Please tell me everything

[Disneyconvert]

Please help me a) either convince my dh we need to go to disney world or b) bring me back down to earth.

I'm hoping those with experience can share their wisdom.

We want to plan a once in a lifetime holiday with the kids (dd6 and ds 2), but it needs to be outside of the summer as that's when we always visit family and dh is pretty set on that.

I am currently looking at orlando end of Jan 2024, combination of 6 day park stay and then 6 day cruise before flying back.

Dh is a bit skeptical - thinks it's not a suitable holiday for a two year old with the time difference and all of the dragging around, height restrictions etc. Is this true? Would it be fairer just to book a trip to rainy lego land or center parcs and wait until ds is older for a trip like this. Although by then dd will be in school and we won't be able to take her out. ( we're not in the uk so she starts school when she's 6.5 next august)

I've priced everything up and it is EXPENSIVE and at the top end of what we had in mind (includes tickets and dining plan). But Dh also is concerned about all of the hidden extras expenses. How much should we factor in for that?

We're waiting for a big sum of money from dh's inheritance. The issue is we are not sure when the money will come in. So I couldn't book today - it might be November or December. Is that too late to book everything and then plan the remaining details?

Finally, will we be sick to death of disney if we do both the park and cruise? I am more for the cruise, but seems a shame to travel to orlando and then not do both.

Dh is thinking of some ai resort in mauritius otherwise.

Any other tips and things to watch out for much appreciated!

Personally I think your DC are very young, especially the littlest one, who will not remember anything of the holiday. If its a once in a lifetime trip, then I'd hold off a few years, if you could afford to go again in a few years then do it, even though young I'm sure kids will love it, and they'll certainly sleep everynight! 😄
We have booked Florida for 2024 too, my DC will be 14 & 11 so, able to walk round parks all day/go on rides with (or without!) us etc and old enough to have memories of the trip. We have done America a few times, but this is the BIG one IYKWIM. £££
When they were the age your DC are we tended to stick to mediterranean/beach holidays.

I would wait too op. We've just booked for next year for 2 weeks (kids will be 6,10&14)
We've been before when middle child was 2 and while she enjoyed it at the time, she doesn't remember a thing.

If truly once in a lifetime I would wait

We've just forked out £12k for hotel and park tickets. And I envisage another £4/5k spends on top of that whilst there.

Thanks for the advice.

The reason why I don’t think we will go when they’re older is that we would have to go outside of term time - and being able to go in January obviously makes it much more affordable. Also appreciate that the temp will be a bit lower then too.

We tend only to go to my dhs home country in summer, which is a holiday resort town, as we can stay there for free and it is the one time of the year we go (it’s important for dh that the kids are exposed to his culture).

This leaves only Christmas holidays really once the kids are in school.

I could scale it back a bit and just do the Disney cruise - but that would still mean flying to Orlando or somewhere in the US anyway, which then seems a bit silly not to just add on a few days for the parks.

But maybe dh will get his way and we will do an Indian Ocean resort with just beach, kids club, and cocktails

Well if you can only go now I would go...
I absolutely love it, and the kids will certainly love it too even if they don't remember loving it.
We're taking ours out of school to go next year. I imagine we'll go again in another 4/5 years too.

I think they're too young. We good DD when she was 7 and then again at 11. She definitely enjoyed the second trip because she could go on more rides. She remembers very little of the first trip.

Can you stay off park to keep costs down? We rented a condo and car both times. It was easy to drive everywhere and gave us a bit of respite from Disney!

We went Easter hols which wasn't too hot but was obviously pricier than term time.

Would legoland/peppa pig world Florida be more suitable?
If we are going to take a longhaul flight anyway, and we want to do the cruise, we could combine it with the smaller, more toddler friendly parks for a couple of days. So we avoid the queues and walking distance of Disney. But see Mickey etc. on the ship, and we get to do some of the adult stuff while kids in the kids club.

Then, if we like Orlando, we could save up to go again when kids are older for the big rides.

Idea is that dh wants to go somewhere warmish between Jan and Feb, which inevitably means longhaul, so we might as well go somewhere the kids will love (even if they don’t remember).

My honest opinion having been to both places (Florida disney just this past summer) is that Disneyland Paris is just as good (if not better). In the one park it combines the best of Florida's magic kingdom and hollywood studios. If you are able to go to Florida outside of August I'd highly recommend it, due to the extreme heat/extremely heavy rain showers in aug.
(In Paris the iconic disney castle has a function, ie. you can go into the dungeons and walk in it and around it, which young girls like. In Florida, it is just a monument).
Disney is extremely expensive/overpriced and you have to suck that up if you want to go to any of the parks. However travel costs to Paris are so much less than Florida, and no long flights/long immigration queues/jet lag for anyone!
Everyone will have their view but my view was that the kids needed to remember disneyland florida! The youngest didn't remember the Paris disney (she was 5 and 7 the two times we went. Had to go back as she wasn't tall enough for the Nemo ride when we first went!)
You won't be able to do do some of the rides at any of the disney parks due to the young ages of the kids, (very little for a 2yr old) and possibly their heights (if they are small for their age).
Not trying to put you off disney, it is a magical place, however if you can only go once, really factor in the ages/heights of your kids.

