I have only gone and booked to go to Disney World next year OMG!!! Dreams do come true!!!

[xxpeplyxx]

So the Last time I went was August 2013, for 2 weeks, it was the most amazing trip, some of you may remember my live trip report, my partner proposed to me obviously I said yes!! it was so magical. However we honestly thought it would be years and years until we would be able to return again. Then in the November of 2013 I fell pregnant whilst on the pill we were happy but totally not prepared nor expecting that news lol, that kind of made any plans to go back to Disney seem like it would never happen!

Anyhow today I booked................ yes that's right I booked!! WE ARE GOING BACK TO DISNEY MAY 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG

I am sitting here shaking, I feel like shouting from the rooftops I am that happy, we are going rom may 2nd for 14 nights and not only that but we are staying at my dream resort, animal kingdom lodge wahooooo! we also have the regular Disney dining plan which we have never used before either so for us this will be a totally different holiday, what with a baby in tow and the Disney dining plan to

so now for a few questions which I would much appreciate any answers to x

how easy is the Disney dining plan to use?
what is it like going to Disney with a nearly 2 year old little boy (1 year 10 months)
what is the animal kingdom lodge like? is it as amazing as it looks? (standard room)
what are flights like with a toddler?
how different is the memory maker to the photo pass plus?
what is the weather like in may? we usually go I July, august time.
what is it like planning your trip around meals and fast pass? in the past we haven't planned a single second of our holiday, and this time it will be heavily planned, im worried It'll be more stressful!

thanks so much for your time much love xxx

 

[scoobydooby]

Congratulation May for your dates should be a little quieter on the whole and less wet. May should be a bit cooler too but last May it was in the 90's when we were there! It was less humid. I have stayed in a standard room at AKL and asked for a room near the front desk. I got this, great location but rubbish view of the front of the hotel. However, I did not pay for a Savannah view and did not expect to get one for free. There are plenty of animal viewing areas in the hotel. It really is a truly beautiful resort you are going to love it! Your baby may be ready with supervision for the splash zone play area over at the DVC resort next door to AKL (Kidani Village). The food court is great for a deluxe resort and the rooms are very cool too. Plenty of room for a cot. We had one in our closet when we stayed there so they are probably standard and available for all rooms.

DDP is easy to navigate. Just try and organise to make your ADRs at 180 days out. Going with a baby I would personally advise you book either late breakfasts (11am or 11.30am if possible) and lunches. This will allow you to keep to baby's routine better and a happy baby makes for a happy holiday. AKL actually has two great on site table service restaurants and Kidani Village has a lovely one too. Great convenience given you have a baby with you.

Have a great time planning.

 

[macca77]

First off congratulations it's so exciting to book.
We have been a few times when are eldest was a baby and now our youngest was a baby, 15 months 19months and 16 months. It went really well every time, we just tried to keep to their routine with feeds and sleeps. What time are your flights?? Try to bring some colouring pens and maybe some little items wrapped up to open.
Are you flying with Virgin??
When your their just go with the flow hopefully your child will love meeting the characters are eldest did as a baby our youngest was a little unsure. It's amazing to see it with the children.
May weather is fantastic its our favourite time to go.
If you have any questions more about the baby I will be more than happy to help anyway I can.

 

[xxpeplyxx]

Thank you both for you replies, im hoping, however im not sure weather he will be the same then as he is now, but his routine is usually all of the place anyway because of our working ours and he is a happy ball of joy, sleeps through the night, goes to sleep between 6:30 & 7pm currently weather we are I. Or out, if he falls asleep in his buggy we can move him from his buggy to his cot without waking him, so he is actually pretty easy going when it comes to routine and things but I know this may be different with a 22 month old lol, however we plan to go completely with flow (I guess that's all you can do with a nearly 2 year old) there will be me my fiancé and my mum going as well as my son so plenty of adults to muck in with Toby, do you think we will see a noticable difference in crowds compared to when we go the end of july, August usually? And also its lovely to hear that the weather isn't quite as sticky to x oh im so excited, how am i going to contain myself for nearly 10 months! Im sure I'll be occupied by booking meals and fastpass's when I can but I have a while until even that yet!

 

[xxpeplyxx]

Oh and yes we are flying with Virgin 1pm our flight out is and 7 something pm out flight home, we love Virgin so we're happy with that, he will be on our laps for the flights but ive seen parents in the past with toddlers and they are walking up and down the isles have the flight lol, so we shall be prepared for that! however I do plan to do what you said and take a bag of things and get something new out every hour to hopefully keep him occupied, that the and the iPad should work wonders lol and hopefully a nice long nap (on daddy lol) but he loves watching what's going on and I can bet he will stay awake most of it lol!

