Disney World, Florida 2013
One trip most families will make while in the US is to Orlando, the ultimate theme park destination, 4 Disney Theme parks, 2 Disney water parks, 2 Universal Parks, Sea World, Wet and Wild, outlet shopping, dinner shows the list goes on. It’s a thrill seekers paradise. You can drive there in about 14 hours from DC or fly in 2 from Reagan or Dulles.
There are so many decisions to make, where to stay which theme parks, how long to go for and how to try and save some money on what will be an expensive trip. Hopefully this will answer a few of those questions and make planning a little easier.
Where to stay? There are 2 main areas for accommodation: International Drive and around the I92. International Drive has more restaurants, is closer to Universal Studios and shopping. The I92 area is closer to the Disney Parks and is where most of the villa rentals are based. We have always stayed in a villa in Orlando, we like the freedom to cook for ourselves, relax by the pool etc and they can be really economical, especially if there is more than one family. If you pick the right area then you can be in the parks 20mins from your door. Are Disney hotels worth the extra money? It’s hard to say as it depends what you are looking for. The advantages to staying in a Disney hotel are extra hours in the park, no parking fees and the ability to pop back to your room for a break. The biggest downside is usually the price and possibly not being able to escape from the Mouse for the duration of your stay. You can find good hotel deals on all the usual websites, villas you can look on VRBO or thedibb.co.uk. An typical villa example that has been used by several British families is http://www.orlandoprimrosevilla.com/ Military personnel can stay at Shades of Green which is an ex Disney hotel only available to military personnel and their families, it can be hard to get into at busy times but is well priced and I have heard good things about it from people who have stayed there.
When to go and how long for? The busiest time of year is the Christmas period, at this time of year the parks can get to capacity and only Disney Resort guests allowed in (if you have arrived early i.e. before parks open you will be fine). Thanksgiving and 4th July are usually the next biggest crowd times. Then it’s any other school holiday, the Brits like to go at Easter and summer holidays. January and February are traditionally quiet as well as November. Even at the busiest times you can still have a brilliant holiday you just need to plan and expect crowds.
How long to go for? It depends when you go and how many parks you want to go to. You will need at least 1 day per park, maybe more if you want to ride everything, see all the shows and parades, this is especially true in the busy holiday periods. If you can get up early and hit the parks as they open you will see most of what you want in the first couple of hours, especially headliners where queues can be over an hour long within the first hour or 2 of opening.
What tickets and where to buy the? Military personnel can get tickets at the MWR or ITT’s in Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon etc. There are discount tickets available as well which will save you money. Don’t forget all military personnel get 1 free entry per year to an Annheuser Busch theme park so you can choose, Sea World, Busch Gardens etc. Universal studios tickets are also available at a military discount. For everyone else it is unfortunately a case of surfing the web for the best deals. Sometimes Disney run special offers. http://www.mousesavers.com/ is a great source for discount codes and uptodate information
How many days, no expiration, park hopper that again depends what you want to do. If you want to visit more than one park in a day then park hopper is for you, this allows to start the day in one park and then finish in another, particularly useful if you have just 1 or 2 rides you want to ride in a park, we have used it to return early evening to watch fireworks etc.
My single biggest piece of advice is to buy the book Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. This book is full of more information than you can use about where to stay, when to go descriptions of all the rides etc. Everyone I have recommended it too has found it invaluable, there are hotel reviews, restaurant reviews, plans to get the most out of each park, reviews of rides so you can get an idea for how scary they are the list goes on. It also covers the other Orlando parks i.e. Universal. There is a website http://touringplans.com/ which you can subscribe to and build your own touring plans. It has information about which park to visit on a particular date – we used it when we visited at Christmas and it was a lifesaver despite the parks being busy we rode everything we wanted to with minimum waiting. There is also an app which gives you live waiting times for rides.
A few other hints and tips (some of which are from the book):
• Get up early – you can achieve lots if you get to the parks 30mins – 1hr before opening time you be in and have ridden 4 rides in an hour which will take you 3hours after 10:30am. Often you can be done by mid afternoon and head back to your accommodation for a break.
