Disney World - Florida

[Peter Elliott]

OK, any help with planner a trip to Disney World this spring. Time to take the little one (7yr girl) for spring break.

Looking to stay at the Caribbean Resort. Plan on having 4 park days.
Fly into Orlando and assume will take the free shuttle to the resort.

Best place to get a package deal?
Do's and Don'ts

Dare I ask is there anything cool woodworking wise?

Thanks
Peter

[John M Wilson]

There is a ton of info out there on this, and my family found that doing a little work up front made our vacation there even more enjoyable.

First, I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World" by Bob Sehlinger. There is also a version for travelling with kids. Both are filled with info you will need before going there (such as suggestions & tips on where to stay, how to get around, etc.) and info on what to do when you get there (how to avoid the crowds, best places to eat, etc.)

A few things stand out in my mind from our trip there a few years ago. We found staying on site to be well worth it, in order to take advantage of the following suggestion: Do not go to one of the parks and stay there all day. It is exhausting for everyone, particularly the 7 year old. Much more enjoyable is to get up fairly early, eat breakfast in your room, hit one of the parks when they open in the morning, and then return to your room for lunch. After lunch, nap & enjoy the pool & decompress until about 3:00. This way you avoid the parks when they are busiest -- you aren't missing much except for frustration. After 3:00 return to a different park refreshed & watch the exhausted families leave. Eat dinner there & enjoy yourself until park closing.

Eating in your room & not at the park for 2 meals a day will make up the difference in price for the on-site room. (Food is a major expense that folks often overlook.) Also, many kids enjoy playing in the pool at the hotel as much as they do riding the flying Dumbo.

One more tip & then I'll let someone else take a crack at it: When we went a few years ago, the shuttle from the airport to the park was not free. The cost was around $30 per person, if I recall, which meant $120 for our family of 4. We had a limo service pick us up, and the kids really got a kick out of riding in a stretch limo. Cost: $100, plus the driver let us stop at a supermarket and buy the groceries we needed to eat our 2 meals a day in our room. Vastly superior to riding in a crowded bus, and cheaper to boot.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

[Phil Thien]

If you haven't already booked the CBC, check the WDW Swan/Dolphin. You can take the boat service to Epcot, then the monorail to the other parks. The price was competitive with the CBC the couple times we went, and it is a little nicer than taking the bus.

[Peter Elliott]

Thanks John, good tips.. The reason why I posted here was asking people like you what you did/preplanned. I have been reading for days on end.
It's overwhelming to say the least, the info on the web.

I think we were going to do the dinning plan that had 1 sit down meal, a quick meal and snack? I assumed dinner for the sit down, quick for breakfast and lunch on our own.. I've read to buy some stuff too before heading into the park. I really like the limo idea? I need to recheck the free shuttle, baggage cost.

Phil - what is "CBC" - thx by the way...

-Peter

[Shawn Christ]

Peter, we are in the same situation as you. My wife and two boys (ages 7 and 6) are taking our first drip to Disney over Spring Break, March 21-25. We decided a small room was fine and booked a value resort (Pop Century, although we've heard the All-Stars are nice too). We got the sit-down meal, quick meal, and snack dining plan. Will eat either breakfast or lunch in our room. Advice we've heard so far is to generally plan your itinerary in advance (which you're doing) and if there are certain sit-down restaurants you want to go to, to make your reservations in advance. I appreciate John's tips.

I highly doubt I'll get away with ANYTHING woodworking-related on our trip. Like you, we've been completely overwhelmed with the restaurant choices and trip planning. In fact, we've been avoiding it for the past month or so. It's probably time that we get back to it!

Does your little girl know about the trip? I'm curious how you did/will tell her. We haven't told our boys and have decided to wait until the trip, maybe even as we are driving to the airport. Have a good time!

[Peter Elliott]

Shawn, we haven't told her yet about going to Disney.. Not sure we will until that day maybe.. We are trying to head down 4/18 and do 4 park days. Trying not to push it either. I am in the middle of waiting to hear back from Small World Vacations.com . They are Disney planers and so far the reviews about there service is excellent. They find the deals, etc. and help plan your trip.

There is way too much info on this place and it's hard to sort through it all. Why I asking our woodworking buddies for tips/advice/etc.

Johm M. suggestions make sense and fit into our kind of schedule.

Have a good time too!