 

[Shazzie B]

Haven't travelled with a toddler but I'd imagine AKL will be fantastic for that age, nice & quiet for naps, zero entry pool etc. With Virgin you can do the 'book the sit next to you'thingy for £65, may be worth thinking about so he's not on a lap all the time, as they head towards two they like a bit more 'independence'

We're on a similar count down, going May 14th next year, enjoy the planning

 

[BagOLaughs]

First of all... I'm so jelous! But I hope you have a really amazing time!! The deals at the moment are some of the best I've ever seen for Disney holidays so you've chosen an amazing time to go.

how easy is the Disney dining plan to use? - Easy peasy. Once you've used it the 1st time you'l have it down!

what is the animal kingdom lodge like? is it as amazing as it looks? (standard room) - I'll tell you in September after I've eaten in Boma haha.

what is the weather like in may? we usually go I July, august time.
- May is amazing! less rain but still lovely and Warm. You might get the end of the flower and garden festival in EPCOT which is amazing.

what is it like planning your trip around meals and fast pass? in the past we haven't planned a single second of our holiday, and this time it will be heavily planned, im worried It'll be more stressful!
- It can be stressful if you make it stressful but if you do as I do and think of it as a fun puzzle game it can actually be very fun! remember to plan but don't overplan!

Have a fun time planning!!!

 

[BudgieMama]

what is it like planning your trip around meals and fast pass? in the past we haven't planned a single second of our holiday, and this time it will be heavily planned, im worried It'll be more stressful!
- It can be stressful if you make it stressful but if you do as I do and think of it as a fun puzzle game it can actually be very fun! remember to plan but don't overplan!

If you want some days to be more flexible, why not book some signature restaurants, which take 2 credits per meal, and have some other days where you don't have an ADR booked, so you can be a bit more go with the flow. Could provide a nice balance

Congratulations on booking!

 

[pickers1982]

Hi!

Few comments

You'll love animal kingdom lodge it's fantastic and will be great for a toddler! Animals pool and general feel is amazing. Jiko is possibly my favorite restaurant ever!

On our last trip with travelled with a 2 year old (+3months) and put it this way we be booked to go back in October with an 11 month old.

Flight out was good despite our son being on steroids(which make you hyper) and deciding he no longer liked TV! So plenty of walking around!!!!!! He slept the whole flight back

All kids are different, but he had a great time with highlights for him probably being the characters and pool (well worth researching character meets as loads never noticed before). Talking Mickey was a highlight.

Teppan edomwas great for him as loved watching the cooking. Most meals were good (on dining plan so lots of sit downs) the odd one when he was a bit fidgety. We were at the beach club so always planned our day at a time where we could walk him to sleep at nap time. He doesn't cope well with tiredness!

We re so glad we did the trip. If I can be of any help feel free to message me.

Unfortunately he did get tired so meant we made most adrs early and accepted we wouldn't see fireworks etc

 

[pickers1982]

One other thing on virgin don't forget to book a kids meal as they don't always do it automatically

 

[poppyberry]

We are also going on 2nd May but for 16 nights! We are travelling with our 3 (by then nearly 4) year old and our daughter who will be 16 months! I've been with my boy at 16 month and 25 months both great experiences. May is a lovely time to go we did our wedding there end of April and honeymoon in May a few years ago, weather was great and parks seemed ok too.

Disney is just great with kids they get so much joy out of it whatever their age. Like someone else said we are doing it again, in fact I'm taking my 3 year old and 11 month old out to LA soon! I find the people who say I'm crazy to take them to these places so young have never even tried it. I think they're the crazy ones for attempting "relaxing" beach holidays!

 

[dixonsontour]

We first took DD at 22 months. She was great on the plane - made the row in front laugh when she announced 'Anna get off bus now'. She loved the pool. They also had toddler booster seats in restaurants which were good as DD was too big for a highchair. She ended up sleeping late but staying up late - we went with the flow and had lie ins. Also took her favourite spot the dog dvd. Happy memories.

 

[macca77]

Oh and yes we are flying with Virgin 1pm our flight out is and 7 something pm out flight home, we love Virgin so we're happy with that, he will be on our laps for the flights but ive seen parents in the past with toddlers and they are walking up and down the isles have the flight lol, so we shall be prepared for that! however I do plan to do what you said and take a bag of things and get something new out every hour to hopefully keep him occupied, that the and the iPad should work wonders lol and hopefully a nice long nap (on daddy lol) but he loves watching what's going on and I can bet he will stay awake most of it lol!

