Anyone got a Disney/Florida Holiday Planned Part 2

[Groovee]

Old Thread

Just joining thread as have just (this minute) booked for Easter-this year!!!!!

Aaaargh! Help! What do I need to do in a very short space of time? Really want to maximise holiday. Have 3 DC's-9,7 &5. Staying a fort wilderness in a cabin.

Please help!

We went last month for the 4th time and would recommend the following -

Chef Mickey dinner at the Contemporary (walking distance from magic kingdom and dont need park tickets) Mickey,pluto,donald,daisy,goofy all there and spend lots of time at the table.

Also, Playndine lunch at Hollywood studios. Jake, Sofia, Handy Manny and Doc Mcstuffins all there,

Akershus Banquet at Epcot a MUST for those with little girls. Belle, Ariel, Snowwhite, Jasmine and Cinderella were all there. You get a free photo package there too. Much better than dining with Cinderella in her castle IMO.

All of the above can be "paid" with by Disney dining package and make it great value.

If you do have that package then cant recommend "be our guest" restaurant enough. Set in the beasts castle in the magic kingdom the food is fantastic but easily $130 for a family of 4 without the package. Also, it is so good you have to book 180 days in advance to get a table.

If you have a large party 8+ you can book a boat to take you on the lake at Epcot and watch illuminations. Best view, no crowds or waiting and cheaper than Epcot tickets.

Would also recommend magibands as can book fast pass rides 60 days in advance.

Thanks squirrel! I booked the akershus breakfast and one at Tuskegee house in ak. Managed to book an ADR at narcoosees on my birthday for dinner at half seven which I think means should get good fireworks views?

Onto more practical matters, we are only doing Disney and universal no sea world or wet n wild or discovery cove etc...so any ideas what ticket package to get???!!!!

Hey, we are looking to book for Oct mid term, would love a villa but needs to be close. Can anyone recommend a good site?

We are being quite last minute and thinking of booking this for 5 weeks time (late March/early April). I am v impressed with those with plans more than a year in advance!

I hope you don't mind me asking two cheeky Qs.

1. We are probably only going to be able to manage 11 nights maximum so 10 days in the parks - is this too short a time to go? DCs are 4 and 6 and have been long haul several times before and jet lag hasn't been too bad.

1. We are looking at whether to stay in the resort or drive in. We're mainly interested in the magic kingdom and most of the resort hotels with availability are actually quite far out - e.g. Animal Kingdom Lodge (which the kids would LOVE!) is there any transport advantage to staying in these further out resorts to staying in Lake Buena Vista/International Drive and driving in?

Thanks for any advice from any more experienced people!

We are looking to book for our honey moon with 2 young DDs.

Please can Anyone recommend cheapest time to go and cheapest way to book?

Harrogatemum I'd get the 14 day for the price of seven disney package and get universal tickets separately. Just bear in mind that universal without express passes can be hell. You can spend ages queuing. The express passes are a must IMO. (This is why in October we are doing 10 nights at Disney and four nights at Universal, simply for the free express passes and the early hours)

Gini we have stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is a fantastic hotel and its not far out at all. Just remember that although the area is massive its only disney traffic on the roads. AKL to Magic kingdom will only take you about 15 minutes. The MASSIVE advantage to staying on site is the free transport and the free disney dining. If you stay on site and you go at a time when there is no free disney dining (which for a family of four is worth over a thousand dollars) then you have more money than I do!!

Baileys - cheapest time to go is best found by looking on the website but it will be outside of UK and US school holidays. Between Easter and Summer holidays is usually a good bet. Personally though we ALWAYS book around the free disney dining.

Wheremymilk are you on the dining plan? If so do Mickeys backyard BBQ. Its a double credit meal but its a fantastic night for the kids (and the food is pretty good). Also chip and dales campfire singalong is at fort wilderness.

That's handy to know re universal, is it really that bad on ride times? Is there a pass for just say two days at each universal as would like to do both and then revisit if kids like it!!

Joining this thread again as we go in April - haven't planned anything as yet! Eeeek...

Last time we went to universal for two (very long) days. We found it cheaper to buy the seven day ticket. The express passes are expensive. The first day we didn't do the express pass and we didn't get around everything even though the DCs were five and seven and so couldn't go on most things anyway. We felt like we were queuing a lot even in october when its quiet. Second day we bought the express passes (It was over $150 though for all of us!). It was a completely different experience.

We were used to Disney though where we never queued for anything for longer than ten minutes.

This time we are there for four days and are also doing the Universal waterpark.

We're going on 29 March, staying in a resort condo 15 mins from MK. Our kids are 13 and 21 so we like to be a bit away from the Mouse Weve booked a swim with manatees and tickets for a basketball game too. I am so looking forward to all the eating sunshine.

handsoff have a look at loyalty homes, they are owned and managed by an English lady who now lives out in kissimmee. All their homes are less than 4 miles from Disney and most have private pools and some games rooms. Www.loyaltyusa.com

Gini99

We took our nearly 6 year for for just the February half term week, so 6 days in the park. We had pretty full days but managed to cram the basics in so for 10 days you will be fine.

We spend two days in MK, one day in Epcot (but I think it needs two to do it justice) one day in HS, one in AK, and a VIP tour of sea world for our "rest day". Didn't get to stay in the evening for the fireworks, go shopping (but did DTD) or do the water parks, but we were happy with what we squeezed in.