[Doug W Swanson]

We went to Disney a few years ago. Here are a few things that we learned:

-on popular rides use the FASTPASS whenever possible. Basically you get a ticket to come back at a certain time and then you bypass the long line and use the FASTPASS line. Sometimes you still have to wait but it's considerably shorter. Also, you are allowed only one pass at a time so it the line is short for that ride, you should just go on the ride.
-there are also ride that have lines for singles. if you don't mind splitting up or if you like rollercoasters but your family does not, then you basically just fill up the single seats. Some rides may have a 45 minute wait but the single line is only 10 minutes. My 8yr old daughter and I went on one ride knowing we would be split up but she didn't care. She was in the car in front of me so I was able to keep an eye on her.
-take advantage of the early and late hours at each park. If you stay at Disney, one of their parks opens early (and one stays open late) each day for Disney guests only. This is especially good for Animal Kingdom. We were on one of the first safari rides that morning and saw all of the animals (they like to hide in the afternoon when it gets warmer).
-if you don't get the meal plan, take a cab to the grocery store and buy some snacks, water, etc. we would get up, eat breakfast in our room, go to a park for a few hours, return the the room and rest. then we would go to a different park in the afternoon/evening. The
Here are some of my favorite rides:
Aerosmith Roller Coaster
Expedition Everest
Car/Motorcycle Stunt show at Disney Studios
Toy Story ride

We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort. It was nice to be in a smaller building but sometimes we had to wait a bit for a bus to take us to the resort we wanted to go to....

I'll try to post more when I have more time.

Hope this helps....

[John M Wilson]

My wife and two boys (ages 7 and 6) are taking our first drip to Disney over Spring Break

For that age kids, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of keeping everyone refreshed & relaxed.

From a kid's standpoint, open-ended free play things (like swimming in the resort's pool) are more enjoyable than structured things (like standing in line for 45 minutes for a 2 minute ride). Adults can do the cost/benefit analysis and know that a super-duper 2 minute ride at some point in the future is worth it, but kids have difficulty processing this kind of info, get bored in line, start acting up, get yelled at, and the end result is no one has that magical experience that you are shelling out the big bucks for.

I witnessed one Dad melt down in front of his whiny kids: "Do you realize how much money we are spending here!!! If you don't behave, I'm going to take you back to the Tiki Bird show, and make you sit through the WHOLE THING!"

I think his kids will always remember this trip, but necessarily the way he intended them to.

Bottom line: plan ahead, hit the really popular rides when lines are short, and when the lines get long, go do something fun with the kids, even if it's free!

Hope you have a great time!

[Charlie Barnes]

Hey Peter,

My family and I have been down there several times. We really like the Wilderness Lodge. The family likes it for the proximity to the Magic Kingdom and I like it for the architecture and furnishings. It's themed after the national park lodges out west, so it's got a lot of mission/A&C type furniture. If you haven't already locked in on the Caribbean Resort, you might want to check it out. Even if you don't stay there, you can make reservations and have dinner there one night and check the place out.

Charlie

[Matt Meiser]

We went about 5 years ago and stayed at the Caribbean. We did a meal plan and I highly recommend it. It worked out relatively reasonable for more food than we could eat. But you need to make meal reservations months in advance for the popular restaurants which no one told us. We did fine but had to do some searching to get reservations once we got there. We did a character dinner buffet one night which my daughter really liked (she was 4 at the time) and Mickey's Hoe Down at the campground one night which counted as two of our dinners. That was fine because we'd planned for the two of us to go out one night while she went to whatever fancy name they call day care.

Funny story about the day care. It was at the Floridian and we were early for our reservation so we were sitting around in the lobby area. All these people started coming down in tuxes and formal dresses and milling around right where we were sitting, started sitting in seats around us, etc. Some of the guys looked vaguely familiar but I just couldn't figure out why. On the way out we saw the sign for the Nascar Truck Series award banquet. Ah ha!...

[Eric Franklin]

I went in '03 with my wife for 7 days before kids so I don't have much advice going to Disney with kids. I will make one suggestion, for one dinner, go to the http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/hoop-de-doo-musical-revue/ at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. It was hilarious and well worth the money and I plan on taking my kids there when they are older. It is a couple of bus rides out there.

[Phil Thien]

Phil - what is "CBC" - thx by the way...

-Peter

Sorry, Caribbean Beech Club, what I've always called the Caribbean Resort.

BTW, there are other things to do in Orlando. We like Sea World a lot.

[Jay Runde]

you may also want to check out disboards, micechat or mouseplanet as well if you want to ask any DW experts.

[Dan Hintz]

I'll suggest one thing... make sure your 7-yo is perfectly fine with people in large costumes. Up until the last year or so, our 8-yo was deathly afraid of anything that didn't look human. Even her favorite characters (HUGE superhero fan) scared the bejesus out of her and we had to give wide berth to them. Makes for a lot of extra walking.

For some adult fun (at least I considered it fun), try to find the hidden Mickeys on the rides (or in the architecture). I had a season pass at one point, so I spent nearly every weekend there looking for fun stuff.

[Peter Elliott]

Good info guys..

I've been on those bboards.. some good info too.

So if you stay at CBR, where would you jump to another resort, say like Animal Kingdom for dinner? I assume you can reserve your prepaid meal plan their too?

Thanks for all tips, keep them coming!!
-Peter