Advice for planning first family trip to WDW

[MrsPinup]

We are in the works trying to plan our first family trip for 2015. We were originally looking at early May, but many people are recommending September. Thoughts?

Here are our logistics and maybe you all can guide us from there. We are a family of 5. My oldest will be 12 next year, middle son will be 10 (or 11 in the fall) and DD will be be 1.5 in May or 2 in the fall. Either way we will get her her own seat on the airplane.

Saving money is important as we are not rich. We are looking at moderate resorts because the value's look too small for our family.

So...where should we stay?

How far in advance should we make our reservations?

Which dates should we go?

We want to spend a day at Universal. How do we get there without a rental car?

Any other advice?

Thanks!!!

 

[MandiC]

An advantage of September is pricing! Plus, free dining is more common that time of year which could potentially be a huge savings. Depending on the time of September I believe Halloween decorations start going up.
Disadvantage- hurricane potential? I'm not very familiar with Florida weather, I never even looked until about a week before our trip but I do remember several Septembers hearing about hurricanes on the news. Something to think about, maybe look up the weather patterns in May vs September for Orlando.
I'm sure May is gorgeous, the crowds may be a bit heavier though. In September with back to school the crowds are probably lower. There are really pluses and minuses for every time of year.

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and loved it, we had an Alligator Bayou room which sleeps 5...you won't necessarily need a room that sleeps 5 though since babies in pack and plays don't count towards the room count. Enjoy the freedom of that this last time We really did love it though, they have an awesome food court with big servings and yummy food. One counter service meal was definitely plenty for sharing. The grounds are beautiful, you can go on a boat ride to downtown disney, they have nightly campfires with unlimited free marshmallows for roasting and nightly outdoor movies. If you want to pay a little they have carriage rides along the riverside too. We really enjoyed everything it had to offer. Our next trip will likely be in a Fort Wilderness Cabin, mainly because next trip we will be going as a family of 6, everyone older than age 3 but it also has a lot to do. The only thing I'll miss is the food court with counter service. You can take a boat to MK though and it has a ton to do around the resort/campground...you do get a full kitchen with the cabins though.

We will be renting a car no matter what next time, thankfully due to my husband's job we get a pretty great discount on rental vehicles. Disney transport is kind of slow and I have heard a car is nice when doing Fort Wilderness. I do not believe there is any way other than a taxi or renting a car to get from Disney to Universal. They don't want people visiting the other

Reservations...as soon as possible! Look up when they need to be made, I believe dining is 160 days or something like that (sorry, I can't remember and I've only done this once before ). If you want any of the more popular meals at good times you will want to book as soon as you can. A bonus of staying onsite is you can book reservations for your entire stay 160 days from your first day, so you can usually get pretty good reservations for those days so long as you book them right away.
I think FP+ books out 60 days, if you want the Anna and Elsa meet and greet, you will really want to book that asap.

 

[MommaPeel]

September... I have been to WDW a bunch, September is still my favorite, even with the threat of Hurricanes. They take care of you as a guest at WDW and opt for insurance if booking a package that way you can reschedule!

Everything is cheaper, they offer discounts on rooms and often offer the full package with free dining. (The room discount is a better option unless you plan to eat a lot!)

If you're worried about the space, go for a moderate, with the discounts in September you will be paying around the normal price for a value room, maybe slightly more. (If you start requesting water view or preferred rooms the price goes up fast.) Book your resort now, in fact book at both hotels you are considering. That way when the discounts come out you can try to have them applied or opt out.

Dining reservations are made at 180 days out (and can book for the first 10 days of your trip on that day). This is crucial if you plan on attending some of the popular places to eat. Be Our Guest was booked to capacity at 180+ for 16 of my 17 day trip this September. September dining books pretty quick for other restaurants due to the free dining offers also. So I would review the menus on DISBoards and decide where you might want to eat now.


FastPass+ planning is done at 60 days out, I was able to book for the duration of my stay on that as well, Anna & Elsa and the premier seating for the parades were pretty much booked solid, I did find one A&E FP+ for one day of my 17, but I think someone had canceled.

Universal, they have a pass on the Universal site that includes transfers from Disney in the purchase price. Or you could look into hiring a town car each way. Or your cheapest option would be to rent a car for a day, there are several car rental locations on Disney property.

