I'm planning a Disney World vacation- any tips??

Julie Billingsley

Julie Billingsley

The Ghost of Awesome Past
So, I'm planning a WDW vacation for March 2009!! :thumbup: :) :w00t: This is a HUGE deal for us because
#1- we never go on vacation (last one was six years ago)
#2- it's to celebrate my DH's college graduation!!!
#3- it will be the last family vacation for Jacob (my oldest) because he will be a junior in high school
#4- it will be the first vacation for Logan (my youngest)

so this vacation is such a huge deal that I'm already planning now :) but if you've been there, I'd LOVE to hear any advice on going! And especially if you've gone during Spring Break (I should have my head examined!!) if you could tell me about that!

and as my travel agent says, Have a Disney Day!
 
Wow, you're going during spring break? Well, the first piece of advice that comes to mind is, stay out of the parks:p

LOL seriously, we went a couple years ago in April, not during school breaks (we are homeschoolers and purposely plan our vacations that way because we can and I hate crowds).

I would say plan for any weather. Wear comfortable shoes, layers, and bring rain ponchos. It rains just a little every single day. Bring swim wear for the kids, they have little sprayground type play areas for the kids to cool off in, and it's nice to have a change of clothes for that. Bring sunscreen.

Don't try to do everything, it's impossible!

Well, that's all I have because we've only been once, and we are no pros. I just had to chime in because I love WDW!!! Have fun!!! So cool!
 
You need to contact Kim Lund (Miss Kim). I don't know if she posts here, but you can either catch her at DST or at her blog. Disney and Branson are her specialities. She will have you hooked up with more info than you know what to do with in no time. :)
 
taking me with you. not sure if that is a tip or just really good advice :) LOL.. actually i'm not a huge fan of amusement parks but getting away would be nice :P
 
I would email Janet Phillips, Julie. They have season passes and I know she's always posting on her blog about going to disney. I'm sure she can help you out.

I love disney, whatever you do, you'll have a blast.
 
Oh, and if you haven't already, go to Disney online and find the planning dvd. It's free, I ordered it a while ago and it has a lot of great information about hotels and parks. Didn't have to pay anything for it and I got it in about a month.
 
I've been to Disney 21 times, and we're going again in June of 2010.

Spring Break is not the *best* time, but if that's what you've got, go for it.

I will add a small caveat here that spring break tends to be Gay Pride Week at Disney. Do with that what you will.

I will recommend staying on property. There are several benefits to this, and the value resorts are not bad, price wise. If you are a resort guest, the parks do open a bit early for you, and you can get some of the more crowded rides done, such as Space Mountain.

Use the fast pass. This is huge in getting things done that you want to get done.

Do not try to do both parades in one day. Do the afternoon parade and then do the evening light parade.

Start booking meal reservations now. Character meals are expensive, but I do recommend at least one. Breakfasts are the cheapest character dining option. The winnie the pooh one at the Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom is nice.

I could go on all day.... do you have specific questions??
 
Heck yes..gay week! Jules and I are thinking about going down to Orlando soon..so the replies here will help me too. :) I've been once a long time ago and he is a Disneyland regular, so it will be fun to go with him for the first time.
 
I've been a ton too and my biggest advice is to get to the park early. I mean right before it opens. On extremely crowded days like Spring Break, you can often get more rides in during that first hour than the entire rest of the day. We just got back from Disneyland and the park was EMPTY for the first two hours and then PACKED for the rest of the day. I just don't know why more people don't "get it", but it works out great for us early birds.
 
Well, the parks will be crowded for Spring Break, however the weather will be much nicer in March versus June-August. Personally, I prefer to go to Disney whenever it's not scorching hot. :p So, that's a big plus right there.

We go often. However, my approach to Disney wouldn't be the same as someone coming here for vacation. We go for a few hours in the AM and come home around lunch. ;)

I DO recommend making ressies for character meals. We love doing those whenever we can.

Bring lots of sunscreen and clothes you can layer. It will probably be warm but then again, there might be some weird cold front. You just never know.

Bring some rain ponchos or umbrellas so you don't have to pay the Disney prices if you get caught during an afternoon rainstorm while at the parks.

Start going to the DIS boards and read up on all the info there. VERY helpful site for anything Disney related.
 
kscwgirl said:
I will add a small caveat here that spring break tends to be Gay Pride Week at Disney. Do with that what you will.
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Is Gay Pride Week the same as Gay Days? I found a reference to that being in June- http://www.mousesavers.com/wdwspecialevents.html#gaydays

Our spring break is March 20-28, and since every school has a different time, I'm HOPING that our week of break isn't the same as everyone elses. Any Florida girls that can tell me when yours is??
 
ooooh julie you will have so much fun! i LOOOVe planning Disney vacations.

