Hi, thank you in advance for your advice. I am planning on to take my wife and my 5 year old son to Disney World. We have never been there before. So I have no ideas how many days will be sufficient. I want to have a relaxed holiday. Also is there any good travel site selling package (hotel+park tickets) to Disney World? I am thinking booking flights through travelocity, hotel through priceline and buy park tickets at the door. Is that a good idea? Again, thank you in advance.
I've been to Disney World at least 5 times, and in my opinion, you should always stay on Disney property.
Agreed. Won't include airfare, but Disney packages are the way to go in my opinion. Includes transportation from the airport (and luggage delivery), and transportation between your lodging and the parks. AND you can purchase items at the parks and they will send them to your room while you continue to wander around.
I've spent quite a bit of time looking in to this lately and have found out that Disney packages are usually priced higher than if you buy everything separate because you can't get the current "deals" or "specials". Check out this website for tips and advice with Disney Vacations..It is proving to help me quite a bit. I've found I can price a package and save about more than 1k over the Disney website: www.mousesavers.com Good luck & have fun.
All the hotels within Disney and most around Disney have complimentary shuttles..even if you don't stay at a Disney property.
Don't buy the tickets at the door - check out this site for good ticket prices. They are cheaper, and the ARE a valid Disney retailer of tickets..meaning they are all real tickets and not the fakes you'd get on craigslist or ebay. http://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/attractions/tickets.html
Try and plan the trip when school is still going on if possible. The crowds can be brutal during the summer. They do have certain parks open for hotel guests only at certain times on certain days but most are very late (midnight-2am?) and I’m not sure you’d want to take advantage of that with a 5 year old. They do have a fast pass system for most rides but you can only get 1 pass at a time. While this makes it more tolerable, it is still brutal IMO. Most have a 1+ hour comeback time so you might be able to take advantage of that 5-10 at most during the day. The rest of the time you’ll spend waiting in line. I’ve killed parks before and finished in the early afternoon and I’ve been killed before getting in 6 rides in 1 day. Now if you do the Universal Fast Pass staying on the property – that is way cool because almost every ride is a walk on for guests. But Disney is probably better for your 5 year old if they’ve never been. Yes staying on property will give you perks like extended hours (though you probably won’t use them), easy travel to and from the parks and airport pick-up/drop off there is a pretty steep cost associated with this. If you don’t use the Disney extended hours, you are paying a major premium for transportation and that’s not the end either. No car means you will eat all your meals at the parks or the hotel. That gets old to me and it’s not cheap. The car gives you the flexibility to go where you want for breakfast before you get there and if you want something different on the way home. You need to load up on pancakes in with fruit topping before you hit Space Mountain or the Teacups. You still get to use their fast pass just the same as the hotel guests. Don’t get me wrong, the hotels are nice but you can get the same quality hotel or better for $200 a night less. If you are only staying a couple of days and you want to just come and go as you please then I agree it’s nice. But if you are staying a week and you are hitting them (parks) and forgetting them, it’s not worth $1000+ bucks to me ($1400 hotel - $400 car you’ll have to pay + extra cost of food).
I'm going at the end of this month. Prepare to empty out your wallet like the water flows from the faucet. By the way, we bought theme park tickets through AAA. They offer some discounts.
in 09 me and the ex actually at the time we were exes did disney with 3 kids. we spent $150 per ticket on airfare $750 total, bags flew free it was southwest we did a condo, with two bedrooms, four full size beds and a kitichen with refridge and stove top for about $750 for five days we rented a car for $200 for the week a corrola, surprisingly big we didn't do the resort discount, not worth it, bought a package of 4 park passes per person for the price of three. that ended up being about $1200 ($80x5x3) hotel had shuttle, saves a lot on parking I think that was great, $3K without eating for five people but it was at the height of the recession so we got great deals i've only been once but i would recommend just getting your hotel and buying the tickets when you get down there. there really isn't much discount in the packages
It is too damn expensive. My mother will probably be paying for us to go there one day. We went to Orlando last year, but went to Busch Gardens and Sea World.
Disneyland Not sure if you're set on Disney World but have you considered Disneyland? I recently went in November with my 3 year old daughter and I think it's the perfect size for that age group. It's not too big that I felt overwhelmed to see everything. Also, they seemed to have many rides for that age group. They have Disneyland and Disney California Adventure (http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneys-california-adventure/). I also spent some time near San Diego to check out the Zoo and Lego Land. Check out this San Diego City Pass for discounts on attractions (http://www.citypass.com/california/san-diego-zoo). Lego Land was not that great for adults so I would leave it for last. The rides are definitely mostly for little kids. Also, I agree with staying at the resort as they have some nice restaurants and no need to drive. They have some days where resorts guests can get into the park an hour early. This was great to get on rides known to be very popular without waiting in long lines. There is also an Alamo Rent a Car on site if you decide to drive somewhere else after your Disney Land stay. Right now there appears to still be discounts with resort stays (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/). I'll eventually take my daughter to Disney World but I think I'll wait until she is older to be able to handle walking the bigger park and being tall enough to get on more of the rides.
:grin: We live like 5 miles away from Disneyland here in Fullerton, CA. We have a perfect view in our yard for the firework show every night there. Thank you for all your kind advices. I am taking notes. How many days will be enough? We want to take it easy, but then it really is for our son. I plan to spend around $2.5k on everything for a 4 night 5 day trip there from L.A. Is that too conservative?
Oh, didn't know that. Lucky you, California was really nice. You can probably do that if you stay offsite as the Disney Resorts are pretty expensive. Just gotta check the flights and hotels. Make sure to checkout sites like Ebates, MrRebates, BigCrumbs to earn cash back on your online hotel & flight bookings. Also search for coupon codes. For example, hotels.com has a coupon to save between $20 & $100 when you use this code: "REBATES12"
believe me dude, i didn't want to do it. i would have rather just drove down to miami and hung out on the beach. i would rather take the kids to see nature. when i was in jail, i mentioned in that thread about talking to this truck driver. now this technically isn't nature but he told me the thing i need to see in this country up close is mt rushmore
One of the most important thing in planning a trip to Disney world is KNOWING WHEN TI GO. Trust me there is nothing worse than your Disney magic being killed by huge crowds. Check this link out for times to visit. It's for 2011 but it hardly changes year to year. http://yourfirstvisit.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Disney-World-2011-Week-Rankings.jpg Also, get fast passes to the rides you wanna ride the most, early in the morning. Get to the park as early as you can. Your 5 year old will LOVE the new toy story ride at Hollywood Studios so be sure to take him there. I've been to Disney about 20 times lol. So I can answer any other questions you have. Cheers!
Stay on resort, go for about a week. Get the parkhopper- Disney's good at making themselves affordable in all ranges, there's a couple of different levels for hotels, and I've found that each is well worth the price. Not sure how much it is, but I liked the Carribbean Beach resort- I think that's on the 2nd lowest price tier. Although, I did stay at the lowest tier whne I was younger and had no complaints. The buses are useful, no need to drive. Go during school if possible, summer can be a bit crowded, but it's not too too bad. The best time is probably either now or March. Epcot has some good food, but there are good restaurants in each park (except the animal kingdom and water parks). Message me if you want specific recommendations, I have a laundry list of places you can eat.
Does anyone still drive to Disney world in Florida from Houston. When we were young we did this. It seems cool to do this and spend a night in New Orleans then maybe a night at a beach in Alabama. Curious if this is till common.
How far is it? I drive from Jersey to Disney, it's about 18 hours on I-95. Leave early Saturday morning, go down I-95, sleep in St. Augustine, check in, and have lunch at the magic kingdom.
