Hi first time poster and first time disney trip in the works and Im so lost...HELP

hi folks

im going out of my mind here. yes i took the advice of trying to step back and relax and im trying but planning this trip is giving me a headache. im sure when planning my 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc it will be so much easier, but for a 1st timer? im totally lost.

since ive never been to disney, i have no idea where to stay, how to get to parks, what dining plans, which packages are best for us etc, what attractions we even want to see.. the list goes on and on.

little about me and my family. we want to go around memorial day of this year 2015. possibly may 26th-june2nd or the week prior. it will be me, my wife, 2 teenage boys (17 and 16) and 2 girls (ages 7 and 3). we would like to keep the whole trip with airfare to around 8k. i would go a little higher if it meant getting a better deal on something.

things we know for sure we want:
we would like to stay in a resort at the park
we want a meal plan
we want some sort of stroller service for the younger kids
we want to stay 5-6 days
we would possibly like a "fast pass" option if one is available or affordable (this isnt that important)
we would like to have breakfast or dinner one or two nights with disney characters.
we want a shuttle from the airport to our resort and back to the airport for departure.

im sure there is a great deal for all this but i dont even know where to begin. plz help me! ill be ur best friend haha j/k but seriously, u would be making my life a hell of alot easier. i just need some sort of direction. thanks

EightsandAces said:

hi folks

im going out of my mind here. yes i took the advice of trying to step back and relax and im trying but planning this trip is giving me a headache. im sure when planning my 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc it will be so much easier, but for a 1st timer? im totally lost.

since ive never been to disney, i have no idea where to stay, how to get to parks, what dining plans, which packages are best for us etc, what attractions we even want to see.. the list goes on and on.

little about me and my family. we want to go around memorial day of this year 2015. possibly may 26th-june2nd or the week prior. it will be me, my wife, 2 teenage boys (17 and 16) and 2 girls (ages 7 and 3). we would like to keep the whole trip with airfare to around 8k. i would go a little higher if it meant getting a better deal on something.

things we know for sure we want:
we would like to stay in a resort at the park
we want a meal plan
we want some sort of stroller service for the younger kids
we want to stay 5-6 days
we would possibly like a "fast pass" option if one is available or affordable (this isnt that important)
we would like to have breakfast or dinner one or two nights with disney characters.
we want a shuttle from the airport to our resort and back to the airport for departure.

im sure there is a great deal for all this but i dont even know where to begin. plz help me! ill be ur best friend haha j/k but seriously, u would be making my life a hell of alot easier. i just need some sort of direction. thanks

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Have you thought about using a travel agent like Dreams Unlimited? They would be a great resource for you in booking your first trip. And the best part is it is a free service for you. Disney pays them. I am working with them now on my second trip and it's been fantastic.

If you really want t do this all yourself then here are a couple answers to your questions.

- You can book a Magic Your Way package, it takes care of hotel, tickets and transportation to and from airport and parks. You can also ad the dinning plan to take care of meals.

Hope this helps a bit.

Hi Eightsandaces, welcome to the Dis! You're going to want to poke around some of the other boards here on the Dis. Among them, Theme Parks Attractions & Strategies,Disney resorts, and Disney Restaurants. There is an enormous amount of material addressing your questions. There are plenty of "moving parts" to the planning, but honestly, it looks worse on paper (or monitor) than it actually is.

Meanwhile, a couple answers and suggestions to get the ball rolling:

Where to stay--with a group of six you'll want to look at some kind of family suite (at Art Of Animation, for instance), or other larger accomodation. A number of Disney resort rooms are limited to 5 people which may or may not include an infant (check me on this because I haven't dealt with it for decades). Staying on-site is certainly preferable, so your thinking about that is good.

Airfare--is all over the map...literally. There are flights to Orlando from some cities for pretty cheap. If you're in the midwest or further west, the price goes up. Your time frame for traveling is right around the time for peak summer fares.

Meal Plan- Worth taking a look at, but bear in mind that the plans mostly benefit Disney. For instance, some plans offer an appetizer/entree/dessert for each person for each meal. The price is based on the most expensive items in those categories. The minute someone orders the pasta entree instead of the more expensive beef entree, you're upside down on the plan.

Strollers--won't be a problem, there are options for stroller rental both direct from Disney and from independent operators.

Fast Pass--You'll get it & it's free. You'll want to check out the stickys on the various forums for details.

