DLR Vet, 1st WDW Visit...HELP!

[albertamom]

Hi Everyone! I am SO overwhelmed and confused, and in desperate need of some help.

We have been to DLR many times, and feel so comfortable and relaxed there. No stress whatsoever. Before our kids head off to university, we really want to try a quick trip together to WDW. Because of school and family obligations, we are stuck with visiting President's Day week. Not ideal, I know, but just the way it is. We also want to squeeze in a day or two at Universal, since this will be our only chance to see the Harry Potter attractions.

So...we will only have 4, maybe 5, days at WDW at one of the busiest times of the year. We will definitely stay onsite and will not be renting a vehicle. The transportation options, alone, are causing me to panic. Add to that FP+, and the apparent necessity of ADR's at restaurants that are completely unfamiliar to me, and I am beyond overwhelmed.

I'm beginning to think that to simplify things somewhat, I should just plan one park per day, no parkhopping. Does this sound reasonable? Is this a good place to start? Any and all advice is extremely appreciated!

 

[Alesia]

I think that having parkhoppers makes things much, much easier, especially during busy times.

You have plenty of time to plan. My recomendation is to start off by getting a good guidebook. The Easy Guide to your First Walt Disney World Visit is really great.

 

[IBLarsen]

We usually do DLR as well, but have done WDW twice. I have found it's much harder to park hop at WDW than what you are used to at DLR. Others will disagree, I'm sure, but I just can't justify the cost and the transportation time. I would definitely start with one park per day and see which your family may want to spend a 5th at, if that's an option. My family prefers two days at MK. Then pick a few ADR's that you want to make after determining which days you will be in which park. You can check out the crowd calendars for recommended park each day at easywdw.com. Also for ADR's if you aren't familiar with what's in each park, you can check out allears.net, this will have a breakdown of the restaurants with menus.
In all honesty, I would recommend starting with a guide book, my favorite is the Unofficial Guide to WDW.
For FP's there is a great link by Laketravis on these boards, hopefully someone will link it for you! I've been studying how to work this the best for our upcoming trip.
There's a great sub forum on resorts if you want to look at your options and find out more specifics on different resorts.
Good Luck getting started! I know how overwhelming it is!

 

[Mome Rath]

So...we will only have 4, maybe 5, days at WDW at one of the busiest times of the year. We will definitely stay onsite and will not be renting a vehicle. The transportation options, alone, are causing me to panic.

Don't Panic! We stay onsite and never rent a vehicle and only use park transport, and it works well. Do you know yet where you want to stay? The bus system works well, the monorail, as long as it is not down for scheduled maintenance is fun, the boats are some of our favorite transport, and walking is possible if you like to do so between some parks and some hotels. You do have to schedule in plenty of time to get from one place to another. Usually, at most, there is a 20 min. wait for a bus. The only exception that has really ever bothered us was the Downtown Disney situation; trying to get back to your hotel from there can get annoying.

Add to that FP+, and the apparent necessity of ADR's at restaurants that are completely unfamiliar to me, and I am beyond overwhelmed.

It's funny because we are planning our first trip to DL, and the lack of those things, or the lack of uber planning is freaking us out. lol With FP+ the key is really what are the most popular rides and are you a family that gets up and gets going, or likes to get to a park whenever. As with DL, there are plenty of food options without ADR's if you are willing to do counterservice and/or kiosks. For sit down meals, ADR's are now a must to avoid anger at not getting in when you walk up. It all depends on what type of food you want to try, and if there is somewhere special you absolutely MUST eat. Just ask any questions, and you'll have plenty of opinions on that. Just as a reminder, though I'm sure you already know; ADR's start 180 days out, and FP's are 60 days out for onsite guests.

There are some ADR's that are no big deal; you can get them no sweat whenever. Some ADR's you'll have to gun for right at 180 days out if you want to guarantee a seat, and/or a certain time.

I'm beginning to think that to simplify things somewhat, I should just plan one park per day, no parkhopping. Does this sound reasonable? Is this a good place to start? Any and all advice is extremely appreciated!

