Help! Ask The Disney Experts Discuss Help! in the Ask The Experts forums; I plan on taking my kids to Diseny World in September. Me or my wife have never been there before. I just started to look around and I had no ...

[daddy_of_2]

I plan on taking my kids to Diseny World in September. Me or my wife have never been there before. I just started to look around and I had no idea how big it was. I was thinking it was something like six flaggs. I didn't know it was four parks together. I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know where to begin or even what questions to ask. I'm think about the all star music hotel, is that good? We are going to be there a week, whick park should we start at? I read about the meals with Mickey and the others, but I didn't know there were differant kind of meals with characters. Which one is the best for two boys? Any info would be a great help.

[chodnett]

Hmmm.... where to start, where to start.

Well, first thing is that you do have some time to plan, and you won't be going at an extremely busy time, which is great.

You really need to decide what type of park ticket you're interested in before really planning things park-wise. If you go with a park-hopper, then you can go from park to park to park all in one day. If you choose to go without the hopper, then your limited to one park per day.

Dining-wise, if you stay on Disney property, you can book reservations up to 6 months (180 Days) of your arrival date. You're looking at being able to book your dining reservations some time in March. It's important that you do this as soon as you can in order to guarantee you get what you want. There are A LOT of different dining options and that includes many, many character dinings.

If I were you, I would purchase "Birmbaum's Guide to Walt Disney World 2010"

It's a great book that breaks down each and every section of Walt Dsney World, including a review of every single restaurant and even a rating of the best restaurants. Read this book cover to cover (maybe even a few times). As big as Disney is, you won't be able to cover everything, even in a week's time, so plan for the things that you definitely want to do. Don't be surprised if, when you return home, you begin planning your next trip. Disney World is addictive... it's magical...

I'm a 23 year old male from Virginia who when for the first time at age 21... I've been back 4 times since, and am going again in January.

If there is anything I can do, please let me know.

[daddy_of_2]

Thanks, A buddy of mine at work told me to get the park hopper and it sounds cool.

[tmlinz]

Get the WDW planning bible, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. It is huge, but Don't be intimidated. The information is well laid out and invaluable. As it is unofficial, there are actual opinions instead of rose colored glasses (Not to say that I don't enjoy the Birmbaum's guide).

I took my family down a couple of years ago, and got the dining plan and did lots of character meals. For 2 boys, try O'hana breakfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, and Stitch. There is also Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom with Winnie the Pooh and friends. If they are playhouse disney age, Hollywood and Vine at the studios has JoJo and Goliath and 2 of the little einsteins.

I would recommend staying on property to stay in the disney magic. we stayed at All Star Movies in the Toy Story area where there are giant Woody and Buzz statues.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas.....

[Citizen of WDW]

If your going to stay at any value resort, try Pop Century. It's the only Value resort that has a dedicated bus, the 3 All Star Resorts share the same buses.

[tmlinz]

I've heard that, but on our trip, we had a bus that was just for Movies for every park...

[Sharon&Randy]

Hi!

First take a deep breath!
It can be intimidating the first time, but there are so many people to help!
The people on this forum are great and very helpful. It has helped me a lot.
Start listening to the podcasts.
You might want to get help from a Disney travel planner like MouseFanTravel.
If you book with them it's free and they are very helpful.
Mouse Fan Travel Home Page
A fun part of going to Disney World is the planning!


Sharon

[Citizen of WDW]

Originally Posted by tmlinz

I've heard that, but on our trip, we had a bus that was just for Movies for every park...

I've never gotten that lucky. But I haven't stay at a value in about a year so it might of changed.

[tmlinz]

Actually, that was 2 years ago. We may have had 1 bus in 9 days that we shared.

[NC_WDW_Daddy]

Start with the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and Deb's AllEars.net web site. You will find great planning tools to help you get started.

[NC_WDW_Daddy]

I also agree maybe you should give MEI Mousefan travel a call.

[bater8slater]

Well I love EPCOT. And it's soo big it never gets too crowded. So that's always a great choice. Or you could go to Magic Kingdom for your first day. There's nothing more magical then seeing Cinderalla Castle (sorry for the spelling) and walking down Mainstreet. And if you arrive to the magic Kingdom around 8:40 you get to see the one of the most magical shows ever. Mickey and his pals welcome you to the park. It gets me everytime

[TTAfanatic]

Just want to back up what everyone else is saying, check out The Unofficial Guide, book your trip thru Mousefan Travel, check out allears.net, and most importantly, if you have an Ipod or MP3 player, start downloading as many of the WDW Radio Shows and WDW Today shows you can listen to, the advice, history, and reviews they give are priceless (and free!) I also agree that Pop Century is the way to go, I like it best out of all the value resorts. Touringplans.com is another great website, having a touring plan is very important, I can tell you from experience of not using one for the first half of a trip in 2008. And of course we here on the WDW Radio Show forums are alway glad to answer any questions!

[doconeill]

Originally Posted by Citizen of WDW

If your going to stay at any value resort, try Pop Century. It's the only Value resort that has a dedicated bus, the 3 All Star Resorts share the same buses.

Don't forget...POP is about 50% bigger than any of the ASRs. I think bus sharing at the ASRs depends on the park, day and time.

On the subject of tickets, you DON'T need to figure out the EXACT tickets you need in advance, as you can always upgrade them during your stay to add days, park hopping, etc. (as long as you do it within 14 days of first use). Since you are a "rookie", you probably won't have much of a plan of attack and being unfamiliar with the parks you could probably easily spend an entire day at a single park, and therefore may not need park hopping. But if at some point you decide that you are done at a particular park and really want to visit another, you can add the park hopping option for $52+tax per ticket - same price as if you bought it in advance, or on the first day, or the last day.

It is very easy to become overwhelmed - Disney is a "planner's vacation". It helps to go in with a plan, and not just play it by ear. You don't need to plan every single move (but you can - touringplans.com is related to the Unofficial Guide and can plan out your whole day for maximum effect if you want), but at least have an idea of "must dos", "like to dos", and "don't need tos" at each park, and what special things may be available at each park on the days you are likely to be there.

If you want to eat at "table service" (i.e. more traditional sit-down) restaurants, be sure to get Advanced Dining Reservations for them as soon as you can. Some of the more popular locations can be hard to get, and in a lot of cases walk-ups are turned away.

Although you may be going during a light time, I recommend also learning all about FASTPASS. It is NOT like systems at other parks and is free to use.

There is are a lot of things, and it can be difficult if not impossible to do absolutely everything in one vacation.

And if you have questions, post...there are plenty of people who can help.

[daddy_of_2]

Wow, thank you guys so much. Looks like I have some reading to do.