Disney Character Dining--no problem here. Just remember that at most the character meals the entertainment is the big draw, most of the food is meh.

Transportation to/from MCO: No problem, Disney's Magical Express is provided to all guests who stay on site. It's complimentary.

Whether you can do all of this for 8k for 6 people? That's a tough call, but run the numbers, and don't forget to look at the official WDW website.

That's all I have for now. Good luck, and do start working on your plans asap as your window to book restaurant reservations is already open.

ok thanks everyone. ya i been browsing the forums and those just make me even more confused. the amount of options is overwhelming imo. should be easier but maybe im just making a big deal out of it. we recently just got an offer from my wife's co worker who owns a timeshare down in orlando. she says it is 6 mins from disney and it is a house. maybe that would be the better option? downside is we'd have to rent a car and lose out on the meal plan but we get a bigger place to stay with household appliancs like fridge and washer/dryer. u folks think this could turn out better or worse than staying on the resort? i have no idea what travel is like in orlando so maybe this "6 mins" distance turns into 20 with traffic etc. any ideas?

EightsandAces said:

ok thanks everyone. ya i been browsing the forums and those just make me even more confused. the amount of options is overwhelming imo. should be easier but maybe im just making a big deal out of it. we recently just got an offer from my wife's co worker who owns a timeshare down in orlando. she says it is 6 mins from disney and it is a house. maybe that would be the better option? downside is we'd have to rent a car and lose out on the meal plan but we get a bigger place to stay with household appliancs like fridge and washer/dryer. u folks think this could turn out better or worse than staying on the resort? i have no idea what travel is like in orlando so maybe this "6 mins" distance turns into 20 with traffic etc. any ideas?

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So what Disney did when they implemented the new fast pass system is they opened up the fast passes 60 days prior to arrival for resort guests and 30 days prior to arrival for off site guests. Which honestly could make or break you. I see you have 2 little girls in your family so I am not sure where on the list of must dos would be the Anna & Elsa meet and greet. Anna and Elsa meet and greet I have heard is hard to get at 60 days and virtually impossible to get at 30 days. The meal plan is not a big deal. We always get the meal plan bc we like having everything paid for upfront and we don't like to have to worry about prices when we eat. If we didn't have the meal plan we would probably get the cheapest thing on the menu every time and there are only so many cheese burgers you can eat, lol. Yes its nicer to stay in a bigger place, but how much are you going to be in the condo/house? Also florida traffic can be awful. Depending on where the location of the timeshare is. I stayed in 1 timeshare that was literally around the corner from Disney and it still took 15 minutes to get there, and I stayed in another timeshare that was supposively 6 miles away and it took us 30 minutes to get there every morning! Also then you have to pay for parking every day. When you are a resort guest parking is complimentary. I suggest you do a pros and cons list to help you figure out what would be best for your family.

http://wdwprepschool.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-every-disney-world-resort/
This is a really helpful page I found when choosing a resort. Actually, that site has a lot of helpful info.
For a party of six, you could do a family suite at AoA like others suggested, and many of the deluxes offer suites too I believe, but it may be cheaper to just get two joining standard rooms. Definitely check out their value resorts.
There are 3 different types of dining plans, and really it's just best to look and see what's best for how your family eats. It's also important to maybe read up on which disney restaurants are best for "getting your money's worth" on the dining plan. Character meals are almost always a great use of dining plan credits. But if you're going in May, you may want to go ahead and make reservations, as many people have already made them months before and times may be rather limited. I'm going in May as well and it was a small struggle to get a decent time and date for Akershus.
If you stay on-site, like others have said, you get to make fastpass choices 60 days before your trip. 30 days if you're off-site.

Honestly, I'd stay on-site. Earlier access to fastpasses, free parking, transportation between your resort and parks, and the magical express can pick you up from the airport as well. But I'm pretty much always willing to pay a bit extra for convenience.

Welcome!

EmilyS90 said:

Honestly, I'd stay on-site. Earlier access to fastpasses, free parking, transportation between your resort and parks, and the magical express can pick you up from the airport as well. But I'm pretty much always willing to pay a bit extra for convenience.

