Im new to WDW HELP!!!

[mystic_path]

Hey Everyone!

Ok well I know Disneyland like the back of my hand, but now we are adventuring into WDW next May. Problem is, I dont know where to start as ive never been there. I figured I would start by asking how the hotel to park thing works, and which hotel you would recommend.


There will be 3 adults (me and my parents) going on this trip. We are not too picky about hotels. We just need a place to eat and sleep. How does WDW work? Please tell me if I am wrong but from what I gather, there are hotels surrounding different areas of WDW. What are some decent ones for decent prices. I dont want too much of a commute if possible. How do you get around from your hotel to WDW and epcot and all the other "lands" so to speak? (I know my lingo is probably bad, but like I said I am new to WDW)

Thanks in advance guys. I dont know what to ask or where to start. So I thought id ask my very knowledgeable Dis friends for some wonderful advice.

 

[korg]

1st thing i would recommend is buy the Burnbam (I think that's how it's spelt) Disneyworld book or/and the Unofficial Guide to WDW. I'd recommend the Unofficial Guide because IMO it's more honest plus it includes Universal Studios (both parks) and Sea world. But the official Burnbam book has a lot nicer photos and stuff ... I recommend buying and reading both. Disneyland is charming, i thought it was cute and magical ... Disneyworld is just as magical however it can be overwhelming!! ............. It's HUGE!!!!! (That's a good thing)

Right now, because of the bad economy Disney is offereing some nice package deals if you stay at their hotels. You may STILL save money by staying off property because THOSE hotels will also need to adjust their prices and eating off property is a lot cheaper (and often a lot better) than eating every meal in Disney BUT if you've never been to WDW I still highly suggest spending the extra and staying in a Disney resort hotel so you can get the FULL DISNEY EXPERIENCE! If you stay in one of their resorts you can use their transportation for everything as long as it's a Disney property destination and you can easily FILL a week in May and NEVER leave Disney property. ........... And BTW you STILL won't see and do everything! And if you stay in a Disney resort you can use their Magical Destination bus service (I THINK that's what it's called) too and from the Orlando airport so you don't even need to rent a car.

So read read read ... buy the books i mentioned, ask 1000 questions here (Try to be specific) and get ready for a WDW trip you'll never forget!!

 

[Alesia]

There are buses that go between the parks.

The first thing you want to decide is your budget.

Then you need to decide how long and where you want to stay. All of the WDW hotels are clean and safe. For more info, look here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/resorts/resortOverview?id=ResortOverviewPage

I would also recommend ordering the planning DVD here: https://www.disneyvacations.com/dv/...ferrer=wdw&hdrType=default&vcnType=wdw&bhcp=1

 

[mystic_path]

OMG thank you guys so much. But yes I will totally go get those book!!! Why didnt I think of that? I will go pick those up today. Thank you everyone so far for those great tips. They definately help!

 

[ChristaDeVil]

The "Unofficial Guides" will be so much help to you. My first time planning a Disney World vacation was in the Spring, and I'm currently planning another for next summer. This site, as well as Allears, will help a lot, also!!!!!

 

[TheWog]

Value Resorts and Moderate Resorts have access to the rooms from the outside, Deluxe Resorts have access to the rooms from inside hallways. Not sure if this makes a difference to either you or your parents. Disney knows how to move people, so you will not have to worry about getting from one place to another. Decide what you are willing to spend and then see what is available. with the new 4/3 deal you can get an upgraded resort sometimes for less than it would have cost for your original choice... i.e. price of a deluxe for less than what it would have cost to stay at a moderate or just utilize the savings for other things. Good luck planning and deciding.

 

[VAN]

I also recommend the Unofficial Guide as a good place to start.

When you have an idea of the dates, just go to waltdisneyworld.com and price out some packages. My personal opinion is NOT to go with a dining plan for a first visit. Again, my personal opinion, is that trying to get your monies' worth from the plan is kind of a pain in the *#@! You will find yourself planning your day around your meals rather than your meals around how you feel, the weather, etc.

But DO make your dining reservations as early as you can for those table service restaurants you want to try.

And DO plan your visit (since it will be a first) for at least 7 days. It is very difficult to be on the go for the entire time -- even the adults get cranky without a little "down-time". A visit to WDW can be put a very big mental and physical strain on the best of us. Sensory overload! So much to do. So much to see.

 

[PoohBearFriends]

I am also going for the first time as a Mom to WDW. We have gone fo rthe last 5 years to DLR. My parents are taking us to WDW and they have been to the resorts 4x and gave us some good info.

One thing that is new for next year is the quick dinning. We are not big sit down dinning fans and the quick dinning is cheaper and doesn't limit you by making reservations. We find meals when we need them are much better. We are going to take advantage of a few sit down meals but it will be cheaper than the full dinning option.

