Planning a trip to Disney!

Today my husband and I were discussing Disney World and wanting to take the kids. This is something we have wanted to plan pretty much since we first met. We are planning a trip for March 2019 and I am pretty excited. We have come up with the total of $4000 included for hotel stay, park tickets, food, gifts, and gas. I am excited but also nervous! I really hope we can save that much by then and hope we can both get off for vacation at that time as well!

Who else has been to disney in recent years? What were things that you think are an absolute must do? 

That is cool! I went about 8 years ago and I loved it! My marching band is going to march in one of their parades sometime in the spring and I cannot wait for it :3 

I was in Disneyland in Paris about 5 years ago or so and I liked it. I felt like I am a bit too old to fully enjoy it, but if I were a kid then, I would totally love it. From a child perspective it can really be like daydream with favourite disney characters, for an adult unfortunately it looks fake, but rollercoasters and other similar attractions are fun for everybody. C;

My family has gone there three time (07, 10 and 14) and I have loved it every time! We always did the dinning plan and even though they had cut it back from our first visit how much they gave us, the food portions are always so big that we never really used our snacks and so we would just stock up with stuff that applied to the snack section at the end for things to eat on our return trip.

Absolute must are try the Dole Whips! I put it off the first two visits but tried it the last time and omg I wish I had tried them sooner because amazing! I always got the orange and pineapple one. My favorite rides were:

Magic Kingdom- so many good ones, probably the park we spent the most time at, but if I had to pick probably Space Mountain. Its great if you like roller-coasters in the dark.

Animal Kingdom - Probably the water raft ride (the name is escaping me at the moment), its great for cooling down and when they have the extra magic hours it was fun to ride at night! Haven't been since Pandora became a thing.

MGM/Hollywood Studios - It used to be the Great Movie Ride, but that is no more, so probably Star Tours. The last visit so much of it was closed since they were building the Toy Story land at the time (think its open now...)

Epcot - another favorite ride of mine is closed, the Norway one which they have now switched to Frozen (havent been since they done it), but the one that goes halfway up the inside of the dome thing is pretty cool, I think it was called Spaceship Earth, but don't quote me. The Mars ride is great but they need to update the graphics on it because they stayed the same from my visit in 07 to 14 and probably still are and you can tell the tape is getting tired. I always did level orange, which is the high intensity version and it never bothered me until 14, but thats because things weren't lining up correctly for my eyes (cause like I said, its getting tired, lol) but even then I was just mildly dizzy. However, if motion things make you easily sick, definitely go for level green, it can still make you sick but not as sick as level orange could make you (my mom can verify this).

Shows are a fun thing, I love It's Tough to Be a Bug in Animal Kingdom, The Little Mermaid one was pretty good in Hollywood Studios, can't think of any in Epcot that I really love since they have gotten rid of so many (including the hilarity that was Honey I Shrunk the Audience), Philarmagic in Magic Kingdom is great as well.

Food, now if you have the Dining Pass you can try so many places! My family loved Boma which was at one of the resorts (can't recall which) and we traded in a few dinners each time to go to the Hawaiian Luau (dinner and show) at the Polynesian Resort. We made it a thing to try different places in Epcot, though a family favorite is the Japanese grill section and we usually go at least once a visit. The Dining Pass (at least last time we used, it changes constantly) included a snack or two each day, a sit down meal and a "fast" meal (basically anything that wasnt sit down). Some places are not included with Dining Pass (also changes from visit to visit for us, so I have no idea what is or isnt available), but we never lacked in finding something to eat and hardly spent any money on food the whole time we were there. 

I can't recall if they give it to you if you are just staying at the resort, if it is something you buy separately or if it is part of the dining plan, but they give you a cup that you can refill at the dining hall of any resort (might be just your resort, idk I only went to another resort for meals and once just because I was looking for a penny smasher XD) for free whenever (that might have changed since my last visit but I dont think so).