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This is the same way we feel. We use to stay off site, we had 2 vacations staying off site that were honestly not very fun. It was a lot of traffic getting to the parks then having to fold the stroller up to ride the trams to get into the park from the parking lot and then we felt like we had to stay at the parks all day. We never saw any of the night time stuff because by the time it was dinner time we were exhausted and we always ate off site bc lets face it dining in disney is expensive, lol. Last year we made the jump and stayed on site and we did it up right by staying at the Contemporary, lol. It was fabulous! We never felt rushed to get up and beat the traffic and we never felt like we had to stay at the parks all day. We also had the dining plan and it was awesome to order whatever we wanted off the menus and not have to worry about the prices. My husband who is very frugal even said that from now on we are staying on site when we go to Disney, lol. We had so much fun last year we are going again this year lol. This time we are staying at the Grand Floridian

Hi! Welcome to the Dis! It's a wonderful place - with overwhelming amounts of information, but can really, really help with the planning. I was in your shoes two years ago, planning our first trip - today I'm planning our second, and while I don’t remotely know everything, I've learned a ton, so here goes: (I apologize for writing a book!)

With a party of six, your on-site options are limited. You can try for two adjoining rooms, but they are not guaranteed, and there's a very real chance you won't get them. There's a better chance you'll get them near each other. One option is to stay in one of the Art of Animation Suites. This is what we did our first time. They are one bedroom suites with a sofa bed and a murphy bed out in the main living area. It's a strange idea, but a separate bedroom might work out well for your girls, if they have an earlier bedtime, if you and your wife don't mind staying in the main area with the boys. I'm afraid I'm not that experienced with the resorts, so I don't know if there are better options. We were able to get the spring discount and that helped a lot. The spring discount is available here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/rooms-discount/

Staying on-site gives you the option of not renting a car, which could save quite a bit of money. Disney buses aren't the most fun places to be after a long day in the parks, but they are free. You also get some other perks, such as Extra Magic Hours (before opening or after closing), earlier opportunities for fast passes, and transportation to and from the airport.

An offsite home can be a good option - that's what we're doing this year, because we have seven people. We are renting a car, and paying for parking, but we're saving a ton on the hotel. We will be buying groceries to save food, but if we had a smaller party, we would probably be onsite again. It’s just so cool being AT DISNEY.

Meal plans are must haves for some and absolutely nots for others. We chose not to do one because we wanted to save a little money by having a light breakfast in the hotel - we packed cereal, bread, and peanut butter in our suitcases, and bought milk. One large meal a day in the parks, and then something like ice cream later on. A late peanut butter sandwich at the hotel if anyone was still hungry. (Not the most nutritious set of meals, but it saved a ton of money. Food is VERY expensive at Disney). So try to figure out what you might want to eat, and then add it up to see if you'll save money on the dining plan. Table service meals are quite time consuming and usually have to be scheduled in advance, so it's often easier to do one table service and then quick service for the other meals.

Strollers are available for rent, I know, although I haven't used them. Lots of people have good experiences. Do a search for stroller rentals, and some recommendations should come up.

I definitely recommend checking out the Fastpass FAQ thread. http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/ You'll save a lot of time waiting in line if you get fastpasses. Pick up a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for Kids at your library. It will describe the rides, and help you decide what you want to see.


Character Meals are great, and breakfast is usually cheaper than dinner. Try to find one with the characters your family is most interested in seeing. Some are easier to get than others, but you should be able to find something.

And if anyone in your family is a Star Wars fan, you will be there during Star Wars Weekend. They are a lot of fun!

So I recommend you get some dates nailed down, buy the plane tickets (because they probably won't get any cheaper at this point), and decide on a place to stay. Then once you've got dates, look at crowd calendars http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/ (scroll down for May and June), and plan park days based on crowds, and plan your dinner reservations around them. Start trying to make some ADR's (dinner reservations) - they can always be changed around later if you change your mind.

Most of all, try not to be too overwhelmed. Tons of people go to Disney without hardly any planning at all. Don't be intimidated by the overplanners (such as myself). You will have a wonderful vacation even if you don't know every little tip and secret.

Since it's been a few weeks since your original post, I'm hoping that the advice you've gotten here has already provided much of what you need to know for planning this trip. First, I agree that using a travel agency that is authorized for Disney planning is a great idea! Many times, there are additional perks that they can put into your vacation that you can't get by booking it on your own...and it still costs the SAME as if you book it on your own!!

