Its great to be back - Oct 2014 ideas ??

[princessjodiebo]

Well its been a LONG time but finally after a lot of bribery and help from the family we are able to go back for 10 nights next year to belatedly celebrate ur DDs 16th birthday

As it will probably be the last big family holiday we asked her where she wanted to go and she said WDW (yay)

As we aren't there for the full 2 weeks we thought we would splash out a bit and at the moment its between animal kingdom lodge or Wilderness Lodge

Is it best to just book with the free dining offer or hang out for something better ?

I will add flights later either through WDTC or independently I just think that if I have something booked it may help me save

Also MNSSHP newbie - what do I expect ?? we are flying out wed 22 oct hopefully

Anyway enough about me hope all you disers are well looking forward to catching up with everyone again

 

[waitomo]

I have the same dilemma between AK or WL and I have teenagers too, as a mom-to-mom question, do your children protest two weeks out of school in October? My only time to go is either second half of August (nasty storm potential) or Christmas week (prices too high). Sigh....

 

[Mr Stoat]

Stayed at both, both very good indeed. AK rooms getting a little worn now and have quite dark furnishings, the Kidani has slightly lighter furnishing and are generaly bigger rooms.

Wilderness we in the Villas (DVC), very nicely themed, beautiful common area with a pacific Railroad theme. The geyser is a very nice touch by the pool and the quick service food is some of the best we have had.

My tuppence worth is if you are not splurging on a Savannah view then the Wilderness has more of a general wow factor, love the spring in the reception that flows out to a waterfall and down to the pools. Also the convenience of getting a relaxing boat to MK.

Last time we booked was in an early November and we got about a 25% discount and free dining so keep your eyes open and good luck!

 

[MrRomance]

I think of the 2 choices, I'd probably go with WL. Not that I think AK isn't great, but I'm not a fan of the restaurant options at AK but LOVE the restaurants at WL. AK is coming up cheaper, but WL would still win for me!

Personally, I believe that it's "better the deal you know" I wouldn't hold out in hopes of a better deal if I was happy with the current one. My opinion is that it balances itself out between the cheaper room rate and the dining plan. The prices of food at WDW is going up at a ridiculous rate (mainly because Disney want to push people toward the dining plan) so when you factor in the cost of your food, do you think it is likely that you'll save more than the cost of the food on the room rate? The answer to that probably depends on the size and ages in your party, but I'd be sure to get a rough idea of how much food will cost you and whether or not you are going to "save" the same amount on a cheaper room rate later on.

You also have the added issue of the $200 gift card with the current offer to factor in.

As for MNSSHP, we have never done it before, but we have tickets for this October. Earlier dates and weekdays are cheaper and the closer you get to Halloween itself the more expensive it becomes. Also, book early when the dates come out because some party dates sell out PDQ.

For your flights, my advice is to book those in the BA or Virgin sale in December. We did that this year and it worked out a lot cheaper for us. It just so happens that the late October flights are released in Late Nov and the BA sale happened to be a week or so later.

 

[Brave5]

as a mum of two teens this was a dilemma for us as well and we decided on the last two weeks of October 2014 (one being the Oct half term) so they will only be missing one week. I looked at flight prices last May for this Oct and they were £2450 for 5 with US Air - so as long as they are about the same we thought overall a good deal.