I've done Paris and Florida twice and Florida wins hands down for a full holiday. Paris you only need a couple of days in really, slightly longer with younger children maybe.

Took DS to Paris for his 3rd birthday.

To Florida at 4.5 & 6.5 and he had a blast. What amazing memories we have of those trips. We're planning trip 3 for when ds2 is 4 just before starting school, same as ds1 was.

Personally I think 2 is too young - but I've had really cranky toddlers who need their nap times etc so disney certainly wasn't right for them so young. If you have a more placid toddler then loads of people do it.

If going young, and you can afford it, stay on site. So much easier having the Disney transportation available to you. Moderate resorts have better transport links than value resorts but again, increases the price. We stayed at Coronado springs and Caribbean Beach and I'd go back to either in a heartbeat.

Money when there - we had the dining plan so snacks were covered too so we were pretty much in the positions that anything we spent was optional while there. Obviously there is shopping galore in the parks and out. We did a day trip out of the parks on each trip so had the Uber to pay for for each of those. Otherwise we were in Disney the whole time.

I did a supermarket order to be delivered to our hotel for our arrival - cereal, milk, fruit, treats etc to have in the room for the time we spent in resort.

Absolutely amazing experience both times and can't wait to go again.

I've done Paris twice and Florida 3 times. Florida wins hands down. Paris is lovely, but quite small and you run out of things to do after a couple of days. Also, the food is not very good and unless you're in a self catering accommodation (eg Davy Crockett Ranch) you have to either eat what's there at Disney, or go out to Val d'Europe, where there is better, cheaper food - but that might be a bit of a fiddle with a young one.

More choice of food in Florida. Some of it is not good, some of it is very good! (None of it is all that cheap....)

I think your little one might be a bit young. We first took DD in the summer before she started school, so she was just over 3.5. She LOVED it but doesn't remember it now. DH and I have plenty of great memories.

Then we took her again age 10, this Easter. We took her out of school for a bit and had a 3.5 week holiday. It was epic - she loved it. She is a daredevil and tall so was able to ride everything and we went beyond Disney, visiting Universal and Busch Gardens too. I think 10 is a great age to go. She still wanted to queue up to meet Mickey (even though she knows it's just a person in a suit), but she also enjoyed all the thrills. Also, because she was older, we were able to stay in the parks longer and enjoy night-time shows, or just riding the rides in the dark, without worrying about bedtime (we all just went to bed at the same time).

It is very busy at Easter but still manageable and we only used Genie+ once. We were able to go to parks a couple of hours before they closed because DD is a bit older now. Queues were shorter then. I do not regret taking DD out of school for a bit as it made the holiday longer and more relaxed (and cheaper, even though we were away for longer - we went out before school and flew back after the kids had gone back!). Weather is usually really nice at Easter.

It really is a fabulous holiday but I would maybe wait a little bit longer. We stayed offsite for most of the holiday because we didn't want to eat out all the time. But then when we went to Universal we were on-site.

We took ds out of school every year for a week either before/after Feb half term to do disney for several years. Good temperatures, not too busy in the parks. No regrets- it was an amazing holiday destination - multiple parks, dining options, evenings by the pool watching movies, loved it. He's 16 now and has done brilliantly so hasn't caused issue with schooling, and we didn't get fined. Fine was much cheaper than going at easter so we accepted that risk...

If i was you I would wait a couple years at least as 2 is young for the flight, after that crack on! Never done the cruise so can't comment on that, we just loved the disney bubble!

We ended up booking the cruise and will do legoland/Peppa pig world while in Orlando for the week.
Not worried about the flight. We did Mexico with dd at that age and she was fine. Friends of ours are taking the kids of a similar age to Australia - that for me would be a stretch.
Looking at the parks, Disney world itself is probably a bit too old for ds whereas the ship has everything for his needs and is something dd will also enjoy.
Maybe if we like Orlando I will secretly save to go back when they’re older.
Im not too worried about what they will remember or not. I will remember their happy little faces. Who knows what life could bring.
I know a lot of people have said they took their kids out of school. But I just don’t think we will have the annual leave in future - it’s all going to get used up on taking the time off during school holidays when we don’t have childcare.
So thanks for all the advice. Too young for Disney world - but we’re still taking the trip itself because life is too short

I'm with you 100% op, life it too short, even if she wouldn't remember it I'd still take your little one there!

Sounds like you'll have a brilliant time :-)