I know this is the DisneyLAND board, but...

Butterfly123

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 5, 2011
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Hey all, I know this is the Disneyland board, my home board, but I'm hoping all you knowledgeable Dis'ers can point me in the right direction. I've been going to DL since my first trip when I was 6. Now I'm in my 5th decade! It is time for a once in a lifetime trip to WDW, and I have no idea where to begin. I can't even figure out on these forums where to go to get an overview of how to plan. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I have heard about an "easy" WDW website, I've sent for the planning DVD, and now??? Also, the only time that really works is sometime between July 1 and mid September of 2017. Is summer insane?

Anyway, I appreciate any info you can point me too. Sorry for the somewhat misplaced post...I hope it's okay. If not, feel free to move it as you see fit. Thanks!!
 
First, you're already here....the DIS has some of the best and most accurate info on WDW on the web. The shear amount of vital info will keep you busy for days or weeks prior to your 180 day booking window opening!
The unplugged broadcasts are "cant miss" too. I've had the pleasure of meeting the team in Disneyland and they are awesome! I consider myself a vet from both coasts now and use www.easywdw.com for planning all of our WDW trips. The information and crowd predictions are spot on.

Have fun exploring the Florida Project. It is in most and many ways different, but no less amazing and fun.

agree on July and August (crowded, hot and humid) September sees kids back in school and lower crowds...check out easywdw for Josh's look at September.

Mike
 
In terms of the Disboards, WDW planning is essentially broken up into three main boards:
Theme Parks and Attractions: http://www.disboards.com/forums/theme-parks-attractions-and-strategies.2/
Hotels: http://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-resorts.12/
Dining: http://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-restaurants.14/

The "easy" WDW site that gets mentioned is easyWDW (he's a blogger that has lots of information about WDW, but with a fair amount of snark). This host site for the Disboards, wdwinfo.com, also has a lot planning information. There is a set of articles (Disney World Planning Articles) that might be useful to look through.

Summer in WDW...well, the crowds haven't seemed that crazed this year, but the weather can be pretty awful. It's a lot more humid in WDW, so be prepared for that. If there is any way you can stretch your time frame to late-September, I would do that. The Epcot Food & Wine Festival starts in mid-September and that is one of my favorite events in WDW. September also sees the start of the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parties (MNSSHP), which is a lot of fun. It has some elements that are similar to MHP and some that are very different (Boo to You is an amazing parade!).
 

September for low crowds!

Best of luck planning!

I'd say first step is deciding if you're staying on site then determining which hotel!
 
Sent you a private message.

Let me say this about your time frame. It's HOT!!!! Not sure where you're from, but it sounds like the West Coast. Prepare for heat that you can't imagine. For real. I spent my younger years living in Texas and visiting family in Texas. I thought I knew humidity. But Orlando is different for sure. Also for weather, that's the rainy season - opposite of ours. Buy some ponchos and keep them in a backpack at all times while at the parks. Rains will come out of no where. And these aren't sissy drops of rain like we have. They'll beat you up and soak you in seconds. That's the scary part. The rest is good.

For a really good experience, stay at one of the moderate hotels. All 4 are really nice and come in at a good price. When you stay at these, you get great pools with waterslides, really nice onsite restaurants, bus service to all 4 parks, 2 waterparks and Downtown Disney/Disney Springs (no driving or car rental needed), an awesome Disney experience from hotel CMs, and Mickey's Magical Express which takes you to and from the airport and even takes care of your luggage when you land. Once you get on your plane, your Disney Magic begins. My favorite moderates in order: Coronado Springs, French Quarter, Caribbean Beach, Riverside. I'm not a fan of the Value resorts and the Deluxe are just too pricey. Like DLH pricey.

There's 4 parks there, so when we go, we like to hit each park twice. That makes for a very long trip - 9 nights in order to get 8 full days. But if you're flying all the way out there, you might as well stay long. Keep an eye for deals on room discounts and free dining plans. I worked with a Disney travel agent that I found from a Mouse "savers" website. If you like waterparks, they have 2 world class areas with slides that'll scare you to death. Really fun!