If you do go it on your own, I want to just offer my thoughts on off site vs on site. We have done both and have always used the dining plan when we stay on site. We used Magical Express only once and LOVED the service! Every other time, we've rented a car because we did other things in the Orlando area that Disney transportation doesn't provide. The time we used Magical Express was only a 4 night stay, so no other local activities were planned -- it was happily all Disney! As for driving in Orlando during Memorial Day time frame....it can get very hectic. I, personally, don't mind driving there; but I've really learned my way around and we always stay at same off site location, so I'm familiar with straight routes as well as alternate routes to/from the parks. This does take several trips to figure out, though; so, if you only have 5-6 days, I would vote for on site....wait till you can spend more time in Orlando before you stay off site.

Hope this helps! If you've already made your plans, I know that you've taken all previous advice into consideration and maybe my thoughts will help someone else who reads this thread. Most of all... HAVE FUN!!!

Dis-Friend

Micca said:

Hi Eightsandaces, welcome to the Dis! You're going to want to poke around some of the other boards here on the Dis. Among them, Theme Parks Attractions & Strategies,Disney resorts, and Disney Restaurants. There is an enormous amount of material addressing your questions. There are plenty of "moving parts" to the planning, but honestly, it looks worse on paper (or monitor) than it actually is.

Meanwhile, a couple answers and suggestions to get the ball rolling:

Where to stay--with a group of six you'll want to look at some kind of family suite (at Art Of Animation, for instance), or other larger accomodation. A number of Disney resort rooms are limited to 5 people which may or may not include an infant (check me on this because I haven't dealt with it for decades). Staying on-site is certainly preferable, so your thinking about that is good.

Airfare--is all over the map...literally. There are flights to Orlando from some cities for pretty cheap. If you're in the midwest or further west, the price goes up. Your time frame for traveling is right around the time for peak summer fares.

Meal Plan- Worth taking a look at, but bear in mind that the plans mostly benefit Disney. For instance, some plans offer an appetizer/entree/dessert for each person for each meal. The price is based on the most expensive items in those categories. The minute someone orders the pasta entree instead of the more expensive beef entree, you're upside down on the plan.

Strollers--won't be a problem, there are options for stroller rental both direct from Disney and from independent operators.

Fast Pass--You'll get it & it's free. You'll want to check out the stickys on the various forums for details.

Disney Character Dining--no problem here. Just remember that at most the character meals the entertainment is the big draw, most of the food is meh.

Transportation to/from MCO: No problem, Disney's Magical Express is provided to all guests who stay on site. It's complimentary.

Whether you can do all of this for 8k for 6 people? That's a tough call, but run the numbers, and don't forget to look at the official WDW website.

That's all I have for now. Good luck, and do start working on your plans asap as your window to book restaurant reservations is already open.

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Do you know if they rent strollers on the cruises also?

Tammy S said:

Do you know if they rent strollers on the cruises also?

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Tammy I don't know the answer, but check out the Disney Cruise forum here on the Dis...all kinds of good stuff there.

You are in the right place! Lots of answers and helpful hints found in The Dis!

Tammy S said:

Do you know if they rent strollers on the cruises also?

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My wife and I just returned from a disney cruise and we didn't see a single stroller on board, this doesn't guarantee that they don't, I'm just saying if they did I would have expected to run into at least one...

Hi, This is my first post. First time on here. My first cruise. My family has been saving to do a family cruise over the last 2 years. We have 18 people so far booked. As we put our deposit down I found out that I have cancer. I don't know if I will make it on the cruise. But I do know I want my wife and kids to go either way. This would be the first cruise for all of us. My wife wanted to cruise with the kids first and then book another alone for our 20th wedding anniversary. I want my family to have the time of my life. I would really like "I beat cancer" to be a big part of the cruise.
As it will be a year from the time I found out I have it. Any ideas? I saw a design once of mickey ears with mickey holding a ribbon. But now I can't find it. I have no idea on how to make things. I liked the ears, would use goofy(my fav,) holding a lime
green ribbon. Any help would be appreciated. Any ideas on what I can make and how VERY much appreciated.

I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis, but I sm sure you can power through this. That cruise sounds amazing, and I am sure you and your family will have a great time. As to your request for finding an image of Goofy and the ribbon I think you might want to try posting on one of the crafting threads as there are lots of talented folks hanging out over there.

http://www.disboards.com/forums/arts-and-crafts.122/

ThanK you. New to all this. Have so much to learn and read I guess.