Hey all~!
I just returned from a 3-day trip to DL. Thought I would provide some thoughts/insight for anyone interested:
1. When my MIL decided she wanted to do a family vacation to DL, she asked me to plan it, as I am an AP holder and am at DL all the time. She knew she wanted to go in the early Fall, so I told her the weekend I thought we should go. We wanted to avoid Labor Day weekend and the last-minute, 3-day weekend before school starts crowds. We also wanted to avoid the first weekend of Halloween Time, as it was also Dapper Day and I knew that it would be crowded. So, we chose the weekend in between and it was a thing of beauty. The crowds were darn near non-existent. Of course, there were people there, it’s DL after all…but the crowds were so low you would have thought it was mid-January.
2. Because the crowds were so low…EVERY ride was no more than a 5-10 minute wait on Thursday and Friday. Saturday they jumped to about 15 minutes, MAX. The only one longer was RSR, and even that one I saw at no more than 60 minutes, and mostly sat at around 45 minutes. For STANDBY, people! It was great. We pulled FP’s for a night ride at like 3 in the afternoon!! It was hot as heck on Friday and we waited a whopping 10 minutes to get on GRR. It was like this all over the park, all three days we were there (Th-Sat).
3. We had originally booked 3 separate rooms at DLH. Later, when MIL decided to add a third day/night to the trip, I changed it to a 2-BR suite as it was more cost-effective at that point. I did not ask for anything special at the time of booking (premium, concierge, etc), just a standard suite. We arrived Thursday morning around 8 am, and our room was already ready! Turns out they placed us on the 9th floor of the Fantasy Tower, with a view of the pools!! The suite was HUGE! Plenty of room for all of us (8 people), actually had a wet-bar area with the fridge and coffee maker in the living room, and 2.5 baths! It was perfect. I do believe the room already being ready was due to checking in on a Thursday during a slow week (I bet no one was in the room past Labor Day), and the high floor was due to checking in so early in the day. Just my thought.
4. I bought the rest of the family’s park-hopper tix through Get Away Today. That was a bit of a hiccup, because I bought them at the end of July to take advantage of some special pricing. Since we didn’t claim them until early September, there was a hold on the tickets and I had to call them to get the hold released. No big deal as it was only a few minute delay to resolve (and they even credited us $8.00 because the new price was lower than the price in July!). Anyhow, just an FYI if you use them, buy the tix within 30 days of using them to avoid the hold issue.
5. Photopass+ was SOOOO worth it for us! We got 150+ pics in the 3 days we were there. The photographers spent extra time with us, we got a LOT of pics with the whole family in them…pretty much every magic shot possible, tons of ride photos and the pics from the character breakfast we did. I’m currently playing with borders, etc and can’t wait to get the CD so I can put together a scrapbook for my MIL. Also, I discovered (if anyone didn’t already know), that I can upload some of my OWN pics that were taken, edit and add borders, and get them included on the CD. AWESOME!!!! This was totally worth the money for our family.
Here is a list of the magic shots we got:
• Balloons in hand in front of GRR (on the waterfall side near Cars Land)
• Flo next to us in front of Flo’s V8 Café in Cars Land
• Lizzie next to us in front of her trinket store in Cars Land
• Dinoco Helicopter (with Mater riding in it) flying above us next to the RSR Cars flying by on the track behind Flo’s (as well as Lizzie next to us again!)
• Tinker Bell, Chip and Pascal in hand in front of the castle in DL
• Olaf dancing next to me at the side of the castle
6. Fantasmic! Desert package. I have done this before with just hubby and I, and my MIL wanted to do it. Value is different for everyone, with regard to whether it’s worth the cost, and there are many threads on these boards regarding such. It’s not something I would do every time, but with a family our size, and my MIL not wanting to sit on the concrete for hours, it was worth it. Of course, we had 8 desert boxes and my fridge is now full of leftovers because it’s so much food.
It proved to be a great spot to watch the fireworks afterwards as well.
7. Storytellers Café. OMG!!!! This turned out to be the best meal of all that we did while there. We had a reservation for 5pm on Friday evening. That gave us the option of ordering from the menu, or doing the buffet. And let me tell you, the buffet was so impressive that everyone in our family ended up going with that option. A wide variety of seriously good, FRESH (5pm was the start of the buffet, good timing) and delicious foods...with something for everyone. We all agreed we would have eaten there more than once had we known how good it was!! I highly recommend it.
8. We rented a cabana at DLH pool for Saturday afternoon. Ended up being a GREAT decision, as it was HOT that day. And it gave everyone a break/rest before the Fantasmic!/Fireworks activities later that night. Turns out, cabanas were a hot-ticket item! One guy apparently took the family sign off the board at the cabana next to us because he wanted it. Of course, he was kicked out when the actual family arrived. Some people's kids, I tell ya!
There was another guy telling people he would pay for their FULL DAY rental the next day, if they would let him have the HALF DAY reservation on Saturday. CRAZY!! Anyhow, we loved it. Good food and drinks brought right to you, shade, a TV and ceiling fan, lounge chairs, plenty of towels and water, a fridge to bring more of your own snacks, etc. Totally worth it! We were quoted $149 for a half day, but upon check out we were only charged $133. I don't know if it's because I'm an AP holder, or what. I didn't think the cabana's got AP discounts, but maybe I'm wrong on that. 
Hmmmm…that’s about all I can think of for now. I’m happy to answer any questions anyone might have.