We are looking at booking another one in two years.

Thank you red squirrel for the hotel advice and Peppermint for the timing, that's really helpful.
How important is it to stay in the resort? It would be much cheaper if we stayed out of the resort esp if there was a little kitchen so we had more options on food. I was wondering about somewhere like buena vista area but I'm a bit worried I'll spend my whole time wondering round car parks! Also I imagine it is much easier to do a morning in a park, hotel for a splash in the pool and afternoon back in park if you have a resort hotel

Thanks again!

Gini, lots of people will give you different reasons for staying on/off the resort and ATEOTD I think it depends on your circumstances and what you planned to do. With small children and mainly doing disney I would stay on site. There are many options for different budgets, but we felt the extra money was well spent, esp as we didn't hire a car. If you stay off site it will be hard work getting there by shuttle or public transport, and if you drive you'll have to find a parking space, pay for it, then get the tram or monorail from the car park to the park entrance. The resort buses are every 20 mins (mostly less) and it will take up to 20 mins to get to the park depending on your resort and where you want to go. But you'll get dropped off at the front entrance. We took a cab to sea world, and would have taken a cab to the shops if we'd had time.

Take a look at the villas and suites if you are after a kitchen area. The suites have kitchenettes which is a fridge, food sink, counter, and I think coffee machine and toaster. So good if you want the option of cereal and toast for breakfast. Or to store your doggy bags for later.

We stayed in a "villa" in the saratoga springs resort, which is a deluxe DVC resort, but quite far out so cheaper because of it. It's a short ferry ride from DTD which was a bonus. Having a separate bedroom and kitchen area was more important to us than staying closer to the parks. DVC owners get first dibs on bookings so it might not appear says an option for you yet.

We didn't think the DDP was good value for us. We used all our table service credits, and snack credits, but we only used about half of the counter service credits. The portions were big so DP and I ended up sharing meals, and we took the desserts back to the resort for breakfast. We had a lot of character meals which is why we went for it, but I think next time we'll put the money on the dollar card towards the room bill. I think WDW Prep school has a good section on it. A snack has to be over $5, counter service $15 and table service $30 for it to be good value. (I think, check the figures) They also have a chart of the best value places which are above these figures. Apparently Disney put the prices of the rooms up when they do the free dining offer, and the percentage off offer is better value.

Currently staying in a condo offsite off highway 27 with dh, dd9yrs & grandparents nr Davenport which is too far out for us as we've been mainly going to universal (I think disney would be similar). I would def stay closer if we ever come again. Universal queues have surprised us as we've waited 30mins max even in Harry Potter. Def get there as early as can. Family in front of us were first to the gate (offsite queue) & got fast passes for free for being first there! Weather has been changeable. Full trip report inc gulf coast to follow on return.

wdwprepschool.com/maximizing-disney-dining-plan-credits-for-2014/

This is the post on DDP which lists all you could possible want to know about it. She wrote the post after I bought the DDP. Never mind! The bold restaurants are a good use of credits.

WDW prep school was what I looked at when planning what order to do stuff in. I even bought her ebook, and that's something I never do!

allears.net/index.html was good for looking at details for individual rides.

trazzle lucky you...best get your planning and booking hat on!
Have you booked your ADRs?

Only 567 sleeps til my visit

I'm itching to start buying tickets etc but guess its a bit early?

Harrogate, I'm back - had a fab time and have some maps for you of Anna Maria and Orlando if you fancy them. Put a tip report up too in case anything there helps.

Chesty what's an ADR? Newbie here!

I'm still trying to get my head round the logistics of 2 pre-schoolers, 1 in a buggy, 1 in a wheelchair and staying off-site. I don't understand the explanations I read for getting in to the Magic Kingdom from the car park - lakes ? Buses? Boats? What? We get a Mears shuttle in so I assume we get dropped off in the car park but have no idea. I don't really even know what a Mears shuttle is - a minibus, I guess?

DH expects me to be the Queen of planning and tbh it's well stressing me out at the moment!

I think the shuttles and buses take you to The Ticket and Transportation Centre at Disney. You the get a coach, monorail or boat to the park you want.

The boat across to Magic Kingdom is fab!

ADRs are Advance Dining Reservations. You can book them 180 days prior to holiday IIRC as popular places like the character meals get booked up quickly in busy seasons.

Have you been on the Dibb, it's great for everything you need to know.

We are going on 29th March 2014 and have just started organising-and I am too late. Everything is all booked up already :( curse you organised people lol.

Turnip head-is the app worth the money? Sounds fab but don't want to waste $12.95 on it :)

trazzle so pleased you are all going, you deserve it!
I second looking at the Dibb, and especially use the busy day guide on there, basically you can see what parks they recommend each date you are there, and it see,s to be accurate.
We went in oct 2012, and I was sort of dreading it, but we all had amazing time and are going back in August! But I really think you need to have done some research and have some loose plans or I think it could be a bit more stressful.
I also bought the unofficial guide to wdw , about 10 quid from amazon. Invaluable.
I would recommend booking a couple of character meals with the age of your children, we loved crystal palace in magic kingdom which has wine the pooh, tigger, piglet etc.
Also tusker house with mickey, Donald etc in safari get up.
I would really also recommend not over doing it, so we did mornings in parks, then pool time in afternoon, then out for meal at night.
Hope you have great time