Disney World Vacationing

A few weeks ago a friend asked for some help booking a Disney World vacation. After telling him everything I knew I realized it might do well just to post it online so that all may benefit from my little knowledge of Disney World vacationing. Below is our conversation broken down into an outline.

My Disney Experience

Disney World
- two – three times as a child, once at resort
- December 2010 w/ her family
- December 2011 for honeymoon
- December 2012 w/ her family
- February 2014 w/ friends
- October 2016 w/ friends
Disney Land
- once as a child
Disney Cruise
- December 2012 for anniversary
- April 2015 w/ my family

When to go?
1. What do you care about more: costs, seasons, or crowds?
2. If you are adding a cruise then time is limited to spring/summer/early fall
3. We went in December for our Anniversary, it was cool/cold. Mid-60s most of the cruise
4. I suggested September, because the temperature is ideal and most kids are back in school.
  1. I recommend looking up a crowd calendar. I used touringplans.com and/or wdwprepschool.com, but there are many options
5. I also warn again going during any kind of peak season or peak day
  1. First because I hate crowds
  2. Second because there is a record of the parks closing due to too many people, include this past year (Dec 31, 2015)
    1. https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/capacity-closure
When to book?
1. The simple answer is: now.
2. Whether it is a cruise or a park vacation, the sooner you book it the better. As it is the happiest place on earth, it tends to fill in very quickly. So after you chose your date, book it as soon as possible. I believe you can book it as soon as the prices come out. Typically around October or November of the year prior to the vacation.
3. You can make your meal reservations 180 days in advance as of the time I’m writing this, March 2016. So if you desire to go to the popular restaurants, then you need to book at least 180 days prior to the date you desire to go and make meal reservations that day. Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom is 100% booked about 175 days out. So you have only a short time to make your choices.
  1. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/disney-dining-plan/
Where to book?
1. Sadly you cannot book both a Disney cruise and Disney World resort on the same website.
  1. https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/
  2. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/
2. We don’t get a discount (some perks but no monitory discount) for booking with AAA, but as I’m lazy and enjoy working with them we have been booking all out stuff through AAA’s travel agent.
What to do?
1. Cruises
  1. I recommended they go on either a 4 day or 7 day cruise. Longer if you want. But i would probably get restless on the 2-3 week cruises. That boat is only so big.
  2. 3 day is too short of time to even remember where you room is.
2. Parks/Tickets
  1. I recommended a minimum of 4 days in the parks. 1 day for each park.
  2. Obviously, it should go without saying, go for as long as your budget allows. Which for some people may be 7 days, 10 days, etc.
  3. We usually go for a week: Drive down Sunday , M-W in Disney Parks, Th at Harry Potter World and/or Disney Springs, and Fri in last Disney park, then drive home Saturday.
3. Resorts
  1. Value
    1. For first timers, as my friend was, I recommended saving the money and going to a value resort. You still get all the perks of staying on property and the high quality Disney resort experience, for a lot less $$ per night. Plus if your only going to use your room when you are about to collapse at the end of the time it does not matter about all the extra amenities that the others have.
    2. Out of these, I’ve only been to Art of Animation. Maybe some others when I was young but I don’t recall.
    3. Art of Animation was amazing. We went when it first opened so it was about the same price, not it’s more expensive then the other value resorts.
      1. It’s mainly focused around family because the vast majority of there rooms are family suites. We stayed in the Little Mermaid themed rooms, standard 1 king bed room.
      2. The art and decorations were so fun. We spent probably an hour or two just wondering the resort looking at the fun decor and everything else.
  2. Moderate
    1. Great step up when you want slightly nicer furniture and amenities.
    2. We usually stay at Coronado Springs. The Pepper Market (one of the resort’s Quick Service restaurants) has really good food. The views are just beautiful and I love the pool. It’s on the lower end of the moderates, but still great.
  3. Deluxe
    1. I remember staying in one of these as a child, but honestly it didn’t leave an impression. Maybe as an adult we’ll revisit one day.
  4. In-Room Celebration
    1. We got the princess celebration once. It was pretty nice, high quality stuff. I selected the date and while we were at the park they came and decorated the room. We actually still use the box lids that the prizes came in as decoration in our bedroom.
4. Food
  1. Get the dining plan. I told my friend it’s well worth it. On many stand points.
  2. This is what I posted on another forum
