FIRST TIMERS - Need advice!!!

[nbfamilyof5]

Hi! We are planning our first trip next May ( is this a good time of year?) any tips or advice? We have 3 kiddies (15,11,9) and this would be a once in a lifetime trip for us..we're thinking 2 weeks and want to keep costs as reasonable as possible. Anyone know if you can buy park passes at a discount if you work for a Disney Store? Might apply over Christmas if the discount warrents it! Where would be the best place to stay ($$ and 3 kids?) ? Is it better to fly out of Bangor or Moncton? Should we book things seperate or hold out for a package? Any info would be great!!!!!! thxs!

 

[Valjean13]

I can't answer all your questions, but I can help a bit. If you want to stay at a Disney property and keep the cost down, you are a bit more limited with 5 people in a room. The All-Star resort has family suites now, that sleep 6, and it's cheaper than the deluxe hotels. I believe some of their regular rooms can sleep 5, so you might have to decide how much you want to spend. You could also get one of the DVC villas, but they are even more expensive, unless you rent points from someone on the DVC boards. On the plus side they are much nicer than the All-Star resort, and you'd have a kitchen too.

Many Canadians drive across the border to get cheaper flights, but it might be too far of a drive for you. I am sure someone from your area will know more!

We found May to be a nice time of year, both water parks are open and the weather is nice. It's busier than January, but not too crowded. As to codes and discounts, you never know.....sign up for the planning DVD so they have your email address, it seems lots of people get pin codes that way. If you don't get one you could book through CAA (if you have a membership) and you'll get a bit of a discount. Packages are not always a better deal, unless you want the dining plan, or they are offering free ticket upgrades or something like that. Check out the dining board for info on deciding if the plan is right for your family.

Enjoy planning, you've found the right place to help you!

 

[hockey mom]

Welcome

May is a beautiful time to go, but it is hot so be prepared.

You will never find much of a discount on tickets. My suggestion to you would be to start buying them now, say one every few months, that way the cost does not hit you all at once.

You might be able to book with a CAA discount if you belong.

I personally would get 2 rooms at an all star resort or Pop just to have two bathrooms and a bit more space.

If you want to know how much food will be there are some menus at wdwig.com.

Happy planning.

 

[SandraC]

WELCOME! Before you get overwhelmed with planning.....take a deep breathe and know that whatever you plan...you WILL be happy!

Here's what I would do if I were going for the first time;

1. Request your FREE Disney Vacation Planning DVD from www.disney.ca

2. Write down everything you want to do and interview your family asking them the same. Headline these topics; attractions [mild...wild], shows, parades, meals, swimming, boating etc.,.

3. Know these facts;
a. Disney has 4 theme parks with rides, characters, parades, evening fireworks & shows [except for AK...no evening shows or fireworks].
b. Disney has two awesome waterparks....so if you are a WATER family, plan to visit both.
c. Disney has over 20 hotel resorts....PLEASE consider staying ON SITE!

4. Visit www.wdwig.com for menus so you can peek into the restaurants.

5. Read these boards LOTS!

Disney doesn't own the Disney Stores anymore, so no free tickets for employees.

Sandra

 

[trivial]

this would be a once in a lifetime trip for us..

That's what we thought as well! Be forewarned: you may not be able to keep yourselves from going back. A 2-week trip certainly is nice, though! Have you considered a Disney cruise as part of the trip?

 

[Candid]

That's what we thought as well! Be forewarned: you may not be able to keep yourselves from going back. A 2-week trip certainly is nice, though! Have you considered a Disney cruise as part of the trip?

We thought it would be our "once in a lifetime" too!

Note the ticker below

 

[branmack]

A couple of months ago, I was researching where to stay with 5 people and this is what I found.

Your cheapest way to stay on site is a room at Port Orleans. This is a moderate resort which can sleep five. The 5th bed is a trundle bed, it is a bit smaller than a normal single bed. For about $50.00 a week more you can book 2 rooms at a value resort. You can request connecting rooms.

We priced out the family suite and found they were about $100.00 more a week than 2 rooms at a value. They do have a fridge and a microwave.

If you are considering staying off site, look into Windsor Hills. They have houses and condo's to rent and they are very close to Disney. You may be able to get a 3 bedroom house for $89.00 a day. They do have a website.

Disney does take alot of planning but the planning is half the fun

 

[usetheforceluke]

If you'd like another pair of eyes looking after all of your planning, then you can't go wrong with getting one of the TAs from Dreams Unlimited to do all of your bookings and ADRs and stuff like that.

