Little Help Here?

Originally Posted By Bellella

Hey everybody. I could really use your help on this. I would really want to go to WDW sometime this late spring or summer. I want to do one park per day for four days.
Can anyone of you tell me

1) When's the best time of the year to go?
2) Which is the cheapest hotel in the resort? I'm going with only one other person.
3) Do any of the attractions have FastPasses? Since I'll probably never get to go to Orlando again, I want to experience as much as I can.

Please help me and get back to me as soon as possible.

 

Originally Posted By ophellia

having just returned from 5 months in Fl, I can say I would Never go in Summer...it's beyond Hot...and would seriously detract from the fun...I went in early Dec and enjoyed the Parks much more...

 

Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom

Bellella, welcome to the boards. It's difficult to decide just when is the best time of the year to visit WDW. WDW has many events that go on during various times of the year. As ophellia pointed out, I would caution against going in the summer months. I would highly recommend early spring and fall. I tend to go in the early fall months. During the spring, WDW does their Flower Power thing with various acts preforming nightly in EPCOT. In fall is the annual Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT and also various acts are preforming everynight. This also going on during November and December during the Christmas season.

The cheapest "Disney" resorts on property are going to be the Value resorts ( most everyone prefers Pop Century). Personally I have never stayed at any value resort. I tend to stay in the Downtown Disney Hotels which cost less than the Value Resorts but offer larger rooms, queen size beds and lots more food choices on premise as well as accross the street. You want to keep in mind that when booking a vacation directly from Disney you can get up to 30% off. I would also recommend that you check out a few other sites as well ( LP is very friendly with many of the "other" Disney fan vacation sites). So try www.mousesavers.com as well as Deb's Unofficial Walt Disney World at www.allears.com . Allears will have pics of each resort and both sites ( as well as LP ) will promote favortie hotels in the surrounding Orlando area. You will find that everyone here has their favorite resorts and hotels, LOL. Don't be overwhelmed with all the information out there.... it's easy to over think your Disney vacation. To be honest with you.... you can't go wrong with any of the hotels or resorts on property or in the surrounding area. There are pros and cons to everything.
And most of all have fun.

 

Originally Posted By avimagine

For best value hotel what is your priority? Convenience? Theming? Proximity to parks/food/shopping? Do you have a favorite hotel brand you collect points with or have a preferred status with? Also how old is the other person? Adult/Child? Pretty much every hotel is child friendly (ahem), but for example some adults might not appreciate the Value Resorts (All Stars/Pop Century) or something like the Sheraton Safari Hotel, may prefer the Hilton or Gaylord Palms. Both of which are child fiendly but less cartoonish and boisterous then the Value Resorts.

 

Originally Posted By The Duck

I always go in late January. The weather is usually beautiful (60's at day and 40's at night on average) and there's no crowds. I almost never use FastPass because there's usually little or no wait. One exception is Soarin' at Epcot and FastPass is almost mandatory.

 

Originally Posted By Bellella

The other person is 23, and I'm looking for the cheapest Disney hotel I can find. The tickets and airfare are going to be murder (we're flying in from California), so we need to find a cheap hotel with free transportation to all the parks.

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

Hi Bellella,

You he already had some good advice, but I wanted to chime in to help as well. Having read your Disneyland Posts, I wanted to warn you about the size of WDW. Be prepared that you will not fit everything in. WDW is huge (43 square miles) and very spread out. If relying on Disney buses, allow an hour each way for your journey, 2 if you go hotel hopping (though cabs are a good option if doing that). The Magik Kingdom is bigger than DL with less attractions. Epcot is twice the size of the MK (I always recommend allowing 2 days to explore Epcot
Disney Hollywood Studios is physically the same size as DCA but has less attractions. And Animal Kingdom is over 500 acres. I would you read up about the resort, consider what your priorities are, and decide n trip plans after that. Also, if you are unlikely to go to Florida again, do not miss the Kennedy Space Centre. Also Universal studios is vastly different than Ca, esp Islands of Adventure. I do recommend you rent a car to maximise your enjoyment.

 

Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom

Althought I have never stayed at one of the Value resorts they are extremely popular. For the record there is nothing wrong with any of the Value resorts. I just think you get more value for the money by staying in one of the Downtown Disney Hotels. Most if not all hotels and resorts both on property and off property will offer free shuttle service to all Disney parks ( and many to Universal and the malls). Just check the hotels schedules as some bus service is on a schedule and others ( like the Downtown Disney Hotels ) run continuously. It sounds like if money is a factor in terms of a Disney resort you need to look any further than a Value Resort. But, I would also check Expedia, mousesavers, etc to see if they are any bargians going on in the Lake Buena Vista area hotels and there are always bargains going on in the Lake Buena Visa hotels.

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

Yep agreed with Tom here. Your money will go further with an off site hotel. The only real trade off is a Disney branded hotel offers Extra Magic Hours (which can make the park quite crowded on those days) and the service where purchases can be sent to the hotel for pick up.

But overall, I find a good chain brand offers a far better level of service for the money, and to be honest, the hotels Tom is talking about are actually closer to Downtown Disney than some of the Downtown Disney, Disney operated resorts.