I love love love the option of parkhopping, but it isn't like DL at all. You have to be willing to take a chunk of time to get from one park to the other. We do it all the time, but we aren't trying to pack everything in. When it is busy it may be worth it, just because you can skip around parks to avoid the heaviest crowds. At most though, you'd only hit 2 parks in one day. It also works well if you guys are a "midday break" type of family. You open one park at rope drop, go back to the hotel at some point, and then head out to a different park, or go back to the one you were already at, again, just remember it will take a bit of time to transport from park to hotel, and then from hotel to park.

 

[Hopefully]

First accept that you can not do it all. WDW is huge. Personally I wouldn't try to do both WDW and Universal in such a short visit. I would recommend Park Hoppers. The extra expense is worth it.
Visit easywdw.com and look at recommended parks per day for your week. But understand you may want to hop to a non-recommended park for evening entertainment. For example AK is the recommended day park and then you hop to MK for MSEP and Wishes in the evening. You avoid the much more crowded day at MK by only heading there for the evening entertainment.
The best thing for ADR's is to first decide which park which day. WDW is huge - the size of Manhattan. Traveling to a distant restaurant for an ADR is not something you want to do usually.
As suggested look at menus at allears.net, here on the DIS and on the official Disney web site. Look at both in park and near park resort restaurants and see what appeals to your family.
Mesaboy, a poster on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategy forum has a wonderful post on FP + Many DLR vets don't want to spend a lot of time at MK, but rather want to experience the other parks. I can not speak to that, I just mention what I see here. I think EC is definitely at least a 2 day park.4
Keep planning and keep asking, we are here to hrlp

 

[albertamom]

Don't Panic! We stay onsite and never rent a vehicle and only use park transport, and it works well. Do you know yet where you want to stay? The bus system works well, the monorail, as long as it is not down for scheduled maintenance is fun, the boats are some of our favorite transport, and walking is possible if you like to do so between some parks and some hotels. You do have to schedule in plenty of time to get from one place to another. Usually, at most, there is a 20 min. wait for a bus. The only exception that has really ever bothered us was the Downtown Disney situation; trying to get back to your hotel from there can get annoying.



It's funny because we are planning our first trip to DL, and the lack of those things, or the lack of uber planning is freaking us out. lol With FP+ the key is really what are the most popular rides and are you a family that gets up and gets going, or likes to get to a park whenever. As with DL, there are plenty of food options without ADR's if you are willing to do counterservice and/or kiosks. For sit down meals, ADR's are now a must to avoid anger at not getting in when you walk up. It all depends on what type of food you want to try, and if there is somewhere special you absolutely MUST eat. Just ask any questions, and you'll have plenty of opinions on that. Just as a reminder, though I'm sure you already know; ADR's start 180 days out, and FP's are 60 days out for onsite guests.

There are some ADR's that are no big deal; you can get them no sweat whenever. Some ADR's you'll have to gun for right at 180 days out if you want to guarantee a seat, and/or a certain time.



I love love love the option of parkhopping, but it isn't like DL at all. You have to be willing to take a chunk of time to get from one park to the other. We do it all the time, but we aren't trying to pack everything in. When it is busy it may be worth it, just because you can skip around parks to avoid the heaviest crowds. At most though, you'd only hit 2 parks in one day. It also works well if you guys are a "midday break" type of family. You open one park at rope drop, go back to the hotel at some point, and then head out to a different park, or go back to the one you were already at, again, just remember it will take a bit of time to transport from park to hotel, and then from hotel to park.

I have no doubt that I would be all over parkhopping, if we had more time and we were more familiar with the parks. It is that "chunk of time" part that is dissuading me in our particular situation. We definitely won't be taking midday breaks...just not enough time. We usually do like one sit down meal each day, especially if we've been going non-stop since entry. Once I decide which park we'll be in which day, I should be able to research that part and make ADR's without too much trouble.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Canuck16]

We always PH but we always get the maximum park day tickets available. With only 4-5 park days hopping may not be worth it.

