Hello.
So I'm scrambling to plan a WDW vacation for the President's day week. I personally have not been to WDW since 1994. It will be 2 adults and 1 child. We'll be driving from NY and plan to spend 4 days at WDW and 1 day each at Universal and Sea World. I was considering just staying at a WDW resort so that we could have access to the Magic Hours and Dining plans, even though it will be more expensive, but I feel since it's our first time as a family I'd rather not be wasting a lot of hours making mistakes. My questions though:
1. If we stay at a WDW resort and decide to drive to the parks instead of utilizing the WDW transportation, will we have to pay for parking at the parks?
2. We want to stay at one place for the duration of the trip, so we would still be going to Universal and Sea World while staying at the WDW resort. However, the dining plans are for the duration of the trip - so i would be signing up for 8 nights of meals despite only ordering 4 days worth of park tickets. Is there any way around this? I obviously don't want to be eating at disney when I'm not there.
1. No if you are staying on-site you do not have to pay for parking, you just show them your resort parking pass at the gates.
2. Really, you can still utilize the Basic
Disney Dining Plan even if you are visiting Universal for 2 days - we have done just that. You can use your Counter Service/Fast Food credit for breakfast in the morning at your Food Court before you leave for Universal and you can use your Table Service/Sit-Down/Character meal credit at any one of the WDW resort restaurants in the evening after you leave Universal. The big thing you need to consider is that you are going President's week and the crowds will HUGE at WDW and Universal and, at this point, you may not even be able to get any decent ADRs (advance dining reservations). You can book 180 days out and the character meals and popular restaurants can book up fast, especially during high crowd seasons, like President's Day/Week. I would check the WDW dining site and see what availability there is before you purchase the
DDP. Here is a link to the DDP 2012 prices:
http://www.onlywdworld.com/2011/07/2012-disney-dining-plan-prices.html
The main planning boards are the Themeparks, Resort and Dining Boards.
We always stay on WDW property. We usually drive and never use our car the entire time we are there. We have flown before and we still didn't need a rental car. We like the Disney transportation system.
With kids, I highly recommend the All-Star Movies Resort. It is by far my kids favorite resort.
We love, love, love the Disney Dining Plan, the basic plan with 1 Table Service/Character Meal, 1 Counter Service/Fast Food Meal and 1 Snack per person per day. I find the Quick Service Plan a wash and the one time we did the Deluxe Plan my kids and husband hated it - big waste of time and money and certainly would recommend it for someone new to Disney. It's hard enough to navigate everything in WDW the first time you go without spending 6 or more hours per day getting to an from restaurants and eating.
I never recommend the hopper ticket option to people who are new to touring Disney, you don't need it. I would recommend 5 to 6 park days for a first visit - 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day Ak and 1 day DHS. If you are staying on-site, you don't really need your car, the Disney transporation is good, especially with it being your first time and not being familiar with Disney property.
Pick up a copy of The Unoffical Guide to Walt Disney World and check out their companion website,
www.touringplans.com. I use their crowd/best days calendar to plan all our park days and then once I know which park we will be in on which days I can make my Advance Dining Reservations around those parks or in resorts close to those parks. I highly recommend the Basic Disney Dining Plan if your party is going to eat at least one sit down/table service/character meal per day. You can make Advance Dining Reservations 180 before your check-in date.
There are tips I give to anyone new to touring WDW:
1. Make sure you have Advance Dining Reservations as a lot of table service restaurants and character meals do not take walk-ups and book up quickly.
2. Get to the parks at opening. You really can get a lot done in the morning because so many other people sleep in.
3. Eat lunch around 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. before the fast food places get busy. Then when while everyone else is eating lunch, you will have lower crowds.
4. I buy a ton of the two for a dollar ponchos at the dollar store and keep them in the backpack. That way you can throw them a way after use and not worry about keeping up with a wet bulky poncho the rest of the day. Bring throw away ponchos to wear on Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom, if not you WILL get soaked.
5. Other things I put in the backpack each morning are Tylenol/Motrin, small first aid kit, camera with extra batteries, small hand towel, hand sanitizer, wipes and a bottle of water.
6. Most single service items under $4.00 are considered a snack credit on the dining plan. A Turkey Leg is NOT a snack credit.
7. At Magic Kingdom always head to Fantasyland first, if you are not doing Fantasyland on a particular day then head to Splash Mountain first, then Big Thunder Mountain; at Epcot always ride Soarin' first and get a Fastpass for later after you get off of the ride; at Disney Hollywood Studios always ride Toy Story Mania first, then head over to Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror; and at Animal Kingdom ride Expedition Everest First then head to the Safari.
8. Favorite fast food restaurants at MK are Pecos Bills and Cosmic Rays; favorite fast food at Animal Kingdom is Flame Tree Grill and Pizzafari. If you are there while it very hot, go to Pizzafari.
9. If there are two lines going into an attraction, always take the line that goes to the left.
10. My best tip would have to be USE THE FASTPASS SYSTEM. Our rule of thumb is if the wait is 25 minutes or less, we wait in line. If the wait is 30 minutes or more, use a Fastpass. It is not highly publicized, but your Fastpass does not expire until the end of the day. You can never use it before the return time stamp on the pass, but you can always use it after. We try to collect Fastpasses during the early part of the day and then use them later in the afternoon when the parks become more crowded.
Click on this link and it will give you an excellent overview of Fastpass. It is from Doconeil here on the Disboards and super helpful:
http://www.oinc.net/disney/fastpass.php
If you still don't understand, just let me know your specific questions.
11. I like the Photopass. You can pre-buy it before your trip for $99.00. When you enter the parks you will see the staff photographers, they will take your pictures and give you a Photopass and you can use that for the rest of your trip. Each time you see a photographer have them take your picture and they will scan your picture. Then when you get home you can pull up the pictures, with the code they email you after purchase, and pick the photos you want on a CD. They will then mail you the CD and the copyrights to the CD and you can take them to Walmart or Walgreens or wherever and get them developed. They also have a lot of cool software that you can use to edit your photos before you have them put on the CD.
My favorite Disney planning sites are:
www.disboards.com
www.allearsnet.com
www.wdwinfo.com
www.intercot.com