Ohh penny smashers! Now my family did pins one year, but that was pretty expensive, but penny smashers are fun and are all over the place! I was making it a goal to get every princess and her prince in smashed penny form (they have a couple of quarter ones which can be daunting in price comparatively, but I think I did one of those just to say I did XD), which even though I started halfway through my visit last time, I did pretty good.

The cheapest thing for extra fun you can do is signature collections! Lots of fun and you can take pictures with your own camera of your kids (or yourself) meeting characters so you don't have to worry about paying more! Not all characters can sign (a few who can't will use a stamp, like Buzz Lightyear), but all can have photos taken with! Schedules of when you can see which characters and when are on their site and I believe they now have an app for it, but don't quote me. You can bring your own autograph book, so if you do that hey free activity (if not they have some for sale in like all of their gift shops, lol).

lol feel like I wrote you a small book there, but any questions you have feel free to ask :D

EDIT: One requirement my mom has (even though it gets to her too, lol) is we have to ride It's a Small World once per a visit. Don't ask me why, but I was so thankful that it was closed the last time I visited. Before I had ever gone I had read in a guidebook that one lady was ready to swim for it at the end when unloading got backed up and I didn't think it would be that bad. It is, the song gets ingrained, pounded really, into your head and you just want to escape before the ride is over from it lol. But hey you should at it your must, it seems to be on everyone's list as a must do as lines are always pretty crazy for it XD I feel sorry for the workers on that one.

Last edited on 2018-09-04 at 13:57:59 by Wonder Wiki

Thanks everyone. 

Unfortunately I do not think we can get the dining plan because we are not staying at a Disney resort, sorry can't afford $500 per night! We do have $700 planned for food for the trip. We figured breakfast at our hotel, lunch at the resort, dinner at restaurants outside of Disney World. Plus we can bring snacks and water bottles into the park so I think we should be okay. My husband went a few years ago and is obsessed with Disney World so he has a load of places to eat on the list. We are getting the park hopper option on our tickets, which is costing us $400 more but we only have 3 days to do the parks as we have to be back by a certain time Friday per the court order for my youngest son so that his dad can pick him up. 

Thank you though it has helped a lot and I will look into a lot of that. I did see there a lot of different shows I thought those would be cool. Also my two oldest boys went last Christmas with their dad and went to all the parks and did a bunch of stuff outside of them as well. We aren't telling them though we want to make it a surprise! 

Okay sooo.. I am not sure how much this will apply to the US but I have been to Disneyland Paris twice and if there is some definite must-tell advice then it would be:

- Do not underestimate the amount of walking you will be doing. Bring your most comfortable shoes, no fancy shiney whatevers. Bring the worn in all-time greats, the ones you know you can rely on. Your feet will thank you after walking around for 6+ hours.

- Inform yourself before heading in about what attractions you absolutely want to see. Make a list. Then consult google for estimated wait times. If you think you can see more than three popular attractions a day, well, no you can't. You will be able to visit one with ease by being there right as it opens up. You can see a second if you are cleverly planning and fine with waiting for 45+ minutes. The third one takes serious wait time patience and anything above is just you waiting in lines instead of seeing things. Heck, I'd probably keep to two of those really popular ones. Some attractions can have 2 hour wait times occasionally. Try and not be there when it's happening, see other stuff and get that attraction on the next day right as it opens :)

- Get a really good breakfast before you head in, bring as much supplies as you can. If you thought the tickets are expensive you haven't seen the prices for food yet. 

- Have an open mind and just enjoy the exoerience. Really. Disney World is made to absolute perfection, from ALWAYS having the exact correct volume of background sounds/music due to ridiculous attention to detail, to amazing customer service, to even the litter system being artfully designed so you never need to actively look for a trashcan to super-friendly characters taking their time to make your day magic, Disney World truly is an experience. It's not a theme park, not an attraction, it's an experience. You just can't not find stuff to love about it, even if not everything may be to your personal taste I stand by the statement: you cannot not find stuff you'll love.

So... go and enjoy. Yes, it's expensive but it's such a treat and if you plan your trip well, you'll get SO much more out of it and have an amazing time.

Cheers!