Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

KarenG

karenljay wrote: »

Hi All,

Thanks for your thoughts - certainly given me something to think about!

At the time of our planned trip, the boys will be 13 and 16 (while we're there) and daughter will be 11. When we went last time they were 6, 8 and 10 so it was all queueing for character autographs and parades, this time round they will want the thrill rides, kennedy, busch gardens, shopping. We are tied to school holidays really, as someone said, our eldest will be in the runup to his GCSEs, we wanted to avoid Easter because of exams, and to avoid the summer holidays because of the heat/humidity mainly, our eldest is ginger (the shame!!!) and doesn't cope with heat at all well. We stayed in a villa last time and enjoyed the freedom and having our own pool/hottub and the privacy and space in comparison with a hotel room, and husband is more than happy to drive over there, we stayed in kissimee last time and had no problem finding our way around.

We are looking at this holiday as a last big family holiday as the eldest will be heading off for college and uni - my sensible head says 'save the money as they will all want to go to uni' , but the imp on my shoulder tells me that we'll never have a lump of money to do something like this again and it will give the kids (and us!) fantastic memories

I do understand about the school holidays as my eldest is 15, and I wouldn't risk an Easter trip before GCSEs either.

If you've been at Christmas before then I guess you will be mentally prepared for the horror of MK on Christmas Day (best avoided!)

Your first week should be reasonable for crowds, the second week will be very busy, so personally I'd try to get as much done as possible in that first week; early starts, Fastpasses etc. You can find out which parks are relatively "busiest" on any given day so you can try and avoid the worst ones that way. I'm sure there are loads of other tips

I've not been to Busch for years, and I've never been to Kennedy (much to DH's disgust ) so can't help with those.

blue_monkey_2

Thanks Karen. I did not know that about BLT but it is pretty close to be able to go outside and see the fireworks surely? You'd just not see the castle, besides, some of those rooms do overlook it quite well too. It will not be so 'new' when we got. Also at AKV thid year we did not get charged for our Internet connection, supposed only to be free for DVC members. However, we did at OKW.

As you all know from my previous messages.... we hate the sun and heat..... however when we was there the average temp of the first week was 88 and really missed it when it got cold...... so we are now thinking of going back the kast 2-3 weeks of August 2012 as we got used to it and it was not actually that bad. LOL. We figured that with EMH we could do the parks in the evening when it was still warm but not really hot, and go swimming or shopping during the day!! This trip changed me because of the weather. There are also a lot of things we would not feel the need to go back and do this trip. I think it'll be BCV and BLT then. Excited. Less than 2 years to go.

johnnyroper

blue_monkey wrote: »

. We found people having a pop about us going on a nice holiday but the same people think nothing of spending £100 each weekend on alcohol and take outs/or eating out - if they saved that money they could have the same holiday - madness isn't it? I know what I would rather do and so the saving starts again. We have even talked about forgoing our usual summer Butlins break this year and saving the cash so we can go back.

I know what you mean about people having something to say about holidays just jealousy in my opinion,we have had a few funny comments about amount spent on holidays this year went orlando in march and NYC in october.At the end of the day it is us working bl00dy hard to pay for them so as the old saying goes fuk em!!!

betsie

We have booked with Virgin and are going to POR next October. I phoned today to see if we could get our Harry Potter early entry passes at the airport as we do not want to go to the welcome meeting and have already bought are disney and universal tickets with them. She said we would get all are tickets 14 days before we go but I am not convinced these will come. To those who have been what do these passes look like and did anyone else maage to get them in advance. Also when can I get my ref number to book my seats she couldn't give me a date and said to phone up some time in December (great help) We fly out on 13th Oct - is it 11 months from the day you fly or return. Thank you. Also can anyone recommend the best place to sit on the plane 2 adults and 2 kids (9 and 13) dont like being in the middle. Thanks

tich2

I am really struggling to keep up with these posts with all the abbreviations.
Can someone please let me know what they all are as I have tried working them all out.

Even Blue_monkeys post in only a few lines there was BLT, AKV, DVC, OKW, EMH and BCV and I was lost.
I am off to Orlando in March and cant wait

Cheers
Tich:D

blue_monkey_2

LOL, sorry Tich.

