Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

blue_monkey_2

natters wrote: »

I would love to see your itinerary blue monkey - having never been before I have no clue as to what I shouldn't miss I have booked up a fair few things, but knowing what there is will be very helpful! - this maybe a personal question - but at least it will give me an idea - how much spending money are you allowing for the trip?

Oh natters, I shall tell anyone and everyone who is prepared to listen, you have been warned. Sorry to anyone I am boring with it!!

ADR = Advance Dining Reservation
AK = Animal Kingdom
HS = Hollywood Studios
EMA = Extra Magic Hours
Any more you are not sure of, please ask

Day 1: Sun 24/10, Flight in - staying at HGV at Seaworld. Check in, pop to Supermarket for groceries. I am even taking a 'spare' case to lug groceries around (just breakfast, bread, jam and milk - maybe some subs for lunch each day)!!
Day 2: 6.45am cab. HP Breakfast at IOA then Universal if we have time. Go home via supermarket and possibly have a round of mini golf.
Day 3: Universal/IOA for HPW again if we have time. Depending on the time we finish - Walmart
Day 4: Aquatica, Walmart if not done the day before, or I-Drive, Ripleys/mini golf (my son is obsessed with mini golf!!)
Day 5: Prime Outlets am to get my Uggs, lunch, more shopping pm (Mall at Millenia for cheesecake factory?), I-Drive Magic show.
Day 6: Seaworld - Halloween Spooktacular 9am - 8pm. Might fit in a 'behind the scenes' tour this day too. Not sure which one to pick yet.
Day 7: Typhoon Lagoon - closes tomorrow for a refurb. Go home and pack up and then go to I-drive.

Day 8: 31/10. Cab 10am, Check into AKV, Kidani Village. Have a day by the pool and look around resort. Put cases in room and get changed for MNSSHP 6pm - Midnight (or until we drop)
Day 9: AK, ADR Rainforest Cafe 5.45pm, night at the hotel to watch the sunset, storytelling round the fire etc.
Day 10: Breakfast at Rainforest Cafe ADR 8.30am, AK, night at the hotel again as AK closes at 5pm.
Day 11: Blizzard Beach.
Day 12: Not planned yet
Day 13: Not planned yet
Day 14: HS, 8am for EMH and get on Toy Story Mania (can't believe I have to plan a ride in my diary!!) Intended to Fastpass first, then queue so get to go on it twice.

If we missed anything at Seaworld/Universal/IOA we will go back during this week to do them as passes will expire on day 15.
Find out if they have any special events at Kidani or Jambo, they have a kids club that is based around finding out about African Wildlife so will do that if on.
Intend to see all of AK this week so we do not have to go back to that park in week 3 as it closes quite early and is quite small, nothing we realy want to do twice there.
Likewise have to see Fantasmic this week but do not have dates yet.

Day 15: 7/11 Cab 10am, move to OKW with FDP. Day by the pool. *possibly* get ADR at Hollywood and Vine and go and see Fantasmic at HS in the evening. Trying to work out whether have time after checking in.
Day 16: HS - EHM 7-10pm, see Osborne Family Lights (a few times, LOL), ADR 5.05 Hollywood and Vine (may swap this for 7th)
Day 16: DD Birthday. MK. BB Boutique for DD birthday make over at 12.40. DS has the little dudes package booked. ADR Chef Mickeys 6.45pm. Watch Wishes from Contemporary Resort.
Day 17: No plans yet. ADR Tonys Town Square 6.25pm
Day 18: Rest until 3pm, onto MK. ADR Crystal Palace 4.35pm. Mickeys Xmas Party til Midnight
Day 19: Epcot. ADR Garden Grill 6.05pm, watch Fireworks.
Day 20: Last day *sob*. Check in at DTD 8.15. Brealfast at O'Hanas 9.10. Go to one of the parks to get our last fix before going home.

There are some things we want to do and have to fit in, for example, on a rest day we might get a boat over to DTD then onto The Boardwalk to have a ride on the bikes. Rest days are Ad-Hoc days but we still do things but have nothing planned as such. We are not a family who can sit around the pool doing nothing easily. We did not pay 6k for a holiday to sit by the pool!

I must also add I never unpack. DH will take one shirt in case we go 'out' to dinner but we rarely do, this gets unpacked and hung, then we live out of suitcases. Dirty washing gets set aside in bags. I have a toiletries bag on a hanger and it has pockets for things like shampoo, toothbrushes and you unzip it, unfold it and hang it on the door. As we use things they get put away then I can pack in around half an hour and be ready to leave. I pack the kids things as we get them too, they are not there enough t play with them. Once the kids are in bed I get the clothes ready for the next day, we can literally get up, get washed, dressed and go. I intend to launder while there as well. If we do not have dining reservations we will get counter meals and prefer to go to places where they have a buffet rather than a sit down meal because of DS not being able to wait.

blue_monkey_2

natters wrote: »

this maybe a personal question - but at least it will give me an idea - how much spending money are you allowing for the trip?

