Need Help

[bellababee]

I am working on planning a trip for 2006. My husband has never been to Disney although I have been several times just not recently. I have never been to Disney Quest, Pleasure Island, Animal Kingdom or the water parks. I am trying to gather information for our trip. We will be leaving our daughter with my mother (she will be just turning three and we plan to take a family trip later). We probably will want to go in May.

I have stayed in All Star Music and although I don't really care if we stay at a resort I think my husband would enjoy it! He really wants to see Animal Kingdom...

We enjoy to eat nice meals. We will want romance on the trip since this is our only trip without the baby. Maybe massages and horse drawn carriage nights? I just really need help because I don't have a clue where to start

~Stephanie

 

[jekjones1558]

Welcome to the DIS boards, Stephanie! If I were you I would order the free vacation planning kit. It will get you all excited and give lots of info. Good luck! Here's the link:
WDW vacation planning kit

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Hi bellababee and welcome to the DIS!

Planning a WDW trip for the first time can be overwhelming, so I understand how you can have a lot of questions. The very first thing you need to do is to decide when you will be going in 2006 and how long you plan to stay.

Then you'll want to make a budget for the trip. What is the maximum you're willing to spend? I usually start at that number and work my way down. Then the real fun begins (at least for me) ...bargain hunting!

Once you have your dates and budget set, you will need to decide the following:

• Where will you stay? - onsite or offsite? value, moderate or deluxe? Which value/moderate/deluxe?
• How will you arrive? - Air? Train? Car? Bus? Unless you drive your own car to WDW, you will need ground transportation to your hotel from wherever you arrive in Orlando. Will you rent a car? Take a cab? a limo? a Mears bus? or use LYNX public transportation?
• What kind of tickets will you need? - Will you go to the parks everyday? Do you want to hop from park to park within a day? How about Disney Quest? Pleasure Island? waterparks? Do you want passes that won't expire or ones that will expire 14 days after the first day of use? All of these factors will affect the price of your passes.
• What are your dining plans? - Do you want a sitdown dinner every night? Character meals? Will you grab a fast breakfast in your room or will you do a buffet breakfast offsite? Are you interested in counterservice meals? Will you share meals? Will you bring your own snacks or will you just snack around the parks?
• Are you a souvenir shopper? - Will you buy lots of nice remembrances of your trip like gold charms and limited edition statues? Or are you more the t-shirt and trading pin type? A souvenir budget can be quite large for a true shopping addict. And since every attraction empties into a store, it can be hard to resist the urge.

Those will be your major expenses. There will be other incidentals (parking, tolls, tips, etc) but they can be factored in later. Once you have an idea of how far your money will go, you'll have a better idea of what you can do and where you can stay. Keep posting your questions and we'll all try to help!

 

[PrincessCandaceMarie]

Hello and Welcome ~

Be sure to order the vacation planning video/dvd, that'll help you out and you'll save tons of time!

And be sure to have a few cocktails at PI, you'll love it and it's fun to see the fireworks and stuff at midnight....!!!

And take the advice of all of us here, ask, post, and have fun!