Disneyworld Florida Post Reply

[Anjelika]

Has anyone been to Disneyworld Florida? Which hotel would your recommend? What travel agent would you suggest? Many thanks.

[BalhamMumWorkingFT]

How old are your kiddos? Will you need a stroller? That makes a big difference in my recommendations (been there 2x with kids under 2)

[Anjelika]

My children are 7, 5 and 2,5

[mummy_dani]

My sister went earlier this year with my 7 year old niece and stayed at Wyndham Lake Buena Vista and she said it was great. It was a reasonable price, clean and was really close to Magic Kingdom. I'm not sure who she booked through ... I'll ask when I speak to her.

[Anjelika]

Thank you

[BalhamMumWorkingFT]

Ok, i've done Disney staying at Disney and off Disney. My advice is to get the most recently opened hotel. They are usually much nicer as lot of Disney hotels are dated. Also, the absolutely best place to stay is at a monorail connected hotel. If you have to get on a Bus, you might as well drive yourself. I just found it so much easier to drive when I had young ones because you could escape without waiting for a bus (they are quick though, any wait is usually around 5-10min).

I recommend the following places:

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa (expensive but very nice)
Disney's Contemporary Resort (close enough to walk to the magic kingdom)
Orlando Omni Championsgate - Golf, spa, etc... This was the absolute best place we ever stayed. We stayed in a Villa which was advertised as 2 beds but actually was three beds. Had a full kitchen, huge dining area, and a living area. Was about 1400 sq foot. And cheaper than even the lowest priced Disney hotel. The staff rocked and as willing to drive us to disney everyday and pick us up. I even left a couple bits of clothes there by accident and they mailed them to me, NO CHARGE!

My other piece of advice is to stick to one park a day, find out when all the parades and activities are per park, choose what you think you'd want to do, and plan your park visit around it. We bought park hopper tickets (more expensive) and NEVER changed parks. I recommend the electrical light parade (Magic Kingdom) as a not to miss. It is a night, we just got slices of pizza and found a spot to sit for 30min which was right in the front. It was like having our own dinner show.

Final advice... get the fast track vouchers. We would go to our favourite ride first thing and get fast track, then ride it once without fast track and get back in line to ride again with fast track. Fast Track vouchers make sitting in line ok.

YAY! Have so much fun. It is truely one of the best holidays I have ever had... and we've done some pretty crazy travel. Everyone is so nice and helpful. Big smiles on their faces... as if they are living the dream. (weird and yet so cool).

[Anjelika]

Hi BalhamMumWorkingFT, thank you for great advice!

[dudette]

We've been twice - this year and two years ago. Best piece of advice I can give is to get to the parks as soon as they open, if not a tad before. Race around doing all the headliner rides, pick up fast passes for any headliners you can't fit in, do the less busy rides, do the fast pass ride, pick up another fast pass, have something to eat, wander round soaking up the atmosphere and looking out for the characters, ride the second fast pass and try and leave around lunch time. Spend the afternoon by the pool and have an early dinner(5.30), then get up early the next morning and do it all over again. We did this and never queued for longer than ten minutes, despite being there at Easter which is the busiest time of year. If you stay in a Disney resort hotel you can visit one park each day which opens an hour earlier for Disney resort guests. Buy The Unofficial Guide to Disney World with Kids for more tips and touring plans (on Amazon). We stayed at the Grand Floridian which we loved but it's the most expensive. Oh, and book all your restaurants in advance - and if you want to go to Cindrella's castle book it now! If you go to Universal too, buy an Express pass so you can skip all the lines (even better than Fastpass), or better still stay at a Universal hotel and get them for free. A lot of people are sniffy about Disneyworld but in my opinion it's one of the wonders of the world - a truly amazing place.

