Planning help requested.

[Semperfi1972]

Okay,

I am going to try and keep this as short as I can with asking all of the important questions I have.

Intro,

Joe (planning fanatic) DH43, Susan (reluctant to planning so early)DW43, Josh (zero planning interest)DS18.

All first time WDW several DL trips.

Semi Budget conscious (15k)but have time to save(Some of that budget will be New Clothes and stuff for trip). (All DL trips have been extreme tight budgets)

DW Birthday is Just over a month after trip as well as our 10yr Anniversary. (Should I plan something extra special without DW knowing?)

Trip is planned for May 30 2018 to June 4, 6, or 8 2018. (Will extra days make a big difference on what is seen and done be worth the extra cost?)

Will be flying from Phoenix AZ to Orlando.
DW wants separate room or separate room in room for privacy.

Resorts Narrowed down to;
ASMo, BLT, CS, FW?

Rental Car Yes or No? I have seen much conflicting opinions about this, I am leaning to yes for the time saved. Especially with the number of Resort restaurants that I would like to go to ADR's will be used a lot lol.

DDP is a definite yes. (I know it will probably cost more but I am looking at the point of not worrying what i order aspect while there.)

MM(Memory Maker) is a yes.

Park Hopper + Water Park and more is a yes.


TL;DR I am a crazy planner and have already made a calendar, spreadsheets, packing lists, countdown timer on phone... I have changed resorts multiple times in two months, which dining plan to do, how many days to go, which parks to go to and when it can all be very fun and overwhelming at the same time. I would love to hear some suggestions from other crazy planners on what to do and what not to do and what was missed or over looked and what was not needed. Also do the ADR make you feel like you are on a time schedule?

 

[Nicholmom3]

Well, 15k is a pretty swell budget. You can do a sweet trip with that for sure.

If wifey wants two rooms, I personally would look into renting points from a DVC member and stay in a suite. Far better use of money than paying the rack rate. I'm not sure the rules on that with ddp though. By FW are you thinking the cabins? Or the wilderness lodge? Very, very different experiences here.

In my opinion, yes, the extra days are worth the extra cost, if only to give you a more relaxed vacation. There is SO much more to do at WDW than DL and you will go insane trying to fit it all in. I personally would choose a moderate resort/longer trip vs deluxe/shorter trip.

A car *may be worth it depending on the price you get. We will be utilizing uber to get to our resort adrs.

You aren't crazy, btw. Or at least, you aren't alone in your crazy. I've been planning our trip for almost a year and I'm now working on our coordinating outfits for each day.

 

[Semperfi1972]

Well, 15k is a pretty swell budget. You can do a sweet trip with that for sure.

If wifey wants two rooms, I personally would look into renting points from a DVC member and stay in a suite. Far better use of money than paying the rack rate. I'm not sure the rules on that with ddp though. By FW are you thinking the cabins? Or the wilderness lodge? Very, very different experiences here.

In my opinion, yes, the extra days are worth the extra cost, if only to give you a more relaxed vacation. There is SO much more to do at WDW than DL and you will go insane trying to fit it all in. I personally would choose a moderate resort/longer trip vs deluxe/shorter trip.

A car *may be worth it depending on the price you get. We will be utilizing uber to get to our resort adrs.

You aren't crazy, btw. Or at least, you aren't alone in your crazy. I've been planning our trip for almost a year and I'm now working on our coordinating outfits for each day.

FW Cabins not Lodge thank you for your response. The rental cars i have looked up have been between $250 and OMG depending on what car you want.

 

[Nicholmom3]

The cabins are lovely, if camping (glamping) is something you Enjoy. You will most certainly have space. You can save a lot of money by buying breakfast items and eating before you go to the parks. There are a TON of fun experiences (horse back riding, fishing ect)
You would definitely want to rent a car if you are at FW, unless you rent a golf cart for the trip. That will allow you to tool around the grounds and utilize the busses. I would say yes to the car at that point.
The negative to FW is if any of you are pool rats. Depending on the location it could be quite a hike to the pool.

