To ask if you’ve ever been to Walt Disney world florida?

[Idlovetoknow]

I’m not a Disney fanatic but I’d absolutely love to go back with my kids. Reception and preschool age. I went in the late 90s and recall it been infinitely better than sliced bread and crying every time we left. I’m worried it won’t live up to the hype in my head and too much of the parks has changed.

some of my favourite things seem to have gone; honey I shrunk the kids show and playground, voyage of the little mermaid, discovery island, the swimming with sharks in one of the water parks and Mickey’s house seems to be gone too!

ive been to DLP with the kids and that brought some of the magic back, as I’d been as an adult and found it a bit lacking.

anyone been? Anyone been in the 90s and then recently?

i know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and that’s ok

DS is now 17 and will only come with us if we go to 4-5 star Ai in the Canaries and he can bring a friend.

It's so nice to do things like Disney when they're young to create those memories and that does sound like a decent price.

@Idlovetoknow the Dining Plan is extortionate, but it’s not really about saving money (you’d have to eat the most expensive item on the menu in each restaurant every day to get close to the cost), but a lot of people like that it means their food is paid for in advance and they don’t have to worry about a bill to settle at the end of the holiday.

The DIBB forum is intimidating when you first go there, but honestly there are so many useful threads about stuff to take with you to make your life easier (clothes pegs to hold curtains together, collapsible over the door shoe storage to put your toiletries in to save space in the hotel bathroom, cooling neck towels, anti chafing roll on, etc). Also the trip reports are great to read as they can help you narrow down restaurants, etc.

Only £300 for flights? That seems very good! Is that with luggage and food?

We went at christmas time 2022 with my then 4yr old. It was bloody magical. I was as enthralled at 34 as I had been at 4 and my daughter loved it. We bought one of the 4 park tickets.
The Frozen land at epcot was amazing and animal kingdom was an unexpected highlight- the lion King show was amazing! She loved toy story land at Hollywood studios and we loved galaxy's Edge.
Try joining the Walt disney world tips and tricks Facebook group, loads of good info there

We're booked for Easter next year. Kids will be 13, 9 and 2. Were staying on site for two weeks so will be able to enjoy hotel pool time / water parks in the afternoons some days too for some, I'm sure, much needed down time.

The dibb is not intimidating, it is very gentle and there are rarely any spats between posters because if there are they are shut down very quickly.

If you have seen flights for £300 you need to buy them now because that is extraordinary.

Luggage no, everything seems Ryan aired.. and add on. But that’s Norse air and you only get 15kg for a checked bag which isn’t a lot

What’s a good price for flights? With luggage it seems around £500pp?

I have never heard of Norse Air, not for flights to Orlando anyway I mean. I have just had a look, they are cheap, although the cheapest seat I found with luggage was about £450, the luggage allowance was given as 23kgs.

More generally, yes I would have said £500 was around normal for times outside school holidays.

Outside of holidays I normally see £400 indirect and £600 direct. In the holidays normally more like £600 indirect and £800+ direct.

Norse Air rebadged Norwegian Air planes when they had difficulties from what I know? Norse Air haven't been established enough into Florida yet for anyone to know how reliable they are, the reviews I have seen haven't been great but it does depend how much money you want to spend on flights. My parents only ever fly Premium and direct to the US because they enjoy the comfort, whereas we're happy to save money and go indirect.

15kg is a decent amount for a 10 day holiday. Personally I wouldn't be paying for more .

even With kids? Im debating about the car seats might not be enough

@35and3 see you there! We’re staying at Caribbean Beach next Easter with DC who will be 10 and almost 7!

I went at seven, my younger brother was five. I remember so much more than he does, I think that I was at the ideal age.

We went in May this year & stayed 2 weeks at Caribbean beach. My kids are 9 &8 they could fit on all the rides at Disney. We didn’t do universal as they wouldn’t have fancied the big rollercoasters but we might return when they are teens and do universal part. We had an amazing time & would defo return in future if able to afford it

What’s ‘the best’ hotel in everyone’s opinion? Or their dream hotel?

AKL calls to me
as does art of animation
wilderness lodge looks lovely too!

