Disney cruise & Disney World newbie questions

[spunkybaby]

We just booked a 4-night Bahamas trip on the Disney Dream for early December 2011. I am really excited! We are planning to stay in FL after the cruise for several days to visit Disney World. I have tons of questions and would welcome any and all advice...

(1) How many days would you plan for Disney World and which parks would you visit? DD1 will be 7.5 and DD2 will be turning 5 (will celebrate her birthday at Disney World). We are from Northern California, so Disneyland is a lot more accessible for us. We visited Disneyland and CA Adventure on DD1's 5th birthday and had lots of fun. Should we try to focus on the non-Magic Kingdom parks at DW since we can always go back to DL?

(2) Would you rent a car or take Disney transportation? We will be going on the cruise first, so I'm thinking that it would be silly to rent a car just to park it for several days. But after reading some of the DW threads, it sounds like it's nice to have a car to drive around DW. WWYD? (Also my parents and my sister and brother-in-law may come with us--would that change your opinion about whether we should rent since we won't fit into one car unless there's an 8-passenger minivan...highly unlikely, right?)

(3) Would you bring a stroller? And if so, which one? We have 2 Mac Volos, 1 P3 with a toddler step, and a BJCSD. We took the two Volos to DL last time, and that worked well. On more recent trips, we've brought the P3 and let DD1 ride on the toddler step as needed. But do you think she'll be too tired at the end of a day at DW to stand? And remember, we'll flying cross-country and going on the cruise, so storage is an issue.

(4) Where should we stay? Again, there's a possibility that my parents and my sister and brother-in-law may come with us. Should we look into a townhouse rental? Or should we stay with on-property hotels?

(5) We found a supernice travel agent through Mouse Ear Vacations. She is helping us book all the cruise stuff. Would you also use her to book the Disney World vacation part, or does it make more sense to book on your own? Are the hotel/park passes packages a good deal, or should I book them separately?

TIA for any and all tips!

[crl]

I will take a stab at answering a few questions.

I think you will want a stroller for the 5 year old.

We had five days in the parks and felt that was a good number. We got to do and see a lot and the grown-ups were tired and ready to come home.

We did MK, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. My son, age 7, says MK was his favorite. DH and I liked MK and Epcot best. Oh, and ds and dh LOVED Blizzard Beach. They spent two afternoons there (I was at the hotel with the baby). We were there at the end of Nov and it was warm enough for the water park, though Typhoon Lagoon was closed.

We stayed on property and did not have a rental car. We were pleased with that decision and would stay on property again.

Book your ADRs as soon as you can. 180 days out, I believe. We LOVED the character meals, especially Chef Mickeys. DS loved having the characters sign his autograph book and we got fabulous pictures of him and of dd (8 months) with the characters.

We made good use of the photo pass photographers and were glad we bought the cd of all the pictures in advance as it saved us some $$ over buying it after the trip.

Have fun!
Catherine

[cckwmh]

we went to DW this december 1-8th, with 2 almost 5 y.o. The strollers that we rented from an outside vendor saved us. We had an amazing time - with almost no lines on most rides except for the weekend. Early december, although historically slow, had the christmas parade taping and pop warner going on at the same time which made magic kingdom ridiculous over the weekend. We ended up leaving MK after about 90 minutes and park hopping. DHS and Epcot were not crowded over the weekend, so it worked out well.

We did not pack enough cold weather clothes - it was in the 30s for a few days and was in the high 20's one morning. Luckily disney was prepared and we all bought winter hats and gloves.

Also, we took breaks every afternoon - which everyone needed - but in the winter during non peak times the parks close early especially for MVMCP. i wish we didn't take the breaks, as we had many early nights.

We stayed at a disney deluxe resort and were stranded without transportation twice. Ended up taking cabs. This surprised me as I had previously read that disney was very accommodating.

even with these unpleasant things, i would go again in early december in a heart beat. i would just plan out my day a bit differently.

[spunkybaby]

I will take a stab at answering a few questions.

I think you will want a stroller for the 5 year old.

We had five days in the parks and felt that was a good number. We got to do and see a lot and the grown-ups were tired and ready to come home.

We did MK, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. My son, age 7, says MK was his favorite. DH and I liked MK and Epcot best. Oh, and ds and dh LOVED Blizzard Beach. They spent two afternoons there (I was at the hotel with the baby). We were there at the end of Nov and it was warm enough for the water park, though Typhoon Lagoon was closed.

We stayed on property and did not have a rental car. We were pleased with that decision and would stay on property again.

