I want to 'do' Disney World Folrida - what's the best/least stressful/most enjoyable way?

[ClosetSlob]

top tips please. Don't know where to start!

buy your park tickets before you go so you don't need to worry about it, go to tripadvisor.com and get advice about which hotels etc to stay in, go off peak if you can as queues are much reduced in the parks

Personally, I love this book Very detailed but really everything you need to know!

We didn't do any of his touring plans but we followed his idea of a morning in a park, back to hotel and rest then an evening in a park and it was great for us. Felt odd the first couple of days to leave at midday but we were so refreshed we were ready to go to the parks again in the evening. We stayed later one day and the stress levels started to rise... We also stayed in a Disney hotel which are more expensive but dead easy to get to, especially if you hire a car.

I know I'm a bit anal but I looked through the guide book and made a list of the rides our dc could go on (with height restrictions etc.) before we went and found this helped us when we were there as we didn't have to think, just look at the list.

I would also highly recommend a couple of days/mornings in the water parks at Disney as they were really relaxing and loads of fun.

HTH.

oooh- we are off there at easter, staying in one of the Disney hotels, which on did you stay in clayhead?

the idea of breaking up the day is a ggod one, dreading the kids getting ratty when tired.

is it expensive to eat out??

thnaks cat- thats really interesting about how cheap the food is. ( will be huge on my return!!)

Only stay in Orlando for 3 days, and the rest of your holiday on the Gulf Coast. Otherwise you will go into meltdown, it becomes less fun the longer you spend there. Either that or don't try to do too much - cramming the entire 'Orlando experience' into two weeks will leave you needing another vacation! Break it up by spending some time at your hotel/apartment by the pool or take a day at the beach (quite a drive, but worth it - especially the Gulf Coast)

oh god you are so lucky! you'll love it

i swore by "the brit guide to florida" which is really useful. best bit is the chart at the back which says which parks are busiest/quietest on whcih days of the week - really works!

you need at least one week if not 10 days/2 weeks to do it without dying of exhaustion.

buy your park passes before you go - we've always got good deals.

the disney waterparks are really good as well if you have time, and if you buy some of the disney "hopper" passes you get one or two days free use.

the disney parks are all miles from each other, whereas the universal parks are righ next to each other so you can really hop between the two and cover more ground in less time.

interestingly disney orlando is bigger than greater manchester and with 70,000 "cast members" it is the worl's largest single site employer. each of the individual parks are HUGE (though they vary)so pace yourself and wear comfy shoes!

tiredemma, we stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside and one of the 'log cabins' (well, the kids thought it was real!) at Fort Wilderness. The former had a wonderful pool and the latter had a boat service to the Magic Kingdom, great for evenings there, both were really good hotels in their own right.

Got the park tickets from Travel City Direct , recommended on here!

We did 10 days, 4 at Disney, 2 away, 4 back. With 2 of the 8 days at water parks we felt relaxed. We did get up and out early but found the first hour was relatively uncrowded and easier to do stuff in, made sure we left at about 12, went back to the hotel, slept a bit and swam a bit and then went back to the parks at 6 ish. Like I say, the day we didn't do this we all suffered as the kids got ratty and hot and we got stressed.

We didn't find it too expensive to eat out, we know we could have got cheaper if we'd driven out of the resort but chose not to, for convenience. You can reserve Disney restaurants in advance, before you go if you want to. I would really recomend Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge (if you eat there, you can get the boat to the MK later, leaving your car parked at the hotel).

I really could go on...! I loved the holiday and I loved planning it!

Seems mad but do book your restaurants in advance, my friend went recently and couldn't get into any evening restaurants and they told her places get booked up 6 months in advance! So they had "diner" food lunch and evening, which she said she'd had enough of by the end.

OH wow - now I really want to go now. Thanks all for the great advice I'm going to check all that out.