Disney World Vacation

[jcyclonee]

We've been 3 times and always VRBO'd and rented a car. We've also combined Disney with a day at Universal and a beach trip each time. You can easily save money and have more space by staying off of the resort but there are disadvantages. Here are some advantages:
Cheaper lodging. Cheaper food (you can bring some food and drinks into the parks). More space. More privacy. More flexibility.

Here are some advantages to staying on the resort: You don't worry about transporting luggage. Transportation to the parks and within the resort is provided. There will be days when you can enter the parks early.

If you do decide to spend one day at the beach, there should be plenty of car rental places in the Disney World area. One thing to keep in mind about car rentals in Florida is that rental places can't charge you extra for dropping of your car at a different location from where you picked it up.

 

[Chitowncy]

Looking at doing a Disney vacation for the family. 3 young kids and my wife and I. For those that have done it what are some good suggestions so it does not cost an arm and a leg? Flight and either rental car or some of the hotel will be covered from rewards points on cc.

Stay on Disney resort?
Stay off resort and rent a car?
How many days are a good amount of days to actually go to the parks? 2? 3? 4?
Get meal plan if stay on resort?
Ways to get discounted tickets?
Necessitys for hotel- pool? free Breakfast? etc.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

There's a lot of good tips and helpful comments already in this thread.

I would add (as someone who went to Disney World this past winter with a spouse, kids (2 and 4 years old) and in-laws that you shouldn't try to do too much depending on the age and tendencies of your kids. For example, if your kids still nap, don't try to cram in a full day without naps just because you want to get "your money's worth." What worked great for us was trying to get to the park early (by 9 a.m. or so) and then leaving after lunch (or sometimes before lunch and eating at the VRBO), taking a nap and returning for the evening. We basically would be in the park from 9:30 or so to noon or so and then 5:30 to close. It worked really well that way.

Also, again, depending on your children, it might not be advisable to schedule back-to-back days at the park. It worked well for us to go one day, take a day off to lounge / sight see other things and then go to another park the next day. We had 3 days of Disney total and that was enough.

Finally, for a good laugh, there's this:


Enjoy!!

 

[CycloneErik]

I'd just stay there. I don't think this is a trip that happens on the cheap.

 

[isukendall]

Might get flamed for this, but skip Disneyland and take your kids to a National Park.

 

[Carlisle Clone]

We've been 3 times and always VRBO'd and rented a car. We've also combined Disney with a day at Universal and a beach trip each time. You can easily save money and have more space by staying off of the resort but there are disadvantages. Here are some advantages:
Cheaper lodging. Cheaper food (you can bring some food and drinks into the parks). More space. More privacy. More flexibility.

Here are some advantages to staying on the resort: You don't worry about transporting luggage. Transportation to the parks and within the resort is provided. There will be days when you can enter the parks early.

If you do decide to spend one day at the beach, there should be plenty of car rental places in the Disney World area. One thing to keep in mind about car rentals in Florida is that rental places can't charge you extra for dropping of your car at a different location from where you picked it up.

This. We went this route with our 3 kids. (8 and twin 6 year olds) Picked up groceries and ate at the condo, kids swam for free each night at the huge water park located behind our condo, and we mixed in both Universal studio parks. Universal caters to todays kids pretty well-Minions, Shrek, Transformers.

Disney World is a must just so you can say that you have done it. Its really a very average experience in my opinion.

 

[Clonefan32]

So the beach days is for sure a must and ive thought about that. The thing im running into is if you stay on disney resort you are not going to be renting a car. How do you get to the beach those days? Do you uber to airport or closes rental place and get a car just for the day? From what I read parking at the resorts cost a bunch so you dont really want a rental car sitting there the whole time

The car rental place on-site at Disney works really well. They will shuttle you to it from your hotel.

We rented a car, drove to the beach and dropped it off at the airport.

 

[intrepid27]

Before you buy or book anything... spend $18 and but "The unofficial guide to Disney World. I read it before went and it is amazingly accurate and saved us a bunch of time and money. Tons of ways to hack the system and unbiased reviews of all the amenities.

