Want to plan a trip to see the fat rat in FL,any suggestions?

Hey guys,

I want to go on a trip to Disney with the family this year (most likely around early December), but I am not sure if I should throw it all together myself, use a service like AAA, or just go through Disney themselves. Initially we wanted to do a split with maybe 3-4 days in the parks, and then a 3-4 day Disney cruise, but it seems that may be out of the budget. Now I am just thinking a week in the parks.

We would like to stay in the park itself as we have never done it before, and I think it may be easier with my kids even though I am sure it won't be as cheap. Any suggestions you guys can think of as far doing this? I ask only because we don't go on typical vacations and I am pretty new to this stuff as we always just go camping for vacation and that is pretty simple compared to flying to a different state and such.

FYI we have two boys aged 5 and 9 now but will be 6 and 10 respectively if we go in December so I think they are maybe the perfect age to go down there. Any help is much appreciated.

I've done it 80+ times.

STAY ON THE PARK PROPERTIES, PREFERRABLY AT HOTELS CLOSE TO THE MAIN PARK not the outlying parks like Animal Kingdom.

There are all kinds of perks to staying on property and your travel times drop considerably.

Just call Disney to do it, no one else has all the inside info.

The older hotels have bigger rooms.

Also get the meals inclusive plans. At first you'll think it's expensive, but once you are down there you see it's a real deal. You don't want to be leaving the property to get meals.

I can't contribute much to the stay part, but I know a bit of cool info about the parks. One of my favorites is the Haunted House. The one in FL is built to mirror the one in CA. the only difference is, in the entrance room, there's a set where the room appears to stretch. This then funnels you to the ride cars. The neat thing is, they accomplish the stretch two different ways. One has the floor drop like an elevator, the other the ceiling actually raises. I know the difference. (I won't ruin it for you, unless you want me to). One of the other neat things is the fastidious cleaning regimen that Disney upholds. You can put a penny under ANY trash can in the park at the beginning of the day, and if you go back at the end, it will not be there. There's also guides to all the hidden mickeys all over the park. This could make it more fun for the kiddos.

Just don't go on or around a holiday, all you'll do is stand in line.

carguy123 wrote: STAY ON THE PARK PROPERTIES, PREFERRABLY AT HOTELS CLOSE TO THE MAIN PARK not the outlying parks like Animal Kingdom. There are all kinds of perks to staying on property and your travel times drop considerably. Just call Disney to do it, no one else has all the inside info. Also get the meals inclusive plans. At first you'll think it's expensive, but once you are down there you see it's a real deal. You don't want to be leaving the property to get meals. QFT

rental cars would be welcome at our Dec autocross

JoeyM wrote: rental cars would be welcome at our Dec autocross

Ha! Nice!

CFRC's autocross also, on the first Saturday 9am-2pm, about 5 miles from the mouse. $35 and run what you brung.

Birnbaum's books are the best out there on Disney. I recently bought every last Disney book to give to a friend who was going for the first time (it was more of a gag gift so his wife could tell him he was going) and we spend hours going over all the books.

And while there was a better point or 2 in a few books, by far Birnbaum captured the essence. Get it and then ask specific questions of the group.

Your kids will love all the different musical buffets and shows. Definitely do the Hoop De Doo review. It's corny, but the food is pretty good, everyone will laugh and who knows, you might end up on stage.

We usually stayed at Port Orleans on property, pretty nice.

Use the Fast Pass, saves some time. Use the Train that goes around the perimeter, excellent way to get around (especially at closing time). The kids might not enjoy it, but Epcot is actually pretty cool (plus it has the Test Track). The daughter and I went back and forth between the Haunted Mansion and the Runaway Railroad by using the boardwalk and not the main drag. There are a few shortcuts and comparatively cheaper places to eat ( burgers/Mexican etc.) Be prepared to spend cash.

The one thing you have to do is take a pic of your kids eyes when they fist walk into the Park. Priceless.

If an man or woman approaches you about being a Grand Marshall in a Parade...say "YES!".

Take warm clothes, all things being equal, it does get cold. There are lockers available if needed.

Take your time, one day...one Park.