[missblueeyesmum]

We have been to Florida a few times and I have to say that with a small family there is nothing better than staying at a villa in a gated community.We stayed in hotels before we had our daughter but after that we are hooked on a villa!
-We were able to have a separate bedroom for our daughter (and friends kids) and one for ourself (we took the baby monitor with us so totally relaxed)
-We were able to watch TV / cook etc without having to worry about waking the children on days we were at home in evenings
-Some hotels do not have baths only showers
- We were able to have dinner outside next to the private pool vs having to take our daughter down to the restaurants in a hotel or elsewhere
- We had our own private pool! and the pools at the villas by law have to have a child safety fence which gave us peace of mind if we were not outside
- It was only 15-20 minutes from the Disney parks and 30 minutes from Universal. 45 minutes from the airport and there was restaurants, supermarket, petrol station, bank, pharmacy all within 5-10 minutes from the place.
Overall it worked out so much cheaper than booking a Disney hotel or some other hotel.
To navigate the parks you have already had a lot of good advice above, get there early!, plan before you go on what you want to do, check schedules for all the shows etc so you can fit it in. Watch the fireworks and spend at least one day in each park. But, with smaller children take a rest day in between and stay at home, play in the pool and recharge, kids need to be rested to really enjoy it.
Here is a link to the villa we rented which was fab! 4 beds (2 double, 2 twin. 3 bathrooms). http://www.ipgflorida.com/Reservation/D ... 3a32230a58

You can see the availability on the link but if you e mail Kevin.mcnair1973@gmail.com (the owner) he will give you a discount as he has to pay commission to the company who manage it otherwise.

We love Florida and Disney and plan to go back to this place again next year!

[nhyw]

Having just joined this forum I have only just seen this message. So I hope my advice is still of use to you. We have been traveling to WDW 2-3 times a year for the past 10 years and we now also own a home there. Before we used to stay at the Gaylord Palms hotel www.gaylordpalms.com which is now owned by Marriott. This 5* hotel has an adults only pool and a separate pool/waterpark for children, plus there is a large atrium with alligators and waterfalls! It is a large convention hotel so it usually isn't overrun with children which I think is a good thing! There also are many restaurants on site and of course 24hr room service.

Another hotel that I like in the area is The Peabody www.peabodyorlando.com which is located on International Drive within walking distance of restaurants etc. but we prefer Gaylord Palms.

As others have said, with a family I would personally recommend a villa instead as you have lots of space and kitchen facilities for the children and your own pool. There are villas to suit all sizes and budgets from 3 to 8 bedrooms and from £500-£5,000+ a week. We never cook in our villa as it is a holiday after all! We just have breakfast there in the morning and then either eat out for most meals or order in. We do rent our home and the website is www.windsorhillsretreat.com

[NorthcoteDad]

If you are on Facebook, check out this villa in Orlando. It is 20 mins from DisneyWorld and can take 2 families (has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms) with a pool (inc child safety net) and a games room.

https://www.facebook.com/FamilyVillaOrlando

If you are on G+, then there is this link:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/117270550 ... osts/p/pub

[sw11_]

Hi. We are considering a trip to Disneyland Orlando in October half term. Does anyone have any recent feedback on resort hotels? What's the newest/smartest hotel?

[nhyw]

The newest 5 star hotel in Orlando is the Four Seasons within Walt Disney World.

The Ritz Carlton Orlando is also really good and the JW Marriott Grande Lakes too. Also see my previous post above as I still also love Gaylord Palms hotel and we often go there for dinner when we are in Orlando, as we stay at our home home now, see www.windsorhillsretreat.com. The Peabody has changed names however and is now a Hyatt.

[sw11_]

Has anyone tried the new Four Seasons at Disney? It's not an official disney hotel so i'm wondering if we would regret not being on the mono-rail or being able to access the parks early. The thing is that is looks amazing - great water park for the kids and much better food options than the official disney hotels. Our kids are quite young so I imagine we will spend a few days at the hotel (i.e. not at disney) so a better hotel would be worth doing if we are going to spend a substantial amount of time there? Interested in how it compares to the Grand Floridian which sounds nice but gets mixed reviews on trip advisor... Thanks

[sw11_]

PS. is it worth hiring a car? will we use it if we are not planning to venture any further than disney world? our kids are too young for universal studios for example...