The Values are glorified motels at 4* hotel rates. The partner hotels are sometimes 4* at motel rates.

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

***If relying on Disney buses, allow an hour each way for your journey, 2 if you go hotel hopping (though cabs are a good option if doing that)***

Keep in mind that this is a worst case scenario. If you have reservations for dinner in a park or something, then sure by all means allow lots of time, but for the most part you need NOT expect a 2 hour "commute" as part of your stay in WDW.

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

x - even the official guidebooks suggest allowing between 90 minutes and 2 hours for resort to resort transfers.

I am trying to keep positive, but also set realistic expectations. The alternative is to buy a hopper pass and then go to where ever the next bus takes you (unless you have dining reservations - and on that note, try to make your reservations for a table 90 days in advance if your heart is set on a particular venue).

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

Figured you'd chime in again.

I haven't done much in resort to resort transfers, but that sounds like a royal pain anyway (don't you have to go all the way to Downtown Disney and transfer there?). You can easily enjoy most of the high end resorts via a quick stroll or monorail ride from Epcot or the Magic Kingdom anyway during the day, so I don't see why anyone would bother bussing it.

In any case, I'm no fan of the bus system as you well know Dave, and I recommend to ANYONE staying at WDW that they consider renting a car ANYWAY, because it just makes it much easier to get around on your own time.

But I would say expecting the trip from your motel to one of the parks to take an hour is, generally speaking, on the worst case side of things (even from the All-Stars the journey itself takes no more than 15-20 minutes max to any of the parks, and unless you have extremely bad luck, getting to the bus stop around 30 minutes before you want to be there usually does the trick).

 

Originally Posted By danyoung

I agree that the 2 hours is more or less a realistic maximum when travelling from hotel to hotel, as you have to transfer at a major location (a park, the Transportation and Ticket Center or Downtown Disney). But to get from hotel to any park? I'd say a max of 45 minutes is realistic.

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

***the trip from your overpriced motel***

Oops...I meant to type "resort".

My bad.

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

>>> I'd say a max of 45 minutes is realistic.<<<

On my last trip, that was certainly not the case. We were tied to different dining reservations and therefore had set places we needed to be. We were on site at a deluxe for 12 days, and 50% of our trips took an hour from leaving the room to arriving at the MK or Epcot.

I am trying to set Bellella's expectations to help her have a good trip.

X - as for resort to resort transfer, it was was a real issue for us when having a table service dinner reservation at a hotel and then needing to get back to your hotel afterwards. It did necessitate going to Downtown Disney or another park to make the transfer, but with the hours we were there and the hard ticket party, if you left the California Grill at 10pm, that meant a trip to Downtown Disney to be guaranteed a bus transfer to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We learnt the lesson that if you want to do this, you are best off with a car, a cab or patience.

To a Disneylander it can be a shock to the system.

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

**>>> I'd say a max of 45 minutes is realistic.<<<

On my last trip, that was certainly not the case**

Without an in-depth scientific survey, we can't say for sure...but I would again venture a guess that your situation was, sadly, a very unlucky and unusual set of circumstances.

Generally speaking, it doesn't take an hour to get from your hotel to one of the parks...more like a half hour or even less, and yes I would allow for an hour if you have a reservation just in case the worst case scenario (which you obviously encountered, nobody's questioning that!) does happen to occur (late buses, bad traffic, etc, etc...).

I can say that in my personal experience, having lived in the Orlando area and having been an annual passholder for two years and having used the bus system frequently, I've never waited more than 20 minutes for a bus, and I've never spend more than 20 minues on a bus.

So put them together (I would estimate at least 50 rides if not much more), I've never spent more than 40 minutes getting from point A to point B, but I certainly don't doubt that it's possible (as I avoided the resort during busy times, as well!).

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

***X - as for resort to resort transfer, it was was a real issue for us when having a table service dinner reservation at a hotel and then needing to get back to your hotel afterwards. It did necessitate going to Downtown Disney or another park to make the transfer, but with the hours we were there and the hard ticket party, if you left the California Grill at 10pm, that meant a trip to Downtown Disney to be guaranteed a bus transfer to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We learnt the lesson that if you want to do this, you are best off with a car, a cab or patience***

I defer to your expertise on that particular subject, as I've never tried to do anything like that...in fact, my entire hotel experience at WDW consists of less than a week (a few days at Coronado Springs Motel, and a couple of days at the Boardwalk all told), unless you include the 7 days of hell I spent unwillingly at the All-Star Music Resort but I was there on business, not for fun (for sure! ).

 

Originally Posted By danyoung

>...and 50% of our trips took an hour from leaving the room to arriving at the MK or Epcot.<

I would submit that you must have been there at an incredibly busy time, or you were leaving at a peak time when the busses were overwhelmed. I'm with X on this - in my own (albeit limited) experience, it's never taken longer than 45 minutes to get from my hotel to a park.

 

Originally Posted By MousDad

Disney better hope the mass, customer base never figures out that it takes no more than 10 minutes to drive to/from anywhere on property.

Or no more than 15 minutes to/from pretty much anywhere in LBV.

 

Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt

Bellella, you may try asking in WDW Planning section... thread seem to get derailed a lot here.