Experienced WDWers help needed!

[noodlesmum]

Hello!

I'm not new to the DIS but new round here and I need serious help! lol! My DH has tasked me with booking a summer holl to WDW for summer '11 and I haven't a clue where to start. We have been to DLRP more times than I can remember but I know nothing about WDW

I have allready had a bit of help from the guys over on the DLRP site who have been to WDW but need some more please! I was thinking about staying on site at Pop but I've just looked on disneyworld.co.uk and we will be upgraded to a fee dining plan if we stay at a moderate hotel. Sounds good - better hotel and free food! So is the dining plan worth it? I'm sure I will save money but its a counterservice dining plan which doesn't overly appeal (as I am - perhaps wrongly - comparing this to what a "counter service" meal would consitute at DLRP) can you use the dining vouchers at face value and then add more to it so that we could mix it up with table service? Also of the moderate hotels I'd love to hear which one you think is best and why.

Lastly - do you have to book ALL your meals in advance? Is it really that hard to eat somewhere without a reservation?

Thanks in advance

 

[wicket2005]

Just saying 'hello' back. I cannot help with staying onsite at Disney as we don't do that.

With reservations I know people on these boards book at the first available date available.

 

[luke]

Hey you made it! You'll see some of the same faces as the Paris board here too

for onsite, check out the Saratoga Springs and Old Key West resorts, as like this year, they're offering discounted room rates and also free dining

for dining reservations, it's much more common to book reservations (ADRs) at wdw than dlrp, and it unnerved me as we're staying onsite for the first time this year, but the online booking system was easy as pie and we got a reservation for everywhere we wanted and at the times we wanted too

happy planning

 

[noodlesmum]

Hey Luke Yep I made it!

Do you have a prefrence out of those resorts? Any prefrence of travel agent?

I see old key west is near downtown disney - is that like the village? Would it be walking distance from that hotel?

 

[luke]

My only preference is that I've booked Saratoga Springs for this year, I personally have no experience of either.
Saratoga springs is the newer resort, old key west has bigger rooms.
Saratoga is the nearest to Downtown Disney and I've walked it (tho I was very drunk - it was the day before my wedding).

Have a look at the prices for them. They'll be more expensive than the value resorts but probably not by much with the discounts and obviously you'll need less spending money as you'll have free dining

 

[scojos]

one thing you will struggle with in the USA compared with paris is the size, when luke says walkable its about 25-30 min walk, depending on where you want to get to at ssr, and of course the speed you walk at. at massive temps and humidity (picture walking into changing rooms at swimming baths and you are getting the picture, so, no, i wouldnt walk it

we stayed at PORS (port orleans riverside) 2 years ago, and like luke we are doing ssr this year ( a deluxe). is the plan worth it?? oh yeah baby!! saves a fortune, esp with kids, but only if you would eat at these places- if you are a mcdonalds family, dont like trying new things, then prob not.
there are loads of choices of QSDP, not just burgers, , its a question of researching menus and choosing places for your family.... i spend hours doing this, best part of the holidays
HTH
tracy

 

[noodlesmum]

Saratoga is the nearest to Downtown Disney and I've walked it (tho I was very drunk - it was the day before my wedding).

Lol I was thinking that if you could do it drunk then we should just about manage!

picture walking into changing rooms at swimming baths and you are getting the picture, so, no, i wouldnt walk it

Good point!!

Okay I'm now having a good look into those resorts and going to look at some menus

Thanks!

 

[princessjodiebo]

hi ya
as a newbie to wdw i am in exactly the same predicament as you i have no idea where to start !!

there are some fantastic links to restaurant menus etc to help you look at what food is available and where to eat as well

as for travel agents virgin obviously are the main one people tend to gravitate towards to though i have also got a quote through complete orlando who seem to be very competitive the only problem at the moment is that if you want to put a package together yourself flights dont come out until 11 months before hand so if you wanted to go in august you couldnt book your flights til sept though they gave me a really good price so am tempted to book the accom and tickets so i know they are done and add on the flights later

i know that thomas cook and thomson are supposed to be launching their summer 11 brochures from 1st may and when we flew to mexico with thomsonfly they had more legroom than virgin so might be worth costing them up too when the brochures come out

i am just trying to narrow down which hotel am hoping that ssr or okw might come down in price soon otherwise it looks like por or csr i just cannot decide anyway keep intouch on here and we can plan together !! good luck !!