Have you decided on which resort you will be staying at WDW yet?

if you go to USF/IOA would you stay on site there? The reason I ask is because if you stay in one of their deluxe resorts you get their Front of the Line pass which may help with the lines during a busy time.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

We have done DLR more than WDW too. We tend to only have one day available for each park, so we don't want to waste the time on travel. We have found that we tend to plan one park per day anyway, so we have started saving money by buying those type of passes. Now we get the military one park a day plus water park, so we get 4 extra entries to water parks, mini golf, etc. for our non-park days. The only thing we've really used park hoppers for is to go out at night for fireworks. ITA with getting a good guide book and starting with where you want to stay. I like the Passporter - at passporter.com

 

[lauradis]

If you pick resort ADRs taxis are the easiest way to get around. We do love hoppers, but if it wasn't affordable I would drop them first.

I would spend the extra money on front of line passes for universal.

 

[albertamom]

I think that having parkhoppers makes things much, much easier, especially during busy times.

You have plenty of time to plan. My recomendation is to start off by getting a good guidebook. The Easy Guide to your First Walt Disney World Visit is really great.

I will definitely look for that guidebook! I purchased one for our first DLR trip 11 years ago, and it was a lifesaver!

We usually do DLR as well, but have done WDW twice. I have found it's much harder to park hop at WDW than what you are used to at DLR. Others will disagree, I'm sure, but I just can't justify the cost and the transportation time. I would definitely start with one park per day and see which your family may want to spend a 5th at, if that's an option. My family prefers two days at MK. Then pick a few ADR's that you want to make after determining which days you will be in which park. You can check out the crowd calendars for recommended park each day at easywdw.com. Also for ADR's if you aren't familiar with what's in each park, you can check out allears.net, this will have a breakdown of the restaurants with menus.
In all honesty, I would recommend starting with a guide book, my favorite is the Unofficial Guide to WDW.
For FP's there is a great link by Laketravis on these boards, hopefully someone will link it for you! I've been studying how to work this the best for our upcoming trip.
There's a great sub forum on resorts if you want to look at your options and find out more specifics on different resorts.
Good Luck getting started! I know how overwhelming it is!

Great to hear from another DLR vet! It's definitely the transportation time that I'm hung up on. Sitting/standing around waiting for a bus would drive me crazy if I had limited time. I think I'd rather use that time to have a nice relaxing sit-down meal.

 

[albertamom]

First accept that you can not do it all. WDW is huge. Personally I wouldn't try to do both WDW and Universal in such a short visit. I would recommend Park Hoppers. The extra expense is worth it.
Visit easywdw.com and look at recommended parks per day for your week. But understand you may want to hop to a non-recommended park for evening entertainment. For example AK is the recommended day park and then you hop to MK for MSEP and Wishes in the evening. You avoid the much more crowded day at MK by only heading there for the evening entertainment.
The best thing for ADR's is to first decide which park which day. WDW is huge - the size of Manhattan. Traveling to a distant restaurant for an ADR is not something you want to do usually.
As suggested look at menus at allears.net, here on the DIS and on the official Disney web site. Look at both in park and near park resort restaurants and see what appeals to your family.
Mesaboy, a poster on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategy forum has a wonderful post on FP + Many DLR vets don't want to spend a lot of time at MK, but rather want to experience the other parks. I can not speak to that, I just mention what I see here. I think EC is definitely at least a 2 day park.4
Keep planning and keep asking, we are here to hrlp

Thanks for the easywdw link. I will definitely check it out. I know that, rationally, I shouldn't try to do WDW and Universal in the same trip, but that's just the way it is. Crazy, I know!

I am starting to think that I might still get parkhoppers, but only plan for one park a day for the first 4 days. If we happen to feel like we want a change by suppertime, then we could brave a move. I could plan ADR's for a late lunch or early dinner, so that I know which park we'll be in that day. This would also give us the opportunity to parkhop on our 5th day, to visit some of our favourites again.

 

[albertamom]

We always PH but we always get the maximum park day tickets available. With only 4-5 park days hopping may not be worth it.

