Hellobee Boards

I like to make the trip as magical as possible, so I do Tinkerbell gifts for my son...I basically buy new pajamas, games and trinkets related to the trip and bring them with us and he has less desire to buy all the souvenirs at the destination.

I like to make sure we see at least one show per day to feel like we get the most for the ticket price and we get a nice break in the A/C.

Have fun and remember that you don't have to see everything, WDW isn't going anywhere and it is constantly changing.

Fast Pass+ is the same, just online. Also for the first 3 you have to stick to per park. Once you use them all, you can get more. You can also book the whole trip out when your first day hits the 60 day mark when staying on property. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK AGAIN THIS YEAR! 3rd time in 2 1/2 years!

Also- this is crazy crazy expensive, but I was just talking to someone who went to WDW a few weeks ago. They had signed up for some VIP package w a local that let them have unlimited fast passes somehow. It’s $150/hour plus tip though (on top of all of the other Disney tickets etc). So they spent an extra $1k for their Magic Kingdom day but got to ride everything on fast pass and had this personal concierge to take photos and watch their stuff.

@irene: definitely download the my Disney experience app. You’ll be able to see all your reservations, fast passes, memory maker photos, wait times for rides, etc. it’s a must have!

With the Disney dining plan, you can use your credits however and wherever you want. From most people I have talked to, the dining plan is not cost effective unless you plan on eating a lot, and at a lot of expensive restaurants. Don’t forget, you can bring your own water and snacks into the park.

With the fast passes, once you use the first 3, log onto the app and you can add them one at a time.

We went last year over Easter, so also a high volume time. Getting there at park opening, the crowds were not that bad. But by 1pm it was ridiculous. They literally had people holding signs directing the walking traffic because there was barely room to move.

Restaurant wise, I recommend tusker house for breakfast (ak) and Sci Fi Cafe (hs). In MK we typically only do quick service. If you want special seating for the fireworks show at Hollywood studios you can do a special meal/fireworks combo at several places (brown derby, Hollywood and vine or mama melrose). Basically you have your breakfast or lunch at one of those places and they will give you a ticket for a vip area for the fantasmic show. Animal kingdom has a similar offer with Tusker House for their River of Lights show.

Definitely recommend a stroller (I am even getting one for my 5 year old). Renting from the company Kingdom Strollers is cheaper than direct through magic kingdom and they will deliver it directly to your hotel.

Memory maker is great. Definitely worth it especially if it is your first trip.

@irene: we went on a lower crowd week, but my advice for beating the crowds is the same: 1) don't talk up individual rides to your kids. I made that mistake and then I felt like there were some rides we "had to" go on, even if they had long wait times. Now, because it was a low crowd week, we got lucky and we didn't get long lines, but I realized that I made a mistake in talking up specific rides, since my kids knew nothing of Disney World before we went.

If your kids don't know which rides are out there, they'll be fine if you just go to the rides with the shortest lines.

Fastpass: yes, there's an app, and you for sure need to DL it. I DLed a couple of apps that would show all the line waits for each ride and show in real time, plus the Disney fastpass app, where you can book more fastpasses after you use your first 3.

Basically, for crowds, you basically want to book 60 days out to the minute your top 3 FastPasses. Your travel agent will do this. They are booked an hour apart, so you might book 9am, 10am, and 11am. BUT, if you have a fastpasses, it won't take you an hour to get through the line and ride. So you'll want to show up to the park early, before 9am (like aim to be there at 8:30), because it takes a while to go through the ticket line and security line, and then there's a little opening show/ceremony at each park. And then that first hour in the park is crucial--you can ride several rides in that first hour when people are still entering the park, and then save your 9am FASTPASS for like 9:50. As long as you check in before the hour is up, you can use your fastpass.

Then check your app and see if there are rides with short rides and go directly to them. Ride short-line rides utnil 10:50 and go do your Fastpass 2 and 3 back to back (your 10 am and 11 am spots). As soon as you enter the line for your 3rd FASTPASS, and you are waiting in line, you can book your next FAstpass . Again, just go for whatever rides are available. When you use THAT fastpass, you can do the same thing and book the next one while you are waiting in line. Repeat the rest of the day.

If you can't get a Fastpass AND the regular lines are long (like 60 minutes +), I would just skip those rides altogether. I feel like waiting in lines with small kids is a nightmare. For me, no ride is worth waiting 1.5 hours with kids. =)

We did that method, just chasing short line rides and using fastpasses, and we never waited more than 15 minutes for a ride.

@irene: When we went, we left AoA around 820 for 9am park open. The concierge told us it would be a 20 mins bus or car ride - equal time to arrive and that it would be just as convenient to drive. That really was horrible advice.

When you drive, you need to park, take a tram (or a long walk) to the main transportation/ticket center, then wait in really long lines to board the ferry or monorail. If there is some way for you to avoid this transportation/ticket center, do it. So we finally were at park entrance around 930 - the rest of my crew went through security quickly without bags. It took an extra hour for me to get through security with the bags/stroller.

RE: crowds.It was worse than entering a football game at the transportation center and then also when going through security. Literally a mass of people, not organized at all. I was chatting with another mom in the security line; she was a local and said it was the most crowded she had ever seen it.
In the park itself, it was almost hard to walk at places.

When we left, my DH and I agreed that it was fairly miserable, but that the kids liked it and at least we made a few good memories. He never wants to go again, thinks it is over priced with bad food, but I'm already trying to plan a May 2019 trip.

The $1k for that VIP package was for their family of 4. I'm not sure if there are higher prices depending on group size - unfortunately, it was just a short conversation at a bday party this weekend so I didn't get many details.

Really, Hollywood Studios was much, much better - less crowded, no security lines, easy to park. That was actually a good experience.