 

[starrysky]

Hi

Have you looked at allears.net its a great website that has loads of infromation on it from reviews, latest ride updates from the parks and also very helpful list of all the menus. I found that in combination with the help on here and on that site it made my trip easier.

As a PP said there are loads of options from pizza to morrocan style foods to salads and all sorts available at the QS places.

You are not allowed to add on money to make it up credits to table service on an individual basis but you can upgrade the whole plan. If you want to do that so you would get one QS meal and a TS meal as well. We did the QS plan last year and just booked a couple of places we really wanted to go to and just paid out of pocket for those. For us having to stick to reservations all the time just did not work for us. We had more than enough options on the QS plan and even had credits left over.

We stayed at the french quarter last year for the first time on site and fell in love with it. Very small moderate level resort with easy access to DTD and also the ability to use the facilities at Riverside.

 

[noodlesmum]

hi ya
as a newbie to wdw i am in exactly the same predicament as you i have no idea where to start !!

there are some fantastic links to restaurant menus etc to help you look at what food is available and where to eat as well

as for travel agents virgin obviously are the main one people tend to gravitate towards to though i have also got a quote through complete orlando who seem to be very competitive the only problem at the moment is that if you want to put a package together yourself flights dont come out until 11 months before hand so if you wanted to go in august you couldnt book your flights til sept though they gave me a really good price so am tempted to book the accom and tickets so i know they are done and add on the flights later

i know that thomas cook and thomson are supposed to be launching their summer 11 brochures from 1st may and when we flew to mexico with thomsonfly they had more legroom than virgin so might be worth costing them up too when the brochures come out

i am just trying to narrow down which hotel am hoping that ssr or okw might come down in price soon otherwise it looks like por or csr i just cannot decide anyway keep intouch on here and we can plan together !! good luck !!

Hello! Yeah a planning buddy would be much appreciated! I'm in the same boat - DLRP I could book all the parts seperatly, books my fave places to eat and hash out an itenary blindfolded! But there is just SO much info and so many hotels etc to choose!

I'm 99% it will be an all in travel agent affair so I will await the release of new brochures on the 1st May and keep researching online in the meantime

 

[luke]

Are you planning on hiring a car? Some people don't but for us it's a must

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Hi, as a few others have said, Saratogo Springs have got great prices for this year - a stay there for us is only coming out £80 more than Pop would have (when you take dining into account!!). Disney haven't got the offer on their site yet for next year, but Complete Orlando have!

Regarding dining - counter service meals are MUCH better in WDW that DLRP (we're just back from Paris and couldn't believe the difference!). Bigger, better quality, and better value! We always use our counter and snack credits for breakfast and dinner, and then book a table service meal each evening. Its important to book in advance, especially if you're going when free dining is on, as the restaurants are rammed. I booked all my meals today for October (first day my booking date was open) and there were already a couple of restaurants where I couldn't get the times I wanted!

 

[dixonsontour]

I'd recommend the brits guide book to Orlando as a good place to start.

Happy planning!

 

[UKDEB]

Welcome to UKTP, noodlesmum.

The CS places at WDW are fine for some meals, but you'd be missing out on so much if you didn't get to experience some of the TS restaurants, too. DDP would be far too restrictive for me, but I can certainly understand its appeal when it's free. Would I be right in assuming you'd get a better plan if you stayed at SSR or OKW, given that they're deluxes? If so, I'd suggest that would be the way to go.