Unfortunately that is the only place I have stayed at that is on your list. I would make the case for the Boardwalk (villas if you rent points) or two rooms at POR. Both are gorgeous, have lots of stuff to do for you and your son.

Have you been to the resorts board? You might get a lot more attention over there for planning.

 

[kimbe21]

With a 15K budget I would go for a 1 bedroom at BLT. You could go through Disney directly (much more expensive) or try to rent points from an owner or a broker. Nothing beats walking to MK and a quick monorail ride to Epcot. If you are up for a split stay I would recommend BLT and Beach Club. We did this a few years a go and it was amazing. No need to take buses to any parks!

If you have the time, plan the extra days- especially if you want to do the water parks. WDW is so much bigger than DL and you don't want to feel rushed. And the cost does not increase by much by adding an extra day or two. Ticket prices usually go up in February so if you buy them ahead of time you can save some money also.

I think the rental car depends on where you stay. If you are staying at ASMo then yes rent a car. If you are staying at BLT you probably won't need it as much.

ADRs- They do keep you to somewhat of a schedule but they are necessary for most restaurants.

Planning is half the fun! I love going onto MDE and checking different restaurant times and FP availability. It's like winning the lotto if that hard to get ADR finally opens up! I've got color coded spreadsheets from all of our trips! I just can't help myself!

 

[SGMCO]

One thing that's nice is that WDW your money will go alot farther than DL. You can actually stay onsite with free transportation both from Airport and to all the parks (so you won't even have to rent a car). Magic express is wonderful, you don't have to go a get your checked in bags, they get them for you and deliver them to your room. We have been to WDW many trips and have never rented a car, we love not having to drive. We have never found the transportation to be bad enough to rent a car. After a long day at the parks and you are exhausted the last thing I want to do is drive. We also eat at alot of Resort Restaurants and you just have to plan you best route, give yourself a little extra time but it has been no big deal for us. In your list of Resorts we have only stayed at CS and will be staying there again this next trip, it's a very nice resort, seems to be more adult than any of the Value Resorts or the other Mods. We travel with our DS who is 20 years old and we only book one room. The Mod resorts have queen sized beds. We never have a problem with space in one room. Having the DDP is so nice to not have to worry about what meals cost and you can order what you want to eat.
We always get a Park Hopper but when we first started going to WDW we didn't get one because there is so much to do in each park that we didn't want to leave to go to a different park. I say if you wanted to go to Magic Kingdom during the Day and eat at Epcot at night then a Hopper pass would be worth it. It does take a bit of time to hop parks so keep that in mind.

 

[mdsouth]

Hi and welcome to the DIS! In the Resorts thread, there is a thread for people planning 2017 and 2018 trips that was started a few years ago. So, you may want to join that thread for others who are also planning 2018 trips.

Yes, the extra days will be nice to have and the actual ticket cost will only increase by a short amount. Since this is your first WDW trip, I would plan on just using the busses to get around the parks and resorts. That is unless you do stay at FW. Since you are first time visitors, you will find that just using the bus is more convenient and probably more relaxing since you will not have to worry about how to get to different places within WDW. As someone else said, I think you will be surprised how with just a little planning you will have no trouble getting to your ADRs. I found that the trip to the ADRs gave us a chance to ride the monorail and boats that we might not have done otherwise. And if we got there early, we just enjoyed walking around and exploring the resort.

My own hubby was very grateful and still talks about how he really liked not having to have a car and drive it while he was there was more relaxing for him than most our vacations where we are constantly in the car and trying to navigate new places and deal with traffic. And we are people who do not mind exploring new cities in a car.

I have stayed at three of the four moderate hotels and have enjoyed all of them. They are nice and relaxing. The rooms are a decent size and have two queen beds. It depends on how much privacy your wife wants. The nice thing about the mods and maybe the values (you will have to ask someone who stayed there) there is a privacy curtain between the bed area and the sink area. So, your wife can get dressed and undressed in either the bathroom or behind the curtain by the sink while your son is still in bed. But if she wants more privacy, then you may want to get two rooms at a value or mod or a family suite.

