Disney World Trip?

[olduckhunter]

don't go on queer week. they set aside one week for them.

[Faithful Retrievers]

Dont know that it matters but we will be flying kids ages are 2,3,&6. Going in June or August. Thanks
Have a travel agent 2 kids and 2 adults she priced at 5,000. Thought I would atleast try to price it myself. Flight will be atleast 1500 of that though.

[Seymore]

don't go on queer week. they set aside one week for them.

I will second that. We ended up there during queer week and had no idea what the Hell we had just walked into. Disney doesn't actually sponsor a queer week, there is just a week in June that all the queers head to Orlando. Never thought when I became a Dad that I would be trying to explain to two small kids why two guys were hugged up together. That one mistake really ruined the whole week for us because I think the queer couples do things just for the shock value of it. There were several time were I noticed queer couples seeing my family or another family getting close and then start acting like idiots knowing it was causing problems. Wanted to knock the chit out of some of them but then I'd be charged with hate crimes and all that chit. I talked about it a few times with Disney employees on the side and Disney doesn't like it any more than we did but there is nothing they can do.

We stayed in All America when we went the first time and then stayed in Animal Kingdom the second time. Didn't want to pay the premium price for Animal Kingdom because to me it's just a place to sleep and not part of the deal but it was the only way we could get all 6 of us in a room. Ended up on the concierge floor. I'll never forget my two middle girls going down to the foyer area where the food and drinks were set up and asking the concierge, "is all this free". Then they loaded up and hauled it back to the room. My wife was so embarrassed and blamed me for teaching them to be cheap. I just said they know we are from Mississippi so they understand.

[Faithful Retrievers]

Google says Disney Gay days are May 31 - June 6 make sure we make sure to x that week, plus a week to sanitize. Thanks for the advice never would have thought about that.

[Over]

Mickey smiles at you as he takes all your money. One way to save is to take a cooler in with a stroller for water, cokes and snacks. Much easier and cost much less. Stay for the fireworks at the park along with electric light parade.

Great fun but told my 6 kids we wouldn't be back for 10 or 20 years, I would go back again though. It is worth it. Park hopper is kinda hard with young kids though.

[dukhntn]

Disney's policy is to not allow outside food or drinks in the parks. With that being said, the folks that check your bags when you first come in the park usually turn a blind eye towards stuff in purses, backpacks, bags, etc... I've never tried to bring in a cooler (and haven't seen anyone else with one) though. We had the cheapest meal plan and would sometimes want more snacks/drinks than what was allowed and would bring in our own.

There are several unofficial guides to Disney online and in print that give you all sorts of tips and tricks. Everything from restaurant reviews, when to ride specific rides for the shortest wait times, in what order to ride rides (with or without kids) to get the most bang for your buck, which parks are busiest on certain days of the week, etc... Worth getting a copy and checking out.

[dukhntn]

Scratch that part about not being able to bring food in the parks. It looks like they've recently changed that policy.

[Drake2]

My wife and I just had our first child almost two months ago! Best feeling in the world. Can't wait for him to get a little older and start taking him on vacations. How long did y'all wait to take your young one to Disney World? (Age)

[BR549]

Scratch that part about not being able to bring food in the parks. It looks like they've recently changed that policy.

Last time we went you could. Cheapest time to go is the week of Mardi Gra. Thats the last week before the summer rates kick in. As far as the meal plan, if you staying onsite then yes it's the way to go! But if you are staying offsite like in a condo you may not see much advantage of it. As far as the park hopper tickets? If you have older kids 8-12 where you are going to try to do everything, no point in wastin the money on this. Fast pass could be a good thing to look into, however more and more people are starting to use it so not much advantage there. However if you have a handicap sticker by all means use it! You will bypass all the lines! It will take you all day to do 1 park if you try to see it all! There are some places down there you can buy some unused tickets pretty cheap. They may only be good for a specific park and maybe only one day but are usually half price or less than face value. Find one of those condo packages where they are just opening and looking for buyers. You can get some pretty good deals on their packages. We stayed in one for a week with 2 kids and I mean had everything! 3 bedrooms, (jacuzzi in the master bedroom) nice kitchen, pool, had a recreation room with pool tables and ping pong tables several other type of games too. Only 15 min away too! I think the whole packege ended up cost about 3 time we started home. Worth every penny of it though. Turned out way better than staying onsite.

[torch]

Went spring break last year with wife, daughter and her boyfriend. We stayed at a new economy place on the park, can't remember the name. It was set to the 60's. 70's and 80's. We figured all we would do there is sleep and it was 79.00 a night. Parked the car and used Disney transportation to parks. I like Universal better than Disney, might want to use one day for that. They have adult rides and a kiddie section Dr Suess.

[pondman]

We went in January and stayed at the one of the Value Disney resorts. We were on site 4 days and drove to Disney. We packed in meals, ate breakfast in the hotel, brought a coffee pot, and drinks. We ended up buying a snack and one meal in the parks. We used Disney transportation and had a parkhopper pass. Because we had our son, we did a character breakfast and it was expensive ($100 for 2 adults and a child). We ended up spending about $1,800.00. That is gas, grocery, food that we packed in and bought on site, everything. I would not recommend the meal plan. I would stay away from Downtown Disney.

My wife and son enjoyed it. I could think of a lot better things to do with the money. We do things that we are supposed to do as a father and husband.

Pond

[eyeinthesky]

we too have been fortunate with grandparents that we have been the last 7 years running. Meal plan is a good thing. We usually just catch a shuttle or cab from the airport to the grounds then monorail or bus from there. Really no need to get a rental car. Fastpass is your best friend at disney! Also some rides like test track and a few others have a line for single riders is you see a ride that the kids couldn't do and the wife wanted to and that line usually moves pretty quickly also. Like everyone said food is pretty good everywhere you go and i recommend that if yall go eat lunch somewhere like electric umbrella at Epcot when you walk in go ahead and start lookn for a place to sit and park the wife and kids there while you go order for them cause i can't tell you how many times you have folks walkn round with trays full of food and their kid jumpn up tryn to get a french fry and it never turns out good... If you fancy a meal not on the meal plan and have a few extra bucks to spend i recomend the rain forest cafe in the animal kingdom. really good food imo and the volcano desert is much a man. I would also recommend renting a stroller if you need one just much easier than lugging your own around.

[Bercy]

Just got back - it was a whole lot of fun. It was amazing how perfectly the place appeared to run.

My top tips: (1) have a tentative plan marked out so you know what your are doing (not a natzi plan, but start here, go there, then there, etc), (2) get to the park early (may be the biggest tip), (3) go straight to whatever the biggest ride is and get a fastpass, ride it if the line is short, as soon as the fastpass time comes up go get another fastpass to another big ride (you don't have to ride the rides when the pass tells you to ride them) - ie, stockpile fastpasses and use whenever later in the day because they will run out, (4) if you have young kids, get the swithch-off pass as soon as you get off the ride (someone else said this), (5) park hopper with young kids would have been impossible for us - plenty to do all day long in every park, (6) meal plan was too much food for us and we eat a lot - probably would save some money not getting the plan, but it was nice not actually dishing out $70 for lunch every day - along with this, pack snacks and waters in a backpack/stroller, (7) finally, if a kid doesn't quite meet the height restriction, they will not let them ride - but if you fold napkins and put in shoes, kid can magically grow an inch or so and ride.