Hey, everyone!! Just got back from WDW last week, and I've been so busy I haven't been able to write this for you all.
Here are my tips:
#1 -- Take some breaks!! We had so many things to do in 7 days that we felt we didn't have time to put in one or two hour breaks every day. We had planned on it before, but ended up taking breaks only on two days. There was nothing more pleasant than walking down to the beach at CBR and reading in the hammock for an hour or so. You felt like you were on another planet!!
#2 -- Be careful about eating a late dinner at the resorts!! We went from the Main Street Electrical Parade at MK, took a ferry over to the Wilderness Lodge, and ate a fantastic dinner over at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Unfortunately, by the time we got out of there, all the parks had closed. We ended up having to take a cab back to CBR at 10pm at night, otherwise it would have taken us forever to get busses to the Central Ticket Center, Downtown Disney, and finally CBR. And watch out for the cab drivers -- the guy we got took us the long way back to CBR and it ended up costing us $15 for a short drive back!!
#3 -- Don't rent a car!! We ended up having to upgrade to a larger car to fit all our luggage in, costing the three of us $180 more!! We only used the car to go shopping at Downtown Disney, two stops at the grocery store, and one day at Universal. We could have taken taxis or shuttles or the Disney busses instead, and paid a lot less.
#4 -- At the end of the day, you'll be too tired to drive outside of WDW to eat (if you have a car rental). The Downtown Disney restaurants do have reasonable prices on some of their items, and it was only 5 minutes away from our resort. (You wouldn't believe how large WDW is!! It's as large as a city, and takes awhile to get out of.)
#5 -- Do plan on eating a couple of fun Disney meals!! We ate at more fun restaurants than we'd planned on, but we had a blast!! We at at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, Whispering Canyon Cafe, and the Crystal Palace. All of them are highly interactive, and if you don't mind being singled out in front of the whole room, it's sooo much fun!!
#6 -- Definitely use Fastpass and get to the parks early!! We used Fastpass a couple of times at it was so nice!! Getting to the parks at opening time or just after and then going directly to the most popular rides got us on them right away!!
#7 -- Do buy an E-Ride Night Ticket --- We rode all the E-Ride night rides once. Splash Mountain was twice, and Buzz Lightyear three times in a row!! We would have been on more had Pirates of the Caribbean not broken down three times while we rode it. Also, since the parks closed early, it gave us a chance to get in more rides.
#8 -- Ride the rides during night-time park events!! The first night we were there, we only had 3 hours at the Magic Kingdom. As we were going to watch the fireworks on another night, we were able to get on every ride in Tomorrowland except for Space Mountain in an hour while everyone else watched the fireworks!! It was like we had Tomorrowland to ourselves.
#9 -- Don't miss ANY of the Disney Night Time activities -- plan all of them into your schedule, if possible. Don't miss --- Main Street Electrical Parade (sit on the corner in Liberty Square), Illuminations and Tapestry of Nations (sit by the fence by the Germany boat loading dock --- on the left hand side), Fantasmic (even mid-way up you can feel the water spray), and the Magic Kingdom Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks (see Tinkerbell fly down from the Castle).
#10 -- If staying at CBR, pick Jamaica building #45 or #46 (we were in room 4612-- a corner standard room that gave us a courtyard view from our second window). It was very quiet, we could see Illuminations every night from the parking lot easily (and hear the music for it), you're steps away from the bridge to OPR, the beach, and the pool, and very close to the bus stop. The best thing about Jamaica is that you're the first stop for all busses (you get a seat every time) and the first to be let off when you come back.
I'll probably think of more tips later, those are just my immediate ones.
Smoore
Disneyland 1977--
(3 yrs old)
Disneyland 1978--
(4 yrs old)
WDW 1984 -- Contemporary
(10 yrs old)
WDW 1989 -- off site
(15 years old)
WDW 1990 -- off site
(16 years old)
Disneyland 1993, 1994,
1995, 1996, 1997
(the college years)
WDW Nov. 5 to 11, 2000 --
Caribbean Beach Resort
(26 years old)
Here are my tips:
#1 -- Take some breaks!! We had so many things to do in 7 days that we felt we didn't have time to put in one or two hour breaks every day. We had planned on it before, but ended up taking breaks only on two days. There was nothing more pleasant than walking down to the beach at CBR and reading in the hammock for an hour or so. You felt like you were on another planet!!
