Family of 4 - Looking for Best Package from PEI

[fitislandgirl]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are planning a trip to Disney with our two children who who are 7 and 4. We have never been to Orlando so this will be our FIRST trip! A friend of mine recommended I check out this board to make some planning. All I can say is WOW! There is so much on here I feel a little bit lost.

We are looking to travel anytime between March-May for 1 week. Flying out of either Charlottetown PEI, Halifax Nova Scotia or Moncton NewBrunswick. I've heard that the POP Resort is the best place to stay if you have small children and that it gives you the opportunity to stay somewhere a bit cheaper and have extra money to spend on other things. I'm open to suggestions for a moderate resort as well as this is our first vacation and I would like something in between that the parents and kids will enjoy.

I have no idea in terms of booking packages or what to get. If anyone could direct me in the proper direction I would REALLY appreciate it. I've heard there is a babysitting service at Disney. That you can get meal plans paid into your package and that it's better to go this route??

Sorry for all the questions. I just want to make our first visit magical and at the same time save.

Thanks!

Kimmy

 

[gilsan]

Welcome to the board!

I would book my trip directly through Walt Disney. I don't think you necessary get a better deal booking with a travel agent. They have deals on the site, check the resort boards for details and the new ones.

I found that booking directly with Disney makes it easier deal with booking dining reservations and any changes with your reservation. For our first trip we booked through West Jet vacations and when I wanted to upgrade our resort we had to pay a fee to West Jet to make the changes. Disney doesn't charge a fee for changing your package.

With Disney you anly need to $200 to hold your reservation and the balance is due 45 days before check-in if you have booked a package with them. West Jet required the full payment up front.

Check Air Canada website they have some good prices for flights in your time frame. They have direct flights out of Halifax on Thursdays and Sundays. Canjet also has direct flights from Halifax on Thursdays and Saturdays and the prices keep dropping.

If you decide to go with a dining plan I would recommend booking dining reservations (ADR's) ASAP. Many restaurants, (Cinderella's Royal Table, Le Cellier), fill up months before with reservations and if you don't have a reservation you may not be able to dine there. Check the restaurant board they have lots of information about the types of dining plans.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

My advice would be to keep an eye on airfarewatchdog.com for flight from PEI, but often sales occur from Halifax or Moncton. Lately Continental has had a few sales .... Ideally, if you wait for after March break the airfares may soften.

Best thing to do is watch the thread below ... that tracks fares from Maritimes and New England. This will be half your battle ...

I would suggest that you book with Disney after you find your airfare. Book with Disney directly .... POP would be my pick for best value ... staying on Disney will mean that you wont need a car, and that you can get free transportation from Orlando airport (MCO). Staying on site has other benefits.

There are also discount codes out for the period of time you mentioned with minor exceptions around Easter (March 28th ... onward for a little less than a week).

You should also track what you plan to do about dining .... very good threads on that.

Ted

 

[fan1080]

We have always booked through our travel agent. But there are things to know before booking with an agent.

Some agencies charge extra by booking through them, some don't. If you book through an agent that doesn't charge extra, you have the added benefit of the agent working for/with you in case any issues come up. Otherwise, you are on your own. Remember the airline fiasco not so long ago where the airline went belly-up, stranding all those travellers? Those that booked with an agent would have had them working for them to make sure arrangements for other flights are taken care of. They make all the arrangements and you can continue on your vacation. A nice peace of mind. Otherwise, you would be stuck scrambling all by yourself making alternate arrangements.

Some agents work hard to find you a good deal, others don't. I tend to search out deals myself, and let our TA know. She then applies any codes I find. You can check the prices directly on the Disney site. If you get the right agent, they will charge you the same price, converted to Canadian funds, with no extra fees. We book through Maritime Travel for all our trips to Disney.

We've stayed at values (POP and All-Star Movies) and Mods (POR). We prefer the Mods, but the values are also fine. The Mod we've stayed at is Port Orleans Riverside. It's a fantastic resort, absolutely beautiful.

I just did a quick search on the Disney site for you:

POP, April 11-18, $1800, plus a $300 gift card, 8-Day MYW base Ticket.

POR, April 11-18, $2300, plus a $500 gift card, 8-Day MYW base Ticket.

$500 difference between them, but you also get a gift card worth $200 more for booking a Mod. Therefore, for $300 more you can stay in a Mod.

As for the Dining Plan. We have never purchased it. We are light eaters and the Dining Plan would have cost us about an extra $400 as compared to paying out of pocket. The Dining Plan is good if you are big eaters and prefer table service dining. If you are ok with counter service, are light eaters (don't mind splitting a CS meal between two people) and only a couple table service meals, the Dining Plan may not be right for you. Look into it closely, most menus for CS and TS can be found here on the DIS under the Dining tab above. Check out the meal prices, then do a quick budget plan on the cost of each option. For you, the dining plan would cost about $108/day for the basic plan.

I've rambled too long.......

