Family's first time to WDW in October

[SpainJ]

Hello, everyone!

Newbie to boards and newbie to WDW. So let me start by saying this forum seems like the perfect place for me to ask some newbie questions. Of the posts I've read everyone seems very helpful and insightful.

What you should know about our first family trip:

• Our family is planning a trip to Disney from October 24-Nov 1.
• 
  
• We have a party of 8 going:
• Myself (40)
• My wife (37)
• My 2 Sons (10&8)
• My mother(62)
• My sister (42)
• My 2 nieces (15&9)
• 
  
• None of us have ever been to Disney World.
• 
  
• I have a childhood friend who works for Disney who is going to get us discounts on hotel rooms and park tickets (with hopper option). No water park.
• 
  
• We plan to stay at one of the Walt Disney World Resorts. Most likey a budget resort.
• 
  
• We are flying from Chicago to Orlando International Airport and already have our departure flight booked. We can't book our returning flight until Southwest opens up the schedule in May.
• 
  
• We plan on spending one day at Universal Studios

So the questions I have for the WDW experts:

1. We will be getting up at 5:00 A.M on departure day. We arrive in Orlando at 11:45 A.M.. I'm assuming we're taking the Magic Express from the airport. What can we realistically expect on the first day? What do your family's normally do on arrival day?
2. I know this question has been asked and answered a million times, but I want a direct answer from the experts: Food Plan or no Food Plan? Any tips on keeping food budget to a minimum? This is the expense I am most concerned about. How much does it cost to feed a family of 8 at WDW per day? We plan on having at least 2 or 3 character dinners that need reservations.
3. Given the ages of the kids (15, 10, 9 & 8). Which of the 4 theme parks do you believe we should spend the most time at? Magic Kingdom? Remember it's our first time and we know we can't see everything. So what's the biggest bang for our time?

There's so many more questions I have, but I feel like this is a good start. Thank you so much for any responses.

 

[3Gsandme]

Hi! Welcome! You guys are going to have a blast.

1. Honestly, I'd play it low key on arrival day. You guys will have been up early. Traveled. It's tiring. We made the epic mistake of having a dinner reservation on our check in day and even though I thought I'd planned enough time we almost missed it and it was stressful. I'm all about being low stress. How about you take that time to check in and enjoy what your resort has to offer. There are tons of great activities going on. You could also plan to go over to Downtown Disney for a little taste of Disney magic.

2. The dining plan is tricky. This will probably turn into an essay. So, we had it for our last trip. There are five of us (2 adults, a teenager, a little kid and a littler kid). We did the dining plan (1 quick service, 1 table service and 1 snack per day of stay). On one hand, it's nice to have the cost of food sunken into the overall cost of your trip. When we hit the gate all we paid for was tips (not included on the dining plan), souvenirs and a few meals/snacks above the dining plan. So, that was nice. It's not going to save your money, so don't enter into it thinking that it will. It doesn't. For instance, we always got dessert. Now, we hardly ever eat dessert, so there's really no value, to me, in getting dessert with every meal. There's even less value because if we do get dessert we split it. That's just an example. For us, the two meals and a snack worked out okay. We had breakfast, we had a snack, we had a big dinner. We might have a second snack. However, using the dining plan for breakfast doesn't maximize it's value. It's complicated and this was not helpful at all.

How much does it cost to eat? The sky is the limit. How do you like to eat? allears.net has all the menus and the prices for everything, so you can get an idea of where you want to eat and what it might cost you once you're there.

3. Where to spend most of your time really depends on what your group will like to do. FOr me, I like at least 2 days at Magic Kingdom. It's my favorite park. My eldest daughter likes the Magic Kingdom, but sees value in the other parks as well. Go over the attractions with everyone. They're old enough to have an opinion and then go from there.

 

[SpainJ]

Hi! Welcome! You guys are going to have a blast.

1. Honestly, I'd play it low key on arrival day. You guys will have been up early. Traveled. It's tiring. We made the epic mistake of having a dinner reservation on our check in day and even though I thought I'd planned enough time we almost missed it and it was stressful. I'm all about being low stress. How about you take that time to check in and enjoy what your resort has to offer. There are tons of great activities going on. You could also plan to go over to Downtown Disney for a little taste of Disney magic.

