Learn me: Disney World.

On International Drive there is a tourist-trap-looking place called Charley's Steakhouse that may be worth flying across the country for all by itself. Best steak I've ever had.

Visualize the money you will be spending in a pile. Now set fire to that pile. Accept and come to peace with the flaming pile of money. Now you can enjoy taking your family to Disney.

Picture walking through the gates of the Magic Kingdom on the first day, swiping your ticket, and then having your child immediately puke all over themselves and having to trek all the way back to the hotel for the day. Come to peace with this situation. Now you can enjoy taking your family to Disney.

I'm by no means a Disney veteran, we've only taken the kids twice (ages 4 and 2), but my wife and I decided out the gate that we would NEVER try to get our "money's worth" out of a Disney trip. We would also never go to any parks on consecutive days. Park one day, lazy day at the hotel pool the next, then back to the park. There is an eerie thing that happens at Disney around 2:00 pm. A hushed roar begins to build as hundreds of children in need of naps begin to crash and their parents begin to snap.

Sorry for painting a brutal picture, but putting it in terms of stark reality helped me get past any hangups I had about going and how we would enjoy it.

Oh... and one other thing. Since you're staying on property, use the disney transportation system. Go look at all the cool resorts like Ft Wilderness etc. Hell, i remember one trip where we spent an entire day just going from resort to resort looking at all the cool stuff.

Egad! Kids 2 and 4 are too young to enjoy Disney. Only bad things can come from such a trip. The Magic Kingdom is only one part of the Disney experience--geared towards the youngest visitors, and I would suggest waiting until your kids are at least 6 for that.

1988RedT2 wrote: Egad! Kids 2 and 4 are too young to enjoy Disney. Only bad things can come from such a trip. The Magic Kingdom is only one part of the Disney experience--geared towards the youngest visitors, and I would suggest waiting until your kids are at least 6 for that.

Nah, it was great. We went down for a long weekend. We rode nothing, watched parades, ran around on Tom Sawyer Island, ate a late lunch, and left. That was it. Zero expectations. We used credit card reward points from my work expenses to pay for the tickets and food at the park. We took our oldest son to Disney when he was just a few months old during Christmas. He will never know he was there, but we enjoyed being their as a family. Once again, zero expectations.

I just never want to be this guy:

1988RedT2 wrote: Egad! Kids 2 and 4 are too young to enjoy Disney. Only bad things can come from such a trip.

I was thinking the same thing. Took our boy when he was ~10. That was probably just about right. Old enough to have the stamina to last the day, young enough to find it all still rather magical.

foxtrapper wrote:

1988RedT2 wrote: Egad! Kids 2 and 4 are too young to enjoy Disney. Only bad things can come from such a trip.

I was thinking the same thing. Took our boy when he was ~10. That was probably just about right. Old enough to have the stamina to last the day, young enough to find it all still rather magical.

I think my kids were 7 & 9 at the time. They were just old/big enough to go on almost anything. They were still wiped out by dinner time though. I think 10 is probably perfect.

I saw so many people toting crying 3yr olds about or waiting outside things they couldn't take them on or trying to reason with a miserable toddler who just wants to NOT get their money's worth today... madness.

slefain put it exactly right. I've taken my kids there starting from age 1. No, they have no memories of those early trips, but we had a blast as a family. They loved every minute of it.

I would never,ever,ever ever take a child in diapers again. That's a 100% ironclad rule for life.

Welp, I just set fire to a pile of money again. Booked our trip last night. Five days at the All Star Movies resort and two days at the parks. Arrive on day one, chill out, go the Animal Kingdom on day two (all our FastPasses are set for before noon), day three chill at the hotel, go to Magic Kingdom on day four (again, all FastPasses set to for before noon), and a leisurely drive home on day five. The whole shebang (including table service dining package) was just shy of $2k. We are using my credit card reward points to pay for everything else outside of the package deal (mainly souvenirs, but possibly stuff on the property like mini-golf or a boat rental).

Again, zero expectations. Kids are 3 and 6 now, wife is 7-months pregnant . We are staying on the property so at any point we can just grab a bus back to the room to chill out. Packing the double jogging stroller this time.