Going before the end of March also adds a 200$ gift card to each reservation along with the 4/3.

My parents like the moderate resorts and even know the building they like at Port Orleans.

 

[BradyBz12]

One thing that is new for next year is the quick dinning. We are going to take advantage of a few sit down meals but it will be cheaper than the full dinning option.

I don't think the savings with the QS plan are as much as they can be on the regular DDP - but that totally depends on each family and how you eat at Disney. Definitely take a look at how you would normally eat doing all QS meals to see if it really is going to be cheaper for you to use the dining plan.

We were contemplating it ourselves, but since we rarely order desserts at a QS and don't eat a lot of snacks most days, it turned out that it wasn't really a savings for us at all and averaged out to be just about what we'd pay out of pocket. The deciding factor for us was that it's not going to be good at every QS location, and we found that several of our favorites aren't on the list.

 

[Bay Hill]

If your a member of CAA, they do have tickets that are discounted. Be aware that you know the cost between a hopper and a one park ticket.

As ^^^ above, get the 2009 unofficial guide to WDW.

Mary Waring's site, Mousesavers.com is great, get the email in your box every 15 of the month if you sign up. Allears.net is great also, has links to all the restaurants menu in the parks and resorts.

WDW is 47 square miles, I would rent a car and see all that Orlando and Flordia has to offer, in case you get sick of the mouse. Just be careful is anyone offers you a "ticket", time share sales associates.

Remember, you are not going to see everything in your first visit.



USS MIDWAY (CV-41) 1988-1990

 

[mamamingo23]

I need help planning. I have al the reservations and meals planned but now I am so overwhelmed. What should I pack? What should we see first? How can I make this a wonderful experience without getting all stressed out? We will be there Dec. 20-26. I am very excited about going but very nervous I won't be prepared.

Help

 

[shocky5]

We experienced our first family trip to WDW in 2007 for a family of 5. Neither my husband and I had been since our high school days (WOW IT HAD CHANGED A LOT) and it was our kids first trip. I was very much in your shoes and overwhelmed by the choices.

1) Pick your dates

2) Pick a resort or off site hotel

3) Determine which parks you want to see 'the most' and allow this to help you decide which park tickets you need as well as if you want the leniency to move from park to park each day (park hopper pass)

4) How important is food to you? There are a lot of good comparisons on whether or not to get the dining plan on this site - read them, they will help you. It's a good idea to have an idea of special you places you may want to eat - again, the food choices are overwhelming at WDW. MAKE RESERVATIONS as soon as you are allowed to do so. Right now, they are only taking reservations for dates up to March 22, 2009, I believe. You can also ask others for their favorites - include whether or not you have children, their ages... lots of good advice out there.

5) Read, read, read anything and everything you can get your hands on. If you are short of time - get the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and/or Birnbaum's Guide - both are excellent and will help you with your decisions. Birnbaum's is shorter and summarized, the Unofficial Guide is huge but tells you anything and everything you would want to know. As I said, this is our second trip and I have rebought the updated versions of these two books - I make notes, and it eventually comes together. I still read anything and everything I can get my hands on.

6) Use allearsnet.com - will break down each resort in great detail for you as well as off site ideas and goes as far as to break down the different attractions at each of the parks. Anita's Answers will also undoubtedly answer questions for you that someone else has already asked.

7) make a packing list - I still have mine from 2007 and will be using it again for our trip next summer - we did not need a thing and while some of it we didn't use, I was still glad to have it as a 'just in case' because it eventually got used when we returned home.

and most importantly - we were advised to go with the preconception of knowing you are not going to be able to do everything possible unless you and go and stay for a while. We had 5 full days not including our 2 travel days and we definitely didn't get to see or do everything, but had a great time, were totally exhausted, and are adding an additional day to our stay this next time and I still know we won't see and do it all but can hit those things we missed our first trip. So, don't stress yourself out by trying to see and do everything - prioritize what's important to you and then anything else you fit in is just 'bonus.'

Have a great time!!!

 

[Smartacus1870]

One other tip--

If you stay at a Disney resort, you can enter one park early most mornings ( Extra magic Hour).

But we found it much less stressful to purposely go to another park at the rgular time. It meant a little more sleep for us, and ironically shorter lines for the first hour or so since many people were at the early-opening park.

The hardest thing to do at WDW is to relax because there is so much to see.

 

[noahdove]

Order your DVD and also the park maps that you can customize.. Then you can figure out the lay of the park and what you would like to see and do...By no means you will be able to do it all..enjoy your planning and the magic of it all. Come back here with any and all questions...there is someone on here that will be able to answer your questions...

