Our First Real Vacation and Lessons Learned!

[Nancyg56]

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.

I do this as well. My family enjpu=ys a good meal i the evening and we use that time to relax, regroup and refresh. We hit the parks early, get out in the afternoon, and go back to th resort to swim, rest and shower, then go to dinner, which I plan near wherever we want to be that night. I do not plan meals tat have us zig zagging all over, so tha makes a difference.

My normally "frugal" huband insists on onsite, and if he accompanies us, we have to stay on the monorail. He says we save more in time and frustration than we spend, and he is right!

 

[Asellus]

We will be staying on site this time, but I will be perfectly honest...it better be amazing because for us to stay in a moderate will cost us more then $1500 more then the rates I get with Marriott. (I get employee rate because my sister works for them) I also don't expect the mattresses to be better then mine but I don't expect that of any hotel.

I agree with most of the other points. We don't enjoy eating table service however and find it overpriced and poor quality. (though I would love to take my kids to 1900 Park Fare for the interaction with the Tremaines...we will see)

 

[Nancyg56]

We will be staying on site this time, but I will be perfectly honest...it better be amazing because for us to stay in a moderate will cost us more then $1500 more then the rates I get with Marriott. (I get employee rate because my sister works for them) I also don't expect the mattresses to be better then mine but I don't expect that of any hotel.

I agree with most of the other points. We don't enjoy eating table service however and find it overpriced and poor quality. (though I would love to take my kids to 1900 Park Fare for the interaction with the Tremaines...we will see)

I think it is all what you make it. THe 1900 PF is worth the price of admission just for the sisters and Lady Temaine...if you want to interact with them. Part of teh deal is that you roll with them, and they are a hoot!!!!!!

I think that onsite is worth it to my family, and pay the premium for the convenience, the transportation, DME. But it really is nto for everyone. The space is less than if you spent the same offsite. Breakfast is not included, and you could get that elsewhere. But for us, we pay gladly.

My family also enjoys the meals, especially for the interaction with characters. It is part of our vacation.

 

[mickeygirl78]

I agree about staying onsite, it's worth every penny!

Regarding the TS, it can be stressful to have to be on time every night. We go in Sept and when we have free Dining we like to plan some breakfasts so the rest of the day is free then some lunches so we are in that park already, it's less restrictive. We do dinners as well but spread them out with the breakfasts and lunches. We go for 14 nights so it's much more relaxed since we have so much time.

 

[mombrontrent]

Glad you had a great trip!

I think it's funny how some people's essential is the opposite of someone else's. For us what is essential is space. We don't vacation anywhere anymore without a 2-3 bedroom condo. We are a family of 5 with teens/preteens and if we are travelling together we NEED the space of a condo, the 2 bedrooms, 2, bathrooms, the kitchen make it so we can tolerate all the "togetherness" for 10 days. To get that we are staying offsite (Bonnet Creek is as close as some onsite resorts anyhow).

We like to have our own rental car. I want to be able to pick up snacks/drinks/breakfast items for our condo. It makes it much easier and faster to get around from different resorts/parks etc. We stayed onsite once and relied on Disney transportation and it's just not for us. Even my DH who drives 50+ hours a week for a living still takes the drivers seat on vacation

Rope drop, not for us. We have never made it to rope drop before! We roll in around 10:30-11:30. We are THOSE people . We do our FP+, lower priority attractions/shows, have dinner (usually ADR) and then hop to another park. We close out the parks, my kids are night owls

We also only got a 5 day ticket for this 10 night trip, we plan to hit the water parks 2-3 days, enjoy our resort, mini-golf, Disney Quest, HDDR and La Nouba. Can't wait, we leave in one week

 

[techtony]

For how many?

For 2 adults. That included the $177.00 Hollywood Derby / Fantasmic Dinner Package, Kona Café, Rainforest Café, Tokyo Dining, and all the quick service lunches. We ate danishes in the hotel for breakfast from home of course.

 

[Frozen2014]

We had our first trip recently too. It was the most amazing vacation.

I totally agree with you on staying onsite...it's just part of the experience, not to mention the advantage of early ADR and FP booking. And we loved FP +.

For us, we liked having one table service a day. It gave us the wind down time.
Also, maybe because our kids were past naps, but we didn't feel that a break from the park was required. Too time consuming to leave and come back.

 

[magpugs]

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 time was your dinner reservation? I have a reservation for both table service and dessert party in October on the same day maybe a change is needed.

 

[Sailormoon2]

We are having our first full Disney vacation, in August and I had already planned to implement all of your tips (minus the TS), so I'm glad to hear they worked so well, and am keen to read any other observations you made. But a sit-down dinner daily debrief is crucial for DH and my relations

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

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.

I loved them too! This time I was on the QS Dining Plan so I saved all my snack credits for the F & G booths, That little taco was tasty but I'd never pay $6 for it (or whatever the cost was). Using my snack credits worked great and I had a really fun lunch!

 

[techtony]

We are having our first full Disney vacation, in August and I had already planned to implement all of your tips (minus the TS), so I'm glad to hear they worked so well, and am keen to read any other observations you made. But a sit-down dinner daily debrief is crucial for DH and my relations

I have so many things to tell LOL. This was our first real vacation, which was different from visiting the parks when staying with family. Back then, we had no plan, just decided to go to a park, got there around 11am and wasted most of our day arguing over where to go and what to do - not a good experience. This time was so much better!

