Resort and flight booked... Now what?!?

[Nybor]

So, I'm going next month (yes, I know, I better get started!) with my almost 2.5 year old daughter and my parents. I'm new at this planning stuff and don't know where to start. Tickets? Fastpass? Magic Bands? Meal reservations? What first? How does all of this work?!

Some specific questions I have are:
~ Do people recommend buying park tix through the online discount sites? It does seem you can save a decent amount of money that way, but do the tickets really work? If so, which site do you recommend?
~ Base or park hopper? I'm leaning towards park hopper, but don't want to spend the extra money if I don't have to. We'll likely get to a park in the morning, go back to the resort (CR) for a nap, then back out for more rides and/or dinner and/or parade and/or fireworks later. Definitely planning for more park time and not so much hanging-out-at-the-pool time.
~ I assume you need tix before you can book fast passes, correct? Once you buy the tix, is the process for booking fast passes self-explanatory?
~ What attractions do you recommend using fast passes for, and for which ones is it not necessary (in mid-late January)? I don't think we care much about character meets, we're more interested in rides and maybe a few shows that are good for a 2.5 year old.
~ Can I book dinner reservations anytime? Just call the restaurant directly? Online? Any recommendations as to where to eat?
~ What else should I even be asking?? What else do I need to know?!

THANK YOU for any advice or suggestions!!

-Robyn, a newbie, but very excited!!

P.S. One more sort of unrelated question... Is there a sticky post with a list of all the abbreviations people use on here? I can't for the life of me figure out what some people are talking about!

 

[Robo]

So, I'm going next month (yes, I know, I better get started!) with my almost 2.5 year old daughter and my parents. I'm new at this planning stuff and don't know where to start. Tickets? Fastpass? Magic Bands? Meal reservations? What first? How does all of this work?!

Some specific questions I have are:
1. Do people recommend buying park tix through the online discount sites? It does seem you can save a decent amount of money that way, but

2. do the tickets really work?

3. If so, which site do you recommend?

4. Base or park hopper? I'm leaning towards park hopper, but don't want to spend the extra money if I don't have to. We'll likely get to a park in the morning, go back to the resort (CR) for a nap, then back out for more rides and/or dinner and/or parade and/or fireworks later. Definitely planning for more park time and not so much hanging-out-at-the-pool time.

5. I assume you need tix before you can book fast passes, correct? Once you buy the tix, is the process for booking fast passes self-explanatory?

6. What attractions do you recommend using fast passes for, and for which ones is it not necessary (in mid-late January)? I don't think we care much about character meets, we're more interested in rides and maybe a few shows that are good for a 2.5 year old.

7. Can I book dinner reservations anytime? Just call the restaurant directly? Online? Any recommendations as to where to eat?

8. Is there a sticky post with a list of all the abbreviations people use on here? I can't for the life of me figure out what some people are talking about!

1. Yes, but you really want to make your FP+ selections ASAP.
If you order your tickets from Disney,
you can make your FP+ reservations as soon as the order is completed.

2. Yes, tickets ordered from WDW authorized ticket resellers work.

3. Many here buy from www.undercovertourist.com

4. Unsure? Buy the BASE ticket. You can instantly UPGRADE to Hopper at any time during your trip
if you decide you want to Hop. (Same price as ordering in advance.)

5. See #1 above.

6. Details, logistics, and FP+ priorities found HERE.

7. Yes, Right now, today, if you like. Go HERE... then click on MyDisneyExperience at the top right, and sign up.

8.Yup, http://www.wdwinfo.com/abbreviations.htm

 

[IBLarsen]

I can help get you started a bit....
You can certainly order tickets from 3rd party sites... a very popular and recommended one is Undercover Tourist. They seem to be the cheapest, their price includes tax and shipping already. (Others will add that on at the end, so it looks deceiving).
With that said....you will save a little bit of money, but if you are going next month, you really may want to get a jump start on securing fastpasses, which you can't do until you receive your tickets in the mail from UT (if you go that route). You may want to consider buying direct from Disney, so you have the code needed immediately to link to My Disney Experience. If you haven't already set up an acct on this (MDE), you will want to. This is where you can make fastpass selections (after tickets are linked), you will link your resort reservation if staying onsite, and you can make dining reservations on this. This is also how you get your magic bands. If you want to customize them, you need to get on this ASAP.
Just go to the Disney World website and you will see the MDE link, and it's very self explanatory once you're on

Staying onsite you were able to book FP+ 60 days in advance (offsite is 30 days). So they do tend to book quickly. Although if you are going in January, you may still be ok, as it's a slower time!

