1st Time from MI

[grammy2dj]

Hello - first time visitor to WDW from Detroit MI. Planning trip March 15-19, 2011 w/my grandson for 5th birthday. Lots of info to go through. Planning to stay at All Star Sports and get QSDP. Visiting AK, MK and Hollywood Studios. Wondering if we should book through travel agent with package or do items sepately to get better pricing. Opinions please... Thanks!

 

[j-me]

I am from MI too! And this is our 6th trip. You will love it. We actually drive to Detriot to fly out on Spirit Airlines. I am a budget savy trip taker and I found thru Disney, Expedia, Orbitz.. ended up being the same price for the Disney Part... but the airfare was awesome thru Spirit. We are flying round trip checking 2 bags for $100per person.!! Straight from Mi to Orlando..no stops.
I ended up booking thru WDW (disney). And we are getting FREE dining. Check the dates you are going as WDW as posted FREE dining dates in 2011. Have a great time planning..

 

[Metro West]

 

[kdault]

From Michigan too, 3rd trip thru a travel agent. I registered on the Walt Disney World site many months before and reviewed many vacation packages to get estimates $$. No public discounts at the time but we would get them even after booking if they came out. But then I got an email from disney, with a hotel discount code, I gave it to my travel agent with what I wanted (Resort, preferred rooms, connecting, 6 day w/park hopper, QSDP). She did all the work.

If Free dining then came out, she would check to see which discount would be better, hotel or dining.

She used Disney for flights for 4 or us and found cheaper flights for my daughter who is in Chicago.

47 more days.

 

[Disneydonnam]

Welcome to the Disboards.

 

[bellenbuzz]

The DIS is extremely helpful, informative and friendly!
Enjoy the planning and research and exploring all the magical things WDW has to offer!

We are in Michigan too and are planning our 4th WDW vacation...

I have always booked a package directly with Disney. We prefer to stay at a Disney Resort, with Tix, Park Hopper and Dining Plan.....
Always found that the best way to go for our group...

Good Luck and Have Fun, It Will Be a Fantastic, Magical and Memorable Trip!

 

[grammy2dj]

thanks for the welcome and the info! We will go with the travel agent - especially if they can still apply any discounts that would apply after booking. Looking forward to the trip and trying to do as much planning to ensure no stress during trip. What are crowds like mid-march - understand it is peak season... Instead of trying to do everything in a few days planning just to arrive 1st day and get adjusted to the area, maybe visit downtown disney and swimming at All Star Sports, then 1 park for the next 3 days and then visit other resort sites before leaving on last day. Grandson's 5th birthday is on the Thursday and we need to plan something extra magical for him. have been looking at the info on the best places to eat. We will have quick service dining plan and don't want to end up eating fries and chicken fingers/burger/hotdogs the entire time.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Hello - first time visitor to WDW from Detroit MI. Planning trip March 15-19, 2011 w/my grandson for 5th birthday. Lots of info to go through. Planning to stay at All Star Sports and get QSDP. Visiting AK, MK and Hollywood Studios. Wondering if we should book through travel agent with package or do items sepately to get better pricing. Opinions please... Thanks!

Absolutely no need for a travel agent, middle man, you can do all the booking yourself right on the Disney site. There are posted room discounts on the site now for the time you are going. Also, you can't get the dining plan unless you purchase a Magic Your Way package that include room, tickets and dining. You can't buy the dining separately.

I would highly recommend upgrading to the Basic dining plan that has 1 TS, 1 CS and 1 Snack per person per day if you don't want to eat fast food your entire trip.

Also, I noticed that Epcot is not on your list. There's no way I would skip Epcot with a 5 year old boy - Test Track, Soarin', The Living Seas Aquarium, Turtle Talk with Crush, Journey to Imagination, Spaceship Earth, Ellen's Energy Adventure with the dinosaurs, The Mexian Pavilion and boat ride, Norway and the Maelstrom ship ride, the acrobats in China and Illuminations were and still are do not miss attractions for my kids.

 

[tinksgilrs251520]

we are leaving in just a few hours well at noon but it sounds better and just wanted to say to a fellow MI gander welcome to the boards and you will love Disney and this site lots of very good info comes from the boards...

 

[Lisa0620]

Choosing whether or not to use a travel agent is more about your personality than price in my opinion. If you get a travel agent you should use one that specializes in Disney. A good travel agent will check every new discount that comes between the time that you book and March and will rebook you each time a better deal comes out. There's no fee to you, so this is a great way to go. The downside is, if you want to make a change to the reservation you HAVE to go thru the agent, Disney won't talk to you directly. If you're more of a control freak type and actually enjoy doing the research use Mousesavers.com to keep track of current discounts. The end result should be the same price.

For dining, check out Allears.net. They have all the restaurant menus, so you can peruse the counter service menus from home and make note of which ones have non-nugget type options. A couple that come to mind are Wolfgang Puck Express and Earl of Sandwich in downtown Disney, Cosmic Ray's in MK, flame tree bbq in AK, there are lots of others too.

Touringplans.com has a calendar that shows the least crowded park(s) for each day and also has some suggested itineraries. You have to pay a subscription fee to see March dates now, but if you wait until closer to your trip you can see that information for free.

Read everything you can about Fastpasses, it will make your trip so much more enjoyable to use them as much as possible.

The disboards has a great search engine. I have the most success with "show posts" versus "show threads." If you can think of a question, it's probably already been asked and answered!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Disn3y]