We've had Cathy Miller looking after us for quite some time (19 trips and a couple of cruises in the past five years) and everything is done on time, accurate and efficiently. ADRs are made by her. She's gotten us a number of discounts and stuff like that without us asking about it.

Not shilling for DU, just overly impressed with Cathy. If it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, I certainly wouldn't want to run in to any 'Surprises'.

Jim.

 

[tribus121]

To answer another one of our questions

Is it better to fly out of Bangor or Moncton?

with 5 of you you could save around $ 1,250 by flying out of Bangor you may even look into flying out of Portland ME as some times it can even be cheaper and there are direct flights out of Portland on Jet blue so it may be worth the extra drive I use www.kayak.com to make comparisons as to the cost of flying out of different airports

If you collect airmiles you can cash them in for Disney park tickets and you don't have to have park tickets for every day of your trip we all was like to take a couple days of from the parks to rest up tired feet ( 3 days at the parks one day off 3 more days at the parks day off etc )on off days you can just relax by the pool visit the water parks or go shopping at DTD or even rent a car for a day ( This can be done onsite )and explore the rest of Orlando

If your kids are big eaters i would definitely look in to the Disney Dining Plan that way everything is payed for before you leave ( two meals + a snack is lots of food ) ( You Have to make Res well in advance to get your choice of restaurants and dining times at the sit down type of restaurants )

If you think that this may be a once in a life time thing I would definitely stay on site

If you decide to do the booking your self do lots of research and post lots of questions here

If you do go through a Travel agent take some time to find one that really knows Disney

hope this helps And welcome to the DIS

Peter

 

[JackJack08]

If this is a "once in a lifetime" trip.....stay on-site. The Disney experience just isn't the same if you don't. And invest in the dining plan.....you can have some great family meals together, and even do a character meal.

 

[Debbie]

I'll be a dissenter about the dining plan. We did it once with my then DDs 12 and 15. They begged us never to do that to them again. Too much time was taken away from park time! (and now you have to add on the tip, and appetizer, anyway) We found that it took approximately 2 hours for each sit down meal that wasn't a buffet. We don't eat out much and they were content with the counter service meals. If I were to take them again, I would book 2 or 3 sit down meals-in your case, at least one would be a character meal-and then play the rest by ear. Unless you always sit down every day, and often eat out, I don't think that the dining plan is worth it for kids who are 10 and over. The exception, of course, would be if it were FREE DINING. You'll need to really go over the menus( CLICK HERE) and then make a decision with your family.

I'm taking my DD14 this year. She asked to go to Le Cellier, and I want to do a lunch at Sci-Fi (just for the milkshake ). Other than that, we'll do counter service. (and save money, too!)

 

[laxcdn]

A couple things we did to keep the costs down. We stayed at a hotel (off site) with a shuttle, and free breakfast and with kitchenettes. We bought groceries and took a backpack with sandwiches, drinks and snacks. This kept the buying of food to a minimum then we had money to spend on a good dinner later on. You might even look into getting a house for the 2 weeks.

 

[JackJack08]

I will never go without the dining plan again. IMO it is nice to sit in an air conditioned resturant for an hour or so to cool off, decide what our plan will be next, and chat about what we liked that day so far. We have tried taking sandwiches etc...but I am on vacation, I don't want to eat a squished sandwich for lunch. That is just me.

 

[trivial]

I will never go without the dining plan again. IMO it is nice to sit in an air conditioned resturant for an hour or so to cool off, decide what our plan will be next, and chat about what we liked that day so far. We have tried taking sandwiches etc...but I am on vacation, I don't want to eat a squished sandwich for lunch. That is just me.

That's how I tend to look at it as well. Going to Disney World doesn't happen often and it isn't cheap, so I consider my time spent there to be as valuable as money, and I don't want to spend it preparing meals, etc. That said, I do enjoy the time spent at a table-service restaurant to relax, enjoy the food, and talk. All of our table-service meals were for dinner, so we weren't in a rush to move onto something else; by that time, I'm ready to wind down and take it easy.

 

[mickeymorse]

I just want to throw my 2 cents worth. In my own opinion, don't stay offsite. We have done both a few times and nothing compares. Sure it can be cheaper to stay offsite but staying at a Disney resort is so much easier. You can have purchases delivered to your room from the parks so you aren't carrying them around with you. You get to enter the parks earlier and stay later then the rest of the crowd. Disney transportation is free for resort guests.

Also, as someone else posted, look into renting someones DVC points to get a better room for less. The 1 bedrooms at AKV have the option of sleeping 5 and you also get a full kitchen and laundry room. Imagine siiting on your own balcony and watching giraffe and zebra grazing while you sip your morning coffee from that Timmys can you brought from home

If you plan on flying, as a resort guest you also get to book Disneys Magic Express from the airport. Lets you bypass the luggage pickup and go to the buses. Luggage will be delivered to your room.