As far as what kind of tickets....We opt never to do park hoppers. It's just not necessary in my opinion, especially with a toddler. There is so much to do in each park. You will get the MOST done in the first couple hours after rope drop, as the day goes on lines build. So if you are hopping to another park, you may not get to ride things as easily later in the day. I personally, (others will have differing opinions), would stick to one park a day, do your must do's in the morning, go back and take it easy in the same park where you won't feel rushed, you can slow down and take in the other things and get in a few more less popular rides you didn't hit in the morning. It's just much easier to plan this way for myself with kids. It's almost like two parks in a day can be overstimulating for a child.

For dining if you want to look at what dining selections are and menus/pricing, a good site to look at is www.allears.net. Look to see what your family may like, this will also tell you if it's table service (you can make ressies for) or quick service (no ressies).

Good luck, and happy planning!

 

[Sharpdisney]

Welcome Nybor!

I am (was) a newbie too, until I poured over these boards. I can offer just a couple tips based on my "newbie" planning thus far. We are going in February.

1) A friend recommended that I do not get the hopper option. For us, I think that is the right choice. It is overwhelming enough trying to think of which park you want to go to each day, or where you might want to eat and watch for reservations, without having to do that TWICE each day. We stuck to one park a day. You can leave and take a break and return to that same park for more fun.

2) Think if you want to do any sit-down meals or not with a 2.5 year old. My son at that age would have been difficult. If you want to do that, start to look for reservations.

3) My system was this: look at crowd calendars (my group wanted to go on the lowest crowd days we could). I mostly used easywdw.com. I used that to pick which park I'd go to each day.
Next, I decided I wanted to sit down once each day, so we planned for a lunch or dinner in the park we'd be in that day (or at another resort one day).

4) I tried to plan my day at the park so I could get an idea what FP+ I wanted to book and approximate times. I knew we were not going to go commando-style, wanted to walk leisurely, and not backtrack much, so I looked at the park maps and organized my day that way as best I could. Subject to change of course!!!

5) I mixed up my park days with Rope Drop (RD) days, so we'd be up early, mingled between days where we left the park early for an early night, and mixed with other days where we stayed late for fireworks, and days where we slept in and had a leisurely morning. For my group, I think this will be a good mix.

Good luck to you and enjoy.

 

[Sharpdisney]

Sorry I also meant to add this about dining:

We decided to sit down to eat once a day, lunch or dinner. We are not doing sit down breakfasts. We have picked only one character meal since I'm not sure that my son will want more than that, but I know others do many of those.

There is another board here for disney restaurants, but I found the website allears.net to be really helpful. It lists all the restaurants by park (or hotel), whether they are sit down and need reservations, or are considered quick service. Then, they have all the menus, including the kids menu if you need that for your daughter but that might start only at age 3? Not sure about that.

I used that site to look through what types of food or ambiance appealed to my group. I reserved only with the Disney site. It was really easy. Just go to make dining reservations, pick you day and restaurant, and it will list the available times. You might be able to call too but I didn't need to do that.

Be aware you can make reservations for your restaurants up to 180 days in advance!!! Don't be suprised if some things are booked; try to look for alternate times, or keep checking because people do cancel.

Just for a reference, we have picked the ones below. I have a boy, so others might chime in with tips for girls. There are I think several princess dining options, and one with Winnie the Pooh that she might like too!

O'Hana at the Polynesian (we can take the Monorail there from Magic Kingdom)
Tusker House lunch with characters
Sci-Fi Drive In Theater (my DS will like the cars, but your daughter might not care. I think there is a Hollywood and vine Disney Junior character meal at Hollywood studies)
Sanaa at Animal Kingdom (leaving Epcot early one afternoon)
Be Our Guest (newest restaurant at MK)
Coral Reef - you eat surrounded by an aquarium, maybe your daughter would really like that.