HELP me plan a trip to WDW!!!

[Janet]

Hi folks

I'm thinking about a trip to WDW in July/Aug 2005 - can somebody please help - I don't know where to start.

Travelling party of 4 - me (38), hubby (41) & 2 sons (9 & 7).

I really don't know where to start. I though I'd spend about 5 days in WDW and another week or so in nearby beach resort.

Firstly, which would be better July or Aug - I'm Irish, so wouldn't cope too well with terrible heat & humidity!

The only advice I've got so far is that I'm probably better off staying within WDW - any tips on which accomodation level would be better - Value or Moderate - I'd be easy going enough about the accom, so long as it is clean, but I don't want to be miles away from 'where it's at!'. I gather you if you are not too far away you can do a few hours in the morning, come home for a couple of hours in the afternoon and come back for the shows (?) in the evening. I've read some stuff here about different places to eat and meals being included - what works out the best value?

Also, what about the week on the beach? Where's best to go? Do I need to hire a car for the full duration of the holiday or should I just hire a car for the transfer and time at the beach?

Come on folks - HELP ME - I REALLY REALLY don't know where to START. I reckon if it's too difficult to organise that I will just forget about going altogether.............would you let me do that to my children ??????????!!!!!

Thanks in advance.

Janet

 

[Scratch42]

From One Janet to Another,

Welcome!

Personally, I would pick Late August and pick a Value Resort. Which Characters do your boys like? Do you and DH like nostalgia? Pop Century would fit the bill nicely. Easy access to the parks plus great pool area which will definately be needed in summer.

Remember, you can't do it all in one trip! Pick the rides and shows that you absolutely have to see/do and try for those first and the rest is just icing. Take advantage of early entry and the new later hours.

Have Fun Planning, and you picked the right place to get your information!

Scratch

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

Welcome.
You need to do several things.....keep reading these great boards.
Check out the great info on allearsnet.com.
Also check out mousesaver.com.
Planning is almost as exciting as the trip itself!

Keep on asking questions............we are all here to help each other!

 

[Meredith'sMom]

Can't post too long--DD is starting to whine.

BUT you must absolutely get a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Disney, available at any bookstore. DH and I used it for our honeymoon research and it was terrific. We really felt like we had the inside scoop and made things easier for ourselves once we were there (late July/early Aug 2003). It was hot and the planning made our trip infinitely better than it could've been.

Have fun planning!

 

[matdamom]

I am also planning our first family trip to Disney, and I liked the Unofficial guide as well as it's companion - the Unofficial Guide to WDW w/Kids. Reading these boards has given me almost as much info as the guides, too. Don't give up - it can be done. I am planning our trip with less than a month from decision to leaving for WDW. Yikes!

 

[Amirah95]

I agree with Meredith's mom...get the UOG and if you want a keepsake and actually plan out your day to days then get the Passporter too. I also buy the Birnbaum's for Kids for my DD. If you are a Disney planning fanatic like me try to get as much info as you can from these boards and read the books. I always plan a Disney trip like I'm never going back again and some people just go with the flow. What kind of person are you?

Most importantly, get your park strategies together. Disney parks have early hours for their resort guests on some days and other days they don't. With that info you can figure out if going to a specific park on a specific day is for you (on the early entry days--they call it something different now--the UOG will tell you to avoid the park). Find out which park and on which day you want to go to it. Take a look at the attractions at each park to see if you are interested in experiencing them, learn the park map. Also, find out if you can handle the people and the weather in July/August. We usually go in May because the weather is tolerable and the crowds are not that bad.

You might want to find out what's going on at Disney in the month/week you choose to go. How many days will you want to stay?

Try to start a rough draft of your potential budget (this will change many times, but I like to get it settled a month before I leave to go on vacation. This should include all expenses from air to hotel to park tickets to car rental/car services to all dining (sit down/counter) to snacks down to tipping so you can get an overall look at how you can make your trip more enjoyable and smoother or if you'll be able to add to it or deduct some things out if you're short on funds. A lot of people post their budgets up here on the boards to get feedback and maybe you should do that if you need help.

