I need your help!

[shepherdgirl]

I'm finally planning our first trip to Disney with our daughter (she'll be 4). I think we decided on January.
Can someone tell me what I need to do to plan? We are behind on getting reservations because we just decided to do January instead of the summer. I know we need to get our reservations asap. What else do we need to do? I keep reading about binders and spreadsheets. What is that all about?
I am a very organized person, I don't want to get there and things be craaaaazy.
Talk to me like I'm 5. Seriously, I'm lost.
Thanks for your help!

 

[jennyleettu]

I was just there!! My first suggestion would be decide when you are going and book your hotel. Then you will know exactly when you can and need to make your ressies.

I booked my hotel and ended up having about a week to decide on where and when we wanted out ressies to be, I spent the next week scouring the board to get all the info I needed.

The guys here are great and always willing to help! Have a great trip, and welcome to the DIS.

 

[DisneyMom81]

I just went to www.Disneyworld.com and made my own custom map of each park. My suggestion is to open www.disneyworld.com 2 times - one to go to the map page, and one to look up what you think you want to put on it. Good luck - the planning is the best part!!!!!!

 

[ntink]

make sure you are prepared for weather just in case. We were there in January of 2000 and needed heavy coats, hats & mittens. Not sure if that was just a fluke but certainly a memorable part of another fun trip.

 

[ktlm]

You need to figure out where you want to eat. You can make reservations (ADRs) 90 days in advance. If you are staying on Disney property, then once you are 90 days from the day you arrive you can make reservations for your entire trip (assuming you are staying 10 days or less). If you have any intention of taking your 4 year old DD to Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) in the castle at Magic Kingdom (MK)- which I would reccommend if she likes Princesses- you will need to book that immediately the minute reservations open on that 90th day out from the day you arrive. At CRT breakfast and lunch, you get a picture with Cinderella downstairs before you go to your table, and then 4 other Princesses come around and visit all the tables while you are eating upstairs. I have called on the 90th day and they only had 1 day and one time available for our entire trip. For any character meal and the most popular restaurants you want to make your ADRs as soon as possible as they do fill up especially for the better dining times. Allears.net is a great dining source. They have a list of all of the restaurants with their menus and prices. Now you can make reservations on-line or by phone.

 

[tigger51276]

I'm finally planning our first trip to Disney with our daughter (she'll be 4). I think we decided on January.
Can someone tell me what I need to do to plan? We are behind on getting reservations because we just decided to do January instead of the summer. I know we need to get our reservations asap. What else do we need to do? I keep reading about binders and spreadsheets. What is that all about?
I am a very organized person, I don't want to get there and things be craaaaazy.
Talk to me like I'm 5. Seriously, I'm lost.
Thanks for your help!

A great place to start is http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/. You can find the park hours there. If you are staying on property then you can also check out which parks have early and late Magic Hours. Those are great to take advantage of as there are so many fewer people during those times.
Also check out this link http://allears.net/din/dining.htm to check out the menus of all the restaurants on the property. This can help you decide where you'd like to eat and make your Advanced Dining Reservations. For your little one, if she is into princesses then I highly recommend the Cinderella Castle Breakfast. It is my daughter’s favorite place and asks to eat there every year. It can be really difficult to get so make sure you are on the phone exactly 90 days in advance to get a space. Also the Crystal Palace is a great character meal (Winnie the Pooh and friends) for kids and adults.
Because you are going in January you will want to be prepared for both cold and hot weather. I've been twice in January and the first time (1995) it was cold (40-60 degrees) the first week and then nice (high 70’s to mid 80’s) the second week. The second time I went (2008) it was pretty chilly most days (50-60’s) and even colder at night (I remember one night it was 35 degrees). Some of the days it was in the 70’s so it wasn’t terrible. Most days were able to get by with sweatshirts. You just never know what kind of weather you will get.
I wouldn’t worry too much about binders and spreadsheets unless you are the type of person who needs them. I just keep a small notebook (something that fits nicely in my purse) that I write down all my reservation numbers and dining times, plus I’ll usually write down park opening and closing times.
The thing I consider the most important thing is having a good stroller (unless you are planning to rent at the parks). If your daughter still naps, then definitely consider a stroller that reclines and has a good sun shade on it as the sun is very bright down there.
I also recommend bringing plastic baggies to the park with you. I’ve always found that at times my daughter is too excited to eat or wound up or simply not hungry, so I will put her food into baggies and carry it around with us for her to eat later (this way I don’t have to buy her another meal or an expensive snack).
I’ve gone several times with small kids so if you’d like any more tips or have questions, feel free to email me and I’ll give you any advice I can!
Most of all have a fantastic trip.

