HELP!!!! getting so confussed with all the choices

[buzz25]

hi guys

got a few questions I need help with as I am looking at booking another trip to Disneyworld, but I just cant decide what to do for our next wdw holiday with my GF and I know you guys are the best at this.


1. is it better to book with a travel agent or to do it all myself? what sites do you all use? I have only ever used Thomson's to go to WDW with.

2. should we book up early or book last minute? looking at going oct/nov 2015

3. what's November like as I have only been in sept and oct? what are crowds like? as well as the weather?

4. should we stay onsite, offsite hotel or villa? everytime I have gone I have stayed at CSR in Disney and loved every minute of it but is it worth the extra money as we are hardly at the hotel apart from eating, sleeping and showering.

5.whats better MNVSHP or MVMCP? I have done the Halloween party once before loved it for the meet and greets not so much the sweets as I am bit of fitness lover even while at Disney lol

6. we both love bush gardens are there any cheap motels near by if we want to have a night down to save us driving back to orlando.

7. If we stay offsite how much will it cost us to park everyday at WDW, UNI, Sea World & Bush Gardens? we will be driving to every park as I do not like to use public transport

8. When is free dinning at Disney?

9. How much does it cost to eat offsite on average?

10. do you miss out on anything if you don't stay onsite like magic bands etc?

thanks for help you guys are great

 

[Elise79]

Ok I will try to answer as best I can!

1. is it better to book with a travel agent or to do it all myself? what sites do you all use? I have only ever used Thomson's to go to WDW with.
DIY is usually cheaper and you can book exactly what you want - you can generally be more flexible in length of stay, hotel, car etc

2. should we book up early or book last minute? looking at going oct/nov 2015

Personal choice - May seems to be the best time for last minute deals. Also see below on free dining

3. what's November like as I have only been in sept and oct? what are crowds like? as well as the weather?
Depends on the time you go in November - crowds excluding Thanksgiving week are moderate or low. Weather is cooler - we went the start of November one year and most days it was too cold for me to swim however it has to be in the high 80s at least to get me in a pool. There is no way I would be doing a water park in November!!

4. should we stay onsite, offsite hotel or villa? everytime I have gone I have stayed at CSR in Disney and loved every minute of it but is it worth the extra money as we are hardly at the hotel apart from eating, sleeping and showering.
We always stay onsite - we love it. To us it is worth the money to be that close to the parks. Others would say no say offsite

5.whats better MNVSHP or MVMCP? I have done the Halloween party once before loved it for the meet and greets not so much the sweets as I am bit of fitness lover even while at Disney lol
Having done both I would only pay for MNSSHP again and only if it wasn't a sold out night. If you haven't done MVMCP it is probably worth doing once to see the Xmas parade and Fireworks

6. we both love bush gardens are there any cheap motels near by if we want to have a night down to save us driving back to orlando.
Not stayed in Tampa - try Clearwater its close by and you could visit the beach the next day

7. If we stay offsite how much will it cost us to park everyday at WDW, UNI, Sea World & Bush Gardens? we will be driving to every park as I do not like to use public transport

Parking at Disney is currently $17 a day others are similar

8. When is free dinning at Disney?
Free dining for 2015 is currently for sale on the Disney sites covering most of the year

9. How much does it cost to eat offsite on average?
How long is a piece of string? There are cheap places or expensive places depending on your budget and tastes!

10. do you miss out on anything if you don't stay onsite like magic bands etc?
You would miss out on free magic bands - you can buy them for $12.95 plus tax for the plain colours, $19.95 plus tax for open edition character ones (just Frozen at the moment) and $19.95 plus tax for a limited edition one.
Other things you miss are extra magic hours and Early FP+ booking - onsite can book 60 days out, offsite 30 days out

 

[chmurf]

my turn

1. is it better to book with a travel agent or to do it all myself? what sites do you all use? I have only ever used Thomson's to go to WDW with.
We book DIY
Flights : Kayak to look up prices, times and connections, then book either with Expedia or direct with the airline. We avoid TAs like the plague
Disney : Disney direct US or UK depending on length of stay and current deals
Seaworld, Busch Gardens : direct with the parks or attractionsdirect
Universal : direct for accomodations, and either direct or attractionsdirect depending on how many days we want on the tickets.
Car : direct with Alamo


2. should we book up early or book last minute? looking at going oct/nov 2015
Depends on the deals, there is a current Free Dining for 2015, so I'd book now to secure the free dining deal. Deposit of £50pp, balance due 8 weeks out
If you don't care for free dining then you might want to wait for a room discount, but those (mostly US WDW site) come really close to the check in date, so you'll need to book flights first, not being sure to have any deal at all and end up paying rack rate for accomodations.
If you want to secure a deal, book now, if you want to take the chance book later.


