DLR Vets/AP holders now contemplating WDW any advice before diving into their forums?

[clb79]

We are now Disneyland Vets and have made 4 trips since getting our APs in Oct. Now we have an opportunity to visit a sibling of mine who will be participating in the WDW College program this fall. I have done a little lurking on the WDW forums and it just seems so overwhelming. We have no idea where to even start planning. What types of airfares or deals to look for.

Any advice from other DLR vets that have made a trip back east? Any good links to specific threads that would be helpful.

It seems like there is so much going on there, but that finding good deals off site etc might be next to impossible since things are so spread out. Is it just better to stay onsite there or can there be some big savings without a lot of hassle staying off site like we do in Anaheim?

I know I should be posting in the WDW forums, but I know and trust all of you and I guess I need a nudge or push from you guys!!!

 

[Sherry E]

One of our wonderful DIS-ers and friends here is Mariezp. She is a DLR vet who made her very first trip to WDW this past December. She knew nothing about WDW at all before 2009. In fact, early last year, she started a thread here with questions about WDW and sifted through all the bountiful info to formulate a plan, and she got it all worked out. She is not only a very nice, friendly person, but I am sure she can break everything down for you (if you need it) and answer questions before you delve into the (sometimes scary) world that is the WDW side of the boards!! Here is the link to Marie's TR from that WDW trip, which is almost finished:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2362766

Oh, and make sure to tell her I sent you!

ETA: Marie and family actually rented a very affordable house for their 2-week trip to WDW. It was a great house (see photos in her TR) and it turned out to be cheaper than staying onsite would have been. Of course, they had to rent a car while they were there but it wasn't too costly.

 

[oc_tony]

We love WDW and have made 2 trips in the last two years. We're currently planning our Dec trip! Planning for WDW is more work than for DLR, but for us, that is half the fun. Explore wdwinfo.com and buy some good guide books (Unofficial Guide, Passporter, etc) and start researching.

Many people prefer to stay on site due to the size of the property and the perks that come with it. There are 3 levels: Value, Moderate, and Deluxe. There's is DVC too, but I don't know if that applies to you. First decide on what your budget is because that will dictate so much. Staying off-site is generally less expensive, but IMHO you miss out on the total experience. We've done it both ways, and prefer to be on property.

For tickets, we prefer park hoppers since we usually spend the morning in one park, then head to Epcot for the afternoon and dinner.

Shop around for airfare into Orlando (MCO), and if you are staying on property, you can use Disney's complementary Magical Express to transport you and your bags to your resort. This will save you a rental car if you need to cut costs. On-property transportation (buses, monorails, boats) is free for resort guests and will take you anywhere, although sometimes it is not as efficient as having your own wheels.

I don't have any specific threads to point you to, but if you've been lurking, you've probably picked up some good info already.

Once you nail down your transportation, lodging, and park ticket expenses, you can turn your attention to the other details like dining reservations, tours, golf, etc. The more you learn, the less overwhelmed you'll feel, but you have to start somewhere. My family and I firmly believe in the power of planning for a WDW vacation. It will save you so much time and money! Just posting this reply makes me excited for our trip this Christmas.

 

[rentayenta]

Search "Hydroguy". He has put some great info out there.

We made our first journey east in 2007 after having been to Disneyland hundreds of times. Although both destinations are Disney, the two locations couldn't be more different. Have fun planning!!!

 

[raftislander]

Here are the things that I found to be most helpful when making the leap to planning a trip to WDW when I was used to DL.
1) Get a good guide book that doesn't just cover the layouts of the parks but also the resorts and the restaurants. I found the Passporter guide good for giving me a good overview for everything including layouts of the different resort rooms and the distances to the various parks- although it is weak for touring plans for the parks. I am sure that there are others. Unlike DL, the resorts and restaurants are as much a part of a WDW vacation as the parks. I recommend staying on property unless your group is too large to fit in a single room. Then you may get better accomodations for a more reasonable cost off property (ie renting a vacation home). But if you stay off property- I would recommend that you try to have a couple of meals at the resort restaurants so that you get a sampling of what the resorts have to offer.
2) Consider subscribing to TourguideMike. He is a sponser on these boards and by going through his link you can get a discount. My recollection is that it between $20-25 to subscribe. This was well worth the money. You can sign up for a monthly group( based on the time of your visit) so that you will be notified of changes that affect your stay. I was amazed at how many things changed- and changed again -during the course of my planning. Very supportive and helpful people on his boards as well. He also provides very specific information to help you make the best use of your time.
3) Don't buy all of the bells and whistles on your park ticket at the outset. You can always upgrade your park tickets later on. While parkhopping is a given at DL it is not at WDW. It can take a long time to travel between parks and many people only go to a single park in a day. While I always buy a ticket for each day at DL- you may not need it at WDW. You may want to spend a day at your resort, a waterpark, or DTD and not need park admission for that day. There are a couple of restaurants where you can watch the fireworks with the piped in soundtrack without needing park admission for that day. It is possible to have a very magical Disney day at WDW without stepping foot inside one of the parks.
4) Read the boards and listen to the podcast. Another source of up-to-date information that no guidebook can provide.