In reply to slefain:

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been almost a year and all of us are anxious for the next trip.

Something to keep in mind, ASMu shares a bus system with all of the other All Star resorts, so you may have to wait through a bus or two to get to your destination. Also it takes about an hour to get from point a to point b, so going back and forth from resort to park isn't that easy. If you're driving yourself to WDW, I highly recommend driving yourself to the parks and whatnot. They will give you a free parking pass at check-in. (Your plan does have me a bit twitchy, though. Different 'touring' styles and all that. No way I could go for 5 days and only have 2 days of park time, nope nope nope.)

I was able to save up since after being laid off we adjusted our cost of living accordingly (to match the reduced income) then I got hired by my current employer in November 2013 and my net income more than doubled. On top of that I worked a lot of overtime so I was able to save the necessary $4,200 to pay for everything rather quickly.

The wife took care of all of the planning and pre-trip buildup that made it an epic trip and worth every penny.

We stayed 5 days and 6 nights at Coronado Springs. One day we'd like to have the funds to stay on the monorail loop.

Morbid wrote: In reply to slefain: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been almost a year and *all* of us are anxious for the next trip. Something to keep in mind, ASMu shares a bus system with all of the other All Star resorts, so you may have to wait through a bus or two to get to your destination. Also it takes about an hour to get from point a to point b, so going back and forth from resort to park isn't that easy. If you're driving yourself to WDW, I highly recommend driving yourself to the parks and whatnot. They will give you a free parking pass at check-in. (Your plan does have me a bit twitchy, though. Different 'touring' styles and all that. No way I could go for 5 days and only have 2 days of park time, nope nope nope.)

Ah, now that is good info. So my resort parking pass is good at park lots as well? That may work even better. We are driving down so we will have our own car.

On our "down" time we will probably take the bus to the Animal Kingdom resort and let the kids check out the animals. We will probably spend a lot of time in the pool as well.

I've done the whole "6 parks in 5 days" Orlando blitz before. It was awesome, but I won't try that again until all three kids are solidly in their teens.

slefain wrote:

Morbid wrote: In reply to slefain: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been almost a year and *all* of us are anxious for the next trip. Something to keep in mind, ASMu shares a bus system with all of the other All Star resorts, so you may have to wait through a bus or two to get to your destination. Also it takes about an hour to get from point a to point b, so going back and forth from resort to park isn't that easy. If you're driving yourself to WDW, I highly recommend driving yourself to the parks and whatnot. They will give you a free parking pass at check-in. (Your plan does have me a bit twitchy, though. Different 'touring' styles and all that. No way I could go for 5 days and only have 2 days of park time, nope nope nope.)

Ah, now that is good info. So my resort parking pass is good at park lots as well? That may work even better. We are driving down so we will have our own car. On our "down" time we will probably take the bus to the Animal Kingdom resort and let the kids check out the animals. We will probably spend a lot of time in the pool as well. I've done the whole "6 parks in 5 days" Orlando blitz before. It was awesome, but I won't try that again until all three kids are solidly in their teens.

It's not your resort parking pass, it's a separate paper that you show at the parking lot gate. It will be with your check in packet.

We did 3 parks in one day on our trip and it was amazing, but different touring styles and all that.

Also, the Disney Vacation Club tour will get you $50 and the kids will have a blast in the kid club while you talk and tour. It actually is a 'no pressure' pitch, too.

Time for the trip report.

It was AWESOME!

I'm actually a little nervous that we have set the bar too high for future trips.

We arrived mid day Saturday and hit the pool to wash off the road trip. Check in was a breeze and those weird arm band things are actually kind of handy.

Sunday was Animal Kingdom which was excellent for little kids. We only needed one FastPass (the Safari Bus ride) and the rest of the day was spent looking at animals and meeting characters. Longest wait to meet a character was 10 minutes.

