First timer, leaving in 2 weeks, bunch of questions

[nisi]

Ok, technically I'm not a first timer. I was there in '76 and '88, but as I had nothing to do with the planning then, and so many things have changed, this is going to be a completely different experience . I've been reading for a while and thanks to the wealth of knowledge here, I've have had a lot of my questions answered. But I still have a bunch more. Quick background: We're flying in 6/20 and staying at All Stars Music for a week. It's me, my dh, and my two dds, age 2.5 and 6. We will be renting a car. We're on the dining plan.


1. Not so much about the trip, but is there an abbreviations key somehwere? Most of them I can figure out, but a few of the Disney specific ones have me stumped.

2. How big are the rental fridges at the All Stars? We're trying to decide whether it's worth it to rent one, and size matters
Are they the tiny cube ones like this?
(I tried to post links but my post count is too low. Stupid spammers ruining it for all of us! If you want to see it, copy & paste into the address bar, adding the w's.)
avantiproducts.com/index.php?page=products&id=55
Or are they the bigger counter height ones like this
avantiproducts.com/index.php?page=products&id=39
Or something in between?

3. What's the policy on swim diapers in the resort and water parks? Obviously any diaper dependent child must wear one, but I've seen some pools/parks require anyone under age 3 to wear a swim diaper, regardless of potty training status. Am I going to need to put a swim diaper on my potty trained toddler? I don't want to bring them if I don't' have to.

4. Is there a Target or something similar nearby? There must be, right? Roughly how long of a drive? I can pack much lighter if I know that it will be relatively easy to buy anything I might forget without paying highway robbery prices for it.

5. Ditto the above for a reasonably priced grocery store.

6. Where can I get a good map of the area? Not the cartoon-looking maps I keep seeing on line, but an actual road map with the parks, resorts, etc. labeled on it.

7. Are park hours listed anywhere on line? I haven't been able to find them. I want to have at least an outline of a plan for each day, and park hours would help.

8. Tour Guide Mike... worth it? I'm thinking yes for a first timer. Opinions?

9. If you could give me just one piece of advice, what would it be?


Thanks!

 

[Secondgradememories]

Welcome from a former Badger State girl! I too went in '76 - second grade trip, and '85 - high school band trip. It's so fun to go back with your own kids. I can't help you with everything, but here goes a suggestion - try allears.net for park hours and even map etc. info.

http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/planning.htm

We went with no tourguide and just used the boards and allears for our first trip and all since. We had a balst and never felt like we needed a bigger plan - but each family has its own needs. The joy is that you can make each trip your own. But, beware - it's addicting , this Disney magic!

My one piece of advice - don't try to do everything Disney has to offer. Make some top picks for each day and then let the rest happen as it will. I'll bet you'll be back for the rest later!

 

[rileyroosmom]

I'll try and help, hopefully more knowledgeable people will join in.

The fridges are the small cube like ones. I've also brought a foam cooler and filled it 2x a day with ice and had no problems.

I think your 3 year old is fine without swim pants. I never put them on my dd3 at the time and no one questioned me.

I know there is a Walmart in the area, sorry, but I don't know exactly where and there is also a Publix (grocery store). If memory serves me correctly, the Walmart is a Super Walmart and you can get groceries there, cheaper than Publix.

Don't know about maps, maybe AAA?

Park hours are listed at Disneyworld.com look at the calendar

I've done Tour Guide Mike, I think it helped. It is confusing at first and you need to allow yourself time to really look it over.

My piece of advice is to go slow, arrive at park openings and realize there is no way to do/see everything. Try and have a plan and figure out what is really important and a must do/see. Have fun!!

I also think you should post this in the theme park/attractions thread. I think you'll get more advice there.

 

[Jajone]

I will try to answer your questions as best I can. First, we've never been forced to use the swim diapers and we've taken my son since he was one. Allearsnet.com has a ton of info for you including local grocery stores and directions to them. If you eant to order ahead of time there are a couple of online shoppers for you that work wonderfully such as gardengrocer.com. Will you have a rental car? The stores are easy to get to if you do, but they all take 15-20 minutes. If you have a rental car, we've always gotten great road maps from them. The Kissimmee tourist guide also had a good map the last time we went. As far as TGM goes... We took 4 trips without, all in the off season and had no problems. I happened upon it this last January and bought it. Even though it was still off season, it made a huge difference for us. You need to listen to his advice though and have plenty of time to read through the articles. Make sure you take the midday break especially with little children.

 

[Makdyn]

about the swim diapers. I never use them last year when we went in may and my dd was 2. She was potty trained. Nobody said anything to us

 

[TheDizMom]

Ok, technically I'm not a first timer. I was there in '76 and '88, but as I had nothing to do with the planning then, and so many things have changed, this is going to be a completely different experience . I've been reading for a while and thanks to the wealth of knowledge here, I've have had a lot of my questions answered. But I still have a bunch more. Quick background: We're flying in 6/20 and staying at All Stars Music for a week. It's me, my dh, and my two dds, age 2.5 and 6. We will be renting a car. We're on the dining plan.


1. Not so much about the trip, but is there an abbreviations key somehwere? Most of them I can figure out, but a few of the Disney specific ones have me stumped.

2. How big are the rental fridges at the All Stars? We're trying to decide whether it's worth it to rent one, and size matters
Are they the tiny cube ones like this?
(I tried to post links but my post count is too low. Stupid spammers ruining it for all of us! If you want to see it, copy & paste into the address bar, adding the w's.)
avantiproducts.com/index.php?page=products&id=55
Or are they the bigger counter height ones like this
avantiproducts.com/index.php?page=products&id=39
Or something in between?

