I know it’s not an AIBU ! But Disney world - Florida.

[Troublewaters2021]

Hey !
Between covid, daughters health and big change to her life we are looking at taking the kids to Disney land Florida or a Disney cruise.
Kids will be DC 9 , 15 and 18 months at the time and taking niece who will also be a teenager, plus the 2 teenagers best friends.

Anyone have any recommendations of the best accommodation of hints on what to book to get the best out of it ?

Want it to be special especially for DD 9.

Thanks

I would say if you are really only planning to do Disney, stay at Disney.
Travelling on and off site is a waste of time. However it’s not what it was at the moment. You can’t even buy a dining plan at the moment. This does make life easier.

Please contact a travel agent to get advice as you’ll likely need park reservations on top of your tickets, and then have to book fast passes and dining reservations at different dates well before you leave. It’s a lot of planning and info if you’ve never done it before and it really helps to have someone explain and organise it for you!
DisneyFoodBlog on YouTube is great (and their website has a load of planning guides), most of their videos are about food but there’s a lot of amazing tips and tricks for getting the most out of your trip, what to book and what to avoid etc.
It you don’t do the research beforehand you may miss out on some really great experiences! For example, if any of your party like Star Wars and want to go on the Rise of the Resistance ride (which is incredible even if you aren’t a huge SW fan!) you’ll likely have to have a park reservation for Hollywood studios for that day, then get to the park before opening just to book a reservation slot for the ride that day - the slots fill up in less than a minute from when they go live and it’s the only way to get on the ride, as of right now there’s no traditional queue system.

you’ll likely have to have a park reservation for Hollywood studios for that day, then get to the park before opening just to book a reservation slot for the ride that day - the slots fill up in less than a minute from when they go live and it’s the only way to get on the ride, as of right now there’s no traditional queue system.

They’ve got some cheek

@MiddleParking

you’ll likely have to have a park reservation for Hollywood studios for that day, then get to the park before opening just to book a reservation slot for the ride that day - the slots fill up in less than a minute from when they go live and it’s the only way to get on the ride, as of right now there’s no traditional queue system.

They’ve got some cheek

Preferable to 6+ hour queues though!

@MiddleParking

you’ll likely have to have a park reservation for Hollywood studios for that day, then get to the park before opening just to book a reservation slot for the ride that day - the slots fill up in less than a minute from when they go live and it’s the only way to get on the ride, as of right now there’s no traditional queue system.

They’ve got some cheek

I agree. It seems you need to run your holiday like a military exercise in order to get on the rides!

If you go at a really quiet time and don't mind what rides you go on then you can be less militant about planning normally. The booking a specific park thing came in during Covid and it's not clear how long this will last at the moment.

But you do have to be ultra organised anyway to get the best out of disney and make sure you’ve done all of the key rides and experiences.

Yes I'm a lot more chilled now though I've been a fair few times so don't missing as much. The planning is probably my favourite part of the holiday though!

We've done villa holidays, we were very close to the Parks, able to return for a couple of hours, eg downtime over lunch, watch the fireworks from upstairs windows.
We tended to look at the day in 3 parts, am, pm, evening and rarely managed all three! Be careful of some villas, they're miles away from the parks and when everyone is leaving the jams can be huge.
The first time we rented privately from a UK owner, the second we rented through

www.sleepnearthemouse.com/home-choices.html,
they're lovely people who manage a small number of properties, they'd managed our first one.

That’s been the case for Rise of The Resistance since it opened though - it’s not just a pandemic thing. And in fact I think you have other opportunities through the day now to try and get a pass. (Whispers.... it wasn’t as good as I was expecting anyway....)

www.disneytouristblog.com/star-wars-rise-resistance-faq-ride-guide/

Yes Galaxy's Edge lives by its own rules. I can't believe you didn't rate Rise of the Resistance... I've been so excited for it.

@unihorn don’t get me wrong, it was a good ride. I guess to be fair it had soooo much hype it was always going to be hard to live up to that!!

We did a villa, 10 mins drive, or you can Uber and saved a FORTUNE. All have a pool,
Screened in, where you can jump in at the end of a long hot day. Plus you will save a lot of money eating breakfast at home, taking lunch with you, water with you. Everything in the park is incredibly expensive - water?$5 Ice lolly $5 and the food is mediocre at best.
Plus it was nice to de-Disney a bit each day.

I would agreed that a few nights on-site in the Disney bubble is ideal as a first time visitor followed by a villa offsite. For the size of your party OP, I’d suggest looking at renting DVC points for 3 bed grand villas at either Jambo House or Kidani Village (Animal Kingdom Lodge), Boardwalk Villas, Saratoga Springs or Old Key West resorts. They comfortably sleep 12. We own DVC and our home resort is Boardwalk so I’m biased towards BWV. If you’re doing Universal, a night at one of their premier hotels will give you 2 days worth of express passes at Universal and Islands of Adventure but you’ll need multiple rooms. The Portofino by far has the largest rooms of the three.

I’d highly recommend hiring a car/multiple cars/van - it will give you so much flexibility and freedom to come and go as you wish. Disney transport is fine but it can be a pain waiting around for buses and the monorail breaks down frequently. Public transport is abysmal but Uber and Lyft are also available.

Wait until the pandemic blows over and things are back to normal before going. It’s a lot of money to pay for a limited experience.

Be prepared for this no being your first and last trip. We started like that 15 years ago, it can become a highly addictive and expensive hobby.

And yes, do join us over to thedibb for lots more planning advice and tips.

Does anyone know how busy the ride queues are at Busch Gardens and SeaWorld at the beginning of August? Was wondering if it’s worth getting Quick Queue as we have a younger one that doesn’t like big rides so would have to swap to go on them.

If you have the money then discovery cove is a wonderful day out- you don’t have to swim with dolphins if that’s not your thing but they have an amazing area where you can snorkel with tropical fish and rays etc