UPDATE: Just got back from our Disney Trip!

[MoeTE87]

UPDATE:

Review of the Disney trip is on Page 2.


Good morning All,

Wife and I are looking at surprising our 6.5 year old daughter with a trip to Disney at the end of Feb.

We are working with a travel agent who specializes in Disney trips but I wanted to come to you all to get help with things we have to do and see. We are thinking to go for 5 - 6 days. 2 travel days and possibly 3 - 4 days of being there at the different parks.

What are the top 3 parks to visit? My daughter is on the tail end of being into Disney Princesses.

Looking for additional help with:

- Top places to stay and have awesome pools.
- Top restaurants and experiences.
- Best roller coasters.

I haven't been since I was about my daughters age and I am 40. So I am completely out of the loop, hence why I am coming to you all!


Much appreciated!

[wtwo3]

This is literally my situation. We surprised our daughter on her 6th birthday last November with a "letter from Mickey" inviting her to Disney World. We're now set to go in a few weeks at the end of the month. We've also been working with a Disney vacation planner this entire time.

Here's our itinerary:

Saturday: Fly-in, check-in at the Animal Kingdom Resort
Sunday: Animal Kingdom park
Monday: Epcot
Tuesday: Rest Day - may go check out Disney Springs
Wednesday: Magic Kingdom
Thursday: Hollywood Studios
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: Fly back home

As far as restaurants - make sure you make your reservations well in advance (I think you can begin reserving 2 months in advance). A few must-go restaurants for us were:

Cindarella's Royal Table at Magic Kingdom (my daughter is still very much into princesses)
Space 220 at Epcot (This just looks like a super cool experience)
Sci-Fi Dine-in at Hollywood (Another cool looking experience)

We've booked a few other sit-down places too just to get the full experience, but I'd say I'm most looking forward to those 3.

As far as the resort we're staying at - we picked Animal kingdom resort for a few reasons - 1) The themes in the resort looked pretty cool... 2) We were able to book a savannah view room which means our backyard view is a view of Giraffes and various animals grazing, something about that seems pretty cool... 3) The rooms seem to be bigger.

As for the parks - I've never been to Animal Kingdom, so if I had to only pick 3, I'd probably drop that one and go to the other 3, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios.

I have a spreadsheet with most of the different rides in each park and high vs. low priorities if you're interested - just let me know I can shoot that over to you.

[c1pher]

The idea of a down day/shopping day is good. It can be hectic in the parks all day especially for a little one making all those steps. There are a few nice shopping areas or you could head to Tampa or Cocoa Beach depending on for a little time near the beach. You could also consider Sea World and Universal Studios.

[omasou]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

Good morning All,

Wife and I are looking at surprising our 6.5 year old daughter with a trip to Disney at the end of Feb.

We are working with a travel agent who specializes in Disney trips but I wanted to come to you all to get help with things we have to do and see. We are thinking to go for 5 - 6 days. 2 travel days and possibly 3 - 4 days of being there at the different parks.

What are the top 3 parks to visit? My daughter is on the tail end of being into Disney Princesses.

Looking for additional help with:

- Top places to stay and have awesome pools.
- Top restaurants and experiences.
- Best roller coasters.

I haven't been since I was about my daughters age and I am 40. So I am completely out of the loop, hence why I am coming to you all!


Much appreciated!

If you don't purchase a park hopper (don't recommend it) you'll need to plan your days around each park.

Buy a meal pass!
Buy the photo pass!
Buy autograph books/pens for princess and character signatures. You can buy them from Disney ahead of time.

If you're a selfie stick type of person, leave it at home they will confiscate in on entry to any park.

Keep your backpacks simple to expedite the search lines. Bring a water bottle or Camelback (I use a CamelBack instead of backpack) and one or two battery packs w/cords to keep your phone(s) charged.

Magic Kingdom
Lunch - Be Our Guest Restaurant aka Beast's Castle, air conditioned (may not mater in February)
Dinner - Cinderella's Royal Table (you need to sign up NOW).
While waiting for dinner they have a princess meet and greet downstairs, called Meet Cinderella and a Visiting Princess at Princess Fairytale Hall. Have to wait in line like a ride.
Happily Ever After Fireworks - find standing room in front of Cinderella's castle so you can see the parade and fireworks.

