It's our first trip to Disney....

[2adirondack]

Does any one have good tips?
We have booked a 1 week stay at the All Star Music resort w meal/ snack plans, never ending drinks water parks, and more. Our children are 6,8,12, I am a disabled person. I have already booked a night with Cinderella and a few other dinner shows. Should I book every dinner, or can I walk in to other restaurants ?
It has been recommended to send ourselves water? But we have the never ending cups.
Do they confiscate your sun block at the airports Now? Can I bring a bag of Pistachios( my fav)? I haven't flown in twenty yrs. We have a two hr flight.
What kinds of unforseen expenses could we incur ?( I purchased Ins.)
Do we need bug spray, rain coats? Never been to Flor.
What is the tip rate? Ours is 18-20%. Recommend room tip at end of stay or daily?
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[bas71873]

Does any one have good tips?
We have booked a 1 week stay at the All Star Music resort w meal/ snack plans, never ending drinks water parks, and more. Our children are 6,8,12, I am a disabled person. I have already booked a night with Cinderella and a few other dinner shows. Should I book every dinner, or can I walk in to other restaurants ? When are you going? I've never tried just walking in for a TS dinner, but I would imagine during slower season, it's possible. If you going during the summer, I would recommend ressies.

It has been recommended to send ourselves water? But we have the never ending cups. This is probably for taking your own water the parks....we just bought a bottle of water per person on our first day and then kept them refilled and in the fridge in our room and carried them with us everday. If you are using the resort mugs, those are only for the use at the resorts. You can't get them refilled in the parks...

Do they confiscate your sun block at the airports Now? If it's over 3 oz and you want to carry it on they will. Put larger bottles in your checked bags.

Can I bring a bag of Pistachios( my fav)? I haven't flown in twenty yrs. We have a two hr flight. Yep.

What kinds of unforseen expenses could we incur ?( I purchased Ins.) Souveniers, the arcade at your resort....we did the dining plan too and therefore really didn't encounter any out of pocket expenses other than souveniers, tips and my DH at the arcade every night at Pop

Do we need bug spray, rain coats? Never been to Flor. Bug spray...yes if you are going in the summer, early fall. Rain coats....same....just get the cheapo ponchos at Target or Walmart

What is the tip rate? Ours is 18-20%. Recommend room tip at end of stay or daily? I left mousekeeping $3/day (for 3 people)

Any advice would be appreciated.

HAVE FUN!!!

 

[jack hannah bananah]

Does any one have good tips?
We have booked a 1 week stay at the All Star Music resort w meal/ snack plans, never ending drinks water parks, and more. Our children are 6,8,12, I am a disabled person. I have already booked a night with Cinderella and a few other dinner shows. Should I book every dinner, or can I walk in to other restaurants ?
It has been recommended to send ourselves water? But we have the never ending cups.
Do they confiscate your sun block at the airports Now? Can I bring a bag of Pistachios( my fav)? I haven't flown in twenty yrs. We have a two hr flight.
What kinds of unforseen expenses could we incur ?( I purchased Ins.)
Do we need bug spray, rain coats? Never been to Flor.
What is the tip rate? Ours is 18-20%. Recommend room tip at end of stay or daily?
Any advice would be appreciated.

1 - You can walk into some table service restaurants, but I would recommend getting something for everyday. One key to a successful WDW vacation in planning. You can always change/cancel reservations if you need to, but at least you have something. EX: we had a 3:00 reservation to Coral Reef. By 1:00 we were starving. We went to the restaurant; they had a table available. We then canceled our 3:00 reservation.

2 - I believe the "never ending" cups you are talking about are only for your resort. They do not work in the parks. You can send yourself water, or order from gardengrocer.com They will deliver any groceries directly to your room upon your arrival for a $12.00 delivery cost.

3 - They will confiscate anything over 3 oz. You can put a little sunblock in a 3 oz. container (buy at Walmart type store), then pack the rest. You can bring snacks, just not liquids.

4 - I have never needed bug spray (Dec., March, April). When are you going?
You can buy ponchos that roll up small at the Dollar Store. Usually if it rains it is in short spurts. We always pack them, never end up bringing them to the park. We have been rained on, but it is warm so we don't mind.

5 - 18-20% is about right. I believe they add this on automatically now - someone correct me if I am wrong.

6 - I always leave something at the end of the trip.

Any other questions, I would be happy to help.

 

[Taja]

Remember, the gratuity is not included for TS on the dining plan. That will be OOP--on CC, KTTW card or cash. Your choice.

Your refillable mugs are for use at your resort only. You certainly can fill them before leaving the resort for the day, but you won't be able to refill them in the parks. The water parks have a separate refillable mug program that might interest you if you plan to visit the water parks several times during your WDW stay. I haven't paid much attention to it, as I don't do water parks!

If you're going during the summer--or any time during hurricane season--take some cheap rain ponchos to use in case of a sudden storm. They can be discarded after the storm. Not good for the environment, but makes your vacation much easier. Trying to fit the ponchos into their little pouches after a storm isn't much fun!

If you're staying on WDW property, you probably won't need insect repellant. Unless you're spending time at one of the resort beaches or around the lakes/lagoons (not pool water--pools are fine). The insects seem be out in force in those areas at times.

Be sure to take plenty of sunscreen and apply it several times throughout the day. You can purchase it at WDW, but it's at least double what you would pay at home. Not a factor if you have a vehicle and go off property to WalMart, Target or CVS for supplies--pricing is similar at most of those stores throughout the country.