I am going to warn you about the heat in August. It is stifling. You will walk out of your room at 7am and realize - OMG it is already hot and muggy. The only way to beat the heat is drink plenty of cold water throughout the day, stop by the restrooms and bloat your ears and the back of your neck with a damp (with cold water) cloth. Re-apply sunscreen! and take resort breaks in the afternoon. By the way - I live in Pensacola, FL - it is hot here too, but I hate the heat, just warning you LOL

One thing we tried that I did not mention before..... we looked at a map on the way to Hollywood studios and mapped out what we were going to do that day with our fast passes in mind. That worked OK. What REALLY worked, was using the touringplans.com touring plan. We paid $12.95 2 months ago for this service basically to see what it was about and to fantasize about what we would do LOL. The second day, we decided to actually do the plan. Oh My God - that guy that does the website and the plan was 100% accurate. We followed his plan and everything we wanted to do at Epcot (excluding world showcase of course) was done by noon. We even rode Soarin twice! We were absolutely convinced that we should follow his plan, and boy did it make a big difference. Of course we were not crazy folks running from one thing to the next, we just wrote out what he suggested and the times, and sometimes we made detours from the original plan, sometimes we stuck to it. It did make a BIG difference in our time management and enjoyment.

I do not know how long your visit is, but we were there for four days in the parks. In my opinion, it was not long enough. You will ride the major rides with no problem in 4 days, but as you walk around you will notice things you want to explore, but can't because of time constraints. I highly recommend 2 days MK and EP, and 1 day AK and HS.

If I think of anything else, I will let you know. It has almost been a week, and I am having Disney Separation Syndrome really bad. I go to the local convenience store and I still get surprised when I meet an unhappy person LOL.

 

[pigletgirl]

I agree with almost 100% of what you wrote. Our family really enjoyed MM+ and it made our vacation incredibly enjoyable. Knowing we would be getting on Soarin' and all the headliners made for a peaceful morning. And I agree, the mattresses are just awesome!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I second what you said about Touringplans.com. We used their plans for the first time in July 2010. My DH was totally against having every minute planned out until 11:00 AM on our first day. He realized we had walked on rides all morning that now had huge waits. He said it was like we were literally steps ahead of the crowds the whole entire time, and we WERE! After that he was happy to stick to the plans. I still print off the touring plans for every visit, although now I practically have them memorized.

 

[Sailormoon2]

I have so many things to tell LOL.

I am going to warn you about the heat in August. It is stifling. You will walk out of your room at 7am and realize - OMG it is already hot and muggy. The only way to beat the heat is drink plenty of cold water throughout the day, stop by the restrooms and bloat your ears and the back of your neck with a damp (with cold water) cloth. Re-apply sunscreen! and take resort breaks in the afternoon. By the way - I live in Pensacola, FL - it is hot here too, but I hate the heat, just warning you LOL

1) I am definitely worried about this!!! Although we get a lot of summer humidity where I live in Canada, it has been a brutally cold winter (that seems to be on going) so I am sure we will not even be remotely acclimatized. But as we already drink copious amounts of water per day, are hoping to survive, and thrive.

2) Yep, already got a touringplan membership, same initial reason, love tweaking plans and "pretending" to plan my day!

3) Unfortunately for this trip only 4.5 days. Arrival is the 1/2 day and will be spent at WS (we are staying at BC so super close!!!). Then 1 park per day, til we check out and head over to Universal.


4)Good luck coping with those withdrawal symptoms.

 

[kjs1976]

I'm glad you shared you TS experience. For about 6 yrs we did a ton of TS. But there was one trip a couple hrs back when I felt like we rushed our afternoon breaks just to have to get read and get to a TS time between 5-6. Our DD was little then, so even on "vacation time" she needed to be back to the resort by 9 in order to wind down for bed. This hampered things considerably, so we had to make earlier TS times. Now after about three trips of no TS, we have booked two TS meals and hope it doesn't have a huge impact on our daily breaks and plans.

 

[lauradis]

I love table service for late breakfast, early lunch then slowly leave the park for afternoon break, cs for dinner in what ever park, unless it's a special dinner event. come back to parks for evening shows and run to rides at extra magic hours.

always stay on property, even with big groups, stay value if you must, but stay on property.

fp+ in the evening looks like a winner to my group, now if I could just get them out of bed for rd. ugh. lol

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Really, really agree with the TS point. Aside from possibly breakfast, I will never agree to an ADR again. Just too time consuming when you count not only the time of the meal, but also the time lost preparing to be at your ADR on time.

As for onsite vs off, onsite does have its advantages, but IMO transportation is not one of them if you have access to a car anyway (which we would as we drive to WDW). We had zero issue walking out the front door of our offsite cabin & being parked at any park in 15 minutes or less, sometimes WAY less. MK is its own animal what with TTC and all, but we spent just 1 of 7 days there.

Oh, and no afternoon breaks for us

 

[techtony]

We drove to Disney too, it is only a 6 hour drive for us. We rented a car because I did not want to put the miles on our gas guzzling 4WD 6 cylinder monster. We loved the bus to Downtown Disney, but we did take our car to the other parks, but OMG - Magic Kingdom is a nightmare. Next time - we will take the bus there and the car everywhere else.

We are both sitting here planning our next trip LOL. This will now be an annual event for us.

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

If you hadn't specified that you'd gone in August, I'd wonder if my spouse joined the DIS. Our first onsite visit really gave him the bug.

He sort of scoffed at Touring Plans until we got there, and then he gave me the space of a dinner to be smug about it. LOL!

 

[darkwing818]

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.