The Manxies go to Florida
polycounter lvl 19
The family and I are just a week away from our two week vacation in DisneyWorld Orlando.
It's our first time in the States, and I wondered whether any of you had any advice or must-see recommendations for Disney, International Drive or Orlando in general.
We've already booked visits to Universal Studios, the Kennedy Space Cantre and an airboat ride through the everglades (which sounds like great fun).
Any more?
It's our first time in the States, and I wondered whether any of you had any advice or must-see recommendations for Disney, International Drive or Orlando in general.
We've already booked visits to Universal Studios, the Kennedy Space Cantre and an airboat ride through the everglades (which sounds like great fun).
Any more?
Replies
Also bring a camera to Kennedy (of course) tons of great reference material. They have an outside area with all these old rockets and stuff. Pretty neat.
We stayed at the Coronado Spring resort and had the dining plan. Ate like a damn king while we were there and used the internal transportation systems to get around. It works out pretty well. Even if you drive a car there, you can park at one attraction, then jump on the internal transportation to other parks.
We also had the park hopper option, which was great when making dinner plans. It allowed us to make reservations anywhere. Every dining place gets PACKED around the usual lunch and dinner times. If you have the Disney Dining plan, make reservations NOW... not when you arrive and definitely not the day of. Everything gets occupied until 9PM (for dine in eating). Walk up places aren't too bad though.
Much to cover... if you want more info, let me know.
Yeah, shame about the Endevour launch.. Missed it by a couple of weeks...
We're definitely going to make use of the 'fast-pass' system of booking places on rides about a half-hour beforehand. Seems to work like queue-jumping.
We've also got access to the Disney parks before and after regular hours (for residents only) which is sweet, it should be a lot cooler morning and evening.
Good advice on the dining Notman, we're not using the dining plan though. Hopefully getting to the diners won't be too much of a hassle.
This is a kinda 'once in a lifetime' deal for us at the moment - our kids are just young enough (at fifteen and twelve) to still enjoy the parks without sulking or getting embarrassed. My wife and I are going to take every opportunity we can to act stupid and hug 'cast members' which is probably a scary prospect for them, I'm a big guy!
One thing to remember (if you didn't know) is a rider-switch deal they have. Say you have a kid that doesn't like coasters. You can ride it once with the kid that does like coasters, while your wife waits with the other child. Then, you get off and your wife gets to move to the front of the line with your kid again, and you stand with the one that doesn't like rides. We did this once since my youngest doesn't like big coasters. We tricked her onto most of the other rides
Like I said though, stick with the walk up eating. The sit down/dine in places are expensive. We walked out of each of the sit down places with a bill for around $120 each time. Since we were on the dining plan, it didn't cost us anything. Then again, we ordered more than we typically would have since it was all included (appetizer, main meal, and desert). The Walk ups usually ran about $60... again, eating an appetizer, main course, and desert... for four people.
Which parks do you have tickets for? If you go to Epcot, make sure you ride the GM test track. Also, stay for the illuminations fireworks at the end of the day there (find seating early). It's very damn cool.
We also had the early/late hours because we were staying at the resort. It is SWEEET. We usually only caught the later hours, but basically, you get on all the rides with not wait. So you ride, then run over to the next one. Most of the time it looked like things were closed, because there was no one there waiting.
In addition, if you want to meet characters there, the later hours are great for that. Also, I guess Mickey and Minnie open up Magic Kingdom every morning by riding the train in to the front of the park. If you want to kids to see/meet them, I suggest doing that.
OH, and if the kids are into collecting character autographs, bring along some white hats and a small clip-on sharpie. My kids did that and it's a great sovenier (better than the autograph books IMO).
Final tip, get hydration packs. This should be good for everywhere you go. They ran us about $20-$25 each before we left and we didn't have to buy a single drink while we were there. It was nice to have that on our backs as we walked around. My wife pre-packaged mixed Kool-aid before we went on the trip, and when the kids wanted flavor for the day, I would drop those packets in. We mainly ended up just using water the whole time though.
Sorry... I'm saying a lot, but I'd like to help keep you from learning things like we had to while there
Spark
Mornings, we found, are the best time to avoid lines, the closer to the rope drop you can be, the better. Late nights weren't as good as Mornings, but still nice. It was worth getting up at 6 am to get there, because most of the time we had been on every ride we wanted to go on at least twice.
If you like coasters be sure to go to animal kingdom and ride Expedition Everest, and rock n roller coaster and tower of terror at MGM.
It might be a little late to use, but there's a guy that runs a website, tourguide mike, that was really helpful for inside tips(he does DW VIP tours so he's got a lot of good info. Also, there are the DIS boards that are full of disney world/land fanatics, a lot of them are douchebags, but they have a lot of good info on where to eat and what's cool at what parks.
Have fun on your vacation, it was one of the best weeks of our lives.
rock n roller coaster
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hahaha, that was the first ride we rode while there... Like I mentioned earlier, my youngest doesn't like roller coasters, but she loves Aerosmith, so she wanted to ride it. I think if she could have seen the coaster before getting on, she would never have riden it. It starts with a 0-60MPH in a few seconds, then does all sorts off flips.
That reminds me though.... There will be people posted around taking pictures... let them do it. It gets stored on a card that you can view online... that includes photos while on rides. When you are done with a ride, give them your photopass card and you can view it later.
We looked at the dining plan, but felt that it would restrict us to Disney, plus we'd already spent a HUGE amount on the two=week passes.
We've watched the Disney promo DVD a couple of hundred times
Notman - my kids are 15 and 12, so I'm in for a similar experience to you - but my youngest (girl) is gunning for the big coasters! When you mention hydropacks, I presume you mean something like this? Do many people wear these in the park? And if so, where do you put them when you're on the rides?
Again - thanks for all the advice, I'm sure we're gonna have the time of our lives.
Yeah, that's the hydration pack I was referring to. Honestly, I didn't see anyone else wearing them, but everyone kept asking us about them. Many were wishing they had them also. Same with the signing the hat idea I mentioned earlier. That's why I brought these things up since it appeared no one else had thought of them.
Many rides have a pocket in front of you that you can sit something in, since most of their rides don't go upside down. You can wear them while riding though. It's only minorly uncomfortable early in the day when it's full. Even then, it just made you sit forward some. I also took it off one arm at one time for a ride. It really didn't become a problem and all and I loved having it. Plus, they have small pockets on them, which can be good for small things.
http://picasaweb.google.com/notman05/DisneyWorld