You can bring your pistachios on your flight, but be sure to bring a bag for the shells if they aren't already shelled! I always carry a couple of zip-top sandwich bags for trash accumulated during my flight (5 hours), as the flight attendants pick it up two or three times.

Recommend tipping Mousekeeping (housekeeping to the rest of the world) daily. You may have a different Mousekeeper each day. We usually tip $2 to $3 for two very neat adults; $5 for family. Others tip more or less--some not at all. It technically is not a "tipped" position at WDW, but I tend to view cleaning up after people as a rather thankless job--and I'm thankful someone is doing it! *LOL*

Be sure costmetics (including lip gloss), lotions, etc., are packed in your checked bag unless they fit in the 3-1-1 bag (maximum 3 oz. per item with all items easily contained in a closed, zip-top, 1-quart bag per person).

Above all, relax and enjoy!

 

[dana1003]

first of all-let me see CONGRATS!..i love hearing about families going for the first time..let me see if i can help...

dont know when your going but i have to agree w/the other poster-not planning is probably the worst thing you could do. (because of your family size.if it was just two people thats different)sit down with you family and pick out the parks that you guys want to see, make a sun-sat list and try to plan out where you think you'd like to go every day..once you kinda of have a plan then you can look at each park and decide what restaurants you think you might enjoy..obviously- any fast food you can just walk up but sit downs i would call and make reservations for every one. no on really knows how they're day is gonna go till you get there or when your gonna all be hungry but pick a time and restaurant anyway and then when your there if you change your mind maybe you can finagle the times. but not having anything would we worse.

water..we purchased a few water bottles at our hotel and then filled it up all week w/the water fountains. we were ok w/the water..then again we're from jersey so the water tasted fine.

dont need bug spray,,put the sunscreen in your checked luggage..then you dont hAVE to but it there.

meal plan is the best thing for you guys..i recommend it for anyone staying onsite..so good planning there. all star music is our favorite,,are you staying in one of their suites? it sleeps 6, has 2 bathrooms and a kitchen..anyway..if you have any more question go ahead and pm me..im not an expert but going twice with twin toddlers ,i think that puts me up there somewhere

 

[Elmo888]

A good book for planning is The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. It was really helpful for me.

I also wanted to agree with the others - if you are on the dining plan, make a reservation for a table service meal for each day. It can be difficult to get into restaurants without reservations.

And wear sunscreen.

Have a great trip!

 

[ntink]

Cups of ice water are free for the asking at all CS restaurants/

 

[Aliceacc]

If you're on the meal plan, you'll want to make lots of dining reservations-- we did one per day.

Here's some other newbie info:http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1715551

 

[LuvENDisney]

My family just came back from a trip last month. I am still in denial that we are back home.

I agree with the PPs replies. I would call and reserve something for each of the days that you are there. It is far easier to cancel reservations that to make them for the times and places that you want. We were on DDP. Don't forget that DDP does not include tip, so keep that in mind when are you budgeting. We mostly did early dinners. Yes, arrive at your dining places at least 15 minutes before your reservations. They try to sit you as soon as they can.

We ordered from gardengrocer.com and our groceries were there waiting for us. It was awesome. We ordered water that we brought with us to the parks each day. We also got some of those crystal light individual packets to add to the water. The fee is $12 and there is a minimum order.

I went to Target and bought a small bottle of sunblock from the $1 section that I just added more to. Also, for the ponchos, I got them from Target to for a $1 each. Bought them, but didn't use them. The rain in FL in May seemed manageable. Very sporadic.

Enjoy your vacation and welcome to the DIS Boards!!!!

 

[irene_dsc]

Other thoughts...

Check your reservations you have made for shows - are they one or two credits on the dining plan? I think most of the shows are two credits, which means you have to juggle to feed yourself the other days without running out of credits, unless you are on the Deluxe plan, which has a lot more credits.

Other potential expenses to think of:
parking at the airport or shuttle to airport
tipping people who carry bags (airport or resort)
alcoholic drinks aren't included in the dining plan, either. Also, appetizers aren't included in the basic plan.

Try to map out a rough itinerary at least, so you don't spend too much time arguing about where to go each day. Coordinate this with your meal reservations.

I also recommend the Unofficial Guide to WDW for lots of information, tho I liked using it along with Birnbaum's Official Guide, which is a lot more concise. The UG is a lot to wade through!

 

[pjynx]

I don't know much about the unforseen expenses, or if they take sunscreen at the airport, as ours will be in our checked luggage. But I can comment on a couple things:

Depending on how busy it is when you go, you will most likely need ADR's for any sit-down meal you want.

Bring rain ponchos. Again, depending on when you go, even if it rains, it rarely lasts long and it still stays warm enough to enjoy the parks. You can get them at the dollar store before you go. They are cheap. But that also means they are much thinner and rip more easily. The ones at disney are more expensive, but better quality. Although I'm guessing the disney ones are heavier material and in the summer, you might not want to wear heavy plastic in the FL heat.

As for tipping the housekeeping, I recommend tipping every day. If you tip only at the very end, the last housekeeper gets the whole tip. And who knows, that may be her first day in your room, while the person that had been there all week gets nothing. Tipping every day splits it fairly between anybody who cleaned your room.

Have fun on your first trip!