I just returned from a 3-day trip to DL. Thought I would provide some thoughts/insight for anyone interested:
1. When my MIL decided she wanted to do a family vacation to DL, she asked me to plan it, as I am an AP holder and am at DL all the time. She knew she wanted to go in the early Fall, so I told her the weekend I thought we should go. We wanted to avoid Labor Day weekend and the last-minute, 3-day weekend before school starts crowds. We also wanted to avoid the first weekend of Halloween Time, as it was also Dapper Day and I knew that it would be crowded. So, we chose the weekend in between and it was a thing of beauty. The crowds were darn near non-existent. Of course, there were people there, it’s DL after all…but the crowds were so low you would have thought it was mid-January.
2. Because the crowds were so low…EVERY ride was no more than a 5-10 minute wait on Thursday and Friday. Saturday they jumped to about 15 minutes, MAX. The only one longer was RSR, and even that one I saw at no more than 60 minutes, and mostly sat at around 45 minutes. For STANDBY, people! It was great. We pulled FP’s for a night ride at like 3 in the afternoon!! It was hot as heck on Friday and we waited a whopping 10 minutes to get on GRR. It was like this all over the park, all three days we were there (Th-Sat).
3. We had originally booked 3 separate rooms at DLH. Later, when MIL decided to add a third day/night to the trip, I changed it to a 2-BR suite as it was more cost-effective at that point. I did not ask for anything special at the time of booking (premium, concierge, etc), just a standard suite. We arrived Thursday morning around 8 am, and our room was already ready! Turns out they placed us on the 9th floor of the Fantasy Tower, with a view of the pools!! The suite was HUGE! Plenty of room for all of us (8 people), actually had a wet-bar area with the fridge and coffee maker in the living room, and 2.5 baths! It was perfect. I do believe the room already being ready was due to checking in on a Thursday during a slow week (I bet no one was in the room past Labor Day), and the high floor was due to checking in so early in the day. Just my thought.
4. I bought the rest of the family’s park-hopper tix through Get Away Today. That was a bit of a hiccup, because I bought them at the end of July to take advantage of some special pricing. Since we didn’t claim them until early September, there was a hold on the tickets and I had to call them to get the hold released. No big deal as it was only a few minute delay to resolve (and they even credited us $8.00 because the new price was lower than the price in July!). Anyhow, just an FYI if you use them, buy the tix within 30 days of using them to avoid the hold issue.
5. Photopass+ was SOOOO worth it for us! We got 150+ pics in the 3 days we were there. The photographers spent extra time with us, we got a LOT of pics with the whole family in them…pretty much every magic shot possible, tons of ride photos and the pics from the character breakfast we did. I’m currently playing with borders, etc and can’t wait to get the CD so I can put together a scrapbook for my MIL. Also, I discovered (if anyone didn’t already know), that I can upload some of my OWN pics that were taken, edit and add borders, and get them included on the CD. AWESOME!!!! This was totally worth the money for our family.
Here is a list of the magic shots we got:
• Balloons in hand in front of GRR (on the waterfall side near Cars Land)
• Flo next to us in front of Flo’s V8 Café in Cars Land
• Lizzie next to us in front of her trinket store in Cars Land
• Dinoco Helicopter (with Mater riding in it) flying above us next to the RSR Cars flying by on the track behind Flo’s (as well as Lizzie next to us again!)
• Tinker Bell, Chip and Pascal in hand in front of the castle in DL
• Olaf dancing next to me at the side of the castle
6. Fantasmic! Desert package. I have done this before with just hubby and I, and my MIL wanted to do it. Value is different for everyone, with regard to whether it’s worth the cost, and there are many threads on these boards regarding such. It’s not something I would do every time, but with a family our size, and my MIL not wanting to sit on the concrete for hours, it was worth it. Of course, we had 8 desert boxes and my fridge is now full of leftovers because it’s so much food.
It proved to be a great spot to watch the fireworks afterwards as well.7. Storytellers Café. OMG!!!! This turned out to be the best meal of all that we did while there. We had a reservation for 5pm on Friday evening. That gave us the option of ordering from the menu, or doing the buffet. And let me tell you, the buffet was so impressive that everyone in our family ended up going with that option. A wide variety of seriously good, FRESH (5pm was the start of the buffet, good timing) and delicious foods...with something for everyone. We all agreed we would have eaten there more than once had we known how good it was!! I highly recommend it.
8. We rented a cabana at DLH pool for Saturday afternoon. Ended up being a GREAT decision, as it was HOT that day. And it gave everyone a break/rest before the Fantasmic!/Fireworks activities later that night. Turns out, cabanas were a hot-ticket item! One guy apparently took the family sign off the board at the cabana next to us because he wanted it. Of course, he was kicked out when the actual family arrived. Some people's kids, I tell ya!
There was another guy telling people he would pay for their FULL DAY rental the next day, if they would let him have the HALF DAY reservation on Saturday. CRAZY!! Anyhow, we loved it. Good food and drinks brought right to you, shade, a TV and ceiling fan, lounge chairs, plenty of towels and water, a fridge to bring more of your own snacks, etc. Totally worth it! We were quoted $149 for a half day, but upon check out we were only charged $133. I don't know if it's because I'm an AP holder, or what. I didn't think the cabana's got AP discounts, but maybe I'm wrong on that. Hmmmm…that’s about all I can think of for now. I’m happy to answer any questions anyone might have.
