Never been to Disneyworld!

[DreamtheImpossible]

I live in Washington state and have made many frequent trips to Disneyland, but I've never been DW! I'm not quite sure how to even start planning a trip. My fiance and I would like to make a trip, likely 5-7 days to try and see it all.

Any tips, advice? Where to eat, where to stay..We're looking at the Port Orleans French Quarter.

 

[Ktharee]

I live in Washington state and have made many frequent trips to Disneyland, but I've never been DW! I'm not quite sure how to even start planning a trip. My fiance and I would like to make a trip, likely 5-7 days to try and see it all.

Any tips, advice? Where to eat, where to stay..We're looking at the Port Orleans French Quarter.

First off, forget about trying to "see it all", I've been over 10 times and still haven't come close.

POFQ is a great little resort...is there a reason why you are considering this one? If you need a smaller resort, this is ideal. If you like a more adult themed resort in the moderate range, take a look at Coronado Springs.

You are definitely in the right place for tips/info. Since we don't know much about you and your fiance, it would be hard to make suggestions just yet.

Do you know what time of year you are thinking of going? Are you both into food or flowers? Star wars? There are times that WDW has special events going on...let's start with that.

 

[DreamtheImpossible]

Thanks so much! I forgot to add a little about us, which I imagine would be very helpful.

We're both 21, no children! (Except our puppy, she's our baby) We're not sure quite WHEN to go, I was thinking sometime early March. We're huge nerds, so Star Wars is big for us. In Disneyland/DCA, Innoventions and California Screamin' are my fiance's favorites. Myself, I like tamer rides such as SM and Big Thunder. (Not one for inversions, but I've never been on a roller coaster with one either!)

NOFQ just sounded and looked nice, we need something with convienence since we would be without a car.

 

[I Love Pluto]

All Disney resorts are awesome! You just can't make a mistake!

First, decide a price point. This will tell you if you should stay at a value, mod, or deluxe. Stay at the resort that has the theming you like.

Since you have been to Disneyland, you should have no trouble with the attractions at MK.
I would then go to Hollywood Studios. It's a totally different feel than MK. Be sure to get a times guide on the way in for the vaious shows. Don't miss Fantasmic!
Third, I would go to Epcot. This park has its own personality. It is actually a magical Disney feeling to visit each country. It sometimes does make you feel that you are there.
Lastly, if you're an animal lover at all - don't miss Animal Kingdom. Again, grab a times guide. There are a lot of shows to see. Don't miss the afternoon Jammin' Jungle Parade. It is really cute!

WDW is large, but you will be able to do a lot if you rely on the Times Guides in each park.

Have a great vacation! You will LOVE WDW!!!!!

 

[eliza61]

I live in Washington state and have made many frequent trips to Disneyland, but I've never been DW! I'm not quite sure how to even start planning a trip. My fiance and I would like to make a trip, likely 5-7 days to try and see it all.

Any tips, advice? Where to eat, where to stay..We're looking at the Port Orleans French Quarter.

sssh, I'm going to recommend another site, don't tell on me.

Go over to deb willis site "www.allears.net". It has fabulous pictures of the resorts and the amenities. It also has a rate and review board that can give you a little feedback. sort of like tripadvisors but for disney.

 

[DreamtheImpossible]

Thank you so much for everyone's advice! I have a feeling my Fiance will fall in love with Epcot, while I will likely remain true to the MK. ;D

What about dining? Does anyone have any favorite restaraunts? (And maybe some place for a quiet, romantic dinner?)

 

[Taja]

Welcome!

You definitely won't see everything in 5 to 7 days--the longer the better, though! But you and your DF can select the attractions most important to both of you and work in as many other attractions as possible during your visit.

I haven't stayed at POFQ, but I love where it is located. There is a boat to DTD (Downtown Disney), which offers additional shopping and dining options. It's in the EPCOT area, so EPCOT and DHS are the closes parks to the resort. WDW provides bus transportation from POR and POFQ to all of the parks and water parks, as well as the boat to DTD. There are other transportation options at WDW, depending on the level of resort (obviously, deluxe resorts have the most deluxe transportation, such as monorail and/or water craft).

If you are flying into MCO, you can schedule transportation to and from your resort on the days of your flights via DME (Disney Magical Express). You don't need to rent a car unless you really want to! It's available at N/C to WDW guests staying at Disney-owned resorts.

WDW is HUGE compared to DLR/CA. It's 47 square miles. Not all of it is developed (and a great deal of it probably never will be). There are four theme parks, two water parks, two mini-golf courses, several 18-hole golf courses, about 20 or so resorts and a bunch of things that aren't even touching my brain at the moment!