Main Street for snacks
Main Street Bakery - coffee
Ice Cream Parlor

Rides
Pirates of the Caribbean - they have a make-up/dress-up extra that she might like

Roller Coasters
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Space Mountain
TRON Lightcycle / Run (new, haven't seen it)

Avoid
The Crystal Palace unless you really like Winnie the Pooh


Epcot is great for eating but w/all of the concrete it's a frying pan in the summer. They have a nice firework show that you can see from most anywhere.

Hollywood Studio is nice, has a lot of rides for younger children and plenty of places to eat.

Get the Fantasmic! Dining Package. I enjoyed dinner at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano.


Animal Kingdom is a haul and the animal safari was meh. The popular ride is the Avitar ride and you will spend ALL day in line for it. My opinion, if you have limited time skip this park.

Disney Springs, is a haul and has some nice expensive restaurants and stores but did you really travel to Disney to go shopping?

Depending on your budget the moderate resorts are the best bang for the buck and you won't spend time there except to sleep and eat breakfast. I wouldn't really worry about swimming pools b/c you will wake up early and grab a quick breakfast so that you can get to the park and wait in lines.

Pay attention to where you stay (look at the map) b/c it will determine the time it takes to get you the parks that you are interested in seeing.

[BMWGUYinCO]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

This is literally my situation. We surprised our daughter on her 6th birthday last November with a "letter from Mickey" inviting her to Disney World. We're now set to go in a few weeks at the end of the month. We've also been working with a Disney vacation planner this entire time.

Here's our itinerary:

Saturday: Fly-in, check-in at the Animal Kingdom Resort
Sunday: Animal Kingdom park
Monday: Epcot
Tuesday: Rest Day - may go check out Disney Springs
Wednesday: Magic Kingdom
Thursday: Hollywood Studios
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: Fly back home

As far as restaurants - make sure you make your reservations well in advance (I think you can begin reserving 2 months in advance). A few must-go restaurants for us were:

Cindarella's Royal Table at Magic Kingdom (my daughter is still very much into princesses)
Space 220 at Epcot (This just looks like a super cool experience)
Sci-Fi Dine-in at Hollywood (Another cool looking experience)

We've booked a few other sit-down places too just to get the full experience, but I'd say I'm most looking forward to those 3.

As far as the resort we're staying at - we picked Animal kingdom resort for a few reasons - 1) The themes in the resort looked pretty cool... 2) We were able to book a savannah view room which means our backyard view is a view of Giraffes and various animals grazing, something about that seems pretty cool... 3) The rooms seem to be bigger.

As for the parks - I've never been to Animal Kingdom, so if I had to only pick 3, I'd probably drop that one and go to the other 3, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios.

I have a spreadsheet with most of the different rides in each park and high vs. low priorities if you're interested - just let me know I can shoot that over to you.

Sounds like a great trip!

As an FYI, we've been going to DisneyWorld every year for 31 years. The only thing I might point out to you is that Epcot is not a great park for 6 year olds....it's more orientated to adults, and you will log the most steps in this park. For your 6 year old, Animal Kingdom might be more interesting...

For anyone thinking of bringing kids....they all get over-stimulated so if you want to have a "magical" trip, schedule downtime for them every day. This is a double edged sword - Disney is so expensive that most people can't imagine going back to the hotel for their young ones to nap - seems like a waste of money/tickets. But if you don't and the kid has a meltdown in the park, then the parent thinks "I spent this much money for this crap?"

[MoeTE87]

Thank you wtwo3 and omasou for the help and awesome suggestions! This truly is very helpful for my wife and I! I know the Disney trip planner rep probably has the same things she pushes on everyone but I wanted to do my own research before pulling the trigger on what she suggests so we know we are getting the best value for our money!

wtwo3 if you don't mind sending that over, that would be great! Thank you!