Do you mind staying in a WDW value resort? If not, then you'll save a good amount of money here, but if you can do better then do a moderate. If you stay onsite you can use Disney transportation to the parks if you don't have a rental car. With the new Disney packages maybe you can save somewhere. Visit http://www.mousesavers.com to get really good tips and room discount codes. Also visit the Dis' main page http://www.wdwinfo.com to get general info and http://www.allearsnet.com to get more tips and general info. Also, there are a lot of off-site alternatives that can save you lot of dollars that have good accessibility to the WDW parks. You will need a rental car with this option.

As for a beach, I would say Daytona but for your boys I don't know if it will appeal to him. Usually we go to the islands for beach play. Maybe someone else here can help out with that.

Good luck and happy planning out the possibilities! I hope I didn't confuse you more.

 

[HappyLawyer]

Hi folks

I'm thinking about a trip to WDW in July/Aug 2005 - can somebody please help - I don't know where to start.

Travelling party of 4 - me (38), hubby (41) & 2 sons (9 & 7).

I really don't know where to start. I though I'd spend about 5 days in WDW and another week or so in nearby beach resort.

Firstly, which would be better July or Aug - I'm Irish, so wouldn't cope too well with terrible heat & humidity!

The only advice I've got so far is that I'm probably better off staying within WDW - any tips on which accomodation level would be better - Value or Moderate - I'd be easy going enough about the accom, so long as it is clean, but I don't want to be miles away from 'where it's at!'. I gather you if you are not too far away you can do a few hours in the morning, come home for a couple of hours in the afternoon and come back for the shows (?) in the evening. I've read some stuff here about different places to eat and meals being included - what works out the best value?

Also, what about the week on the beach? Where's best to go? Do I need to hire a car for the full duration of the holiday or should I just hire a car for the transfer and time at the beach?

Come on folks - HELP ME - I REALLY REALLY don't know where to START. I reckon if it's too difficult to organise that I will just forget about going altogether.............would you let me do that to my children ??????????!!!!!

Thanks in advance.

Janet

well if you read these boards then you will see that is not a lot of time for planning, i think the first thing to decide is if you are staying on property, off property, will you rent a car-highly recommended and do you want to do other stuff like universal/ioa and seaworld, oh and dinner shows while your in florida, you will get all the help and support you need from us and these boards, i cannot begin to tell you how helpful everyone on here is i got some great, i mean great pics and info on my cabin for my 2006 cruise, people here are great

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We go in July - we used to go in August but DH thinks it's more of a chance of hurricanes so we switched last year to July and boy were we glad we did. It is hot and humid but if you get to the parks early (at opening) and leave in the afternoon for a swim/nap break it's more than bearable. Utilize fast pass. I would definitely advise staying onsite. POR and Carribean are nice moderate hotels, and sometimes if good codes come out you can get AKL or WL for almost the same price. Get a copy of the UOG (it is a lifesaver). Study it, and plan around it. In the summer definitely make a good amount of PS's. I also would rethink and do at least 7 days at WDW and a shorter time at the beach. There is so much to see and do that even 7 days isn't enough but it's a good start. One thing I would definitely advise you on the first time - don't feel compelled to try and see everything. Take some time to stop and enjoy the magic. Hope you have a magical trip!

 

[minmate]

If you're not big on heat, July and August are both going to be a bit tough on you... either way. But IMO, GO EARLY, STAY LATE, but get the heck out of the parks between say noon-4 ish. It will be too hot and crowded.

I like to make a list of my must-sees/dos by park, noting what can be done with Fast Pass and what can be done during an Extra Magic Hours timeframe. Then I try to schedule my days accordingly. For our family, it's important to hit MK and AK on Extra Magic Hours but not so much MGM or Epcot. We have young kids though. For you, it may be getting to MGM or Epcot for their thrill rides during Extra Magic Hours. So plan your stay with those in mind. You can find out the EMH here on this site or many of the ones already listed above.