 

[becfehr]

Honestly, if you are trying to go as cheap as possible.... the value resorts are your best bet! Most of the time, they turn out to be just as cheap as an 'outside of the park' hotel!!

I suggest, as others have said, to just go to the WDW site and start punching in dates at the different resorts and see what you can get.

Go value... I highly suggest! And I have done value and deluxe... it doesn't really matter, you will be at the parks all day... just sleeping there. Actually, we are doing both, doing a split stay next month.

 

[zulemara]

I planned a 10 day vacation last year and it was DBF's first trip.
1. First I picked the dates and resort
2. Then I picked the parks based on EMH schedule. I always picked the parks with late night EMH because we are late night people. As it turns out we didn't need them because we were in the parks early enough and got everything done that we wanted. I also picked the parks based one what nights spectromagic and fantasmic are held. For the time period you're there, they will be held every night I'm pretty sure, but for people going other times of the year, it's important to keep this in mind.
3. Then I picked restaurants based on our touring schedule and knowing when we would need a break. I'm very experienced at touring the parks so I know about what my breaking point is.
4. The most important thing is having a good concept of how long it takes to do things. Dining over xmas week is not going to be a fast process and neither is the transportation. It can easily take you an hour to leave MK, get on the monorail, change monorails, and get to EPCOT. Always make sure you allow plenty of time for travel
5. I do not recommend park hopping. If you plan your park days for the shows you want to see and the EMH, there shouldn't really be a need to park hop initially. Later in the trip if you need to hop for restaurants or whatever, then that's fine, but otherwise I wouldn't hop. We hardly did any hopping on our trip.
6. RELAX - build in time for relaxing and even better, take a whole day! Go mini golfing, have lunch at DTD, enjoy the Christmas sights and sounds. Our best days were when we weren't tied down and just did whatever we felt like doing.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it but I have traveled to WDW over 100 times and even taught a WDW survival guide at the community college for a few years so please ask away.
You could even PM me....

 

[PoohBearFriends]

We are more of a morning group. Is it better to go for the EMH morning days at the parks? I know it is open more hours for the night ones but are there a lot of people still there for evening?

 

[Tracyvp]

We're in the same boat!

This will be our first "real" trip to WDW. (We spent 2 days at Epcot last year before a cruise).

We're going Dec. 8-16 and since we're DVC members we'll be staying at Saratoga Springs. That's all that's already set in stone.

I'm completely overwhelmed by everything, even the vast number of choices in park admission tickets! I just don't know where to start. Then add in Mousefest and all that's going on there and I just start to hyperventilate! I'm a planner at heart, but I honestly don't even know how to begin.

How do you know which parks have EMH when? And people give contradictory advice: Is it better to avoid EMH and go to other parks because the crowds are there, or is it better to take advantage of the EMH. Then there's the question, Morning or Evening? Why would you do morning for one hour rather than evening for 3 hours?

I'm not even going to think about dining because I figure we're too late to make reservations for anything at this point anyway. We're more "budget" travelers, so table service restaurants are probably going to be out of our budget anyway. We would have loved to see one of the dinner shows but I figure that's out of the question at this late date anyway.

Can someone help me figure any of this out??

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

We're in the same boat!
I think if your a newbie the guide books can be just as overwhelming...

This will be our first "real" trip to WDW. (We spent 2 days at Epcot last year before a cruise).

We're going Dec. 8-16 and since we're DVC members we'll be staying at Saratoga Springs. That's all that's already set in stone. We arrive 12/8 as well!

I'm completely overwhelmed by everything, even the vast number of choices in park admission tickets! I just don't know where to start. Then add in Mousefest and all that's going on there and I just start to hyperventilate! I'm a planner at heart, but I honestly don't even know how to begin.
If this is your first trip I would forget about Mousefest with all the special holiday events going on. Tickets I would take into consideration if you will be going to water parks.

How do you know which parks have EMH when? And people give contradictory advice: Is it better to avoid EMH and go to other parks because the crowds are there, or is it better to take advantage of the EMH. Then there's the question, Morning or Evening? Why would you do morning for one hour rather than evening for 3 hours?
We have always found evening hours less crowded because the amount of small kids goes down. The EMH are great is you are just going in for 1 or 2 particular attractions. Also EMH are best for Kilamanjaro Safaris because the animals are most active.

I'm not even going to think about dining because I figure we're too late to make reservations for anything at this point anyway. We're more "budget" travelers, so table service restaurants are probably going to be out of our budget anyway. We would have loved to see one of the dinner shows but I figure that's out of the question at this late date anyway.
There would be some seatings available...the best thing would be to be flexible. If there is a restaurant you really want to try aim for the first lunch seating & that also makes it more economical.

Can someone help me figure any of this out??

I sent you a PM....Maria