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| Sun, 07-02-2006 - 12:26am |
Hi all,
I'm a long time lurker of this board who didn't feel justified to post until now that I've finally made the decision to visit WDW in the summer of 2007! I have lots of questions for you experts but first here's a few details about my family: sweet-but-sometimes-hyper DS will be 9, daredevil DD will be 12 1/2 (going on full teen since she was ten!) and myself (will be 38, if that matters!)
We are from Oregon, and I'm a teacher which is why unfortunately we have no other time to go other than the Super Crowded times! I've been to WDW myself a couple times before, but w/o the kids (last time was in 2000). The kids have both been to Disneyland only, and they were fairly young (each 4yo) when they were there with their respective bio families (they're both my foster kids who are being adopted by me).
My favorite park has always been Epcot. My daughter wouldn't forgive me if we don't do a water park (I tried one last time and found the crowds uncomfortable, even though I don't mind standing in lines for thrill rides for some reason I *do* mind them at the water parks, go figure!) My son is happy-go-lucky anywhere but probably will get a kick out of Animal Kingdom. I may or may not be able to 'recruit' another mom with her child, but I'd rather not count on it.
So here are some of my questions: Since we're on a Tight Budget, and assuming there's just the three of us, which of the following makes more sense: Off or On Site (I think I already know the answer to this one, especially since I'd like to rely on public transportation and not have to drive! But maybe you know of a good nearby hotel with a reliable shuttle service?) and if On Site, are the Fort Wilderness Cabins that I keep hearing about, worth the extra cost, for what we'll save on meals? I mean, if my kids can live on sandwiches and snacks, especially in the summer, that can be done without a kitchen, right? (I'm thinking one stop at the grocery store, collapsible cooler in the room and lots of trips to the ice machine -but is this realistic?)
Another important question is when in the summer to go: I've read that the very last week of August crowds tend to thin down, and think it might be fun to let the anticipation build through the summer have the trip RIGHT before the new school year starts (it does here the day after Labor day) - does that sound sane to you all? Or are we better off leaving right after the last day of school in mid June, or does it make a difference?
Finally, for the itinerary itself, I'm thinking a total of 6 nights as follows: First day fly, settle in unpack and enjoy the hotel pool etc; day two MK (I'm thinking my kids are old enough not to need a midday break, but perhaps just choose something calm and cool in the early afternoon like a show or something vs a thrill ride?); day three Animal Kingdom/hotel pool or downtown Disney shopping etc; day four Epcot; day five Water Park (probably Blizzard Beach)/Studios; day six favorites at two or perhaps up to three parks of choice (is this madness or a good idea?); day seven pack up and fly back home. How does this sound? Any changes you can think of to improve on things? Particularly on budget stuff...
So I'm ready! Pour on the advice, please? And thank yoU!

Welcome!
I'll answer a few of your questions, and hopefully, someone else will jump in and answer the rest!
Since you'll be relying on shuttle service, I strongly urge you to stay on-site. The only reliable shuttle service for non-Disney hotels would be the Downtown Disney hotels that use DISNEY transportation, but they almost always run more expensive than the Disney values.
Mid-June would be a tad cooler (still very hot), but much more crowded than the last week of August. And before next year, even earlier in August wouldn't be as crowded since Florida schools (like many schools in the south) start at the beginning of August. However, Florida just passed a law (information from a teacher who occasionally visits this board) that starting next year, they can't start more than a week or so before Labor Day.
If you are planning to park hop even one day, you'll have to pay to park hop EVERY day ($40 + tax to your ticket) or buy a separate one-day admission ($55-67) for each additional park you plan to attend. But the park hopping option can be to your benefit because if you feel like one park is too crowded to enjoy, chances are another park won't be as crowded, so you can just hop to another park. As far as doing 3 parks in one day, it's possible, but it's very difficult to do if you don't have your own vehicle because you have to factor in wait times. But, it's definitely possible and we've done it before. You can also use the waiting and riding as "rest breaks".
To save money on adding the water park option, if you are only planning to visit the water park ONCE, it will be cheaper to NOT add it to your tickets, but to pay for it separate because the least amount of water park, etc visits you can get on a ticket is 3.
HTH
Alysha
Welcome! We're planning for next summer also, arriving May 25, the day after Kindergarten graduation for my ds.
We went last year the last week of August, I'm thinking it was 8/26-9/3, I know we came home the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. There weren't huge crowds until Saturday morning of LD weekend, and that may have been worse because we were later getting to the park (Magic Kingdom) than we were the rest of the week. We waited no more than 15 minutes to ride anything, I think there may have been 1 or two things that were posted around 25 minute waits, but not things we were riding. If your school gets out probably after the very first couple days in June, I'd wait until late August, just basing that on what I've read about crowds.