We stayed at Wilderness Lodge 5 years ago for a week, had a great experience. My kids were 7 and 9, we stayed in a room with bunk beds for the kids and a queen for us. They loved it and the sleeping arrangements worked great. The best part was the water shuttle to the Magic Kingdom than runs every 10 minutes or so; we wound up catching the fireworks in the Magic Kingdom nearly every night, and we could take the monorail from the Magic Kingdom to any of the other parks except the outlying parks, and the bus shuttles worked for that. We booked through Disney and I'd do it that way again.

Don't try to do Epcot in one day. You can pretty easily spend two days at that park. You can also easily spend a day and a half at The Magic Kingdom. If you can afford it, stay at one of the monorail resorts. Make breakfast and dinner reservations as far in advance as you can, as the good restaurants run out of reservations fast, and they don't accept walk-ups.

Make reservations to eat at 'Ohana. It's one of the best restaurants at Disney World. Spend a day wandering around the monorail resorts. If you're going to eat in MK, get a lunch reservation for the Crystal Palace. It's a buffet with characters. For good food at Epcot, book reservations for lunch in the Canadian pavilion at the Le Cellier Steakhouse.

Disney is one of my wife's hobbies. We've learned how to get the most out of our dollar at the parks. She's a reader over at allears.net. They are one of the better Disney guide sites on the internet.

In reply to Derick Freese:

We made reservations for (12) at Le Cellier...excellent food.

The Rose & Crown (Epcot) serves beer, and good Pub grub...also a great place (if you get there early enough) to watch the fireworks from the lake side patio.

I went when I was a kid and just remember waiting in lines. Its kinda strange, but I dont have kids and I still would love to take my wife there.

Another couple of things. Skip Illuminations at Epcot. It's not worth your time, to be honest. It's the worst "show" out of all of the shows at the parks. That's when we like to catch dinner at the Garden Grill in The Land. Snorin' is borin'. Patrick Warburton does the pre-ride video, though. Eric Idle's performance at Journey into Imagination is better, though.

MK is a dry park, so don't bother looking for a beer there. Water from the magical springs of Absolut are common, however.

Don't go too late into December. My wife and I like to go for my birthday, which is the 9th. The parks are operating well below capacity between Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays, but you still get to see and do all of the cool stuff. Check out Mickey's Christmas Party one night. It's a hard ticket event. They close MK early, and they operate most of the rides. Because it's a hard ticket event, wait times for the popular rides are normally under 10 minutes. We rode Pirates with Captain Hook last time we were there, that was kind of funny. We also rode Splash Mountain in our own car. That's something else that normally doesn't happen.

I would also plan through Disney itself. We took our Honeymoon there and they did a great job with everything. The only time we left the park was to go to the space center since I had wanted to go since I was a kid.

In reply to Cole_Trickle: If you go try what we did. Money was tite and the wife really wanted to stay in the Grand Floridian, which was worth every penny but we coukdn't afford the Honeymoon package. When we got there she wanted to get a set of bride and groom "mouse ears". We mentioned that we were on our honeymoon and they set us up with sone neat stuff. One day we came back to a bottle of champaign and some fruit and pastries, another they sent breakfast to our room and a couple other goodies.

When I was in Orlando for Sebring, we stayed at a hotel right across the street from Universal. Stopped in one night for dinner at some famous brand chef's restaurant - the "bam" guy. Expensive and nothing too spectacular. It would have been a decent meal at 1/3 the price.

We had a spare day on Sunday. After looking at the options, we decided to go to Kennedy Space Center instead of a park. Don't regret that one bit. I just wish we'd had more time and that I'd pre-booked a vehicular assembly building tour.

Of course, we don't have kids. Then it would have been quite a bit different.

If you are already campers, have you considered Fort Wilderness? It's on the Magic Kingdom tavel grid by water taxi, they have their own character dinner, sites are hella sweet, and early December is usually nice, though we do often get a cold snap around then. ("Cold snap" is a night into the 30s, daytime temps in the 50s, and warming back over the next days into 70s/50s usually, so if you're equipped campers, shouldn't be a deal-breaker.)

Oh, and another cheap food tip: grab a turkey leg in Frontierland for lunch. Other than that, second the Crystal Palace character lunch. I also like the character dinner at the Contemporary resort, which is very old-school futuristic Disney. Their game room is a nice evening monorail excursion away with the kids.

Margie

Fort Wilderness is also close to River Country, one of the abandoned parks on property. The other is Discover Island, in Bay Lake.

