Going back to Disney with young children.....loads of questions!!

[maznorm]

We are looking at going back to WDW in late 2010 (November). We have been to Florida many times and got married at WDW. When we got married was the only time we have stayed on property. We stayed at 3 different resorts. First of all we stayed at All Star Movies. I loved the theming and the atmosphere of the resort. Our guests felt that the rooms were small, had a cheap feel and the resorts felt like a British holiday camp.

For the wedding we moved on to the Boardwalk Inn and stayed in a Garden Suite. This place was heaven and the whole feel of the Boardwalk really appeals to me. It is my happy place that I go to in my head. We got married at Seabreeze Pointe so I am a little biased about it.

After the wedding we moved on to Coronado Springs. I was not impressed with this resort at all. The rooms were dark and the whole place seemed to lack that Disney magic we all look for. However, parts of it were very pretty. Also, the taco salad at the Pepper Market was awesome.

Now, we are planning on going back but with 2 children in tow (DS 4 and DD 3 at time of travel). We are so unsure on what to do. We have considered Pop Century for the fun element. We have considered Boardwalk Inn because we will be there for our anniversary. We have considered Port Orleans Riverside for the Free Dining Plan. We have considered Animal Kingdom Lodge because my son loves animals.

We are all over the place with this. We want to try and keep the costs down but it will have been 3 years since our last visit and we want to make the most of it. We think we are going to go with the standard dining plan. My husband and I are both foodies but the children are still young and don’t really have the temperament for fine dining just yet.

We hope to go to the F & W at Epcot although, I am not sure how that will work with small children. We are hoping to eat somewhere nice for our anniversary but if we stay in the Boardwalk with a Fireworks view room we will probably have private dining and eat out on the balcony and the kids can enjoy themselves and we won’t have to worry about how well they are behaving. We would love to eat at the Cali Grill but are not sure whether that is a good idea or not.

So we are unsure which option to go for:-

Pop Century at Annual Pass rates (after purchasing said AP) with Dining Plan
Port Orleans with MYW tickets and Free Dining Plan
Boardwalk Villas on rented DVC points with either MYW tickets or Annual Pas and Dining Plan
Boardwalk Villas for 3 night (our anniversary) after purchasing DVC and getting discounted AP’s and purchasing Dining Plan then Pop Century on AP rates and Dining Plan

See I told you we are all over the place with this!!

Anyway, any advice would be great and also any tips on how to do Disney with young children would be great.

Also, we are interested in doing a Resort photo session. Firstly, as you can imagine I cannot decide which resort to do the photos at. I would love to do them at the Boardwalk but I understand that is not an option. Which resorts are an option? Are there any you would particularly recommend or avoid?

Am I right in thinking that if you have the $125 package you can add all of your photopass photos to the same cd?

Also, I am really struggling to get to the US disney website. I can get to part of it but when I go to look at either tickets or rooms it sends me straight back to the UK site. Will I be better off just rining to sort out AP's?

Can UK disney guests do ADR's online yet?

So many questions!!

 

[Elise79]

First of all how long are you going for?

Also in recent times it has been cheaper to book through Disney UK than Disney US but you would need to check.

Also are you looking at the UK tickets at all? They are really very good value as you can go anywhere for the 14 or 21 days depending on which one you buy.

If you are looking at AP this makes most sense if you are going back within a year or going to use to get room discounts or but the TIW card. On that the TIW might be a better fit for your family if you are not sure the children will hold up to a sit down meal every night. The DDP is very restrictive like that,

Personally I would not stay the whole time at BWV - this very personal but having taking a small child on the buses at park closing you just want to get back asap and at their age they are going to want to be at MK. From MK BW shares busses with the other Epcot resorts.

Sorry for extra questions but it will help you get better advice

 

[brer_rabbit]

My first trip to WDW was when I was 4 years old and although we stayed at Treehouse Villas I don't remember really caring about the hotel, so I would definitely say choose somewhere you and your husband will like. As long as it has a pool I'm sure your children will love it

Having said that, I think Port Orleans would be a good choice as it's relatively small and quiet with good sized rooms. The pool is nice and you can take a boat to Downtown Disney. Plus you'll get a fridge which is handy as you wouldn't get one at Pop.

Also, you mentioned wanting to eat at the Cali Grill. A lot of resorts offer kids clubs so that parents can go out for the evening. I'm not sure how old the children have to be for this but that's something to consider if you fancy a romantic evening

I think with the resort photography they currently offer Animal Kingdom Lodge, Grand Floridian and the Poly but you never know they might add Broadwalk in the future.

