One of my favorite personal finance bloggers, Free Money Finance, just posted up with How to Have a Great Trip to Disney World While Saving Tons of Money and Time.
Useful stuff.
For more detail, there’s my Family Travel series on surviving WDW — start with the Intro.
Update: This just in from Frommers, seven agencies to help your family rent a place to stay in Orlando.
Just saw this on Budget Travel magazine’s ever-useful blog This Just In;
Disney is looking for 12 Moms who know Walt Disney World inside out and would like to participate in a panel of similarly Mouse-obsessed travel planners.
From the Walt Disney World Moms Panel announcement page:
“Walt Disney World Moms Panel, a new online forum of vacation advisors made up of everyday people who will answer questions, offer advice and address specific concerns of families in the process of planning a trip to Walt Disney World® Resort.”
I personally think it’s pretty sexist to confine this to mothers, but I suppose that Disney wants to play to some sort of Mommy feel-good factor. There are a lot of fathers (my Sainted Husband included) who are more than equal partners in parenting, and we ought to stop insulting them with all this Mommy-centric goop.
Then again, I don’t like the whole twinkly “Disney Princess” marketing push for young girls, so there you go.
Anyway, check it out if you are really into WDW vacation planning and want to help others plan their visits; the reward for being on the panel is a free family vacation to WDW December 8-12 2007.
Deadline for applications is October 5, 2007. No, I won’t apply since I haven’t been there recently enough (within the last 12 months.)
If you want to read up on my own multi-post Psycho Travel Mom trip plan for Walt’s kingdom, start with my Survivor’s Guide to Walt Disney World: Intro.
Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Walt Disney World
Here are a few other tips that didn’t fit into the rest of the Family Travel Walt Disney World series:
There is a Disney lodging option if you have ties to the military — the Shades of Green resort. This is a full-service hotel on Disney property that largely caters to active duty military members and their families, but check the eligibility guidelines to see if you might qualify to stay there.
Be smart and avoid disappointment. Check Disney’s Operational Update page before you visit, to see ahead of time which attractions are closed for refurbishment, so little hearts aren’t set on some Winnie the Pooh thing that isn’t available. For lots of detail, check the Disney fan sites and blogs like Mouse Fan Cafe, Mousesavers, the Disney Blog, the Mousekingdom Blog and overview articles like this one in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper.
There are combinations of visits to the parks with a short Disney cruise. You can even make Disney your travel agent to plan kid-friendly international trips.
Florida not in your plans but you’d like to try Disneyland in California? Check out the spring Kids Fly Free promotion to see if the timing works for you.
Orlando always has a lot going on that is not associated with Disney, so always check the comprehensive Orlando Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site for the latest offers and details.
For example, there is the Discovery Cove resort with dolphin and manta ray encounters. The Nature Conservancy has just partnered with them for a “Rescue the Reef” program to help to raise awareness and funds for protecting coral reefs. Through a special offer, Discovery Cove will donate $25 directly to Rescue the Reef. Book a Discovery Cove dolphin swim and you’ll also enjoy 15% off your admission price. Go to DiscoveryCove.com and use promo code TNC when booking.
Does this series make you thoroughly sick of Disney/theme parks and eager to know if Florida has attractions that aren’t man-made? Check out some of the attractions in “Nature’s Theme Parks,” like manatees at Homosassa Springs, and other fun options at About.com’s Florida for Visitors.
The Magic Kingdom is the most recognized Walt Disney World theme park because it is basically the same as the Disneylands in California, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
The familiar landmarks are all there: Cinderella Castle, Space Mountain, Main Street USA, Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride that inspired the movie,) etc.
If you’ve already visited one of the other Disneylands, my advice is to focus a lot of your time in Orlando at the other parks that are less universally well known — Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios or even the Disney water parks.
We enjoyed the Magic Kingdom and it’s a “must do” if you travel with kids, but frankly, the place was a madhouse even using the Extra Magic Hours option. An extra hour doesn’t help if everyone else shows up early at the gate along with you.