• Pin trading – You will see lots of people wearing lanyards covered in Disney pins. These pins and lanyards can be bought in the various shops and then you trade pins with cast members. Basically if you see a cast member with a lanyard or book with pins ask to trade. Etiquette is that you trade a maximum of 2 pins per cast member; it’s a great way to get the kids chatting to the cast members who are all friendly and happy to trade. One money saving tip is to buy a job lot of pins on ebay before you go – you can get then for about $1 each but in the parks the pins are $7.95 - $20 each. http://www.disneystore.com/pins-art-collectibles/pins/mn/1000211/
• You can book your dining up to 180 days in advance https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/ its worth doing for character meals, special occasions, Phantasmic packages etc. The restaurants get busy so this helps cut the wait down.
• If you have a budding princess in your group she can be made over at the https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/bibbidi-bobbidi-boutique-park/ make reservations in advance, for the rest of the day in the parks they will be addressed as the character they have been transformed into, well worth it to see the expression on their face or they can become pirates https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/pirates-league/
• Fastpass – this is available on most of the headliner rides, you insert your park ticket and it gives you a ticket with a return time allowing you a shorter waittime. This return time will be a window of an hour.
• Photo pass - Disney Photo Pass, gives guests the ability to view and purchase photos taken by Disney Photographers online and at the theme parks. When visitors have their photos taken, they’re issued a “Photo Pass” which has the web address and a 16 digit ID number imprinted on it. You then go to the photo pass website and input your code and view your photos. You can use the same card each time, just give it to the photographer (take a photo of the ID number that way if you lose the card you can still access your photos). You can pre- order a CD with all our photos on before you go which will save you about $60, it seems pricey but as each 6 x 4 costs $15 it’s worth it as you can have hundreds of p[hots and can edit them before you get the CD. The photo pass photographers are great and mean you can have pictures of your whole family – they will normally take pictures with your camera as well if you ask them. www.disneyphotopass.com/specialoffers/wdwphotocdlearnmore.htm
• Wear comfortable shoes you will walk 5-12 miles in a day and you will be doing a lot of standing in queues. Use a buggy even for children who have grown out of them, gives them somewhere to sit waiting for parades and they will get tired with the distances involved.
• You can buy gift cards that can be spent in the parks either on line or at the local Disney store in Tysons. Every ride at Disney exits through a gift shop so the pester opporutnites are never ending. If you give them a card with a set amount it’s up to them what they buy, once it’s gone it’s gone.
• YouTube is a brilliant tool if you have nervous kids; most of the rides have been filmed and uploaded. It is a useful way of letting kids know what to expect as many of the rides are indoors so you can’t see what is about to happen
• One way to save money on what will be a pricey holiday is to hire your car via a UK website using your UK driving licence it is MUCH cheaper than hiring direct in the USA. We have used http://www.carhire3000.com/ or http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/
• Wizarding World of Harry Potter is amazing but unbelievably busy. It is 3 rides and Hogsmeade village forming 1 of the lands at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Within an hour of the park opening the queues for Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey can be well over 2 hours. There is no free FastPass system at Universal and this ride is not included in the paying fastpass system. Hogsmead is breath-taking and the butter beer surprisingly good.
• The 2 Universal parks are more geared towards the teens and up age groups, there are bigger coasters and many of the film references are wasted on younger children.
• You will need a car, hotels offer shuttles but the distances and timings mean you can miss valuable park time if you take this option. Even if you are staying on the Disney property the distances between parks means that relying on the resort transport is often much slower than using your own car
Lastly don’t forget Disneyland. Disneyland is the original park in Anaheim California, just south of Los Angeles. There are 2 parks there Disneyland and California Adventure. The parks are smaller than Orlando but have several rides/ attractions that are only found there – Cars Land, Aladdin show, Indiana Jones ride, California Screaming and World of Colour. We love Disneyland it’s more intimate than the Magic Kingdom in Orlando making it easier to see in a day. California Adventure has some of the best rides we have been on at Disney the new Cars Land is awesome – particularly at night when it is lit up with neon. A visit to Disneyland Resort makes a great start/end to a West Coast road trip; you can do most of it in a couple of days. The other major theme park in the area about 1hr away is Universal Studios – compared to Orlando this is actually still a working studio and has lots of original sets etc and is the original , what it doesn’t have YET is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter although this is planned probably to open around 2016.
