First time to WDW tips for west coast family

[Rchellbell08]

I have been planning, in my head, for a first-time family vacation to WDW hopefully soon, and coming from Washington state I am overwhelmed with how to go about planning and where to begin! Like...

*What's the best flight situation?
*Is a car rental necessary?
*How long would make a sufficient first time vacation?
*What are some good resorts/hotels for a small family? (Two adults, one child(5), so far)
*Would going to WDW during a holiday festival,i.e. Halloween, Christmas, etc. be too much for a first time visit? (Really want to go for Halloween or Christmas or maybe for my daughter's birthday in Mid-November )
*What are some must-haves to make the trip run smoothly? (Bands, photo passes, ADRs, FP+, etc)
*Any other advice for west coasters???

I've been getting the hang of planning out our annual DL vacations and usually use the Disney website for convenience purposes, but if there's options that will save money or better promotions and package deals, I want to hear about it, please!
I've been searching for other threads with a similar subject, but can't find any, or I'm not searching correctly...

 

[pooh4evr]

Car rental is not necessary, if you are staying on site. Off site is another story.
Length of stay for a first time, 5 days or so.
All the hotels are great. It really depends on your budget.
Stay away from Christmas for a 1st visit. It is super crowded, but mid November would be great- all the Christmas decorations but less crowds.
Must haves- depends on what you want, if you daughter wants to see Princesses, then do a meat at Akershus in Norway at EPCOT if you want any sit down table service meals then yes make ADRs, absolutely make FP.

 

[Barbydoll8]

Go to AllEars.net. It is all things Disney from planning, to tips and lots and lots of information. Take your time and read through everything.
Use this forum. Lots of tips and tricks.

I agree w/ PP. Stay away from Christmas for a first trip. If you want Halloween and you can do late Sept/early Oct, you will find crowds a little less over whelming. Keep in mind Sept is hot here in FL. It doesn't cool down here normally until the end of Oct/beginning of Nov.
ADR's are a must. If you don't do dining plan, try booking lunches instead of dinners for table service. Don't be afraid of the hotel restaurants. They are generally better than TS places in the parks.
Plan on mid day breaks. Especially with little ones if you have them.

I live here so I can't comment on flights. There is a shuttle service from Orlando airport to on site Disney hotels (magical express) you can arrange. On site hotel stays don't need a car but lots of people like to have one. Off site, almost imperative but some hotels offer a shuttle service.
I agree with 5 days min.
If you are staying on site, you will get bands automatically. Photo pass isn't something I do but some people love it. I'd rather shoot my own stuff and most Disney employees (even the PP photographers) will take a picture for you with your phone/camera.
FP is a must.

If you have been using Disney's site and haven't done so, create a Disney My Experience account now. It's free and it helps navigate as you plan your trip.

 

[crosstheborder]

Hi! We live in Washington State as well and we are in the process of planning our 4th trip to Disney World this December. The first time we went it was very overwhelming, but AllEars.net is definitely the place to start. For our first visit we went at the end of January, so it was quiet, we went for 8 days (we figured 2 days per park), we always fly Alaska (non-stop) and we stayed at Pop Century, which is a value resort and great for kids and the buses were awesome! Any questions just ask

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I have been planning, in my head, for a first-time family vacation to WDW hopefully soon, and coming from Washington state I am overwhelmed with how to go about planning and where to begin! Like...

*What's the best flight situation? make sure you're flying into MCO, and not Sanford, if you are using ME.

*Is a car rental necessary? You can go either way on this one. WDW is NOT like DL...it is very spread out, and you can't really walk from park to park (like at DL/CA). You can use the bus system, Uber, taxis or rent a car. We're local, sometimes we use our car and other times we use the bus system.

*How long would make a sufficient first time vacation? Ideally, to see everything, I would take 9 days. 2 MK, 1 Epcot, 1 AK, 1 HS, 1 day at each water park and one day for downtown Disney. Add two days if you want breaks from the parks, just to stay at the hotel and chill. However, you don't have to do everything in one trip (what a great excuse to plan another!).

*What are some good resorts/hotels for a small family? (Two adults, one child(5), so far) It depends on your level of comfort. Do you want to stay onsite or off? Do you want bigger rooms or better theming?

