Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

toddy2226

Hello all
just back from Orlando wanted to let you all know about Harry Potter, After the madness of the Opening Day Friday (queues of 6 hours)just to get into Islands of adventure. We went on the Monday still queues of around 4 hrs at park opening, spoke to universal employee who recommended we come back at 6pm.So we jumped across to Universal Studioswhich was very quiet. We went back l8tr and walked into Harry potter world but still had a 70mins wait for the ride itself which IMO is gr8 and i dont really do the potter thing. Very popular with the natives though.. Hope this helps

disney_cjd

toddy2226 wrote: »

Hello all
just back from Orlando wanted to let you all know about Harry Potter, After the madness of the Opening Day Friday (queues of 6 hours)just to get into Islands of adventure. We went on the Monday still queues of around 4 hrs at park opening, spoke to universal employee who recommended we come back at 6pm.So we jumped across to Universal Studioswhich was very quiet. We went back l8tr and walked into Harry potter world but still had a 70mins wait for the ride itself which IMO is gr8 and i dont really do the potter thing. Very popular with the natives though.. Hope this helps

this is a very good point and one we raised on teh show last week.

The main area of Islands of Adventure is EMPTY first thing as everyone wants to Potter. So our tip is do the rest of it first, THEN later in the day do Potter.

I will be there in a few weeks and have a VIP tour so that will be nice. I still think its 1 street, 3 rides and an 1/8th of qa theme park but I am sure its fab

rpeers1982

as suggested i have been on the Disney website and i'm looking at booking in a Disney resort (Port Orleans - Riverside) to take advantage of the free dining option. Does anyone know the difference between a disney hotel and a disney luxury villa? I can get a villa at Old Key West for roughly the same price as Port Orleans and was wondering which would be the better option.

blue_monkey_2

rpeers - Take the deluxe villa!!!!! 1 bed apartment with full kitchen, 2 bathrooms with whirlpool bath, washer/dryer - against being crammed in 1 room and having to share the bathroom. Take the villa resort. Plus you get the mid range dining plan and not the quick dining plan (check the links I am posting below).

I'd not upgrade to the Deluxe plan unless you LOVE food, surely no-one can walk around all day with a belly full of food. Does anyone need 2 table service meals a day??

You can use a Table Service meal from your dining plan on a Character meals. We have 7 CM's booked and all for free too. Yum yum. Don't forget you can use them for breakfast too, we are going to the Polynesian on the last day for a slap up breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. Everyone has to have Mickey Waffles and Ice Cream for breakfast at least once during their stay!!

You can use Quidco for 3% cashback booking with disney but ours would not go through, I was happy to sacrifice the £30 cashback for free meals though

blue_monkey_2

MEALS - EVEN WITH DINING PLAN - BOOK THEM ONLINE AS SOON AS YOU CAN IF YOU WANT TO BE SURE OF GETTING SEATED. You can cancel them when you get there if you cannot make it, it costs nothing to make a reservation.

This is where you can eat on Dining plan: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/benefits/disney-dining-plan/ (check the PDF's on the right)

This is where you book your meals: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/reservations/dining/

I have booked mine now for Nov and for some places there was only 1 or 2 slots left already. Last time we went we could not get any character meals as they were full and some buffet restaurants too and so we ended up having counter meals.

blue_monkey_2

joanne__rose wrote: »

A fantastic thread with lots of good advice.... maybe too much good advice, my head is spinning! We're going to Orlando in Aug and I'm after some advice for my holiday. I'm going with DH and DS (14) and DS (8). We've booked the flights (yay!) and I'm looking to book the hotel this weekend. We were going to book into Hilton Grand Vacations Villas on the recommendation of a colleague as I like the idea of having fully equipped kitchen, washer/dryer etc... A 1 bed villa is approx £800. However been looking around and have seen the Saratoga Springs offer £1300 for studio or £1755 for 1 bed villa with the free dining plan.

And this is where all my questions start.... What seems the best value? Is the Dining Plan worth it? If you're on the Dining Plan, what's the restaurant availablility like when you get there? The Hilton is next to an Outlet Village - is it easy to get to Shopping Outlets from SS? Excluding Dining Plan, what other benefits do you get staying at a Disney resort? What else should I be taking into consideration?

This might be a one-off Orlando holiday for us, so I'm keen to get it right. I understand you need to book park tickets to get free dining but we were planning to do water parks and Disney parks anyway so was already planning to buy 14 day ultimate tkt.

Finally (for now....) if I did go with SS, who am I best to book with - to get Quidco cashback etc...

Thanks for reading so far!

