- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Pre-School and Daycare
Paigeo
member
Disney World Trip Recs
Paigeo
member
Starting to plan a Disney trip for 2012. If you have taken your LO anything that you would either recommend or not recommend based on your experience. If you stayed on property which resort. Did you do any character meals. Any tips.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Disney World Trip Recs
We went in September and took DS. It was a blast!
We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter. Really liked it - quiet, the pool seemed nice (thought we didn't use it). The transportation was relatively easy with the buses because we didn't go during a busy time of year. I know a lot of people would recommend staying at a resort on the monorail with little ones, but it cost a lot more to do so.
We did several character meals:
Chef Mickey - highly recommend this one. Make reservations as soon as you can. we did brunch and it was very good. The "big 5" are there and come to each table and talk to every kid.
Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios. The food was just okay here. But, they had Hanny Manny and Leo and June from Little Einsteins and Agent Oso. DS loved all of those characters.
Crystal Palace at MK. Excellent! Excellent food and the characters (all Winnie the Pooh) were wonderful. Again, came to each table. Try to get an early reservation before the park opens. They let you in early and it is wonderful to walk down Main Street and get some pictures when there is no one there.
Ohana for dinner. No characters at dinner, but the food was wonderful and they had fun actiivites for the kids. The atmosphere is very fun.
Personally, we got up and going first thing in the morning and didn't come back until around 8 at night. DS can go without a nap so we pushed through. We didn't see any of the shows this time around (Wishes, etc), but next time we will definitely do that. This time we got back early enough for him to get a good night of sleep and ready to go the next day.
Have so much fun!!!
Oh, one last thing. if you don't get all the dining reservations you want, keep checking!!! Three of the ones I got are very hard to get and I got them within 2 weeks of our trip. People start cancelling close to their trips and a ton open up.
We haven't gone to DIsney with kids yet but we plan on lots of character meals and places that are buffet or serve family style.
We've eaten breakfast at Chef Mickey and dinner at Ohana. Both were awesome.
I know lots of people like Cystal Palace because of all the Pooh characters are there.
We have never eaten there but have heard that Whispering Cannon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge is a very kid friendly place!
DH said the food at the place in Germany was great and there is a cool dinner show.
Check out disboards.com You will get lots of great info there! Allears.net also has lots of info and tips too including where the character meals are, kid friendly meals, and menus.
We went when DD was 4 and DS1 was 2 and stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. We were in out hotel very little. We ate breakfast just about every morning at the hotel and then went to the park til we were done, mostly til night. DS1 slept in the stroller when he was tired. We loved breakfast there and that it was kid friendly. It had coloring pages and a kids play place...bought you some time to eat. The pools were also nice esp in August. The character meals we did were:
The Crystal Palace. Pooh bear and friends and it was buffet.
Hollywood and Vine. Disney Junior friends and it was also buffet.
At most of the buffets, all my kids wanted was mac n cheese.
We also did the princess one at epcot for breakfast. This was our fav but the park was out least fav. Couldn't get into the castle...maybe next time. Talking about going again in March.
Get the Unoffical Guide to WDW and the Unofficial Guide to WDW With Kids books, and read them from cover to cover. They are a great source of info.
Also love www.wdwtoday.com podcasts for amazing info.
Character meals, at least one with whatever characters float your boat, are so worth it.
We just went in November for 2 days/2 nights before taking a Disney cruise. We had a blast (on both!) At Disneyworld, we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. We actually got upgraded to the Villas there, which was really nice. It was awesome. It's not on the monorail, but there is a boat that runs between it and Magic Kingdom (which is the only park we went to since we weren't there long). It was great, and we never had to wait more than 5 minutes or so for a boat. We've done other resorts and the buses, and while it works just fine, the boat was awesome. I really wanted to stay at the Contemporary, which is on the monorail, but it was really pricey. Wilderness Lodge wasn't exactly cheap either, but all in all was a better fit for what we were wanting to get out of the trip.
DH and I also stayed in one of the value resorts--Pop Century before we had DD. It was perfectly fine, but definitely not plush accommodations (think Motel 6 with Mickey Mouse decor..LOL), but you still get all the benefits of staying on site. We weren't in our hotel rooms very much anyway, so I'd definitely go that route again to save $. Since we were only there for 2 nights this time, we decided to splurge a bit on a nicer place we couldn't have swung on a longer trip.
Both times, we did the Disney dining plan--I highly recommend it. On the kind of standard plan, you get a counter service meal, a sit down meal, and a "snack" (ice cream, a soda, etc) per day. And character dining is considered a sit down meal on the plan. We did the Crystal Palace for breakfast, and it was a huge hit with DD (she's almost 3). We only got the dining plan for DH and I, and she was considered free for that meal since she just "ate off of our plates" (but since it's a buffet, we could get as much as we wanted). So that worked out really well. I'd love to do Chef Mickey's next time. But DD really enjoyed the WInnie the Pooh characters. She was a little unsure about the characters at first, so we're glad we went with them---I figure they're about the least "scary" (if any of them could be considered scary..LOL) characters there are.
We loved the Celebrate It! street party/parade (watched it 3 times!), the fireworks, the electric parade, and the light show ("Magic, Memories and You," I think?)-- where they illuminate the castle--were all awesome.
We had an absolute blast and I can't wait to go back again soon!