I spent about a year planning a trip that we took in March of 2009. We had a great trip and it was worth every minute I spent planning. My family thought that I had gone a little nuts until they saw the schedule that another person had created that had entries like:Leave park at 4:13-Arrive at resort 4:52. They realized that all I had asked of them was, on park days, to be up early to arrive for rope drop. I had a game plan to get us to the headliners at each park without significant wait then, I relaxed with regards to a specific schedule and we toured more spontaneously. Oh-your family will think that you are crazy asking them what they want to be eating-SIX MONTHS ahead of time, but it must be done to schedule those ADRs!! Have fun.

 

[lcasa]

Check out the "share" forums - you can get a small fridge for your room from fellow dis-ers (at least for the value hotels ), and I've seen stroller shares too.

If you do a dining plan, make sure you get your reservations AS SOON AS the window opens - planning the meals is a lot of fun but some work too. Lots of boards on eating options. Even without the plan make reservations the earliest you can - on the west coast that means getting up a 3 or 4 AM to call in!

MCO is the easiest - I saved a bit of cash flying into Tampa once ( 2 hr drive ) and Melbourne ( 1 hr or so ) but then you need a car. I have found super cheap rentals - $15 a day - on hotwire though. It is handy to have a car if you're trying to make it to dinner reservations at the hotels - some of them can take a hour or so to reach with the transport system. And I saved $50 each flying to San Diego instead of LAX last year ( weird -something about an underserviced airport). The strangest bit - I flex to LAX first, then took a 2nd flight to SD!

Be prepared to be awestruck by the size of it all.
On a budget I might choose a water park option over hoppers - I love the water parks. Nothing like them here. Otherwise do both!
Also I've saved money by taking a redeye - it takes a full travel day to get there from here, so no point spending disney prices for the first night when you're getting in at 10 and going right to sleep. I've also crashed at a near-airport hotel the first night. Then hit the parks first thing in the morning ready to roll.
Have fun planning! The disney site itself is great for exploring the rides and parks, and seeing the hotel rooms.

 

[HydroGuy]

We are now Disneyland Vets and have made 4 trips since getting our APs in Oct. Now we have an opportunity to visit a sibling of mine who will be participating in the WDW College program this fall. I have done a little lurking on the WDW forums and it just seems so overwhelming. We have no idea where to even start planning. What types of airfares or deals to look for.

Any advice from other DLR vets that have made a trip back east? Any good links to specific threads that would be helpful.

It seems like there is so much going on there, but that finding good deals off site etc might be next to impossible since things are so spread out. Is it just better to stay onsite there or can there be some big savings without a lot of hassle staying off site like we do in Anaheim?

I know I should be posting in the WDW forums, but I know and trust all of you and I guess I need a nudge or push from you guys!!!

Here is something I wrote that may help:

"An Introduction To WDW For DLR Vets" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=16541636

Some overall advice:

1. Give yourself time - hopefully at least 7 days. DLR you can sprint for 3 days and just blast thru, but that will kill you at WDW. Tour Guide Mike says "WDW is a marathon, not a sprint". Pace yourself.

2. Take time to experience the dining at the parks and hotels. Lots of choices there. We like Sci-Fi Dine-In at DHS, Beaches and Cream at the Yacht Club/Beach Club hotel, and Whispering Canyon at WL.

3. Take time to see the "streetmosphere" entertainment at DHS

4. Listen to the music! Off-Kilter at Epcot and Mulch, Sweat and Shears at DHS.

5. Take some whole days or half-days off and go to one of the Disney water parks or DisneyQuest.

6. Don't park hop. The parks are too far apart and you waste too much time and lose your FP opportunities.

7. Get there early

8. Make sure to ride Philharmagic at MK, Rockin Rollercoaster and Great Movie Ride at DHS, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari and Dinosaur at AK, and Test Track at Epcot.

9. See Festival of the Lion King at AK and Illuminations at Epcot.

10. Join Tour Guide Mike - www.tourguidemike.com - and be patient as you learn it. There is lots of good advice there.

11. Do not do Extra Magic Hours - go to the parks that do not have EMH that day.

 

[Judy from Boise]

I am going to move this thread to the community board where no topic is off topic . What that means is you can plan to your hearts content without even needing to go to the WDW boards!

 

[bumbershoot]

Before jumping in and asking questions on the Theme Parks board, read some stickies. Well, first read HydroGuy's info. Then read the "tickets" thread in the Theme Parks forum by Cheshire_Figment. Then just start reading. stitchkingdom.com has great info, and look at his link to maps. Those maps are done by Robo, a fabulous font of info on the WDW side of things.

