My 8 year old is wanting to go real bad,and to be honest I do too.I've never been before. I was wanting to ask some of you,the who,what and where. If money were no object,what's the best place to stay,and what are your recommendation's. Any input would be considered and appreciated.Thanks
Wanting to go to Disneyworld,suggestion's?
- Thread starter michaeljbird
- Start date
I was just there in november. I stayed in Orlando, but alot of people i know stayed right in disney world. they have special packages and stuff. its a good time. its a little pricey, but what isnt these days. Seaworld is preety cool to see too.
Is she tall enough for all the rides? If not, I might suggest waiting a few years until she is. Plan it way ahead, and stay right in the park as that's much much more convenient.
suggestions?? suggestions???.....
suggestions?? suggestions???.....
you want SUGGESTIONS???? how 'bout this one? I suggest you take my kids along with you too
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dang....didn't think you'd go for that one. and man did yyz hit it right on the head....LOL
suggestions?? suggestions???.....
you want SUGGESTIONS???? how 'bout this one? I suggest you take my kids along with you too
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dang....didn't think you'd go for that one. and man did yyz hit it right on the head....LOL
MJB, I'm in the travel business so feel free to ask any questions you would like after this write-up. Matter of fact, most Disney and cruise calls are directed to me. I have 2 young boys and don't live far away so my family and I travel there w/regularity.
W/o question I would recommend the Animal Kingdom Lodge and stay in the rooms that have the Savannah views. Balcony over-looks a savannah with many different types of wild animals, giraffes, antelopes. In the room they have a print-out of what animals are in the savannah so the kids enjoy trying to locate them all. There are many. The neat part at night is the lighting. Disney tries to make it look like there is a full moon every night. Kinda relaxes the animals I guess. Anyways, you can see the animals whenever you want. Every morning the boys would wake up and go out on the balcony to see what was going on.
Boma restaurant there at the Lodge has a wonderful breakfast buffet. The waiters/waitresses are from Africa and that area and are very friendly. I never made it to any dinner buffets. Always at the parks.
Huge pool(I mean huge) with a fairly decent slide. BTW, there is a bar out by the pool. Strictly there for tropical drinks, a beer, cocktail. Not a hang-out for people to party at.
As far as the parks go, there are 4 major theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney's MGM Studios and Epcot. You most certainly want to purchase the Dream Maker Package which provides for you a pass that allows you to move freely between the parks the entire time you're down there. That's nice because you can come back to your resort, catch a nap, go to the pool or whatever and then go back that night for the fireworks/parades. I highly recommend Fantasmic at MGM Studios. A fantastic water show that runs for 45 minutes at the end of the night. Fireworks, a fire-breathing dragon, and a lot of action as Mickey saves the day. W/o question this is our favorite show. Get there early for a good seat(30-45 minutes should do it. If it's really crowded, an hour early). Included in this DM package is a visit to the waterparks if you like. Also, entrance to Pleasure Island. There are a couple of other smaller amenities but what I recommend is taking advantage of the Leave a Legacy option. You and your daughter can have a photo made and then they engrave it on a small tile that is permanantly fastened to one of many granite rocks that are at the entrance of Epcot for eternity. My son and I did it 3 years ago and the neat part is that when he has kids, he can show them ole grandpa and their Dad when he was 3 years old. Kinda cool. We check on it every time we go.
Oh, one more thing, an advantage to staying on-site lets you take advantage of a program called FastPass. It lets you "reserve" a special time for you and your daughter to go on a ride that may take over an hour just to get on. You submit your park-pass into the machine and it tells you when to come back to go on the ride. You go check out some other things w/o waiting in line. Once your time finally comes around, go back to that ride and there will be a FastPass line and you go directly to the front of the line. Very little waiting if any. An example: if it's 12 noon and you submit your pass, the return time will be around 1:30-2PM. There will be a sign there showing what time they are promoting. This comes in handy for Space Mountain, AeroSmith's Roller Coaster ride at MGM and FastTrack at Epcot.
l assume you're flying down. Mears Shuttle is the way to go for transfers to your resort. They pick you up at the baggage claim terminal and take you right to the front door of your resort. You won't need a car unless you want to visit Universal Studios and/or SeaWorld. If you do get the car, it is very easy to get to your resort, just takes about 25-35 minutes to get there. Once at your resort, Disney takes it from there. Their buses run round the clock(as long as the parks are open and about an hour after they close) and can take you to every place I've mentioned. They run every 20-30 minutes so minimal waiting. Lines can be long though when the parks close so be prepared.
Quickly, the Grand Floridian, The Contemporary and The Polynesian are all located near The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. These 3 resorts have the mono-rail transportation system. It's like a slow bullet-train that provides transfers between the parks and the resorts, but just these 3 resorts. Obviously, these 3 are pricey because of the location and the views but so is Animal Kingdom(hey, you only live once). The rates will certainly depend on when you're going. If it's summer, it will be high for sure. Of course during the fall when the kids go back to school, the rates drop.
