Broadband Tech > General Questions > Disney (Florida): Recommendations / Opinions / Conjecture

reply to CylonRed

Re: Disney (Florida): Recommendations / Opinions / Conjecture

reply to psafux
You say you are not renting a car so how will you get to sea world and USF or Bush Gardens which is 70 miles away? A taxi I guess. I know people stay at Disney and use the buses and all but I always have my car and I can come and go as I please. No waiting for a bus.

Maybe group your off site park visits in to a few days and rent a car at the auto service center right out side the parking lot at Magic Kingdom. Figure in cost of rental and parking which is about 15 bucks at USF to the cost of getting the whole family there and back via taxi.

Also if you have a car you can do local shopping instead of shipping food down and eat at off site which might save money as well.

And if there is an emergency of any kind from medical to you ran out of something you can hope in the car and go get it.

I stayed off resort and they had shuttle buses to the different parks. We stayed extra late the one night and ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel. Still cheaper than renting for the week.

reply to psafux
I've been 15-16 times. I started going when I was still in a stroller and there was just one park. As much as I love going to Disney 10 days is a really long time. I think the ideal time is 6-7 days. If you want to take a trip that long look at a Disney Cruise + Time in the parks.

I've been there just about every month, December, February, March, April, June, July, August, etc. We have always avoided holidays and peak times when possible. First week of June and last week of August are good summer times as well as the week before or after 4th of July (but not during) work well.

If you can be flexible watch for a time where you can get a free meal package and maybe spend a few bucks to upgrade that. It's without a doubt well worth it. Kouzzina By Cat Cora and Flying Fish Cafe are expensive without it but they both have the best steaks I've ever had anywhere. If you go this route start looking ahead of time at places to have a nice dinner and make your reservations early before you leave.

If you have kids I really really suggest you wait until one or both are out out diapers or nearly out of diapers. The older they are the easier your trip will be not to mention they will remember more of the trip.

Staying in the park is the best thing if you are flying in. Disney's public transportation is the best way to get around even if you drive in.

There is more than one commercial airport in Orlando. Fly in to Orlando International Airport. There is free transportation to and from the airport provide by Disney. If you have the right airline you can check your baggage at the airport and you won't have to touch your luggage until you are in your room. Same thing on your return trip, Disney will take care of your luggage.
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Just posting to agree with everything battleop just said. This June will be our 17th trip. Doing the Flying Fish our first night. Can't wait to see the new Fantasy Land. Even if you can't get a free meal package, the Disney Dining plan can be a good deal if you like to eat a lot of nice "sit down" meals. Be sure to have a Grey Goose slush in France!
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reply to Hayward

reply to Thespis
I think the napkins taste great at the Flying Fish. PB&J Créme Brulée. Holy shit that was the best thing ever! I don't know what it's We are going again in 2014 and my wife loves Grey Goose. I'll have to remember that.
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reply to psafux
The wife and I went to WDW in Nov '11 and had a great time. We stayed onsite but no dining plan, planned each day out, and got to see all we wanted to.

In the beginning of Nov the weather was great, 80's, and there were no lines. I think it rained once the whole week.
We did one park a day-so no park hopper needed IMO.
We caught the parades-those were pretty cool.
Around November they do their 'Food & Wine' festival, so awesome, we kept coming back to Epcot just to try the different food & drinks.
I recommend the Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios.
We spent almost a day at Downtown Disney-place is huge-nice to check out.
Your planning way out, but don't forget to make reservations at restaurants (esp in Downtown Disney).
We downloaded the free Disney apps that showed the map, extra hours, what rides are at what park--to cut back on having to carry maps/papers/books around.

reply to psafux
One more thing... Most people know about Disney golf, but not many know about Disney fishing! It's a little pricey, but some of the best bass fishing ever and the guides are great.
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reply to psafux

Re: Disney (Florida): Recommendations / Opinions / Conjecture

reply to psafux
I forgot to mention pictures... You can use "Photopass" at the 6 Disney parks. They have photographers at key spots in the park, and also with all of the meet and greets. The first photographer will give you a serialized card. Anytime you want pics taken they'll scan it, and load it to that same card. If the family splits up you can have multiple cards linked to your account.

Once you register the card to the website the counter starts. The pics expire after 30 days, but I remember seeing an option to extend the deadline. I don't remember price or duration though. The last time I used that service a single digital download was $14.95, and an entire CD was $174.

reply to Thespis

reply to psafux
Several others have mentioned in the dining program, while it's a decent bargain, it has some downsides. Since its inception, the overall quality of food at Disney restaurants have gone downhill and the variety has decreased. This is kind of expected if you think about it because as far as the plan goes everything costs the same. Every restaurant isn't included in the plan, so some places you want to go may be out of bounds. Also if you have the plan and don't use every coupon you have for a meal or snack, you can't for anything else, so the value decreases. Also remember, even if they say it's free, you are paying for it somehow. Many times you can get a room discount that may work out better in the long run.

Another thing to think about for dining is that you need to plan on making your reservations, 180 days (or 190 days, depending on plan) before your trip. The prime restaurants fill up very rapidly. Once the window opens. It kind of takes away being able to eat at the spur of the moment or the kind of food you desire that day, but that's the way it works.

My biggest problem with the dining plan was not the plan itself, but trying to find a place to eat that wasn't already booked.
I never encountered a place I wanted to eat at that wasn't in the plan, not that there aren't places that the plan does not cover, just that I never wanted to eat there.

