacked around and missed it.
12. When you do the Fast Pass thing, you have to reserve a ride and a time. It may seem like a pain in the neck, but do it. You won't regret it. You only get 3 Fast Passes per park, per day. (This is something Universal does WAY better than Disney)
13. If you can hang (and by you, I mean your kids and how they react to being up that late) the fireworks show at 10/10:30 is awesome.
14. The characters don't walk down the street and do meet-n-greets like they used to. The are either indoors or out, you have to find them, you get in line, and hopefully they don't have to take a break before you get up there because they WILL close the line and say sorry but X will be back in 20 minutes. The up side is that the maps are marked with the locations where they're going to be. You just have to get there and get in line.
15. Fly Allegiant. Non-stop from Tulsa to Orlando/Sanford is roughly 2-1/2 hours & $80 one-way. You pay for everything (checked bags, seat selection, etc., etc.) but it's still cheaper than multiple layovers or even non-stops with United, SW or the lot.
If you've got the time, Kennedy and the Apollo V & Atlantis exhibits are worth the price of admission if you're a space geek.
I hope that helps. Have a good time. Even as an adult who's not nuts for Disney, I had a great time myself and was in awe of quite a lot of what I saw. The best part for me was seeing my kids and wife have so much fun.
For the most part this is pretty close to what I would say. We go often. Make sure you try to get the free dining plan if offered. Always stay on-site, so much nicer. Also, AVOID the extra magic hours parks. They are usually much busier, so if you go to one of the non-extra hours parks, lesser crowd.
The only thing I can add to all the good advice here is to try and visit Disney during the off-peak times of the year. We went the week after Thanksgiving - they had the Christmas decorations up, the weather was still warm enough for some swimming, and best of all, the crowds were minimal. We saw NO one else in line at Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion when we visited those attractions first thing that morning, and even that afternoon the wait times were negligible.
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