Going to DisneyWorld in Oct, help!

[dspud]

OK. Here is what we have. A "small" budget of about $2,500 before transportation there. 5 of us total, 2 adults, 3 children, all girls (5,2,6m). I am looking at the last week of October. I have seen there is a free dining plan option during that week. I am looking at going with the Pop Century resort, upgrading the free quick service plan to the regular dining plan (an additional $240 for the week doesn't sound bad). Want to do the Halloween party ($300 bucks for tickets, is this worth it??). That trip comes out to be right about $2500.

I have looked into doing the Art of Animation FAmily suites but the cost is getting a little high. I would like to have money to spend while we are there and don't plan to spend that much time in the room anyway.

Any pointers I should know about? I last went to WDW in 2012 and stayed at Pop Century, and had a great time. However, we only had our oldest daughter then. Since then I see they have changed everything from the tickets to some high tech wristbands.

 

[dspud]

Wondering how one would rent points from a DVC member. I am considering becoming a member and wouldn't mind staying at a resort once to see how its like.

 

[Lucius Best]

Pop is a nice cheaper resort, stayed there once and liked it. Halloween party was very cool, there have been threads recently discussing the Christmas and Halloween parties on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies forum, you can check it out.

We rented DVC points once, it was great, saved a bunch of money staying at Wilderness Lodge, we used dvcrequest.com. But I remember that's something that you want to be booking a year in advance in order to get the resort you want. They have DVC forums on here too.

And yes, lots of things have changed with the MDE app and Magicbands. Check out wdwinfo.com, that's my go-to website to learn about the parks, resorts, restaurants, Magicbands, Fastpass+, etc. Also, easywdw.com is a great website for info on expected crowd levels and best times to go to the parks.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Wondering how one would rent points from a DVC member. I am considering becoming a member and wouldn't mind staying at a resort once to see how its like.

It's really too late to rent points for October. October is incredibly popular with DVC members and many resorts are fully booked at the 7 month mark.

 

[dspud]

Yeah I was reading somewhere else you should do that a year in advance. Might have to spend a few hours and talk to the DVC people. Did that last time, the kids had a great time, and got some cool stuff just for listening. Really wish we would have pulled the trigger last time when they were doing a deal on the Animal Lodge, but at the time with one kid, we didn't really know how much we would want to do Disney vacations. Now, with 3, I can see we will be returning again and again for a while.

 

[Theaberdeenkid]

As a DVC owner I encourage you to consider a resale contract, much cheaper than a direct from Disney sale. There are restrictions on the point usage but only for using them outside the DVC resort system.

 

[100AcreWood]

We have done the MNSSHP with small kids and it was not worth the money in my opinion. It's crowded, it starts late and ends late. The kids just couldn't keep up. It was a lot of money to spend considering we only saw the parade, fireworks and walked a lot looking for candy.

Have a great trip! I totally think you keep it within budget, especially since two kids are still under 3.

 

[tabistar]

We don't think the MNSSHP is worth it with small kids. Ours are worn out by dinner time, and the one time we stayed for fireworks, they were begging to leave to go to bed

POP is great with small kids. We did LM rooms at AoA last time and the kids complained about the distance from the bus stop and food court (even though they both rode in the stroller the whole time ). I would upgrade the dining plan so you can have table service meals, then use those for character meals- buffet and AYCE family style- so you don't have to buy a separate meal for your 2 year old (who isn't old enough for the dining plan).