There are so many decisions to make, where to stay which theme parks, how long to go for and how to try and save some money on what will be an expensive trip. Hopefully this will answer a few of those questions and make planning a little easier.
Where to stay? There are 2 main areas for accommodation: International Drive and around the I92. International Drive has more restaurants, is closer to Universal Studios and shopping. The I92 area is closer to the Disney Parks and is where most of the villa rentals are based. We have always stayed in a villa in Orlando, we like the freedom to cook for ourselves, relax by the pool etc and they can be really economical, especially if there is more than one family. If you pick the right area then you can be in the parks 20mins from your door. Are Disney hotels worth the extra money? It’s hard to say as it depends what you are looking for. The advantages to staying in a Disney hotel are extra hours in the park, no parking fees and the ability to pop back to your room for a break. The biggest downside is usually the price and possibly not being able to escape from the Mouse for the duration of your stay. You can find good hotel deals on all the usual websites, villas you can look on VRBO or thedibb.co.uk. An typical villa example that has been used by several British families is http://www.orlandoprimrosevilla.com/ Military personnel can stay at Shades of Green which is an ex Disney hotel only available to military personnel and their families, it can be hard to get into at busy times but is well priced and I have heard good things about it from people who have stayed there.
When to go and how long for? The busiest time of year is the Christmas period, at this time of year the parks can get to capacity and only Disney Resort guests allowed in (if you have arrived early i.e. before parks open you will be fine). Thanksgiving and 4th July are usually the next biggest crowd times. Then it’s any other school holiday, the Brits like to go at Easter and summer holidays. January and February are traditionally quiet as well as November. Even at the busiest times you can still have a brilliant holiday you just need to plan and expect crowds.
How long to go for? It depends when you go and how many parks you want to go to. You will need at least 1 day per park, maybe more if you want to ride everything, see all the shows and parades, this is especially true in the busy holiday periods. If you can get up early and hit the parks as they open you will see most of what you want in the first couple of hours, especially headliners where queues can be over an hour long within the first hour or 2 of opening.
What tickets and where to buy the? Military personnel can get tickets at the MWR or ITT’s in Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon etc. There are discount tickets available as well which will save you money. Don’t forget all military personnel get 1 free entry per year to an Annheuser Busch theme park so you can choose, Sea World, Busch Gardens etc. Universal studios tickets are also available at a military discount. For everyone else it is unfortunately a case of surfing the web for the best deals. Sometimes Disney run special offers. http://www.mousesavers.com/ is a great source for discount codes and uptodate information
How many days, no expiration, park hopper that again depends what you want to do. If you want to visit more than one park in a day then park hopper is for you, this allows to start the day in one park and then finish in another, particularly useful if you have just 1 or 2 rides you want to ride in a park, we have used it to return early evening to watch fireworks etc.
My single biggest piece of advice is to buy the book Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. This book is full of more information than you can use about where to stay, when to go descriptions of all the rides etc. Everyone I have recommended it too has found it invaluable, there are hotel reviews, restaurant reviews, plans to get the most out of each park, reviews of rides so you can get an idea for how scary they are the list goes on. It also covers the other Orlando parks i.e. Universal. There is a website http://touringplans.com/ which you can subscribe to and build your own touring plans. It has information about which park to visit on a particular date – we used it when we visited at Christmas and it was a lifesaver despite the parks being busy we rode everything we wanted to with minimum waiting. There is also an app which gives you live waiting times for rides.
A few other hints and tips (some of which are from the book):
• Get up early – you can achieve lots if you get to the parks 30mins – 1hr before opening time you be in and have ridden 4 rides in an hour which will take you 3hours after 10:30am. Often you can be done by mid afternoon and head back to your accommodation for a break.