 

[tribus121]

Pop is a wonderful hotel we have stayed there twice and have used the dining plan twice All though the dining plan is expensive it is worth it to have everything payed for before you leave ( Meals at WDW can be very expensive )

my tips are

1 bring a stroller for your 4 year old even if no longer used at home it will be needed there

Avoid school break times ( first of march till Easter )it costs more and lines can be long . ( We took our DD out of school for a week and it was worth it )

make dining reservations as early as you can menus can be found at http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

We usually fly from Portland ME savings could be as much as $ 300 each

post "any" questions that you have here there are no stupid questions

we spent so little time at the hotel that we where glad that we did not spend extra for a mod

we have booked direct through disney and through CAA travel and both where good experiences

 

[gilsan]

There is a promo for 30-40% off the hotel on select days. It may be a better deal than the gift card.

 

[fan1080]

There is a promo for 30-40% off the hotel on select days. It may be a better deal than the gift card.

Works out to be about the same deal, within $30-$50, with the gift card being the better deal.

 

[M&M mom]

I would start with booking flights and after that go to disneyworld.com and book your own vacation. Be sure to check out the special offers section of the disney site, you can save big with their promotions. I have never used a TA and have had no problems. We stayed at All star movies twice and it was great, especially with young kids, they love the theme. I would book the disney dining plan, we have used it every time. It is really nice to have it all paid for before you go! It can get really expensive paying for meals and snacks out of pocket. Make sure you make reservations for your table service meals a few weeks in advance. You can read dining reviews and look at menu on allears.net
This is a great site for all kinds of information.

 

[fitislandgirl]

Wow thank you so much to everyone who replied!! I'm off to do some reading in the Dining section of this site and the Disney website! I will be back

Kimmy

 

[CdnCarrie]

A must read website for any WDW vacation is www.mousesavers.com.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Welcome to the DIS!

I hope you don't get too stressed over the planning, because it can get overwhelming. Ask any questions here on the Dis, everyone is extremely helpful.

I've been a few times. I have stayed at Pop century twice and loved it. It's bright and colorful and has a Disney feel for it. It's nice that Pop has it's own buses too. I've also stayed at All Star Music and loved that too! It has movies and games outside by the main pool. It was really fun and had a Disney feel too. I took a walk to All Star Movies and All Star Sports and they are both fun as well. The All Stars sometimes share buses, and sometimes don't. When I was there, sometimes leaving there would be one bus for Music and Sports and movies shared.

I spent a few days at Port Orleans French Quarter as well. It was not a visit for the parks, but a shopping trip. We shopped at the resorts near Magic Kingdom so we took a bus there. We did not share with Port Orleans Riverside, although once it was storming so the boat from Downtown Disney (which is really nice) was not running, we had to take the bus and it did share with POR and it seemed to take FOREVER. We absolutely loved POFQ though, and if we go on another shopping trip (my sister and our friend) we'll stay at POFQ, unless we can splurge on the Grand Floridian, which is a deluxe and much much more expensive.

Good luck!

 

[SplashMom]

Welcome! There are some good airfares right now with both Westjet and Air Canada out of Halifax for your time frame. The prices are around $450 taxes/fee incl. which is a decent deal. They may have some good flights out of Charlottetown as well.

We usually book directly through Disney and we love Pop! We have stayed there several times, as well as moderates and a deluxe, but with young kids, I would definitely stay there again. We have used the dining plan several times and really like it. We like having everything paid before we go and having a nice table service meal daily. It depends on your tastes but if you don't want to eat fast food all the time, it may be a consideration. We have found that it is economical for us. You do, however, have to make dining reservations (which is half the fun ).

Once you have booked your air and resort, the planning and questions can really begin. The room discount deal right now seems quite good. The gift card is good as well but it depends on how much spending you plan to do. I think I'd prefer the room discount. We booked the buy 4 nights get 3 free but I think that had to be booked by the end of the year.

Have fun planning!

 

[fitislandgirl]

Thanks again everyone!! We are now looking into the possibility of renting a house we found on Expedia. It's only a few minutes away from Disney and has a pool. We can also rent a car so we can take in other attractions while we are in Orlando, prepare our own home meals, etc. Still not sure which way to go but I can see some pros now to staying off resort as well. There are so many options! LOL

 

[gilsan]

You should pick up, (store or library), a copy of the unofficial guide to Disneyworld. It has a tonne of information about WDW including pros and cons with staying onsite.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Thanks again everyone!! We are now looking into the possibility of renting a house we found on Expedia. It's only a few minutes away from Disney and has a pool. We can also rent a car so we can take in other attractions while we are in Orlando, prepare our own home meals, etc. Still not sure which way to go but I can see some pros now to staying off resort as well. There are so many options! LOL

I know that my sister loves renting a house, she has 3 children, 2, 4 and 6 and they love the convenience of being right there when the kids are at the pool and things like that. They find it's much cheaper food wise because they then have breakfast and supper at home and occasionally buy their lunch at the parks. They choose to either be there early or go later for fireworks.

My biggest concern with renting houses is that there are a lot that are not quite what they say. I would suggest finding someone you actually know who can vouch for whichever company you decide to use. I could get you the name of the company or whatever that my sister used last year and is using this year as well if you would like. That way it's almost as though it's someone you know... At least another Islander!

 

[mom4463]

Since this is your first trip to WDW I would strongly recommend that you contact Christine at Fairytale Dreams and Destinations. When you book through Fairytale it is the same as booking directly with Disney. They are so helpful and have so much information. They will also make all of your dining reservations for you. Good luck!

Kim