Of course it isn't, everyone needs to know. On our 1st visit we spent around £1100, on our 2nd trip - with 2 kids, we spent around £1500. However, this time I am doing things differently and I do have some things on my list such as a couple of pairs of Ugg boots. Mind you, last time we bought trainers which I am not going to do this time. We intend to allow £1500-2k which we are taking on a preloaded card (Tesco, bought it CC Creditcard so getting points and no fee) and I am taking a few empty credit cards to allow for going over, I have a Santander Zero with 3k, that is empty so that is coming with us just in case something happens.

We learned a lot of things after our last trip. Do not buy your shopping from little supermarkets - this was a huge mistake for us. My husband also bought a lens for his camera and we paid about $200 to have films processed and pics printed from his SD Card in the photo shop and we could could have got them done in Wal-mart for around $30.

Breakfast - we are going to have cereal and toast as we was paying around $30 a day for breakfast which soon mounts up after a few weeks too. Last time we also went on the coach to the Character breakfast in the morning and that must have cost around $200, not doing that this time either, we are going to O'Hanas with our Free Dining Plan credit so no cost there. We will only have one 'to pay for' breakfast out this time and this is at Rainforest Cafe - which is always a must for us.

If you are on I-drive there are loads of buffets for breakfast and it is tempting to have big breakfasts every day but with all the walking around the park you end up feeling really tired and aluggish after a huge breakfast so bear this in mind too. I am taking some boxes of cereal with me, the space they leave in the case we will fill with gifts on the way home. Hotels usually have milk for sale so I'll get it there. If you do not have a kitchen, take some disposable bowls and spoons as well as cereal. A lot of the US cereals are laden with sugar so I am taking my own with me.

We are not going to have many table meals in Disney - they do cost a lot of money, except for those on our dining plan. The kids want to go to the Sci Fi cafe but we shall go there and just have a desert and drink. So if there is somewhere you really want to go, give this a thought, just get a desert and a drink - the deserts are huge anyway.

If you need to ask anything else then do. I could yap on for hours about this. Where are you staying natters and how many of you are going? Do you have any plans yet? You can download everything from sites all over so you can get dates and times of certain shows and know what times the parks are open until so you can plan things really well. Allow a couple of 'spare' days for miving things around but you'll find if you have an intinerary it is a lot less stressful. I find this anyway.

One last thing. Go to Walmart in the first few days and stock up on things. They sell loads of Disney t-shirts and instead of paying $25 in disney they cost about $5 and no-one will ever know. Get lots of souviners from there too. They sell everything. If the kids want to buy something, find them a $1 shop and give them $5 to spend on tat!! Tat in Disney costs about 10 times more, LOL, I let them buy some thing from Disney stores, the rest I buy outside. Wal-mart also sell Levis for $20 (they did when last there, ours are still going strong). Bear in mind though, all the food is supersize over there, a huge Sub (filled roll) will feed 3 of us and it is just $3 so we will get some of those for the fridge and take them with us when we go out for the day.

One tip that will save you a fortune: Take a drink bottle and fill up with water around the parks to carry with you. If your kids want squash, take an empty 500ml coke bottle and put squash in it and use that in the water bottle. The cost of drinks really does dent your budget and of course, you need to drink, 4 drinks a day each at over $2 each, 4 of you, that is more than $35 a day, £25 a day gone just on drinks, which of course is £350 in 2 weeks - and that is before starting on food and snacks. So take squash, limit the kids to fizzy drink with their meals which you'll get as part of a kids meal anyway at the counter. Counter meals were arbout $4 last time and I used to have a kids meal, an adults meal was too much for me to eat and I'd end up leaving half of it. There was one counter though that sells shredded BBQ beef. It was so yummy. Going to have that again.

Just don't eat the apple sauce. It's gross!!!!!!

sprakky

I hope someone can help - apologies if this is in the wrong forum
I am looking to go to disney orlando next year ( 23/7 - 13/8) from manchester but the flight prices are very expensive
the best i can do at the moment is £2800 with us airways stopping at philly for 4 hours
does this sound ok.
not sure weather to book or hang on a awhile
any comments greatly appreciated

we have never been before or flew long haul. 2 adults 2 children

many thanks

natters_2

Thats fantastic - thanks - I am going to sit down over the weekend and work out what to do and when lol.

there is just me & my 11 yr old son going - we are staying at the quality inn on I drive for 3 weeks. I already have the following:-
14 day Flex ticket (everything except bush gdns & disney), discovery cove & swim with dolphins on 3rd November - this includes a 14 day busch gdns ticket too. titanic experience, ripley's belive it or not, wonder works, planet hollywood, hard rock cafe, pirates dinner , disney halloween party. I have already got iride tickets (pretty miffed about that - I only found out after I bought the tickets that under 12's are free - so will try and sell the extra set to someone else!) I also got a kids eat free card. I had sent to me an idrive official visitors guide that has an iride route map and loads of different places you can eat/visit with money off coupons. My uncle lives in sarasota, so is coming to fetch us and we will spend a couple of days with him & do busch gdns at the same time (he has a yearly pass I think!) So all I have left to sort is what to do and when - how much money to take and what sort of disney tickets to get - I was planning to get a daily ticket out there and pay the extra to return each day, but the closer we get to going the more I want to see all of it!!!!

