Originally Posted By ploeb909 Ok...Wow!! Lots or responses! I love it and thank you..everyone, good and bad reviews.Well I made my ressies and will be staying at the All Star Music, in a family suite. I have PH for the whole family and plan on taking advantage of the water para sailing, and all WDW has to offer. I kept going back and fourth about a car rental and will still mull that one over. I will also book the Cirque show. What about the meal plan...any suggestions? And some someone mentioned "they cant imagine where I heard WDW wasnt worth it", well to answer that, it was on this site! I have been a member of LP for at least 4 years now, and have read more then my share of WDW bashing discussions. My kids are so excited about going that they dont mind giving up the regular trip to DL. We go so often for day trips anyway! I personally will miss the DLR this summer(our 6 day trip), but love the planning of the "Big" trip. Now any good advice about airfare?? Someone told me if I bought airfare a year ahead it would be dirt cheap, I have not been able to find airfare that far in advance. Any help is HELP! Thanks...
Originally Posted By Dabob2 You'll enjoy WDW, and with kids that age I'm sure you'll fill your 8 days just fine. WDW is great for a full week of nothin' but Disney. Why I prefer DLR, really, is because I prefer non-Disney stuff for half the week, and SoCal has just about anything you could want. But for a week's worth of theme park a-go-go, WDW is great.
Originally Posted By StitchDude Glad to see you booked the trip! I have been there twice and both times I was with my niece who was around 6 and 8 at the time of the vacations. She was able to handle the buses and trips on the Monorail. If you think your kids can handle it, save the money on the car rental. The WDW transportation was more than suitable and I never waited very long to get where we were going.
Originally Posted By jonvn I think you made a very good choice. As far as the meal plan goes, some say yes, some say now. I think with the meal plan, you need to plan things out carefully. IF you do that, it will save you money. However, you must be careful. For example, you get like 3 snacks or meals or whatever. And your snack can either be a banana for 2 bucks or some other thing for 10 bucks. If you don't properly spend your items for the meal plan, then you can end up not saving any money, or even losing it. It is best if you plan on going to eat in one expensive restaurant a night, I would think. For that, you do want to make reservations ahead of time. For me, the planning and dealing with all that is not worth it, because we just wanted to eat and go. We probably could have saved ourselves some cash if we used it, but it would have added a bit of stress, and our days would have circled around getting our money out of the dining plan. Other people find it great, though.
Originally Posted By danyoung >And your snack can either be a banana for 2 bucks or some other thing for 10 bucks.< Nope - they're regulating the snacks a little closer now. It's usually limited to $3 to $4 for a snack. >As far as the meal plan goes, some say yes, some say now.< I'm one of the ones who say . . . not now. Sorry, jon, typos are just like candy to me!
Originally Posted By danyoung >You'll also find MK very odd, in that it looks very much like Disneyland, but it's different and a bit disorientating at first.< I'll never forget my first trip to WDW in 1979, back when the MK was the only park. There was Main Street, and a big ol' castle at the end, and Tomorrowland to the right, and Frontierland and Adventureland to the left. But once I got up to Liberty Square, I just got totally confused. It was the same, but not the same, y'know? Still, every hardline DL'er should visit the World at least once and enjoy the comparisons!
Originally Posted By mstaft I've always loved Liberty Square- especially in the early days when the shops were unique and the entertainment was too.
Originally Posted By ni_teach ploeb909, I don't know what your budget is, but 8 days is more than enough to do the major parts of WDW. It is way over kill for disneyland, unless you want to see much more of the Souther Cal. area.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I think it's pretty interesting that on this site, where WDW seems to get a lot more crap than it deserves, every single person who replied to this thread said to go to WDW. While it may not be up to its full potential, it's still very very impressive with what it has. I'm just surprised that nobody (on this mostly DL-oriented site) seemed to say that a trip to DL would be better, at least for that ammount of time.
Originally Posted By jonvn Disneyland is nice. I grew up going to Disneyland. For what it is, it's simply an incredible experience. We all know that. But for god's sake, it's certainly not WDW.
Originally Posted By dshyates Since its your first WDW trip and plan on taking advantage of the other resort amenities such as parasailing and Cirque I would suggest not renting a car, and taking advantage of the Magical Express. And even though I love and highly recommend the Universal resort, for your first WDW experience I would not leave property. Let Disney do the driving and enjoy being with your kids. As an experienced Disney park veteran it won't take you long to figure out how to avoid "peak" periods utilizing "arrive early" and "linger and shop/snack" techniques. "That leaves three days for relaxation, perhaps a stop at the Universal resort, and time to go back and casually repeat things in the other parks." There are 2 things about this statement WDWers don't really get. "Relaxation" and "casually repeat things". That must be a DLR thing. As Dabob2 so succinctly put it, WDW is "a week's worth of theme park a-go-go". As for the Universal resort. I now put it in the same category as the DLR. It is a fantastic 2 park resort with its unique characteristics. It obviously doesn't have the charm that DLR has, but with its 2 parks, 3 hotels connected by the waterways with the water launches, and nice CityWalk is now like DLR, a fantastic base to explore some of the other highlights in central FL. You could easily fill a vacation with Universal, Sea World W/ Aquatica, and throw in Busch Gardens Tampa for fun.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris Forget what the Disney Dweebs say. IOA is one of THE MOST IMPRESSIVE theme parks on the planet. The obsessed DisFans who declaim it are just suffering a case of "theme park envy". Either that or they're too old to actually enjoy some of the attractions there. If I want advice on orthopedic shoes and hip replacements I'd go to these people. For a great themed experience AND some awesome thrill rides. IOA TRULY is an AMAZING place.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I'm certainly not too old to experience IOA (if anything, I'm their target demographic), and I still don't think they are better than Disney. Sure, they are at the same level with a lot of what Disney has to offer (DCA, WDSP, MGM-I'm looking at you), but there are still things that just don't work for me. They try to have a really inclusive theme, but the attractions themselves have minimal efforts at best. They have a very vague story, and then the attraction really has little to do with it (with the exceptions of Spiderman, Popeye, Dudley Dooright, and Jurassic Park). The exposed coasters and ride mechanics can be seen from all over the park, really destroying any illusion of being transported to some far off place. And a lot of the themes aren't very relatable for most people. With the exception of the area that they will be retheming to Harry Potter, the themes are all firmly centered in specific products. If I didn't read the right comics, then I really have no interest in that entire area of the park. Interestingly enough, I had never really read any of the stuff that was the basis for Toon Lagoon or Marvel Superhero Island. Sure, I still had fun there, but I definately felt like I didn't really understand everything. The only themes that seem to be timeless and univerasally relatable, from what I saw, were the Lost Continent and Seuss Landing, and both of those had areas where they could really use a lot of work to get people more interested in what they had to offer. Sure the rides are fun, but instead of finding the perfect mix between thrill parks and theme parks, it just seems to be a bipolar experience, for me at least.