2. The dining plan is tricky. This will probably turn into an essay. So, we had it for our last trip. There are five of us (2 adults, a teenager, a little kid and a littler kid). We did the dining plan (1 quick service, 1 table service and 1 snack per day of stay). On one hand, it's nice to have the cost of food sunken into the overall cost of your trip. When we hit the gate all we paid for was tips (not included on the dining plan), souvenirs and a few meals/snacks above the dining plan. So, that was nice. It's not going to save your money, so don't enter into it thinking that it will. It doesn't. For instance, we always got dessert. Now, we hardly ever eat dessert, so there's really no value, to me, in getting dessert with every meal. There's even less value because if we do get dessert we split it. That's just an example. For us, the two meals and a snack worked out okay. We had breakfast, we had a snack, we had a big dinner. We might have a second snack. However, using the dining plan for breakfast doesn't maximize it's value. It's complicated and this was not helpful at all.

How much does it cost to eat? The sky is the limit. How do you like to eat? allears.net has all the menus and the prices for everything, so you can get an idea of where you want to eat and what it might cost you once you're there.

3. Where to spend most of your time really depends on what your group will like to do. FOr me, I like at least 2 days at Magic Kingdom. It's my favorite park. My eldest daughter likes the Magic Kingdom, but sees value in the other parks as well. Go over the attractions with everyone. They're old enough to have an opinion and then go from there.

I was kinda thinking the same thing for arrival day - low key. We can do the pool and dinner at the resort and Downtown Disney. I was also thinking Magic Kingdom for a couple of days. Thank you!

 

[akl2004]

Welcom to the Boards. We were there the same week in 2013 and it was awesome.

1. I never plan much of anything on arrival day. Flights can be delayed, etc. Since its all new to everyone, take the time to recuperate and take in the resort. Some folks disagree but the resorts are part of the attraction to my family. You can explore your resort or other resorts, go to Downtown Disney, even go to a park if you wish. This may be a good day to just get settled and go to Epcot or Magic Kingdom for the fireworks.
2. On the Dining plan, you will get all kinds of answers on this. We have done trips with and without, although when we had the plan it was on the free dining promotion. As pp stated go the allears.net and review the menus of restaurants you may be interested in. One thing I will say is that with the Dining Plan, we felt it was almost too much food for a day. Again, all about personal preferences. One big recommendation is that you will need reservations for just about any table service restaurant.
3. Every party, even every person will like a different park more. The way we tour with the ParkHoppers is once at a park, if we aren't "feeling it" for that day, because of crowds or just our groups attitudes at that time, we jump on a bus or monorail and go to another park. No matter where you are, as first timers, you will be seeing something new and exciting.

You do have to plan and research, but you have come to the right place. I can't tell you how much I have learned on these Boards. Some of the learning process is done the old fashioned way, by experience. Just treat it like you would any other vacation, it is all about spending time together as a family and experiencing something truly magical. Ask as many questions as you have and sort through the responses to determine which suggestions suit you and your family best. Good luck

 

[MandiC]

• We plan on spending one day at Universal Studios

1. We will be getting up at 5:00 A.M on departure day. We arrive in Orlando at 11:45 A.M.. I'm assuming we're taking the Magic Express from the airport. What can we realistically expect on the first day? What do your family's normally do on arrival day?
2. I know this question has been asked and answered a million times, but I want a direct answer from the experts: Food Plan or no Food Plan? Any tips on keeping food budget to a minimum? This is the expense I am most concerned about. How much does it cost to feed a family of 8 at WDW per day? We plan on having at least 2 or 3 character dinners that need reservations.
3. Given the ages of the kids (15, 10, 9 & 8). Which of the 4 theme parks do you believe we should spend the most time at? Magic Kingdom? Remember it's our first time and we know we can't see everything. So what's the biggest bang for our time?

There's so many more questions I have, but I feel like this is a good start. Thank you so much for any responses.

#1- 1 day at Universal Studios can be pricey, not trying to talk you out of it just making sure you are aware. Given the discounts on Disney park tickets once you have 4, the added cost of using a day to rent a vehicle and go to Universal is quite a lot pricier than another day at Disney.

Question #1 We also keep it low key. You just never know with flights. We landed in MCO on time a little after 1pm, and weren't at our resort until after 3pm. We went to Downtown Disney (we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside so we took the boat, which was a nice relaxing way to get there ) Some people do like to do the parks on their first day, for us, I liked to keep it relaxed, get unpacked and organized and get to bed early! You could also check out the Boardwalk, we never did make it over there but it seems like a nice way to start the trip as well.

