Disney world Advice

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by creditcardfree

We saw all of those! Pretty cool. Disney does everything on a grand scale with great detail.

Absolutely, but lots of people don't take the time to appreciate it or learn the story behind the decor. For example, in MK, things were pretty much all done by in-house artists. Nothing special. But at AK, Disney brought in artisans from all over Africa and Asia to design and build and decorate and carve the things in the park. The thatched roofs are real, done with traditional African materials. The carvings are genuine, not machine-made. Stepping into AK is like entering a giant open-air art museum.

[terces]

All of this information is awesome. I'm very excited to do this trip with my boys. Now that they are older I think they will appreciate it even more.

[disneysteve]

terces, head over to Disney World - The Largest Unofficial On-Line Guide to Walt Disney World. Along with being the home of the DIS boards discussion forum I mentioned earlier, it is also a wealth of information about every aspect of planning your WDW vacation. There you can get maps, park hours and schedules, pricing info, restaurant menus and reviews and more. And the discussion forums are invaluable, filled with people passionate about WDW (like me) who are eager to help and answer any questions you may have.

[graceful]

OP, you are getting great advice!!

I'm really excited for you. LOVE, LOVE Disney World. In fact, I'm going down in about 10 days.

I agree with DS and the others that your best option would be off-site with lots of room to spread out especially with 2 boys. Buying your own food would save tons if your boys eat a lot. Food is expensive in the parks.

Also, people tend to go commando-style during their first few trips just because there is just so much to do and see and tickets are so expensive. You won't realize how much you needed a break from the parks until you get back to your relaxing condo/house off-site.

When you stay LATE at the parks to maximize your day, it is NOT fun to wait on long lines for the resort bus along with what seems like half the population of the park.

Whenever, we stay off-site, we usually try to stay at one of the Marriott time shares. My parents have a Mexican timeshare and they deposit 2 weeks into Interval International to exchange to other timeshares every year. They have enough weeks that I can use it whenever I want for the cost of the exchange fee of about $160 (?) for the entire week.

If we didn't have this cheap option or our own timeshare at WDW, I would seriously think about renting one of those many houses available around Disney with a private pool.

Because I love WDW so much and I (use to) go so much (1-2 times a year), DH purchased the Disney Vacation Club for me when I was expecting our second child. She is turning 9 this year. My 11 yo DD has probably been to WDW 17 times?

It is NOT the cheapest way to go to Disney. But it works for our family. Once our youngest DD was out of diapers, DH would take us to the airport and send us off to WDW on our own. DH likes Disney and joins us about once every 3rd trip, whereas I love it.

Staying on-site is the only way I would have been able to travel on my own with 2 children while DH stayed home and worked to pay for it all. We tag our luggage with the tags the Disney Resort provides and check them in at the airport. The next time we see our luggage is our room. Once the plane arrives at MCO, we make a restroom break and then head to the "free" Magical Express buses that take us directly to the Disney resort - no need to pick up our own luggage or rent a car.

When it is time to go home, we take our luggage down to the lobby of the resort and check-in our luggage for our flight and get our boarding passes. When it is time for our flight, we take the ME bus back to the airport.

We never leave the Disney complex during the trip. I actually love the surrounding Orlando, Lake Buena Vista area and miss having a car, but traveling alone with 2 small children, it is much easier and safer staying on-site the whole time. It gives DH some peace of mind too.

This trip during the kids' Spring Break will be the "last" trip for a long while since we bought a new house. But DH encouraged the 3 of us to go. We had pre-paid lodging (DVC) and Annual Passes that didn't expire yet. So, OOP, we have to pay for airfare ($600) and food & tips ($400). We are getting groceries delivered (no car) and only plan to eat out once or twice. So, about $1000 cash for 3 people (1 adult, 2 kids) for 6 nights, not counting our maintenance fees for the timeshare.

We don't buy the over-priced souvenirs. And this trip for once, all 3 of us are going to bring a small carry-on instead of checking in our luggage. We will have a washer/dryer so we won't have to over-pack.

My FAVORITE show at Disney is the Festival of the Lion King at DAK. My favorite park is Epcot. My favorite spot to eat a packed lunch and people watch is sitting on the low stone/brick wall opposite the Columbia Harbor House (outside Haunted Mansion). My youngest DD took many a nap in her stroller while we eat lunch and people watched and chatted with others sitting on that wall.

Have a GREAT trip!! Half the fun is planning!

