I'm Overwhelmed! Where do I begin in planning our trip?

[Corie]

I've been to WDW two times in my life. Back in 1982 and in 1998.

My husband and I have decided to take our two kids to WDW in early
Dec. 2007. (My daughter will have just turned 6 yrs., my son will have
just turned 3 yrs.)

I am extremely overwhelmed!! I don't know where to start with
my planning! I'm confused about everything, esp. the dining plan.

Please help me! Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Corie

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

You'll have a great time. We just came back from our first trip in May with our two boys and LOVED it. I planned the whole thing in 4 months. Do you know where you're staying yet? We stayed at POFQ and I highly recommend it. It's peaceful, small, great pool for your kids' ages, great food court, etc.

Here's a link for the dining plan http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

 

[TinkerbellMama]

I can help you a little bit with the dining plan. Since your children will be between ages 3-9 at the time you travel, you will have to purchase the meal plan for both of them (if you decide to get the meal plan at all). This can be a good or a bad thing. I believe it's around $12-15 with tax per night of your stay for that age group, but the question is, will your kids eat that much food? Are you planning on eating at sit-down (table service) restaurants at least once per day? Character meals? If you're just planning on fast food (counter service) meals and/or your kids are very light eaters, the dining plan might not make sense for you. For example, let's say you pay a total of $30 per night of your stay for your 2 kids to eat. If they are little piggies like mine, or you plan to have at least one character meal, well, then it's paid for itself plus saved you some more on top of that! If they eat like birds and you were just figuring on buying them one meal to split at the walk-up counters, it would be a lot of money (and food) wasted. Does that make sense? Same goes for you and your husband. If you are very light eaters, you might want to check out some of the menus for the restaurants at www.allearsnet.com and figure out what your total would be. If you aren't going to eat $35-40 worth of food each day per person (adult), the meal plan isn't going to be worth it to you. With the basic meal plan you each get one sit-down meal (TS), one fast food meal (CS), and one snack per night of your stay. You can also purchase the refillable mugs at your resort and refill it each morning with coffee and each night with soda or whatever you wish to take back to your room. They make nice souvenirs and cost about $12 including the refills. If your kids aren't soda drinkers and neither of you drinks coffee, you might want to skip this, however...or only buy for those who will use them! Good luck with your planning!

 

[Corie]

Thank you, TinkerbellMama! You helped to clarify the
dining plan. This whole trip planning is so confusing!

By the way, I noticed that you live in Rhode Island. We just
moved to Rhode Island from Texas.

Corie

 

[TheDizMom]

I would start with research first and then start planning after you have some facts to work off of. I would start with Disney's website for the most current information. You don't have to necessarily book through them, but their information is good and current. I know they have a very good explanation on the dining plan which will include all the restaurants, if they take the plan, how many credits they take and what type of meal you would use. It is very helpful and will help you plan your meals. I also like their info on park tickets and the little virtual tours you can take of the resorts, and the amenities they have. I would also buy or check out a book about WDW. I am a big fan of the Birnbaum books, both the adult and kids version. It is really informative and the kids version is great because kids are involved in the writing. My kids love this book and it is particularly helpful in the ride department.

Once you have done some research you can then start to form opinions on what you want to do, where to stay, the dining plan, ME and all of that stuff. Pick your dates and book your room at your favorite hotel in your price range. Keep in mind it's location, in terms of proximity to the area you think you will do the most in. I love being on the MK monorail line myself, because it is so easy to get there and you don't have to do as many shuttle buses. These resorts are all deluxe resorts though that could be a factor. I am a firm believer of staying on site. I have done both and prefer this route with kids. I am also a huge fan of ME and the dining plan. I have used both twice and loved the conveniece of them and the savings you get by going with these options. Park tickets are a personal thing in terms of what you think you will want to do and if you want to try more then one park a day. I like the park hopper option so you can visit more then one park a day. If you don't think you would do this then skip it. Once you have made your ressies then make sure to think about what character meals and restaurants you want to go to and start making your Advanced Dinner Reservations (ADR's) 180 days out from your arrival. This ensures you get into the Table Service restaurants when you want to go.

Good luck with your vacation plans, and I hope you have fun making them. We always love this process because it amps up the excitement. It can be almost as fun as the trip itself.