The reason i ask is that you now can book a seat+ with virgin, i think it was £60 i forget now but it meant that Eva got her own seat for a fraction off the price we would normally pay and the space was a big help, well worth considering if you can put it in your budget, with your mum going you then could have the 4 seats in the middle. It was also a great help for the flight home as we was able to lie her down in the chair and we could spread out a little.

Also remember the downtown disney check out with virgin we always use this and it just gives us that bit longer to enjoy the magic and get to a park.

Other than that i agree go with the flow it will be amazing, and wont make it stressful trying to do things that may have to change.

We go back december 26th and Eva will be 2 half then, so we cant wait either for the planning now.

 

[xxpeplyxx]

Wow thank you all again for more replies, I didn't have a clue about booking the extra seat for on Virgin that's great to know, and as for the ordering my son a meal I had no clue about that either so thanks for that to! I keep thinking of so many questions Id like to ask but I never have my phone with me to write them all down lol.

Is the weather still warm enough to use the pool & stay in shorts and vest of an evening? Im just used to being too hot and too sticky and no where in between when we usually go lol!

Also we want a day trip to sea world? Are there Any buses we can get from disney? (We planned on taxi both ways)

Can we still select colours of magic bands before we go or do we have to have grey?

Do you take enough nappies with you for your stay/buy them out there? We won't have a car so no access to Walmart

Did you find there was enough food on the regular dining plan? And can you literally pick anything off the menu even if its something really expensive like steak!

Where would you recommend we eat, what with all the choices we now have open to us, me and my partner would love to eat at boma but we worry there wouldn't be enough choice for my mum who is a little fussy, also what did you do food wise for under 2's my son loves his food? Do they have a menu we can buy from separate for him?

And lastly have any of you just done disney world? Is there enough to do to fill the time? We usually do all the disney parks, Busch gardens, aquatica, US & IOA sea world, like literally all the parks there are to do in the 14 days and this time we will just be doing disney and 1 day to sea world because it seems wrong to drag our son round the other parks when there isn't much there for him! But im worrying the days will be to Samey, I know this time we will have lots more meals to have etc because of the dining plan but do you think doing just disney will be ok?

I think that's all my questions for now lol but I'm sure I'll have more again soon

 

[LiquidSunshine]

Congratulations on booking!

what is it like planning your trip around meals and fast pass? in the past we haven't planned a single second of our holiday, and this time it will be heavily planned, im worried It'll be more stressful!

we didn't put loads of planning into it TBH, but I did draw up a plan of what parks I wanted to do on what days and booked ADRs & FP+ around to suit. It will only become stressful if you make it stressful. Instead, just get a rough timetable drawn up and then have fun selecting your ADRs & FP+!

Can we still select colours of magic bands before we go or do we have to have grey?

Yes, once you have your reservation linked up to MDE, you will be able to go in and select your colours!

Happy planning!

 

[NatalieMT]

Can't answer all of your questions, but hope you have a fabulous time! We are staying at AKL for the first time this August and I'm super excited.

We just got back from a trip April/May this year and the weather was lovely, nice and hot, minimal rain. I have been in previous years around this time and it hasn't been quite as hot but still decent weather all the same.

I enjoy all the planning and things work out fine even when you have fastpasses and meals booked in, I leave enough time in between things for it not to feel regimental and to be able to go with the flow a bit. Just make a plan of which parks you will go to on which days and go from there.

 

[dixonsontour]

Garden grocer will deliver groceries/nappies if you don't plan on a trip to Walmart. Although if you take nappies you will have lots of space for things on the way home.

 

[Elise79]

Wow thank you all again for more replies, I didn't have a clue about booking the extra seat for on Virgin that's great to know, and as for the ordering my son a meal I had no clue about that either so thanks for that to! I keep thinking of so many questions Id like to ask but I never have my phone with me to write them all down lol.

I believe that VA are stopping the seat plus as of 1 May 2016 so you may not be able to book it. Also lap infants don't get a child meal the only option for them is a baby meal which was stage 2 jars and not really suitable for a nearly 2 year old.

Is the weather still warm enough to use the pool & stay in shorts and vest of an evening? Im just used to being too hot and too sticky and no where in between when we usually go lol!

May is hot and certainly warm enough to swim even for me. I won't swim in FL from November to March as its just too cold!!

