First Timer!

[silverstar]

Hi I am a first timer to Disney World and I need a lot of advice. I don't even know where to begin planning our trip. My family of 4, (2 girls 8 and 10) will be travelling from Alberta to Tampa in January 2007, to visit with relatives, we need to rent a van once there, and would like to stay 3 nights in Orlando and do a 4 day park hopper to Disney World. For our stay in Orlando there will be 2 more adults.
So we need flights, van rental, and a place to stay while touring Disney (for the first time evr Woo Hoo!!!) We are CAA members, not sure if that helps. We are planning on going the last week in January. I don't know if we should do an all inclusive package including the meals and stay at one of the resorts (we are on a very limited budget, so need to plan wisely) I was also interested in some of the offsite villas. There would be plenty of room for 4 adults and 2 kids.
Any advice would be great! You can help me plan my trip and give me a few different senarios, for prices and places to stay. Thanks so much. PS the flights would be out of Edmonton.

 

[hockey mom]

Welcome

I can't help with flights out of Alberta.

If you are on a tight budget do not do the meal plan- it tends to pay off if you were planning alot of high end meals which I don't think that you are.

For hotels you can get a good CAA rate at the All star Resorts or Pop Century in Jan. You will need 2 rooms for 6 people though. I would guess them to be about $70/night.

If not you could try priceline for some off site hotels. A 3 star usually goes for about $35- $45.

Tampa airport will have all the major rental companies. We usually stick with Avis or National.

For tickets I would go with a 4 day base. First visit so no need to hop and not enough time for water parks.

 

[coastgirl]

Welcome!

You can get good discount codes and info at www.mousesavers.com

I think that's where we got a car rental code for Alamo. There's lots of competition, so shop around.

We also got a really good rate on a condo at www.hotelkingdom.com

We found the best deals on cars and hotels were available 6-8 weeks out from our arrival date. Hard to sit on your hands that long! I booked our hotel (on-site this time) just to have it, and will look for a better deal as the time approaches.

Cheap flts out of AB --do you collect Airmiles? You should be well-served by Westjet. If you can drive across the border to a US airport, Southwest has some great deals.

There is soooo much out there, it's overwhelming--we did our first visit in May. Should be easier to avoid the crowds in Jan, but when we went in May I felt like you could waste a LOT of time in those crowds without a plan...but we're going back in January too, hoping for much lower crowd levels in the parks.

Good luck--ask lots of questions, but don't stress, you'll have a good time anyway!!

 

[Lizziejane]

Hi Silverstar,

I'm so excited for you - there is nothing like that first trip to WDW. Your DD's will love it!!

As you have limited time there, I would strongely recommend staying on-site. It is such an experience! You can stay in any hotel in any other city any ol' time, but you can only stay in a Disney hotel at WDW! Imagine your girls answering the wake up call, and hearing MIckey, or Donald, at the other end?! It would also be much easier to make it to the parks for opening when you're so close. Staying onsite gives you the option to attend EMH, which you might use if you have only 4 days.

As another poster mentioned, All-Stars or POP usually go for about $88 a night, I believe (that's including tax). You could book the rooms now, and you'd be required to make a deposit based on that rate. However, as you get closer to January, keep your eye on Mousesavers.com - check it every single day - for discount codes. Sometimes Disney will discount their rack rates, and/or offer lower rates for CAA members. You'd then have to phone and switch your current reservation to one of the discounts. I could be wrong, but I understand that some of the discounts for the value resorts have been as low as $59 a night.

I'd second the recommendation to skip the "options" on your tickets. Plan for one park per day, being sure to coordinate it with the Park Schedule if you intend to use the EMH. If you sign up for the mousesaver newsletter, there's a link to a couple of discount ticket brokers.

As far as dining, check allearsnet.com for the detailed menus along with the prices. The cost of the dining plan now is $38 per person per day (not sure about kids). Ask yourself, are you likely to spend that much per person, if you were paying out of pocket? Are you likely to want to have sit-down or character meals, rather than food courts or counter service most of the time? While some people may spend less than $38 per day, personally, I prefer the idea of knowing in advance what the food will cost. Previous trips always had me fretting about how much the kids were eating, and the running total growing on my bill! Just easier to budget this way.

Beware - many of the rides have you exit into a "store", and if your kids are like mine, they'll want to buy everything in sight. I wasn't prepared for that the first time, and had an awful fight on my hands after many of the rides! For our second trip, I told them upfront - one thing from each park - so choose wisely! It meant a little back-tracking at the end of the day to go back and pick up whatever it was they spotted, but the rules were clear and we avoided any further "hissy-fits".

Finally, pick up the Unofficial Guide if you can (or subscribe online), either that or TGM. Have a plan on how to attack the parks. Without a plan, you could literally walk around MK for half the day just trying to figure out which direction to go in!

We will be there Jan. 22-27 - perhaps we'll bump into you!!

 

[ont/ohana]

Oh my you are going to LOVE IT!! Lots of good advice already here. I would only recomend staying on property at a value or possibly at value family suite at all stars. Using the internal buses and or boats is the best way around. You also have free parking at all parks with your disney hotel as well as early/late magic hours. Allearsnet and wdwmagic and good sites. I always bring an insulated water bottle (saves on buying drinks throughout the parks($2-3us ea) and refill at all fountains. I wear a fanny pack with several snack items and gum for munching on. We hardly ever eat lunch just breakfast with milk and cereal(buy milk at night put in sink with ice for am) in room and buy supper. We always do at least one character meal ($16-22us for breakfast, 10-12us for kids). You will find many more tips on allearsnet and menus. You may also consider renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member. You can find links to this through this website. I wish you lots of luck and have fun planning!!