*Would going to WDW during a holiday festival,i.e. Halloween, Christmas, etc. be too much for a first time visit? (Really want to go for Halloween or Christmas or maybe for my daughter's birthday in Mid-November ) Christmas would be overwhelming, I think. Maybe mid-November. Avoid summer unless you can take the humidity.

*What are some must-haves to make the trip run smoothly? (Bands, photo passes, ADRs, FP+, etc) All those things. Plus patience, a sense of humor, and cash. Don't try to make too many sit down meals, and pair those you do choose to do with the places you'll be. Having an ADR at Epcot when you are going to be at MK for the day is just too much work.

*Any other advice for west coasters??? Again, avoid summer...humid and lots of vacationers. Once you decide how many days, and where you'll spend each day, then set your ADRs, and have each person pick one MUST DO item (i.e. parade, ride, show). Make sure you do those MUST DO things; then if you get to do anything else, it's a bonus! Hydrate, and bring a water bottle with a filter...Orlando water is not tasty.

I've been getting the hang of planning out our annual DL vacations and usually use the Disney website for convenience purposes, but if there's options that will save money or better promotions and package deals, I want to hear about it, please!
I've been searching for other threads with a similar subject, but can't find any, or I'm not searching correctly...

 

[Hootch]

There are some major differences between the west coast and Florida.

1) Dining has to be planned well in advance at WDW if you want specific restaurants. Character meals can be booked up fairly early. Chef Mickey's and Cinderella's Royal Table were favorites for our daughter.

2) Lot's of good resorts. We usually stay at Port Orleans French Quarter. It's small so everything is convenient. The buses are not usually too crowded. The monorail parks are convenient but expensive.

3) No need for a rental car.

4) We park hop. It can take time away from the park, but we find that it allows us to do things over anytime we want.

5) Get to know the FP+ rules. This is a pretty comprehensive primer:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

6) You could look at earl/mid November for a visit. The weather is mild. Last year Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party started the 8th of November.

7) There are things to entertain kids in most parks. For a five year old the passports at Epcot and Wilderness Badge or Lion Guard Animal Kingdom could be fun.

Here is a good thread from a DLR vet that has been to WDW multiple times. I used Hydroguys posts when we went to DLR three year ago.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/an-introduction-to-wdw-for-dlr-vets.1332683/#post-41121660

 

[Audrie Corcoran]

Tips to have the best experience at WDW
1.PLAN PLAN PLAN!
Make sure you plan at least a little because if you don't your whole vaca will most likely not be as good as you wanted it too be!
2.Drive there (if you live in the US)
Driving will make it more fun than a boring plane ride I'm from Arkansas and it was really fun to see so many states (Tennessee Mississippi Alabama Georgia)
3.Do research
I did A TON of research before I went I mean who else would know tower of terror Cast Members are supposed to look grumpy!
4.Make your Fast Passes before you go
I was really happy I did this and you will be thankful too!
5.Make Reservations
Wanna go to the Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom? Make your reservations 60 days in advance or your not gonna be able to eat there. (Sadly)
6.Have Fun
Don't make it too stressful

 

[Nyan]

We are from Washington state too! Planning our 2nd WDW trip for this November.

If budget permits, I highly recommend staying onsite for your first visit! We stayed 8 days back in September 2014 (our Disneymoon) at Caribbean Beach Resort. CBR has a great pool for kids. We did 2 days for Magic Kingdom, 2 for Epcot, 1 for Animal Kingdom and 1 for Hollywood studios. We had a relaxed resort day too. We thought we had a nice and relaxed pace while getting to see everything on our lists. We were lucky to get the Free Dining offer and really enjoyed not stressing about meals.

I love to plan and research and did everything online using their website. We were allowed to book dining reservations and Fast Pass reservations well in advance (absolutely take advantage of this!). Magic bands were included. If you stay onsite you can also take advantage of Disney's Magical express which is basically a shuttle to take you from the airport (MCO) to your resort and back when your stay is over.

Regarding flights, we flew Alaska Airlines non-stop out of SeaTac (about 6 hours) and I believe Delta offers non-stop flights to MCO as well. If you don't mind stop overs there are many flights with 1-2 stops that can be cheaper but of course takes more time out of your vacation.