I'll chime in and say to consider options other than staying in the park. My wife and I have 3 kids (currently ages 8, 4, 4). Plus we have a nanny. For us, we'd need two hotel rooms. Staying in a hotel on Disney grounds also means that you'll likely get the Disney meal plan, so you'll always eat out.

We rent a townhouse when we go. There are a E36 M3 load of them around. I pay $500 for one week, and it's a 4 bedroom/2.5 bath house with full amenities. That way, everyone can have their own room, we have space to relax after coming back from the parks. The biggest bonus is we can prepare our own food. We have a nice peaceful breakfast, pack a lunch and snacks, etc... The park is literally 5 minutes away, so no major inconveniences there. We love having a house to stay in.

Not saying staying in the park is a bad idea at all, I'm sure it's cool. But just throwing out another idea.

Oh, and no matter what you do, be prepared to walk. A lot. You may even want to go to the local Wal-Mart when you get there and buy a $20 umbrella stroller for the 6 year old. The parks are HUGE and the kids may tire out quickly. I've seen lots of 6-8+ year olds riding on strollers there (usually in the ones Disney rents out for a fortune....they're big enough to carry a small teenager).

Wow lots of interest in this thread!!! Thanks for the info so far guys. So if I were to book with Disney themselves do you recommend doing it all online or calling a representative and booking over the phone?

If you find yourself in Epcot, go to a place named Jellyrolls, my good friend from college is one of the piano players. Ask him to play 'Piano Man,' he'll either laugh and do it or punch you in the teeth. Probably not a good idea, though, considering it's a bar and you'll have kiddies in tow.

And the GRM world headquarters isn't that far outside Orlando, yes?

Jellyrolls is at the BoardWalk Inn. When you go in through the main entrance, it's down on your left. They have some good street performers there, too.

Twin_Cam wrote: If you find yourself in Epcot, go to a place named Jellyrolls, my good friend from college is one of the piano players. Ask him to play 'Piano Man,' he'll either laugh and do it or punch you in the teeth. Probably not a good idea, though, considering it's a bar and you'll have kiddies in tow. And the GRM world headquarters isn't that far outside Orlando, yes?

Closer to Daytona, but certainly not too far for a visit.

carguy123 wrote: STAY ON THE PARK PROPERTIES, PREFERRABLY AT HOTELS CLOSE TO THE MAIN PARK

+1

I just spent a week at the Beach Club Resort on the rat's property as some sort of right of passage my wife insisted was necessary. The hotel and pool were really great and it was easy to get everywhere quickly. That is the best thing I can say. I did it for the wife and kids. IMO it is a miserable way to spend money when there is a whole real world to explore. That said...

• Use the "magic express" service to/from the airport. It is nice to have someone else deal with baggage claim both ways and pick you up right at the terminal.
• If you don't like to wait in line, don't like to make a reservation 2 days in advance to eat at a Subway quality restaurant and prefer to have a sit down meal... get a cab and leave the bubble to eat dinner. I would never get a Disney meal plan just because they don't have enough good sit down places to accommodate a slow week in early March - there is no berkeleying way people are conveniently getting served on a mildly busy week. People will wait hours for a bullE36 M3 $250 dinner on a Tuesday while just off property you can eat at a 5 star place for 2/3 the cost with instant seating.
• Be an early riser. They open early for on-property guests - take advantage or you will spend your whole day waiting.
• The Beergarten in psudo-germany has an awesome sausage buffet and good, cold beer.
• Asian chicks in their 20s and 30s all dress up as Minnie Mouse. I have a new fetish.

If you can't find enough sit-down restaurants on property to use up your dining credits, you're not trying very hard. They are overpriced on their own, but the dining plan is a good deal if you don't want to deal with going off property. Many families don't bother with renting a car when they visit Disney World. There are plenty of places you can get last minute reservations, too. Make good use of the 407-WDW-DINE hotline for reservations.

Make good use of the Fast Pass system, as well. Get a pass for what you really want to ride, and wait in a standby line for something else in the area. We normally do this at MK with Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates, The Tiki Room, and The Jungle Cruise because they are all together. You'd want to do the Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land rides in a similar manner.

Make sure you ride the Carousel of Progress. Do it in the middle of the day so it serves as a nice air conditioned break (even in December). Make note of the brand new flat panel TV and LED Christmas tree lights in the last scene. The last scene is supposed to be the future, which was about 12 years ago. The new equipment almost matches the rest of that set.