Ok, we have decided to take a family trip to Walt Disney World. I have no clue where to start! I know we are shooting for going August 22- September 3rd. It will be my husband, my self, 12 year old son, 11 year old daughter, mother in law, father in law, brother in law, possibly brother in laws girlfriend. The idea is the in-laws will come back early with the kids so the hubby and I can have some down time before heading back.
So I was thinking of getting the 6 day park hopper water park and more passes....Will this be enough to see everything at all the different parks in DWD and Universal Studios? I have ordered the planning pack from DWD website just waiting now. The kids are not going to know about the trip until we are at Disney's doorstep. Husband and I did this when we went to Cali 5 years ago and loved the look on their faces, and it was just us and the kids.
We haven't booked our airline tixs yet, should i wait will the prices come down?
Is there promos that late in the year?
Should we stay in a hotel on the grounds or off?
What is the weather like during this time of the year?
Should we get a rental car?
The main planning boards are the Themeparks, Resort and Dining Boards.
As for us, we always stay on WDW property. We usually drive and never use our car the entire time we are there. We have flown before and we still didn't need a rental car. We like the Disney transportation system.
As a previous poster stated, Univeral Studios is a separate themepark that is not affiliated with Walt Disney World.
For the last 8 years WDW has had a
Free Dining promo for the dates you have listed for your vacation. We now rotate all of our yearly trips around the Free Dining Promos. With a free dining discount your family can save a huge amount of money at a value or a moderate resort. A room discount is better at a Deluxe resort - if the discount is at least 40%, if the room discount is less, then a free dining discount is better. Here's a link to everything about Free Dining discounts and promos:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2771101
With kids, I highly recommend the All-Star Movies Resort. It is by far my kids favorite resort.
We love, love, love the
Disney Dining Plan, the basic plan with 1 Table Service/Character Meal, 1 Counter Service/Fast Food Meal and 1 Snack per person per day. I find the Quick Service Plan a wash and the one time we did the Deluxe Plan my kids and husband hated it - big waste of time and money and certainly would recommend it for someone new to Disney. It's hard enough to navigate everything in WDW the first time you go without spending 6 or more hours per day getting to an from restaurants and eating. We have been touring Disney annually sincer our kids were 2, 3, 4 and 7 and we now try to rotate all of our trips around the Free Dining Promo dates. There's usually a free dining discount in mid/late August - September and select slow weeks in October, November, December, January, February and March.
I never recommend the hopper ticket option to people who are new to touring Disney, you don't need it. I would recommend 5 to 6 park days for a first visit - 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day Ak and 1 day DHS. If you are staying on-site, you don't really need your car, the Disney transporation is good, especially with it being your first time and not being familiar with Disney property. If you are wanting to visit one of the Water Parks, it's cheaper to just pay out of pocket for one of Water Parks.
Pick up a copy of The Unoffical Guide to Walt Disney World and check out their companion website,
www.touringplans.com. I use their crowd/best days calendar to plan all our park days and then once I know which park we will be in on which days I can make my Advance Dining Reservations around those parks or in resorts close to those parks. I highly recommend the Basic Disney Dining Plan if your party is going to eat at least one sit down/table service/character meal per day. You can make Advance Dining Reservations 180 before your check-in date.
There are tips I give to anyone new to touring WDW:
1. Make sure you have Advance Dining Reservations as a lot of table service restaurants and character meals do not take walk-ups and book up quickly, especially during Free Dining promos, which is when your family will be there.
2. Get to the parks at opening. You really can get a lot done in the morning because so many other people sleep in.
3. Eat lunch around 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. before the fast food places get busy. Then when while everyone else is eating lunch, you will have lower crowds.
4. I buy a ton of the two for a dollar ponchos at the dollar store and keep them in the backpack. That way you can throw them a way after use and not worry about keeping up with a wet bulky poncho the rest of the day. Bring throw away ponchos to wear on Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom, if not you WILL get soaked.
5. Other things I put in the backpack each morning are Tylenol/Motrin, small first aid kit, camera with extra batteries, small hand towel, hand sanitizer, wipes and a bottle of water.
6. Most single service items under $4.00 are considered a snack credit on the dining plan. A Turkey Leg is NOT a snack credit.
7. At Magic Kingdom always head to Fantasyland first, if you are not doing Fantasyland on a particular day then head to Splash Mountain first, then Big Thunder Mountain; at Epcot always ride Soarin' first and get a Fastpass for later after you get off of the ride; at Disney Hollywood Studios always ride Toy Story Mania first, then head over to Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror; and at Animal Kingdom ride Expedition Everest First then head to the Safari.
8. Favorite fast food restaurants at MK are Pecos Bills and Cosmic Rays; favorite fast food at Animal Kingdom is Flame Tree Grill and Pizzafari. If you are there while it very hot, go to Pizzafari.
9. If there are two lines going into an attraction, always take the line that goes to the left.
10. My best tip would have to be USE THE FASTPASS SYSTEM. Our rule of thumb is if the wait is 25 minutes or less, we wait in line. If the wait is 30 minutes or more, use a Fastpass. It is not highly publicized, but your Fastpass does not expire until the end of the day. You can never use it before the return time stamp on the pass, but you can always use it after. We try to collect Fastpasses during the early part of the day and then use them later in the afternoon when the parks become more crowded.
Click on this link and it will give you an excellent overview of Fastpass. It is from Doconeil here on the Disboards and super helpful:
http://www.oinc.net/disney/fastpass.php
If you still don't understand, just let me know your specific questions.
11. I like the Photopass. You can pre-buy it before your trip for $99.00. When you enter the parks you will see the staff photographers, they will take your pictures and give you a Photopass and you can use that for the rest of your trip. Each time you see a photographer have them take your picture and they will scan your picture. Then when you get home you can pull up the pictures, with the code they email you after purchase, and pick the photos you want on a CD. They will then mail you the CD and the copyrights to the CD and you can take them to
Walmart or Walgreens or wherever and get them developed. They also have a lot of cool software that you can use to edit your photos before you have them put on the CD.
My favorite Disney planning sites are:
www.disboards.com
www.allearsnet.com
www.wdwinfo.com
www.intercot.com