Originally Posted By dshyates " The exposed coasters and ride mechanics can be seen from all over the park, really destroying any illusion of being transported to some far off place." This statement, often repeated by Disneyites, always cracks me up it how Disneyites and amusement park fans so totally don't relate at all. Coasterheads ACTUALLY like being able to see the "iron". Coasterheads are a major theme park demographic. Disney fans talk like its glaring incompetence that allows visible coaster track. That IOAs designers were SO incompetent that you can see the track from all over the park. SO monumentally incompetent you can actually see the Hulk from the intersatate. Duh, other than Disneyites, I would venture to say that most people like being able to see the rides. I do understand the Disney rules, but they really only apply to Disney.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<I'm just surprised that nobody (on this mostly DL-oriented site) seemed to say that a trip to DL would be better, at least for that ammount of time.>> Well, that's the thing though, the OP has BEEN to DLR, multiple times already. And I have a feeling they will be there again someday . WDW is a completely new and different experience, it seems like a no-brainer to me. Actually, that's what I never got when I was on these boards a lot, that people seem to go to the same resort over and over and OVER again when they could try something different. And yes, I'm talking about people with the time and money to do it like the OP clearly has. I mean, why NOT go to TDR once or DLP, really broaden your horizons? Just like those people who can spend thousands to see WDW every single year and easily a week to see it, but then its somehow 'impossible' to see these other places because I guess a passport and exchanging currency is a huge hurdle for some. I never understood that, especially when they WANT to go!
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<This statement, often repeated by Disneyites, always cracks me up it how Disneyites and amusement park fans so totally don't relate at all. Coasterheads ACTUALLY like being able to see the "iron". Coasterheads are a major theme park demographic. Disney fans talk like its glaring incompetence that allows visible coaster track. That IOAs designers were SO incompetent that you can see the track from all over the park. SO monumentally incompetent you can actually see the Hulk from the intersatate. Duh, other than Disneyites, I would venture to say that most people like being able to see the rides. I do understand the Disney rules, but they really only apply to Disney.>> 100% in agreement there! I never get this either? I don't consider myself a Disney fan as much as I consider myself a THEME PARK one, Disney just happens to be on top of that list and yes has the best quality, but I never understand why everything has to be compared to Disney way of doing things. Its simply apples and oranges. When I go to a Disney park, I expect a certain standard, when I go to Universal, I expect something else. When I do a Sixx Flaggs park, something else. I like that they bring different things to the table and are different from each other, that's the point. I love travelling, when I go to Europe, I expect something different then when I'm in Asia. Even more when I'm in Australia. Diversity makes it interesting, even in theme parks . I LOVE that Magic Mountain has coasters all over the place, huge, visible from the freeway, that entices me more to visit it just like I love that Disneyland takes me to all these different places, that's why I go there. And yes, IOA is an AMAZING park, on par with anything Disney does and Spiderman has to be seen to believe. I only rode that ride once in IOA when I first went, but I been on it a few times since at Universal Studios Japan and it never gets old . Definitely do IOA and Universal in general. Again, this may be a once in a lifetime trip (of course I said that about TDR when I first went in '99 and well, about 15 trips later, not even close lol) so why not?
Originally Posted By Mr X I also think IOA LOOKS like a sort of ultra-modern theme park much more than a plain old coaster park. The coasters ADD to the scenery for me (especially Hulk), much more than at some ordinary amusement park. And don't forget, IOA was CREATED by many of the same people that built Epcot, Blizzard Beach, and all the rest of that magical Disney stuff (I know because I worked on the project for a short time).
Originally Posted By danyoung >Forget what the Disney Dweebs say.< Bob, it's one thing to disagree with other posts. It's quite another to be insulting, as you were in this post. Quit being a jerk in making your point by tearing down others.
Originally Posted By dshyates Personally, IOA is my favorite park in Orlando. I love the Disney Parks. But I find it much more difficult and time consuming to hit the highlights at Disney. For a one day park experience, I find IOA full of highlights and filler. Compared the DHS that has 2 highlights, 3 if you want to include fantasmic and lots of filler.