• Pin trading – You will see lots of people wearing lanyards covered in Disney pins. These pins and lanyards can be bought in the various shops and then you trade pins with cast members. Basically if you see a cast member with a lanyard or book with pins ask to trade. Etiquette is that you trade a maximum of 2 pins per cast member; it’s a great way to get the kids chatting to the cast members who are all friendly and happy to trade. One money saving tip is to buy a job lot of pins on ebay before you go – you can get then for about $1 each but in the parks the pins are $7.95 - $20 each. http://www.disneystore.com/pins-art-collectibles/pins/mn/1000211/
• You can book your dining up to 180 days in advance https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/ its worth doing for character meals, special occasions, Phantasmic packages etc. The restaurants get busy so this helps cut the wait down.
• If you have a budding princess in your group she can be made over at the https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/bibbidi-bobbidi-boutique-park/ make reservations in advance, for the rest of the day in the parks they will be addressed as the character they have been transformed into, well worth it to see the expression on their face or they can become pirates https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/pirates-league/
• Fastpass – this is available on most of the headliner rides, you insert your park ticket and it gives you a ticket with a return time allowing you a shorter waittime. This return time will be a window of an hour.
• Photo pass - Disney Photo Pass, gives guests the ability to view and purchase photos taken by Disney Photographers online and at the theme parks. When visitors have their photos taken, they’re issued a “Photo Pass” which has the web address and a 16 digit ID number imprinted on it. You then go to the photo pass website and input your code and view your photos. You can use the same card each time, just give it to the photographer (take a photo of the ID number that way if you lose the card you can still access your photos). You can pre- order a CD with all our photos on before you go which will save you about $60, it seems pricey but as each 6 x 4 costs $15 it’s worth it as you can have hundreds of p[hots and can edit them before you get the CD. The photo pass photographers are great and mean you can have pictures of your whole family – they will normally take pictures with your camera as well if you ask them. www.disneyphotopass.com/specialoffers/wdwphotocdlearnmore.htm
• Wear comfortable shoes you will walk 5-12 miles in a day and you will be doing a lot of standing in queues. Use a buggy even for children who have grown out of them, gives them somewhere to sit waiting for parades and they will get tired with the distances involved.
• You can buy gift cards that can be spent in the parks either on line or at the local Disney store in Tysons. Every ride at Disney exits through a gift shop so the pester opporutnites are never ending. If you give them a card with a set amount it’s up to them what they buy, once it’s gone it’s gone.
• YouTube is a brilliant tool if you have nervous kids; most of the rides have been filmed and uploaded. It is a useful way of letting kids know what to expect as many of the rides are indoors so you can’t see what is about to happen
• One way to save money on what will be a pricey holiday is to hire your car via a UK website using your UK driving licence it is MUCH cheaper than hiring direct in the USA. We have used http://www.carhire3000.com/ or http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/
• Wizarding World of Harry Potter is amazing but unbelievably busy. It is 3 rides and Hogsmeade village forming 1 of the lands at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Within an hour of the park opening the queues for Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey can be well over 2 hours. There is no free FastPass system at Universal and this ride is not included in the paying fastpass system. Hogsmead is breath-taking and the butter beer surprisingly good.
• The 2 Universal parks are more geared towards the teens and up age groups, there are bigger coasters and many of the film references are wasted on younger children.
• You will need a car, hotels offer shuttles but the distances and timings mean you can miss valuable park time if you take this option. Even if you are staying on the Disney property the distances between parks means that relying on the resort transport is often much slower than using your own car
Lastly don’t forget Disneyland. Disneyland is the original park in Anaheim California, just south of Los Angeles. There are 2 parks there Disneyland and California Adventure. The parks are smaller than Orlando but have several rides/ attractions that are only found there – Cars Land, Aladdin show, Indiana Jones ride, California Screaming and World of Colour. We love Disneyland it’s more intimate than the Magic Kingdom in Orlando making it easier to see in a day. California Adventure has some of the best rides we have been on at Disney the new Cars Land is awesome – particularly at night when it is lit up with neon. A visit to Disneyland Resort makes a great start/end to a West Coast road trip; you can do most of it in a couple of days. The other major theme park in the area about 1hr away is Universal Studios – compared to Orlando this is actually still a working studio and has lots of original sets etc and is the original , what it doesn’t have YET is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter although this is planned probably to open around 2016.