Here's a few examples: It gives attendance numbers for each park for each week of the year. We went the first week of school and NEVER waited more than 15 minutes for anything all week. (Yes our kids missed first week of school but quickly caught up)

More:
Tip: If you arrive close to when the park opens go all the way to the back and work your way to the front. Much less crowded.
Tip: Disney polls hotels and bases off occupancy rates most parks open 15-30 minutes before posted times. Get there early = no lines.
Tip: It includes usable maps. Disney's maps are designed to lead you into blind alleys so you spend more time wondering around and have to come back to see everything. The maps in the book were great.

I could go on for hours.

 

[3TrueFans]

Try to get an early breakfast reservation at a place inside the park, you get in well before the gates open and when you're done you just get to go into the park. We did Be Our Guest which is in the back of Magic Kingdom, ate breakfast and then went and rode Seven Dwarves rollercoaster with no wait and had some time in the park after that with nearly nobody around.

 

[chadly82]

Been many times without kids. We are doing this next year with our 5 y.o. and 1 y.o. We're lucky because the in-laws have a timeshare in Kissimmee so rooms are free which significantly lowers the cost.

We usually have gotten the 4 or 5 day park-hopper pass. Our general schedule is to get to the parks around 9/10am (we like to take it easy in the AM since it's vacation). We stay until 3 or 4 when the kids get tired, then go back to the room. If we feel sporty, we'll go back, but usually we just do dinner and swimming or something.

We have always done 2 park days, then a beach day, then 2 park days. It breaks things up nicely. Of course, this all depends on your group though. I like Disney, but it gets to be too much pretty quickly for me, so that beach day in the middle breaks it up.

Not sure if you're flying or driving. If you're flying, try to get a direct flight if you can. Even if it's a little more expensive, it's worth your sanity, IMO.

Since you brought up the timeshare, do they airbnb it to fellow CF goers at a slight discount at all? asking for a friend

 

[Clonefan32]

Try to get an early breakfast reservation at a place inside the park, you get in well before the gates open and when you're done you just get to go into the park. We did Be Our Guest which is in the back of Magic Kingdom, ate breakfast and then went and rode Seven Dwarves rollercoaster with no wait and had some time in the park after that with nearly nobody around.

We did the same thing and went straight to the rides. The breakfast lasted for a while so did rides until the lines got longer then went and got our breakfast. Well worth the money.

One other thing to note is if you have anyone in your party with a disability, they have a real cool program where you go to a ride and speak to the attendant. They give you a time period where you can come back that essentially works like a FastPass without waiting in line. Our daughter is an amputee and it really helped not having to wait in line.

 

[Cyclonetrombone]

We go annually and usually hit up Universal at the same time so are down for a week. I'd work in about 3 or 4 days on site. With kids you not need to hit all the rides in all the parks.

Biggest recommendation, stay on grounds. It isn't worth it if you have to lug kids to the nearest off grounds hotel. *Exception for staying at Dolphin for the below reasons.

Other than that, watch a ton of the youtube videos. TPMvids (rides and advice) and DFB(food rides, advice) are solid.

Also plan this as far out as possible due to the various fast pass and dinning trip things.

Regarding flight, just hop the nearest Spirit or Frontier and get there on the cheap.

Plan a day in Magic Kingdom (catch a character meal here)
Plan a day in Epcot. Book at Disney Beach Club or Dolphin and use the gateway to hit up Frozen early then head up to the front of the park as that line is brutal later in the day and unless you're looking at Sorin' the front of the park lines are never terrible given a strategic fastpass, This also gets you into Nemo in the late morning/early afternoon when it is super hot outside.
Do a split day between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. (Get parkhopper for at least one day.) Start the morning in Animal Kingdom and end the night in Hollywood Studios.
Hit up a waterpark if you're into it or use the 4th day for back into one of the 4 parks where you either missed something or just want to revisit.

