Leading a Vacation- Walt Disney World Strategy

MiddleMan

Leading your family on a vacation is a big DHV. Having a plan for a huge, complicated and expensive destination like Walt Disney World is a great opportunity to plan, manage, and lead. This thread is about WDW in particular. 

If Disney and/or theme parks aren't your thing, that's all well and good. But please don't use this thread to hate on the Mouse. 

MiddleMan

Paging @Mark72, @Tennee, and any other WDW aficionados. 

(Mods, if this thread would be better served in the OT forum, please feel free to move it there.)

Knowledge is your most important tool. What will the parks' hours be? Where and when to eat? How long will it take you to get where you're going? What rides need FastPasses and which will be fine for standby? Start by researching this all online. I recommend TouringPlans.com. 

RebuildingHusband

First thing's first. And easily the most important. You can book dining reservations 180 days in advance of your trip. Do so! We've eaten at nearly every good establishment that Disney offers and having a solid plan for food will make a huge difference in the quality of your trip. 

Some me of our favorites (in no particular order):
Le Cellier - steakhouse in Canada pavilion in Epcot
Ohana - family style dinner in Polynesian resort
Be Our Guest - magic kingdom, food was meh but experience was amazing
Liberty Tree Tavern - surprisingly good for lunch
Teppan Edo - hibachi in Japan pavilion in Epcot
Via Napoli - Italy pavilion in Epcot - AWESOME
Hoop-Dee-Doo - corny but so much fun
Chef Mickey Breakfast - contemporary, classic and tasty, great with kids as all the main characters are there

There are plenty more. Those are some of our favorites from the last couple of trips. 

MiddleMan

We loved Ohana, Teppan Edo, and BoG. Those are great picks for sit-down meals. 

Boma over at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is also excellent. I've heard great things about Sanaa, there, too. We'll be trying it out next month. 

The best counter service restaurant is the Flame Tree Barbecue in the Animal Kingdom park. Great barbecue food and large portions; it's a very good value. 

Tennee

Dinner at Cinderella ' s castle was awesome.  Takes up 2 'table services'  each on the plan, but if you have little girls, they will absolutely dig it. Kiddo wore her princess outfit.  Oh, and Jasmine was smokin' hot, so Dad can enjoy it too.

MiddleMan

Yeah, Jasmine was my favorite part of Cinderella's Royal Table, too.

MiddleMan

@Mark72, in his 911 thread, said: "If I am missing something, PLEASE let me know because I really have deer-in-headlights going on right now."

Mark, let's get a handle on the situation. It sounds like your wife has done some extensive planning of her own and you don't know how best to contribute. Let's start with the basics:

When will you be going and for how long?
How many adults and how many kids (and their ages) will be going?
Where will you be staying?

Tiger

Be sure to include a character breakfast in your trip, some of our best memories of Disney involve seeing our kids interact with the characters up close.

On one trip we had our kids wear a plain T-shirt that they picked out, then we brought fabric pens and had the characters sign their shirts.  If your kids are not intimidated by the characters this can be a lot of fun.

The classic autograph book for character signatures is fun too.  Kids love to collect things and they had great fun with that as well.

The shops have a vast array of buttons behind the counter they will give out to guests having a special occasion.  Birthday, anniversary, first time visitor, etc.  If the opportunity arises take advantage of this.

Tennee

We ate at Splitsville in DTD one night.  We got a lane, which comes with a full table and bowled and ate.  It was the only bowling alley I've ever seen with a sushi menu.   It was probably my favorite meal there, although it was not the best food we had.  It was a ton of fun, we had a blast eating and bowling (...and big, giant beers).  It was really fun.

We were on property, so after the outlaws and Kiddo crashed, the rest of us went over to DTD at night for a few libations.  Very relaxing. 

Tennee

RE:  Breakfast and the meal plans.  We stayed on property in a condo, so full kitchen.  Breakfast we ate in the condo.  There is a grocery store (Goodlings?) in the strip mall right at the main gate.   Eggs, deli ham, English muffins, waffles, sliced cheese.  It takes no time to whip up a mess of scrambled eggs, so we had breakfast sandwiches every morning. 

We did the plan with 1 snack, 1 quick service, and 1 table service.  It worked perfectly with breakfast in the condo.  Fast, easy, not messy - and protein to start the morning. 