I just checked prices for the family suite at Art of Animation for mid August (comparable to May-June) with a discount and the price for the three of you to stay 8 nights and have tickets water parks and park hoppers for 8 days and the regular dining plan it would run you 5, 260.00. Without the discount it would be around 6, 000. There are family suites at the All-Stars Music too.

The suite will allow you and your wife to have the actual bedroom and your son to sleep on the sofa bed in the main room. The FW cabins should be similar in price.

That is no where near your 15,000 budget. I know air transportation will be expensive but not 10,000. I would just bank that money and then you can use it to pay for a second trip.

 

[bookswin]

Agree on renting DVC points from an owner. You might be amazed at the savings. I have seen it as much as 75% off what Disney was charging for the same thing (OKW studio in mid-December). More likely around 30-50% off. Remember that the hotels charge ~13% tax, to which you would not be subject on a rental.

Look at a 1-BR for the extra separate room for the son. You'd get a full kitchen, jacuzzi, living room, washer/dryer, patio/balcony. These amenities are VERY nice. We normally do not do the DDP in this case, because it's nice sometimes to just pop in a pizza or make pasta/salad and not schlep out to yet another restaurant. DDP is only worth it if you max it out and do not skip meals.

That is a busy, expensive time of year. You'd want probably to find an owner of DVC points at the specific property you want, so you can reserve 11 months out.

At this time, a week that time of year (for 2017) from Disney in a 1-BR BLT standard view unit is about $4800 with tax. Or 250 DVC points at about $13 = $3250. For the same thing (but no daily housekeeping service; it is every 4 days).

Or you could get 2 studios for even more privacy but fewer amenities.

You can get the DDP on a DVC rental. You have to reserve through the owner of the points. No problem.

If your experience is exclusively at DL, you might not quite realize the scale of WDW. It is roughly the size of Manhattan. More days are better if you can swing it. We always rent a car; the $20-40 a day is trivial compared to the overall cost and you will likely save at least 60 minutes a day. Very nice if you want to go to a mall or an outside restaurant or grocery/Wal-Mart. Or make a midnight pharmacy run, as we have had to do.

 

[gap2368]

Okay,

I am going to try and keep this as short as I can with asking all of the important questions I have.

Intro,

Joe (planning fanatic) DH43, Susan (reluctant to planning so early)DW43, Josh (zero planning interest)DS18.

All first time WDW several DL trips.

Semi Budget conscious (15k)but have time to save(Some of that budget will be New Clothes and stuff for trip). (All DL trips have been extreme tight budgets)

DW Birthday is Just over a month after trip as well as our 10yr Anniversary. (Should I plan something extra special without DW knowing?)

Trip is planned for May 30 2018 to June 4, 6, or 8 2018. (Will extra days make a big difference on what is seen and done be worth the extra cost?)

Will be flying from Phoenix AZ to Orlando.
DW wants separate room or separate room in room for privacy.

Resorts Narrowed down to;
ASMo, BLT, CS, FW?

Rental Car Yes or No? I have seen much conflicting opinions about this, I am leaning to yes for the time saved. Especially with the number of Resort restaurants that I would like to go to ADR's will be used a lot lol.

DDP is a definite yes. (I know it will probably cost more but I am looking at the point of not worrying what i order aspect while there.)

MM(Memory Maker) is a yes.

Park Hopper + Water Park and more is a yes.


TL;DR I am a crazy planner and have already made a calendar, spreadsheets, packing lists, countdown timer on phone... I have changed resorts multiple times in two months, which dining plan to do, how many days to go, which parks to go to and when it can all be very fun and overwhelming at the same time. I would love to hear some suggestions from other crazy planners on what to do and what not to do and what was missed or over looked and what was not needed. Also do the ADR make you feel like you are on a time schedule?

some thing you can do to save money

1if you think you need 2 rooms try one of the all star or a room at art of imagination ( really how much time are you going to be in the room)

2 for the most part the DDP is not worth it but if you do go this way do not get the one that has 3 meals 2 snack a day ( I snack all day long and this was too much for me)

3 about the renter car are you going to universal if not save your money disney transpiration is good intact I drive there and do not touch my car until I need to go home I do enough driving at home it is nice not to have to do it there.

