Has it been 12 years? Booked and looking for tips

[OwnedByMyKids]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on these boards and have been lurking on here for months. I'm looking for tips on anything for my trip that I booked so here are the details on us and our soon to be vacation.

BACKGROUND
The Family: I am a Dad with Wife and two sons who live in Alberta, Canada. DS1 is 4 years and DS2 is 7 months old. Last time I went to WDW was 12 years ago in January 2000.

VACATION DETAILS
Going to WDW this May. That's in TWO months! Most of you would say that going to WDW with such young kids is not as great compared to waiting another 5-6 years for them to be a bit older. Our decision to go to disney with our two young kids is because I have plenty of freebies to use up and will expire if I don't use them soon. I'm an Engineer who travels often enough for work overseas to accumulate a buttload of AEROPLAN and HILTON points to plan a vacation with.

Flight: What normally would have costed $1200 per ticket x 3 seats ($3600 total, and DS2 is free because he is a baby) on Air Canada was reduced to it being "almost free" with AEROPLAN points as long as I paid for the taxes which totaled $400. $400 is always better than $3600 ANY day!

Hotel: Booked at the Hilton Bonnet Creek for 9 nights. I booked this hotel purely because I had Hilton points and had enough to stay there for free for all 10 days. This is normally a $150 a night hotel so that is $150 x 9 days = $1350 of pure happiness saved.

Rental car: I hate to admit that I'm an aging dad with kids but I used points to rent a.... gasp.... I hate to say it but yes... a Minivan. We need the room for all the luggage and strollers. This normally would've costed $833 for the whole trip but the points covered it. Another reason to be happy despite my fear of being seen driving a minivan.
Note: I will need to pay for an extra kid's car seat when i get there so that'll run me about $10 per day I presume.

Park tickets: I used undercover tourist site to order my 5 day park pass /w water park and 3 day Universal Studios passes for just over $1300 total for 2 adults and 1 kid. This I had no points for so I paid cash for these puppies. No freebies here

SUMMARY

So what you see before you is approximately $5400 in savings for booking this trip. I paid $1300 in disney tickets and will most likely pay another $2000 for meals, gasoline, gifts and other incidentals for the 10 day trip.

I consider myself very lucky to get these freebies so I fully intend to use them up for an awesome trip to Disney. Two more months baby. Very excited.

So I'd love to hear from all of you knowledgeable posters on tips, experiences, comments and advice you may have.

1. Anyone every stayed at this hotel before?
2. Tips travelling with a 4 year old (almost 5) AND a 9 month old (he will be 9 months in May)?
3. Rental car tips? Parking? Nearby places to experience within driving distance?
4. Dining recommendations? This may sound really dumb to most of you but being from Canada, I never had real American Fried Chicken before. I heard of a place call Olde Dixies in Orlando. Any good?
5. Things to bring that most will forget?
6. Tips on anything for this trip?

Anything posted will help I'm sure. Thanks to all in advance.

OwnedByMyKids

 

[Carina]

99% sure Air Canada lets you check a carseat no charge. So you may be able to bring both car seats and not have to rent one for your lap baby... Would be another $100 in your pocket ( $10 a day 10 days)

 

[OwnedByMyKids]

That's a good tip. I knew I can check in a stroller and attachable carseat at the gate but I didn't know I could check in a car seat at the counter before security. I'll have to do that. Thanks for the tip!

 

[OwnedByMyKids]

Anyone ever eaten or know of other's experiences at Olde Dixies for real American fried chicken or Bubbalou's for real American BBQ? I want to try these places out and want to know what other's think.

 

[leitadisneyfan]

I don't know anything about Olde Dixies. They have good fried chicken at the Hoop Dee Doo Review.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Just to let you know May is going to be very hot at Disney so be sure to drink lots of water. You can actually get free glasses of water at any counter service location and its free!
You can also take snacks into the park as well as drinks. Which will save you a lot of $$$$

What part of May are you going? There is a big Star Wars event at Disney at the end of the month and it can get very very crowded at the parks.
YOu can get good fried chicken at the Trails End buffet which is at Disney Fort Wilderness camp ground. And it one of the cheaper buffet places at Disney. You can also walk around and look at the different animal at the barns. Take the boat to Magic Kingdom. Watch the fireworks from the beach at FW.

