First timer...where to stay?

[jilly0014]

Planning a WDW trip for December 24, 2013- January 1, 2014 and I have no idea where to stay. We want to be close to DTD with a shuttle/bus to the parks if not within walking distance. Also, a place with complimentary breakfast and decent pool facilities for young children. Any help/tips/advice is appreciated!

 

[Upatnoon]

Planning a WDW trip for December 24, 2013- January 1, 2014 and I have no idea where to stay. We want to be close to DTD with a shuttle/bus to the parks if not within walking distance. Also, a place with complimentary breakfast and decent pool facilities for young children. Any help/tips/advice is appreciated!

What kind of budget are you looking at? Are you driving? My advice would be to pick different dates, as those are super-crowded and super-expensive. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about a pool because it will likely be too cold to swim unless you get lucky with the weather.

The hotels that you can walk to Downtown Disney aren't the kind of hotels that offer free breakfast unless you get some kind of package or pay a club level rate.

Mousesavers.com has an offer with free breakfast at Doubletree Suites. This hotel has bus service to the parks, but it is a fairly long walk to Downtown Disney and this deal will likely not be offered for your dates anyway.

Since you have never been to Disney, I would suggest staying at a Disney resort.

 

[markj2911]

Disney Resort would be the best place to stay for you.
It has everything for every member of the family.
Best of Luck for you in advance for your trip.

 

[aubriee]

Planning a WDW trip for December 24, 2013- January 1, 2014 and I have no idea where to stay. We want to be close to DTD with a shuttle/bus to the parks if not within walking distance. Also, a place with complimentary breakfast and decent pool facilities for young children. Any help/tips/advice is appreciated!

As much as we love staying offsite (love Bonnet Creek condos), I'd have to agree with everyone else. For a first trip I'd stay onsite, especially that time of year. At least you'd get EMH that might help with some of the crowds early in the mornings and late at night. Actually you could not pay me to go down there the week of Christmas/New Years. It is the most crowded, as well as the most expensive time of the year (definitely not a good time of the year for first timers to go). Even as an experienced visitor down there, there is no way I would go that week.

I have a coworker that went down there that week three years ago, even though I advised her to move the trip back or forward just a couple of weeks. Like you, she had never been either and insisted they'd be fine. She came back hating it and saying they'd never go back. She said they were lucky to ride three or four rides a day. The crowds were absolutely horrible. They stayed onsite at the Ft Wilderness cabins, so were able to use the extra magic hours available only for guests staying onsite. She showed me some pictures and even though I had heard how bad the crowds were that week, I still couldn't believe the wall to wall people. As an AP holder I go to WDW several times a year and had went just two weeks before her (first or second week of Dec). I showed her pictures of my trip and the difference in the crowds were night and day. The first two weeks of Dec is value season so alot cheaper and a whole lot less crowded. Even though just a little less than two weeks separated our trips, we had a completely different experience with almost empty parks, while she had wall to wall crowds. Don't forget Christmas week and July 4th are the two times of the year that Disney parks are known for closing due to capacity. You may not even be able to get into the park you want that particular day due to the huge crowds. Would you even want to be in a park that had to close due to capacity? No way would I fight those kind of crowds when I could just move the trip back two weeks or up to two weeks and get value season crowds and prices. If that was the only week I could go, then I'd definitely stay onsite, so I could utilize extra magic hours (and have a better chance of getting into the parks--since parks will close first to offsite guests, if they reach capacity).