planning our 2012 trip

[Laneyg]

We have triplets who are 4 1/2. We've always wanted to go to Disney World when they are 5. Our 2012 trip will have to be after February for sure. What is your favorite time of year to go? It seems like an off time would be great for weather and crowds, but would we be worried that the hours might not be as good? And possible ride maintenance? Right now we're thinking about May which I figure will NOT be an off time, and will be somewhat hot....

What about staying on Disney property? I've seen some houses that you can rent for $100 or so a night. The 5 of us will be going with my mom and dad and maybe my brother too, so splitting the cost of a house seems way more economical for us. However, I know you can't get the meal plan. Which I don't even know if we really need.... I mean, we don't need an entrée, drink, and dessert for each meal. The adults in my family can get by with not a lot of food. We would probably bring snacks too. Is this a reasonable idea? I also don't know how much time we want to devote to meals. Counter service meals would be quick but a sit down meal every day might take a lot of our "fun" time. But then someone was telling me the food was so good that maybe eating WOULD be fun time! It's a hard decision! Oh and another thing, I guess you have to have reservations for sit down meals. It seems like it could be a pain if, once we get there, we find something fun to do, or a line we'd like to wait in for a ride, but then we would have to consider that we have a reservation to make so we would have to quit in the middle of doing something fun. I'm not sure how I feel about being tied down to a reservation.

I think right now, those are my main questions. I do realize they are very NEWBIE of me and questions like this probably get asked a lot, but I'd love to hear any opinions and any other tips, like your favorite places to stay, restaurants, etc....
Thank you so much!

 

[Laneyg]

bumping this... please?
Or if this is the wrong place to ask these questions, where is the right place?
Thanks!

 

[kappyfamily]

We have done both onsite and offsite. Both have their advantages. Onsite just "feels" like Disney. Offsite, you get way more room for your money. We rented a six bedroom gorgeous home at Windsor hills for $215 a night with it's own pool.

But, you don't really go back for breaks like you would with staying onsite. So I would plan on being gone for most of the day.

As far as food, we have done both dining plan and not. I like it just because it is paid in advance and you don't have to worry about it. The times that we have not done dining (when we rented the house) we always ate Bfast at the house, quick service at the park and table service for dinner. I just went on and looked at the menus and had an envelope with the cash for that restaurant ready to go (ex. Yak n yeti $95). We love eating at new places and did not let not being on the plan deter us.

Please know you have to make adrs. Sometimes you can luck out but it really is important to make a table service reservation if you want to sit down and eat. Especially if you have a larger party. We always have 7-10 people in our group and there is just no way to get a walk up.

Hope this helps! Have fun!

 

[g-dad66]

Different folks like different things, so what we like might not be what you like at all.

But, since you asked for opinions, and I love to give opinions....

I try to avoid Orlando between May and October -- too hot!
I try to avoid any time when schools are out (this is hard for us to do).
So if I had complete flexibility, I would pick any time in November through the first week of March, EXCEPT Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Years, MLK weekend, President's week. Weather is likely to be best (least chance of a real cold spell) in November or first week of March.

We like staying on-site, and we find that the cost of the Value Resorts is comparable to off-site properties, since we don't have the expense of renting a car (we only use free WDW transportation).

We try to never do table-service meals. Grandkids aren't interested in meeting characters at all, and we aren't interested in paying the cost or spending the time for table-service. We did the free Dining Plan once and hated being tied down to Advance Reservations.

We think WDW food quality is average overall. Never had anything I hated, but never anything to rave about either. We definitely don't go to WDW for the food. After all, we can always go to restaurants at home. But we can't ride Rock n Roller Coaster here.

 

[Delphinidae]

I'm gonna be watching your thread because we are also going in 2012, and your concerns about the dining plan are the EXACT same as mine, so any opinions you get on that will be helpful to me, too.

We are going in late Sept/early October time frame. I would think that if you went in the earlier part of May the crowds would be lighter since school would not be out yet, but I have only ever been in June so I could be wrong on that.

As for resorts, it's always on site for us. Like someone else mentioned, it FEELS more "Disney" when you stay on site. Plus, you don't have to deal with the parking lots at each park and paying for parking if you are staying on site, which makes the price worth it for me.

 

[g-dad66]

Oh, and I forgot to mention...

As far as shorter hours in the winter months are concerned: Unless your 5-year-olds have a lot more stamina than our grandkids when they were 5, we never had a problem with park hours not being long enough.

The kids pooped out long before the parks closed up.

 

[Laneyg]

Thanks SO much everyone!

G-Dad, I hear you about the 5 year old stamina thing. We do plan on getting strollers so they won't have to walk the whole time. I really hoped to push them to their limits while not making them grumps - a fine line I know! But if we dont' stay till dark, I would hate to miss things like Fantasmic, or fireworks, or whatever else happens there at night!

Does anyone know what off site homes have shuttle buses to Disney?

 

[TandLMommy28]

I am a September fan myself, but I'd imagine it's similar as far as off-peak crowds and hours. Anyway, the shorter hours won't matter at all because there are less people. Therfore you spend less time in line, and get through more attractions in the same amount of time.

 

[Laneyg]

September seems like it'd be nice weather wise for sure!

 

[think-like-tink]

September sounds almost perfect time to go. We go in July-Aug time frame, because of course kids are out of school. We stay onsite for that awesome Disney feeling. We LOVE the Polynesian so much. And for the DDP, We used it once. I so don't "get" it. I am confused by the whole thing. I feel dumb for admitting that.

 

[juliebug1997]

Thanks SO much everyone!

G-Dad, I hear you about the 5 year old stamina thing. We do plan on getting strollers so they won't have to walk the whole time. I really hoped to push them to their limits while not making them grumps - a fine line I know! But if we dont' stay till dark, I would hate to miss things like Fantasmic, or fireworks, or whatever else happens there at night!

Does anyone know what off site homes have shuttle buses to Disney?

I don't know if homes do this, but some of the off-site hotels do. The down side, IMO, is that you are on their schedule of when they go to the park (most likely the TTC) and when they do pick ups. This is one of the main reasons we stay on-site: the transportation is more readily available.