If you don't plan to leave the resort and parks, renting a car is unnecessary since you can utilize their free transportation. All resorts with buses, others with boat and monorail options.

Regarding when you want to go, September and October are great low crowd times to visit typically with Free Dining or room discounts offered. You will be able to appreciate the Halloween decor during those times. Early to mid-November shouldn't be too bad as long as you avoid Thanksgiving week as well as the weekends before and after. November will have Christmas decor. I recommend checking crowd calendars for dates you are interested in.

There were lots of websites that helped me when I initially started planning! I enjoyed **************.net, allears.net, and disneytouristblog.com. Of course DISboards for more details and getting hyped up reading trip reports!

 

[ToddyLu]

The first thing you have to get a grip with is how huge WDW really is. It takes us 20 minutes to get from Animal Kingdom Lodge to Magic Kingdom and we never leave property. WDW is 47 aquare miles of fun, about the size of Manhattan. For instance, Pop Century resort is huge ( of course I come from MS where anything out of our state is pretty big. By huge I explained it like this to a co-worker the other day. Take a Hampton Inn and wrap a nice walkway around the outside of each floor, then make a pod of say three of them, like three petals on a flower....now multiply that pod by 10. So imagine 30 or so Hampton Inns in one place...one resort...there are 4 Value resorts there..all this large. AoA is also this size and connected to Pop by a walking bridge. You cannot walk from Pop to any Park becasue of distance.

We have stayed at value resorts many times. I think they are very nice....again my experience is based on my life in MS. To make the most of my time I always start with park hours and Josh at EasyWDW does a great job of getting out crowd calendars. We always plan a trip in Oct/Nov or Dec. This year it is 10/21-10/28.

Park hours help with lots of things especially dinning reservations. For instance, during F&W it is important to know if Epcot has EMH at night, if you plan on eating there and it is a Friday night.....you have the potential for non-MSSHP and F&W crowds converging on the park...however, this year will be different with AK extending their hours with Rivers of Light. So lets say Epcot has EMH on a Friday night...AK used to close at 5:00 that time of year, DHS about 8:30 and you don't have a ticket to MNSSHP...guess where EVERYONE goes? Epcot. If it is Friday night everyone starts coming to Epcot for F&W on Fridays...so crowds increase. If you and DH want to eat at LeCellier, then book it as soon as possible. I first get a handle on park hours and EMH. We never stay off site and never will, becasue we are DVC.

Once you have park hours planned and note EMH you can then infer where you might want to be and on which day. Next get a pass porter or look at park maps on line to see where rides are in relation to each other. This saves massive amounts of time. You get there at rope drop and want to start in Fantasyland then you need to walk down Main Street through the castle or around it and start with Peter Pan, then Winne or 7 dwarfs Mine Train, etc....

So even now I do park hours, EMH, crowd expectation/recommended parks ( EasyWDW calendar), then ADRs, then Fp+, usually in that order.

If flying DH and I always use SW out of New Orleans non-stop. We always use Tiffany Towncars and their 30 minute grocery stop for transportation from MCO to resort. I have always wanted to try Magical Express buut DH wants the straight to resort approach and we like to get a few groceries.

Have a wonderful time and if I can help you in anyway let me know. I would be happy to send you a copy of the Spreadsheet I use if interested, just PM me with an email address

 

[GabBeFit]

Are you planning on staying on site? We've never had the budget to so we always use price line to get a hotel on international drive. We've always ended up with the extended stay and spent around $30 a night. If staying on I-drive than a car rental is pretty crucial. We got that off of price line as well and normally spend between 7-10 dollars a day for the rental! You can park at downtown disney as well and use the busses to get to the parks, or pay to park on site.

 

[pa. dad]

We went to Ca disneyland , DCA and Uinversal ca 2 times so we were the fish out of water then. It was fun seeing some new things and some old things done a little differently in some cases.
I'm big on renting a car = its not that expensive in FL. I don't like not having a car in the case of an emergency or waiting in the rain for a bus or standing in a bus after standing all day and things like that. There's 2 Universal parks and some water parks also that may interest you?
I would suggest buying one of the guidebooks or doing the online research park by park and checking what you think might interest you and your family. And that will tell you how many parks might be interesting for you.