#2- We liked having the dining plan. I actually priced out meals we'd buy vs how much the meal plan costs. This is a lot of work but it is also nice to know. For us, the dining plan was about $400 more than what I picked for out of pocket. BUT the out of pocket costs didn't include snacks or drinks, and I picked some of the least expensive meals at restaurants. It was just worth it to know that everyone could pick what they wanted wherever we went and get a drink and snacks. Plus we liked doing character meals with the kids, those alone make the dining plan worth it because they are pricey. I can't speak to how much you will spend. As a family of 6 I figured for the entire week without dining plan it would be about $1,280 (again, no drinks or snacks...also no tips or appetizers, ect), the dining plan for the 6 of us (3 disney adults, 3 kids) was $1,677.27. Not sure which character meals you are planning but some of the prices for some of them are Akershus ($47 ages 10+, $27 9 and under), Tusker House breakfast ($29.99 ages 10+, $15.99 9 and under), Chef Mickeys (~$40 ages 10+, ~$21 9 and under), Hollywood and Vine dinner was the same as Chef Mickeys.
You can save money by carrying in food/breakfast/lunch/ect, Walt Disney World does allow you to carry food in. Personally I just had very little desire to do so

#3- Everyone's favorites will depend. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom were the ones we spent the least time at. Though both do have big, fun rides (AK- Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, the safari ride. HS- Rockin Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Star Tours) I loved Epcot, I think it was my favorite by far, we did 2 days at Epcot and 2 days at Magic Kingdom. I felt like 2 days was pretty perfect for Epcot, we could have easily done 3 days at Magic Kingdom.

 

[henry lutz]

Start by walking down main street in magic kingdom
Arrive at rope drop def the most bang for your buck
Take a mid day break
Ride monorail
Talk to cast members..aka employees..they are great
Haunted Mansion
Enjoy

 

[rachael95]

If you only have 4 days, I'd plan on a full day in Magic Kingdom, 1/2 day in Animal Kingdom and a 1/2 day in Hollywood Studios, 1 day in Epcot and then use your 4th day to go back to wherever you enjoyed the most. We personally love Animal Kingdom, but that park does close fairly early compared to others, so make it your first park to visit if you do a 1/2 day. Even though you have hoppers, it does take a lot of time waiting on buses to switch from park to park, just keep that in mind.

If I were you, I'd also consider adding another day for Disney instead of Universal just because the price of the tickets for 1 day there plus renting cars would be so much. But if this is your only trip to FL ever, then you might want to do it. Keep in mind though that for some of the Harry Potter stuff, I think you have to have tickets to both parks (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

For the meal plan, go to Google and search for "Disney Dining meal Excel sheet". That should find you the website where a lovely person has created an Excel sheet that will do all the math for you to help determine if the meal plan is for you. Remember, you can use some of the snack options for things that are packaged and that you can take back with you as well. So if you don't use all your snack options, you can bring them back as edible souvenirs (search for posts on that).

For your first day, I'd explore your resort and then maybe head to Downtown Disney assuming you're not exhausted. But I'd make sure you all get a good night's sleep that first night since you're not going to have any down days. Your resort will also have a pool and you can probably swim that time of year depending on how the weather is, it can be a bit iffy then.

 

[SpainJ]

#1- 1 day at Universal Studios can be pricey, not trying to talk you out of it just making sure you are aware. Given the discounts on Disney park tickets once you have 4, the added cost of using a day to rent a vehicle and go to Universal is quite a lot pricier than another day at Disney.

Question #1 We also keep it low key. You just never know with flights. We landed in MCO on time a little after 1pm, and weren't at our resort until after 3pm. We went to Downtown Disney (we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside so we took the boat, which was a nice relaxing way to get there ) Some people do like to do the parks on their first day, for us, I liked to keep it relaxed, get unpacked and organized and get to bed early! You could also check out the Boardwalk, we never did make it over there but it seems like a nice way to start the trip as well.

