What I wish I would have known BEFORE getting to WDW!

[poohbear227]

Havent looked through all the pages yet so forgive me if this is being repeated, but we are bringing water bottles with filters on them as an attempt to save $$ on bottled water.

My friend just got them for us from Jenny Craig, but they also sell them in camping stores.

Anyone ever used these at the parks?

 

[Eeyore Excitement]

Also, forgot to mention... even though I know how much this has been said, ya can't stress it enough...

BRING COMFORTABLE SHOES!

Make sure they're cool, possibly vented if you like to be even cooler (and possibly get rained on, which I wouldn't really mind anyway )

And make sure they make your feet feel good! Trust me, at both DL and WDW, I became the girl of non-comfortable-ness. Make sure they're easy to put on, too- you don't want to be in your room hassling with your shoes for 15 minutes!

Might I mention, bring walking shoes, extra walking shoes, a pair for around the pool (sandals- trust me, they did wonders for not stubbing toes for me!), and maybe a pair of some fancy shoes for any ADRs you'd like to get dressed up for.

Hope this helps! Good luck to all!

 

[I~heart~Mickey]

What does ADR stand for???

 

[DisneyMom14]

Advanced Dining Reservations

 

[jenne]

I have been a HUGE Disney fan for as long as I can remember, so it is hard for me to believe that I am even writing this, but believe me, it is true. If you are travelling with family, consider renting a vacation home off-site. The last two trips we stayed in one just outside of Celebration. We had our own private pool, tv's in every room, and a full kitchen at our disposal. Three couples and two kids shared a four bedroom house quite comfortably - and at $120/night, you can't beat the price. Being able to prepare some of the meals saved us a lot on food, and made the trips we did take to resaurants all that more special.

We have always avoided the parks with the extra magic hour days since they bring extra crowds. We also know the internal transportation system well enough, that we could park at DTD for free and still get everywhere we wanted to go.
We manage to save enough money travelling this way, that we are able to extend our trips from 7 to 14 days.

 

[Jenniww]

I have been a HUGE Disney fan for as long as I can remember, so it is hard for me to believe that I am even writing this, but believe me, it is true. If you are travelling with family, consider renting a vacation home off-site. The last two trips we stayed in one just outside of Celebration. We had our own private pool, tv's in every room, and a full kitchen at our disposal. Three couples and two kids shared a four bedroom house quite comfortably - and at $120/night, you can't beat the price. Being able to prepare some of the meals saved us a lot on food, and made the trips we did take to resaurants all that more special.

We have always avoided the parks with the extra magic hour days since they bring extra crowds. We also know the internal transportation system well enough, that we could park at DTD for free and still get everywhere we wanted to go.
We manage to save enough money travelling this way, that we are able to extend our trips from 7 to 14 days.

$120 a night per family? Or just $120 a night?
That is a great deal if its just $120 a night!

 

[jenne]

It was $120/night for the whole house - ended up as $40/family. I couldn't believe it myself until we went.

We really thought it would be hard the first time not staying onsite. We have taken 20+ trips in the last 30 years, and they were all onsite. The kids LOVED having their own pool, we loved that we had our own space to go when they went to bed, and we weren't forced to sit in a dark hotel room. I would suggest trying it once.

 

[epicureangirl]

For kids (and adults) who want to do pin trading in the parks, stock-up on Ebay. For my kids I bought a lot of official Disney pins as cheaply as possible and didn't really care which ones. Find a seller that has good combined shipping, low starting bids and a large selection to save the most.

The girls traded them at the park for ones they liked, instead of trading away pins that I would have paid $8-12 for at the parks it cost me about $3 a pin. Cheaper than I could even find at the Disney 'outlet' stores.

We also bought our light-spinners at the Disney store. They often end up in the discount bins for a few dollars each.

 

[brighteyes]

This post made me SO sad! I have a 5 year-old-boy and it dawned on me that this coud be me is 5 1/2 short years. I better start praying now!!!

I just re-read my post on how grumpy my DS11 was on our trip. Hormones I guess. But it is funny, because my son keeps coming to me and saying how much he wishes we could go back. lol He just remembers the magic.

We are planning another trip hopefully in summer of 2009. I guess time has faded the grumpy memories for both of us. On our last night at disney we went shopping at DTD and i bought myself a mickey hoodie and it was so soft, my son wanted one, and appropriately picked out the hoodie with Grumpy written on front and a HUGE picture of grumpy on the back. I laugh every time he wears it.

While I was there I bought a bunch of presents for Christmas and my son was so happy when he opened his sorcerer mickey i bought him. So here we are planning to go back.

The best tip i have is i ditched the backpack the first day and between my DS and I we wore cargo shorts. I hooked a lanyard around my neck for the digital camera, or in the pocket when on wet rides (in a ziplock bag). A dry goods container around my neck for a few smokes. Mickey head with the pulley thing clipped to my shorts with our KTTW cards and fastpasses. Travel size of sunscreen in the cargo pockets, bottle water holder clipped to my belt loop and off i went. No heavy back pack to carry it was wonderful. Hands free I will never carry a bag in the parks again.