Monday was the off day, no parks, just a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. THIS WAS WORTH IT! While the kids stuffed themselves from the buffet, we had the following characters come to our table: Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Minney, and Mickey. The kids got hugs, photos, and autographs from all of them. Slam dunk. After that we rode the monorail for a full loop, then rode the ferry boat across the lake. Then back to the resort for dinner and vegging out in the room.

Tuesday was the Magic Kingdom. Got there at 8:40 AM and breezed through bag check and ticketing. We were on our first ride by 9:10 (Peter Pan), then stepped across the way to Small World with no wait. Every time we went to a ride that we had a FastPass for, if the wait was less than 20 minutes we just went in the stand-by lane and swapped the FastPass to a new ride later in the day. In all we rode 9 rides, saw two parades, and met 3 characters. We were out of the park by 6 pm.

Wednesday morning we checked out, loaded the car, then jumped on the bus and went to Downtown Disney. Lunch at Planet Hollywood (on the Disney Meal Plan oddly). Afternoon shopping, back on the bus to the resort, then jumped in our own car to go home. I liked that I was able to leave my car in the parking lot while we went to Downtown Disney. The parking lot at the resort is patrolled and gated, so no worries about our stuff in the trunk.

We stayed at the All Star Movies resort and took buses everywhere. The longest bus wait was 20 minutes.

Using the Disney app on my phone was awesome and how a companion app should be. I managed our FastPasses, found character times & locations, park maps, food, dining reservations, and more. The only thing I didn't like was I couldn't track our dining plan usage. That was printed at the bottom of the receipt when you got food, but I expected it to be on the app as well.

Both boys (ages 3 & 6) had a great time. No melt downs in the parks, no fits, just normal brotherly shoving a few times. My pregnant wife and I held up fine with plenty of water and rest breaks. We ended up taking two $20 umbrella strollers which were perfect. Both boys gladly rode around which did three thing: kept them from wandering, kept them from tiring out, kept them from fighting. And when it was time to hop on the bus the strollers fold up small and are easy to carry. Perfect. I did have to personalize the stroller handles after realizing that our strollers looked like all the others. A piece of yarn on each handle and we were good.

We did kind of drop the ball on the meal plan. We burned up our quick serve meals too fast and didn't use our table service meals fast enough. I traded a table service meal for a quick serve to get back on track. We used it all though and only bought two meals on our own once (I hit the Publix down the road and got two meals of stuff).

We are already planning the next trip in three years, but this one was a success.

Dad achievement: unlocked.

Glad you had a great time. Disney is absolutely awesome. We used to go every 2-3 years. We just went this past July and spent over two weeks there. While we were there, we decided to bite the bullet and buy season passes. So this year, we'll spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc...in Disney. I can't wait!!

The Magic Bands (the things you put on your wrist) are great. Makes life very convenient. You can use them for all sorts of things...a room key (if you stay on property), your ticket into the park, Fastpass, dining (if you have a meal plan), photographs, etc...

It's really cool that Disney lets you bring food in if you wanted. You have to go through that security checkpoint, but like you said, it's a breeze. But unlike most other parks, Disney lets you bring in pretty much any food you want. Saves a ton of money. We would attach a large cooler bag to the back of the stroller and wheel the food around. And yes, even kids normally too old for a stroller should ride. We had our 7 year old twins riding in a double stroller during our two week trip. Disney is HUGE, and it's hot. I'd rather have them happy and look a little silly in a stroller than make them walk and get tired and miserable. We went back for a 3 day weekend for Labor Day, and they walked then, and will walk from now on. But anyone under 7 should ride in a stroller.

You just scratched the surface of all the stuff at Disney. Definitely try to go back if you can. Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom are cool...Magic Kingdom is my favorite. There's still Epcot and Hollywood Studios to explore. Downtown Disney...soon changing names to Disney Springs... is cool too, though we don't go there quite as often.

slefain wrote: Time for the trip report. It was AWESOME!

Epcot and Hollywood Studios are my favorite. The Meal Plan is worth it. These are all the insight I have on DW.

In reply to slefain:

Glad to hear everyone had fun! We are all anxiously awaiting our next trip too! It would be sweet if we could coordinate a bunch of GRMers and have a little meet and greet while we invade Disney.