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Originally Posted by F30lolz
My wife, son (15) and I will be going to Disney around the same time as you (October 2023) for a week but we’re staying at the campsites and will tent or pop up camp it for 7-8 nights and do 3 park passes for roughly $1900. Been to Disney maybe 30 times but the last was March 2021 and stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort which is considered moderate but the main tower can be considered deluxe. I’ve attached some pictures below.
1) IMHO I would start looking into resorts now to get a feel of availability and figure out what’s priority. Value, moderate or deluxe resort? Close to Magic Kingdom or any particular park? When booking, they require $200 down so you can pay it off up to 30 days before your check in date.
2) I have zero experience so I cannot be of any help.
3) Download the Disney app so you can get a feel of the map of where everything is located and it’ll give you current wait times for all the rides. You’re allowed to bring in your own food and drinks as long as they aren’t in glass so I pack a backpack with water/juice and some snacks. Normally, we’ll have a ‘quick service’ meal during lunch. October isn’t that bad but IMHO the best time to go is the 2nd week of January. Went a few times during that timeframe and there were zero lines but this was back in 2005-2015 as since then we’ve been going around Feb/March and September. Your son won’t require a ticket so he would be free for all park entries but he won’t remember anything unfortunately. We took our son the first time when he was 2.5 years old but remembers little things surprisingly.
I’m assuming you’ll be flying into MCO (Orlando International Airport)? Too bad they did away with the Magical Express where they pick you up in a Disney shuttle bus (was operated by Mears which is a huge transportation company in the Orlando area) and delivered your bags straight to your room (IIRC) all for free. Planning on renting a car from the airport or paying for a shuttle? Disney charges at least $15 to $25 per night for parking at one of their resorts but they’ll waive the minimum $25 theme park parking per day. Funny, they didn’t charge us parking when we stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort.
Feel free to send me a message if you have further questions. Sorry, not sure why I don’t have any interior pics ATM.
Edit: $3k cost for 8 nights at the Coronado Springs Resort with 2 Disney parks and 2 day/2 park pass for Universal and that included our food and transportation cost. Again, this was March 2021 when they were doing massive discounts to get people out from under the lockdown.
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Awesome thanks for all the suggestions! Glad I'm not crazy in beginning the planning process now.