[disneysteve]

graceful reminded me of something I meant to mention. One additional pro of staying onsite, and this one really is a pro, is that individual members of your group can come and go on their own. You have an 18-year-old who might not want to spend every moment of the day with mom and dad. If you are onsite, he can sleep in or stay out later or go back and swim mid-day while the rest of you are in the park. Offsite, he wouldn't have any way to get around.

When I was in high school, I used to go to WDW with my best friend and his parents. We camped in Fort Wilderness, parents in a motor home and he and I in a tent. We usually all had breakfast together and sometimes dinner and the rest of the time, he and I were off on our own. We couldn't have done that had we been offsite as we would have had no way to get around.

[terces]

Yay dh's vacation was approved. We seem to be leaning toward the VRBO.

DS would love to have your recommendations. I'm kind of thinking a condo with maybe a pool onsite.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by terces

Yay dh's vacation was approved. We seem to be leaning toward the VRBO.

DS would love to have your recommendations. I'm kind of thinking a condo with maybe a pool onsite.

Check out Windsor Palms. They have 2 and 3 bedroom condos and there is a nice community pool. Another option is their 3-bedroom town homes. Some of them have what they call a splash pool. It is a private pool but only about 10 feet square, so good for cooling off and relaxing but too small to actually swim laps.

Also, check out Windsor Hills. I believe that is the same company and is nearby with similar accommodations.

We've stayed at Windsor Palms a few times. Windsor Hills is a few years newer as Palms was built first.

In addition to VRBO.com, each of those complexes have their own websites.
Windsor Palms Resort the official web site for private owners at Windsor Palms Florida
Windsor Hills Resort ★ Orlando florida vacation Homes rentals holiday villas townhomes condos

[terces]

Got our reservations for Windsor Palms (yes I procrastinated) Got an awesome rate for the 6 days. Some friends of ours are planning a trip but they are staying onsite. Yeah I see the benefit of being onsite.....but I love the idea that we are paying a 1/3 of what they are!

[graceful]

GREAT news!!! And a GREAT decision on off-site. It's probably what I would have chosen if I were in your shoes.

Have fun planning and good luck keeping it under $2000. I think you will definitely be able to do that and more since your tickets will be so affordable and you already got good rates for lodging.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by terces

Got our reservations for Windsor Palms (yes I procrastinated) Got an awesome rate for the 6 days. Some friends of ours are planning a trip but they are staying onsite. Yeah I see the benefit of being onsite.....but I love the idea that we are paying a 1/3 of what they are!

That's great. You will have a great time at Windsor Palms. We've stayed there 2 or 3 times.

I have to stop procrastinating myself and book our trip for August.

[terces]

Just got back from our Disney trip yesterday. Had a great and busy time seeing and doing everything. Kids had a blast and both hubby and I agreed it was nicer having older kids to enjoy the park with. Thanks again for everyone's great advice. We also stayed pretty close to my budget of $2000.

[creditcardfree]

Welcome back and congratulations on staying on budget!! I'm glad you had a great time.

[disneysteve]

Glad you had a good trip. We got home from our Bermuda cruise today and will leave for Disney World on August 13. We are spending the first week at a Marriott timeshare and the 2nd week at a Windsor Palms condo.

[hopefulfirefly]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Glad you had a good trip. We got home from our Bermuda cruise today and will leave for Disney World on August 13. We are spending the first week at a Marriott timeshare and the 2nd week at a Windsor Palms condo.

We have a townhome in Windsor Palms, it's such a great community! Have fun!

[SimplySaving]

I'm going to be the annoying person who posts on this thread just so I can easily find it later. This has been a wonderful wealth of knowledge to me. It is my dream to go to disney world for the first time this Feb but right now we only have $400 in the budget. Gotta save up! I will be spending a lot of time researching in the next few weeks! Thanks again!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by SimplySaving

I'm going to be the annoying person who posts on this thread just so I can easily find it later. This has been a wonderful wealth of knowledge to me. It is my dream to go to disney world for the first time this Feb but right now we only have $400 in the budget. Gotta save up! I will be spending a lot of time researching in the next few weeks! Thanks again!

FYI - You do not need to post to a thread to accomplish this. Click on the "Thread Tools" link near the top of the page on the lower of the two blue navigation bars. Then click on "Subscribe to this thread" and you can find it again by pulling up your subscriptions.

As for your future trip, if you have any questions about anything, let me know. I would also refer you to disboards.com.

[SimplySaving]

Thank you so much!