More WDW planning questions...

[tngal]

You all were so helpful last time in answering all my questions I had before...So..I hope you don't mind that I have a few more

I have gotten more "in depth" with my disney planning....we have narrowed down some different dates since the ones before were not in a good time frame. Would the 3rd wk in May be an extremely bad tme? If it is I guess I will have to wait later in 2010 since I will already be taking the kids out of school for 4 days for an DCL cruise this Dec.

If we stick with these dates, When would be the earliest I could book our room, tickets etc and pay the deposit until we get the check we're waiting on to pay it off?

My Dh's employer offers many benefits to their employees, one of those being "corporate" rates for WDW tickets. If I purchase the tickets through his employers offer, can I still book the Dining plan online?

two of the hotels we're looking at is Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Poly...which would you recommend/prefer?

I'm not sure if we should purchase the Park hopper option. It takes me a while to get around due to joint and other health issues, but I think we could manage one park per day..I don't know about more than that. We are planning a 5-6 day stay.


I know thats a lot of questions..I'm sorry if its too much...Thank you for taking the time to read and answer..I sincerely appreciate it!!

Lisa

 

[blum74]

Hands down I'd choose the Polynesian. The AKL is kind of out of the way and you have to rely on bus service to go anywhere. The Poly is on the monorail and that is soooo wonderful. I don't have one negative thing to say about the Poly.

On my last trip (May 3rd) we went to one dinner at the AKL and we felt like it took us forever to get there from the Poly and we didn't care for the feeling of the AKL.

I always get hopper passes b/c we'll go to a park during the day and maybe go to another park for dinner. Or go to one park during the day and back to the MK after dinner. If you stay at the Poly it is so easy and quick to go back into the MK after dinner for a few rides or a parade.

 

[tngal]

Thank you for your reply! That was one major concern I had about AKL was the "distance" . The Poly looks great,and I do like the mono being an option now that I think about it.
Now I just wonder how early I can book for 2010? I want to buy tickets somewhere else, but when I use the "no ticket" option on the booking on the site, there is no option just to purchase ddp. *sigh*


Lisa

 

[clanmcculloch]

My Dh's employer offers many benefits to their employees, one of those being "corporate" rates for WDW tickets. If I purchase the tickets through his employers offer, can I still book the Dining plan online?

You have to buy at least a one day ticket in order to get the dining plan. Take some time to think through the way you want to eat when there and which restaurants/meals you want for your table service meals and then run some estimated numbers to see if you'd get a better deal with the corporate tickets and paying OOP for meals vs buying the tickets with your room and buying the dining plan (whichever one best fits your eating style of course).

I'm not sure if we should purchase the Park hopper option. It takes me a while to get around due to joint and other health issues, but I think we could manage one park per day..I don't know about more than that. We are planning a 5-6 day stay.

We typically don't get park hoppers because our family can't handle long park days due to one child being autistic. One time we did get the hoppers so that we wouldn't be restricted to the same park where we had dinner reservations, but it was much more cost effective AND time effective to just plan which days we'd go to which park based on our reservations making the hoppers a waste. Having to switch from one park to another meant less time at the park and lots of time on busses which wasn't fun for anybody. If we had a reservation at a resort we would go to a park near the resort. Hopping just isn't for us because of the stamina (physical and emotional) issues. Only you can decide if it's something you'll use or not.

If you get the corporate passes, find out if you can upgrade them to hoppers once your at the park or not. Typically, passes can be upgraded for $50/pp + tax for the length of the ticket and can be upgraded at any time during your stay. If you can upgrade these passes at the parks or resorts then you can always start with base tickets and upgrade if you find that you do want the hoppers. No need to do anything now (besides make sure it's an option for the corporate passes).

 

[tngal]

You have to buy at least a one day ticket in order to get the dining plan. Take some time to think through the way you want to eat when there and which restaurants/meals you want for your table service meals and then run some estimated numbers to see if you'd get a better deal with the corporate tickets and paying OOP for meals vs buying the tickets with your room and buying the dining plan (whichever one best fits your eating style of course).



We typically don't get park hoppers because our family can't handle long park days due to one child being autistic. One time we did get the hoppers so that we wouldn't be restricted to the same park where we had dinner reservations, but it was much more cost effective AND time effective to just plan which days we'd go to which park based on our reservations making the hoppers a waste. Having to switch from one park to another meant less time at the park and lots of time on busses which wasn't fun for anybody. If we had a reservation at a resort we would go to a park near the resort. Hopping just isn't for us because of the stamina (physical and emotional) issues. Only you can decide if it's something you'll use or not.

If you get the corporate passes, find out if you can upgrade them to hoppers once your at the park or not. Typically, passes can be upgraded for $50/pp + tax for the length of the ticket and can be upgraded at any time during your stay. If you can upgrade these passes at the parks or resorts then you can always start with base tickets and upgrade if you find that you do want the hoppers. No need to do anything now (besides make sure it's an option for the corporate passes).

Thank you so much for your help. I have been running some numbers, but its been sorta hard since our trip is not until next year. I have a dd that is mildly autistic as well, and was wondering if more than one park per day would be overwhelming for her....I think between her and my joint/health issues one park per day would be sufficient lol.

thanks again!!

Lisa

 

[clanmcculloch]

Thank you so much for your help. I have been running some numbers, but its been sorta hard since our trip is not until next year. I have a dd that is mildly autistic as well, and was wondering if more than one park per day would be overwhelming for her....I think between her and my joint/health issues one park per day would be sufficient lol.

thanks again!!

Lisa

Hop on over to the disABILITIES board and read through some of the stickies over there. You'll find all sorts of info on WDW with autism.

I'd tell you what would work best for travelling with an ASD child, but as the saying goes, if you've met one ASD child, you've met one ASD child. No two are the same. A friend I met through ASD parenting boards and I met up with our families at WDW last February and they do the commando style park hopping, going from mid-morning to close but there's no way we could even consider that. Her 2 Aspies are totally fine and actually enjoy doing the commando style days. For them, the hoppers made plenty of sense. Unfortunately, we really couldn't do the parks together because of the difference in the needs of our kids, even though all 3 are Aspies (my youngest I suspect may be an Aspie but she's much harder to diagnose because she tries very hard to hide any and all difficulties). We met up at the pool and in the food court at the resort.

IMO, the most important part of going with a child on the spectrum is knowing your child's triggers and limitations. The GAC has been a lifesaver for us but even with that, we still have to know what we have to avoid and how to prepare our little Aspie. She is extremely high functioning but she definitely has her limitations. Be flexible. You can never be fully prepared for all possible things that could set off your child so if you need to leave a line or even a park (or go to the first aid station or get food or whatever works for your child) to decompress then do so. I was shocked on our last trip that our daughter actually got set off by Turtle Talk with Crush because she didn't get called on to talk. It handn't occurred to me to prepare her for this possibility because we had been there before, but that particular day it let to a tantrum/meltdown so we immediately headed to the busses to go back to the hotel.

I think I'd for now book a room only reservation to lock in a room (if you can book this early; I really don't know) and then watch for specials. When specials are released, you can then decide if you want to change to a package based on running the numbers at that time. I'm assuming you don't have to buy the corporate tickets now so just keep your options as open as possible.