Also we want a day trip to sea world? Are there Any buses we can get from disney? (We planned on taxi both ways)

There are Lynx buses from DTD or you can get a mears shuttle or taxi.

Can we still select colours of magic bands before we go or do we have to have grey?

Yes once your reservation is linked on MDE under MagicBands and Cards you will see your new order - it only shows on a computer not the app.

Do you take enough nappies with you for your stay/buy them out there? We won't have a car so no access to Walmart

When DD was in nappies I always took the nappies with me took them out of the packets and spread them all over the cases

Did you find there was enough food on the regular dining plan? And can you literally pick anything off the menu even if its something really expensive like steak!

Yes, more than enough. You can pick anything on the menu except dishes shown as being for more than one person (unless people want to share)

Where would you recommend we eat, what with all the choices we now have open to us, me and my partner would love to eat at boma but we worry there wouldn't be enough choice for my mum who is a little fussy, also what did you do food wise for under 2's my son loves his food? Do they have a menu we can buy from separate for him?

For DD we used to do a mixture of sharing with us and buying kids meals. At buffets and AYCE he will be free anyway. We preferred the character meals that were served family style when DD was little as the food is brought to you (Garden Grill & Ohana breakfast as the ones severed like that) - with buffets we found we ate in shifts and didn't have a family meal.

And lastly have any of you just done disney world? Is there enough to do to fill the time? We usually do all the disney parks, Busch gardens, aquatica, US & IOA sea world, like literally all the parks there are to do in the 14 days and this time we will just be doing disney and 1 day to sea world because it seems wrong to drag our son round the other parks when there isn't much there for him! But im worrying the days will be to Samey, I know this time we will have lots more meals to have etc because of the dining plan but do you think doing just disney will be ok?

Yes we have done 2 weeks just Disney with a beach day thrown in. Haven't done US/IOA or SeaWorld for years. We don't spend all day in the parks though - we always have a break of an afternoon. Never been bored.

I think that's all my questions for now lol but I'm sure I'll have more again soon

Don't stress about it - just go with it would be my tip. TBH I have never been one for routine too much with DD and she adapts to holiday really easily - happy to do early mornings and late nights

 

[BagOLaughs]

Is the weather still warm enough to use the pool & stay in shorts and vest of an evening? Im just used to being too hot and too sticky and no where in between when we usually go lol!

Heck yea! It was super duper warm and lovely when I went in May. A little cooler in the evening but still shorts weather.

Also we want a day trip to sea world? Are there Any buses we can get from disney? (We planned on taxi both ways)

I don't think there are. When I've researched this in the past the buses/trolley has always been really bad for getting around. So I'd personally suggest Taxi. But others may have different mileage.

Can we still select colours of magic bands before we go or do we have to have grey?

As far as i know you're allowed to choose a colour.

Did you find there was enough food on the regular dining plan? And can you literally pick anything off the menu even if its something really expensive like steak!

Oh my gosh yes! So much food... A tip, if you use your QS credit in a hotel, pick up a bottled drink but save it for the parks. Just use your re-fill mug for the meal.

Where would you recommend we eat, what with all the choices we now have open to us, me and my partner would love to eat at boma but we worry there wouldn't be enough choice for my mum who is a little fussy, also what did you do food wise for under 2's my son loves his food? Do they have a menu we can buy from separate for him?

I think even places like Boma will have plenty of "safe food" along side the more adventurous offerings for people who are a little less adventurous. I'd say go for it! For QS I'd recommend Columbia harbour house (MK) Sunshine Seasons (epcot) Flame tree BBQ (AK) Yack and Yeti Cafe (AK) Sassagoula Floatworks and food factory (port orleans french quarter)

And lastly have any of you just done disney world? Is there enough to do to fill the time?

Chilled out by the pool, gone fishing, explored the resorts, downtown disney, broadwalk, both water parks, mini golf... There is plenty to do during a 14 night stay. There was still stuff that we wanted to do but didn't' have time to when we left.

 

[xxpeplyxx]

Thanks for your reply dixonsontour gutted about VA stopping seat plus, I may have to buy some food from one of the restaurants in the airport that toby can eat cold on the flight, he loves his food, is there anyway I could pay for him to have an inflight meal, i must say of all things most worried about the long flight and occupying a nearly two year old the whole time.

Glad it's still warm enough to swim we do love to go back to the pool during the day for a swim.

Random question but supposing we wanted a car for say 3/4 days in the middle of the holiday could we do this from the hotel and have the car brought to the hotel for us to use for those days and collected again?