4 a few thing you can do to save some money get some food from the grocery store ( plublix is great and close by) I am not saying you have to have all your food form here but you can easily pick up something to have during your stay like some fruit, chips, some breakfast foods just a few thing to take to the park for when you need a little pick me up a taxi or ubo ( sp?) should not be that much.

5 MM this is iffy I never used it until I go tif free with my AP most times you can hand your camera / phone to the CM and they will take your photo with you camera there are a few rides that take your photo where you can see it when you get off and then 2 that you can not see.

as fair as the advance dining yes I hallway feel I am too much on a schedule I have only done this 2 times last year since I do not have to worry about missing it. if there is something you must do then I would do it but I would really limit it to 1 or 2 for ever 7 days I am there.

I too am a avid planer but do not do this for disney I get a general plane like what parks I want to go to and my 3 FP for said park I will going back to disney in 10 weeks for 6 days I have a general idea of what park I would like to go to and the FP for the parks but also if I decide not to go to a park and go to another then I do that.

 

[MiniMom22]

I would rent DVC points and get a one bedroom suite. I don't think a car is necessary, especially if you are at BLT and have the monorail to get to EPCOT and MK. The bus lines for BLT shouldn't be that bad either. The magical express to/from the airport is really nice too but if you plan to venture outside of Disney at some of Orlando's other attractions then you may want to rent the car. As far as missing out on things, DW has more shows and entertainment than DL, just because of the space they have. While on the DW website, you can look at a list of all attractions for each park and mark your favorites by clicking on the heart symbol. I suggest during your planning time, you read about each ride/show/parade and decided if it's something you don't want to miss out on and mark it. The worst thing is getting home and having someone asked you if you did "xyz" and you didn't even know it existed. For dining, I wouldn't book every meal an ADR because you may not want to be held to a strict schedule but there are a few places we always hit that are favorites, like 50's Primetime Cafe at Hollywood Studios, Be Our Guest at MK and we like to do Cinderella's Royal Castle (restaurant inside castle) but that may not be something you're interested in. There are other threads about must-do dining. Again, the best advice I can give you is to read through the list of attractions/entertainment for each park and check it as your trip gets closer in case something closed or changed.

Best of Luck!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Renting a car is essential otherwise you spend a lot of time going from one place to another. DH and I did an test. He drove the rental car from Epcot back to SSR while I took the bus. It took me 38 minutes to get back to the resort. So if you spend that amount of time for each one way trip you could spend 2 hrs going to two parks a day times 5 days and you will have spent 10 hours just on transportation. You can also opt to only get a car for a portion on the trip which avoids paying the added airport fee's when you rent from the airport. We have rented park way through a trip and returned the car to the airport with no drop off fees! . Alamo has a rental site on WDW property and they will come pick you up for free.

 

[Virtucomp]

1) We have used DVC rentals points three times and never had an issue. Twice from the company who advertises on Disboards, David's DVC. Once was a friend.
2) Since you have so much time before the trip you can pic any resort and book it 11 months in advance with DVC rental. Before you decide on the resort pick a park you would visit most often. Boardwalk and Beach Club are walking distance to EPCOT (5 min) and Hollywood Studios (20 Min). You won't need a car and buses seem to come more often for Deluxe resorts.
3) DisneyWorld will definitely require more days than you think. We usually spend 2 days at EPCOT and MK and one at each of the other two parks. If your going to the water parks add more. We have to fly also so the cost to get down there makes us want to stay longer.
4) We've had mixed results with the dining plan but it does work out to get it and not think about what your order. Dining plan does not include Tips and alcohol so plan for that. It is a lot of food.
5) I have no problem planning this far in advance either.