 

[shepherdgirl]

Thanks for your help!
I started looking at places to eat (Allears was a great resource, thanks!) and that was a bit overwhelming. We have a chart laid out and I think we have our selections made. Now we just have to nail down an exact date and make sure we're set to make the reservations!
You all have convinced us to do the Cinderella's Royal Table dinner. Dh and I went on our honeymoon and they gave us the "best table in the house". They weren't kidding. It was right next to the window overlooking the park. Beautiful. They gave us anything we wanted, seriously.
I know that dd will love it.
I am worried b/c with our honeymoon we overbooked our food, we constantly had reservations to eat somewhere. I don't want to do that, so we're doing a lot of counter service meals (we're doing the regular dining w/ 1 quick service, one regular and one snack).
We're not big breakfast eaters (no lectures, please). What do you recommend for that?
What about a bag to carry everything? We normally carry a backpack, but I can't imagine getting into that all the time.
For strollers, we all set. I got a GREAT deal on a Peg Perego at a resale shop. I paid $20 for it! It hardly looks used, but works great for us. Best stroller I've ever owned and it's super light!
Thanks again for all your help. Suddenly I feel like this isn't so much of a chore. I'm happy about planning the Disney vacation again. Yay!

 

[tigger51276]

Thanks for your help!
I started looking at places to eat (Allears was a great resource, thanks!) and that was a bit overwhelming. We have a chart laid out and I think we have our selections made. Now we just have to nail down an exact date and make sure we're set to make the reservations!
You all have convinced us to do the Cinderella's Royal Table dinner. Dh and I went on our honeymoon and they gave us the "best table in the house". They weren't kidding. It was right next to the window overlooking the park. Beautiful. They gave us anything we wanted, seriously.
I know that dd will love it.
I am worried b/c with our honeymoon we overbooked our food, we constantly had reservations to eat somewhere. I don't want to do that, so we're doing a lot of counter service meals (we're doing the regular dining w/ 1 quick service, one regular and one snack).
We're not big breakfast eaters (no lectures, please). What do you recommend for that?
What about a bag to carry everything? We normally carry a backpack, but I can't imagine getting into that all the time.
For strollers, we all set. I got a GREAT deal on a Peg Perego at a resale shop. I paid $20 for it! It hardly looks used, but works great for us. Best stroller I've ever owned and it's super light!
Thanks again for all your help. Suddenly I feel like this isn't so much of a chore. I'm happy about planning the Disney vacation again. Yay!

I'm not a big breakfast person either, and as I am a member of DVC I always have either a mini kitchenette or a full kitchen so I make myself toast or a bagel and coffee for breakfast and for my daughter I either make her toast or give her cereal. It's so much cheaper to do that in the room. I also agree that food can get so overwhelming at Disney especially on the dining plan. By the end of my last trip I was so sick of food I couldn't eat anything more. This time around I will be sharing my meals with my DD1 so hopefully that will help me out some. I have heard that you can exchange your sit down meals for counter service if you run out of counter service, but i'm not 100% sure on that.