3. What's the policy on swim diapers in the resort and water parks? Obviously any diaper dependent child must wear one, but I've seen some pools/parks require anyone under age 3 to wear a swim diaper, regardless of potty training status. Am I going to need to put a swim diaper on my potty trained toddler? I don't want to bring them if I don't' have to.

4. Is there a Target or something similar nearby? There must be, right? Roughly how long of a drive? I can pack much lighter if I know that it will be relatively easy to buy anything I might forget without paying highway robbery prices for it.

5. Ditto the above for a reasonably priced grocery store.

6. Where can I get a good map of the area? Not the cartoon-looking maps I keep seeing on line, but an actual road map with the parks, resorts, etc. labeled on it.

7. Are park hours listed anywhere on line? I haven't been able to find them. I want to have at least an outline of a plan for each day, and park hours would help.

8. Tour Guide Mike... worth it? I'm thinking yes for a first timer. Opinions?

9. If you could give me just one piece of advice, what would it be?


Thanks!

Hi, another Minnesotan here with some advice. We midwesterners need to stick together

I don't know if there is a key somewhere for the abbreviations but if there are some specific ones you are questioning post them and I'll do my best to help.

We did rent a fridge the first time at the AS sports and they were the little ones. It was semi worth is, but it didn't hold much . We used it mostly for milk for cereal in the room in the morning. It would have worked just as well to stick it in the ice bucket full of ice if it weren't for the fact we bought a larger one to last several days. You won't get much in but you would at least be able to store some things in it.

I am not sure I have seen a Target near by, but I know there is a lot of stuff down by DTD. One way to try to get what you want down would be to send a box your packed yourself. We have done this and it works slick . You can pack it a week or so in advance and take your time so it's not so rushed and hopefully then you don't forget anything . We have shipped food, film, batteries, sunscreen, pull-ups and more, and it really works slick and you don't have to worry about getting it in the suitcase. Any food we have left over we just leave in the room for the maids to take and if it's opened we just toss it. It's also a good way to get toiletries down and not worry about amounts and security.

Try mapquest for a map. I would think they should be able to help on that score. Your rental car place should have one too.

My one piece of advice would be to decide what things at each park are most important to you and do them first. This way if the day gets away from you, you have at least seen and done those things you really wanted to. There is nothing worse then saying at the end of the trip, I am so bummed I missed that ride because I really wanted to do it.

Have a wonderful time on your trip. We liked the AS resort we were at . If you can, use the quiet pool instead as it's never as crowded. They have a great food court too.

 

[nisi]

I also think you should post this in the theme park/attractions thread. I think you'll get more advice there.

I thought I did, actually <blush> Not sure what happened, but when I went to look for responses and couldn't find the thread until I finally did a search and figured out what happened Oh, well. I think I got all my answers here, but I'm still listening if anyone else wants to chime in. I am SO excited for this vacation! DH hates to travel, and it took me 3 yrs to talk him into this trip. (yes, I started working on him right around the time we knew dd2 was on the way ) I really want everything to go smoothly so I have a chance of talking him into coming back in a few years. All the great advice and tips I'm getting here will certainly help with that. Thank you everyone!

 

[Jesussavedme]

Click here for abbreviations...

http://www.wdwinfo.com/abbreviations.htm

 

[Redbudlover]

One thing I have learned to do over the years when I am making my plan is first to write out a list of all the activities I want to be sure to do - for example: the Segway Tour of Epcot, the Magical Beginnings for Toddlers where toddlers and family get into fantasyland an hour early; the Cirque du Soleil; MNSSHP; Food and Wine Festival; Fantasmic, Spectra Parade; Party for the Senses at Epcot; any WDW tours. The reason for writing them all down is that you don'[t want to plan to stay out really late for MNSSHP one nite and edxpect to be up early the next morning for early entry or Magical Beginnings - it is better to plan a late morning after a late evening. Also a lot of events like Cirque, MNSSHP, the Magical Beginnings, Spectra don't happen every day, so you want to be sure you plan correctly so you don't miss things you want to do.

Then I write on another page all the park hours for while I am there and all EMH hours, parade times, etc. Then on another page I use the info on the first two pages to fit in all the things, including naps, pool time, etc. As you put stuff down you realize you have to move this or that to get everything in.

I also make out small cards with my general plan for each park, so if the older ones want to hit Splash Mountain and the smaller ones want Dumbo - where do we go first and which FPs do we get first - and HOW do we get from point A to point B? Because I can't read those comedy maps they provide you at the park - signs pointing everywhere. So I study a clear map at home while there is no pressure or heat and then write it down. ie: From Dumbo follow the far left path around xxx to get to jjj and turn right down the rose path to get to the ggg ride. That probably sounds like over-planning to you but I use the cards a lot, because I find the parks confusing with people all over and maps that are not to scale.

Most important then is to have my plan and not be a slave to it. Get up late? that's good - consult plan and make changes. See a particularly interesting thing at Epcot and want to stay there a while. Great! You have a plan to know whether stayng or going will give you more of what you want that day - smelling the flowers, watching your little girl laugh or riding splash mountain - I usually go for the flowers and the laughter, but not all the time every day....

The plan is not a do or die thing - it helps you maximize the pleasure and avoid the long lines and doubling back over and over to see just a few things.

You will have a great time. Let us know how it went!