We are season passholders and go a lot, so our experiences are a bit different. We stayed for the first time in October at Port Orleans Riverside and loved that hotel. The pool was great and DS had a blast. Staying on site is so convenient and even the "cheap" hotels are nicer than a lot of others I've stayed in.
I agree with the other posters, try and get in some character meals. We've done the Hollywood and Vine Playhouse Disney one, which was great. DS was the last to get to see Handy Manny and he really spent a lot of time with him, wrote out a special card, and took DS with him to the little dance party they did. DS loved it. He's also had 2 birthday meals at Crystal Palace. The food there is excellent. We need to do Chef Mickey sometime in the future. The Disney dining plan is a great choice too.
DS also loves the Pixar parade at Hollywood Studios, the show they do in front of the castle, and he just decided he loves the Tiki Room at the Magic Kingdom. he adores rides too.
my read shelf:
I don't really have anything to add but we are planning a Disney trip for 2012 and wanted to SFL as there are some great tips in here. Thanks for posting.
We went as kind of a side thought when we were down in orlando (visiting a sick friend). He wasn't up to seeing us that day, so I took dd to disney. It was great. We got there when the park opened and stayed the whole time in the magic kingdom. There were very few lines, so I guess we were lucky and went at an off time. We did the buffet at the crystal palace, I thought the food was just okay, but dd thought it was great and then winnie the pooh showed up, she was so excited she couldn't even say anything. We didn't have reservations, I just asked about it and they put me on the wait list and got beeped. I would definitely do that again. Also, we would definitely eat at Cinderella's castle.
In the past I have stayed in the grand floridian and the modern one that are both on the monorail. The grand floridian is nice.
we're going May 2012. We've already booked Sci Fi Dine in Theater, Chef Mickey's (breakfast), Mickey's Backyard BBQ and Hoop De Doo Revue.
Previously we've eaten at:
Whispering Canyon- very fun time for kids, no characters
Ohana- dinner- fun time for kids, no characters
Crystal Palace- dinner, Pooh characters, good food
1900 Park Fare- unimpressed by the food but the dessert bar was fabulous
Mama Melrose- good food, no characters...just a regular ole' restaurant
Chef Mickey's (breakfast & dinner)- we preferred the breakfast foods and character rotations
Le Cellier (no characters but FANTASTIC food)
Hollywood & Vine- good breakfast
Rainforest Cafe- we had a bad experience, I guess I'd go back to see if they can change my mind.
Cinderella's Royal Table (very unimpressed, but I suppose cute if your girls love Cinderella...though we only saw the fairy godmother and mice)
Join our wiki and tell us what your baby eats for finger foods.
We just returned on De
c. 11--we had a fabulous first family vacation! We did not stay on property-but I have friends that enjoy the French Quarter and New Orleans (or whatever it is called).
My 4 year old-almost 5-loved our Princess lunch and meeting Rapunzel (a 40 min but worth it to see her eyes in the photopass photo). We dined at the Norway Princess lunch--food was decent and the photo with Belle was included. The Castle can be very hard to get into and I've heard that food wise and experience wise it is overpriced.
Go in the winter time--we waited hardly at all for anything--15 min probably the longest and most rides we walked on to with no waiting. Christmas decorations were up and beautiful.
Hollywood Studios was not our favorite--very few rides geared toward the younger set, but there is the Disney Junior area which was fun for her--DH and I did not enjoy this park and wish we would have done the day at Epcot or MK.
We did breakfast with Donald at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom-by far our best meal at Disney food wise--fabulous buffet. Mickey, Daisy and Goofy come around for photos.
the photopass is so worth it and find a discount on allears.net before you go--get $50 off on the CD package when you get home etc.
best web site with almost daily blog updates/photos/crowd calendar etc is easywdw dot com! love josh and his updates and it is free!!!!
have fun--even my 1 year old (almost 2) enjoyed meeting characters and i will add that he got to go on quite a few rides too.
do to staying off site we didn't have the dining plan and it was okay with us--princess meal was pricey but otherwise family of 4 ate for $50 at breakfast which isn't outlandish.
the parades and fireworks are all worth the time--these are two things Disney just does way better than most anyone else!!!
we splurged for the Christmas party ticket which was worth it for us.
Rent a stroller in Orlando-Orlando Stroller Rentals--delivers to your hotel and picks up-stroller is all yours the entire week--our youngest slept there when he got tired--we typically were at the parks from 9:30/10am until around 6 or so each day.
I have no advice- but I loved reading the replies. We are going for our first time in April with my 5 (then 6) and 4 year old. We are staying off site in Downtown Disney so we still have transportation to Disney. I have booked our character meals:
Cinderella Royal's Table for lunch
Chef Mickey for breakfast
Tusker House for lunch at AK
I cannot wait!!!
All the pp had some great suggestions.
I have stayed before on site - and while the transportation is a nice perk sometimes, other times it is not all that great. The buses get pretty packed - and you have to fold your stroller down most of the time. Also, some of the hotels are VERY spaced out and your room may be on one end and the buses are all the way at the main entrance. Just research a little when it comes to the hotel you choose.
Last time we went, we stayed off property at the Gaylord Palms resort. It is an amazing hotel and has so much to see. They have busing to and from the park as well so you won't have to mess with parking your vehicle (which I think parking may be about $20 per day). Just a suggestion since a majority of the recommendations for lodging were on-site.
Also, we did Ohana for breakfast. It was okay food - but they did have the characters make the rounds which was nice. Figured I would let you know since most of the Ohana reviews were dinners without characters.