Start by coming up with a list of your priorities as far as your trip is concerned.

Where do you want to stay, how many beds do you need, are things like room service and pay per view important to you in a hotel. Do you mind getting a rental car and driving to the parks or would you like to be able to hop on a shuttle and go.

After all our trips to WDW we really enjoy staying off property now because we feel we get much more for our money that way but I also HAD to stay on property a few times before I felt that way just to get it out of my system.

The Dis Discussion forums are a fabulous source of inspiration and I would suggest you pick up A Passporter Guide Book too as it's a great tool in planning as well. I see you already have the link to mousesavers which is wonderful so you're off to a great start.

If you have any specific questions - do let us know - I know there are gobs of us with lots of disney vacation planning experience! I think we may be going back again this December too!

Robin
 
Uhhhhh...excuse me?!!!!! :blink:

WE HAVE TO MEET UP!! I live in Orlando, Mrs. Billingsley!!!!!!

And Robin - if you come in December you better let me know too!!!
 
- Buy two books: Mickey's Hidden Treasures and Burnbam's (sp) Unofficial Guide to Disney.
- Go to mousesavers.com for lots of great pointers
- Buy the meal package, everyone I talked to at the park made me wish I had! But if you don't try to find a hotel that offers a free breakfast buffet, we did that and had a huge breakfast every morning, small lunch and then ate a good dinner.
-Get a backpack on wheels for things like ponchos, extra water (it costs a fortune in the park) sunscreen, camera, batteries, etc as wearing a backpack gets tedious - oh and rent a locker.
-Get parking passes if you belong to AAA and get your tickets to the parks through them if you aren't doing a hotel/park package because they saved us a bundle.
-Have fun!
 
Thanks everyone for great advice! :)
I already booked the room (room only for now because packages aren't available until August) at the POLYNESIAN!! :) Since we have such a gap in ages of our boys, we might go back to the hotel with Logan and let Jacob stay in the park, or split up often... thus our decision to stay on a monorail resort to ease in transportation. We'll be there for 8 days late March. I'm still gasping at the costs, but hey, ya only live once. :)
I've signed up at the disboards and have read Mousesavers, booked the trip through Small World Vacations. But there is just SO much to take in that I'm currently overwhelmed! LOL... luckily I have 10 months to figure it out!
Any one use Tour Guide Mikes? I've been thinking of signing up there, but since it's a pay site, I was wondering if it was worth it.
Keep the suggestions coming! :)
 
Hey Julie,

Unless you're major itinerary type vacationers, I wouldnt pay for TGM. I think you can find all the major information you'll need from the disboards, mousesavers and the passporter site - TGM is pretty renown for his park by park itineraries ie. arrive at the park 8:30am head to space mountain immediately and get a fast pass, then go ride x y z.

Rocky and I are much more laid back vacationers (we dont want to have to be anywhere except dinner maybe at a specific time) so it just depends on your style. If you're commando vacationers, TGM is supposed to be really good.

HTH!
R
 
LOL... I'm not sure we are commando types, but I sure don't want to fight the crowds more than neccessary. I do have the Unoffical Guide to WDW also, so perhaps that is enough. Although I will say that traveling to the East Coast from the West Coast is going to cause MAJOR time issues. I can't imagine getting up at 7am EST since that is 4am my time. :blink: Any suggestions on that?
 
this isn't helpful, but sometimes, if you are first in line for the monorail, they will let you ride up front with the driver and they used to give mouse ear pins to the little kids when they rode up front. :)
 
We're west coasters too Julie and I've found the adrenaline and excitement of going totally gets us through the first day and after that we're ready to go and dont notice the difference!

I'd recommend you look for the first flight out on your departure date - there is usually one that leaves at 6:25am or something god awful that means you have to be up and at the airport by before 5am but you usually arrive in orlando at 2:30pm or so which gives you a bit of time to poke around on day one and also means you're tired and crash earlier than normal on night one so you're ready to get up and going on day two.

That flight has been the perfect solution for us so maybe it will work for you guys too.

R
 
Oh I just LOVE WDW!!!!! :)

If you are staying at the Polynesian make sure to go the the Luau they have! It is something fun to do... the closest to Hawaii I ever got!