[infinitekidM2C]

Since we have disneyland here, my favorite park is Animal Kingdom. The safari is really cool and they did an awesome job on that park. But obviously the Magic Kingdom is a must. I suggest you stay at somewhere with monorail access if it's in your budget. I pesonally love epcot but it's not necessarily a must for kids, unless she's into Frozen. THen it is a must.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

how much will this whole trip cost you roughly? i am 31 no kids. just wondering lol?

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

how much will this whole trip cost you roughly? i am 31 no kids. just wondering lol?

Won't be under $6k no matter how low end they go

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by BMWGUYinCO

Sounds like a great trip!

As an FYI, we've been going to DisneyWorld every year for 31 years. The only thing I might point out to you is that Epcot is not a great park for 6 year olds....it's more orientated to adults, and you will log the most steps in this park. For your 6 year old, Animal Kingdom might be more interesting...

For anyone thinking of bringing kids....they all get over-stimulated so if you want to have a "magical" trip, schedule downtime for them every day. This is a double edged sword - Disney is so expensive that most people can't imagine going back to the hotel for their young ones to nap - seems like a waste of money/tickets. But if you don't and the kid has a meltdown in the park, then the parent thinks "I spent this much money for this crap?"

We're actually grappling with the downtime vs. powering through decision for our itinerary. You're right in that it's hard to imagine taking out 2-3 hour chunks of time out of our day to go back to the hotel for the little one to nap (we have a 20 month old as well) after having spent so much money. We're debating having him just nap in the stroller and we power through, or just going back to the hotel (if not all of us, then potentially me and my son go back while the wife and daughter continue on) and then we just join back up with them once he wakes up from his nap. I guess we'll see how the day progresses.

The other thing we have to keep in mind is that the night shows/fireworks are high priority (that's one of the things I remember enjoying from the couple of times I've been in the past), and many of those don't start until 8 or 9pm. So it ends up being a REALLY long day.

[omasou]

Originally Posted by infinitekidM2C

Won't be under $6k no matter how low end they go

Sounds about right. I've been twice ~ $5K w/airfare but that was ~ 5 years ago.

Don't try to save money staying off property. Not worth the costs and travel, e.g. rental car, parking lot waiting for tram or walking to entrance and you loose the ability to buy a meal pass.

First time the SpeedPass was awesome, schedule three rides before the trip or night before, then schedule the next one when leaving a ride. Never spent any time in line. Now it's not worth the cost, but heard they may be moving back to what it was.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

how much will this whole trip cost you roughly? i am 31 no kids. just wondering lol?

For us, 2 adults, a 6 year old, and a 20 month old who gets in for free... With flights, lodging, 4 day park tickets, food, potential souvenirs and miscellaneous expenses - we're looking at about $12k.

Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to go cry in a corner now.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by MoeTE87

Thank you wtwo3 and omasou for the help and awesome suggestions! This truly is very helpful for my wife and I! I know the Disney trip planner rep probably has the same things she pushes on everyone but I wanted to do my own research before pulling the trigger on what she suggests so we know we are getting the best value for our money!

wtwo3 if you don't mind sending that over, that would be great! Thank you!

Will shoot you a PM

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

For us, 2 adults, a 6 year old, and a 20 month old who gets in for free... With flights, lodging, 4 day park tickets, food, potential souvenirs and miscellaneous expenses - we're looking at about $12k.

Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to go cry in a corner now.

HOLY FUCK

hey man I feel you, I'll bite the bullet as well when I have kids and tbh I love amuesment parks. but the pricing is so fucking egregious at anything disney

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

HOLY FUCK

hey man I feel you, I'll bite the bullet as well when I have kids and tbh I love amuesment parks. but the pricing is so fucking egregious at anything disney

TBH we did go a bit overboard, and there are definitely ways to make it a lot cheaper. Neither my wife or I are Disney fanatics, so we figured we'll only do this twice - once now, and then once again when our son is around 5 or 6.

And to be totally honest, I'm partly doing this for myself. I've been to Disney twice, once with my parents - and it was a VERY budget experience. We only did 2 parks, stayed at a shitty motel off-property, ate McDonald's all trip, and didn't buy ANY souvenirs or extras. So this is partly me trying to get the full Disney experience I've never had.