First crack at Disney World that 4 days would get you a relaxing non pressured time. As others have said... relax... it is a chunk of cash but the trip becomes miserable if you try to do everything.

Also do souvenir shopping throughout the day and avoid it on the last day. If you're at a Disney Resort just have them send the items to your room so you dont need to lug them around.

 

[CycloneErik]

Try to get an early breakfast reservation at a place inside the park, you get in well before the gates open and when you're done you just get to go into the park. We did Be Our Guest which is in the back of Magic Kingdom, ate breakfast and then went and rode Seven Dwarves rollercoaster with no wait and had some time in the park after that with nearly nobody around.

Sounds like they advertised your presence.

 

[SayMyName]

We did the same thing and went straight to the rides. The breakfast lasted for a while so did rides until the lines got longer then went and got our breakfast. Well worth the money.

One other thing to note is if you have anyone in your party with a disability, they have a real cool program where you go to a ride and speak to the attendant. They give you a time period where you can come back that essentially works like a FastPass without waiting in line. Our daughter is an amputee and it really helped not having to wait in line.

They do this with little kids too that can't (or don't want to) ride certain attractions, called Rider Swap. So a parent and up to 2 additional guests can skip the line while leaving someone behind to watch the little ones. A great FastPass loophole if you can exploit it to your advantage!

 

[NorthCyd]

I've been twice in the past year with 4 kids in tow. Learned a lot. Tons of advice in here, so I'm not going to add much, but I dont think I've seen it mentioned if you stay at a disney resort you can book fast passes 60 days early. If not its 30 days. This can be huge if you are going during a busy time and want to book fast passes for the most popular rides. You probably wont be able to book a fastpass for some of the popular rides at 30 days out and you might be looking at 2 hours minimum wait to ride those, and probably longer. Flight of the Avatar especially is an awesome ride but wait times are insane. And if you have any desire to do anything in Galaxys Edge you'll need to book fast passes as soon as you can. Its worth noting its 60 days from the start of your stay at the resort, so you can actually book things out beyond 60 days on the latter part of your trip.

Also go to the Biergarten restaurant in Germany at epcot if you can make it for dinner. It's awesome!

 

[ianoconnor]

For those that suggested the unofficial guide.. looks like there is a "with kids" variant. Anything different in there? Appears to be a shorter book.

 

[3TrueFans]

Sounds like they advertised your presence.

Whatever it takes, if I need to not shower for a week to make people give me my space in the splash mountain line then so be it.

 

[Cyched]

This just reminds me that I need to go back as an adult and drink my way around the world at Epcot.

 

[Clonefan32]

This just reminds me that I need to go back as an adult and drink my way around the world at Epcot.

This reminds me I forgot my most important piece of advice-- do Epcot last of the parks and plan a pool day the next day.

 

[jmb]

Bunch of cowards in this thread. The real advice is don’t go. But if you are going to subject yourself lots of good advice here.

 

[NickTheGreat]

My wife and I have always sworn we'd wait until the kids are 5, for the youngest. You go there and see families that are just miserable. It's hot, it's crowded, everybody is hungry and grouchy. Our youngest is 2, and we probably won't make it that long.

That being said, Disneyworld is great. Staying on campus is a must; you get transport to the parks, and "never really leave the magic." And you get extended park hours.

I'd do at least 1 day per park. Maybe more with kids. Park hopper adds more dollars, but with extended hours from staying on campus, you may want to bounce to the extended park later that night.

I know you don't want to take kids out of school and all that, but Disney is 100X better in September than July. It's cooler, less crowder, things are cheaper.

I'd also recommend going in a holiday season. Halloween time in Disney is cool. And Mickey's Christmas Party is fun also. Extra charges, but more park time, and less crowds.

I'd maybe recommend Disneyland if your kids are young. It's only 2 parks, and they're a third the size each. If you stay on campus there, you could probably walk to the hotel for an afternoon breather, and walk back over. The park is smaller/older, but a little more vintage, if you like that type of thing.