Hello

[Nbwmom23]

I am trying to plan our first Family Disney trip. I have 2 sons 5 and 4. I am so overwhelmed with the options. I have been to Disney many times. We always stayed at the Contemporary. Honestly I remember the hotel, character breakfast and light parade more then the parks themselves.
My husband is in the military so we can stay at the shades of green (has anyone stayed there), also they are offering a 4 day park hopper for around $160. Is 4 days enough?? I was thinking of going for 5. Also planning on going to Sea World for a day so maybe Disney for 4 and Sea World for 1. We are driving from NY.
So my options are making my head explode. Do I do the military way, or order from Disney and get the dining plan. Also how many reservations do you need for dining?? With 2 kids its hard to plan down to the minute. I want to have a fun trip not stress over reservations. Not sure when we are planning on going wanting to go when it's less crowded.. thinking Mid May or Mid to late Sept - Oct. Any help would be great

 

[Metro West]

 

[skier_pete]

I am trying to plan our first Family Disney trip. I have 2 sons 5 and 4. I am so overwhelmed with the options.

Hi and . The DIS can be a very helpful place, I'll do what I can to answer your questions.

I have been to Disney many times. We always stayed at the Contemporary. Honestly I remember the hotel, character breakfast and light parade more then the parks themselves.

From what you are saying here, it looks to me like it's been a while since you've been, am I right?

My husband is in the military so we can stay at the shades of green (has anyone stayed there),

I have not, but the general tone I've gotten from reading about those that have is iShades of Green (SoG) is a very nice location and a very good value. It is certainly significantly cheaper than the Comtemporary, which is around $300-400 a night.

also they are offering a 4 day park hopper for around $160. Is 4 days enough?? I was thinking of going for 5. Also planning on going to Sea World for a day so maybe Disney for 4 and Sea World for 1. We are driving from NY.

How many days is enough is very subjective, while we prefer to have a minimum of 7 park days on a trip, we did a trip last April where we only had 3 1/2 days. Disney is so large now you can't "See it all" in 10 days, so really it's up to you to decide what you want to see and what you don't. It also depends how much you want to spend running around the parks and how much time relaxing, and the energy level of your kids. Only you can really know what's best.

So my options are making my head explode. Do I do the military way, or order from Disney and get the dining plan. Also how many reservations do you need for dining?? With 2 kids its hard to plan down to the minute. I want to have a fun trip not stress over reservations.

Well, there are several levels of the Disney Dining Plan. There's a sticky on the dining plan that talks about the. If you want to do a few sit-down meals (referred to as Table Service or TS) especially the character Buffets than the basic DDP (Disney Dining Plan) can be a real money saver. However, it DOES require some planning, because of it's popularity many restaurants are booked up ahead of time, and you do need to make reservations well in advance if you want specific dates and times. I usually say you should at least plan which parks you will go to on which days, and book your ADR (Advance Dining Reservation) based on that. With a few exceptions, you do not need to "pre-pay" for these ADRs, so it is not like you are locked in to eating there, but when on the DDP - you do need to use your Dining credits, so its best to have those reservations made.

There is also a QS Dining Plan (Quick Service = Counter Service = a restaurant where you go up the counter and order) which eliminates the TS restaurants but gives more flexibility. But the price of that now is such that you save very little, so I'm not even sure I would recommend it.

Not sure when we are planning on going wanting to go when it's less crowded.. thinking Mid May or Mid to late Sept - Oct. Any help would be great

All else being equal I would pick Mid-May (no later than May 24th, as you don't want to get into Memorial Day) over late-September. Mid-May will have better whether (hot but not as humid) and moderate crowds. September will be really hot and humid, with slightly lower crowds. However, September is often less expensive, and also often affords the opportunity to take advantage of Disney's Free Dining promotion (pay for your hotel and park and they give you the dining for free). This promotion hasn't started yet, so it's not known for sure if they'll do it this year, but they've done it for 5 years in a row. If you end up not going the SoG route, this may be a reason to choose September. A nice website that sums up the pros and cons of different times of year is **************.net.

Hope that helps a little...

SkeirPete

 

[pepe of ohio]

Hi and . The DIS can be a very helpful place, I'll do what I can to answer your questions.




From what you are saying here, it looks to me like it's been a while since you've been, am I right?



I have not, but the general tone I've gotten from reading about those that have is iShades of Green (SoG) is a very nice location and a very good value. It is certainly significantly cheaper than the Comtemporary, which is around $300-400 a night.



