Disney - please explain!

[Itsaburrdiee]

We have never been to Disney and are just starting to save (£400 so far so we won't be going soon - probably next 2-3 years). We are a family of 4, children currently 5 and 3. We live in Scotland and will go in school holiday period, probably Easter or Summer. Neither of us is keen to drive over there so probably looking at a Disney resort.

So...questions:

When is best to go?

How far in advance should we be looking to book?

How much should we be looking to save?

Where should we stay?

Anything else we should be thinking about?

Thank you ( getting excited just thinking about it all!!!!)

9k

We went in October - one rainy day and we went to the medieval jousting dinner thing and the cinema. You hit Halloween at the parks and it's so much fun. You get trick or treat bags and kilos of candy to collect from the characters if you use the map. We brought loads home for people who wanted to try US candy!

The weather was perfect.

Agree with others - study The Dibb, their tips are brilliant. Especially footfall in the parks by day. their tip on buying a polystyrene cool box and filling with frozen water and drinks in the boot of the car really saved our sanity. As did the how to cool the air in the car!

I did a spreadsheet - we did a park every other day and on the odd days we had a pool in our villa and thrn did some evening entertainment on the I-Drive or around the Millenium Mall etc.

TBH it was nice to get away away from the crazy to our own place. Even though I am usually a resort experience person, it was great to have a peaceful villa. Plus self catering in Florida means ordering in or driving to IHOP!

Don't under estimate the water parks - Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach were great, we had much more fun than expected and it is just nice to cool off and bob on a lazy river for a day. EPCOT was underrated aswell I think.

Agree that Universal parks are the best. Soooo much fun. We bought the fast passes and it was worth every penny there so that I could go on the Spiderman 4d ride 5 times in a row

DS loved the NASA trip, and the evening in Cocoa beach the most though. Lots of greenery and nature to see too.

Next year we're doing a few days back at Orlando to go to Universal and heading down the coast to Clearwater for a bit more beach.

We booked with Monarch Holidays - awful cramped flight over but pretty decent villa and hire car all included for £2600 (2 adults and 1 7 yo)

I'd go with them again but upgrade the flight.

The only downside was landing in Sanford (?) which was a 50 min drive to I- drive straight off a plane.

See, I don't think landing in Sanford is a bad thing. I think the immigration queues are shorter there (beware- not short anywhere, your first disney queue)
The disney rooms are small, they want you out there from dawn till dusk.
Also don't turn up at downtown disney restaurant without a reservation- 90 minute wait otherwise.

Oh gosh yes - especially that T-Rex Dino one. There was nearly a riot in there over the queuing system.

Yes I have to say the airport was quiet and we were in the car 40 mins later!

But in hindsight perhaps I might have had a little sleep and a coffee on the plane before embarking on the journey.

Going home was a breeze though!

We booked lots of advance dining reservations, essential if you have somewhere particular you want to eat such as character meals, wishes deserts etc.

Was an expensive holiday but we did everything we wanted, dolphin swim, cabana at discovery cove etc.

Was worth every penny

Driving is dead easy.

One evening though (we are talking about 5 years ago now) we decided to get a taxi so I could have a drink - from the quiet end of I Drive to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, it cost $25 each way and then a tip on too, so it isn't cheap if you are going to be getting taxis all the time.

You need to plan a lot.

When you go to a park, work your way backwards with the rides ie go to the one furthest away, less of a queue.

We booked Discovery Cove before we went. Go for an early morning slot as sometimes if it rains heavily in the afternoon the swims can be cancelled. Ours was 9.00am.

This is mind boggling; so much to think and read about. Just as we'll I'm a planner.

The Dibb is awesome for tips and any questions you may have.

Ooh I think we'll need to book restaurants soon. Any Disney recommendations? The only 'sit-down' place we went to was 50s prime time, which we loved.

Also we found we could share lunch - easily 1 meal between DH & I, and a kid's meal for DS. I started craving fruit & veg after a few days! Both Disney & Universal had fresh fruit (mostly grapes & melon I think) to buy.

ChestyNut, sorry if I came across as cheeky . You are right, it's all totally worth it.

Really tempted by the fast pass thing at Universal. Universal and IOA are such brilliant theme parks. Even things like re horror makeup shows are great - we were sitting at the front and the women got DS involved and were telling him how cute he was, which he hated

We have not done disney dining when we have gone - generally ate in the nice counter service places - Pecos Bill's etc... Reason behind it is that it really ties you down to being in a specific park at a specific time, doesn't allow you to just go with the flow...

