1st time to WDW and looking for the best price. All info welcome!

[kasandria]

Hello everyone! This will be my first time to WDW and I want a great experience for a decnt price. I ahve been doing my "homework" and wanted to see what everyone thought. It iwll be my DH, me and an infant. (22 months at time of travel) And we plan on going May 1st-7th. Through the Disney website I found All Star Movies with reg. dreammaker package for $1,332. And through Expedia I found Doubletree Inn with a 5-day hopper for $918.32. Is this the best I can get? THANKS so much for everyone's help!
Kasandria in TN

 

[Bichon Barb]

I recommend staying away from the packages. I think most will agree they are overpriced.

Definitely start by visiting http://www.mousesavers.com.

You need to decide if you want to stay in a hotel or a home away from home. On property or off. We wanted to have a kitchen so we wouldn't be dependent on restaurants for three meals a day. Wilderness homes were too expensive for us, so I did a little research and found a nice three bedroom townhome close to Animal Kingdom with pool for a song and a dance.

Are you flying or driving. If you're flying, maybe you want to sign up for a fare watcher or on expedia.com or travelocity.com.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[MELSMICE]

If you are working on a budget then al a carte is the way to go. If you want convenience & someone else to do all the work then go with a package. However, I must add that my sister is a travel agent & tells me it's less expensive to do the work ourselves than go with a package.

You will get many opinions about staying on or off-site. I personally prefer on-site because you get the whole Disney experience.

With a party of 3 you will be able to stay at any resort. Now you need to decide if you want deluxe, moderate or value. As the previous poster said, you must check out mousesavers.com.

We always rent a car, however, if you stay on property you really don't need one, but you are forced to dine in their restaurants. Unless you drive & then you will already have a car.

My personal favorite place to stay is FW, but we have a family of 5 so we like the extra room. I have never slept at an All Star, but spent a few evenings there with relatives & found it to be pretty loud, although I thought the theming was fun.

With a toddler you may want to think about a monorail resort. You will probably find yourself spending a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom in Fantasyland or Mickey's Toontown Fair & being able to hop on the monorail & be back at your resort quickly is a real plus. All of the monorail resorts are deluxes & are very nice.

There is a lot to think about. I would get your budget on paper, decide what's most important & then research, research, research. You will get very valuable information from these boards.

Good luck & have fun planning - that's almost 1/2 the fun.

By the way - your toddler will not need a ticket for admission!!

 

[catwho]

Yes; you can do much better than that and stay on site as well! A la carte is the best way to go for us penny pinchers. YOu can even find a way to save money on dining if you pack your breakfast foods (like cereal or pastries) and rent a fridge. An extra $10 a day, but you can save more than that if you eat one meal in your room each day.

With a toddler your options are very open to where you stay. If you stay at the AS's I would definitely choose one that is towards the back of each resort near the quiet pool as the noise levels seem to be lower and kids tend to sleep better. I don't think the walk is that much further to the bus stop. Also with a toddler, make sure you pack alot of your own snack foods that you know s/he will eat.

Have fun!

 

[DianeV]

Definitely keep an eye on Mousesavers for resort discount codes. I know there arent any through May yet but it seems they have been offering them pretty consistently.

Yes with a toddler I would go ahead and stay onsite as well. AS resorts will be loud but maybe your little one will like the theming. Or as mentioned you can do a monorail resort and have ease of riding back and forth for rest time or naps or ???

I have ALWAYS found doing it yourself you can get much cheaper than a package.

You may want to check out www.biddingfortravel.com for airfare or car rentals on Priceline.

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says..........................You must book your trip yourself. There is no package anywhere that you can't beat.
Just for fun on our second trip we went to an agent. I asked why are the packages so high? She said oh, we have some great packages. So I laid out the deal for our trip, and within a minute she exclaimed wow we can do that for $3800, what a deal! And I said let me think about it. In less than an hour I called back and asked, are you sure that's a good deal? Yes, it 's fantastic!
Then I calmly stated that I got the same deal at the same hotels, with the the same tickets, for $2650. She said that is impossible! I said you are right, I don't get 3 fanny packs, and three key chains, and I don't get a " surprize"!, but unless the suprise is $1100 in cash, then your package is less than fantastic!
She then hanged up on me!

 

[Gillian]

Is the regular dreammaker package just the addition of passes? You can add the length of stay (or unlimited or ultimate or whatever they're called these days) at check in, if you decide that's the way you want to go. Most people find they don't take advantage of all of the days, and it's better to get a 5 day pass and plan on specific non-park days. Any days or extras on these passes are good forever, which is not the case with the unlimited passes (only good for this trip).

If a package works well for you, don't rule it out automatically. Disney has revamped all of their packages for this year, and they even offer discounts on them sometimes! Mousesavers has info on this as well.