#2 -- Be careful about eating a late dinner at the resorts!! We went from the Main Street Electrical Parade at MK, took a ferry over to the Wilderness Lodge, and ate a fantastic dinner over at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Unfortunately, by the time we got out of there, all the parks had closed. We ended up having to take a cab back to CBR at 10pm at night, otherwise it would have taken us forever to get busses to the Central Ticket Center, Downtown Disney, and finally CBR. And watch out for the cab drivers -- the guy we got took us the long way back to CBR and it ended up costing us $15 for a short drive back!!
#3 -- Don't rent a car!! We ended up having to upgrade to a larger car to fit all our luggage in, costing the three of us $180 more!! We only used the car to go shopping at Downtown Disney, two stops at the grocery store, and one day at Universal. We could have taken taxis or shuttles or the Disney busses instead, and paid a lot less.
#4 -- At the end of the day, you'll be too tired to drive outside of WDW to eat (if you have a car rental). The Downtown Disney restaurants do have reasonable prices on some of their items, and it was only 5 minutes away from our resort. (You wouldn't believe how large WDW is!! It's as large as a city, and takes awhile to get out of.)
#5 -- Do plan on eating a couple of fun Disney meals!! We ate at more fun restaurants than we'd planned on, but we had a blast!! We at at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, Whispering Canyon Cafe, and the Crystal Palace. All of them are highly interactive, and if you don't mind being singled out in front of the whole room, it's sooo much fun!!
#6 -- Definitely use Fastpass and get to the parks early!! We used Fastpass a couple of times at it was so nice!! Getting to the parks at opening time or just after and then going directly to the most popular rides got us on them right away!!
#7 -- Do buy an E-Ride Night Ticket --- We rode all the E-Ride night rides once. Splash Mountain was twice, and Buzz Lightyear three times in a row!! We would have been on more had Pirates of the Caribbean not broken down three times while we rode it. Also, since the parks closed early, it gave us a chance to get in more rides.
#8 -- Ride the rides during night-time park events!! The first night we were there, we only had 3 hours at the Magic Kingdom. As we were going to watch the fireworks on another night, we were able to get on every ride in Tomorrowland except for Space Mountain in an hour while everyone else watched the fireworks!! It was like we had Tomorrowland to ourselves.
#9 -- Don't miss ANY of the Disney Night Time activities -- plan all of them into your schedule, if possible. Don't miss --- Main Street Electrical Parade (sit on the corner in Liberty Square), Illuminations and Tapestry of Nations (sit by the fence by the Germany boat loading dock --- on the left hand side), Fantasmic (even mid-way up you can feel the water spray), and the Magic Kingdom Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks (see Tinkerbell fly down from the Castle).
#10 -- If staying at CBR, pick Jamaica building #45 or #46 (we were in room 4612-- a corner standard room that gave us a courtyard view from our second window). It was very quiet, we could see Illuminations every night from the parking lot easily (and hear the music for it), you're steps away from the bridge to OPR, the beach, and the pool, and very close to the bus stop. The best thing about Jamaica is that you're the first stop for all busses (you get a seat every time) and the first to be let off when you come back.
I'll probably think of more tips later, those are just my immediate ones.
Smoore
Disneyland 1977--
(3 yrs old)
Disneyland 1978--
(4 yrs old)
WDW 1984 -- Contemporary
(10 yrs old)
WDW 1989 -- off site
(15 years old)
WDW 1990 -- off site
(16 years old)
Disneyland 1993, 1994,
1995, 1996, 1997
(the college years)
WDW Nov. 5 to 11, 2000 --
Caribbean Beach Resort
(26 years old)
