Newbie on the block with questions.

[momofqueenie]

I am new to the world of disney. We are planning our first trip to Disney. My husband and I have both been to Epcot before, but never to the other parks. We have two children, ages 5 and 7. We are planning a trip for the week of October 9-16. Remember we have never done this before. We will be driving down, so transportation and a car are not an issue for us. Okay here goes with the questions.

Will the parks be very crowded?
Should we stay on site, if so what MODERATE resort should we pick? If not what off site hotel do you recommend?
Are the packages really that great of a value? or are you better off to reserve room and tickets by themselves?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am trying to find a place to start the planning process. I found this board through mousesavers, and I am just amazed at all the information on here. Again, thanks for any help you can offer.

Disney challenged in Kentucky. Ha! Ha!

Kellie

 

[ceecee]

I recommend staying onsite and using bus transportation. We usually go the first week of Oct. crowds aren't bad. If you just want to buy a 4 or 5 day hopper (depending on how many days you are planning to do the parks) and the room it would probably cost less. Have you thought of the Value resorts...at 5 and 7 the kids would love it. When we upgraded our DD who was 6 at the time wanted to go back to the ASMo. The pools aren't as nice but it was so cold we didn't swim much that year anyway.

 

[bobcat]

Well since you have found both mousesavers adn the DIS you are on the right track. Another website you should check out is www.allearsnet.com. Deb has lots of great info as well as an amazing menu database from all around WDW. Mousesavers will give you the info on great deals. IMHO staying on site if you can afford it is the best way to go.

Happy planning and welcome to the DIS!

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Will the parks be very crowded?
Should we stay on site, if so what MODERATE resort should we pick? If not what off site hotel do you recommend?

The best trip we had (crowd-wise) was one we did on October. The weather was still nice enough for us to enjoy the parks all day, to swim in the pools, etc., but not so hot that we were dying while visiting the parks.

We had our first stay on-site in the Caribbean Beach resort. We loved it. Since then we've stayed at Coronado Springs three times and Port Orleans Riverside once, and would recommend either. We really like the Pepper Market food court at CSR, and would highly recommend that for your trip.

As far as transportation - we tried the buses once or twice, but we prefer to hop in the car and drive to wherever we will be for a while - easier for us and more convenient than going to three or four other places we don't really want to go to.

Hope you enjoy your trip!!

AWTY

 

[jeankeri]

For a moderate I would recommend Port Orleans. I know two families who stayed there this past year with kids near yours ages and they really loved it. The pool was a hit, and the shuttle boat to DTD was a plus for them. With your own car you can drive or not- we drove to all parks but MK during our last trip (we were on the MK monorail). Driving and parking ourselves was more predictable- especially for breakfast PS's in the parks.
Booking separately was more economical for us- if you've read through the mousesavers site all the info you need is there. Call or go on-line to disney's web-site and plug in some dates to get prices. Then compare with rack rates for room-only (and hope rates come out!). Do you qualify for any of the discounts mousesavers mentions (AAA, military) ?