Have you decided on which resort you will be staying at WDW yet?

if you go to USF/IOA would you stay on site there? The reason I ask is because if you stay in one of their deluxe resorts you get their Front of the Line pass which may help with the lines during a busy time.

I've been studying resorts like crazy. With a DS (17) and DD(15) who won't share a bed, we need 3 beds and definitely 2 bathrooms. We were in DLR in November in a room with 2 queens and a daybed, but one bathroom, and swore "never again". So, we need 2 rooms or a villa. Keeping time management in mind, I think that I want to be in an Epcot resort or a monorail resort. The less time spent on buses, the better. Looking at 2015 room rates, the prices that week are through the roof. I think my best bet, economically, is a 1-bedroom villa at BLT. I love that it has a 2nd bathroom.

I was thinking of spending 2 nights at a Universal resort, but that would only give us 5 nights and 4 full days at WDW. I'm now thinking about spending all 7 nights at WDW and taking a cab to Universal for one day with VIP passes. It's pricey, but would get us to the front of the line for all the major rides, including Harry Potter (which front of the line passes don't). Again...time management!

 

[albertamom]

Thank you, everyone, for all the replies!!! I'll probably change my mind a hundred times in the next few months, but I'm starting to feel like a plan is coming together. I'm definitely calmer today than I was yesterday.

 

[wdwjeffc37]

It is going to be crowded. It seems that there are no "slow" time for WDW these days. Rope drop every morning. You can get so much done in the first few hours. Seriously consider Park Hoppers. If you rope drop, get the headliners done early, hop to park #2 (with you headliner FP+ for the afternoon) when it starts to get too crowded. Don't worry too much about the transportation time between parks. We hop every day. Sometimes two or three times. At the most it should take about an hour to go from park to park, usually less if you are traveling at off peak times. For ADRs at resorts, use taxis. It cuts the transportation time considerably. This is the way it works best for us. YMMV. Keep your expectations reasonable and you won't be too disappointed. Have a great trip.

 

[fly girl]

Hi, albertamom!


As someone that knows both WDW and DL, I understand your stress with time management around the parks. DL is easy peasy to maneuver and WDW is more time consuming (and as you stated, time is a precious commodity for this visit.)



The one really nice thing is that with WDW comes Magic Express to/from airport. So much nicer than DLR airport planning! You will not need a rental car for your WDW stay. We used a cab to Sea World and it's easy! You'll have no problems getting to/from US/IOA.



Personally, we love the Epcot resorts because it's the only area you can walk to 2 parks easily (Epcot at Int'l Gateway and HS). We love not having to take the busses!

Downside is that you have to share busses with all other Epcot resorts to MK and AK . . . and they are crowded . However, if you really dislike the busses (like us ) and you decide on a park hopper, you can get to MK through main Epcot gate and take the monorail to TTC and transfer monorails to MK. Granted, this isn't for everyone as it does has considerable walking. However, this is handy for a park hopper that took the bus to MK in the morning and then wanted to hit Epcot later in the day or vice versa.



easywdw and touring plans are great sites to help you weed through what is most important for your family. Planning is a lot more strategic at WDW given that it's so spread out. Especially with dining. (ie, you don't want to waste time going a AKL restaurant on a day you're at Epcot).



Dining -- not going to sugar coat it, it's ridiculous compared to DL. The 180 out is the big thing. Booking at the 180 mark is only necessary for certain restaurants (CRT, OHANA, BOG, CHEF MICKEYS are the first ones to come to mind.) But you will be there during a busy holiday weekend, so I definitely would make ADR's for all TS meals as soon as you can. You can always change them as the date nears, but at least you'll have something.



My suggestion would be to look at crowd calendars and EMH hours when they come out. Once you pick which days at what park you can decide on dining. Once those are in place you'll be ready for FP+ at the 60 day mark.


Hope that helps. You're going to love WDW!

 

[albertamom]

Hi, albertamom!

My suggestion would be to look at crowd calendars and EMH hours when they come out. Once you pick which days at what park you can decide on dining. Once those are in place you'll be ready for FP+ at the 60 day mark.


Hope that helps. You're going to love WDW!

