Booked WH Townhouse - Now What?????

[dameodie]

Oh bother, I just realized that there are two, Hills and Palms. My folks' condo is in Windsor Palms. All I remembered was the Windsor part :/

 

[Mainebound]

That's good to hear. We're staying at Windsor Hills on our trip, and on the other parts of this board all you hear is "You simply can't stay off-site and take a break!!! It's too haaaaaaaaaaard!"

what a crock! We have done both and I can honestly say the rides back offsite in our air conditioned car with carseats for the kids and our own music were often faster and more pleasant than the bus or monorail.

 

[5mins2disney]

Oh bother, I just realized that there are two, Hills and Palms. My folks' condo is in Windsor Palms. All I remembered was the Windsor part :/

WP is maybe 2 minutes further than WHR, they're located right by one another. Same builder, WHR is a few years newer, but very similar resorts and both are nice.


http://www.thedibb.co.uk/villa/map.htm

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

My opinion is that unless you blow really big bucks and stay at a deluxe on-site with both Concierge Level and Dining, staying off-site is no more difficult and IMO usually easier and more enjoyable for a true vacation. We don't commando the parks morning to midnight every day, and given the less than efficient WDW bus system and often long walks to resort rooms, I don't think you lose any time by the time you pull up right to the front door of your off-site townhome/villa.

For less than the price of two value rooms (all 5 of us in any single room is simply not an option - we TRULY would rather not go) at WDW we can rent a 4bdr/4bth villa w/pool roughly 10 minutes from any of the WDW parking lots. With three older teens, for us it is more like vacationing with a party of 5 adults. WDW simply offers nothing as convenient at anywhere near the price - try renting DVC points at $10/point, you need 350 for a full week in a 2 bdr DVC condo during high season. That's the entire cost of lodging, airfare, MYW tiks, and rental car for our vacation. All that's left is the food, which again is more affordable off-site especially if you prepare just a few meals yourself.

With virtually everyone (owners and renters) having internet resources, more and more families and groups are discovering how much more affordable and pleasurable private rental of villa vacation accomodations are vs WDW rooms. As yet, WDW simply cannot compete in this market segment.

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

We also subsribe to tourguidmike.com and another touring website and go the least busy / optimal parks for each calendar date, and use the suggested touring plans to reduce line waits.

Do the "pay for" tour guides least busy/optimal park schedules differ from all the free historic park "busiest days" info available? From everything I've read the best days are usually a combination of: go on the historic lightest days that don't have any EMH's or special events that day, and especially if its also the day after an EMH day.

Other than planning your "must do"/most popular attractions for the first few am hours, getting nearby FP's for the next attraction before getting in a standby line for another(ALWAYS have a FP in hand!), and not crisscrossing the parks mindlessly, have you found the tour guides worth their price? I'm up in the air on whether or not to subscribe to one as I've heard differing opinions, many of which say the items I mentioned are 90% of the plan anyway.

 

[5mins2disney]

Do the "pay for" tour guides least busy/optimal park schedules differ from all the free historic park "busiest days" info available? From everything I've read the best days are usually a combination of: go on the historic lightest days that don't have any EMH's or special events that day, and especially if its also the day after an EMH day.

Other than planning your "must do"/most popular attractions for the first few am hours, getting nearby FP's for the next attraction before getting in a standby line for another(ALWAYS have a FP in hand!), and not crisscrossing the parks mindlessly, have you found the tour guides worth their price? I'm up in the air on whether or not to subscribe to one as I've heard differing opinions, many of which say the items I mentioned are 90% of the plan anyway.

Hmm.....well, it depends I guess...how many times have you been to WDW? Do you know the parks and the attractions well? If not, I'd definitely do it. I had already been 5x in the past 2 years before subscribing, so I didn't get a ton of new information I didn't already know, but some of the touring strategies such as which things to do first, or tailored to specific age groups, were well worth it. The various sites will all tell you that the touring plan and order is more important than the park you pick on that day, and we agree, this is true. So is getting there early. It's a lot of information to digest though, but having a quick plan in mind definitely helps a lot. At AK for instance, go hit Expedition Everest or Kali first thing, or the Safari, get Fastpasses ASAP. If you've never been there, you wouldn't even know that.... MK is tough too, especially Fantasyland for little little kids.

If you're up in the air, especially on TGM, I'd say do it, it's worth the $20. There's a DIScount for DIS board members too if you subscribe. Be prepared to spend a few hours though reading the information and printing out the suggested plans there. You only have 12 or so days left, if you have the time I'd do it, if you're an old WDW pro then don't bother, or you spend as much time reading suggestions on the DIS too, for instance.

There's lots of people from here though that swear by it, which prompted me to do it, and I was glad I did, so another thumbs up from me at least! I picked up a few great tips and suggestions, and I think it was worth it.

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

Thanks George,

Decisions, decisions...