  3. We always get the dining plan. Usually the standard dining plan: 1 table service, 1 quick service and 1 snack. You get the benefit of prepaying and not having to worry about the cost of the meal. It’s a great compromise for my wife and me, because I’d stay at Motel 7 and have a cooler full of deli meat and a loaf of bread, while she would want to eat at Victoria and Albert each night. Ha ha.Plus you get a mug for unlimited refills of any non-alcoholic beverage. Which means I get my morning hot chocolate or hot tea included. :)The costs is $63.70 per adult per night. But remember that’s $63.70 for two meals and a snack. Table service approximate cost: $30 steak, $5 dessert, $3 soda. + approximate cost of quick service meal $15-25 + snack $3-7 + 3-5 sodas, water or hot chocolate. $63.70 is a good average. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes less. For us its saves us from having an argument about the cost of the meal. One trip I did the math, saved every receipt and added it up and compared it to the cost of the dining plan. We came out ahead by ~$100 by purchasing the plan.
  4. And here is what I told him
  5. OK, so food. With your plan you get 1 quick service, 1 table service, and 1 snack per night at the resort.Snack=soda, water bottle, pretzel, funnel cake, etc. Not all snacks are equal and not all vendor take dining plan for a snack.Example: funnel cake at Epcot, not part of the plan. Funnel cake at Hollywood studios is part of the plan.Quick service: aka fast food, no reservations needed. Just walk up and order a entree, drink and desert.Anything marked with the Dining Plan logo is fair game.Like snacks, not all meals at quick service places take the dining plan.Example: in Epcot (i think) there is a place to get a whole rotisserie chicken, Not on plan.just look for the logo and your safeFinally, Table service meals. aka sit down restaurants. 90% need reservations. Always, sooner the better, you can change it up until 24 hours prior. But better to get the reservations sooner. There are 3 tiers of table service: regular, character, and signature. Regular is regular, 1 dining plan = 1 meal (entree, drink, desert). Some character and some signature places take double. 2 dining plan meals = 1 meal (entree, drink, desert)We always pick 1 character/signature restaurant to go to. Yes, that meals 1 day you might not have the table service, but eating a big quick service + snacks is more than enough. Food is always plentiful at Disney.
  6. Character Meals means that characters show up. (obviously). Example: Cinderella’s castle, the top 5 princes come to your table and talk to you. You can take pictures or do whatever. So fun!
  7. The best character meal is the Fairytale Dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table (aka castle) at MK. It counts as two DP though. The other character meals are more kid oriented. Signature meals: All of these count as two DP meals. But that’s because they are the best. If you were to pay for them: somewhere in the $100-150 per person range. We’ve only been to “Cítricos” at the Grand Floridian Resort and Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios. Both were very good meals. Cítricos has like 3-4 courses. The problem was: we felt WAY out of place. You don’t have to, but most people dressed up. Think: country club. I love the experience, but I wouldn’t go again.The most popular signature restaurant is Le Cellier Steakhouse in Epcot. I haven’t been, but I hear everyone talk about it. Up to you.Side note before I continue with table services: Be Our Guest is a quick service at lunch and table service at dinner. Be Our Guest is the ONLY quick service you do need reservations for. Same building just different menu, lunch vs dinner. Both very good.Regular table services: none of these take double meals. most are sit down and be services. Same as always: 1 entree, 1 drink, and 1 dessert. Top ones i would recommend: Maya Grill at Coronado resort (Anna’s favorite non-fancy meal), Be Out Guest at MK, Liberty Tree Tavern at MK, Coral Reef at Epcot, 50’s Prime Time Café at Hollywood (Anna’s second favorite), Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom or Downtown Disney, Yak and Yeti at AK.50’s Cafe is fun experience because they treat you like family. Example: Aunt Ruth comes out and yells at you for having elbows on the table. You eat mama’s mash tatos and uncle bill will clean up. It’s a lot of fun, *IF* IF*IF* you get a waiter that really into it. We’ve had both, some waiters, are so dreary it’s no fun, other get into it and will scream across the building if they see you on the phone or will make you stand in the corner for not eating your veggies.Coral reef is wrapped around a HUGE aquarium, all fish themed meals. Sci-Fi is fun because you sit in a old car and watch clips of old sci-fi movies.Each one has good food in their own way. I would not put down any other another. Just depends on what kind of food and/or experience you’re in the mood for.
    
    The only thing I have to mention is breakfast. I’m not sure if you are breakfast people, but there is no free breakfast. You can put coffee in your free-refill mug, but otherwise any breakfast will count towards a snack or meal. What we usually did is: If we were hungry (rare) we’d have a donut or bagel that counted towards a snack at the resort before the park opened, we’d have a quick service at 11-1ish and a table service around 5-7. You want to make sure the meal reservation doesn’t coincide with a fireworks show.
5. FastPass+
  1. All I can say about this is to plan ahead. Disney has made many changes with how this works and requirements and what not. Just check your My Disney Experience and sign up for what you want.
  2. As my friend had no idea what a fastpass was: its like a reservation for the ride. You plan ahead for what ride you want that way if you show up in your allotted time you can get a much shorter line.