Hi OP. It's an amazing place. We last went in 2011 and 2014 stayed in the Animal Kingdom Hotel which imo was breathtaking. Your balcony looks onto the animal enclosures it is beautiful and peaceful.
Universal is fabulous too.
Have the best time.

My dream would be to stay at the Polynesian - that’s never happening though unless I win the lottery!

we’ve stayed at Caribbean Beach a few times and love it. The skyliner is a total game changer as far as I’m concerned, so quick and easy. When we go this year we’re staying at Pop Century which is also on the skyliner route. Unless I was staying in a deluxe and could walk to a park I would always go for somewhere on the skyliner now.

In the last ten years or so I have stayed at Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Yacht Club, Boardwalk Inn, Beach Club and Caribbean Beach Resort. Later this year I will be at the WDW Dolphin and next year I will be trying out Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Having sampled all those, my first choice would now be anything in the EPCOT / Crescent Lake area. This is because we travel as two adults and there are lots of dining options around, also I found the transport worked best from here, great boat service, access to Skyliner for visiting a couple of other resorts and the buses were reliable too.

The first resort we ever stayed at was the Contemporary which we picked because of being able to walk to Magic Kingdom but in comparison to an EPCOT area hotel it can get very busy in the public areas and I find the EPCOT hotels a bit quieter and more relaxing. Wilderness Lodge is a lovely hotel but the rooms are quite dark and we didn't find the transport worked that well. Grand Floridian was nice too, but we were in an outer building and I would prefer to be in the main hotel.

We are probably going to stay in Animal Kingdom Lodge next year because it is somewhere I have always wanted to stay and it is so much cheaper than the EPCOT hotels, transport might not be as good, but even if I Uber everywhere it would still be cheaper.

I have avoided the Polynesian so far because when I have visited it has been utter bedlam in the public areas, but last time I went it wasn't too bad and the newly refurbished rooms look lovely. So I would like to go here one day.

Caribbean Beach Resort is too big for my liking, I was here before the Skyliner though and that would be a positive for it.

We went last year with DC 11 and 8. I'd never been before but DH had as a kid. It was incredible, we loved it. Did universal too. I thought I was 'going for the kids' but I'd happily go back alone haha.

I'd recommend waiting till they're big enough to enjoy more of the rides (120cm I think, or above). Wish we'd done Paris when they were younger to enjoy more of the character magic as our least favourite park was the magic kingdom. It was still fab, but a bit tame I'm comparison. We said it was a once in a lifetime thing... but we will go back next year or the year after.

Also on the hotel front, we stayed in a villa with a pool and drove to the parks. But parking is expensive and we didn't use the villa/pool as much as we thought we would. Our plan next time is to get a cheap hotel, smash the parks for a week or 10 days and then fly somewhere else and have the relaxing part of the holiday. Trying to mix part pool part park didn't really work for us, but I guess we weren't in a resort hotel, so that might have been better.

See I’ve not been since I was a child so that practicality isn’t something I’ve got first hand experience with, im just going by what looks nice in pics.

the wildnerness lodge lobby and that big waterfall looks amazing! But that’s just off pictures lol.

floridian looks nice but I don’t quite get the hype, same with the boardwalk, riveria and the contemporary. In the 90s the contemporary looked so futuristic and I got the theming but now I don’t really get it. Maybe I’m a massive child lol. Sounds like the practicality in terms of transport is baked into the cost

I've been a number of times, with and without DC. I definitely wouldn't bother spending the huge amount of money it is now until the children are old enough to appreciate it. We had an amazing holiday there with DS for his 7th birthday but his memories of it are not as strong as I thought they'd be.
Due to the height restrictions and the huge amount of walking and queuing involved I'd say 7 plus to get the most out of the trip.

We’ll be going before our youngest is 3 so he’s free. We know he won’t be able to go on everything but they’re both very big on characters now so we think they’ll still have a good experience, we’ll likely end up going again too when they’re older. Plus we’ll be taking grandparents and I think it will be a lovely memories. They loved paris so so much, I think they’ll enjoy florida, yes some of the bigger rides they won’t be able to go on, but we’ll likely go again, so I think will be a different type of experience

We were just talking about Honey I… this week! Miss it.
when I price it up now it’s just gotten too much, it’s more than we paid last time with no DP included. I feel like we are being forced off site and I don’t want that. I think the all inclusive nature of it.