Our First Real Vacation and Lessons Learned!

[techtony]

First of all, to be fair, I visited Disney World twice as a child and many 1-day trips to various parks with family over the years, but never on my own, nor an overnight trip and not in the past 10 years. With that said, here are the things I learned on this trip.....

1. Staying at a Disney Resort CANNOT BE OVERRATED! If you plan on going to Disney - stay onsite. I am a frugal person, but this is definitely not something to skimp on - stay on site! We stayed at CBR - and those are the most comfortable beds I have ever slept on! Everyone is so nice and accomodating too.

2. Fast Pass is easier than you think - even the new Magic Plus 3 a day version. I had absolutely no problems at all. What is great is that the system will inform you when a fast pass was cancelled during a closing - that was very convenient! They give you a replacement fastpass that you can use anywhere in that park - you do not even have to reserve it using the app - you just walk up to any attraction and use it. What is more is that the replacement fastpass does not have a time period - you can use it anytime before the park closes. That is smart!

3. One thing this frugal guy did do that he wished he hadn't was eating at table service restaurants every dinner. This put stress on us to make it to the dinner reservation, which at times was worth it, other times it was not, and only made us late for other things.

4. Eating in the park is not as expensive as you would think. We budgeted $800.00 and only used $625.00 of it (left room for buying a ton of trading pins!). Quick Service is reasonably priced.

5. Flower and garden Kiosks for food are NOT worth it at all. It is a very small portion. The Taco made us laugh out loud.

6. The only park that is a nightmare getting in and out of is Magic Kingdom. We learned our lesson the first trip there - it will take you about an hour to get on a monorail or the ferry, then you have to wait on a tram to get to your car. If you are staying on property - it is better to take the bus.

7. The advice you hear all the time is absolutely correct - TAKE A BREAK IN THE AFTERNOON! This really helped us to cool down, relax and talk about the day and what we wanted to do next. Rope drop is very important. Most days we rode all the rides by noon, leaving that night to re-ride or watch a show or two.

That is all I have now as far as advice. I will be posting a trip report with more info and hilarious observations later this weekend and next week.

 

[C.C. Langley]

I planned table service meals for all of our dinners, but I made sure to plan them for in the park we were going to spend the evening in. I did early dinners like 5pm, so that going to dinner was the first thing we will do after nap time... that way we didn't feel rushed to finish rides, then run to dinner, then back to the rides. I'm hoping this helps some.

 

[Dis703]

We LOVE the Flower and Garden booths. Any bigger of a portion and I wouldn't be able to try much. I assume that's part of the purpose of keeping it small so you can try more overall.

PP we do one TS per day but not always dinner. I think your plan of first thing after nap time is ideal. We did something similar last trip. Sometimes we'd have plans for one or two rides then dinner but when we did this we planned them for nearby attractions.

 

[Masonmj84]

I planned table service meals for all of our dinners, but I made sure to plan them for in the park we were going to spend the evening in. I did early dinners like 5pm, so that going to dinner was the first thing we will do after nap time... that way we didn't feel rushed to finish rides, then run to dinner, then back to the rides. I'm hoping this helps some.

This is how we have always done TS dinners and it has always worked out for us. We love the sequence of going to the parks from RD to about 1-2 pm, having resort time from then until about 5 pm, and then doing a nice sit down dinner from say 5-7 pm. This still leaves some evening park time (since we're not in the parks much in the afternoons, we save the evenings for shows and such).

With respect to the OP, I could not agree more with points 1 and 7. Staying on site, while expensive, just makes the vacation so much more magical and relaxing. I have been trying to convince most of my extended family of this for years but they just think I'm nuts for spending so much on lodging. At the same time, they usually report that their WDW trips were fun but exhausting. I've tried to convince them that if they stay on property, their vacations will me much more relaxing but, having never experienced staying on site, they don't see the cost-benefit.

 

[momof2n2]

Okay -I agree with 3 and 4.
I love the Table service experiences, but they do eat up a lot of touring time. You have to acknowledge there is a trade off.
And I do think the food is decently priced. We vacation in a lot of different places and I think WDW is actually slightly less expensive than many others. And the food is generally good IMO. QS like CHH and SSFF are anything but fast food.

I agree with part of 7. RD is essential. But we never leave for breaks.

Glad you had a fun trip.

 

[techtony]

The point about the Table Service Dinners was that we would take our cool down at the hotel, then have to trek over to a resort or park for dinner, and sometimes it was rushed. Most of our reservations were for 5 or 6, but we had eaten at 12 or 1 so we were not that hungry. We will eat quick service for dinner next time and have only 2 really nice table dinners scattered throughout. Plus, KONA CAFE was a disaster We waited 30 minutes past our reservation time to get a table, and that ruined our Tomorowland Dessert Party - we go there just in time for the show, buit no time for dessert and we were literally running to get there LOL. This is not necessarily Kona's fault either - people were sitting there 20 minutes after paying their bill talking - when it is clear there were a lot of people waiting to be seated. The staff was very good about rushing over, clearing the table and sitting a new party.

