Confused Newbee

[samiet620]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the whole Disney seen. I just booked my first vacation there ,a dream come true scince dad never took me! I will be going with DD14 DD15 DS14. We are so very excited, especially after looking into this site. I was afraid I'd made the wrong choice 'tll I saw the Buzz site on everything CSR. Talk about feeling better!That site was a true inspiration. It even told me about the laundry facility!I loved it, loved it!!!Thanks everyone who takes the time for all this info, its been a god send!
Though excited I am feeling very overwhelmed. I've never done anything like this in all my 36 yrs. and I most definitely never stayed in a hotel let alone a resort in DISNEY!!!!!!Can't believe it,I'm going & staying @ Disney World,lol!
Can anyone please help with a few confusing points. I'll start with the ones I think are the most important, please have patience all you veterans, for you are my lifeline.
1. I booked at CSR standard view-on line. I see some of you talk about requesting rooms. I'm loving the casitas, does it cost more if I request?
2. My main question-how much cash should I take(give or take some)? I'm staying 7 nights 8 days, 3 teens.
As with all wonderful things I have sacrificed so much to give this gift to my kids- I don't want to find myself without sufficient cash and I don't want to be constantly worried. Any imput would be greatly appreciated.
Samie

 

[dvczerfs]

food will take up most of the budget. i figure 50.00 per day per person. it all depends on were you eat. make any adrs as soon as you can, sit downs rest. fill up fast. have fun!!

 

[cjstarr]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the whole Disney seen. I just booked my first vacation there ,a dream come true scince dad never took me! I will be going with DD14 DD15 DS14. We are so very excited, especially after looking into this site. I was afraid I'd made the wrong choice 'tll I saw the Buzz site on everything CSR. Talk about feeling better!That site was a true inspiration. It even told me about the laundry facility!I loved it, loved it!!!Thanks everyone who takes the time for all this info, its been a god send!
Though excited I am feeling very overwhelmed. I've never done anything like this in all my 36 yrs. and I most definitely never stayed in a hotel let alone a resort in DISNEY!!!!!!Can't believe it,I'm going & staying @ Disney World,lol!
Can anyone please help with a few confusing points. I'll start with the ones I think are the most important, please have patience all you veterans, for you are my lifeline.
1. I booked at CSR standard view-on line. I see some of you talk about requesting rooms. I'm loving the casitas, does it cost more if I request?
2. My main question-how much cash should I take(give or take some)? I'm staying 7 nights 8 days, 3 teens.
As with all wonderful things I have sacrificed so much to give this gift to my kids- I don't want to find myself without sufficient cash and I don't want to be constantly worried. Any imput would be greatly appreciated.
Samie

Where to start, hmmm ok lets start with
#1. You can request the room you want and it will not cost any more unless you want a room that is concidered an up-grade, ie...Water View or preferred location.
#2. We plan to have someware between $1500 & $2000 with us when we go.(6 nights & 7 Days) ( I hope They don't spend that much!!! )

Another things I would concider is the DDp or DxDP. We went with the DxDP. (but thats just us) I don't want to have to worry about food or where we eat at.

ADR's If you plan to use the DDP or the DxDP you might want to make some ADR's or you could take the chance that you can get a seet when you show up to eat.
Plan your stay, make an Itinerary you can order park maps from Disney and plan what park you want to be at. We plan around the EMH's morning and nights to take advanage of the time each park will be open.

Enought from me I'll step aside and let you have some suggestion from others now.

Charles

 

[MagicalEars]

Congrats on your first trip to Disney! Hopefully it will be everything you hoped for and them some. Then you can come back here and let us know all about it.

1. As cjstarr said, you can make a request for certain buildings/rooms as long as it's in the same category, i.e. standard view. You only pay more if you request something like waterview or such. Though since this is your first time visiting WDW, you'll probably be so busy seeing it all that the view won't matter at all.

2. It's hard to tell someone how much money to take along, it really depends on your eating and spending habits. For us, we only take a little cash for small things from the carts and street vendors and put everything else on our debit/credit card. If you have that option, I would suggest using it as having to keep track of all that cash can be annoying. You should consider looking up menus for food pricing so you can get an idea of how much you'll need for food. I think the DIS site has menus as well as allears.net.Considering you've never been and would probably want to spend less time eating at a sit-down restaurant, you can save money and time eating at CS (counter service) places throughout the parks and resorts. Some of the choices they have at CS places may surprise you.