Enjoy

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My advice is not to go nuts on reservations unless those kinds of meals are really important to you as a family. Our 2012 "first trip", we did ONE table service character meal. And while I have no regrets, I'm also SO glad we didn't do more. It took so much time & trying to be there on time without just wasting time was a real pain. I can't imagine having to go through that daily, much less multiple times a day.

Obviously, that's just MY take & I know the whole dining thing is a big deal to many people. I also think many get sucked into the hype & get the impression it's a "must do" based on that hype. So, please just consider how it will impact your trip & whether a ton of "sit down" meals really fits your idea of fun or not

 

[MandiC]

We loved our character meals my husband was not patient with wanting to stand in lines to see characters so it was nice for us to get a lot of the character meets combined with our meals he put up with it for a few favorites but there is no way the kids would have gotten to see as many characters as they did had we not had the character meals.
I'm really hoping that before our next trip Anna and Elsa will be at Akershus

 

[pooh4evr]

I will be the voice of dissent on getting 1 room. We have 3 kids too, our last trip they were 12,10 and 6. We have stayed in family suites, Port Orleans Alligator rooms and 1 room at Caribbean Beach when DD#3 was young enough. Last trip in October '13 we had 2 value rooms we booked through travelocity- connecting- for $90 a night each, so 2 rooms, for the less than the price of 1 mod. The 2 bathrooms alone are worth it for us. That way everyone has plenty of space, room for the bags to be out of the way, and DH and I had our own space too. The kids always fall asleep first and I am always up getting stuff ready for the next day so it is nice not to be waking them up while I work or have the TV on. September is still summertime hot and humid too. Does it matter if your older 2 miss school?, How long were you thinking of going? and finally for a first trip; where you are trying to keep the budget under control I would not do Universal. Those tickets are going to be MUCH more than 1 more Disney day, not to mention transportation for a family of 5. Just my 2cents.

 

[Lupeix]

First of all congratulations!
Although I have been several times, we did our first family trip last year and will be going again next year. We decided to go at the end of April next year based on last years experience, DH does not do well with heat and humidity. The weather is much better late april/ early may. September is hot and the heart of hurricane season, so rain every afternoon is likely. Although September is cheaper on site, early may is still value for non Disney resorts.
We ended up deciding to stay at WBC, which is on property right next to the Caribbean beach. We just made the reservation through recommendations from the DIS ( there's a big WBC thread). If money is an issue the savings are worth considering, you are looking at 120 a night for a 2 bedroom condo, tax included, and by car you can be inside epcot in 15 minutes. You will have to rent a car, but that still leaves plenty of room for extras like character meals, which you should do one or two, they are worth it for the memories. If you really want to stay onsite I believe that free dining is usually offered in September, which will save you a lot, but you won't know the exact dates until much later. You want to have your plans more or less set at the 6 month mark to make dining reservations regardless.

 

[Jenn55]

Congrats on the planning! Ur best bet is to check out undercover.com and it gives crowd calendars that we used in January when we went. Also I would recommend getting a guide book.. The unofficial guide to disneyworld is the best one I've found. If you want to eat table service I would say pic ur ADR's at the 180 day mark. If you go to disneydinning planner.com - I believe, or google it and put in the arrival day it will tell u ur 180 day mark some dint have to figure it out urself. It will SOS help u decide if u want the dinning plan or not. We stayed at all star movies and art of animation for our stay, it as a split stay but it was me and my son, next time when we go in dec 2015 the hubby's coming too and we cannot do a double bed, wed probably kill each other! So were looking at either AOA or a moderate one, probably port Orleans riverside, but it won't be an all star one again mainly due to the bed situation.

 

[Jenn55]

Oh also, we did universal for our last trip.. It was my sins first trip and my first since I was a teenager. He's a huge harry potter fan, he was almost 8 when we went. We did the 2 day base ticket but if u want to ride the hogwarts express from one park to the other u need a park-park pass.. Under cover tourist has those they sell and that's where I got ours, free shipping and they arrived really fast, and I'm in canada! We taxi'd it cause I don't drive so a rental was out of the question, and it was about 32-36$ each way, depends on how close ur resort is to universal, our AOA resort was closer then the all star one. We asked a cast ember outside all star movies and they flagged one down and took us over, it was the day we moved from one hotel to the other so they moved our bags while we were gone and when we came back that night it was a cheaper taxi cause the AOA resort was closer I guess.