As you know from DLR/CA, dining on site can be a bit pricey. It's possible to use a grocery service (most seem to prefer garden grocer or wegoshop.com) and have some basics delivered to your resort. Not as inexpensive as shopping yourself (there is a service fee and gratuity involved--varies by service company), but it can save a bit of money over WDW prices for things you know you'll want.

Best time of year to visit WDW? Everyone has different ideas. My favourite tends to be early to mid December. I've also visited in early March (mostly warm, but mornings and evenings can be nippy!), as well as August, September and October. If you aren't a fan of heat and humidity, it might be a good idea to avoid August and most of September. October was fairly comfortable (end of September through October 10th or so, if I remember correctly), but still very warm and humid.

You're going to have so much fun planning--and even more fun visiting WDW!

 

[DisGirl1971]

Thank you so much for everyone's advice! I have a feeling my Fiance will fall in love with Epcot, while I will likely remain true to the MK. ;D

What about dining? Does anyone have any favorite restaraunts? (And maybe some place for a quiet, romantic dinner?)

We like to stay on WDW property. We usually drive and never use our car the entire time we are there. We have flown before and we still didn't need a rental car. We like the Disney transportation system and if you are flying you can use the free Magical Express service from the airport to your Disney resort.

The slowest times to visit Walt Disney World and the weeks with the lowest resort rates are at the end of January into the first week of February, first 2 weeks of May, last week of August through the end of September, last 2 weeks of October, first 2 weeks of November and mid December between December 10 and 19. Also, For the last few years Disney has had a Free Dining promo during most of those dates. We now plan all of our yearly trips around the Free Dining Promos. With a free dining discount your family can save a huge amount of money at a value or a moderate resort. A room discount is better at a Deluxe resort - if the discount is at least 40%, if the room discount is less, then a free dining discount is better. Here's a link to everything about Free Dining discounts and promos:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2771101

All of those dates are good crowd times to go, but they will be opening a huge new Fantasyland expansion in the fall, so you may want to wait until October or November to go, which will have good rates, discounts and crowd levels.

I highly recommend the All-Star Movies Resort. They will be opening a new value resort called the Art of Animation and it will have Family Suites and will be themed with Nemo, Lion King and Cars - we are really excited about this new resort. Port Orleans is our favorite moderate resort and The Polynesian is our favorite deluxe resort. The website www.allearsnet.com has great pictures and reviews of all the Disney resorts.

We really like the Disney Dining Plan, the regular plan with 1 Table Service/Character Meal, 1 Counter Service/Fast Food Meal and 1 Snack per person per day. I find the Quick Service Plan a wash and the one time we did the Deluxe Plan but we felt like it took up too much time and I would not recommend it for someone new to Disney. It's hard enough to navigate everything in WDW the first time you go without spending 6 or more hours per day getting to an from restaurants and eating. Our favorite restauarants are:

Ohana - In my opinion, the best restaurant in all of Disney World
Kona
Chef Mickey's
Crystal Palace
Liberty Tree Tavern
Whispering Canyon
Coral Reef
LeCellier
Boma
Sci-Fi Drive In
Mama Melrose's

You really don't need the hopper ticket option added to your base tickets because you are new to touring Disney World, you really won't miss it. I would recommend 5 to 6 park days for a first visit - 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day Ak and 1 day DHS. If you are wanting to visit one of the Water Parks, it's cheaper to just pay out of pocket for one of Water Parks.

I do recommend The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and their companion website, www.touringplans.com. I use their crowd/best days calendar to plan all our park days and then once I know which park we will be in on which days I can make my Advance Dining Reservations around those parks or in resorts close to those parks. Again, I highly recommend the Basic Disney Dining Plan if your party is going to eat at least one sit down/table service/character meal per day. You can make Advance Dining Reservations 180 before your check-in date. Make sure you have Advance Dining Reservations as a lot of the popular table service restaurants and character meals do not take walk-ups and book up quickly.

 

[Taja]

Thank you so much for everyone's advice! I have a feeling my Fiance will fall in love with Epcot, while I will likely remain true to the MK. ;D

What about dining? Does anyone have any favorite restaraunts? (And maybe some place for a quiet, romantic dinner?)

There are a lot of TS and QS restaurants at WDW. For a first visit, I would plan dining around park visits. If visiting MK, you would want to dine at MK or the MK resorts; at EPCOT or DHS, in those parks or the area resorts (Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club and Swan & Dolphin), and either at AK or AKL when visiting AK. Otherwise, you'll use a ton of your time running between venues.

