http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-d...,5411916.story

Disney says guests will be able to reserve ride times from home

I'm not a fanof this

Parts of it are good ideas... parts of it are definitely not.

I hate the idea of prebooking your rides. I want to move through the parks at my leisure, not on a timeline.

Hell, advanced dining reservations are already a cluster**** by allowing people to book 180 days out.

Well, the way I would use it is to book things that I KNOW are always busy, like Toy Story.

Of course, I usually go in off-peak season, so getting into rides is generally never a problem.

I could see it for that as long as they give you a big window to come to it in. The current FastPass system gives you a full hour (of course, you can show up as late as you want but not earlier than the time stated on the ticket). If they gave any less than one hour then I would probably not bother with it. I don't want to have to worry about getting to a certain ride by a certain time.

But, if I were going to use it on anything, it would be Toy Story, Soarin and Space Mountain.

Found another useful site for those that may be going soon...

www.easywdw.com

For you Haunted Mansion lovers out there. Change is coming.

http://www.insidethemagic.net/2011/0...ansion-finale/

Anyone been to Disneyland in Cali lately? Thinking about going in June.....

Sounds like they are doing construction in the hotels right now....

Come to FL instead and spend mucho $$.

I once waited in line for a FastPass for "Soarin"..the douchebags (British ****ers) in front of me took all of them. They must have been a group of like 50 people.

Going on our first Disney trip in July. Bought tickets off ebay, had a friend who works at disney got my discount on hotel, and booked our flight. 7 days, 6 nights, Total $2100. That is without food. We are planning on hitting a grocery store and buying sandwich stuff and snacks. We are planning on about $1500 for food and other stuff. I will have to go back and read this thread for cool stuff that is a must. Feel pretty good about the price, same stuff on Disney site was $2800 with a meal plan and that was not including airfare.

I do have one question, the tickets I bought were for 4 Adult/Junior magic your way base tickets. Will my 5 and 7 year old be able to get in on those? If not i can just sell 2 and buy kids tickets.

Got my Cali trip to Disneyland booked for June. Got a real good deal on the Disneyland Hotel. Air Fare, not so much.....

nice!
 

Check out Orlando sea world packages for other fun for the whole family.

I hope this isn't really bad spam.

**** that shit, at 6pm tonight I'll be able to drive down to Disney World and just jump the gates and roam around for free. :thumb:

Leaving on Friday. 10 day trip FTW! This time, we've added Universal Studios to the itinerary. That could be a nice change of pace, considering we usually are WDW-only peeps. Plus, the food and wine festival is going on. I love food and I love wine, and being drunk in Disney is quite fun.

We are considering booking our next trip to Disney. The kids are clamoring for it, and I'm thinking we "owe" them one presumably last trip there. Frankly, there's alot more of the world I need to go see, but whatever.

The key thing here is that we're likely going early in the summer, in June, so swimming/pools are suddenly an important consideration, and somethign I know NOTHING about at Disney. So a few questions:

1. is it worth it to add the water park package to the base tickets. Basically, the 8 day magic pass gets you into one park per day. Add park hopper for $234. Add water parks for another $234, and it's like "holy crap, that's $500 more just on tickets?!"

2. alternative to water parks is to stay at a lodge (we will be staying at the park unless more experienced heads on here give us a better plan) that has a great pool. Which resorts have the best pools? Our general rule is to cheap out on accomodations -- as long as it's clean and functional, we're fine. We don't loiter in the room -- we're too busy being out and about, so springing extra for rooms isn't our usual plan. But if a park has a fantastic pool with several slides, etc., maybe...?


Thoughts? I'll take referrals to websites for more insight. Glad to do my own legwork.

If you aren't against staying off property, you can rent a home with pool for a decent price. We did it one year and loved it. Was nice to come home from the parks, grill out back while the kids wound down the day with swimming.

http://www.vrbo.com/

I'm not adamantly against it. I was toying with it because perhaps the family would like to see some of the other stuff Orlando has to offer...

If you stay off-site, you'll lose out on Magical Express from Orlando Intl. You'll also lose out on Disney Dining Plan, and you'll lose out on Extra Magic Hours.

For us, it made the whole vacation very relaxing. We still did everything we wanted to do, but being able to come "home" and relax...or swim....in our own area so to speak just made the trip for us.

We're actually doing it again out in California this summer. Nice house with a pool.

Nickelodean Suites.

Vacation rentals are great. We did it the first time on a trip to Chicago and ended up with a great condo overlooking Grant Park at a very reasonable price. We rented another condo in Belize last year and again it was much cheaper than a hotel. We'll consider one for any vacation going forward.

For us, we can't get a big enough hotel room to cram 6 of us in....so we are always renting 2 rooms. The rental prices for the houses is way cheaper than renting 2 rooms.