 

[Ambear]

Great point about ts. I had a ts meal scheduled every day last trip. This trip it was tempting to do the same cause making adr's is so easy and kind of fun, but then I realized I don't want to be worried about time and making it somewhere. I'm actually still considering canceling my garden grill dinner for this reason.

 

[C.C. Langley]

Ha... I'd KILL for a tomorrowland dessert party reservation, so I would be mad at the Kona people whether or not it was their fault or not.

 

[larryz]

Good perspective! Thanks for posting, OP!

 

[mullysisters]

Very enjoyable. I have to agree with all your points especially staying at Disney. I would not go and stay off site. The resorts and transport are part of my vacation. No car for one week- yaroo!
I make only three ts adrs. Boma for breakfast and dinner on two different days and Crystal Palace on my last day. I find the cs food wonderful and very filling, not to mention reasonably priced. I actually lose weight at Disney because of all the walking.

 

[smiths02]

The point about the Table Service Dinners was that we would take our cool down at the hotel, then have to trek over to a resort or park for dinner, and sometimes it was rushed. Most of our reservations were for 5 or 6, but we had eaten at 12 or 1 so we were not that hungry. We will eat quick service for dinner next time and have only 2 really nice table dinners scattered throughout. Plus, KONA CAFE was a disaster We waited 30 minutes past our reservation time to get a table, and that ruined our Tomorowland Dessert Party - we go there just in time for the show, buit no time for dessert and we were literally running to get there LOL. This is not necessarily Kona's fault either - people were sitting there 20 minutes after paying their bill talking - when it is clear there were a lot of people waiting to be seated. The staff was very good about rushing over, clearing the table and sitting a new party.

What we did our last two trips was rope drop, clear out of the park by 2 (sometimes earlier), go to resort for rest/pool/shower/chang clothes, go out for a nice dinner, bedtime to do it again the next day.
Our family just can't do 8 night vacation of being in a park 10 hours a day (even with breaks).

 

[grecorj]

Wow what a reasonable, fair and honest post about WDW. Refreshing.

I have to ask: @techtony did you realize you were posting to DisBoards? Lol.

 

[soniam]

I have to agree with 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7. I like doing some TS, but we did too many last trip. I scheduled our TS for 4:20pm on the day we had the dessert party. I didn't want to be late or full. I wished we had just skipped the TS that day though and treated the dessert party like our big meal. From now on, I plan to only do one ADR per day, whether it be a TS for breakfast, lunch, or dinner or a dessert party. Plus, I am actually thinking of maybe even doing one every other day.

I don't like having to go back to the park for dinner either once we have left. It's such a hassle. It's not too bad if you are staying at monorail resort and heading to MK or Epcot. Also, I hear getting to Epcot or DHS from the Epcot hotels is pretty easy. I would also consider eating at DTD if staying in one of the nearby hotels.

We didn't plan enough down time last trip either. DS complained about not swimming enough. Next trip we will have an afternoon off about every other day. That way we could swim or do other activities at the hotel or maybe DTD. This also allows us to leave DS at the kids club or with a babysitter and do a date night, which is almost essential to my sanity when spending so much time together as a family. This works well for us, because I like a whole day at Epcot and MK and then about half days each at DHS and AK. This works out to 4 days at WDW, and then we can spend about 3 days at Universal.

Thanks for the report. I think it's good information and will be useful to first time and repeat visitors. May your next trip be perfect. However, I find that I keep needing to go back in order to perfect the plan more

 

[JoWiJo]

I have to agree about the CBR beds. I'm the kind of person who doesn't function well without 8 hours of sleep, but despite wearing myself out each day, I only needed 6 hours sleep to recharge and have the energy of a morning person.

 

[AllieBoo]

I could not agree more about staying onsite! We love being immersed in the magic - and also not having to drive our car for a week! We also do not do TS meals because we don't like how much time they take, and we don't like having to plan our day around eating. We prefer to just grab QS at whatever park we are in, whenever we are ready.

 

[Choozee]

I made like to of TS ADRs for our trip in September. And sure I might regret it but that will give me the reason and need to go back and experience WDW again right

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We budgeted $800.00 and only used $625.00 of it (left room for buying a ton of trading pins!

For how many?

 

[Sarah Trahan]

I agree with part of 7. RD is essential. But we never leave for breaks.

 

[Buddyex]

with 2 weeks before we arrive at WDW its good to see some really positive experiences and some helpful advice on how to avoid the not so positive aspects, have fun

 

[wisblue]

We never make more than 1 or 2 table service reservations in a trip because to us it is too much scheduling, too much money, and too much to eat if you do them every day.

As for counter service, we still do something that we started when our kids were small. We often share meals to cut down on how much we eat. If I'm with my wife, we will often split something like an order of chicken tenders or an individual pizza instead of getting something for each of us where we either waste something or feel obligated to finish.