Old Key West is within walking distance of Downtown Disney, but it is a fair old trek and the path is closed at around 10pm each evening. It's a beautiful stroll and nice to do once, but after that, I reckon the novelty would wear off. Of course, you do also have the water taxi option.

Saratoga Springs is closer to DTD and, depending on which area you're allocated, you can walk to either West Side or Market Place in 10 minutes. Whenever we've stayed at SSR, we've always requested Grandstand as it's the newest neighbourhood and close to both the Carriage House (the main complex) and the boat dock, plus it's an easy walk to West Side. We've stayed at SSR 3 times now and, on the whole, we tend to walk to DTD rather than get the water taxi.

Excerpts from my Trip Reports from our November 2008 trip (with photos) will give you an overview of both resorts, together with an idea of those walking distances:

Photos of Carriage House (post no 1) and SSR room (post no 2).

Photos around SSR walking from Grandstand, via the Carriage House, to Downtown Disney Marketplace (post no 1), plus photos in and around Downtown Disney (post no 2). Obviously we did it over the course of several hours, but this report includes an entire loop from SSR, through Downtown Disney and back into SSR at its opposite end.

Photos of walk from SSR to OKW, plus photos of OKW together with my musings on that resort (post no 2). This is the path you'd take if you wanted to walk from OKW to DTD.

Photos of the walk from Grandstand to West Side (post no 1).

 

[scojos]

just had a nose at your reports debbie, must have missed them last year.
tracy

 

[tinks_1989]

Hiya

we booked our first on site stay last year and we booked Saratoga Springs. We loved it!

We were originally going to book Port Orleans and upgrade to standard dining (instead of the free quick service dining offered)! Then Disney released the discount rooms on Saratoga Springs and Old Key West which it only worked out about £50 extra to stay there and the standard dining would be free.

We stayed at congress park when we stayed at Saratoga Springs which is the closest block of rooms to Down town Disney. Our walk was literally 5 minutes walk to the Down town Disney bus stop. This made it very easy for us if we were visiting another resort (for restaurants etc) to get a bus home as bus's don't go to one hotel to the other.

I would recommend Saratoga Springs we loved it. I was also very apprehensive about staying onsite after spending years of staying in Villas and also I hate bus's and was really not looking forward to relying on bus's but even they were fine and we are going for two weeks this year and we aren't hiring a car at all

 

[princessjodiebo]

im going to give complete orlando a ring about saratoga springs i didnt realise that their disney dining plan was upgraded for those hotels i assumed that they were the same dining plan as port orleans etc
does anyone know which is better saratoga or old key west ??

 

[scojos]

does anyone know which is better saratoga or old key west ??

depends what you are looking for, but i do think they are very similar, one of them is about to be refurbedbut cant remember which

i would suggest some utubing to have a look at the accomodation, menus or facilities, i would ask the simple question - really, how muuch time are you going to spend in the resort/room???
tracy

 

[UKDEB]

does anyone know which is better saratoga or old key west ??

It depends what you mean by "better". SSR is much newer, but OKW has bigger rooms. And, as already mentioned, SSR is closer to Downtown Disney. I prefer SSR, but I haven't actually stayed at OKW (just visited) and many like it for its laid-back charm. On the whole, I'd say that those who prefer OKW tend to be those who have been going there for years and have an affinity with it. Of course, that's a generalisation, but it is starting to look a bit tatty in my view. I'm guessing it's the resort more likely to be getting the refurb which Tracy mentions.

 

[princessjodiebo]

i must admit that my gut instinct is for saratoga springs- to be honest the room is not going to be a priority for us as we can only go for a week and want to do as much as we can in that week
i think though that if i can get a better hotel for a not much more it would make the whole disney experience more special
am waiting for thomsons and first choice brochures to come out now i priced up sept with first choice and couldnt believe how reasonable it was compared to virgin and that was including a private taxi transfer plu si flew with thomsons to mexico and they have more leg room in economy than some virgin flights hopefully this time next month i can say my holiday is booked !!