Yet another Disney thread/question

Aren't Dolphin and Swan part ofvthe Disney group?

If you don't already have it, get the latest version of 'The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World'. We found this invaluable when planning our Disney vacation when our kids were 5 and 9. I believe that it is updated every year, so you want the current version. We got info we would not otherwise have had, including tips on Character meals, How to get a chance to ride in the front of the monorail, and how to reserve and pay for the cheapest resort and then upgrade to a high end resort at no additional charge. (If the latter was not fully booked.) Unfortunately, we were too chicken to try the last one mentioned so we reserved and paid for one of the more costly (medium) places. But as I checked in, the person next to me was doing exactly that and he got the same accommodations we had for half the price. (There were many other tidbits also, but those stand out in our memory.)

That was 14 years ago, so I'm sure that many of the hints and tips in the book are different now with changing practices at the parks, but I would not think about planning a Disney trip without an updated copy of that book.

Random thoughts - if you are going for 7 nights (and therefore have time), it usually does not make sense to go into the parks on the first or last day given when you will likely arrive at the hotel and when you have to leave for the airport.

Last year we went the same Wednesday of jersey week and found tickets from Newark to be astronomical. Nyc airports were cheaper but we ended up flying out of white plains. Parking is expensive there but we still saved a lot of money. Newburg is a similar situation.

I would HIGHLY recommend 2 strollers, a single and a double, that all the kids fit in. Your oldest will get tired and renting in the parks is expensive and unnecessarily time consuming. Also you can't take them back to the bus area, which can be far away. We rented a jogger after arriving at the airport only to realize we forgot our strollers and it worked our great. Our son sit on the front if one adult had 3 kids (we went with my brother's family) or the cousins could mix and match depending on who wanted to do what. Given the age differences with your kids you will almost certainly split up in the parks, or even go to different parks.

Fast pass fast pass fast pass, especially if you are trying to meet the frozen gang.

The Prime Time Cafe at Disney's Hollywood Studios is really fun--it's a cross between a Fifties diner, and a stage set of Fifties-style kitchens from someone's home. The waitstaff act in character. It's as much fun as a ride! You usually need to make reservations in advance.

Swan/Dolphin are cheaper if you were doing a deluxe resort. They aren't cheaper than a value or most moderates. And they don't include Magical Express so you have to add that transport cost in. They also don't quite have the Disney magic but they are pretty hotels.

Once you are buying a multi- day ticket, it is literally a few $ to add another day so there is no reason ( other than if you are tired) to not pop into a park on arrival or departure day. If you want down days, sure, but if you are thinking you'd be saving big bucks between a 6,7 or 8 day ticket, that's not the case.

Disboards is the best resource- all the latest info.

And, sadly, no one can ride in the front car of the monorail anymore since the death a few years back in the monorail accident. My nephew used to love getting the front and the little cards.

Food and wine is great. But plan to do it the second week of your stay, not the weekend or arrival days. Big 1/2 marathon and huge weekend crowds for F&W will make Epcot pretty packed from Nov 5-8

One other thing that's kind of fun, at night, after you've left the park, is to watch the Electical Water Pageant in the lagoon. One of the best places to see it is from the beach behind Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, 9PMish.

@spontaneous, make sure you look through my "First trip to Disney" blog/thread as there are lots of great suggestions for places to eat. I included my trip report there with all of our dining options. Overall I disagree that the food is not great - we had some really delicious meals!! My son still talks about eating in the car at Sci-Fi Drive In in Hollywood Studios.

I agree with tarheelsinNJ on the food. I think there are some excellent restaurants in WDW. A few I even really look forward to every year. And most of the rest are good- very good. There are a few duds so post your ideas and we can help steer you away from those. And many also talk about how expensive it is- I think it is relative to what you pay in our area. Counter lunch is around $8-11 for a full meal with drink and sides, sit-down dinner can be around $15-30 for an entrée depending on where you eat. Character meals can be $35-55 pp so plan those well. For example, we do a late lunch at Crystal Palace that sort of serves as lunch and dinner and then do snacks the rest of the day.