3. what's November like as I have only been in sept and oct? what are crowds like? as well as the weather?
Crowds are lighter first 2 weeks of November, compared to october. They're about the same as September. Avoid thanksgiving week
Weather wise it's a bit cooler than october, weather is hit or miss, it can be very hot or miserably cold. It's usually very nice and warm though, but you might hit a cold spell

4. should we stay onsite, offsite hotel or villa? everytime I have gone I have stayed at CSR in Disney and loved every minute of it but is it worth the extra money as we are hardly at the hotel apart from eating, sleeping and showering.
Onsite is the way for us.
You'll get better (more spacious) accomodations offsite for a fraction of the disney price
But if you have free dining it can even out, especially since you can avoid renting a car, spending time in transportation, and so on.

5.whats better MNVSHP or MVMCP? I have done the Halloween party once before loved it for the meet and greets not so much the sweets as I am bit of fitness lover even while at Disney lol
Have done both. We much prefer MNSSHP. I would do MNSSHP again, but MVMCP didn't feel that good. I guess I don't do well with the whole christmas thing anyway, I'm more the Halloween type.
If you go in november there is little chance you get to do a MNSSHP. Or the very last one in the first couple of days of November. I wouldn't advise to do that one, it will be sold out. We find sold out nights to be less enjoyable (still manageable but not so enjoyable)




6. we both love bush gardens are there any cheap motels near by if we want to have a night down to save us driving back to orlando.
BG's neighbourhood is not really safe. If you want to stay in the area I'd suggest to stay in Clearwater, pair this trip with a day at the beach. That's what we did last time, drove down from Orlando to Clearwater Beach, spent the afternoon at the beach (chilly in november but still managed to swim in the Gulf ... for about 3 minutes ..., then the next morning we started for BG, we were 10th car in the parking lot, and spent the day there, we were back in Orlando by 6pm.
Aslo consider that your BG ticket entitles you to a free roundtrip shuttle ride to BG from the Orlando aera (Seaworld for example)

7. If we stay offsite how much will it cost us to park everyday at WDW, UNI, Sea World & Bush Gardens? we will be driving to every park as I do not like to use public transport
$17 at Disney's, $18 at Universal, and around $16/$17 at Seaworld
Disney parking is free for onsite guests, Universal parking is $20 per night if you stay at an Universal hotel.


8. When is free dinning at Disney?
Now

9. How much does it cost to eat offsite on average?
that's a tough one. It's cheaper than at Disney's.
Depends on where, how often, what and how much you eat


10. do you miss out on anything if you don't stay onsite like magic bands etc?
Magic Bands can be purchased.
you'll miss EMH and early FP+ booking
ADRS at 180+10 if you want to do TS
And you'll spend up to 90 minutes a day in your car to go to the parks. (it can take up to 45 minutes each way from the idrive area to a disney park, even if it can be much less without traffic)
But what you might miss most is the disney immersion inside the disney bubble if you're sensitive to that.
If you have loved the disney feeling at CSR, that's probably something you might regret not having offsite.
If budget is more important to you, then offsite might save quite a fair amount of cash, but be more time consuming.

 

[pickers1982]

I would always advocate staying onsite format least part of your stay. Once you start adding dining, parking, time wasted travelling, emh (not that we use it), adrs, FP+ benefits, magic bands! regular buses etc if you want a drink etc? biggest for us is the ambience though.

 

[buzz25]

thanks for the help think I am going to try and do a DIY holiday do you have any tips for a newbi?

 

[Elise79]

Usually most people doing DIY book flights first however with the Disney free DDP offers this doesn't usually work very well.

Scheduled flights are generally released 11 months from your return date.

If you are going to want to stay on site book the offer now - the deposit is only £50 per person with WDTC. If you are able to be flexible with dates book a couple of nights less and then once you have secured flights you can amend your booking to fit. By booking less and increasing your cost you avoid any amendment fees

For next year we have booked our Disney stay, I will look at flights once they are released but car hire and everything else will wait until much closer.

However once you book something that costs more than you can afford to lose make sure you get your travel insurance

 

[buzz25]

just looked for 2 weeks at CSR first 2 weeks in oct 2015 with disney, sea world, bush gardens and UNI it came to £1500 per person without flights and car

 

[flortlebap]

thanks for the help think I am going to try and do a DIY holiday do you have any tips for a newbi?

If you're booking through WDW then book a shorter stay than you need to secure your FD promotion (eg book 7 days if you're intending to stay for 10). Then when you find flights within budget on days around your trip, you can just call WDW TC to extend your stay with no amendment fee

Of course if you can book the flights first within budget then that's always helpful - but we have often had to book our hotel before flights so as not to miss out on the free dining and gift card promotion, particularly with trips at the back end of the year (sept onwards).

 

[Julia Ann]

We have never done DIY so can't help you there, but we are going package with Thomas Cook and they came out cheapest (for package) for end of Oct/beginning Nov this year, so might be worth a look for the comparison.

MNSSHP doesn't have any dates at all in November this year.

Good luck with the planning