Originally Posted By Mr X ***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*** Yeah, right!? I highly recommend renting a car if you're visiting WDW, even IF you're staying at one of the vaunted "Disney Resorts"...I have often used a car/bus mix (leave the car at whatever parking lot and go from there, and just end the day back near the same parking lot to pick up the car if it's a park hopping kind of day...other days use the car lots more).
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 I'm comming late to this but here is my 2cents...I'd stay at Pop Century, go in May the weather is nice. Not a lot going on durring this time so it makes the crowds not bad. I have never rented a car and use the Disney trans. I don't want to be in a big hurry when I'm on vacation. But if you limited on time then renting a car would be best for you. No matter what have a great time when you go. As Mickey says" See Ya Real Soon."
Originally Posted By standor I usually go late April, early May, before the college breaks. Weather is good and prices are low.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<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.>> Absolutely agree. If you MUST (and really think about this long and hard) stay on property for your visit, look into DD Hotel Plaza properties ... especially the Hilton and Buena Vista Palace. They are on par with many Disney DELUXE props and even if you book through them, you'll likely get a good deal these days. I use Priceline's 'Name Your Own Price' service a lot (may use it for a quickee visit next week) and have stayed at the Hilton for as little as $49 a night. Disney's motels don't compete with that even if you could get the same price, which you can't.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<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.>> Been waiting for that to happen for 10-15 years now. Not holding my breath.
Originally Posted By Mary2013 My sister and I usually go in the weeks before and after Thanksgiving. The crowds are very light. If you go early December, the Christmas decorations are already up. And you avoid the Christmas crowds.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 I'm comming late to this but here is my 2cents...I'd stay at Pop Century, go in May the weather is nice. Not a lot going on durring this time so it makes the crowds not bad. I have never rented a car and use the Disney trans. I don't want to be in a big hurry when I'm on vacation. But if you limited on time then renting a car would be best for you. No matter what have a great time when you go. As Mickey says" See Ya Real Soon." ------- Bella..I hope you have a good time. If you can avoid summer you likely should as being from California the humidity will be overwhelming at times.But because of kids in school we went for almost 20 years straight in summer and you survive..you learn to balance indoor attractions between outdoor attractions- and take a break at the hotel for a dip in the pool mid day would be my recommendation. If you have a hard and fast ressie at a restaurant I would allow 1 hour at outside for transportation to get you to the park. Now remember as someone mentioned earlier the sheer size and scope of WDW. If the busses get you to a park in 30 minutes ( and if it is resort to park they usually will ) -remember to leave time to get from the front gate to the restaurant- at a place like EPCOT - if you're eating in the World Showcase- that can add 30 minutes from the front gate. I would plan to be in the park before dinner ressie so that you're not relying on busses for that - My daughter and her fiance just got back from 4 days and they did not have a car like we have when the entire family goes. They take the bus a lot even when we all go. They reported no brutal times the 3rd week of December..and they rely on the busses heavily. There are always exceptions and some will make those the norm...but they are not. Leaving a park when it closes will make for very crowded bus scenarios and sometimes getting their for rope drop- but otherwise usually pretty good. as far as staying off site- your call. Better value's for the money - likely. However if you're never going again I encourage you to stay on site..most eople i know who don't go 500 times in their lifetime like it more. I would also watch for deals and maybe you can get into a moderate. However if price is the driver- than yes look for best deal anywhere......... Hope you have a great time - enjoy
Originally Posted By disney pete welcome to Laughing place April or sept are allways good pop century or one of the all star resorts really helps to get a car
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 April has Easter this year, doesn't it? That likely means very busy. Also, Flower and Garden makes EPCOT busy on weekends. May is safer, but weather will be more summer-like, although usually much less rain and tolerable at night.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb May of '09 was quite hot and humid for this So Cal girl, so heads up on that one. First off, 4 days is no where near enough time for an only visit, especially if you are counting travel days toward your 4. You will simply not have enough time to do more than scratch the surface and may be more frustrated than anything. Second, the rule of thumb in the world is save money or time, not both. Third, get a good guide book on top of your Internet research. I had been to WDW 4 or 5 times before getting The Unofficial Guide (the book I recommend) and learned so much from it. My main recommendation is if time and money are a big issue, delay your trip until Spring of 2012 or 2013 and save, save, save. The difference in quality and Disney atmosphere between the value and mods is huge. Also, save your vacation time, because to do the World justice you need to devote 5 full days to the 4 parks and another day or 2 to DTD, the water parks and resorts. This is at minimum. And if you are going to experience other Florida attractions, and you should if possible, you will need even more days.