 

[LSchrow]

like PP said:
spend time on allears.net.
a guide book, and/or "touring plan" of some sort (keep it simple, listing the "must sees" for each person) will help alleviate frustration.
i "save" by putting money on a disney GC every week or so for months before a trip (no big credit cards bills to come home to ).
make a good packing list, including things that each person should have with them in the parks, etc (cel phone, room key, something to carry it all in).
wear comfy, broken in shoes.

do not try to "see it all", & make sure to rest. (fyi, we go about twice a year, 7+ days each time, for the past 20+ years, & there are still so many new things for us to see & do ).
remember, you will probably go back

hth

 

[lmillercrew]

Congrats on your first visit. I love Disney so much that each time I plan a trip it feels like the first time. I haven't been as many times as a lot of people on this site, but enough to know that eating out every meal can cost a lot of money. I have two teens myself and know how much they can eat. We save some money by packing a suitcase with food so we only eat out once a day. I pack a lunch bag, rent a locker and eat in the parks. This saves a ton of money! If you're not hip to that, a previous poster said to check allearsnet.com, they have every menu and cost for every place in the world. Being that it's your first time, the souveniers will be overwhelming. Have a budget for each child, and that way you won't overspend. Start buying Disney Dollars or Disney gift cards. They are good only at Disney. Don't carry too much cash, and only you can decide how much money your budget can afford.

 

[mikewdw]

some more info on what you and your family want to do would help us give some advice. like what do you want to do about meals, what do your kids like or what parks do they want to spend the most time with. what kind of budget are you thinking about. do you want sit down meals or fast food types. do you want character meals, also can your crew get up early for extra magic hours, etc, any thing you have questions about please ask. i made a huge packet for one of my good friends before they went the first time and they said it was a huge help. people hear know tons more than i do so you can find out anything you want. ask, ask, ask. be general or very specific. someone here can help. have a great time.

 

[Knavey]

Let me recommend one thing...plan it out. I have been to Disney many times, and just picked up a copy of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. I might have knows 20 of the tips in there...and there must be about a million of them. If you utilize 100 of them, then you will be much better off than 99% of the rest of the crowd. I am amazed at how detailed they get in how to do the most things in the least amount of time and money.

Well worth the read...they may even have it at your local library if it is big enough.

 

[samiet620]

Your responses were great, thanks a mil. Two of my three kids are small eaters(girls)my son huge eater! We can deal with no fancy eating,concession sounds good for a week , we did talk about fancy sit down eating just once-the day befoere we leave, its to Planet Hollywood and with the menu we already have that budgeted it in.At home if we eat out its the regular-Wendys,McDonalds,Chinese or pizza. So from your info I gather we will be okay.
I'll take your advice and go to the site most of you mentioned. I'll probably have 25 thousand more questions from now to aug when we go so stay tuned!
dd14 dd15 ds14 ME!!!!



Thanks All.

 

[samiet620]

Hi Charles thanks for your imput. At the risk os sounding really dumb- what in the world is ADR,DDP and DxDP! Remember I am totaly new to all this. Its probably obvious but I can't figure it out!!! LOL!

 

[Cindy's Mom]

DDP, DxDDP are the Disney Dining Plans and the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan.

We have used the DDP for 3 trips and DxDDP the this upcoming trip. IMO this is the best value that WDW offers. For something like $40 a day, you get a sit down meal, a counter services and a snack.

Sit down meal include charater meals, which are rather costly. The counter services are pretty big, so we just order 3 of them for the 4 of us. There is a snack list out there somewhere, but generally its for food under $4.00. With each meal you get a beverage as well.

The best part is that all this is pre-paid 45 days before your trip, so really the only money you need is for souveniers. There are grocery delivery services that will deliever to you room, we do that for our b-fast items and snack and bottled water (pepsi too, WDW is Coke land).

Some will say that the DDP isnt' as good since they scaled back the offerings (they cut out the appetizer and the tip), but that doesn't matter to you, because you never used it.

An ADR is an Advance Dining Reservation, with the inception of the DDPs, they are essential for Table Service dining (TS).

Enjoy your planning.