1st Time Family going to U.S. need help

[mseg16222]

Well doue to my husband demanding that we can only go to Disney every other year I decided to go to U.S. I was there over 10 years ago and have no clue where to start.
First off there is me my husband, and 2 sons that are 7 & 8. We are planning on going the last week of August. And only spening 2 full days there. Is this realistic. Do we need another day. Is the parked packed at this time of year. I know WDW slows down. Should we stay at a resort on site. Or is it a waste of time and money.........
I have just started reading and the information is musch more limited compared to WDW info. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[aurorasleeping]

If it's finacially possible I would definitly suggest you stay on site.
1) You won't need a rental car. You can take boats (or walk) from the hotel to the parks. (Plus you won't have to pay for parking $12 a day I believe).
2) You'll get front of the line acess to all the rides that have Express. Think of it like free, basically unlimited fastpasses all day...and you don't have to wait for a "time window".
With the Express passes you should have no trouble doing both parks in two days (one park per day). If you have an extra day (or part of day) you could just relax at the hotel pool (all of them have *great* pools...and resort guests can pool hop to the other resorts...

The parks shouldn't be to busy, as most kids should be back in school by that time.

If you have any other questions, just ask...I'm sure that If I don't know the answer someone on here does know.

 

[calgarygary]

We were at PBH at the end of last Aug & beginning of Sept. We found both parks to be quiet in the morning but come noon, crowds did form and we were glad to be able to avoid the lines with our room keys.

 

[Angel1]

for all the reasons listed above.

My family has been to Disney 4 times. This past week we stayed at a Marriott resort and did only Universals and Sea World... and I have to say the trip really lacked something. I really felt something missing, and I think if we'd been onsite, that may have felt different.

3 days for the 2 parks was more than enough time (no lines, though), and we really enjoyed Sea World.

 

[robvia]

Kids go back to school August 20th and the place is a ghost town in the morning. People do show up in the afternoon.

I agree that staying onsite lets you "feel" like part of the action. Besides the FOTL, the onsite hotels have awesome pools, and the short walk to/from the parks. It's worth staying onsite, but if that's too much money, there are budget hotels across the street.
Offsite