Trip to Disney World

[JordanMaria]

Since my brother and I love Disneyland so much, I thought I would plan a trip for us to Disney World as his Christmas present as we have never been there before.

For those who have been there before, what advice/tips would you like to share?

I found this site: http://yourfirstvisit.net/ and it's giving me great ideas, but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

Do you have any "must do" shows or food venues? I'm planning on staying 9 days as the site suggested. Since I'll be going with my brother, he's not going to be into any princessey stuff.

[Bill]

Standby. WoB is on the way.

[WifeofBill]

My two go to websites, http://www.allearsnet.com and http://www.mousesavers.com. Both offer a wealth of information.

Are you planning on staying on or off property? Will you have a car? When are you going? the week between Christmas and New Years is the busiest of the entire year, second to Easter week. The weeks leading up to Christmas are some of my favorite. Low crowds, decorations are up, weather is tolerable. As for food, All Ears has menus from every restaurant. My favorites for Magic Kingdom is Librty Tree for lunch, not dinner, Columbia Harbor House, and Cosmic Rays. Epcot love Garden Grill, Germany and Morocco. Canada has great reviews but we've never been. Animal Kingdom we LOVE Tuskerhouse, but they just raised the prices significantly. Hollywood Studios we rarely eat at. I would recommend hopping the boat and eating at Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort. If eating with Mickey is a must eat breakfast, it's cheaper, or Garden Grill.
I'll post more later. Heading out. Let me know what other questions you have.

[JordanMaria]

Thanks WOB!

I'm planning to stay in one of their value resort hotels. We're never going to be in the room except to sleep so we don't need to spend a lot on that. That site I linked suggested I book in the weeks right after Thanksgiving because that's when crowds are low, so I think I'm going to do that.

As for food, I'm thinking on getting a meal package. The less spending I have to do when I'm there, the better. I'd rather spend my money on all the pins I collect. lol I think I'll get the package that gives three meal credits per day person. We can use them whenever and since I've read some restaurants require two meal credits, the more, the better. I highly doubt we'll do a sit-down meal for breakfast and lunch so we can use all the credits for dinners.

Does DW have FastPass?
What age range do they consider a "child"?

Those websites are great thank you!!!

[Sharon]

WDW uses Fastpass and it's awesome.

I like the meal plan because. . . I'm cheap, and paying real dollars at the restaurant feels like extravance. When I'm on the meal plan and it's bundled in, I relax more. Dessert is included, and I <3 dessert, but $5-10 dollars per person for a dessert I can't bring myself to do. (Especially since it doesn't all get eaten up) but on the meal plan, kids order dessert, it's wasted, but I paid the same amount either way.

I recommend the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. (Your library might have a copy) I find it very helpful & informative.

[WifeofBill]

Buy pins on eBay! You can buy in bulk for cheap, then you'll have lots to trade. Children are 3-9 years old. We've stayed at Pop Century. Loved it there, the over sized Disney(ness) was fun. There is also the new Animation hotel. The pictures on All Ears look really fun. Take at advantage of fast pass, but you're going during the slow time so it won't be bad. I've gone during that the time of year you're looking at and have walked on EVERYTHING! My longest wait was for the monorail, and that was 5 minutes. Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios has a long wait no matter how dead the parks are and runs out of fast passes very early in the day. The pools are heated, so you might be able to swim if the weather is mild and you aren't a wimp like us locals who wear a jacket in 70 degree weather. Plan a day for Downtown Disney. Lots of shopping, huge pin store, yummy restaurants, Goofy Candy Co., you can design your own treats.

How's that for overwhelming you with information? Feel free to ask lots of questions. I've been going to Disney for 35 years.

Hey, if you'll be here December 2, come join us for a Color Run 5k. http://www.thecolorrun.com

[guestagain]

I bought the book "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World." It was great. It tells what the crowds are at each park every day. What park to go to. What order to do the rides to get the smallest lines and a bunch of other stuff. It was definitely worth buying for us.

[bean]

Lots of fun!
We finally got to go about 5 years ago, it was a dream of my wife's to take the kids. We finally did. Loved it.
We went through a travel agent and booked the trip but I think we got a fair deal. We stayed off property and had an apartment type hotel room with everything...it was actually cheaper than staying there. We had the week pass. Ate the hotel hot breakfast (it was awesome)--noon at disney--usually made our own food for supper. I think I would have bought the meal plan. It costs money no matter how you do it!

Have fun!! What a great trip and great sister you are!

[Beowulf]

You DEFINITELY want to take advantage of Fast Pass. Also, some of the resort hotels offer extended park hours on certain days. We stayed at Coronado Springs, one of the less-expensive Disney hotels. We had a shuttle to and from the Magic Kingdom, and we could stay in the park from 7:00 am until 2:am the next day. We stayed almost that long.

[WifeofBill]

When will you be here? The new Fantasyland opened today as well as the remake of Test Track. The video of the dragon flying over Magic Kingdom was so cool.