Stephanie

 

[SilverMickey]

These things may already be on this list... I don't have time just now to read all the way through, but I wanted to share...


I bring flip flops for the family in a ziplock bag for the wet rides... and hand towel/shammie to dry the feet to put back into shoes...

Nike makes a sports bottle that the cover comes off big enough to put ice in... we just refill with ice all day and drink the melted part. you have to suck the water out so there is no cap to lose.

When my kids were little I had a "dog tag" made for each: Name cell and parents names:
Name
XXX-XXX-XXXX
My folks are_________

They wear swim trunks as shorts everyday... (we all do) and they tie the dog tag to the swim trunk tie. On the odd occasion that they don't have the swim trunks it can get tied into a sneaker or hooked to a belt loop with a key chain.

My kids are older now but still use these.. god forbid something happened to them and couldn't tell someone how to reach us.(If they went on a ride with out us or something)

Have a blast!


______________________

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

Oooh!! Subscribing! We'll be there in May.

 

[teacherme]

just subscribing

 

[teacherme]

It was $120/night for the whole house - ended up as $40/family. I couldn't believe it myself until we went.

We really thought it would be hard the first time not staying onsite. We have taken 20+ trips in the last 30 years, and they were all onsite. The kids LOVED having their own pool, we loved that we had our own space to go when they went to bed, and we weren't forced to sit in a dark hotel room. I would suggest trying it once.

Where did you find this house? Do you have any contact information? I already have reservations for November '08 but would love to keep it just incase. Thanks.

 

[SilverMickey]

Another tip....

We have a blank white paper that we have typed our info on and the 1st picture on our digital camera is of this. We actually left our camera at a friends at New Years Day last year. A few days later they were looking through the pics to see if they could figure who had left the camera... The info was actually on the strap but they didn't see it....(another dog tag of info) The picture of info got us a phone call....

 

[sharonmickey]

I went to the dollar store and bought cloth hampers for all of us. We each got a different color. At the end of the day just dump the dirty clothes in the hamper. At the end of the trip we could fit the hampers into the suitcases with the clothes still in them. It was really easy to keep the clean clothes separate from the dirty ones. When I got home I just threw the hampers in the basement until I did laundry.

 

[chrisw127]

What I wish I'd known:

Don't invite your SIL whose idea of a good vacation involves a child-free yoga retreat (even though she has kids) and lots of really healthy food. Nothing wrong with that of course and even though she really tried, I could tell she couldn't wait to get out of Orlando.

Have groceries delivered to your room. Even though we had a car, it seemed like I was driving all over the place for a decent grocery store.

 

[ilovecountry]

*Besides all the awesome tips that were covered. One thing I can't stress, especially if you're going during humidity Get the product TIGI bed head After Party. I have long straight hair...omg I looked like Krusty the clown! Even deep conditioning, leave in conditioner, etc couldn't save me. After I used the TIGI After Party leave in, my hair didn't frizz at all. It looked straight & soft even when it went past 300 degrees

*Make sure you have enough batteries & film before you get there
*Consider sending water, pop, & snacks to the hotel a week before you arrive to your room
*carry an extra hair piece in your bag or purse to the parks in case you lose yours/breaks
*always have asprin or tylenol in your bag/purse whenever you go to the parks- a headach can literally ruin your day!
*if you get allergies, consider bringing an allergy medicine or nasal spray in your bag/purse to the parks as well (My nose got so stuff up in one of parks I could barely breath, I was sneezing over & over. Thankfully I had taken my dads advice & had a nasal spray) It's really a must if you get allergies.

 

[daisy2jae]

We just returned from our second visit to WDW. This trip was made December 27th to Jan 3rd. We enjoy going on water rides but don't enjoy walking around with wet clothing or wet shoes. (flip flops) We packed a back pack each morning (if we were planning on going on water rides) We stopped at the lockers and put our backpack in one so if we got wet rain/water rides we could go change. I know it's spending a little extra money but for us the little spent on a locker was well worth being able to enjoy the day without having to run back to our hotel. If going during the cold months pack right!! I know it's warm in Orlando. We are from South Dakota and expected it to be warm enough to leave our winter gear at home. We learned the hard way that if we go back in the winter months we'll at least pack one pair of light weight gloves and a hat. We experienced very cold weather (the coldest in 5 years) while there. We didn't bring anything for cold but I refused to pay $20.00 for a stocking cap and $15.00 for a pair of gloves. By the time you buy the entire family that we spent our extra stash cash we bring along for emergencies.

 

[pixietwin]

I've read every post on this thread!

our trip is Feb 10-15 - my question is, we won't need bugspray then, will we? I know in the summer, yes...but for those in the know who either live there or know for sure , is Feb bug season?

Thanks

 

[ampc3]

subbing going for first time with family in june