newbie advise please

[daiseyirl]

hi all,

were thinking of going to wdw nxt yr, our options are 10nights in july or 7nights in october, my dd starts school sept 2010 so cant take her outa school. we would be going the last wk in october during mid-term break.

my question is would 7 nights be enough we would only been doing disney as my kids will only be 4+5 at the time so magic kingdom and animal kingdom would be top of our list. Is there anything else in orlando that shouldnt be missed for a 4+5yr old .

As for july would i be mad taking a 4+5yr old in that heat or is it really that bad??? i guess the pros for july is 10days and the pros for october are free dining and cooler temps. would love to hear your views.

ive been reading through all the post here and gathering so much info thanks.

 

[Pegasus928]

my question is would 7 nights be enough.

In my humble opinion 70 nights wouldnt be enough.

With regards to July or October my choice would be October (and to be honest I am ignoring the amount of days you would be going for as that is something only you can decide on)
1. July I think would be too hot - or rather too humid - for us.
2. October has MNSSHP
3. From what I can gather July is busier than October in general, so you may find yourself waiting around more for rides and attractions (OK - maybe not 3 days worth of waiting but still quite a lot)

I would also say that if you do only go for 7 days to just concentrate on Disney - especially if you have free DDP. To try and fit much more in would be a bit too much I would think.

 

[loobylou44]

I would choose October, the weather will be more comfortable for the children and Disney will be less busy. Also as your daughter is only 5 I would be tempted to extend your holiday slightly and take her out of school the thursday and friday before half term (unless of course your school is really strict!!).

 

[daiseyirl]

hi guys,

thats for the advise, her school wouldnt we too strict regards days off, it more i wouldnt feel 100% happy bout it. Having said that if i only took her out thur+fri it wouldnt be so bad. I think im going to go with october.

Then other thing i was wondering is it better book myself disney and flights seperate ya ,there is no need going through an agent is there?? Also how much is the deposit with disney uk??

 

[Howellsy]

I'm another one voting for October - July is too hot and crowded in comparison. If you're only doing Disney, you should be able to see most of the things you want to in 7 days, but 14-21 days is probably the best amount of time to see all of the area.

The Disney deposit is £100. As for how to book, most people find that booking it separately is cheaper, but some travel agents can do good deals sometimes depending on dates and the like. I booked flights with Continental and tickets + hotel with Disney for my September trip, and found that this was the cheapest deal I could get

Hope that's helped a bit, and I hope you have an awesome trip!

 

[wayneg]

Oct beats July hands down, but I am not sure I would go for 7 days for my 1st trip. We often do 9 night trips but only as extras not our main holiday,that will be 25 nights in August

As for taking a 4-5 year old out of school, we took DS out for 2 weeks every Oct so we could go for 3 weeks, in our opinion(and his head mistress) a child can learn more on a family holiday than in a classroom. Not saying its right for every child but I am 100% certain it was right for our DS. If you have problems taking out for longer then the Thurs + Fri option makes a 9 days trip, we still do that now DS is 15. Added 2 days onto last Oct and again to this May.

 

[tony64]

Oct everytime
If you can get her out of school, you will save money on the airfair going midweek.

 

[Pegasus928]

hi guys,
thats for the advise, her school wouldnt we too strict regards days off, it more i wouldnt feel 100% happy bout it. Having said that if i only took her out thur+fri it wouldnt be so bad.

And if it is the Thursday and Friday before a half term then I would imagine that all a 5 year old would be doing is playing and painting. They certainly wouldn't be pushing them too hard with 2 days left to go would they?
Plus if you took her out for those 2 days you could fly midweek which might make the flights a bit cheaper.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hi,

As we have to go in school holidays too I can understand the dilemma, and to be honest it's a very difficult one.

Personally, 7 nights I don't think is long enough. The long flights, adjusting to the time difference & sleeping pattern and just feeling under pressure to see as much as possible.
Even in our circumstances, having been many times, 7 nights I wouldn't consider....but I am probably in the minority, there are some on here who would go for a day never mind a week
Also I am lucky in that I have had the opportunity to go so often.

It gets more complicated though because July is probably THE worst month to go, it's busy and incredibly hot so certainly not ideal for the first timer.

If you were able to go for 10 days in October I would choose that for sure, but to be honest I just can't decide between these 2 options, if I had to I would probably go at whichever time was the longer stay, so that's July, that's purely based upon our circumstances & experiences.

 

[Dazed]

Another vote for October and I'd definitely go for a longer stay if possible. Take her out of school and don't feel guilty -in my experience they do very little work in the week before hols and she is only little! You'll be tied to school dates for years to come!

 

[Elise79]

I would go with October too

I just did 7 nights in March with a 9mth old DD and we saw everything we wanted to in Disney. We didn't go off property to any of the other attractions (that was never in the plan this time) however we are lucky and have been a lot before and knew our way round and what we wanted to do. We also knew we would be going back in September this year so had no pressure there if we didn't see anything.

I would take them out of school for a couple of days and do 9 nights and if you are looking to stay onsite then just do Disney

 

[Netty]

I'm with the majority - october!
we have been twice in july and 3 times in october, and by far october wins hands down weatherwise and crowd wise, also as mentioned you have mnsshp to go to if you wanted!
I personally would take her out of school the wk before they break up, she's only missing 5 days then its half term, at aged 5 she will not miss that much!

 

[daiseyirl]

hi guys,

thanks for all ur advise, october it is then. And im going to take dd outa school for 2/3 days. Just waiting for flight prices to come out now. we will def stay on site as disney is the sole purpose of the trip. Also want to get the free dining. Were going to do 10 nights as my worry with 7 nights was the girls would be recked from the long flight and by the time they had adjusted it would be time to leave again. We are going to australia this october so if they cope ok with that trip florida should be a breeze

thanks again and i will be on again with a million more questions for u all b4 we go

 

[Julia Ann]

another vote for october, weather is cooler but still hot (not humid though) and less busy but busy enough for a good atmosphere - i know you have already made up your mind - but if your kids love to dress up they will have an awesome time in oct *** of the halloween celebrations, we have been 3 times in oct and love it, that's without kids. We now have an 18 month old oh how i would love to take her now but can't afford it. Will hopefully be taking her when she is 6 and it will be for 2 weeks in october for definate. If your little ones can't stay up late enough to enjoy the mickeys not so scarey halloween party, take them to down town disney on halloween evening there is loads going on and loads trick or treating (aka collecting candy outta the shops!) for free! have fun