Going to Disney World Tommorrow morning for the first time

[scotty]

Hi Everyone My sister and i are planning our very first trip to Disney World but we are both going to try and make it a surprise for her to kids ( 10, and 5) and try and go around April 17th to the 24th. We are going to try and book our trip near November or December. So i guess you can kind of call this a pre-trip report lol. As for where we are going to stay and what dinning plan we want is this : 7 Day magic your way with park hopper option and deluxe dinning plan.
We are thinking on going with FD&D or Disney (paying for our airfare separate) but more leaning towards FD&D any suggestions would be great and if you went with FD&D what did you like about it and would you go back to them. Thanks for all of your help

Scott

 

[dancin Disney style]

First off, Congrats on your first trip.

It sounds like you are well under way with the planning. I thought I would let you know that with the DxDDP you will spend about 5-6 hours per day in restaurants. On a first trip that is a TON of time. You might want to consider the regDDP or even the QSDP. The QSDP will not lock you into anything and will allow you to eat when you feel like it. Many first timers feel really restricted by having to make ADR's.

Good luck with the rest of your planning.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Also, forgot....with the price increases for 2010 it might not be worth it, especially for the kids since one is 10 and will be charged adult price.

 

[scotty]

oh i thought that with the deluxe dining plan you would have 3 meals per day per person and with that that you could eat any time you wanted to use them.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

oh i thought that with the deluxe dining plan you would have 3 meals per day per person and with that that you could eat any time you wanted to use them.

Deluxe Dining Plan will give you access to sit down table service meals - but reservations are HIGHLY recommended - otherwise, you may be left going to less desirable options.

For a 1st timer - skip the deluxe plan an opt for the lesser dining options - unless you want to spend you entire day working around your meal time reservations

 

[aristocat65]

oh i thought that with the deluxe dining plan you would have 3 meals per day per person and with that that you could eat any time you wanted to use them.

You certainly can eat anytime you want, BUT you would find it hard to get into table service restaurants without ADRs, and as the PP said that would mean a lot of your time sitting down eating. That is also a lot of time for kids to sit in restaurants. You could use all your meal credits at counter service to save time, but that would be a waste of the money you've paid for the plan.

For a first trip, the regular DDP would be a better option. You could look forward to one nice sit down meal per day, eat at counter service for your other meals (even if you pay for one OOP) and you'll have more time to see the parks.

The regular DDP is also more than enough food. I am a fairly small eater, but my DH and 15 year old DS are big eaters, and we find it enough for us.

As for your other question about FD&D, (I think this is a travel agency??), I usually book my own trip or have my TA sister in Texas do it for me so I can't comment on that. If it is your first trip and they are "Disney Experts" it may be a good option.

Have fun planning

 

[scotty]

Hey all and thanks for the input so far you have both my sister and i thinking alot about changing our mind to the reg-ddp

Thanks again and hope to hear more tips

 

[scotty]

Also, forgot....with the price increases for 2010 it might not be worth it, especially for the kids since one is 10 and will be charged adult price.

Oh i did not know that the 10 year old my niece would be charged adult price, thanks for letting me know about that.

 

[lisalonglash]

Hi Everyone My sister and i are planning our very first trip to Disney World but we are both going to try and make it a surprise for her to kids ( 10, and 5) and try and go around April 17th to the 24th. We are going to try and book our trip near November or December. So i guess you can kind of call this a pre-trip report lol. As for where we are going to stay and what dinning plan we want is this : 7 Day magic your way with park hopper option and deluxe dinning plan.
We are thinking on going with FD&D or Disney (paying for our airfare separate) but more leaning towards FD&D any suggestions would be great and if you went with FD&D what did you like about it and would you go back to them. Thanks for all of your help

Scott

Hi Scott! I agree with the others on the dining plan - it sounds like the regular dining plan or the quick service dining plan would work better with your travel group. I'm not sure the hoppers would be necessary with your group either, that's a lot of time spent in transportation and perhaps would end up with days too long for the children kwim?

We used FD&D twice and LOVED them - such great service! We would NOT go to a Disney park without booking through FD&D and know many many others that feel the same Oh, FYI, FD&D were recently recognized by Disney as the #1 Disney specialist travel agency in Canada - pretty awesome!

 

[scotty]

We used FD&D twice and LOVED them - such great service! We would NOT go to a Disney park without booking through FD&D and know many many others that feel the same Oh, FYI, FD&D were recently recognized by Disney as the #1 Disney specialist travel agency in Canada - pretty awesome!