 

[irene_dsc]

When planning out your ADR's, also think about which parks you want to visit on which days. Some of it will be based on whether you want to use EMH or avoid it (basically, if you will get up early enough to be there, it can be good, but otherwise, avoid it since it will be more crowded). Also, what kind of pacing for the trip do you want - start with the Magic Kingdom, or work your way up to it? Also, are you getting hoppers or not? If you aren't sure if you'll need them, remember you can add them while you are there. There are a couple of paid websites that predict crowd levels on various days - I'm blanking on the exact names right now. I didn't use one, but I did avoid EMH days.

For breakfast, we mainly ate it in our room - I ordered groceries from wegoshop.com and it was delivered to our resort. We ended up with extra snack credits, so we probably could've used more of them for breakfast items. Otoh, eating in our room was probably a lot quicker than anything else!

 

[MSSANDRA]

January is our favorite time of the year to go!!!
I plan well but in a very simple way!! No spread sheets or anything.

Do you plan to stay onsite? I highly encourage that at anytime but really so when hours are short in January.

Decide how much you can spend on a resort and go from there. We have stayed from value to deluxe and never been unhappy. Our favorite value is pop by far. In the winter we like Wilderness lodge if budget allows.

I decide where we are going to be each day. We stay from Sat-sat and almost always do 7day hopper passes. Once you get 5 or 6 days it cost very little to add a few more days and it gives you more flexability. I look at EMH when plannning out my days but we always do MK first!.

I then think about where we want to eat. Since we can hop, It is not a huge deal to go back to another park however for dinner.

We do the regular dinning plan. Unless your family members are big eaters, you can plan your credits to include a light breakfast. We often will share two conter service meals for three of us or a meal and a snack for breakfast. Resort food court breakfast platers are enought to share or just use a snack credit or two. We sometime take a box of oatmeal bars or something but do not really need them.

Try to get a variety of resturants. You may want to be heavy on the character meals however with a first trip and a young child.

Be flexable. Know you plan to go to a certain park, but beyound that and your ADR for dinner, know the plans can change. We never have ADR's for the first night and it has become fun to see what we can get when we get there!!!

RElax and have fun planning....

 

[figment3258]

You had asked about a bag to carry. I always bring a backpack. I have always had a stroller to put it under if i wanted but my old one just broke and I bought one that instead of going on both shoulders in goes across my body. Its nice Its easy to take on and off so when boarding a ride and can just rip it off and throw it in.

 

[ktlm]

Thanks for your help!
I
We're not big breakfast eaters (no lectures, please). What do you recommend for that?
What about a bag to carry everything? We normally carry a backpack, but I can't imagine getting into that all the time.

We aren't big breakfast eaters either and DD is not a morning person so getting up before the parks opened and doing a table service breakfast did not work for us (wound up doing a last minute Tusker house ADR scramble when I realized on her 1st trip that getting her to the park by 8:15 wasn't going to happen). DH went down to CS at the resort every morning and bought he and I each a Chocolate Croissant and DD pancakes and fruit. We ate in the room and then headed out to the parks as close to rope drop as we could get. It worked great for us. The Tusker House breakfast at AK was good, but for our second trip we didn't schedule any breakfasts at all. We'd rather be in the parks in the morning and pre-park opening is just too early for DD with just our 1 hour time change.

I carried a Vera Bradley hipster (extremely lightweight) and it was plenty for us. I had a change of clothes just thrown in the bottom of the stroller for DD (something that was no big deal if it got stolen).

Also, if for some reason you can't get CRT, Akershus at Epcot has a Princess meal. DD loves that one too.

 

[badblackpug]

Don't know where you are staying, but we always get a fridge in the room. (we are now in an ASMu suite, but my family keeps accidentally expanding! ) We do deluxe dining now (we like to eat!) but when we did regular dining we always ordered form www.gardengrocer.com. We ordered cereal, milk, bagels, cream cheese, juice boxes, and breakfast bars for in room breakfast. If you are not really breakfast eaters I would suggest the breakfast bars or granola bars. They are nice and portable and will give you something on your stomach until lunch.