#2- We liked having the dining plan. I actually priced out meals we'd buy vs how much the meal plan costs. This is a lot of work but it is also nice to know. For us, the dining plan was about $400 more than what I picked for out of pocket. BUT the out of pocket costs didn't include snacks or drinks, and I picked some of the least expensive meals at restaurants. It was just worth it to know that everyone could pick what they wanted wherever we went and get a drink and snacks. Plus we liked doing character meals with the kids, those alone make the dining plan worth it because they are pricey. I can't speak to how much you will spend. As a family of 6 I figured for the entire week without dining plan it would be about $1,280 (again, no drinks or snacks...also no tips or appetizers, ect), the dining plan for the 6 of us (3 disney adults, 3 kids) was $1,677.27. Not sure which character meals you are planning but some of the prices for some of them are Akershus ($47 ages 10+, $27 9 and under), Tusker House breakfast ($29.99 ages 10+, $15.99 9 and under), Chef Mickeys (~$40 ages 10+, ~$21 9 and under), Hollywood and Vine dinner was the same as Chef Mickeys.
You can save money by carrying in food/breakfast/lunch/ect, Walt Disney World does allow you to carry food in. Personally I just had very little desire to do so

#3- Everyone's favorites will depend. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom were the ones we spent the least time at. Though both do have big, fun rides (AK- Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, the safari ride. HS- Rockin Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Star Tours) I loved Epcot, I think it was my favorite by far, we did 2 days at Epcot and 2 days at Magic Kingdom. I felt like 2 days was pretty perfect for Epcot, we could have easily done 3 days at Magic Kingdom.

Thank you for reply. After discussing it with the family, we will not be going to Universal Studios...this time. We feel like there is enough to see at Disney and it was going to be pretty pricey. We also agreed that we were going to take it slow on the first day and not go to any of the Parks. I'm thinking maybe a nice dinner at one of the resorts and I heard you can see the fireworks from one of the resorts' beach area. Can anyone confirm?

 

[SpainJ]

If you only have 4 days, I'd plan on a full day in Magic Kingdom, 1/2 day in Animal Kingdom and a 1/2 day in Hollywood Studios, 1 day in Epcot and then use your 4th day to go back to wherever you enjoyed the most. We personally love Animal Kingdom, but that park does close fairly early compared to others, so make it your first park to visit if you do a 1/2 day. Even though you have hoppers, it does take a lot of time waiting on buses to switch from park to park, just keep that in mind.

If I were you, I'd also consider adding another day for Disney instead of Universal just because the price of the tickets for 1 day there plus renting cars would be so much. But if this is your only trip to FL ever, then you might want to do it. Keep in mind though that for some of the Harry Potter stuff, I think you have to have tickets to both parks (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

For the meal plan, go to Google and search for "Disney Dining meal Excel sheet". That should find you the website where a lovely person has created an Excel sheet that will do all the math for you to help determine if the meal plan is for you. Remember, you can use some of the snack options for things that are packaged and that you can take back with you as well. So if you don't use all your snack options, you can bring them back as edible souvenirs (search for posts on that).

For your first day, I'd explore your resort and then maybe head to Downtown Disney assuming you're not exhausted. But I'd make sure you all get a good night's sleep that first night since you're not going to have any down days. Your resort will also have a pool and you can probably swim that time of year depending on how the weather is, it can be a bit iffy then.

Thanks for the reply. We are going to skip Universal this time. Too much hassle and money. My kids love the pool, unless it's really cold, I'm sure they'll want to swim.

 

[MandiC]

Thank you for reply. After discussing it with the family, we will not be going to Universal Studios...this time. We feel like there is enough to see at Disney and it was going to be pretty pricey. We also agreed that we were going to take it slow on the first day and not go to any of the Parks. I'm thinking maybe a nice dinner at one of the resorts and I heard you can see the fireworks from one of the resorts' beach area. Can anyone confirm?

You can see MK's fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian. We saw them one day from dinner at the Contemporary. They even play the music. There is nothing like watching them from in front of the castle though. My favorite fireworks were actually the ones in Epcot but I did love the castle projection show before the fireworks at MK, and you can't see that anywhere but in front of the castle

 

[EPCOTgrl1]

For the dining plan what we do is look at where you want to eat and price it out. You also have to look at how many credits it will take. Some places take 2 credits. It takes a little time. Also remember that the quick service meals are normally big. My husband and I normally can split a meal with out any problem.

As for the parks I would talk to everyone about what they want to do. MK has more rides and takes longer to get through, but if you are getting park hoppers you will be able to move from park to park in the middle of the day. Personally I could never spend a whole day in AK, but I could spend 2 mornings there without a problem. In the end it depends on what tickets you get and what most people in your group what to do.