Have fun!
Catherine

Thanks, Catherine! Where did you stay on-site? It's helpful to know that five days was plenty of time. Right now, we would get off the cruise on Thursday morning, and I am thinking about staying through Tuesday and then flying back to the Bay Area. And yes, I agree we will want at least some stroller for the 5yo. I guess the question is whether my 7.5yo will also want to ride. DH says that we should just have the kids start walking more for endurance training :)

[spunkybaby]

we went to DW this december 1-8th, with 2 almost 5 y.o. The strollers that we rented from an outside vendor saved us. We had an amazing time - with almost no lines on most rides except for the weekend. Early december, although historically slow, had the christmas parade taping and pop warner going on at the same time which made magic kingdom ridiculous over the weekend. We ended up leaving MK after about 90 minutes and park hopping. DHS and Epcot were not crowded over the weekend, so it worked out well.

We did not pack enough cold weather clothes - it was in the 30s for a few days and was in the high 20's one morning. Luckily disney was prepared and we all bought winter hats and gloves.

Also, we took breaks every afternoon - which everyone needed - but in the winter during non peak times the parks close early especially for MVMCP. i wish we didn't take the breaks, as we had many early nights.

We stayed at a disney deluxe resort and were stranded without transportation twice. Ended up taking cabs. This surprised me as I had previously read that disney was very accommodating.

even with these unpleasant things, i would go again in early december in a heart beat. i would just plan out my day a bit differently.

Thanks for your response!

I didn't realize that the parks would close early for the MVMCP. What time did the parks close? Did you go to MVMCP? Did the closing time vary for weekdays/weekends?

Which resort did you stay at? And what happened that you had to take cabs?

We had heard that early December is a good time to go, but since the 4-day cruise ends on a Thursday, we'd be hitting the parks on the weekend (although hopefully not the Christmas parade taping/Pop Warner weekend). I wonder if the parks will be more crowded then.

[crl]

Thanks, Catherine! Where did you stay on-site? It's helpful to know that five days was plenty of time. Right now, we would get off the cruise on Thursday morning, and I am thinking about staying through Tuesday and then flying back to the Bay Area. And yes, I agree we will want at least some stroller for the 5yo. I guess the question is whether my 7.5yo will also want to ride. DH says that we should just have the kids start walking more for endurance training :)

We did not have a stroller for our 7 year old. He has not ridden in one since he was five and I refused to push him anymore. He was fine and did very full days (dh and I took turns taking the baby back to the hotel room in the afternoons).

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. It was lovely and the room was nice. The pool there is great. The boat ride to the Magic Kingdom was great, although when you get the smaller boat you do have to fold strollers down. Unfortunately, you have to take the bus everywhere else. Busses were okay, but not great IMO. We did have to wait some and they were sometimes crowded and it was a pain folding the stroller and holding on to it on the bus. Not awful or anything, just not ideal. Also, I felt WL lacked a simple family restaurant. They have the Whispering Canyon, but is loud and I thought the service was slow. Then they have Artist Point, which is fancy (did not eat there). And they have counter service.

If funds allow, I would stay at a monorail resort. We have no immediate plans to return, but if we go back we would like to do that.

[cckwmh]

MK closed at 7 on party nights, 8 other nights. (On Sat it was open late). AK closed @5 and DHS closed @ 7 I think.

When we took afternoon breaks, then ate dinner, there really wasn't enough time to do anything @ the parks with the early closing.

We stayed at Wilderness Lodge, which we loved. On our first night, we went to the Hoop dee Doo review, 2nd show. The boats stopped running @ 8 (our show was not out by then) and only 1 bus went to each resort. when it left, everyone was stranded. The CM at the bus depot sent everyone down to the docks, and we stayed there for about 40 minutes with a crowd of people waiting for a boat. Finally a CM arranged for a boat to come and it took everyone to the contemporary. It was a full boat. We were told to then take a bus to downtown disney and would be able to get a bus to our hotels from there. We ended up taking a cab because the kids were melting down and we could see our hotel from where we were. it was ridiculous to go all the way to DTD to go next door.


We went to MVMVP and it was so worth the $ for my family - not so much for the people we were traveling with (they didn't stay - it was 29 degrees). We stayed until it was closed and my 4 y.o. did everything she wanted to without having to get off the rides if she didn't want to. there were zero lines. We did it our last night so we called it her favorite day and she picked everything. I was exhausted and didn't want to ride small world for the 7th-10th time, but we did it. she met every character she wanted, with minimal lines as the night went on.

We also did extramagical hours in the morning on thursday I think and we were done with all fo the rides in fantasy land and at rope drop for the fairies really early. it was great.

we were part of a grand gathering and did the sunset safari character experience which was also great. a longer safari than the normal one, where we saw everything, a great meal with african music and performers, live animals (snake and something else) and lion king characters. I would totally do this again.

[spunkybaby]

Hmm...maybe we should look into a monorail resort too. Would the monorail also stop running at certain times, like the bus/boat, or would it continue to run? I was excited about going to DW during "low' season, but I forgot that would mean everything closes early. Luckily, DDs don't nap, so we would not be taking afternoon breaks--we would just go, go, go until the park closes.

Thank you both so much for your responses!

cckwmh--I'm sorry you were stranded and had to take a cab :( But how great that you got to go to MVMCP on an uncrowded (though chilly!) night!