Hello Lisalonglash Is FD&D good with the prices and helping out first timers.
I am already getting nervous about going i just can't wait

 

[lisalonglash]

Hello Lisalonglash Is FD&D good with the prices and helping out first timers.
I am already getting nervous about going i just can't wait

Oh yes, they are superb! I asked a truly annoying number of questions before our last trip, both via phone calls and via email - they answered everything cheerfully, quickly and knowledgeably! Their prices are the same as Disney's, but FD&D stays on top of any applicable discounts for you and will apply every discount they can for your trip - they saved us lots of money last trip and this trip I forgot to mention that their services cost you nothing, Disney pays them.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

Hi Everyone My sister and i are planning our very first trip to Disney World but we are both going to try and make it a surprise for her to kids ( 10, and 5) and try and go around April 17th to the 24th. We are going to try and book our trip near November or December. So i guess you can kind of call this a pre-trip report lol. As for where we are going to stay and what dinning plan we want is this : 7 Day magic your way with park hopper option and deluxe dinning plan.
We are thinking on going with FD&D or Disney (paying for our airfare separate) but more leaning towards FD&D any suggestions would be great and if you went with FD&D what did you like about it and would you go back to them. Thanks for all of your help

Scott

I should also have added that we have never paid for the Hopper option. There was more than enough things to do in each park that we spent the whole day there - including meals. Even witout a Hopper, you can enter and leave the same park as many times as you want.

The only other reason to use a Hopper might be if you were spending a day at, lets say MK, and you had a dining reservation at another park.

We just made sure to spend the day at the same park as our dining reservations. The $$ to buy a Hopper ($50 each) we used for souveniers or even the Water Park & More option - this was a better use of the $$ - for our family anyways

 

[TagsMissy]

Deluxe Dining Plan will give you access to sit down table service meals - but reservations are HIGHLY recommended - otherwise, you may be left going to less desirable options.

For a 1st timer - skip the deluxe plan an opt for the lesser dining options - unless you want to spend you entire day working around your meal time reservations

I agree whole heartedly skip the deluxe plan and go with regular dining plan --- just the amount of food on the deluxe plan per day make me groan and to think of all the hours wasted in restaurants LOL The kids want to get out and play and 'see the world'; you'll be planning your vacation around reservations and that sucks -- been there done that with regular dining. Of course these are all just my opinions.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Oh i did not know that the 10 year old my niece would be charged adult price, thanks for letting me know about that.

Disney considers anyone age 10 and older an adult. A child is age 3-9. That is used for dining and park tickets. The resorts allow children to be age 3-17.

 

[pl'smama]

Congrats on planning your first trip! This is a wonderful thing to celebrate! I have used FD&D before and they are WONDERFUL!!!!! They will help you with every detail you can imagine and then some. They have the knowledge and the love of Disney that a first timer needs. I would highly reccommend then to anyone. I even know someone who lives in the USA, but still uses FD&D to book their trip.

Have fun!

Suz

 

[scotty]

Hi I would just like to thank everyone so far for all of your advice and help.

 

[tjbaggott]

Ok, what does FD&D stand for? I'd like to track them down! I went into a local travel agency last night and asked the only person in there if she was a Disney Planning Specialist. She replied very excitedly "YES". But then couldn't answer half the questions I was asking, so just for my own curiosity and Humour, started asking other questions to which I already knew the answers and even some of those, she couldn't answer.

I have a great agent for our current trip through Kingdom Magic Vacations, but might like for our next trip, someone I can see face to face. Not sure yet.

Scotty, if and when you book your trip, remember that Advance Dinner Reservations windows will open for you 90 days before your package starts. I would strongly encourage you to make as many as you can for places you want at that 90 day mark (at 6:30 am online). I did, an got 3 of the 4 I wanted, but sad that the MAIN one we REALLY wanted was NOT available. However it may open later on if someone cancels or changes their mind, so I check every day). We have the regular Dining plan and will be using the table service meals for dinners, the counter service ones for lunch, and the sanck one probably for a small breakfast ( I have seen posted somewhere on the dis boards a list of snack items at various places, and some would actually make a nice small breakfast, ie" waffles).

 

[lisalonglash]

Ok, what does FD&D stand for? I'd like to track them down! I went into a local travel agency last night and asked the only person in there if she was a Disney Planning Specialist. She replied very excitedly "YES". But then couldn't answer half the questions I was asking, so just for my own curiosity and Humour, started asking other questions to which I already knew the answers and even some of those, she couldn't answer.

I have a great agent for our current trip through Kingdom Magic Vacations, but might like for our next trip, someone I can see face to face. Not sure yet.

It's Fairytale Dreams & Destinations - they're in Bolton, ON. They are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful Also, they can make all your ADRs if you like (it's great, no long distance charges for me and our agent was able to get us everything we wanted at the times we wanted - AND, she booked our ADRs for us on her day off because that day happened to be our 90 days!!)!

 

[Practically_Perfect]

Thanks for the tip on FD&D - they are so impressive! I'm new to the Dis (first post!), but not to Disney. Even so I find it difficult trying to navigate the best deals there! I've sent in a request for a quote from them - here's hoping they can get me a better deal than the one I have now once the Disney travel agent site is working again...

 

[scotty]

Hi all sorry i havn't been on in a bit....But i quess i will find out how FD&D really are in a few months. Does anyone know if they do airfare aswell ????

Thanks

Scott