Planning 2012 trip - Help!

[Mania37]

OK - 2012 is a long way off I know, but I need to plan the basics in order to maximize my free flights when they come available. I want to take my family to DL next year as part of a two week California holiday. I plan on spending the first few days at DL before making my way up the coast. So in light of that, I need a little help! Any opinions on any of these questions would be appreciated...

1. I need to figure out how many days I would like to spend at DL. What are your thoughts on 2 vs 3 (or more) days?

2. I'm looking at either late May or early June - what are the crowds like? Needless to say I'll go when the crowds are likely to be more managable. I remember seeing somewhere that schools start letting out early in June (I'm from Canada so I'm guessing a little here) and it looks like Memorial Day is the last weekend in May. Am I better off going on the 3rd weekend in May (likely a Sun-Tues stay if I go with 3 days) or in the first weekend in June?

3. Is there a huge benefit to staying on site at one of the Disney hotels? The price difference is huge, but I also want to make sure the trip is enjoyable for the whole family.

We have a large family with 4 kids - next year, their ages will be 13, 10, 8, 5 (girls on the bookends and boys in the middle). My wife and kids have never been to DL before (or WDW for that matter). I've been a few times in my childhood, but not since 1983. My kids have never been on an extended trip like this before, so it will be a major experience for them and I want it to be a positive one that they'll remember - who knows when the next trip will be?

Thanks in advance!

 

[skiingfast]

This is really complicated.

1. 3 to 5 days. Just to make it simple 3 if you go in May, 5 if in June. Mainly because Carsland is likely to be open in June of 2012 and the crowds will be big and you probably won't want to skip Carsland despite that the lines will be huge!

2. Take above into account. 3rd week of May over first week of June. Mostly because Memorial day weekend is the 4th weekend of June and some not many but some will stay into the next weekend. Because this is the most likely time DCA will have it's grand reopening, more people will likely come for more days. Either gamble that you will miss the rush in May or prepare for the crush in June.

3. Major advantages, possible if you include Carsland crowds. Main thing that will help is staying onsite will get you into DL for Magic Morning each days it's available which is Tues, Thur, Sat and Sun. If you stay offsite and get a 3Day Park Hopper or longer you will get one Magic Morning. So when you know your days consider that.

Stay onsite and you get to do Mickey's Toontown Madness. A special hour opening, with a little party and character visits in Toontown. 5yo would probably like that, the other kids may not be to into that.

If you are going to want to use a pool, onsite hotels are much better than the offsite pools. Might be inportant when you come down south. But you might want to swim elsewhere on your trip and not while you could be in the parks.


I'd save the money on the hotel and spend it elsewhere, if the morning magic helps out a lot stay onsite. Really think of booking a couple rooms across the street from the parks on Harbor Dr. I'm sure you guys will have an awesome time staying there just like if you were onsite.