Hilton Grand Vacations - at Seaworld? This is where we are staying on week 1

Have you tried Old Key West, they were cheaper than SS for august when I looked with Free Dining also. Is the Dining Plan worth it? If you are not paying for it then hell yes!! I've booked us into 7 Character meals with ours, look at the links I posted above, get a diary and get your meals booked now.

Indeed. I am sad enough to have a 'Florida Diary' with all the things we plan to do each day and we have another 16 weeks yet!! You do need to plan else you could end up missing things you really want to do as some shows are on at the same time so that way you can get it right. :rotfl:

The benefits of staying in a Disney Resort are listed here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts-benefits/

blue_monkey_2

disney_cjd wrote: »

They probably wont offer you teh dinning plan but worth a try. Many do not book Saratogo as they think its DVC only. Its like five mins walk from POR so i would take it and enjoy it unless they give you dining at POR.

Dont do OKW in my opinion, stick to SSR

You do get Free Dining with OKW DVC as we have it booked for Oct. You don't get it if you are DVC but if you book it through Disney or an Agent then you will. You would have had free Counter Dining Plan for Port Orleans that time of year anyway so ask if you can transfer the plan if they do not up it to the Dining Plan. They should do though as we are getting it.

KarenG

blue_monkey wrote: »

rpeers - Take the deluxe villa!!!!! 1 bed apartment with full kitchen, 2 bathrooms with whirlpool bath, washer/dryer - against being crammed in 1 room and having to share the bathroom. Take the villa resort. Plus you get the mid range dining plan and not the quick dining plan (check the links I am posting below).

Be super careful - Disney describe the DVC studios as villas in much of their literature, and the studio is far from a villa. They are basically a hotel room with a double bed, two seater sleeper sofa (2 doubles at OKW), fridge, microwave and toaster. Please don't book a studio expecting a villa.

I don't know wther the deal mentioned above is a real DVC villa (1 or 2 beds) or just the studio.

KarenG

joanne__rose wrote: »

A fantastic thread with lots of good advice.... maybe too much good advice, my head is spinning! We're going to Orlando in Aug and I'm after some advice for my holiday. I'm going with DH and DS (14) and DS (8). We've booked the flights (yay!) and I'm looking to book the hotel this weekend. We were going to book into Hilton Grand Vacations Villas on the recommendation of a colleague as I like the idea of having fully equipped kitchen, washer/dryer etc... A 1 bed villa is approx £800. However been looking around and have seen the Saratoga Springs offer £1300 for studio or £1755 for 1 bed villa with the free dining plan.

And this is where all my questions start.... What seems the best value? Is the Dining Plan worth it? If you're on the Dining Plan, what's the restaurant availablility like when you get there? The Hilton is next to an Outlet Village - is it easy to get to Shopping Outlets from SS? Excluding Dining Plan, what other benefits do you get staying at a Disney resort? What else should I be taking into consideration?

This might be a one-off Orlando holiday for us, so I'm keen to get it right. I understand you need to book park tickets to get free dining but we were planning to do water parks and Disney parks anyway so was already planning to buy 14 day ultimate tkt.

Finally (for now....) if I did go with SS, who am I best to book with - to get Quidco cashback etc...

Thanks for reading so far!

If you are going this August, be aware that you are not going to get into the popular Disney restaurants this close. Many have been booked for months!

You will still have a good choice but book now, online, before you go.

I'm not trying to be negative - we are staying onsite at WDW this August, but my meals have been booked since February / March. I have tried to amend some of my bookings and there is no availability.

blue_monkey_2

KarenG wrote: »

Be super careful - Disney describe the DVC studios as villas in much of their literature, and the studio is far from a villa. They are basically a hotel room with a double bed, two seater sleeper sofa (2 doubles at OKW), fridge, microwave and toaster. Please don't book a studio expecting a villa.

I don't know wther the deal mentioned above is a real DVC villa (1 or 2 beds) or just the studio.

On the website I sent rpeers to Karen )the Disney one) it goes state that you can have a studio, 1 or 2 bed apartment and what you get in it - the studio is about 25% cheaper. We went for the 1 bed because of the kitchen.

if you go to the Disney website and look for accomodation it throws it up like this:

Select Your Room
Make yourself at home in a spacious Studio, one-bedroom Villa or two-bedroom Villa.

Studio: £777.00†
Make yourself at home in a spacious Studio. Sleeps 1 - 4.

1 Bed Villa: £1,064.00†
Make yourself at home in a spacious one-bedroom Villa. Sleeps 1 - 4.

2 Bed Villa : £1,547.00†
Make yourself at home in a spacious two-bedroom Villa. Sleeps 1 - 8.