As for the DDP, if you decide to prepay for your meals make sure to have your ADRs ready to get into the more popular restuarants. For what its worth, Le Cellier in the Canadian pavillion at Epcot was fantastic. Best meal I have ever had at WDW.

Just make sure to have fun planning everything. These boards are a phenomenal wealth of information. If you don`t find an answer here, it probably can`t be answered.

 

[jeffd101]

Our "once in a lifetime" turned into a trip every spring since 2005. We're going again in May. Fabulous deal with WestJet, including hotel (Pop Century), meal plan, park tickets and flights (parents fly free).

We did not use the meal our first two years as we wanted to spend as much time in the parks as possible. However, we would probably never go without the meal plan now. Our kids are 12 and 9, with the younger one hating most food. She never ate better than on the meal plan.

We always stay on site. We want nothing to do with navigating a strange city, dealing with parking, etc. We took our niece in 2006(so there were 5 of us) and stayed at Port Orleans. Be forewarned, the trundle bed is almost like sleeping on the floor. Our then 10 year old slept on it. It's not very big.

We loved All Star Sports last year and have also stayed at Pop Century before. The value resorts are fine if you are spending most of your time in the parks. We often came back midday for a swim as well.

We have always flown out of Halifax. We used to use Canjet, but as they are now gone, the better deals seem to be through travel agents who book packages (charter flights). We usually book ourselves, but went through an agent this year and it will be our cheapest week ever.

Definitely do research...including reading this site...A Lot. Good luck.

 

[nbfamilyof5]

Thanks so much for all the great tips! will positively be surfing around these boards looking for advice! So far I'm thinking off site (Lake Buenta Vista Suites) free breakfast, free shuttle...pack lunches most days and a good sit down supper. I just don't know about the dining plan...works out to $170/ day for my family...that's a weeks worth of groceries... am I being naive of the food costs in wdw? or is this a "deal"??

 

[jeffd101]

If you are going to bring your own lunches, then don't bother with the dining plan. Also, you cannot buy the dining plan unless you purchase an on-property package, so if you are staying off-site, the point is moot.

If you wish to eat a sit-down meal each day, these will run at an average of at least $25 per person (including entree, dessert, drink and tax). You can do it for cheaper and you can do it for far more.

Before we did the plan last year, we researched the menus at allearsnet.com. That way, we knew roughly how much each day would cost and which restaurants we thought we would enjoy the most. I priced out the costs after the trip to see how much we saved and it was roughly 30% (this includes the tips and appetizers).

To me, the benefit in the dining plan really comes down to me knowing my exact costs before I go, and not having to worry about how expensive something on the menu is everytime I sit down to eat.

Even if you choose the off-site route, make sure you call and make ADR's as soon as you know your dates and you hit the 180 day mark. Some book up very fast. We were able to get most of our first choices booking 2 months out, but some are at less than desirable times.

Good luck!

 

[trivial]

I always like to discourage people from staying off-site, especially if it's being planned as a once-in-a-lifetime trip. But Disney's accommodations for families larger than 4 are limited, so I understand the predicament. It's much easier for a family of 4 or less to save money on at on-site resorts, and I'm surprised Disney hasn't done a better job at accommodating larger families.

There's no question that dining at Disney is expensive, especially with larger families with kids 10 and over. We do the Disney Dining Plan not because it's a great deal, but because it offers savings if you're planning on eating at Disney restaurants. Even though it's expensive, I don't want to prepare and pack meals when I'm on vacation. However, if it means the difference between being able to go to WDW or not, it's a small price to pay.

 

[weezy26nm]

We too are a family of 5 who went to Disney for 2 weeks in July of 2006. We booked through Expedia.ca and flew out of Halifax. We stayed off site at the Palms Suites Lakeside and rented a car. We had 2 beds and a pull out couch, a kitchen and free breakfast every morning. I believe they also had a shuttle but we didn't use it. We bought our Disney tickets through TicketMania.com (7 day park hoppers with extras) and had them mailed to us in advance. We also went to Universal Studios, Gatorland and Wonder Works. We ate our free breakfast at the hotel, lunch at Disney (as lunch is cheaper), we would then leave the park to go back for a swim, do a little shopping, eat supper at places like the Golden Corral (buffet for about 10/person) and then head back to the parks for more fun and fireworks. I kept track of everything we spent and the total for the whole trip was just under $9200 CD. My husband predicted over 12,000. I thought just under 2000/person wasn't bad.