If you're open to staying off property another option are some of the timeshare/vacation rentals in the Orlando area. Marriott has a few locations. You can rent a villa (as large as a 3BR/2BA with full kitchen) and some of them have great pools and other activities/amenities to enjoy while not at the parks. Additionally, if you're willing to listen to a 1-2hr sales pitch you can get a discount or some extras (park tickets, rewards points, gift cards, etc.).

For example, the pools at Grande Vista:

http://cache.marriott.com/propertyim...ur09.jpg?Log=1
http://cache.marriott.com/propertyim...ur18.jpg?Log=1
http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/...overview.shtml

I'll be taking the family down there in a couple of months just before summer break hits. I would love to go back to Disney World but all they want to do is go to Universal. I would much rather go back to DW. We're also renting a house, I hate hotels.

I'll also vouch for vrbo.com

I've rented apartments/homes from vrbo in Napa, Barcelona, Victoria BC, and Cusco Peru. Excellent experiences each time.

Where is the cheapest place to get 2 week passes to Universal? Cheapest we've found is $175 per person.

We were actually planning a family vacation to Orlando for next Thanksgiving until one of the nephews couldn't get away from work.

We found an 8 bedroom house 5 minutes from WDW for $2500 total, inc. taxes for 7 nights. Really nice place with a pool, gameroom, etc. It would have been perfect for our group of 15 adults.

The only drawback is transportation, so if you are going this route you need to factor in the cost of a rental car.

Even still, we were looking at over $5,000 at minimum for hotel rooms.

I spent 5 seconds on vrbo and started thinking about inviting my bro/sis-in-law and their kids. There is a 2,700 sq.ft. 5 bedroom house in Orlando with indoor, heated pool, for like $1,000 for the week. :-O

I don't think they sell 2 week passes. I think they do up to 4 days or annual. You can get a 2-park Annual Pass from AAA for $253 (non-FL residents) or $193 (FL residents) which has zero blackout dates and free parking after your 1st visit. If you're going during dates where there are no blackouts than you can get a power pass instead of the preferred for $185 (non-FL residents) or $150 (FL residents).

Appreciate the info, So i wonder if the 2 week 175per deal is a scam?

Just do your research. I always booked places that had multiple (obviously positive) reviews. I also contacted the owner with questions prior to booking. If you do your diligence you shouldn't have any problems.

We found a 4 br place for $600 a week with pool/hot tub/gameroom and it's been reviewed. My sister stayed there last year. ;)

Not sure, but I've never seen a 2-week pass.

If you want a website that gives you everything Disney/Universal or Orlando then I would use this site:

http://wdwinfo.com/

Everything you need is there.....

TBH, staying offsite has it's pro's and con's just as staying on property does too. Are you going there for the "Disney" effect or is it more of an all encompassing trip?

Also.....are you flying or driving down?

I think you are crazy for going in June considering no matter where you stay the pools/parks/rides/restaurants will be excessively crowded.

Thanks for the info. We're flying down. Boston to Orlando is not a short drive.

I know it will be crowded, but we'll be there the same reason everyone else is -- school is out. I'm either going to go when it's crowded, or take the kids out of school (not an option the wife will even consider), or never take htem to Disney again, which isn't cool with 11 and 8 year old boys.

I always thought of the water park sort of as, "I can go to a water park at home, and I can swim at the hotel," so I never saw the need. But, it's Disney, so I'm sure the water park is more awesome than any other ones.
And we pass on the park hopper because it seems to take all day to do one park for us, and then we just want to go back to the hotel.

maddog has the ticket, http://wdwinfo.com/, also http://www.mousesavers.com/.

I've been in June several times, and love it! Weather is very warm for lots of swimming, but can get pretty hot during afternoon. Typically there isn't a ton of rain it seems, we've always had mostly good days 1st week of June.

Go early every day, and when you start to get hungry for lunch, you'll feel the heat rising and the crowd swelling, that's when it's time to bail. Take an extended break back to your hotel or house w/ pool (great idea, I'd definitely take that route). The daily downtime will be worth it, trust me! Head back to parks late afternoon, just before dinnertime, when the crowd thins out again as people leave. it won't get real crowded again til 7-8 after dinner time. By then, it's very likely you'll be ready to pack it in for other ventures, or more private pool time at your house rental. Over a long vacation, this approach will make your vacation MUCH smoother avoiding heat and crowds, especially w/ kids. Pick 1 or 2 nights to stay out late if the boys want to, that'll keep em happy to make up for the other early shut down evenings.

Also, I've always felt that Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are better as 1/2 days. I get bored with a full day at both of them. Oh, and AK is HOT man, the humidity in that park is serious! And there isn't much breeze anywhere. Because of this, I value the Park Hopper big time!

