X-Post - DisneyWorld Swan?

[SC2]

Hi,
We are thinking of booking the Swan at WDW for end of September. Is this a good time for WDW? Do you know how the weather will be and if the lines will be long? It is our first vacation in a LOOOOOOONG time w a 3 yr old and a 17 mo old.

Another question is carseats -- do we bring two with us???? And how do we get to the airport in a taxi/car service - do we strap the carseat in? I have never had them in a car with no carseat and the thought terrifies me....

I'm sure I will have more questions but right now I am very anxious about traveling with them...

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!!

[brubeck]

First of all I strongly recommend the Unofficial Guide to DisneyWorld. It is an awesome book and will answer a lot of these kinds of questions for you.

Secondly, September is 'shoulder' season. This means it is not as crowded/costly as peak season, but not as empty/cheap as value season. The weather should be warm but humid and you could easily have a chance of rain (it rains all year long in Florida).

Thirdly, why don't you just rent a car? You can pick it up at the airport and use your airplace carseats in it, or rent carseats from the car rental company. You iwll find this VERY useful for getting around WDD. Trust me, you do NOT want to want to be using the WDW bus system with two small kids, especially at the end of the day. A car will also make it easier for you to go back to your hotel for a mid-day rest (strongly recommended).

HTH!

[momtoB]

Just an FYI, Mears runs a shuttle to the Swan and Dolphin from the airport approx every 1/2 hr ($17 adult, free 3 & under), and The S&D also have an Alamo/National Car Rental Desk if you want to wait until you need a car rental. Disney also has a new service where they pick up your luggage for you and transport you to one of their hotels, only the Swan & Dolphin is excluded from that, but if you decided for some reason to stay somewhere else (on property), that might be another option - it's called "Disney's Magical Express". One advantage to renting a car off airport property is that you can avoid the extra airport taxes/fees and save a little bit of money this way, but I would only do this if you're not going to need a car more than a day or two during your stay.

I would definitely bring your car seats as you will need them if you're renting a car and I wouldn't want to ride in a taxi without having my ds in one either (I have heard that it's not required in taxis but even if that were true I wouldn't want to do it). If you're buying both your dc seats on the plane, your older dc will be fine on the plane w/out a car seat so you can just check it. I also recommend buying a seat for the 17-mos old. Some airlines do offer discounted rates for children but you have to call them - you can't get the special rates over the internet for some reason. If you do check the car seats, then I would put them in bags so they don't get dirty in the cargo hold. You can use plastic or buy special car seat travel bags (some have wheels and/or carry straps to make carrying them easier).

As far as Disney transportation goes, the Swan & Dolphin both have "Friend" ships serving both Epcot and MGM. You can stroll your stroller right on these boats or if you want, both parks are also about a 15-min walk away. We have done both (depending on our energy level of course). So, if you don't have a rental car then you really only have to take the busses to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks, which isn't all that bad, IMO. Also, if you have park hopper priveleges (depends on what kind of options you buy with your "Magic Your Way" passes) then you can also take the monorail between Epcot and MK.

September is a good time to go as far as crowd levels go, although it does rain a bit more, so definitely bring lightweight rain jackets or ponchos. Here's the monthly averages for September from weather.com:
Avg. High 90°F, Avg. Low 72°F, Mean 81°F, Avg Precip. 5.76, Record High 98°F (1988), Record Low 57°F (1981).

That sort of gives you a high level overview. Like the pp said you can pretty much expect some rain every day, but it will be warm. This site also shows the different historic attendance levels for different times of the year: http://allearsnet.com/pl/attend.htm

hth!
Cheryl

[JustMare]

I've stayed at the Swan and it was beautiful and very convenient.

It's not a WDW owned resort. It's owned by the Sheraton. You can use the Entertainment book's 50% off card on room rates. I've done it and it's worth it. We received a wonderful room with a view of the Epcot fireworks at 50% off.

When we took DS to WDW for his 1st birthday, we used tiffanytowncar.com. They have graco convertible carseats in their cars and will make a 30 mins complimentary stop at Publix. It was perfect. I was able to buy diapers, baby food, fruit and water there. All WDW deluxe resorts have refridgerators in the rooms.
We were staying at the Poly at the time and used WDW transportation so the carseat was never an issue.

If you have any more questions email me at [email protected] I'm a disney college of knowledge graduate (travel agent course).

Mare
Mom to TJ (2/04)