How many days is enough is very subjective, while we prefer to have a minimum of 7 park days on a trip, we did a trip last April where we only had 3 1/2 days. Disney is so large now you can't "See it all" in 10 days, so really it's up to you to decide what you want to see and what you don't. It also depends how much you want to spend running around the parks and how much time relaxing, and the energy level of your kids. Only you can really know what's best.




Well, there are several levels of the Disney Dining Plan. There's a sticky on the dining plan that talks about the. If you want to do a few sit-down meals (referred to as Table Service or TS) especially the character Buffets than the basic DDP (Disney Dining Plan) can be a real money saver. However, it DOES require some planning, because of it's popularity many restaurants are booked up ahead of time, and you do need to make reservations well in advance if you want specific dates and times. I usually say you should at least plan which parks you will go to on which days, and book your ADR (Advance Dining Reservation) based on that. With a few exceptions, you do not need to "pre-pay" for these ADRs, so it is not like you are locked in to eating there, but when on the DDP - you do need to use your Dining credits, so its best to have those reservations made.

There is also a QS Dining Plan (Quick Service = Counter Service = a restaurant where you go up the counter and order) which eliminates the TS restaurants but gives more flexibility. But the price of that now is such that you save very little, so I'm not even sure I would recommend it.



All else being equal I would pick Mid-May (no later than May 24th, as you don't want to get into Memorial Day) over late-September. Mid-May will have better whether (hot but not as humid) and moderate crowds. September will be really hot and humid, with slightly lower crowds. However, September is often less expensive, and also often affords the opportunity to take advantage of Disney's Free Dining promotion (pay for your hotel and park and they give you the dining for free). This promotion hasn't started yet, so it's not known for sure if they'll do it this year, but they've done it for 5 years in a row. If you end up not going the SoG route, this may be a reason to choose September. A nice website that sums up the pros and cons of different times of year is **************.net.

Hope that helps a little...

SkeirPete

Saves me from typing all that.....excellent job...

 

[PrincessTiffany]

I am trying to plan our first Family Disney trip. I have 2 sons 5 and 4. I am so overwhelmed with the options. I have been to Disney many times. We always stayed at the Contemporary. Honestly I remember the hotel, character breakfast and light parade more then the parks themselves.
My husband is in the military so we can stay at the shades of green (has anyone stayed there), also they are offering a 4 day park hopper for around $160. Is 4 days enough?? I was thinking of going for 5. Also planning on going to Sea World for a day so maybe Disney for 4 and Sea World for 1. We are driving from NY.
So my options are making my head explode. Do I do the military way, or order from Disney and get the dining plan. Also how many reservations do you need for dining?? With 2 kids its hard to plan down to the minute. I want to have a fun trip not stress over reservations. Not sure when we are planning on going wanting to go when it's less crowded.. thinking Mid May or Mid to late Sept - Oct. Any help would be great

Welcome to the Disboards!

We have been going to WDW as a family, yearly, since our kids were 2, 3, 4, and 7 and I would recommend at least 5 days at Disney - that gives you 2 days Magic Kingdom, 1 day Epcot, 1 day Animal Kingdom and 1 day Hollywood Studios.

I highly recommend the Basic Dining Plan - 1 Table Service/Character Meal, 1 Counter Service/Fast Food Meal and 1 Snack per person per night of your stay. We love the dining plan and also, if you are planning in going in September or October, Disney usually has a Free Dining Promo during that time, at least they have since 2005. If you stay at Shades of Green you can not get the Disney Dining Plan (free or not) because they are not a Disney Owned Resort, they also don't use the Disney buses to and from the parks - that's a deal breaker for us.

We have stayed at all levels of resort at WDW, but our kids favorite resort is All-Star Movies - the famililar characters are great and the pools are super fun and have have great theming.

 

[Owishingonastar]

welcome to the Disboards,

I would say, 4 days is never enough at the world

 

[pepe of ohio]

welcome to the Disboards,

I would say, 4 days is never enough at the world

If you throw out arrival and departure day.....not much left.....alot of people can't fantom the size of WDW, let alone the 4 parks and 2 waterparks plus all the other activities.......4 days could be a mad rush and still not seeing most only to return home bone tired and worn out.....7 days is alot better and anything around 9-12 nights a delightful bonus. We like touring at a very relaxed pace, returning to the resort around noon to enjoy the resort and all its amenities then heading back out in the evening for a few more hours.....we alos like taking a down day (no parks at all) midway thru to do DTD, shopping, lounge hopping, minature golf, swimming and just recoop from the first 3 or 4 days of park walking. But as others have said, any time in Disney is better than no time but longer time is very delightful....