Planning for November 2011

jessicarabbituk

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
81
Hello all, I've clearly been lurking too much recently as I've got it in to my head that I'd like to start planning our first onsite trip for around November 2011. The trip will be for me, My DBF and my DS who will be coming up two by then, so our first family holiday, I'm excited alreadY! So i'd like to ask for a bit of help to get me on my way if thats ok...?
Firstly where should we stay, there are so many lovely hotels, I was thinking AKL but now I worry it wouldnt be the same if we didn't shell out for a savannah view? Prehapes some other 'young family friendly' suggestions?
Disney Dinning, Iam a novice, do you have to wait and hope they do the free thing or is that a given nowdays?

I look forward to your responses, Thank you in advance.
 
hi, weve recently booked for August 2011.
we got free dining from Virgin and i know loads others are offering free dining too. Im just not too sure of the dates its free though.

Are you planning to drive at all?
weve only ever stayed at the Contemporary and never have a car but not sure id stay at somewhere that we'd only have the buses to rely on....unless it was a value resort.

Theres loads of fab people on here, thatll give you loads of tips. :goodvibes
 
Best way to choose IMHO is to think which parks do I want to visit? Do I want to hire a car? Will I mainly stay at WDW? Where do I want to eat? What will we do at the resort?

This will help you to narrow it down.

For us, we want to stay all or mostly at WDW with visits to all park and no car hire so a resort with good transport links is important. We want buffet breakfast on site, a decent room, a table service dinner and fabulous swimming pool.

We have mostly stayed at CSR as when we decided to give GF a try we were disappointed (not with the resort but with the lack of improvement to our holiday compared to the cost).

We have booked for CSR again this year but now they have stopped their buffet breakfast we are going to our favourite buffet resort at AKL for our 2011 trip.

Hope this helps.
 
Hello and welcome pixiedust:pixiedust:
I think that the free Disney Dining is for holidays up until 18th November. We got ours with Virgin Holidays but loads of places are offering it, just check when you book.
When we took our daughter she was 6 and we stayed at all stars music. We all loved it, loads of bright giant characters about, great pools themed around Disney characters, really good for kids. The rooms are basic, no balconies but clean and good for little ones. Next year we are staying at AKL as my daughter will be 11 so a little bit older and she is animal crazy so we've pushed our budget to the limit. We don't have a savannah view yet but I'm hoping that I can save enough money to add this on later.
Enjoy your planning, I think that choosing the hotel is the most exciting bit although it can also be the most frustrating as you decide on one and then you keep changing your mind...it's enough to drive you crazy :rolleyes1
 

We've booked for September 2011, and are doing free dining. You can check the dates of the offer on Disney's website. I might be wrong but I think that the offer runs from 1st August 2011 - 18th November 2011, for that particular period :goodvibes

Also, I know its not a deluxe, but I love POFQ. Stayed at AKL last year and actually missed POFQ so we're going back next time :lovestruc It's family and couple friendly and its great to be able to hop onto the boat to Downtown Disney

:goodvibes
 
hi there i am in the same boat as you, we are going for our first ever trip in October 2011, wish it was this year but i just going to sit here and wish away a whole year and a bit.
my kids are a bit older they will be 13,14 when we travel and we looked at all the hotels and went for pofq, so fingers crossed it good. found this site to be full of information and the people really friendly
jen
 
Hi welcome to DIS

We took our DD to Disney for the first time when she was 23 months - ignore anyone who says they are too young! We had a lovely holiday.

I'd recommend the brits guide to orlando for a good intro read.

If you can time it before they are 2 they fly free or very little cost if you are brave enough not to buy them a seat!
 
we are going next nov with our 23 month old twins!! we are staying at old key west with the free dining
 
Welcome to the DIS! :)

There are so many amazing choices when it comes to WDW hotels. And i think you are definitely doing the righ thing by staying on site for your first visit. :)

We recently stayed at AKL and it was absolutely fantastic (so much so we'll be back in 9 months), we didn't have a car and we thought the WDW buses were favulous, I loved them and am not hesitant in the slightest about them for our next trip.

I was worried beforehand as when you look at AKL on the map it seems really far out, but the buses never took us over 20 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom and we never waited long for a bus.

I think the main deciding factor will be your budget. If you can afford AKL standard view then go for it, there is a chance you'll get a Savannah view, or you can ask about paying the extra at check in, we were lucky and got an upgrade, and it was amazing. Although if we hadn't have gotten a savannah view it wouldn't have made the hotel any less wonderful feeling, and there are plenty of places to view the animals from.

If you want to save some money then the moderates all look amaing too, I really want to stay at Coronado Springs. :)
 
Thank you all for your helpfull replies, I'm just glad I have pleanty of time to make my dessision. if only there was a facility where you could put all your reqiurments in and it could choose the hotel for you!
I'm now concidering spending the first week off site with a car as I love shopping and offsite resturants and then the second week onsite without? I love the idea of a boat ride to DTD in addition to one of the to-dos being eating benights (is that how you spell them?) so those things may sway me to POFQ!
I may also have misled you, Iam a life long Disney visitor its just Ive never been in a position to stay at WDW and as its our 1st family trip I'd love it to be extra special.
Thanks again for your help and warm welcome, I'm sure I'll be back lots!:woohoo:
 
we loved POFQ last year and the resort was very small compared to others and was great for us as i was pregnant, we loved the boat to DTD as well and would go back there but the prices for the DVC are too good to miss out on. for our dates its £13 more to stay at okw than pofq with regular dining plan
 
We have booked two weeks at the Wilderness Lodge (May 2011) and it will be our 5th trip to WDW but the first time we have stayed on property

We were over there in March of this year and had great fun visiting all the resorts for dinner/drinks etc and came away deciding that the WL was our favourite so have booked this resort

We too have booked through Virgin so have free dining

Planning your trip will be so much fun and everyone on these boards are so helpful with any questions you may have :thumbsup2
 












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