Plan or not, most of the places book a year or more in advance.
If you are flexible, you CAN get into most places as they get cancellations all the time, and in every Disney hotel, they have a concierge that will assist you in booking your meals.
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reply to psafux
Ok I just have to put my 2 cents in on this one.
I have also been too many times to count and am already planning my next visit in January.

It is never too early to start to plan a Disney vacation. I feel the earlier the better I like to look often at the air fares as they will fluctuate a lot. The longer you look the better chance of getting the best price will be. Also do not rule out flying into Tampa, an hour ride to the Disney area. Currently the airfares from my area to Tampa are half what it is to fly into Orlando. This only works out if you are renting a car, which I recommend. The Disney transportation system is nice but when your kids are tired and are ready to go back to the room, waiting at a bus stop doing nothing is not a fun experience for me or the others waiting for the bus. Also if you are planning on going to Sea World or Universal, Disney does not have transportation to those parks. After all why would they want you to spend your money at the competition. You could take a taxi if you wanted.

I have stayed at Moderate and the Value resorts as well as off property. I prefer the off property resorts. You DO NOT HAVE TO DO A TIMESHARE PRESENTATION TO GET A GOOD DEAL!!! There are plenty of places that have rack rates on the rooms. Westgate Vacation Villas, Orbit One Vacation Villas and Liki Tiki Village are a couple that come to my mind. I usually stay at Orbit or Liki Tiki. Both are owned by Island One Resorts. (I do not work for them in any way) All have 2 bedroom condo type accommodations. Full kitchens with everything you need, except the food... West Gate is more expensive and is a bit more up to date. Orbit can be had for as low as $68 a night. Check Hotels.com as that is where I have gotten the lowest price. There is not a lot there but if you are going to the parks all day what else do you need. It is clean and comfortable. Liki Tiki has a great water park for the kids if you are going to have "off" days. All of the above resorts are no more than a 15 minute ride to any of the parks and there are plenty of restaurants to choose from in the area. FYI, the resorts typicaly do not have any type of food service other than maybe coffee and danish in the lobby in the mornings. Liki Tiki does have a small snack bar at the water park but IMO the food is really not worth what they charge.

To save on food costs we like to stock up the kitchen at the Publix or the Super Target which are up the street a bit. We usually have breakfast and Dinner in and eat lunch at the parks. As an example of how much it costs to eat at Disney: In December we visited for a week, 7 days. We stayed at All Star Sports. For the 4 of us we spent a little over $400 on food alone. The previous May we spent 2 weeks at Liki Tiki. We spent a little under $300 on just food. And we ate better because we made most of our meals.

Drink Tip for the kiddos: If you plan on bringing your own drinks to the parks, juice boxes or the Capri Sun type drink pouches. Put half of them in the freezer the day before going to the park. When packing for the park, pack half frozen and half refrigerated in your insulated drink bag. No need for ice packs! Use the Juice!!! By the time you need the frozen ones they will be nice and cold.

As for the parks: If you have small kids, mine are 2 and 5, you will need to take your time. Most likely you will not see everything in one day. Look at the ticket prices at Disney.com and see the difference in a 4 day to a 7 day ticket. Currently it is only $38 more. Also, what MANY people do not know is that you can upgrade your ticket. If you get a 4 day ticket and on the 4th day you decide that you want to add more days, all you do is pay the difference. (I just found this out on our last trip). You MUST upgrade BEFORE your ticket is used up in its entirety or it expires. If you have AAA you can save a few bucks by getting your tickets at a local office too. They will also give you a AAA Preferred Parking Pass. Although at times the regular parking seems to be better than the preferred parking...
To Park Hop or to not Park Hop: The park hopper ticket allows you to go to all the parks in one day. This is an add-on to your base ticket. With little ones I do not see the benefit in this. You can easily use up an hour or more getting from one park to another. IMO the only time Park Hopping makes sense is if you are at Animal Kingdom and stay until it closes, which is typically earlier that the other parks, then go to EPCOT which is typically open later. I did this a lot when the Park Hopper was included in the base ticket.

It is difficult to get all the information and sort all the opinions about Disney from a forum like this. There are so many ways to enjoy Disney World. None of which are wrong. Remember that Disney wants you to come back and make it so you cannot do or see everything in one trip. I feel that the only way to find out what you like about Disney World is to visit more often and try different things. If you take your time and plan it out, you can save a ton of money and have a great time. When you are there, allow yourself to be a kid again and enjoy it!

Best advice is to RELAX.....
With ten days, you and the family can take in everything you want at a VERY slow pace.

Disney does NOT want you to leave their property, so they try to give you so much to do, that you can't possibly do it all.

Try taking your kids out on one of the Water Mice speedboats, they are great.
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What part of "Illegal" is so hard to understand...

reply to psafux
I use to go to theme parks once a week as well. One year we'd do Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks then next Disney and rotate parks. At one point we use to go to Bush Gardens Saturday AND Sunday. Legoland use to be Cypress Garden.

If your staying in Orlando forget Legoland and Bush Gardens. When we bring the kids down there we hit Sea World, Universal, Animal Kingdom, Disney, and/or Epcot. I got so much Bush Gardens I really never want to go back there. LOL

Just watch out for 'regulars'. We use to go to parks just to mess with tourists sometimes.

October has a low of 66 and a high of 85 over the last decade for Orlando. Overall it should be around 75 with a slight breeze.
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