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I strongly agree with Deb. Four days (even if not travel days) would be setting yourself up for unhappiness. EPCOT is two days no matter what. Other parks can all be done in a day as a first-timer. But WDW is so much more than parks ... water parks, the resorts are worth visiting even if not staying there, the BW area, FW, DD etc ... and that is leaving out UNI/IOA/SW/Aquatica/Space Center. Even if you were just doing WDW, I'd say a first visit should be at least a full week.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I'm going to do some repeating here and explain why. First off, if you absolutely have to stay at a Disney resort then the least expensive are going to be the Disney Value resorts. If you read the post here you will quickly pick up on the fact that if you want to get around to various WDW locals you are going to have to do transfers. Those transfers only take place at two locations, Ticket and Transportation as well as Downtown Disney. I always drive when visiting WDW and quite frankly just leave the car parked at my hotel. Since I always park hop, I find it to be a major inconvience driving a car to a park and then having to "hop" back to the park where I parked the car. Another reason why I always stay at a Downtown Disney Hotel. First off you want to keep in mind that the Downtown Disney Hotels are still on property so technically speaking you still staying on Disney property. And yes you can absolutely get from the DTD hotels faster to the parks than from many of the Disney resorts. Reason, because many of the Disney resorts have many bus stops. In the case of Port Orleans Riverside its two separate resorts combined into one. A Disney bus is easily going to take at least 15 minute to just get in and out of both resorts ( thus eating up your time ). In the case of Boardwalk a Disney Deluxe resort which shares the same bus as people staying at the Swan and Dolphin it's easily going to take 15 minute for a Disney bus to do a full circuit through those resorts before continuing on to it's finaly destination. OK back to the DTD resorts. If your staying at a DTD resort you can use their bus service wich runs on the half hour to any park. When ever you want to get back to your DTD resort you have the option of getting taking a DTD bus or walking to any Disney resort ( and there are LOTS along side virtually ever Disney park ) and jumping on a DTD Disney bus. All the DTD resorts are a 10 minute walk from DTD. You can literally get back to your DTD hotel from anywhere at any time on property. DTD is a central transfer point and by staying in hotel in that area offers you the greatest flexibility of any resort on property or off property. As I said you keep your car parked at the hotel. As far as DTD is concerned.... that something you do on your "downtime". DTD is open till 2 AM. So it's a place you go to after all the parks have closed. Someone mentioned that one of the perks of staying at a Disney resort allowed you to use Disney's "Extra Magic Hours". The Hilton in DTD allows this as well as the price between that of a Disney Value Resort and a Disney Moderate resort. When ever visiting WDW I also go with friends. On my last trip we were thinking of staying at the Double Tree Hotel in DTD as it offers suites. Along came and incredible offer at the Best Western at $59 a night. There was no way I could ignore that kind of a savings. I'm sorry but that's half the price of a Disney Value resort. We could have booked two rooms at the Best Western for the price of one room at the Disney Value Resorts. And I can honestly say we easily spent more money on booze than we did on the hotel. Also on this trip my brother and his family were staying at Pop Century and got the Disney meal plan for free. A great bargain I have to admit. So ultimately is sorta worked out to be the same. My party mostly ate off property at a huge savings. My brother and his family found it an inconvience to get to their Disney restaurant for the reserved time. In fact the only time I used our car was to deliver booze, munchies or shuttle my brother and his family between DTD. Now back to Dave's trip. I have also stayed at AKL and I can tell you it does take 45 minutes between the MK and AKL. If your destination is AK then sure your going to get there in no time flat.... but any other park it's going to take a few minutes. And why does it seem that the Disney bus drivers from AKL always take the LONG, LONG route to get to MK? Furthermore, when I was staying at AKL security was checking everytime you entered to make sure that only guests staying at that resort could park at the resort as parking ( at the time ) was extremely limited. So if that is still the case, even if you had a rental car you would not be allowed to park at the AKL. AKL is the ONLY Disney resort that limits parking exclusively to guests staying at the resort. Often times my party would use our car to frequent DTD at night and then have to fight to find a parking space which infurated me since I was staying at that resort. Not to mention the fact that it got to the point that I got into a arguement with security at the gate since I quickly got tired of being questioned everytime I drove up to the resort. When I drove my car while on vacationing at the AKL I didn't know I would be going through Checkpoint Charlie evertime I returned to my Disney Deluxe resort. CRAZY!