Thank you so much! I have no doubt that we'll love it! Do you know when they'll have 2016 booking available online? EMH hours released? If I do want to initially focus on one park per day (parkhoppers or not), should I automatically go with the park offering EMH? I've read that those parks tend to be really busy, but the extra time in the park may offset that?

 

[albertamom]

It is going to be crowded. It seems that there are no "slow" time for WDW these days. Rope drop every morning. You can get so much done in the first few hours. Seriously consider Park Hoppers. If you rope drop, get the headliners done early, hop to park #2 (with you headliner FP+ for the afternoon) when it starts to get too crowded. Don't worry too much about the transportation time between parks. We hop every day. Sometimes two or three times. At the most it should take about an hour to go from park to park, usually less if you are traveling at off peak times. For ADRs at resorts, use taxis. It cuts the transportation time considerably. This is the way it works best for us. YMMV. Keep your expectations reasonable and you won't be too disappointed. Have a great trip.

Reasonable expectations are so important. I am a big planner, but my family is constantly reminding me that things don't have to go perfectly smoothly.

I haven't studied the FP+ threads yet, but is your suggestion to use those in the afternoon, and standby in the morning? We'll definitely be there for rope drop!

 

[Mome Rath]

I haven't studied the FP+ threads yet, but is your suggestion to use those in the afternoon, and standby in the morning? We'll definitely be there for rope drop!

There are several theories as to FP usage (do read up on the various threads), for example; If you use 3 early, then you can book more. Or, if you wait and use 3 later in the day, you can get on headliners in the afternoon. From our perspective, we always do rope drop and do a headliner right away at EPCOT and book an FP for the other headliner early (so Test Track at Rope Drop and then FP Soarin, or vice versa). At MK we also do rope drop and head to Seven Dwarves or Peter Pan, and go ahead and use up our FP's early as well. Going to Studios and AK we tend to wait, because you can hit the headliners at Rope Drop and then do whatever else you wanna do w/our FP. However, we also park hop, so on our AK days and Studio days we use our FP's to book EPCOT and MK in the afternoons.

 

[hiroMYhero]

We were there last Presidents' Week (2014) and late morning would be good for your FPs.

You can get a lot done in the first 2-3 hours especially at MK with the 7:00am opening. On Presidents' Day, we walked into Talking Mic, booked some day of FPs and then walked onto People Mover and then into Buzz at roughly 9:00-9:30am.

We are also DLR vets and if you have ever experienced a crowded Tomorrowland in DL, where you need to stay on the right side flow, WDW walkways will feel spacious especially in Epcot even when it is crowded.

With all the planning you're doing and being an onsite guest, you'll be fine.

 

[albertamom]

There are several theories as to FP usage (do read up on the various threads), for example; If you use 3 early, then you can book more. Or, if you wait and use 3 later in the day, you can get on headliners in the afternoon. From our perspective, we always do rope drop and do a headliner right away at EPCOT and book an FP for the other headliner early (so Test Track at Rope Drop and then FP Soarin, or vice versa). At MK we also do rope drop and head to Seven Dwarves or Peter Pan, and go ahead and use up our FP's early as well. Going to Studios and AK we tend to wait, because you can hit the headliners at Rope Drop and then do whatever else you wanna do w/our FP. However, we also park hop, so on our AK days and Studio days we use our FP's to book EPCOT and MK in the afternoons.

I have lots of studying to do on FP+, that's for sure.

We were there last Presidents' Week (2014) and late morning would be good for your FPs.

You can get a lot done in the first 2-3 hours especially at MK with the 7:00am opening. On Presidents' Day, we walked into Talking Mic, booked some day of FPs and then walked onto People Mover and then into Buzz at roughly 9:00-9:30am.

We are also DLR vets and if you have ever experienced a crowded Tomorrowland in DL, where you need to stay on the right side flow, WDW walkways will feel spacious especially in Epcot even when it is crowded.

With all the planning you're doing and being an onsite guest, you'll be fine.

I am definitely looking forward to the wide open spaces! The crowds at DLR can become unbearable. Things have certainly changed in the last 10 years!