 

[mom2alix]

The dining plan is 38.99 per adult and 10.99 per child per night of your stay that includes taxes and tips.

If you're planning to do character meals, which I think will be great with your kids ages, it is a really good deal. For example, Crystal Palace at MK has a character dinner featuring Pooh and Friends. The cost is 27.99 per adult and 12.99 per child plus tax and tip (drinks included). Figure 6.5% tax and an 18% tip and your looking at 34.85 per adult and $16.17 per child. You've already saved money on the dinner and you still have CS and snack credits to use that day!

Whether or not you use the DDP, try to plan a little bit about where you might want to eat for TS meals and make ADRs. The 180 day mark for making early Dec ADRs is rapidly approaching.

 

[ndgqccmiller]

I used allears, the disboards and The unofficial guide to Disney . Loved this book used it till it

I planned our first vacation in about 5 months. We had me dh, ds9, dd6, dd2
-We stayed at POP loved the disney feel great for us with young kids. Of course if money wasn't something to think about I would love to stay at a deluxe like the Contempory or Poly. But we are planning a trip for 2008 and are planning on two rooms at POP. Felt like it was very kid friendly

-Got the dining plan we paid 785.00 for the dining plan. We kept all out reciepts we would have paid 1250 or so. Totally worth it. We ate at so many great restuarants

-Great places for kids your age character meals Chef Mickeys and Liberty Tree, Coral Reef Epcot you view a beautiful aquiraium while you eat, we also ate at cinderellas castle but I think with two boys you can opt out for that.

We used disney transportation the whole time, it was nice and quick enough never had to wait along time. When we got there we got confused just looking for our hotel. Very easy hop on hop off

We also went to Chip and Dales campout at Fort Wilderness ( The good thing about it is it's free) Check w/ the your resort but we went over on the boat from MK it started at 7:00 they have a sing along, then chip and Dale and a campfire then they show a disney movie. We also purchased smores and the kids made smores on the campfire.

This is just a few of the fun things our family did. There are things we missed like Beauty and the Beast and Downtown Disney. But that's what the next trip is for. I promise you will have so much fun planning and of course more fun when your there.

At the end of the trip dh and kids gave me a tinkerbell(my fave) pin and told me thank you for all my hard work in planning the trip. They all had a magical time even dh who was not thrilled about going and ended up having as much fun as the rest of us! Long post sorry just get so excited about Disney trips and planning.

 

[HeatherC]

I would suggest getting the Birnbaum's Guide to Disney World. It gives a pretty good overview and has lots of nice pictures that the kids will enjoy looking at to get you excited.

Also...read all the way through www.mousesavers.com. It is a great resource for planning.

You will have an awesome time! Half the fun is in the planning!

Enjoy.
HeatherC

 

[Golden Rose]

Corie,

As a couple of other people have mentioned, if you can afford to stay in one of the WDW resorts, it really does make the trip more magical and more conveniant. (Plus, you can then purchase the dining plan, if it makes sense for your family.) I don't know your budget, but if you can splurge, I would suggest any of the monorail hotels if you think you'll spend a fair amount of time in MK, or any of the Epcot hotels if you think you're more likely to spend more time in Disney/MGM or Epcot. If your budget won't stretch that far (and we've certainly had years ours didn't), lots of the value and moderate resorts have really fun themes and are great for families.

We're currently planning two trips with my mom, me, my husband, and our two year old son. We're planning on staying at an Epcot resort for the first trip (Sept 2007) and a monorail resort for the second trip (May 2008.) We'll have the dining plan in Sept and so are waiting to see how it goes before we decide if we want it next May. We were going to stay in AKL for one of the trips, since our DS is an animal nut, but we've heard there is construction going on in the daytime, and we're worried about it interfering with his nap.

All the things we've heard about the dining plan make it sound like a really good deal as long as you book your meals in advance. If you decide to do it, go ahead and book yourselves at least one table service meal a day so that you can be sure you will get the opportunity to use all your TS credits. I've heard a few horror stories about people not being able to get into restaurants they wanted (or at all!) because so many people had the ADRs. We always book a couple of extra ones so that if we are too tired or just too far from our reservation, we can call an cancel it and still have enough TS meals reserved to use all our credits.