I would stay onsite, just for the transportation issue alone. We have flown once and driven twice to WDW, stayed onsite all 3 times and even when we drove, we parked the car and didn't go near it until time to go home. I prefer to let WDW do the driving for me. I've heard great things about the cabins at FW, but we really liked All Star Movies. It's a very basic room, but just what we needed. We had plenty of room there. I'm not sure if you'd save enough on food to cover the difference between a value resort and the cabins or not, I don't know what the cabins cost. The values are probably around $110 a night during the summer. Another option for a value resort would be to get a fridge in your room; it's an extra $10 a night at the value resorts, free at the moderate and deluxe resorts.
Hope this helps, please stick around and ask all the questions you want to, we love planning!
~Steph
I'm not sure I understood the last part, about water parks. Do you mean in order for the water park addition to the pass to pay for itself, we'd have to go three times to a water park? If that's the case, it sounds like I should definitely get a one day Water Park ticket separately!
As for the hopper option, I'm starting to think I'll save the $40+ and do one park at a time...but we'll see!
Thanks again!
Again that's helpful information (I knew I'd get that from you guys!) about the Values vs. the cabins...and the refrigerator for $10 sounds interesting!
So I'm leaning towards one of the AllStars or Pop Century (pros/cons anyone?), and I'll definitely appreciate not driving!
Next question is about transportation from the airport - recommendations? I know there's a Disney system (forget what it's called) where they deliver your luggage separately, and have heard mixed reviews- what have been your experiences?
Am I crazy for thinking about all this more than a year in advance? :)
I'm excited about having actual dates for the trip now, and planning more in detail!
Bye for now, and thanks in advance for the next answers!
Here are your 5 park days ticket options from the gates at Disney (you can get cheaper (a little bit) tickets if you buy in advance online, at TDS, or through a ticket broker):
Just the tickets (no park hopping and no water parks): $211.94 each for you & your daughter, $172.53 for your son
Park hopping tickets: $254.54 for you & daughter, $215.13 for son
No park hopping with 3 plus options (plus options include water parks): $265.20 for you & daughter, $255.79 for son
Park hopping with 3 plus options: $307.81 for you & daughter, $268.39 for son
Just one water park: $37.28 for you & daughter, $30.89 for son.
All these prices came from here: http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/ticketchart.htm#MYW1
If you go to water parks TWO days, you will save money with the plus options since it costs less than 2 visits to the water parks. BUT, if you only go once, you will be paying an extra $20 or so than if you just bought the water parks ticket separately.
HTH
Alysha
Hello! I'll probably have more and better advice for you in a few weeks when we get back, but as a family going on a budget I thought I give you a couple of tips that we used. We have to go peak (HOT) season too, cant be helped. We leave on Saturday July 8th. Coming from Montana so obviously flying, I got 4 round trip tickets and an off site motel for less than $2000. Which was cheaper than just buying the plane tickets alone. The sooner you can book the better the rates you get. We did look at getting a value resort and skipping the off site motel but it saves us $700 not to, and plus we dont plan on being in the motel other than to sleep and shower anyway.
Then we got the parkhopper plus waterpark tickets for 7 days for $1140. For all 4 of us (3 at adult rates) All these sites that say they offer discount tickets, none of them were cheaper than just ordering them online from disney directly.
Since we are staying off site and we plan to go to the beach one day we found a rental car for only $197 for the whole 8 days. My understanding is if you stay offsite dont count on shuttle, they only run a few times a day and they take forever. The city bus might even be another money saver but for us it was worth it to just pay for the rental since we'd need it to visit the ocean anyway. We figured since we were coming from the other side of the country we couldnt not see the coast.
I plan on visiting the local grocery store when we get there and getting stuff we can keep in the room. Snacks and breakfast stuff we can grab and run out to the parks. We may even do a cooler to keep in the car for making sandwiches come lunchtime. We arent focusing around food too much, eating cheap where we can. Allearsnet.com has some great tips on saving money when eating in the park. Like where to find the fruit stands that have $1 fruit, how to get almost free PBJ sandwiches, ordering a la carte, skipping the souveneir box for kids meals saves you like $3..and then they have coupons for different restraunts where kids eat free on certain nights.
Like I said when I get back I'll have better advice and hopefully more money saving tips for us tight budgeters!
~melissa
Hi and Welcome! Trip planning is SO much fun (and a good thing you are starting early!)
We are planning a May 2007 trip right now. I was hesitant to pull my oldest out of school (he's entering 6th grade...middle school...) but my mom is turning 60 on May 13th and she REALLY wants to go to the World for her birthday. School ends for us on June 4, so I think he won't really be missing all that much. Anyway...