How far ahead do you have to make a reservation for a character meal? Is it possible to do it the same week so I can see how the kids react to seeing people dressed as characters before committing to it? Or should we just make the reservation at the same time we book and just cancel if the kids freak (not in a good way) the first time they see a character up close when we get there? I'm just remembering how wary mine were when they saw the guy dressed as a turtle in front of Turtle Back Zoo so I won't be surprised if they are happy to see Winnie The Pooh but want to see him from a safe distance.

@TarheelsInNj I will check that out. I know there were multiple Disney threads and in the past I saw a LOT of useful information in them.

spontaneous said:

How far ahead do you have to make a reservation for a character meal? Is it possible to do it the same week so I can see how the kids react to seeing people dressed as characters before committing to it? Or should we just make the reservation at the same time we book and just cancel if the kids freak (not in a good way) the first time they see a character up close when we get there? I'm just remembering how wary mine were when they saw the guy dressed as a turtle in front of Turtle Back Zoo so I won't be surprised if they are happy to see Winnie The Pooh but want to see him from a safe distance.

Make the reservations as soon as possible for character meals. You can always cancel up until the day before without any issue. We found the princesses were much easier on the little ones as they look like normal people. Our little was scared to death of Pooh at first but eventually warmed up as long as mom or dad was between her and the character.

We always found the character lunches to be really great as it allows you to go inside and rest for an hour. Pooh's lunch at the Crystal Plaza is one of our favorites at the Magic Kingdom as its a buffet so it so go at your own pace and you can have as much as you want. They even have a great desert bar to finish up with. They have all the basics for the kids with mac and cheese, chicken, etc but have some nice options for adults. Cinderella's castle is great but a little pricey but you do get a majority of the princesses in one shot vs waiting in lines all over the park.

You book meals 90 days out.. do not wait, these fill up fast - you can always cancel a meal. Our little guys liked breakfast in Hollywood Studios with the Little Einsteins, Jake (from the Pirates), Handy Manny and Oso. Cinderella, her step-mother, step-sisters and Prince Charming were a hoot at the dinner at The Grand Floridian. We enjoyed the food at the Crystal Palace the most with Winnie the Pooh, Tiger, et al. Epcot's Coral Reef (no characters but a lovely huge aquarium that covers one wall) is one of our favorites. We also like Raglan Road in the Downtown section (we're Irish).

UMCanes said:

They have all the basics for the kids with mac and cheese, chicken, etc but have some nice options for adults.

Um, my husband and I love mac and cheese, but our boys won't touch the stuff. Kappa maki, no problem. Mac and cheese? Gross. I think someone switched our children at birth and somewhere a foodie couple is wondering why their kids only want chicken fingers and hot dogs.

Meals can be booked 180 days out. Chef Mickeys needs to be booked within a week of bookings opening up for your trip at that 180 mark or so. If you want to eat in the castle (Princess character meal)- you have to be on-line or on the phone right at 180 days. My favorite- Crystal Palace (best food- Winnie & the Pooh theme)- is a bit more flexible and you could probably get it a few months before. Tusker House at AK park is usually available a month or two before. But you definitely cant walk up to any character meal and get in.

They usually have kids staples but also nice options for kids that eat better. Grilled chicken and rice, steak, grilled fish are often other kids options.

Be aware that all dining reservations require cc deposit now and you must remember to cancel 24 hrs before or you'll pay a $10 pp penalty.

I am so naive to the cost of Disney. And the sheer amount of planning! It's like going into battle. Good luck on this! I'm very impressed you're going with a baby.

@Annemarie if you do it right, the planning can also be really fun. Or maybe I'm just a planning nerd (that's probably more likely). I really enjoyed that part of it!! And my husband comments all the time about how great our trip was, in large part because of the research I did.

Yes, I'm realizing this isn't a "Hey, let's go to Disney!" "Great!" type of thing. I think I won't be mentally ready to take it on for a few more years. (Or maybe I'll just outsource the planning!)

And now back to our regularly scheduled thread helping spontaneous!