My biggest piece of advice is since you will be there for 8 days, take your time and take it all in and plan on being at each park a full day is you want to see it all. For instance, the first time we went to the animal kingdom we were there from like 9 am until 7 pm but we did like every little thing imaginable!

ALSO... the fast pass as someone mentioned is just a must have!

I really enjoy Downtown Disney and my favorite restaurant is called Bongos, which is a cuban place with amazing food! You can easliy go back there each night ot hang out and eat at different places and walk around people watching.

OK... lastly... if you have time check out Sea World and/or Universal Studios if you haven't been there as they are fun and get you out of the disney atmosphere for a bit.

I am sure there is more I can say but the advice you have gotten from everyone else has been solid stuff! :)

I so think that there needs to be a SSD convention or something in Orlando -- let's all go!!!!!!!! ;)
 
Oh how fun! I've only been to Disneyland in CA. I would love to go to Disneyworld though!

If you haven't already, you might want to check out mouseplanet.com They have a discussion forum with prev trip reports. Lots of helpful ideas there.
 
Oh yes! Kristina brings up a great point... you guys HAVE to make time for Universal Islands of Adventure - Julie your boys will LOVE it. It was seriously one of the highlights of our last trip and we have little ones. It's a GREAT park and not to be missed!

R
 
oh really? I just figured that Universal was for the older kids, so I had written it off for my 5 year old. I'll have to check out it now :) And I'd LOVE to go to Sea World. I should check into busses to those places because we aren't renting a car.
 
We also did not go to Universal but we did go to Universal City Walk and have dinner and walk around on our first day there since our plane got in around 3 after we went to the hotel and checked in and unpacked. We are wishing we did now but my boys are 12 and 9. I had no idea how they were going to do on big rides so I didn't want to spend the extra money on tickets. Live and learn!

Our hotel did have a shuttle but we rented a car. It is so cheap and everything is pretty close so we only used one tank of gas. We rented a mini van for like $250 for the 8 week we were there. But we also stayed out of the park so it was kind of a must. :)
 
juliebee70 said:
oh really? I just figured that Universal was for the older kids, so I had written it off for my 5 year old. I'll have to check out it now :) And I'd LOVE to go to Sea World. I should check into busses to those places because we aren't renting a car.
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I am not 100% but I think if you are staying at a Disney Resort they do have shuttles to Sea World and Universal... but both places are so close to Disney, within miles, so they are very easy to get to even if you jumped into a cab!
 
juliebee70 said:
oh really? I just figured that Universal was for the older kids, so I had written it off for my 5 year old. I'll have to check out it now :) And I'd LOVE to go to Sea World. I should check into busses to those places because we aren't renting a car.
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Last time we went to WDW (Nov '07), we called a car service to take us to Sea World and to bring us back in the evening. It was very convenient and they were very prompt.

This is their website:

http://www.quicksilver-tours.com/ratesquotes.asp

but I'm sure there are many other car services around.

There is a local bus service that you can take from the TTC to Sea World but the bus schedule didn't work well for us. If you want the information for that, though, let me know and I'll send it to you. I have it saved in my WDW Excel worksheet (yes, I'm one of those people who plan their trips using worksheets :) )

Helen
 
hhleung said:
Last time we went to WDW (Nov '07), we called a car service to take us to Sea World and to bring us back in the evening. It was very convenient and they were very prompt.

This is their website:

http://www.quicksilver-tours.com/ratesquotes.asp


Helen
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Thanks for the link! I might look into that! Although with those prices it might be cheaper to rent a day for a day. I bookmarked the site though because that could be an easy way to get around!
 
I hope you have fun! We are hoping to go this fall. My ILs that live in Sarasota have an RV that we will borrow and stay at the campgrounds at Disney. Doesn't sound very glamorous, but I like the idea of having a kitchenette so we don't have to eat out for every meal.

Keeps the tips coming, ladies! :thumbup:
 
I'm not to savvy when it comes to tips per say. Other then use your fast passes, bring camelbacks and have a lot of patience. Above all use fast passes! They are amazing! Have so much fun we just got back from Disneyland on Sunday night. =)
 
Robin Carlton said:
Oh yes! Kristina brings up a great point... you guys HAVE to make time for Universal Islands of Adventure - Julie your boys will LOVE it. It was seriously one of the highlights of our last trip and we have little ones. It's a GREAT park and not to be missed!

R
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ITA! Islands of Adventure is a must! I think your oldest son will especially love it! I know they have stuff for the younger kids now but we have not been out there in awhile.

ETA: Julie, since Olivia is not in school, I am not sure about the local Spring Break schedules but I will see what I can find out!
 
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