i need some help will our family trip...

[jt42blue]

hello everyone !

my name is melissa and this is the first time i have posted a message on these boards.

i live in australia and i am planning on taking my family (me , hubby , and 3 kids ) to the states for a disney holiday. first we were planning on going to disneyland for 4 days then flying over to wdw . we are still undecided to whether we want to buy a 7 day pass or a 10 day pass . i just have a few questions which i was hoping someone could help me out with:

what is the best age for a child to get the most out of disney and actually remember what they done there further down the track. i was planning on waiting til my youngest is 5. is this an ok age to be able to go on most attractions?

should we go the 7day or the 10 day passes? as we are going to disneyland first, will we be repeating everything when we get to wdw?

we are looking at staying at the all stars movie resort and taking out two rooms (mainly because i think the kids will love the oversize characters). my ds loves toy story are you able to request a room in the toy story section? we don't want to be stuck in the love bug area as i doubt my kids even know who it is .

what is the best time of year to go? not really based on cost, more so on crowds? is there a time of year where there is really bad whether or ride closures for maintence ?

thanks in advance for your help, we have done a brief budget for this trip and so far we are up to the $20000 dollar mark (but thats including airfares for 5 from australia).

melissa ian jayden tahlia ashlia

 

[GIOny]

Welcome to the Dis Boards, Melissa Is this your 1st trip to Disney? So you want to go to DL in California then to WDW in Florida all in the same vacation? That's alot of Disney! But I believe the parks are different enough that you could do both without feeling like de ja vu all over again!! Sorry I can't spell in french! Anyway, here is a good thread that was on the dis boards about the differences between DL and WDW: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=801282 mind you though that this was posted on the DL board so opinions seem more favorable towards DL. I would read this and take note of what DL has to offer that WDW does not and make sure you do all of the attractions that only DL has (like Matterhorn ect.) and then of course they have an entire park that WDW does not have, California Adventure . Personally, I found that once my kids got to be around 4, it was easier to deal with them in the parks. I felt they enjoyed much more and so did I . Of course all kids are different and you know your kids limits better then anyone. Just be sure to have break time . As far as what rides your child can go on depends on height not age. Here is a web site with the height requirements for rides: http://allearsnet.com/tp/rr.htm As far as what pass to get, I don't know, you only mentioned how many days you were in DL, not WDW. Were you getting the No Expiration on the passes? Will you ever return to the parks? To be honest with you I don't even know if you can use the same tickets for both parks, I assume you can but I would check first. If you are getting hoppers, I don't know how that works in DL. If you are going during the warm weather you may want to consider going to a water park at WDW . When making your reservation at the All Star you can request the section that you want, they usually cannot guarantee it but when you arrive make sure you tell them again and let them know you had made this request earlier. Weatherwise, I don't know about California, although they seem to have had alot of rain this year, but Florida seems to have the most rain in the summer. Here is a weather pattern chart: http://weathercenter.com/almanacs/orlando.htm I usually go in April when there is very little rain but large crowds . So take your pick! Here is the chart of historic crowd attendance: http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/attend.htm I think I answered everything I could. If you need anything else, Just Ask!!!

 

[patrenoe]

Hi Melissa You will have a wonderful time at DL and WDW. The two areas are so different. DL has two parks while WDW has 4 parks plus DTD. I don't know how long you are planning on staying in WDW so I don't know if 7 day or 10 day tickets would be best. Also are you planning on returning to WDW on another trip in the future? DL ticketa and WDW tickets are not interchangeable. DL tickets are less expensive than WDW. HTHs.

 

[Clare D]

HI Melisa
How long is your flight going to be from Oz to California? It is about another 5 hour flight over to Florida. We have only ever been to WDW as travelling over to the West coast would be a no go as my DS is 2 and it is already a 9 hour flight from the UK to Florida.
We visited WDW last December with our DS who had just turned 2 and he loved it. The weather though became quite cold though the second week. I would say that your children will love Disney and they will see things differently depending on how old they are. I can see why you would prefer to wait until your smallest is 5 but there are still loads of rides for the little ones.
i HAVE ONLY EVER BEEN TO wdw so can't comment on the queues at Disneyland but best times of the year are normally spring/autumn bith for weather (outside of the hurricane season) and for less crowds.
Good luck with the planning you'll find loads of useful tips on these boards

 

[pezpam]

Just 2 cents on the hotel. We've stayed at All-Star Music once and Pop Century twice. The All-Stars are great, but making sure you're right next to the 'right' icon shouldn't stress you out too much - the resort is small enough that you can walk around and see them all. If they can get you a room where DS can see Buzz from the windows, that's cool, but he will have a BLAST no matter which room you get. I actually request rooms away from the pools so we can have more peace and quiet at night - it means we can't see any icons from our window, but DD could not care less. We're park people, not hotel people, and she has more than enough fun between the parks and the pools. We do walk around and take pics with the icons, but don't spend our hotel time staring out the window anyway.

I hope your trip is wonderful!

 

[all4fun]

Welcome to the Dis!

I just wanted to point you to the Dis's "height calculator": Click here
It's pretty cool, you just enter your child's height and it will tell you which rides they will be restricted from. That should help you figure out how many rides your "littlest one" may not be able to go on, if any.

Allearsnet.com has also has a wealth of information. Here's a link to their page about historic attendance levels: Click here Personally we really like the fall (Sept/Oct).

If you're looking for tips on how to save money or discount/coupon codes then www.Mousesavers.com is the place to go. This site applies to both DL & WDW.

hth!
Cheryl

 

[jt42blue]

thanks everyone for your help.

i realise that DL and wdw tickets are different but we are unsure of how many days we should spend at wdw. should we go for 7 days or would we see more if we stayed for 10 days. how many days do you really need in each park?

the flight from brisbane, australia to LA is approx 16hrs depending on any stop-overs.

we were wanting to do both DL and WDW as well as a few others on this trip because it might be the only chance we get as the airfares from aust-la are so expensive (the cheapest i have seen is approx $1500 each x 5 people, maybe 7 if my step kids are allowed to come). so we figure seeing we are spending that amount just to get there we should make the most of it.