We carry a backpack. We actually prefer having our hands free. You have a stroller, so if you don't want to carry it all the time, you can stow it under the stroller, but it is convenient for lines, where you can't take the stroller.

My advice is don't over plan. Personally, I don't think spreadsheets and touring plans are necessary, particularly in January. This is your daughter's 1st visit. Go at her pace. Let her see and explore and repeat the things she loves. Take time to smell the roses. Remember, if there are things you miss, WDW is not going anywhere!

 

[shepherdgirl]

Wow! Thank you all so much! Really, I'm feeling soooo much better about all this.
Right now, the resort is up in the air. We are definitely staying at a Disney resort, we just don't know which one. I'm sure you all can help!
We were going to be at CBR, but I priced Wilderness Lodge last night and it wasn't that bad. Then I thought about going to Pop and saving some serious money and letting her spend some of it at the park. The question for me is, will the extra money for the Deluxe/Moderate resort be worth it?
Dh and I stayed at the Contemporary on our honeymoon and LOVED it. Can't stay there this time, but don't want to be disappointed when staying somewhere else. Does that make sense?
We also think a value resort might allow her to have more "kid fun".
The bkfast ideas you all have are AWESOME! I didn't know you could have stuff delivered to your rooms! Going to talk to dh about it.
For our visit length, we are fortunate and are going for 10 days (that's days in the park). If we're going-we're going. Dh said he doesn't want to mess around with a short trip to WDW. He's a closet Disney nut. We are getting the park hopper passes, I won't go without them. Last time we used them frequently.
Thanks again for your help!

 

[tigger51276]

I would say if you have the money, skip Pop and go for at least a moderate. You probably don't necessarily need a deluxe, nobody probably needs a deluxe it's just nice to stay at them. At a moderate at least you will get a mini fridge and a coffee pot plus the room are bigger. Granted for the price you'd pay to stay at Pop or the All Stars you can probably rent points from someone on the DVC rent/trade board and stay at a DVC deluxe resorts for the same price and certainly less money than a moderate. Having been a dvc member and staying at the dvc properties for the last nine years, I've become spoiled and just can't give up the extras at those resorts. I did it once 2 years ago and I'm not sure I can do it again.
Aside from the All Stars Music and Movies, I've stayed at the Shades of Green (for the military), Old Key West, Villas at the Wilderness Lodge and Saratoga Springs. Next month I'll be staying at the Animal Kingdom Villas in a savannah view room. It is my splurge this trip. I haven't stayed at any of the moderates, but I've heard great things about them.

 

[ktlm]

I've stayed at POR, WL and AKL. I would stay at any of them again. I loved them all. On both our trips with DD (she was 2 and 3), we stayed at WL. It was a great place with a little one because of the boat to MK. DD absolutely loved WL too. I haven't stayed at a value so I can't tell you much about them, but I can't imagine anywhere at WDW wouldn't be good.

 

[badblackpug]

We have stayed at value, mod, and deluxe, and we have returned to the value. We are a large family and love the ASMu suite, but even before we expanded so much, my kids preferred the value. It is just more kid themed. At ASMu there are nightly Disney movies at the pool. We prefer to save the money on the room and spend it elsewhere. With only 2 small girls, I don't think space is that much of an issue for you. Though, I must admit, I didn't find the deluxe rooms to really all that much roomier. We prefer to spend the money elsewhere. We don't spend a huge amount of time at the resort. The differences are: no TS restaurant at the values, but that's okay, because we like variety, and would only eat there once, anyway. No room service. We don't use it anyway, would rather have a 2TS credit meal in a good restaurant or see a good show. The pools aren't as fancy (no slides) but my kids are happy for any pool in the winter! No balconies. But again, we don't spend that much time in the room. No great themed lobbies. But you can visit other hotels, and we do because we try lot's of different restaurants. Funny, the year we ponied up serious cash for AKL my son's comment was "Can't we stay at music?"