I'm sorry to be such a downer, just wanted to share my experience of WDW in those few days before Thanksgiving. (We went at such a peak time bc we had a wedding down in Florida the weekend before Tgiving and then my MIL splits time down there too, so we could just do Tgiving with her. So we had a few days to kill in Florida)

The memory maker was not worth it for us. The photos we got were pretty horrible.

I wouldnt recommend going to other resorts for dinner. You have to take a bus to a park and then transfer to another bus to that hotel. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.

We didn't do the dining plan because we don't eat enough for it to be worth it. We loved lunch at Tusker House and Garden Grille. Both had fantastic character interaction.

What we did was plan big meals for dinner and then ordered in groceries for breakfast and dinner. It saved money and a lot of time. I ordered through Amazon Now.

@irene: The Animal Kingdom lodge is about a mile and a half from the park. You can see the park and have a great view of the animals, but you cannot get to the park without getting on a bus (despite the relatively short distance, it isn't walkable.

How I got my groceries is I downloaded the Amazon Now app and ordered as soon as I got to the room. The service delivered to the bag check area and I believe they would have delivered it to our room, but I was there waiting for the Amazon man (we had a diaper emergency). I didn't cook, but we got muffins, pouches grapes, bananas, yogurt, chips, juice, and other snacks. We also got diapers and sunscreen. Fruit in the park is $2 a piece and bananas from Amazon are $2 a bunch, so it was well worth it.

I went with a toddler and found it to be so much easier to have food he was familiar with and we were able to eat while getting ready. We found that with doing one big character dining meal a day and one snack in the park/resort and then all other meals at home we saved about $500. We were so full from lunch we didn't crave dinner and were happy with chips and hummus.

Also, we were there in a semi busy time. The park was packed and DH and toddler were not having it. Our strategy was to be there right at opening-- so if the park opens at 9, we got there by 8:15 to be lined up. Then we immediately went to the area of park that we most wanted to do and did as much as possible before the crowds got bad. We did almost all of Fantasy land in Magic Kingdom in an hour and did the safari three times in a row in Animal Kingdom. Then we would alternate using a fast pass and seeing a show. We found that by our early lunch we were DONE. The amount of crowds to the amount of fun had were just not worth it. What we did was go home, sleep, and then sometimes we went back to the park. The only exception was Animal Kingdom where there were plenty of shows and places to play that weren't super crowded. The Lion King show is amazing.

@ChitownRo: Was the location an issues with A of A? Thats where we are leaning towards booking now...

@ChitownRo: This is our debate in our house. DH wants to be on the monorail AND have a suite (so we have separate living space for the kids and us. Its just not an option. So I have been trying to convince him that the sleeping set up will matter far more than the extra 20 mins on the bus. He's still concerned...I feel like he is discounting how much he values good sleep...

@ChitownRo: @Mrs D: We haven't gone yet, but I talked to at least 10 people who had recently gone and/or had LOTS of Disney experience prior to booking and they emphasized that being on the Monorail should be the biggest priority with kids < 5. They said that if you realize you left something at your room or you want to run back to the hotel for lunch that being on the Monorail makes it NBD. They also mentioned that you can drive an unfolded stroller on the Monorail as opposed to having to completely collapse it for the bus. This would drive me nuts as I plan to thoroughly organize the stroller / stroller basket prior to leaving and I wouldn't want to be getting stuff out of the basket or risking things falling out during fold.

But @truthbombs just went to Disney and didn't stay on the Monorail so hopefully she will chime in regarding pros / cons.

@LBee: I've actually heard a lot of advice both directions from Disney pro's.

Given what I know about DH - aside from the Christmas party I am sure we will basically adhere to their bedtimes (7:30/8pm)...I am sure we will be tired - but that will be our only time to ourselves over the 5 day vacation and I just can seem him being bothered by not having and private space/quiet time to himself once they go to sleep!

I avoid the bus at all costs at Disney. In some instances, the buses don't go direct, they stop at other resorts and for the value resorts, it's a haul to get to the stop to the parks.

And if you've ever had to get on a crowded bus and stand with your small child, oh my. Not fun.

We get a rental car.

@Mrs D: I Can't remember, are you going at a low or high crowd time?

We went at a lower crowd time, and had great luck with the busses from our resort (Boardwalk). Obviously we walked to Epcot. But I'd read threads here that some people preferred driving, so since we had two days at MK, we drove one day and took the bus the 2nd day--the bus was much faster for us, because it picked us up within 5 minutes (about the same time it takes to walk out to the car and buckle kids in, loss stroller, etc), then it dropped us at the main gates, whereas when you drive to MK, you have to park at TTC and then monorail/boat over, and the monorail will stop st each resort before arriving at MK. We had an 8am breakfast reservation, so we got an amazing parking spot right st the front and STILL, I preferred the bus.

So it must just depend on the week you go. Walking to a resort is the easiest, but bus was second for me, driving third, and our boat to HS was last because it picks up at other resorts before going to HS.

We also booked our suite by buying points through David's. It was a good process and we got a 2 bedroom suite with a full kitchen AND a kitchenette, 3 bathrooms, pool view.....all for less than the price of a family suite at AofA at rack rate.

Collapsing the stroller for a bus ride was seriously NBG. My husband had a small backpack, I had 1 diaper bag and that's all--our kids were 2 and 4, so fully able to walk on the bus and sit themselves. My husband would just go ahead and colllapse the stroller while we were in the bus line. I helped the kids on and he held the stroller. Easy peasy. Bus I regularly ride the bus in my town solo with my two kids and our (collapsed) stroller just to get around town, so we are used to it and can do it seamlessly.

I wonder if I can prevent my children from ever finding out what Disney World is?