[BMWGUYinCO]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

HOLY FUCK

hey man I feel you, I'll bite the bullet as well when I have kids and tbh I love amuesment parks. but the pricing is so fucking egregious at anything disney

Well....I mean, not really. For example, try putting together a weeklong trip to Vail, CO to ski. Lodging and lift passes for a family will easily cost the same, but all you get is a cold ride up a mountain to ski back down. The trip to Disney at least offers you way more experiences.

Not defending Disney, but they aren't exclusively egregious....but for the same money, you could go to Europe. So it's hard to defend, but I will say Disney has cornered the family vacation market pretty well.

[Alfisti]

I would not power through a 16 hr day with a 20 month old man, asking for a wall of shit to flow your way. Nap the little one. Ideally you go too so you can get some R and R and chill.

I am generally quite bearish about vacations with kids, anything other than a beach house rental for a week seems like it is wasted on them and a massive fucking hassle but each to his own.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I would not power through a 16 hr day with a 20 month old man, asking for a wall of shit to flow your way. Nap the little one. Ideally you go too so you can get some R and R and chill.

I am generally quite bearish about vacations with kids, anything other than a beach house rental for a week seems like it is wasted on them and a massive fucking hassle but each to his own.

You're right... most of the vacations we've taken with kids thus far haven't been the most enjoyable... at least not anywhere near the level of enjoyment as we had before kids. But I know we've had this discussion before - my daughter's at that age now that she's specifically requesting a Disney trip.

As for the 20 month old - yeah... I'll test it out the first day, but it's likely going to end up being at least one of us heading back to the resort with him to get his nap in. We did go to Disney with my daughter when she was 9 months old (wife had a conference in Orlando so we popped over to one of the parks one of the days there), and she was able to just sleep in the stroller while we walked around. But my son doesn't have a ton of experience falling asleep in the stroller.

[EyeGuy]

For her age, Magic Kingdom all day. Try to stay for the firework show at night. They have itinerary’s for most parks if you google search them. It will save you time and will make the most of your day.

Animal Kingdom would probably be the next choice. Do the Safari in the morning while the animals are awake. Save the Avatar part of the park for at night when its dark.

Epcot I feel is more for adults. Many restaurants and places to drink.

My son is 10 now and our favorite park is Universal studios because of the rides. There is a height requirement for most of them though.

[floridaorange]

If I had $ to spend on my kids in Central FL and wanted to make the most of it. I’d do - Disney World 1 day. SeaWorld 1 day, Animal Kingdom 1 day, Possibly Legoland, it’s a bit of a drive but an easy drive overall and will get you out of the Disney area for a break. At night I’d do Disney Springs (free entry) for shopping and dinner and Universal City Walk (free entry). This would be the route I’d take to maximize fun for everyone.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by floridaorange

If I had $ to spend on my kids in Central FL and wanted to make the most of it. I’d do - Disney World 1 day. SeaWorld 1 day, Animal Kingdom 1 day, Possibly Legoland, it’s a bit of a drive but an easy drive overall and will get you out of the Disney area for a break. At night I’d do Disney Springs (free entry) for shopping and dinner and Universal City Walk (free entry). This would be the route I’d take to maximize fun for everyone.

[bucketfoot]

With a 6.5 year old daughter I would skip EPCOT unless the Frozen ride is a must and make Magic Kingdom the top priority. That said, I would also go ahead and get the park hoppers as at that age taking a break in the middle of the day can be a good idea (we still do this with our adult kids!). This way you can visit one park in the morning and a different one in the afternoon. Doing this gives you a chance to figure out if there is a certain park you really want to go back too.

Best pool by far is at Yacht Club/Beach Club Resort. You don't mention anything about what category of places to stay, but with a younger child Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas is pretty awesome.

For rollercoasters Magic Kingdom has the most with Tron, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain (probably our favorite) and Barnstormer (good for kids). Rock 'n' Roller Coaster will be closed. The most intense by far is Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.

For restaurants our favorite is probably Le Cellier at EPCOT (which by far has the best in park food options). A character meal would certainly be fun with a 6.5 year old (if you can get it this late).

We will be there basically the same time as wtwo3, staying 4 extra days.

We are Disney regulars between Disneyland and Disney World. So feel free to ask questions