This huge park is divided into different “lands” — Fantasyland (fairies and storybook stuff,) Frontierland (Tom Sawyer & the Old West,) Liberty Square (American history,) Adventureland (jungles & pirates,) Tomorrowland (tries to be futuristic, can sometimes just be hokey) and Mickey’s Toontown Fair (basically a place to stand in line and meet characters, but the kookily ‘toonish architecture is fun.)
The lands are arranged in a semi-circle around the turn-of-the-last-century Main Street USA (for inspiration, Disney used the Main Street in his hometown of Marceline, Missouri) and the Cinderella Castle, supposedly inspired by Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle.
** This park summarized: All the old favorites for you and the kids; even if you’ve never actually seen them before, they still seem cozily familiar. Usually always crowded and can test the patience of the most well-prepared family traveler. Great when it works, exhausting when it does not.
** Key tidbit: If there was ever a time to reserve your meals and use FASTPASS, this is it. Plan, plan….or you will lose your mind. Again, the park is a madhouse.
During our family visit, I was so grateful that we had made lunch reservations at the Liberty Tree Tavern, but I did feel somewhat smarty-pants guilty about going right to the head of the line at our appointed time, past lots of tired-looking families who had to wait.
Again, these meal reservations at sit-down/full-service park restaurants cost nothing and only require that you pick a meal, pick a restaurant, call (407) WDW-DINE and get a time. That’s it. Unless you enjoy standing in line with hungry kids in the heat….
** What to do as soon as you arrive: With young children, head for the back of the park to Fantasyland to get in line to see Mickey. With older kids, go straight to the popular thrill rides like Splash Mountain (great for cooling down on a hot day) and Space Mountain and get your FASTPASS time.
Here’s a rookie mistake that I made: just because a park opens an hour early doesn’t mean that all of the rides are also open an hour early. The day we went, my older daughter and husband peeled off to hit the thrill rides and my young son and I headed to the back of the park for Fantasyland rides like the nauseatingly spinning tea cups on the Mad Tea Party, but they were still closed. We killed time and eventually saw Mickey in nearby Toontown without much waiting, but I was angry with myself for not triple-checking everything in my Grand Plan.
I must confess that Disney-MGM Studios is my favorite family travel park in Florida’s Walt Disney World (and not just because the water tower has massive Mouse ears.)
It appeals to me and my husband as an adult movie buffs, to our teenage daughter who loves Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, to our young son on a variety of levels, and to all of us with its wonderful evening show, Fantasmic!
It is also relatively compact, which is such a relief after making vast footsore treks across the huge acreage of the other parks.
** This park summarized. The magic of movies for all ages. This park is also particularly strong in live shows. Remember, the Disney company casts a wide net, so there is everything here from Narnia to High School Musical to an ESPN Sports Weekend in March.
** Key tidbit. With just a little forethought, you can have a nice early dinner and then avoid standing in line forever as you sit down in an excellent seat in the Hollywood Bowl-ish theater to enjoy the multimedia, everything-Disney-but-the-kitchen-sink Fantasmic! nighttime show.
How?
Call (407) WDW-DINE and ask for the Fantasmic! Dining Experience package for the day you’re visiting. You’ll get a fixed price dinner and reserved dining time at one of the park’s sit-down restaurants (Brown Derby, Mama Melrose or Hollywood & Vine as of this writing.) We ate dinner at a rather ridiculous afternoon time at Hollywood & Vine because I didn’t call early enough and that was the only time left. Still, it was worth it to not have to wait two hours or more to get into Fantasmic!
Note: Unlike most “secret good deals,” which are usually laid out pretty clearly somewhere on the official Disney site, I could not find much/any info about this except on the unofficial Disney fan sites. Also, fair warning: this show may be too scary for very little kids.
** What to do as soon as you arrive. From previous posts in this series, you know the drill….if you want to get on the “screamers” like Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster or Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, get that FASTPASS time right away. The Star Wars Star Tours ride tends to get rather crowded as well.
** Entertainment. Lots of live shows here, plus fun street performers on Hollywood Boulevard. In the one park where your feet aren’t killing you, the sit-down options abound.