Remember, you can make TS ADRs 180 days from your check-in date--and many people do exactly that. So walk-ups or day-of ADRs can be difficult to obtain at times.

Check the menus on this board (click Dining at the top of this thread/forum), as well as looking at the menus on allears.net and the official Disney website. Sometimes one can be more current than another--although WDW reserves the right to change menus at any time.

You also might want to subscribe to the Mousesavers newsletter at mousesavers.com, as well as the allears.net newsletter. Even if you use just a small portion of the information, it's nice to see those in your in box during your planning period! *LOL*

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Hello and welcome
This is a great site for getting information and glad you found it The best place to get a review of the different options for hotels and amenities is www.disneyworld.com. You can book your room or package there and be sure to click on the special offers link at the bottom of the page. You can see what seasons are value, reg, peak and holiday. This affects the price A LOT!

It really depends on your vacation style whether you will like value, moderate or deluxe. The classification system is a bit different than other non disney resorts.

My family (even the kids) could not stand the value resort (we chose All star music for our first visit) it reminded us of a motel six plopped down in the middle of a mall on a friday night. Or Circus Circus in Vegas. Loud and Bright.
In fact I could recommend it to no one.

Next trip we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. BEAUTIFUL~! Whole family loved it. It has nice walkways for a stroll and customer service was top notch. We were going to go there for this trip but couldnt risk not getting queen beds with the refurbishments not quite done.

This trip we are staying at the Polynesian. We have not been there yet so no review.

Happy Trip Planning!!!

 

[mwmom]

Oh how I remember feeling so overwhelmed at where to even start planning for WDW. It is certainly much more overwhelming than DL because it is so much more massive. I will say that you will LOVE the options available at WDW vs. DL.

I agree with the other poster who said you will never do it all, and I'll add don't even try or you will miss the fun of what you are able to do. Just know that you can hit those things on a future trip when you have kids bc you will experience it in a much different way then.

As 2 adults going, you will probably tour the park much differently than we did so I won't even attempt to tell you what to ride or put on your must do list. I would scour these boards park by park first and get a travel book that breaks it down by park. Start with one park and read about the different rides. I personally found that touring plans really helped us make a tentative plan for each park, but we varied from it for different reasons while we were there but used the basic plan the whole day. Something like touringplans. com is well worth the small price you pay. And, the beauty of it is you can pick a plan that fits your interest as 2 adults rather than a family going.

Another poster said you don't need the PH pass and to some degree I agree. Our first trip we did one park a day and were perfectly satisfied with that. Our second trip we got PH and loved the freedom to park hop. We might be in the mood for one park in the a.m. and found it to be crowded so we hopped to a different park. Or, we just didn't want to spend a whole day such as Hollywood Studios when my DD was too young for many of the rides. It is up to you. If you have the money, go for it and get them, but if not, just plan on hitting a park and doing other things like resort hopping to get a feel for them if you want to leave that park that day. Or, you can hop over to DTD.

We have only stayed at Wilderness Lodge and LOVED it, but I have read many good things about the moderates and some of the values. Again, don't second guess yourself a jillion times. Just pick one that sounds like something you would like and research it to see if there are mostly positive reviews. You will read some negatives on each and every resort, so just look at overall how they are rated and reviewed. This sight is great for that as well as tripadvisor.

We did not have the dining plan the first trip and did the next 2 trips. Personally, I like not having to scrutinize every penny when we are there so I liked paying for the dining plan ahead of time and being done with it. This last trip we lucked out and got free dining and, of course, you can't say there is any negative about that! HOWEVER, I will say that not having the plan gives you the freedom to order what you want and not feel like you are wasting the money you paid for the plan. There were some nights where I was so full from eating other meals that day that all I wanted for dinner was a cup of soup but felt I needed to get the meal I already paid for. We also are usually scrambling to find something the last couple of days to use up some credits we didn't use at the beginning of the week. I highly suggest figuring out a few restaurants you want to go to and look at their menus and how much that would cost you. That gives you an idea of whether it is worth the cost for you.

Good luck! It is overwhelming in the beginning, but keep reading and you will begin to feel like you can put together a plan. This sight is absolutely priceless for planning a trip! Free info!!

 

[amym2]

Are you thinking early March this year or next year? If this year, you need to make ADRs as soon as possible. Unlike DLR, most people plan for WDW at least 6 months to a year out. Doesn't mean you can't do it in less time, but there is a lot more preparation.