First time to WDW - NEED TIPS! =)

[ShannyDoesDisney]

Hi all!

We are heading to WDW in early January 2018 with our then 19 month old son. My sister won an amazing vacation package that includes flights, hotel stay at the resort of our choice(we chose the Poly), park hopper passes, a Disney gift card for food & a VIP TOUR GUIDE FOR 8 HOURS!!!

I have been to Disneyland manyyyyyyyy times and am a huge Disney fan and so is my sister. It will be the 2 of us with my husband and son!

Soooooo I have the My Disney Experience app, I made reservations at Be Our Guest, Ohana and some other places, I bought the touringplans.com subscription to make personalized plans and I've watched about 100 YouTube videos.

Ok now it's advice time...
What should we do when we have the VIP tour guide cast member?
How should I plan out our 6 days at the parks?
Should we go back to the hotel for naps or try to get our lil dude to sleep in the stroller?
Any food or attraction MUST SEE/DO's?

I am so excited i'm practically planning our second trip already! =P

Any advice is so appreciated so thank you in advance!

shan

 

[Robo]

to the DISboards, Shan!

 

[ShannyDoesDisney]

Robo those maps are so helpful, thank you for making them!

 

[Hootch]

Well, I am jealous. Congratulation.

One of the first thing I suggest is looking at dining. WDW dining can book up early compared to DL. Some restaurants probably have a number of slots filled. Do not overlook Disney Springs. There are good and fun places.

Can you talk with the VIP group about what you can do? I have no experience with them.

Look at Animal Kingdom. Kali will seem similar. Dinosaur is based on the same ride vehicle as Indiana Jones. It is a different experience.

Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios will interesting though sounds great. It is one of the better atmospheres. Toy Story is similar.

Understand the travel times to the parks. Poly is a great resort. Getting to the MK and Epcot. Hollywood Studios has easy transport to Hollywood Studios. Getting to Animal Kingdom will take 20 -30 minutes using a bus. And the Flight of Passage at DAK is the hottest FP on property.

You can see the top FPs on the second post above.

I would explore what help the VIP can give you

 

[OtherFigment]

Best advice someone gave me, read allears.net. They have fantastic advice for first timers!

 

[buddyjo143]

I want to know what contest she won and will they have another one?

 

[ShannyDoesDisney]

I will check that website out OtherFigment, thanks!

buddyjo143 she won it from Corus Entertainment - the Disney Channel. It was a Canadian contest. If anyone on here happens to be Canadian here's a link to the next Corus Disney World contest: http://www.disneyjunior.ca/content/you-could-win-magical-vacation-disney-junior (no affiliation just super happy we get to go)

 

[ShannyDoesDisney]

Thanks for the advice Hootch. I have definitely been wondering about travel times to the parks. =)

 

[Hootch]

This is a great site to find what is going on.

Www.wdwent.com

 

[leahlefler]

I grew up near Disneyland and had annual passes all the way through college. Now we live on the East Coast and do Disney World (and still visit Disneyland when we go home to visit family). You are going to have SO much fun! With our boys, we always let them nap in the stroller but they were happy to do that and didn't need a break from the hustle and bustle. Some kids do, so I would just say do what feels "right" at the time. Our family rule was that if someone needed a break, then we took a break. Sometimes that break might just be sitting in a quiet corner with a snack, and sometimes that meant going back to the hotel. Usually a cranky kid = a hungry or tired kid.

I'm not sure if your 19 month old likes dinosaurs, but if he does the T-Rex cafe in Disney Springs and the dinosaur playground area in Animal Kingdom will be fun for him.

We often prioritize attractions based on our kids' interests at the time, which has worked well for us. My younger DS was 7 years old on our last trip to WDW and was really interested in the Mayan civilization and Mexican pyramids, so the Mexico pavilion held a lot of interest for him (we ate at the San Angel Inn). Your DS is a lot younger this time around, so depending on how he feels about characters - the character meal with the Disney Jr. characters might interest him a lot. We had one that was terrified of characters as a toddler and one who LOVED characters as a toddler, so your mileage may vary!

Definitely hit the classics. Even though Dumbo is essentially the same ride, the queue and play area near it at WDW are very well done. Same with Winnie the Pooh - even though we have one at Disneyland, the one at WDW is really cool. We always find it fun to compare the rides between the two parks. Pirates = better at Disneyland in our opinion.

Have the best time!! It is really an awesome vacation!

 

[epcotty]

Hollywood Studios has easy transport to Hollywood Studios.

I certainly hope so.

As for the contest, that's amazing. Congratulations.

I don't know about the VIP thing but I'd advise to use that for more popular attractions (Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Frozen Ever After, Soarin', Rock N' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Midway Mania, Expedition Everest, Flight of Passage, Navi River Journey, Rivers of Light, etc). Those would also be good for fastpasses (book online beforehand, I know DL still has the old FP system).

HS is in a construction phase right now, so maybe don't spend too much time there unless there's a lot you want to do. As for the rest, whatever you want.

As for naps, judge it by how well you're doing with attractions you want to go to.

No food must dos really, as for attractions I mentioned some more popular ones earlier. Maybe leave any ones that repeat with DL for later on so you can see as many original ones that you want as possible.