I am also planning on taking very little clothing wise out and buying stuff over there as i am assuming i will be able to get disney and other branded stuff fairly cheap from walmart/ other outlets I live in leggings & tshirts anyway, so never need much luggage space.

izzitme

Hi

My friend has asked me to get him some Oakley's while I am in Orlando as they are a lot cheaper than UK apparently.

Has anybody got any tips on the best place to buy them please. He hasn't told me yet which model he wants.

Thanks.

blue_monkey_2

natters wrote: »

Thats fantastic - thanks - I am going to sit down over the weekend and work out what to do and when lol.

there is just me & my 11 yr old son going - we are staying at the quality inn on I drive for 3 weeks. I already have the following:-
14 day Flex ticket (everything except bush gdns & disney), discovery cove & swim with dolphins on 3rd November - this includes a 14 day busch gdns ticket too. titanic experience, ripley's belive it or not, wonder works, planet hollywood, hard rock cafe, pirates dinner , disney halloween party. I have already got iride tickets (pretty miffed about that - I only found out after I bought the tickets that under 12's are free - so will try and sell the extra set to someone else!) I also got a kids eat free card. I had sent to me an idrive official visitors guide that has an iride route map and loads of different places you can eat/visit with money off coupons. My uncle lives in sarasota, so is coming to fetch us and we will spend a couple of days with him & do busch gdns at the same time (he has a yearly pass I think!) So all I have left to sort is what to do and when - how much money to take and what sort of disney tickets to get - I was planning to get a daily ticket out there and pay the extra to return each day, but the closer we get to going the more I want to see all of it!!!!

I am also planning on taking very little clothing wise out and buying stuff over there as i am assuming i will be able to get disney and other branded stuff fairly cheap from walmart/ other outlets I live in leggings & tshirts anyway, so never need much luggage space.

To be honest, there does not seem to be much difference in the price of Disney tickets. If you buy from Disney you get added extras like a $15 Planet Hollywood vouchers and priority viewing for fireworks so you may, or may not, think it is worth it. We thought it was.

You can also find a lot of discount tickets on the i-ride website.

Did you get the 99c Kids Meal voucher for Rainforest Cafe?

Clothes can be cheap but I bought some to bring back and the fit was weird on me. If you are a standard size then go for it but I have a large chest with small waist and they do not fit me very well. My husband is getting his clothes there but there is no way I am leaving it to fate and risk not having anything decent to wear.

It is worth check the dates of the events though so you can avoid the parks on those days. It is open quite late some days so you can get 2 parks in some days. We usually manage to do Animal Kingdom in a day, even with the shows, but I've given it 2 days as we can spend a day at AKL. Also, if you have tickets you can ride around on the Disney buses for free but they have never asked us to date to see the tickets - but you never know.

natters_2

No i haven't got the rainforest cafe voucher - i will look into that aswell - I've printed off a few vouchers from the iride website - i really need to sit down with everything I have and work out exactly what I have already got!
As for the clothes - I'm the opposite to you lol - large waist and no chest!

I am starting to go into panic mode hoping nothing goes wrong.

technium

Hi Natters

I had a look at the vouchers on iride website but noticed they are all only valid until the 31/10 not sure if you are aware of that.

Anyone know of any vouchers that are later as we are there until 11th November.

thanks

natters_2

technium wrote: »

Hi Natters

I had a look at the vouchers on iride website but noticed they are all only valid until the 31/10 not sure if you are aware of that.

Anyone know of any vouchers that are later as we are there until 11th November.

thanks

Yes - i had noticed that too - thanks - from what i can gather there are vouchers and money off all over the place, so hopefully the last week will be just as MSE as the other 2!

blue_monkey_2

technium wrote: »

Hi Natters

I had a look at the vouchers on iride website but noticed they are all only valid until the 31/10 not sure if you are aware of that.

Anyone know of any vouchers that are later as we are there until 11th November.

thanks

Don't worry, they have those on the iride too, they also have vouchers outside every single shop and supermarket in a little box.

I guess they could reduce the admission prices as everyone can use them and every shop has them and there are multiple types of magazine, but then we would not feel like we are getting a bargain would we? LOL. :rotfl:

We ended up with loads last time, they will even have them in your hotel lobby.