 

[MrsPinup]

Wow! Thanks everyone We are huge Harry Potter fans, so missing Universal in NOT an option lol. The boys are looking forward to seeing Hogsmead.

We don't really do character meet n greets because none of us want to stand in the lines. I think BOG will be on our list of places to eat, as well as one character meal. Other than that, we will either do quick service or eat from the groceries we order.

I didn't realize I could book a room this far in advance. After talking it over with my DH, we are going to go with September 2015. We will be pulling the kids out of school to beat crowds no matter what time of year we go, but this gives a little more time to put money aside and for our DD to be just a tad older.

 

[MrsPinup]

Thanks again for the help - I could use some more! Here are the details as we have them so far:

Going to POFQ from 9/22-28 for 6 nights.

Tuesday: Travel day; Downtown Disney in the evening

Wednesday: WDW - Breakfast at CT; pack a lunch in; dinner at Harbor House.

Thursday: HS - Breakfast at hotel; pack a lunch; dinner at Pizza Planet or Studio Catering.

Friday: Animal Kingdom during the day (lunch at Flame Tree BBQ0; Mickey's Halloween Party at night

Saturday: Universal

Sunday: Epcot; Breakfast at hotel; lunch at Rose & Crown Pub

Monday: Spend the first part of the day at one of the resorts; evening flight home.

Possibly doing a dinner at BOG.

PS. I was at WDW in 2011 by myself for a race, so I do have a basic idea of how each park is laid out. I was done at AK after a few hours, I expect the same when visiting with my family, so this will probably be a morning in the park, afternoon at the pool, sort of day.

New Questions I have:
1. We are planning on taking an early flight in on Tuesday.If we can secure this, should we attempt Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on this night so that we can see MK AND get in the party without using one of our days?

2. What should we NOT miss?

3. The boys will be 12 and 10. Is that too young to let them run off together to ride rides for an hour or two?

4. Not really a questions, but seriously would love someone to tell me how they would plan it out. lol

Thanks!

 

[Lupeix]

September is usually a time in which Disney offers the free dinning plan
so your best bet is to do a room only reservation and then add dinning and tickets when the free dinning plan dates are released. If you get the free dinning plan it will affect your current plans quite a bit, since you have a quick service and seat down meal credit per day.

On things not to miss, other than the headliners such as soarin, all the mountains, roller coasters and such, I will say the festival of the Lion King, it ended up on Broadway for a reason!, and fantasmic. On AK, I will plan more than just the morning, maybe until the parade, and I will have lunch at Tusker house, it is one of our favorite restaurants (provided you like "different" food). If your family is into animals it is worth doing the safari more than once, you see different animals depending on the time of the day. Also if you want a meal at BOG, better be ready at the 180+10 deadline to book it, I waited until 3 months off and no luck!

Cannot comment on your second question since DS is now 3.

In terms of how I will plan if this was my first time and my kids were old enough to do all the rides I will follow the advice on: http://**************.net/?

It is a great site and will give you a good idea which weeks are best to book in terms of crowds, how to do the room first/dinning second strategy if you want to get the free dinning, as well as day by day itinerary planning
Enjoy the planning!

 

[MrsPinup]

September is usually a time in which Disney offers the free dinning plan
so your best bet is to do a room only reservation and then add dinning and tickets when the free dinning plan dates are released. If you get the free dinning plan it will affect your current plans quite a bit, since you have a quick service and seat down meal credit per day.

On things not to miss, other than the headliners such as soarin, all the mountains, roller coasters and such, I will say the festival of the Lion King, it ended up on Broadway for a reason!, and fantasmic. On AK, I will plan more than just the morning, maybe until the parade, and I will have lunch at Tusker house, it is one of our favorite restaurants (provided you like "different" food). If your family is into animals it is worth doing the safari more than once, you see different animals depending on the time of the day. Also if you want a meal at BOG, better be ready at the 180+10 deadline to book it, I waited until 3 months off and no luck!

Cannot comment on your second question since DS is now 3.

In terms of how I will plan if this was my first time and my kids were old enough to do all the rides I will follow the advice on: http://**************.net/?

It is a great site and will give you a good idea which weeks are best to book in terms of crowds, how to do the room first/dinning second strategy if you want to get the free dinning, as well as day by day itinerary planning
Enjoy the planning!