John3

There are a ton of  perks to staying on a Disney property...character breakfasts, early entry, easy to go back for a nap and then hit the fireworks.  They are hard to book and more expensive, but worth every penny IMO.

Look for pre-paid packages (even discounted giftcards locally, Costco, etc) that include several parks etc..  There is more to see than just WDW.

Katt

Can't offer much for WDW itself, but if anyone wants advice on dining and activities in Orlando other than the parks, holla!   I'm a Central Florida expert LOL

Athol_Kay

Paging @Jen_Kay who is the resident Disney font of knowledge.

Also we did Universal for a couple of days for our 20th and that was just as impressive/fun as Disney was with the Harry Potter stuff.

MiddleMan

Thanks, @Athol_Kay and @Jen_Kay. I'm very excited about my upcoming trip. 

I'd really like to see @Mark72 join the thread; this is a great opportunity for him to DHV and show leadership. 

Carrotcake

I loved the park hotels. The service is impeccable. Cuts way down on the schlep + makes the most out of in-between moments. 

Epcot is very worth doing, even with little kids. It certainly made a big impression on me when I was little.  

Sounds like it's going to be a blast!

Angeline

The great thing about staying in the park is that you park your car and then you don't need it again until you leave.

Carrotcake

And backing up a bit, have you ever been before?

How many days do you have? Time management and not cramming too much in is key. The really wonderful thing about WDW is the attention to detail. Even little kiosks will have something charming.  So taking your time (especially at magic kingdom, even if it means skipping some of the others) is worth it. Particularly with kids, who will almost surely like MK the best. 

Do you want thoughts on specific rides? I'm pretty sure most folks could enthuse at length about favorites. 

RebuildingHusband

Angeline said:

The great thing about staying in the park is that you park your car and then you don't need it again until you leave.

Park your car?

Fly into Orlando. Disney Magical Express straight to resort, luggage delivered directly to your room, go to park and begin enjoying. 

Athol_Kay

This is pointless without a triage lol.

How many kids? What ages? Which dates are you going? What are the most important rides to everyone? Have you ordered you Magic Bands yet? What types of food do you like?

TRIAGE PEOPLE TRIAGE!

Tennee

@John3 said:

There are a ton of  perks to staying on a Disney property...character breakfasts, early entry, easy to go back for a nap and then hit the fireworks.  They are hard to book and more expensive, but worth every penny IMO.

Look for pre-paid packages (even discounted giftcards locally, Costco, etc) that include several parks etc..  There is more to see than just WDW.

So look into the companies that resell Disney timeshare points.  We literally saved thousands - plural - off the condo.  There are several, I'll have to scrounge up the websites.   I was a little leery about this at first - it was a snap and saved a pile of cash. 

Slipangle

We booked a trip before our divorce, and went through with it... we were going to take turns, but I ended up with most of the time except if one of our kids wanted a ride the other didn't or was too small. The trip was coordinated with the ex wife's sisters family too. 

Length of trip matters, going from broad strokes down to details I started my plan based on staying at an all star resort... Imho time is spent in the parks so unless you have money to waste, save money on the rooms. I planned which parks we go to on which days based on where the extra hours would be. Animal kingdom and the movies theme park (I'm stuck on calling it mgm studios) can be done in one day if like me the kids aren't doing the Aerosmith coaster and tower of terror. We had a day each of magic kingdom and epcot, and split another day between the two. We also had a day at blizzard beach.

Then I planned dinners,  1 per day, to make reservations as far ahead as possible. I was late for the 6 months ahead of time by a week and barely got Cinderellas castle,  we got a later time because that's what was available. At the time,  be our guest was new, and fully booked. But for lunch you can get it as a quick serve, we did that and it was maybe a 90 minute wait but Imo worth it. Sci first diner and rainforest cafe were our other must do dinners, rainforest you can probably walk in after animal kingdom closes, Sci fi you need reservations and you'll have a wait anyway but it should be available easier than beauty and the beast or Cinderella. 

Bear In Mind Animal Kingdom closes earlier in the evening like 5 or 6 off the top of my head. 

We got the quick serve meal plan and paid for the dinners. Always start with breakfast and quick serve lunch, drink with the refillable cups and get a water with breakfast or something like that since you can with the meal. Save that for in the park.

Beyond that,  wing it and relax.