** Dining options. We had a hilarious meal at the 1950’s Prime Time Cafe, where the meatloaf is hot and Mom says to get your elbows off of the table. There’s even a groovin’ lounge next door, but we couldn’t figure out how to stash the kids in a potted palm or something, so that we could go enjoy a libation.
** Attraction that surprised us. The fact that, at last, we were in a human-scaled, manageable Disney property was our first pleasant surprise. We loved the peek-behind-the-scenes of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (complete with the giant rolling boulder,) and my young son couldn’t get enough of Jim Henson’s Muppet Vision 3D (just like any Muppets show, there are plenty of inside jokes and fun for the adults.)
** Lodging. There are no Disney hotels in this park.
** Special Disney/Character Meals. Have lunch with a Disney Imagineer at the Brown Derby. Preschoolers will enjoy the Play n’ Dine special meal with characters from TV’s Disney Playhouse.
** More tidbits. The soundtrack during Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is actually a compilation of their songs; I couldn’t get it out of my head so I asked a Disney Cast Member which one of their hits was playing as we were screaming up and down, and she said that it was a medley.
We always saw Toy Story characters at Al’s Toy Barn in the Backlot area, if you like those autographs and photo ops.
Go behind the scenes on a special Backstage Magic tour — it actually starts in Epcot but includes Disney-MGM Studios and Magic Kingdom plus lunch in Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano. A mere 7 1/2 hours, $200 per person, minimum age 16.
One more link: the Fodor’s Blitz Tour of the park.
Next in line (or in the queue, for my UK readers) is the Big Kahuna, the Magic Kingdom.
The Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) theme park, which was originally conceived as a futuristic community with people actually living in the park, has something of an identity crisis.
There are two sections to the park. Future World has excitement and G-forces, including a ride that occasionally kills people, but it’s combined with the fairly staid international destinations in the World Showcase.
Disney positions Epcot as a more appealing venue for adults — a permanent “World’s Fair” with special highbrow-ish events like the annual spring Flower and Garden Festival, plus the fall Wine and Food Festival (which gets an OK review here on Mousesavers; they generally like it but feel that the paid seminar-type sessions are overpriced.)
That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of things for kids; mine had a great time. Then again, they’re both travel nuts and were really into the World Showcase pavilions of the different countries (comparing “Norway” to our actual visit to Norway was a treat.)
World Showcase venues often stay open later than the rest of the park since there are tons of different restaurants plus the nightly Illuminations fireworks/laser light show over the park’s lagoon.
Kids also like fun/educational rides like going deep into the sea on The Seas with Nemo & Friends, although you have to put up with Crush, the surfer dude Aussie turtle who is a takeoff on Sean Penn’s perpetually stoned “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” character Jeff Spicoli.
Like, totally, Mr. Hand.
** This park summarized: Disney for grownups and travel enthusiasts (but you’ll really need a map.) Be ready to do some walking, but the wide-open pathways make it stroller-friendly even in crowds. Once older kids have knocked out the thrill rides they may bug you to leave the park, but try to hit a little of World Showcase for their edification. Bribe them with the varied international gift shops if you have to.
** Key tidbit: This park may work best towards the end of the day, if you want to kick back a little. Ferry boats (FriendShip water taxis) across the big 40-acre lagoon can save aching feet from walking all the way around the semi-circle of pavilions. There are boat stops in Mexico, Canada, Morocco and Germany.
The Maelstrom water ride in Norway and El Rio Del Tiempo water ride in Mexico are mildly hokey but fun breaks that younger kids can usually handle.
** What to do as soon as you arrive: Get your FASTPASS times for Mission: Space, (blasting off in a rocket) Soarin’ (sort of hang-gliding above the sights in California) and Test Track (a racing ride.)
The thrill rides are the only ones with significant lines in this park. Read the restrictions carefully if you have medical problems, especially Mission: Space. They aren’t kidding about the G-forces.
Also grab a daily calendar for the park as you enter; there are lots and lots of small performances all day in World Showcase. We loved the Chinese acrobats and mariachi band.