The names are really long and over on the Dibb everyone abbreviates - I guess we should start a new thread and have post 1 with abbreviations in case people get stuck, here are the ones I use:

AKV - Disneys Animal Kingdom Village (also Kidani Village)
BCV - Disneys Beach Club Villas
BV - Disneys Boardwalk Villas
OKW - Disney's Old Key West
BLT - Disneys Bay Lake Tower
DVC - Disney Vacation Club (you'll see that a lot when you are there but all of the resorts above are DVC properties = we use our timeshare to exchange into them we are not DVC members)
AKL - Disneys Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo House)
EMH - Extra Magic Hours (available ifg you stay at a Disney Resort)
MK - Magic Kingdom
HS - Hollywood Studios
ADR - Advance Dining Reservations
IOA - Islands of Adventure
US - Universal Studios
BG - Busch Gardens
TL - Typhoon Lagoon
BB - Blizzard Beach
BBB - Bibbidi Bobbidy Boutique

There are loads to be honest and most relate to Disney, Sometimes it is easier to abbreviate as the names are so long but I forget there are a lot of first timers on here so I apologise for the confusion as sometimes it is just us 'old timers' talking and we know what each other is talking about. There are more but these are the ones I can think about but over on The Dibb everything gets abbreviated so it is just habit.

Have fun, where are you staying?

blue_monkey_2

Some more, as I see them I'll put them here:

POR - Port Orleans Resort
PORFQ - port Orleans French Quarter
SSR - Saratoga Springs Resort (DVC)
MVMCP - Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party

You'll not be able to book DVC resorts through a high street travel agent and you'll just find the hotels in their brochures, these are usually through Disney themselves, or a Disney agent. Usually they can only be booked 8-10 months before your planned trip but OKW and SSR have 45% off and free dining so they offer a fantastic deal - we stayed at a 1 bed for under £1000 with free dingin plan.

In a DVC resorts they are called 'villas' but you get a choice of Studio, 1 bed or 2 bedroom apartment (occasionally they have a 3 bed that sleeps 12) but the 1, 2 and 3 beds offer full self containment so you get a washer/dryer, kitchen, etc... so you do not have to rely on restaurants. You do not get this with a studio but they do have free washer/driers on site.

blue_monkey_2

betsie wrote: »

We have booked with Virgin and are going to POR next October. I phoned today to see if we could get our Harry Potter early entry passes at the airport as we do not want to go to the welcome meeting and have already bought are disney and universal tickets with them. She said we would get all are tickets 14 days before we go but I am not convinced these will come. To those who have been what do these passes look like and did anyone else maage to get them in advance. Also when can I get my ref number to book my seats she couldn't give me a date and said to phone up some time in December (great help) We fly out on 13th Oct - is it 11 months from the day you fly or return. Thank you. Also can anyone recommend the best place to sit on the plane 2 adults and 2 kids (9 and 13) dont like being in the middle. Thanks

It works like this: You will get your park passes in the post with your tickets before your holiday - they are not tickets, they are vouchers, and you collect them at the park gate and you will need to show photo ID. Then you will have the tickets and you will use them thrugh your holiday, ID no longer required.

The Early Entry Voucher is different as they changed the rules. You now have to go to the welcome meeting to get it and then you have 3 days to use it - although we managed to get ours at the airport because we bought Discovery Cove tickets from Virgin Concierge before we went. Apparently they have meetings at lots of places, not just House of Blues as I was told, but the kids slept through in on our first day (I thought they would be up at 3am!!) and so we did not go, we left them to sleep as we thought it would make it easier for them to adjust to US times - and it worked!!

I would actually go to Harry Potter world in the late afternoon and avoid the morning at all costs, Forbidden Journey was a walk on, no queue at all at 4pm, same with the shops. We went early the first day and the queue was 75 minutes but we was so excited and just wanted to see it - it would have been better to wait and go later. The queue looks bigger than it is because people are walking around the castle too. Do everything else first as everyone else is in WWOHP (Wizzarding World of Harry Potter) and the rest of the rides are quite then too.

I also did not want to be waking the kids but letting them sleep until when they wanted so it did not mess with ther body clocks, if they needed the sleep then we let them have it and this seemed to work really well as there was no adjustment for time needed for them for some reason.

tich2

Thanks Blue Monkey

it does make it easier for me now.

As soon as I let my wife know at christmas we will start planning everything together as I don't want her to miss out on that part as it is a brilliant part of the holiday.

tich2

My wife and I have been twice before but always with family including elderly relatives. We never really did much in the evening apart from go out to eat as they wanted to be in the villa in bed at 10pm.
This time we want lots of ideas of what we can do. We are staying in a hotel this time opposite wet n wild and have a car. It will be nice to do some things in walking distance so I can have a beer or two.
Any ideas let me know.
Thanks!