Thank you We have am already great room rate thanks to the military discount, so that will prevent us from using the free dining, but that is okay! IF it appears we would save more money by doing the dining plan, we may switch, but right now the room discount seems to be our best option.

I actually really dislike Soarin' (blasphemy?!) I have ridden it about 5 times at Disneyland, which was about 4 times more than I needed to. Since I live in California it is kinda "meh" to me. If it were a different video, or had some variations, then I might be tempted to ride again.

That website looks great - I cannot wait to go check it out!

 

[Lupeix]

I didn't know the military discount prevented you from getting the free dining, that is no not fair!
If you are coming from the west coast I may consider doing the MNSSHP on the first night, because you will be falling asleep later anyway due to the time difference
That also means it will be really hard to get up the next morning, so I will avoid doing a rope drop that first day and go to HS maybe.
Have you considered staying longer?
Adding days to a Disney ticket costs almost nothing after two days, so you really are only adding the cost of hotel nights.
I am suggesting this because at least for us, it takes two days to get adjusted to the time

 

[jacquelynb]

Just so you know there is no parade at AK anymore. They closed it due to avatar land construction I think. Something about the backstage area for the parade being used for construction materials or something. Didn't want you to plan on it and be disappointed later.

 

[MrsPinup]

I didn't know the military discount prevented you from getting the free dining, that is no not fair!
If you are coming from the west coast I may consider doing the MNSSHP on the first night, because you will be falling asleep later anyway due to the time difference
That also means it will be really hard to get up the next morning, so I will avoid doing a rope drop that first day and go to HS maybe.
Have you considered staying longer?
Adding days to a Disney ticket costs almost nothing after two days, so you really are only adding the cost of hotel nights.
I am suggesting this because at least for us, it takes two days to get adjusted to the time

Good advice! And we may add a day at the end if airfare is cheaper or we have more in our budget to do so. I really hope so!

Thanks for the tip on the parade. I didn't look that much into AK. Other than the safari and EE, I don't think we will check out much there.

 

[MrsPinup]

I am only seeing "The Grey Stuff" on the dinner menu. Is it not offered at lunch?

 

[milza26]

Congrats on planning your first trip. We went for our first trip just this year and stayed at POFQ. It was so nice and compact. The boat to DTD is amazing! We used military discount too, when I do the math it is the best discount out there. I am so glad it was renewed this year.
A highlight for us was the character spot in Epcot. It was a quick way to see Mickey and Pals. Plus it was air condition!! It doesn't take long to get through there.
If you bring a stroller be prepared to leave it outside most rides. So I would make sure to make it noticeable from the crowd.
BOG is hard to get into this year. Start trying to eat there at your 180 day mark because Dinner reservations (ADRs) start at 180 days out. There is a calculator on the Dining section of the main DIS page.
Good Luck! Remember to have fun, drink tons of water, take breaks, and wear comfortable shoes!

 

[MrsPinup]

So today I learned some sad news. After years of waiting to see HP World at Universal....I have to wait longer. I didn't know they split the worlds into the two parks. All of the rides we want to do are in US except for the main part of HP. After discussing prices for one day tickets vs. extra costs of having a rental for two days and going for two days; we decided this just will not be the trip for Universal and HP. I will have to wait and hope that it is just as great at Universal Hollywood.

So...on to my new schedule. And yes, I know I have over a year. I like to plan

Going to POFQ from 9/22-28 for 6 nights.

Tuesday: Travel day - take an early flight in; MNSSHP at night.

Wednesday: MK - Breakfast at CT; pack a lunch in; dinner at Harbor House.

Thursday: HS - Breakfast at hotel; lunch at Pizza Planet; Go back to hotel and relax by the pool. Possibly do the campfires or outdoor movies.

Friday: Epcot; Breakfast at hotel; lunch at Rose & Crown Pub; (probably in park all day

Saturday: Animal Kingdom during the day (lunch at Flame Tree BBQ0; Relax at the pool in the afternoon.

Sunday: MK - Lunch at BOG

Monday: Spend the first part of the day at one of the resorts; evening flight home.

 

[MandiC]

I wouldn't count on being back to the hotel by campfire time on your HS day while the park is fairly small compared to the bigger parks the timing of it can definitely take most of the and I believe the campfire was fairly early in the day (5 or 6 pm), I'd plan that for your AK day just to not stress too much about it on the HS day if you decide to stay longer