Our one exception was the first time we took the kids, we did a Disney princess breakfast at Epcot - it cost a lot of money, but was worth it for the girls... and we got the pics of us "holding up the ball" in an empty park at the start of the day...

roughtyping didn't think you were cheeky, when I realised how much it was costing I did too!

I've been looking at universal express pass too but need to cost up one night in universal hotel ( free express for day of check in and check out) vs normal ticket + express. I think there's two types as well? One that allows one queue jump per ride and one that's unlimited?

We're going to do breakfast at the castle next time.

We liked rainforest cafe at animal kingdom.
We also booked hollywood and vine that allowed you early entry for fantasmic but will do wishes deserts next time.
Dine with shamu at sea world was fabulous

We also had a booking at Polynesian which gives you access to the beach to see fireworks at Epcot but missed it due to upset tummies

Agree with stardust adrs are tying so likely next time will book the ones that double up as an event too IYSWIM or book around 4-5 pm as due to being in the parks at 8 and bus journeys there we were tired by that point.

One thing I did before going was to register on a load of restaurant websites for email coupons to restaurants etc for other days outside the park and around Universal.

I got so many free coffees from IHOP, Cinnabon, kids eat free at Red Lobster, 2 for 1 at the Cheesecake Factory etc.

If you are a bit cheeky and register your birthday during your visit you get free meal vouchers.

So what is the cheap way to do it?

Book your own flights, and wait for the Disney spending/free dining deal?

I would say a lot of research!

For example I was looking at Flydrive Virgin holidays, and if I book a separate flight on Virgin Atlantic I can fly home Prem Economy with 6x23kg bag allowance and still save £800 booking separately.

That would either pay for a villa for two weeks or 2 nights in the Loews Resort hotel in Universal with fast passes and ticket entry.

Virgin Holidays couldn't give me a clear breakdown of where the money is going, but there seems to be a huge upcharge on the flight! I don't understand this at all - it's all Virgin!

NJHousewife, I don't know if Disney have stopped doing the free dining plans now?

But think the cheapest way is everything seperately - I just worry because I'm none too organised... Would rather book it all together :)

Thomas Cook seem to be cheapest for flights, but don't think they're great service/size wise. There's also Thomson, Virgin, Monarch, BA, American Airlines...

Just another idea, but we went last week of August and first week of September once. It was humid but really, really quiet. US school go back usually around 20 th august. Queues are much less and flights generally cheaper too.

Is going for a week in October long enough? It seems like a long way to go for a week.

We took an extra week {such a bad neglectful mother that I am} on the October hols and went for 2 weeks... October really was the nicest - have been April, end August and October...

April weather lovely, not too humid, crowds horrendous,
August sooooooooo hot and humid, crowds not too bad,
October, still hot, less humid, less crowds - more fun stuff with Halloween.

Virgin did the nicest flights.. not the cheapest, but they were really nice..

We did a week in Oct... We only did Disney and stayed on site. It was the best holiday we have ever had. It was however very tiring as we had no rest days (except one in a Water Park which was only slightly more relaxing!)
Kids were exhausted and we didn't make the fireworks at Epcot or MK...but did do Fantasmic and Halloween Party.
We did lots of character dining and I had all breakfasts and dinners booked as I had planned which parks to do on which day based on the DIBB crowd levels. We didn't find it restricting and the dining was some of the best bits of the holiday and certainly the best way to meet characters which my DC loved....
In fact my carefully planned days did go a bit haywire when we spotted any characters as the DC wanted to meet/ hug/ get autographs from them!
We are going again in Oct (this time for 2 weeks) and doing Universal as well last time the DC were too small for lots of rides there and not really old enough for Harry Potter but now two years on they are ready for a bit more! Altho we are still doing more time in Disney as we loved it so much!

Another question... If we only go once, when is the best age to take them?

last time my girls were aged 8 and 9, they are tallish so we could go on all the rides we wanted to, they were not scared of "fright rides" like the mummy at universal, but young enough for the characters to still hold magic for them......

and it was before secondary school where time out in term time is non-negotiable... it is now 3 years on and they are talking about wanting to go back... but realistically for us it will be after exams... another few years yet...

Book arrived. I can tell already it's going to help me make sense of things :)

So if we went in October in say three years time when Dc are 6 and 8. If we stay for only a week would we be better sticking to WDW?

If they are 6 & 8 I think you'd regret not doing Universal, NASA and some of the other things in the area. Orlando is more than Disney.

I would definitely be trying for a fortnight.