Then I make my hotel ressies. The value rooms are small but if you don't mind that, then I'd go with one of those. We stayed at POP and loved it. They have a dedicated bus stop, which means the bus only stops in one place and doesn't meander to other places, so you are getting a direct route (except for going to Animal Kingdom, they do make an extra stop at the water parks). While it's longer to get from Pop Century to MK, than it is from say, The Grand Floridian, it's MUCH cheaper to stay at the Pop. I would just say, that in order not to feel rushed while taking a break back at your hotel, plan on at least 3-4 hours, as transportation will take some time and you don't want to get back to your room only to find you have to get ready for your evening just a half hour later.

The benefit of a moderate hotel is that they have water slides that your kids might enjoy (values do not) and they have beaches (many do... but if you're going to the beach later, that might not be a big deal to you) -- they also have hot tubs that values do not... and, their rooms are bigger, a bit.

If you are going to be spending a whole week relaxing at a beach after the Disney part of your trip, you may want to try to maximize your time in the parks more. Ways to stay out of the heat while still in the parks, include scheduling lunch at a sit-down restaurant during that noon-4 time, followed (or preceded) by an indoor attraction. For example, at Animal Kingdom, plan to catch the Lion King show somewhere around 12:30... afterwards (around 1:15 now), proceed to Kali River Rapids (a wet ride) to pick up a FP, and then to one of the indoor restaurants (say Tusker House or Rainforest Cafe) for a leisurely lunch. You won't be in a hurry as it's getting hot out so maybe by the time you're done it's about 2:30-3ish. You could then go do your FP at Kali River Rapids or stroll through some of the indoor shops or (if you didn't get the Fast Pass) grab a seat in the shade, if you can find it, for the parade at 4. By then it should be cooling off some. There are lots of indoor rides/attractions at each of the parks so this strategy would work at all of them. There are people here with much more expertise and experience than I to guide you through that! You can do a search too as I'm sure some strategies for keeping cool were covered in threads this summer.

Good luck, have fun!

 

[Taratink]

We took our first WDW family trip last year. We went in Feb so heat was not a problem for us. I planned the whole trip in 2 weeks. Read this site for a couple of weeks and you will have it all figured out. I would look on the Disney site and check out the pricing and info about the resorts.Then look at the resorts thread to get thought about the resorts that you are interested in. I took notes when I read someone interesting. I actually have a vacation file. I booked my trip with dreams unlimited. It is a free disney travel agent service. They are wonderful. They can look for discount codes to apply to your reservation. We saved $700.00 off our trip. The more you read the more questions you will have. Another site which is great is mousesavers.com and allearsnet.com. After iI selected my hotel I looked for tours and dinning. You can book priority seating (Ps) which is kind of like a loose reservation. You can book ps and tours 90 days before your trip is scheduled. On this site is a restaurant thread which helped me with all of the questions I had. Read and learn. This is how I planned my trip. I hope that it helps.
Tara

 

[disneygoof]

I prefer Frommer's to Birnbaum's or Unofficial Guide. I would read through the Disney section, and then you can whittle your questions down for the experts on the boards. I find their information invaluable, especially with questions like "which resort, ______ or _____, for my family and why?" or which character breakfast, or which park on a Wednesday, or whatever.

Also, my local library has all these books so you should check yours. You might figure out which guidebook you prefer before you make an investment.

Good luck!

edit: Finally, you might post the questions you already have as their own specific threads, making the titles "Value or Moderate?", "How do you do the beach?" and "July or August?". That way you'll attract the disers who have strong opinions on those specific topics.

 

[JoyMouse]

I would go with a value resort, we've been happiest with ASMo, We're gonna try Pop next so I hope it is good too. We have been in summer lots, just try to rest and swim and do Splash Mountain and Kali River Rapids, that should cool you off! Enjoy, any time is Disney time!