Not sure if anyone touched on it, but at WDW, you keep any discount you had on your tickets, when upgrading, as long as you use the tickets first. Unlike at DLR, where you just pay the full price of whatever ticket you upgrade to, and therefore there's no savings in buying a ticket then upgrading.

Sign up for the mousesavers.com newsletter, as on the 15th each month they send out a newsletter with a link to discount tickets through undercovertourist.com. Good savings! When comparing prices on disneyworld.com's ticket page, remember that tax isn't included until you actually go to your Cart.

Of course that last paragraph is only helpful if you are NOT getting a package deal.

That's just what comes to mind first! I'm in the middle of planning our first trip to WDW, but I've been reading their forums since as long as I've been on the Dis!

 

[raftislander]

Good clarification Bumbershoot about the savings issue when you upgrade tickets at WDW. My point was just not to overpurchase at the outset based upon DL assumptions about parkhopping and the number of days you need for park visists versus the number of days in your trip.

 

[Dizneydaz]

For my first trip back to WDW since 1983, in 1998, I searched online and found Deb's Unofficial Disney site (now allearsnet.com) and used that to get info about our trip. Even then I didn't know AK had opened! We stayed at All Star Sports that trip.

I'm not sure when I found this board but it was after several more trips. Now between disboards and allearsnet.com I get all the info I need.

I'm an DLR APH but as you can see by my siggie I now have 14 WDW trips under my belt. I now count myself as a WDW vet as well as DLR vet!

A few things that work for me are:

We always rent a car. We don't spend everyday at Disney. My DM insists that we do something other than Disney. We've explored many areas of Florida.

We park hop. Since we have AP to DLR for us it's not all about the rides. We don't go commando. We may start our day at MK and end it at EPCOT. If we do, we will park at EPCOT and ride the monorail to MK. We never spend a full day at DHS. We will park hop when we go there as well.

When we have (free) DDP I make many of our ADRs at resort or DTD locations. Again, this is where our own car comes in handy. Easier to get to other resorts.

Feel free to check out Disney Resorts (maybe on a non-park day). They are all so cool to visit.

Do the waterparks if the weather is right. They are one of our favorite parks.

Since we are from Calif. we don't do well getting to the parks at opening. So we like to take advantage of EMH evenings. Work great for us.

Make dinnner ADRS at closing time at some of the parks. Nice way to end the day and you'll be one of the last exiting the park.

You can also start your day at one of the park restaurants, before opening. The parks are almost empty then.

Most importantly-be flexible with any plans you make. Don't insist on keeping to a schedule. You'll drive yourself crazy. I make an ADR for every day we are there (on DDP) knowing that we won't keep all of them. I adjust our dining plans while there. Even in high demand times like free DDP you can still get ADRS at many good restaurants.

Oh, and one last thing, speaking of restaurants, eat early or late. It's easier to get in the higher in demand locations. We don't mind eating dinner late-we eat around 7 or so here at home so eating at 7 or 8, or later, in WDW is not big deal.

HAVE FUN!

 

[Bill Brown]

Been visiting DL and WDW annually since the mid-70's (first DL visit in 1960). Rented cars, visited various FL tourist traps and stayed off site during my earliest WDW visits. However, found staying on site without a rental car and visiting only WDW to be more fun and relaxing for the past 20 years or so.

• Typically, I visit WDW for 10-day to 3-week stays.
• Stayed at Pop Century the first day it was open to the general public and have been staying there for every WDW visit since. Needless to say, I recommend Pop Century. I prefer one of the buildings nearest to the bus stop with an outward facing room (not facing inward toward other buildings or a pool).
• Disney's Magical Express (DME) service from Orlando International Airport was excellent and is complimentary for guests staying on site. (DME is the best way to go if you're staying on site.) There was no line at all at the airport DME counter when my early evening flight arrived (7 p.m.-ish). Paying the airline baggage fees adds a bit of outbound hassle if you're not flying 1st class. These days, I fly 1st class to avoid all the annoying airline nickle and dime fees.
• Nowadays, TS dining at WDW is a bit of a hassle. Make ADRs for popular restaurants as soon as you can (180 days before your visit is the earliest). Don't tell anyone, but I usually make duplicate or triplicate ADRs for different parks for each day. I really don't have a clue as to which park I'll be visiting 180 days in advance.
• Carry enough clothing so that you don't waste your vacation time washing clothes. (Learned from experience, plus you need a pound or 2 of quarters for the machines.)
• Remember, WDW is really big and consists of several parks. Plan on lots of wandering time. Transportation from the parks at closing times tends to be hectic, however, I found WDW bus transportation very convenient throughout most of the day.