 

[maxtomsmom]

You did the right thing by coming to the Disboards. I would recommend you keep a folder or a binder with pocket folders you can label. As you collect info, you can sort them. Decide what restaurants or character meals you want to do as they book up pretty fast. You can always change them later, but once they're filled they are hard to get. You're going when WDW holds its holiday celebrations and they are definitely worth looking into. Since you have small children, you would probably want to Magic Kingdom 2 or 3 visits. Then you need to decide which theme park would best interest your family. You can plan around that. If you like EPCOT know that it will take at least 2 visits for the two lands.

Once you get a penciled itinerary, you should look into making meal reservations that work around your park visits. If you plan on visiting more than one park per day then get a park hopper. Sometimes you need only 1 and 1/2 days in a park (Like Disney Studios for us) and we then like to head to Magic Kingdom or EPCOT for the nighttime shows.

Even with a well-thought out planned trip, we end of changing things around when we get there. It is fine with us as we are bounded by routines and schedules at home and want to be more relaxed when we're away.

If you need anymore help, please continue to post questions. Most Dis fans love to help and help other people plan their trips.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Hi Corie!! Welcome Aboard!! Where in Texas did you live? We are about 1 1/2 hours west of Houston. Anyway... Def. yes, get the Birnbaum's guide! Love it. It really explains a lot of things you might not even think about asking before you leave. I always try to decide (after picking the dates) where we will stay. We like the Deluxes, because you are either on a monorail route, or can walk to Epcot. If you can afford it-going at value season helps-I would recommend that. Our favorite on the mono. route is the Contemporary.

You are far enough out for planning you can reserve your room and then call the airlines and get flight info. We use Continental, and the internet prices are sometimes $30 a seat cheaper than by phone. When we hit a low fair price, we book it and then I make sure the resort is exactly what we want and then finalize it and the DDP. Which, by the way, Tinkerbellmama explained that wonderfully!! It, for us was worth it. We eat a meal in a different country at the World Showcase almost every night, so that in itself, paid for the plan. And not having to figure up tax and tips is great!!

If you are paying your trip out or all at once on a credit card, you can wait a couple of months and then add your theme park tickets. Sometimes that makes it easier. They are always available!

Are you planning on going to Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party? It is a splurge, but if you can afford it, I would recommend it. It's a lot of fun!

And of course, there are past threads on here about people's best tips. I learned a lot that way! Maybe someone should start a new one!! Some of these are really budget friendly!! Let us know how your planning is going!!

 

[DJCR]

Hey, Guys,
Small world. From RI, too. I'm in process of renting DVC points for Animal Kingdom Villas for four nights in Feb. Excited. Look into DVC rental. We're getting way off rack rates, but it's still very pricey. Once in lifetime thing for us. Love this site!

 

[Mkrop]

Corie-I would recommennd buying the Unofficial Guide Book, best $15 I ever spent. It is overwhelming at first but if you break up into sections, you will be fine.

First decide where to stay read up on onsite vs offsite. I would recommend on but I know that is not for everyone.

Then get on the DIS boards here and ask further questions based on what you read. Planning is the key to a succesful Disney trip with flexibility built in when traveling with kids. You will not see it all so when your realize that you will be ok.

Dining Plan was well worth it. Lots of food so bring some plastic baggies for leftovers you can eat later. We were able to many more character meals than if we did OOP and this meant less standing in line to see characters which made DH a very happy camper!

Please ask away this group has a ton of info to provide! Have fun planning!

 

[Beth E. (NJ)]

I suggest reading the boards and asking lots of questions. Don't be shy about asking stuff -- 99% of the people here will be able to give you oodles of information with a heaping dose of kindness.

 

[Ellester]

I highly, highly recommend Tour Guide Mike. If you go over to the Theme Park Strategy page you can click on his banner for a $3 DIS discount. Totally worth the $17 and I've been to Disney umpteen times! Also second the recommendations on allearsnet.com and mousesavers.com. If there is something you want to know, you will most certainly find it there or on the DIS. Have fun planning!

 

[jamstew]

I just bought the 2007 Edition of the Unofficial Guide to WDW With Kids, and it's GREAT! I've only used the regular edition in the past because my kids were older, but this is wonderful if you're taking little ones. The Unofficial Guide touring plans have always worked extremely well for us.