Originally Posted By danyoung Tom, on Bellella's behalf I want to clarify what you said. > If your staying at a DTD resort you can use their bus service wich runs on the half hour to any park. When ever you want to get back to your DTD resort you have the option of getting taking a DTD bus or walking to any Disney resort ( and there are LOTS along side virtually ever Disney park ) and jumping on a DTD Disney bus. All the DTD resorts are a 10 minute walk from DTD.< Tom is talking about the Downtown Disney resorts. They are on Disney property, but not owned by Disney. They are within walking distance to Downtown Disney. But what I really wanted to point out is that there are many Disney resorts that are NOT within walking distance of Downtown Disney. They are spread out by miles of greenery, and there are no good walkways along the Disney highway system. I'd also like to remind all the helpful folks here that Bellella has never been to Disney World. So telling her to check out POFQ or Y&BC or any other of the standard acronyms we all use aren't going to be of any help to her.
Originally Posted By Blufusion05 Hello Everyone. Happy New Year a little late. Let's be nicer this year. Found out that if you are. Good things happen. As far as the orginal poster on this topic they are asking for help. Here are my experiances and hopefully some tips for them to enjoy their trip. I have been going to WDW since '82. I have stay at the Buena Vista Palace when it was still newer in '85 . Contempory in '92 . That was a waste of money at that time.The Hilton in '90 was a good deal. The 1st time i went in'82 it was the Travel Lodge. And in '97 i spent 10 day at Fort Wilderness in a tent. No tv just rest and relaxation after the parks.Best stay ever in my opinion. Disney has some problems but I wont go there . This is the real life. Things change all the time. I will never experiance the thrill of the 1st time there. We can never do that. I just got to say if your going get a rental car. No buses. The headache that you save will save your trip. Now as far as I'm concerned staying on property is great if you can afford it. But since my partner works for Marriott we get to say at their fince propertys near SeaWorld and the Ritz Carlton for a max of $75.00 a night. Got to watch the fireworks ffrom our room. So I guess I'm trying to say. If you really wanta stay on Disney Property and you can afford it then do s. But as for me I can stay off property and save a bundle. And get the best of both worlds. Great 4 star hotel and halfway between Universal Studios and Disney and the drive is usually 30 mins or less. Just my 2 cents here.
Originally Posted By Blufusion05 And one more thing the best time is to go during October. In my opinion.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Unlike Disneyland, which used to be uncrowded in October. :-( Which brings me to ask this as I've never been to The World in October. Do they decorate at all for Halloween? I know they don't do Haunted Mansion Holiday or Ghost Galaxy for Space Mountain, but is there anything for those who don't go to the hard ticket party to enjoy for the holiday?
Originally Posted By danyoung They've been increasing their Halloween decorations over the past few years, and at least at the Magic Kingdom they have a whole lotta orange for the holiday.
Originally Posted By Blufusion05 Yes they do decorate. And when I went there in Oct'97 at the campgrounds each site was decorated. Like I said that was the best time I have been until I meet my other half. Just fun and no expectations of having the perfect vacaction. Try Fort Wildneness. You will enjoy it and the have cabiins there as well
Originally Posted By Blufusion05 Sorry stream of though again. If you wanna stay on site. DTD that is stay at the new Howard Johnson. It has brand new rooms and has a great price. I know HOJO's sounds like a cheap place But it reallly is nice.