You had asked about Disney's shuttle service from the airport. We used Magical Express on our last trip and it was wonderful! We didn't have one single problem with it. When we arrived and checked into our hotel (All Star Movies, btw), we headed right for dinner and to the MK for Wishes. When we arrived at our resort at night, our bags were all in our rooms waiting for us. It worked out perfectly.
I also recommend staying on-site, at an All Star if you are budget concious. The bus transportation is worth it, and you will also have access to EMH if you want to try to beat the crowds in the parks and see as much as you can.
We stayed in a FW cabin back in 2002 and it was wonderful! We cooked all of our breakfasts and a dinner or two in the room. There were 5 of us that trip (3 adults, 2 kids). Still, even though we really liked the cabin, we still liked ASmo and Port Orleans riverside! At this point, we probably wouldn't go back to Disney without being on the dining plan anyway, so the cooking thing wouldn't be relavent. For me, dining out is a big part of my Disney vacation!
Enjoy the planning!
Marcy
I'm planning a year in advance, have been for a few months, so if you're crazy, so am I.....
We liked the All Stars. It's not a huge room, but we weren't in it that much. There is no slide at the pools, and there is no sit-down restaurant, but a really good food court. Those are the differences between value and moderate resorts. The value rooms are 270 sq feet, about the size of a Comfort Inn room; the moderates are 314 sq feet, with the exception of Caribbean Beach, their rooms are 340 sq feet. I've seen pics of the cabins on the Travel Channel, and they look really nice but too pricey for me. The free shuttle from the airport is Magical Express, I haven't used it. The time we flew, and when we fly again, we used FL Tours, a towncar service. It was about $120 round trip, but worth it for us; that was a van, I think the cars were a little cheaper. Also, the towncar is just your family (obviously, lol) and most companies will stop for a 30-minute grocery stop on the way.
~Steph
Edited 7/2/2006 8:14 pm ET by bigbabyblues
Not only bumping this up for more input (hopefully!) but here's a new twist:
I hadn't realized I CANNOT miss the week before Labor Day at work...soooo that means I'm back to being able to do the trip only between June 20th(ish) and August 20th(ish) - the most crowded & hottest...gaaahh! (I STILL REMEMBER almost passing out while standing in line for what seemed like hours at the Thunder Mountain Railroad when I was 14 - even though it was in a covered, breezy, shady area and we had a mister fan or something like that) Nowadays, I don't mind the heat as much as the crowds, but I'm reluctant of what it might do to my kids...
Now for the other POSSIBLE times to go - they are only times that I'm off from school:
Christmas Break (Doesn't sound attractive because we look forward to the Water Park, and if it's not hot enough I don't want to risk the kids not being able to enjoy that...I also am not sure about doing Christmas away from home...we usually do a very homey, cozy, low-key holiday...and this would indeed be different! Not sure my kids would be able to take the disappointment by contrast all the years after! LOL)
Spring Break (OUT of the question in regards to crowds!)
Finally, I'm CONSIDERING taking a week off work IF I plan it REALLY REALLY WELL - that is, getting special permission WAY ahead of time (AND coming up with a VERY VERY GOOD EXCUSE) ...but I won't know if that's even a possibility, because I'm starting in a new school with a new principal and who knows how accessible they'll be about stuff like that? So, I probably shouldn't plan on that...although it would be nice...
Yours is one of the posts I attempted to reply to last night before my computer decided to lock up. I don't think it likes my DSL and wants it's cable back- darn move - I digress. Without further wait
So here are some of my questions: Since we're on a Tight Budget, and assuming there's just the three of us, which of the following makes more sense: Off or On Site (I think I already know the answer to this one, especially since I'd like to rely on public transportation and not have to drive! But maybe you know of a good nearby hotel with a reliable shuttle service?)
ºOº Onsite is affordable even on a tight budget and the transportation is reliable. You may find an offsite resort at a better price that would suit your needs but transportation is an issue. Many of the offsite hotels share a shuttle and are on limited schedules, sometimes only 1 pick up/drop off at each park and only certain times, if you miss it you're SOL. Some also charge for their shuttles. Add in that 'x miles from WDW' really means 'x miles' from the main archway and NOT a park and you've got a min 45 min travel time to a park bus drop off where you'll be at the end of the line (resort buses get front and there are 27 Disney resorts, then Swan/Dolphin, SOG/ Down Town Disney) etc- it's just a hassle. Onsite is easy as far as transportation goes. If you do decide to do offsite look at Down Town Disney (though they are often comparable to a value resort $wise just a bigger room) or Lake Buena Vista.