I actually like planning stuff out, I'll make spread sheets and run numbers like hotel and airfare costs 20 different ways. I like winging it once I'm where I'm going. This worked out well for me when I went to Europe, I spent hours and hours looking at flights and seeing how much fares changed if I moved dates around and went to different airports. As a result I was able to afford to see so much more than I would have otherwise. Of course, had I not liked planning and doing google searches then those hours spent looking for different flights would have been sheer torture.

My ex hated planning. He also made fun of me for the amount of pre-planning I do before a trip, including my packing checklists. Of course, we went on vacation together and when we woke up our first day in Maine he realized that he had forgotten to pack any pants. He literally only had the one pair he had worn on the car ride up. He wasn't the one laughing then. )

@Annemarie I will happily plan for you

The thing about Disney is that there are so many ways to make it wonderful. Sure, there are rookie mistakes that can be made but as long as you aren't thinking "this is the only time in my kids' lives that they will go so we have to do everything" you can take a lot of the pressure off. I actually love seeing what new thing strikes my son's fancy every year, and even my daughter recognizes cinderella's castle. There are probably 5 things I have to do in a given trip but otherwise we let the kids have fun.

That is actually why I agreed to go for so many days rather than trying to go for only three or four days. This way we wouldn't feel compelled to try to fit too much in any one day and end up overwhelmed rather than happy. And with the baby only being nine months old in November we know that we will be back at least once.

conandrob240 said:

And, sadly, no one can ride in the front car of the monorail anymore since the death a few years back in the monorail accident. My nephew used to love getting the front and the little cards.

Aww, so sorry to hear that. But, that's an example of why I always recommend that people get their hands on the latest UGWDW version rather than borrowing a used one.

With Disboards and similar, I think that guide isn't as necessary anymore. Disboards has to the minute info/tips and the new My Disney Experience app has tons of stuff like maps, menus, wait times.

Do they still do that lodging upgrade thing? I was so impressed with that when I read about it and then observed it at the time.

@spontaneous I would highy suggest planning a day in the middle of the week to do nothing- sleep late, hang out at the hotel, swim, visit Dowtown Disney, whatever, but not a park. We did two days in Magic Kingdom, one Hollywood Studios, one Epcot and 1/2 Animal Kingdom, and by the end we were a little "parked out." We could have used an extra day in the middle just to chill. Plus there were fun activities at the resort we didn't even get to try!

One year, we were headed out around 3pm to go back to a park and my 9 yr old nephew said " It's hot. we should really just relax by the pool and eat Mickey bars" Such wisdom from such a young kid. We thought HE wanted all the action! . Now, we always take time to just relax by the pool and eat Mickey Bars ( and drink adult beverages)

We booked the flight with one minor change. We are flying out on Tuesday rather than Wednesday because the only Wednesday flight at that price was 6am and there is no way in hell I am getting all the kids up and dressed that early. And if I am going to spend extra money I'd rather it be on food and a room rather than a mid afternoon flight. Of course my husband was more than happy to hear we will have an extra day there so no complaints from him.

My husband wants to surprise the kids with this. I'd rather tell them. Either way I'm sure it won't sink in for the two year old, but the five year old will understand and I'd rather he also understand that this is a big trip that took a lot of planning and money rather than thinking it was no big deal and we just threw it together at the last minute on a whim. Plus it will give him something to look forward to for the next six months.

@spontaneous IMO, 6 months is a looooooooong time for a 5-year-old (or at least, it is for my 5-year-old!!). We debated a lot about when to tell him, and I decided I didn't want to live with months of "is it time to go yet?!" We told him a few days before, which was really cool because he had a lot of the anticipation and excitement but it wasn't torture.

We showed him the Disney Parks planning DVD just as a "hey, here's a new DVD to watch" thing. Then after, we asked him if there was anything in there he thought might look fun and if it's a place he'd like to go one day. Then we asked him if he might like to go there on Wednesday, and he FLIPPED out LOL.

^ This was my thought............Nine months is a little too much anticipatory excitement for a 5-year old, I think. I'd keep quiet for now.