 

[OwnedByMyKids]

Just to let you know May is going to be very hot at Disney so be sure to drink lots of water. You can actually get free glasses of water at any counter service location and its free!
You can also take snacks into the park as well as drinks. Which will save you a lot of $$$$

What part of May are you going? There is a big Star Wars event at Disney at the end of the month and it can get very very crowded at the parks.
YOu can get good fried chicken at the Trails End buffet which is at Disney Fort Wilderness camp ground. And it one of the cheaper buffet places at Disney. You can also walk around and look at the different animal at the barns. Take the boat to Magic Kingdom. Watch the fireworks from the beach at FW.

Thanks for the tips Shelly. Yes, I have heard from many others that it will be hot during May. I am going from May 16th to 26th. And, yes, I am a huge starwars fan. My plan is to head to Hollywood Studios to check it out on Day 1 which is Friday, May 18th to get it done and over with. I figure this is the better day to go since vacationers are "just arriving" on Friday and won't really be doing the starwars thing until the following Sat or Sun. Just my guesses unless someone else knows otherwise.

Since we have a rental car, we will be doing a grocery stop stop on our arrival day. We plan on getting plenty of water and snacks so we will be bringing this with us on our daily trips to the parks. Thanks for the tips on the free water. I now know where to fill our bottles.

Is the boat to Magic Kingdom free?

 

[CdnKayDee]

Hi from Sask. First of 12 years it will be like going for the first time.Yes the ferry from the parking at MK is freee.In fact all WDW transporation is free boats busses monorail.However the ferry can take awhile and after fireworks I would just hangback until the crowd died down. Now it does cost to park at Disney unless you stay at a Disney resort or something else etc just incase you were unaware.Bring your own GPS or buy one GPS is a lot to rent.One thing about FL is you dont need insurance to drive around YIKES!! So I use my insurance(package policy) from SGI a lot cheaper.
I to have a DS 4yr and a DD 7 months are plan is go for opening and go back to resort after lunch then break then back to park for the night.

 

[OwnedByMyKids]

Hi from Sask. First of 12 years it will be like going for the first time.Yes the ferry from the parking at MK is freee.In fact all WDW transporation is free boats busses monorail.However the ferry can take awhile and after fireworks I would just hangback until the crowd died down. Now it does cost to park at Disney unless you stay at a Disney resort or something else etc just incase you were unaware.Bring your own GPS or buy one GPS is a lot to rent.One thing about FL is you dont need insurance to drive around YIKES!! So I use my insurance(package policy) from SGI a lot cheaper.
I to have a DS 4yr and a DD 7 months are plan is go for opening and go back to resort after lunch then break then back to park for the night.

I am staying at the Hilton and they have a shuttle that goes to and from ALL the disney parks every 60 mins and every 30 mins for MK. The bus goes from 8am all the way to midnight which is very convenient. This means that I will not have to drive and pay for parking to all my Disney park outings. This saves me $$! And yes, with a 4 yr old and 9 month old, I will need to come back to the hotel for rest breaks so the bus schedule works well for me.

I do own a GPS and will bring it with me for the trip. That is good advice. Better to bring it than having to pay extra for it when I rent the van. And I have verified with my Alberta insurance that rental cars are covered for both liabililty and collision so I am good for that. Thanks for the reminder.

This trip is becoming more real as the date gets closer and there is still 1.5 months left to go. Very exciting. I even have black T-shirts made up with the Starwars Empire Logo smack in the front for both my son and I for Starwars weekend.

 

[OwnedByMyKids]

So another money saver and extra convenience idea I was pondering was to bring a portable electric stove element so I can use it to cook simple items like instant noodles, boiled eggs, canned soup, etc. I fully plan on going to the grocery store (I hear Publix is a good place) to pick up items that we can snack on, especially late at night when we are too tired or lazy to go out. My 4yrs old says he hungry at odd times so if we are in the room, we can cook something up really fast. Anyone done this before? Good? Bad?