Hope that helps

 

[wifey]

First and second congratulations on being able to book a trip to WDW again I'm sure this will be a magical trip for you with the kids along too.
It's really down to budgets and research and knowing what your own kids like or don't. I say do your research and use Google Earth to get a good feel of the resorts just about all of the main WDW resort areas are on there most of them in 3D which is great
Did you know that if your kids are potty trained they can use any of the kids clubs you can book them in advance of your stay some have a minimum length of stay too but they provide food and activities for the kids.
Locations areas follows :- Near Epcot/ DHS
Sandcastle Club at the Beach Club (onsite guests only) and Camp Dolphin at the Swan and Dolphin 4:30p.m. 'til midnight and 5:30p.m. 'til midnight
:-Near Animal Kingdom
Simba's Clubhouse at AKL 4:30p.m. 'til midnight
:-Near MK
Mouseketeer Club at GF 4:30 p.m. 'til midnight (onsite and restaurant guests only)
Cubs Den at WL 4:30 p.m. 'til midnight
Neverland Club at the Poly 4:00 'til midnight
Prices are from $11 per hour per child
This could be a way for you to get a couple of "foodie" dining experiences, just the two of you again.. a bit like being on a date and stress free since they give you a pager so you can contact the kids club and vice versa. Most of the restaurants are fine with kids dining too however Victoria and Albert's has some age limits and dress codes so you may want to wait until the kids are older before you approach that one.
Another option is Kids Nite Out or Fairy Godmothers and All About Kids. We have not used any of these but I hear Kids Night Out charge a $10 transportation fee plus a $2 per hour surcharge for caregiving that begins after 9:00p.m. $18.50 for two children an hour but they do bring stuff to keep the kids occupied, oh they have a minimum session of 4 hours too.
We had no real issues with any of the value resorts but you may find their rooms a little tight when staying with two kids under the age of five. Our DS is now nine and quite energetic so we decided to have a bigger room this year he's now needing more space to do everything but the values were fine when he was younger. you never know you may be able to get something in Saratoga Springs Resort or Old Key West for the same cost as a value WDW Travel Co have some really good offers on at the moment

 

[Alibaba]

Hiya
We are travelling in Nov 2010, and are stopping at the Port Orleans resort, it will be myself, dh and ds aged 3, i picked this for a few reasons, free dining, being close to Downtown Disney, thought we could get the boat there and have a nice walk round a couple of evenings for a bit of time away from the parks (also adore the sundaes at Ghiradellis), think my son would love the boat rides, the pool looks cute, and we got a good deal, think it was £1600 for the 3 of us for 10 days including 14 pass and free dining, it is our first time onsite, and although we love disney not sure how we could cope 14 days straight, so booked for 10 and next time maybe extend this
So in my little humble opinion, i would go for POFQ (cause that is what i picked)

Ali

P.S Would also love to know the answer to the question about the photo, this is something we are really interested in

 

[maznorm]

You know, I was actually not really keen on the idea of staying at a moderate. We were looking at CBR but I love the idea of taking the boat to DTD. We stayed at Buena Vista Palace in 2007 and really enjoyed taking a walk down to DTD every night. A boat ride would make it even more fun.

I have looked at the UK passes but with the AP room rates as well it works out better to use them. It is fairly likely we will be going again within that year as this trip involves house hunting so we will probably be back and forth.

As for kids mostly enjoying the pool, in this case, that might not necessarily be true. My kids, for some reason, seem absolutely terrifed of the water. My son has only just become willing to sit down in the bath for short periods. They do quite like splash pools but anything deeper than their knee height, even with me holding them just doesn't fly with them. We are hoping to start taking them for swimming lessons so they become more confident though.

As for Cali Grill, I think that is off the cards for now. We just took the kids to Frankie & Bennies and they were on the verge of being out of control. I think on our anniversary we will just have in room dining at the Boardwalk.

So far, our plans look like this:-

First 5 nights at CBR on AP rates with Dining Plan (now possibly changing to POFQ/PORS
Next 3 nights at BWV on rented DVC points with Dining Plan
Next 3 nights in Sarasota visiting family
Last 10 nights in Pop Century on AP rates with Dining Plan

I don't know how feasible these plans are. It depends on how luggage transfer and Dining Plan works out. Otherwise it may well be a moderate on free dining for the whole trip. Though, that does pose the issue of where to eat for our anniversary again. OMG, this is too hard.

Going to Disney with kids makes you feel like you have never been to Disney before. I can't imagine what it will be like when we stay there.