Catch all of the live shows if you can. Beauty & the Beast and Indiana Jones Stunt Show (DHS), Nemo: the Musical and Festival of the Lion King (AK). Great stuff.

Always plan to catch the nightly fireworks and shows at the parks (I hear Animal Kingdom is about to lose their short-lived show). But you get F! every night at Disney Hollywood Studios, amazing show called Wishes at the MK, and the most incredible thing you'll ever see at Epcot call Illuminations. Change your life.

And the table service dining at WDW blows DL out of the water. So many choices and good quality (though there's many Disney-whiners who'd disagree). At MK, we love Liberty Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace, and Tony's Town Square. At DHS, SciFi Diner has cool ambiance to make up for just burgers. At AK, Tusker House has some great african cuisine, and Flame Tree BBQ is a great counter service. And then there's Epcot....awesome food everywhere in the World Showcase. Fish&Chips at UK, Tangeriene Cafe at Morocco, Biergarten at Germany, San Angel Inn (for ambiance, not food) at Mexico, Le Cellier in Canada, and my personal favorite - Akershus in Norway. Love it and miss it. They also have good dining at the deluxe resorts such as 1900 Park Faire at the Grand Floridian, and Chef Mickey's (like Goofy's Kitchen) at the Contemporary. I keep hoping that one day DL will be on the same level of food selection at WDW, but it probably won't happen.

I can't advise you on FP+ as my last trip was right before it was implemented. Thank God.

Hope this at least gets you started.
 
You are in good shape looking a year ahead, that is about what we did for our first trip to WDW. So much more planning than for DL. I actually liked FP+ up to the point we used the last one of the day, did not find it easy to get additional FP. For WDW, the Magic Bands are awesome, for rooms, for meals, for Photopass (DO GET THIS), park tickets, etc. So many choices for food, spend some time checking out the menus for your tastes, most of the reviews are accurate. Some places are better for ambience than food, like Be Our Guest. Fan favorite, but fairly bland food for us, but still worth doing for the experience. Most of the Deluxe resort signature restaurants are outstanding.

If this is a once in a lifetime trip as you say, then I would look into the Deluxe resorts, they are expensive, but so awesome. We spent 5 days at AKL with a savanna view, so awesome, and amazing restaurants. We rented DVC points and got the deluxe resorts for the moderate prices. Renting points was a little daunting at first, but there is a lot of knowledge on the DIS Boards, whole section devoted to it. If you have set dates you know will not change, this may be the way to go.

It is not as easy to park hop as you do at DL, but not as hard as many put it out to be. It comes down to priorities and a game plan. Instead of a mid-afternoon break, maybe you relax on the monorail for a ride to a different park. We did a lot of hopping to Epcot for all of the food choices. Do not underestimate the value of a day away from the parks, especially with heat and humidity and more than 5 park days. Have a magical time!
 
How about a good guide book for WDW? I suggest the Passporter. It has great information about the resorts, restaurants, parks and attractions. It even comes with envelopes you can use to record and store information for each day of your trip.
 
Okay, so would it be crazy to postpone our trip until Christmas 2017...a hugely busy time of year...for a first trip? I'm not as worried about crowds as I am getting the hotel, etc, as we need a room for 5 adults. But the weather would be so much better!
 
I like reading Disney tourist blog. Lots of info on trip planning and resturant reviews. Just google it
 
Thanks everyone for all the info. We are strongly thinking of postponing until we are able to go during a better time of year. If this is going to be a once in a lifetime shot, we want it to be the best experience possible. Thanks again!
 
Thanks everyone for all the info. We are strongly thinking of postponing until we are able to go during a better time of year. If this is going to be a once in a lifetime shot, we want it to be the best experience possible. Thanks again!

That's what we did. We live where it gets to be 107 but we won't go near Florida in the hot season because of the humidity. We did our "once in a lifetime" (HAH! We're totally going back!) in January and it was excellent. Crowds were reasonable (and I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks) except for one day that we chose poorly. DHS is much less fun with a marathon running through it.
 












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