Questions: WDW w/ kids 13, 10, and 3

[mello]

Hi, I'm a newbie with lots of questions. We're excited to be planning our first trip to WDW, sometime in 2006. The kids will be ds 13, ds 10, and dd 2.5 or 3. DH and I both grew up going to Disneyland, and we've taken the kids there twice. But WDW is a whole different thing - there's so much to it! I'd appreciate any advice you experienced folks have got! Here's what we're wondering about:

Best time to go (weather-wise, crowd-wise, and attraction and event-wise): September, October, early December or May?

Should we get MYW Premium passes? Will we really use the Magic Plus options - Pleasure Island w/ kids? Water Parks with a 2-3yo, or in cooler weather?

Do 3yo's require passes? Should we go before her b-day?

Will a moderate resort be roomy enough with dd in a porta crib?

Which moderate resort should we choose: we're leaning toward POFQ or CBR - pros? cons? (Considerations would be room size, refrigerator & any other conveniences, best pool for the kids' ages, atmosphere)

DH thinks we should stay 14 days. Is that necessary/practical/feasible? (I don't see any passes or packages for more than 7 or 10 days. How would one work a longer stay?)

I think that's enough questions for now.
I'm sure I'll have more later.
Thank you,
melinda

 

[Magic2000]

Well, I'll try to answer some of your questions!

Best time to go - We've been MANY times during the summer, but our favorite time is definitely early Dec. Usually, there are no crowds, and the Christmas decorations are up! There's Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and the Candlelight Processional! We love both of them!!! (We've also attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in Oct - DD loved trick or treating at Magic Kingdom)!! However, weather in Dec can vary - we've gone twice when it was a little cold (sweatshirt weather), and a couple of times, it was still too cool to swim. On one of our Dec trips, we were able to swim one of the days, but the other days, it was too cool!

We bought the 10 day premium MYW tickets that don't expire, so we should be able to get another trip out of these! If you'll be here for longer than 10 days, you may want to check into annual passes. We bought annual passes in 2000, and we got three trips out of those! Again, water parks in Dec are hard to predict!

If possible, YES, go before your DD turns 3! Why not get in a "free" trip for her! We've stayed in Port Orleans French Quarter and Coronado Springs with three kids (one in the portacrib). We did fine. It wasn't that crowded! We enjoyed POFQ - it wasn't that big of a resort and it was so easy to get around.

You may want to bring your own stroller for your daughter. Its a lot of walking!! We usually rented the Disney strollers, but we have brought our umbrella stroller too! It is convenient to have around the resort and if you do any shopping at Downtown Disney!

If your DH wants to go for 14 days - by all means - go for it!!! That way, you can have a few days for relaxing. You can do some shopping at Downtown Disney, maybe ride around and check out Celebration (Disney's town), you may even want to check out Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure!

I always find that I can do Disney cheaper if I book it all separately myself. (I think its cheaper than packages!)

Have fun planning your trip!!!

 

[DeeDeeDis]

Hi,

We've stayed at the Caribean beach resort when our children were younger and really enjoyed the area. Its one of the largest rooms in the moderate rated hotels(340 ft versus 314ft). (Coranado do offer multi room suites- costly)

What i liked about it, was when you left the parks, the resort has a very relaxing atmosphere which is helpful to bring the kids down from all the Mickey excitement. And if your going for 10 nites or more, you will want to spend some time just relaxing, nice pool area, lake-canal area where you can rent little mouseboats, bike way, you can rent bikes, sandy beaches (can't swim here) with hammicks. Hubby and i spent a few afternoons in one of these while the little guy played in the sand and the oldest (13) took the middle guy (11) out on a mouseboat (have to be 12 to drive). Nice peaceful 45 minutes. And if i remember correctly (its been awhile) has a food court near the main pool area, which has a water slide and a kiddie pool. If you do stay here be sure to ask to be near the main pool, its a pretty large resort.

In the past when we went for this many nites we did purchase the plus options, a morning at taphon lagoon is not to be missed, great kiddie area for the 2 1/2 year old and you can trade off with hubby so you all get to try the water slides with the two older kids, family tube rides and swimming with the sharks.

All moderates now come with a fridge (you may have to ask for one in the room when booking but there is NO charge) and a coffee maker, rooms usually have two queen beds, small table and two chairs. Buy a 9.99 toaster, plastic bowls, spoons, milk and juice and you got breakfast in bed every day.

I think either the French Qtrs or Riverside resort has a "few" rooms that sleep 5 (bunkbeds). Have read alot of possitive reviews on these resorts since they remodeled.

I really enjoy staying at the "condo" type resorts, imo the resorts that are more like a hotel or the value resorts always seem to be running on 10, like you never get away from the disney hype (which i love). Like the kids are always running around like maniacs on speed, way too much stimuli.

Ah when to go, Well if you dont want to take your kids out of school, then i'd go the last two weeks of August, yup its hot, hot in June, & July too, End of August, prices go down and southern schools are in session, a little less crowded then the other summer times.

My vote October or November, November first - its still in the 80's, school is in session - less crowds and rates are lower. If you incorporate veterans day and two weekends you got 9 nites and the kids only miss 4 days of school and yu get 8 full days -6 day park hopper with options.

When our kids were younger we would hit the parks in the morning, head back to the resort around 1ish for a swim and a mandatory nap (this was never up for discussion - this is what we did) then back to the parks for a few hours each evening. Pretty much got to do everything and very rarely had a screaming kid (can't stand parents who push their kids all day long and then get upset with the kids when they are so tried that they don't even know what they are crying about anymore).

Totally agree with Magic2000, i've always found cheaper to book myself verses packages from disney.

If i can help with any questions, just pm me.

Have a great time - kids are at a wonderful age to enjoy Mickey and his gang

 

[mello]

I appreciate your replies - we've read and re-read them! Goodness, there's so much to think about. Missing school isn't really an issue for us; we think travel and family time are as educational and important as school anyway, so I think we're leaning towards October maybe? The boys definitely want to swim and do the water parks. We still can't settle on which resort. It's good to know that the CBR rooms are a bit bigger; I think we're leaning in that direction at the moment. I think I'll need to look into the annual passes as well as the 10 day MYW passes. I was thinking that it looked like a better deal to book things individually, it's interesting to have that confirmed. The stroller idea sounds like a good one - at east there's something decided lol!

Well, back to studying this board. I'm learning so much. Thank you again!
: ) melinda