If the front of the park is already packed, head to the back to start, just like I recommended for the Animal Kingdom.
In my Intro to this family travel series on Walt Disney World (WDW) I talked about the importance of good planning in order to really enjoy the sprawling attractions of Disney’s giant theme parks in Orlando, Florida.
Think of a trip there as a major fun-but-pressured event, like a wedding. You wouldn’t just “wing it” for a wedding, would you?
It can be overwhelming to try to meet your entire family’s expectations, plus you’ll hear the marketing hype drumbeat of whatever Disney advertising campaign is in full swing. The 2007 theme is “Year of a Million Dreams.” There are some new rides and productions, giveaway contests plus the chance to sleep in the Royal Suite of Cinderella’s Castle, overlooking the park.
Don’t worry, though; there are specials and extras all the time, every year at the parks. Anyone can enjoy them with a little digging.
To get the scoop, a good starting point is ordering Disney’s free vacation planning DVD. Of course there’s a lot of woo-woo and slick, sparkly Tinkerbell stuff, but it does provide a good overview and comes pretty quickly in the mail. Watch it to take a quick virtual tour of the parks and get a sense of layout, rides, etc. (there are also helpful maps on each park’s Web site homepage.) Have your children decide which attractions interest them the most, so that you can begin sketching out how you’ll spend your time.
We started our WDW visit at Animal Kingdom, and it was a good choice. The park is relatively small, nicely laid out and can be “done” pretty quickly, so you don’t wear yourself out at the very beginning of your vacation.
My top tips:
** This park summarized: Mellow and compact, this is mostly African-themed good times for animal-loving younger kids, although bigger ones will like thrill rides like Expedition Everest and getting (very) soaked on the Kali River Rapids.
** Get there when it opens, or even better, a half hour before opening. Yes, this pretty much applies to every park, but if you want to see animals at their most lively, then 2 in the afternoon is NOT the right time. Not only are the critters more visible in the earlier morning, the Disney characters (usually dressed in safari gear here) are out and about and very accessible, if you want those photo ops. My daughter hates mascots/characters of any kind, my son loves them, so there you go. 🙂
Over the next few days, I plan to post a short series on travel with kids to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
I’ve been resisting this because I’d much rather focus on more unusual destinations, but the fact is that theme parks are a big part of family travel, at least in the U.S. This includes my own two kids, even though I’m amazed that they don’t want to see more, I dunno, Civil War battlefields or art museums or interesting ethnic neighborhoods. 🙂
Nope, they want the Mouse and a lot of it.
Even savvy travelers may not have a clue about how to get the most out of a visit to the parks. I recently read a series of posts by the flabbergasted Will Allen, who freely confesses during a lessons-learned series on his blog that he was not up to speed on planning his recent WDW trip. His specialty is air travel and business travel, and the Mouse ate his lunch.
His commenters raked him over the coals for not prepping enough, and I have to somewhat agree. If you’re really into creating a “magical experience” (and would also like to avoid spending a fortune) this is the trip when you do your homework. It’s not that hard — there’s a lot of good guidance out there, and the payback is less aggravation for you and more fun for everyone.
I will run separate posts on each park in WDW: Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and the Magic Kingdom. For those who are saying right now, “Wow, you mean there’s more than one park?,” this series is definitely for you! As always, comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.
There will be one post on Blizzard Beach, one of the two Orlando Disney water parks, but it will all be feedback from my daughter’s school trip there; I did not actually go myself. Heck, a teenager’s perspective is probably better, anyway.
Done right, the parks can be a blast.
Done poorly, they are expensive misery.
Let’s ensure that you’re one of the visitors who creates a dream vacation and not a nightmare.
Here’s the first park we’ll visit: Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Update 4 May 2007: The Washington Post blog Travel Log notes that Zagat has published a “Walt Disney World Insider’s Guide,” just in case you didn’t already have enough research to do. It’s not just restaurants, either; they have reader opinions on parks as a whole, rides and lodging. Reviewer John Deiner throws in his own point of view as well.
Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Walt Disney World