Lordy, you're probably wishing I never saw this thread.
Please feel free to ask me anything that comes to mind. I'll be checking in as I usually do. You might want to stop in a travel agency there in Little Rock and get a Disney brouchure so you can see some of the things I'm talking about.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
nole
W/o question I would recommend the Animal Kingdom Lodge and stay in the rooms that have the Savannah views. Balcony over-looks a savannah with many different types of wild animals, giraffes, antelopes. In the room they have a print-out of what animals are in the savannah so the kids enjoy trying to locate them all. There are many. The neat part at night is the lighting. Disney tries to make it look like there is a full moon every night. Kinda relaxes the animals I guess. Anyways, you can see the animals whenever you want. Every morning the boys would wake up and go out on the balcony to see what was going on.
Boma restaurant there at the Lodge has a wonderful breakfast buffet. The waiters/waitresses are from Africa and that area and are very friendly. I never made it to any dinner buffets. Always at the parks.
Huge pool(I mean huge) with a fairly decent slide. BTW, there is a bar out by the pool. Strictly there for tropical drinks, a beer, cocktail. Not a hang-out for people to party at.
As far as the parks go, there are 4 major theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney's MGM Studios and Epcot. You most certainly want to purchase the Dream Maker Package which provides for you a pass that allows you to move freely between the parks the entire time you're down there. That's nice because you can come back to your resort, catch a nap, go to the pool or whatever and then go back that night for the fireworks/parades. I highly recommend Fantasmic at MGM Studios. A fantastic water show that runs for 45 minutes at the end of the night. Fireworks, a fire-breathing dragon, and a lot of action as Mickey saves the day. W/o question this is our favorite show. Get there early for a good seat(30-45 minutes should do it. If it's really crowded, an hour early). Included in this DM package is a visit to the waterparks if you like. Also, entrance to Pleasure Island. There are a couple of other smaller amenities but what I recommend is taking advantage of the Leave a Legacy option. You and your daughter can have a photo made and then they engrave it on a small tile that is permanantly fastened to one of many granite rocks that are at the entrance of Epcot for eternity. My son and I did it 3 years ago and the neat part is that when he has kids, he can show them ole grandpa and their Dad when he was 3 years old. Kinda cool. We check on it every time we go.
Oh, one more thing, an advantage to staying on-site lets you take advantage of a program called FastPass. It lets you "reserve" a special time for you and your daughter to go on a ride that may take over an hour just to get on. You submit your park-pass into the machine and it tells you when to come back to go on the ride. You go check out some other things w/o waiting in line. Once your time finally comes around, go back to that ride and there will be a FastPass line and you go directly to the front of the line. Very little waiting if any. An example: if it's 12 noon and you submit your pass, the return time will be around 1:30-2PM. There will be a sign there showing what time they are promoting. This comes in handy for Space Mountain, AeroSmith's Roller Coaster ride at MGM and FastTrack at Epcot.
l assume you're flying down. Mears Shuttle is the way to go for transfers to your resort. They pick you up at the baggage claim terminal and take you right to the front door of your resort. You won't need a car unless you want to visit Universal Studios and/or SeaWorld. If you do get the car, it is very easy to get to your resort, just takes about 25-35 minutes to get there. Once at your resort, Disney takes it from there. Their buses run round the clock(as long as the parks are open and about an hour after they close) and can take you to every place I've mentioned. They run every 20-30 minutes so minimal waiting. Lines can be long though when the parks close so be prepared.
Quickly, the Grand Floridian, The Contemporary and The Polynesian are all located near The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. These 3 resorts have the mono-rail transportation system. It's like a slow bullet-train that provides transfers between the parks and the resorts, but just these 3 resorts. Obviously, these 3 are pricey because of the location and the views but so is Animal Kingdom(hey, you only live once). The rates will certainly depend on when you're going. If it's summer, it will be high for sure. Of course during the fall when the kids go back to school, the rates drop.
Lordy, you're probably wishing I never saw this thread.
Please feel free to ask me anything that comes to mind. I'll be checking in as I usually do. You might want to stop in a travel agency there in Little Rock and get a Disney brouchure so you can see some of the things I'm talking about.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
nole
MJB, I'm clicking to e-mail you when I get to your profile but it says adminstrator has disabled the e-mail function. Don't know of any other way to contact you. I know they don't like posting e-mail addresses so not sure where to go from here.
Sorry.
nole
Sorry.
nole
There's also message boards only about Disney which are full of info on every detail. Kids don't cry at Disney, too much magic. If you want to make it an actual "relaxing" vacation, don't go to the parks every day. Nothing is as exhausting as a vacation in a Disney park.
