Help! Disney for Dummies

Ok so I went to Disney when I was a kid, probably like 6 years old and I have never been back. I do not remember much and only have pictures to remind me of the trip.

Now I have my own kids and my DH is thinking of taking our DD who will be 3 end of May.

So I have a few questions!

-should I take my twin boys who will also turn 1 in May or just focus on my DD? We think we should just take her and leave the boys at home with grandparents.
-my DH thinks you just book a flight and buy tickets for Disney, but from the planning threads and various forums I see online I really think there is a lot more planning involved. How long in advance do we need to plan our trip?
-what are the things we must do with our DD? I know things get expensive but she deserves an awesome trip and would love to give the the best experience within reason.
-when is the best time to go, less crowds?
-what are meal plans all about and free dining?
-when we vacation we love to rent a car and we love eating out, that said is it worth staying at a resort in Disney
-my DH thinks we should only go to magic kingdom, what do other places offer that are a must see?
-can we book on our own or do we use an agent?
-DH wants to leave on Friday and come back on Sunday. I am thinking that is way short, is it realistic and how much will we get done? How many days is recommended?


Thanks to anyone who can answer some of my questions, I really have no clue where to start on a Disney trip!!

Re: Help! Disney for Dummies

1. My son went when he was 19 mos and had a great time. Yes, he was limited because of his age but there were things he could do and I would have missed him too much not to bring him. That is a personal choice though.

2. Under 3 is free admission so try to go before DD turns 3.

3. You only really need to plan far in advance if you want certain resorts or dining reservations. You probably don't know that kind of stuff yet. An off site trip with no dining reservations can be planned last minute.

4. We just got back and my son is almost 3. Other than Magic Kingdom, there is no quick answer to the question about what your DD would like. For example, my son LOVED Hollywood Studios but that is because he wanted to go back and forth between certain characters. If DD doesn't care about certain characters or shows you can probably skip HS. There are things at Epcot for little ones to do but not a ton. Animal Kingdom is a park that comes to mind that should work well for you but you'll have to research.

4. Basically when school is out, with the exception of late summer, there will be big crowds. Other than that there are certain events you might want to avoid. Plus summer is hot as hell. I would hate that but that's just me. I am a teacher and I have one in school so we are stuck to the school schedule. If I wasn't I'd go in early February or maybe late January.

5. Meals - There are some very good restaurants on property that book far in advance. Also some people like character meals. I just posted my review in which i described that we preferred quick service (no reservations needed) for a few reasons. Many of these restaurants are quite expensive. The dining plan is when you pay a set price per person for a certain number of meals per day. You have to run the numbers to see if it makes sense. Free dining is not really "free" because you then give up any possible room discount (it's one or the other) and a lot of people might be better off with the room discount.

6. You should look at a website and do some preliminary research. mousesavers.com and easywdw.com are good places to start. They have articles that address your questions and help you analyze whether or not you want to stay on site, do the dining plan, etc.

I would start there and also do a budget. Figuring out how much you can spend should answer some of your questions. Staying on site is usually more $$ than staying off property.

And two nights is definitely not long enough!

Good luck and happy planning.

Message edited 2/26/2013 2:47:17 PM.

Help! Disney for Dummies

We went last week, I had very little interest in Disney, but my Mom wanted to take the kids, so we went. We did very little planning, only booked a character lunch, which was good, but my daughter loved the characters. We did 3 parks, Hollywood Studios, which I thought was amazing, Animal Kingdom and The Magic Kingdom. I did look at some blogs and websites like allears.net and the disney food blog, but really we just turned up on the day, bought some tickets and went in. We saw loads and had a fantastic time. Allears has a calendar that will tell you the crowd predictions. It was super crowded when we went, but we had a great time.

eta...Disney are the masters of crowd control, its amazing. They can clear 10,000 people out of an area in 15 minutes. amazing.

Message edited 2/26/2013 2:34:07 PM.

Re: Help! Disney for Dummies

I think you could definitely benefit from working with a professional, but that's my biased opinion.

I agree 2 days is MUCH too short. You Can do it, but I always feel that if i'm making a flight I want it to be worthwhile. Depending on the child's interests there is much to do at all 4 parks and beyond. If you haven't been to WDW recently it's hard to envision how much has actually changed and how much more there is to do.

If you love eating out, you can still stay on Disney property- there are some amazing restaurants onsite and you don't need a car. If you're big on dining, I recommend staying either on the monorail because there is so much great dining there - Wave, CA Grill, Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana, Kona, 1900 PF, Narcoosee's, etc that wil be easy to get to OR in the EPCOT Resort area (Yacht and Beach Cub or Boardwalk). Staying in that area gives you easy access not only to the boardwalk area restaurants (Flying Fish, Kouzzina), and the Swan/Dolphin restaurants but also to World Showcase and all of its ethnic cuisine.

If you can't swing a Deluxe resort, try either Port Orleans Riverside or Port Orleans French Quarter, both of which have a lovely boat ride to Downtown Disney and all of its amazing dining.

Also, back to 2 days, I think you can easily do 2 whole days at Magic Kingdom, but if you try to do it all in 2 back to back days, you're going to get exhausted. Even if your plans are low key ad you don't plan to to everything, it's good to have some break time built in. I recommend a minimum of 4 nights, but you could easily fill 7 or more. Let me know if you have any more questions! I always say I've done all kinds of Disney trips, short, long, Value, Mod, Deluxe, budget, luxury, and you can have a great time no matter what, but it does take some planning.

Help! Disney for Dummies

Thanks for your responses. My DH also wants to stay at his relatives home in Apopka, just because. I am not sure he knows how much Disney has to offer. I am going to try and convince him to do at least a 5 day trip in early December. If I am spending the airfare I want to get the most bang for my buck. Not looking to do everything but enough to make the trip worth it.

Jennifer are you an agent for Disney vacays? If I go that route I will def contact you. I will continue to read the threads on here and start some preliminary planning.

Thanks!

Re: Help! Disney for Dummies

Re: Help! Disney for Dummies

Re: Help! Disney for Dummies

Here you go!

Disney Crowd Predictor