Another suggestion is to rent points from Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members, and stay at one of the DVC villas on property. It'll basically get you the Deluxe resort for Moderate price. Still maybe more than your don't spend it all on accomodations approach, but something to consider anyway. Wife and I stayed at Beach Club in the Boardwalk area our last trip, for the price of a Moderate. Studio could fit all 4 of you if the boys would share a hide-a-bed couch. Cramped, but doable. They have an awesome pool, and you literally walk into the back of Epcot, and can walk 15-20 minutes to Studios entrance. Note the bus system SUCKS from these resorts, but you'll still get Magical Express, Extra Magic Hours, and the free transit buses if you choose, plus no parking fee for the parks if yo have a car.

Oh, and Blizzard Beach is very cool, but it gets so freakin crowded by mid-day, I honestly don't think it's worth it. You're better off finding hotel/house w/ nice pool to utilize than spending the $250 on water park. I've only been to Typhoon Lagoon once, was off-season so not too crowded, but also pretty chilly. It was a killer wave pool, but otherwise meh.

One other thought Amnorix, altho your wife still may not agree. Last year wife and I pulled the kids out for last 3 days of school for a road trip to Orlando (1st drive). Mostly Universal trip, but did 2 nights @Pop Century, w/ 1 day @Magic Kingdom, then we switched to Hard Rock Hotel (AWESOME!!).

Anyway, my wife was very much against missing school too, to get an early start and beat much of the school's out crowd. Ours were 13 and 10 yrs old, 7th and 4th grade. School teachers and principals didn't love it, but my point was the family bonding and memories are worth far more to these kids' lives than 2-3 days of school. 2-3 days of school isn't even a blip on the long term education of a young human being. They learn FAR more about life, living life, than sitting in a school taking tests. This applies as a 1 time exception, not a rule, and we explained that carefully to the kids, so they don't think we'll do this again. It was very much worth it, didn't hit the post-school crowds til the last 2 days of our trip, and we were wearing down and not out as much anyway by then.

My wife is the same way about missing school but when we went to WDW, we took them out for a week at the end of February. It was a great time to go. There were almost no lines anywhere and the weather was in the mid-70's, which was great considering we drove from home to the airport in the snow. The boys survived missing the week of school and it didn't affect their grades at all.

I guess I'm not the only Disney fan here...:clap:

BTW....the one thing some people don't know is that your kids can actually do some educational things at Animal Kingdom and EPCOT that a teacher will accept for extra credit work if you take your kids out of school. (This is mostly for pre-High School)

I have rarely gone in the summer months, even when my kids were young. We took them out of school and worked with the Teachers to get assignments for the week, showed them things they would be doing at WDW to account for extra credit, and never had any problem with the School.

Meh....follow a trucker or a drug runner down I-95, you will get there in no time.

I actually would love to do this, and actually agree with you....but my wife probably wouldnt. :)

We went to Disneyland last June and had a blast. I think i actually enjoyed it more than DW because things were crammed closer together and their isnt as much walking. We stayed on Disney property which was awesome.

Plan on going on rides during the Disney electric light parade. Everyone is at the parade and the rides are open.

Disney starting to crack down on the fastpass return times. This blows......one of the best kept secrets IMO.



http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/0...mp=sem_outloud



Disney says it's going to boost enforcement of its popular FASTPASS reservation service.

Disney's free FASTPASS reservation system allows guests to come back to a ride at a specified time within a one-hour window if they don't want to wait.

Walt Disney World and Disneyland have been letting visitors come back any time after that window and still be admitted to the FastPass line. Now Disney says it is putting an end to any wiggle room.

The Inside the Magic blog reports that Walt Disney World is now enforcing both the beginning and end times, allowing guests holding a FastPass to only return during the one-hour window stated on the slip.

"Walt Disney World is now enforcing both the beginning and end times, allowing guests holding a (FastPass) to only return during the one-hour window stated on the slip. And though it will affect regulars who know how to use the leniency to their advantage, most Walt Disney World guests already do return during the designated time window and likely won't notice much of a difference," writes Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic.

Some say this is the first step in making way for Disney World's yet-to-be-revealed ride reservation system called XPass, where resort guests can reserve their ride times weeks and months in advance. And it is expected to allow for bookings for character meet and greets and key viewing spots for parades and fireworks.

"Given the tremendous popularity of FastPass with our guests, in fairness to all we want to ensure we provide the same opportunity to everyone," said Disney spokesman Rick Sylvain. But, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "if a guest experiences extenuating circumstances that affect their ability to return, we will deal with that on a case-by-case basis."

I guess it makes sense. If you're supposed to be back between certain hours you really should be. That sort of keeps the system intact. Otherwise you just have lines. We used the FastPass on the Buzz Lightyear Ride quite a few times. I can't believe how many people stand there waiting in a big line when you can get the Fastpass and then go see the Monsters Inc show, come back and ride with no wait.

I liked to go snag a FP early in the morning, them come back later in the evening. Sometimes it would be 6 or 7 hours after the return time had expired.

Beleive it or not, the fastpass lines really weren't any longer late in the day even with the people that save them up for later.

It sucks that they are enforcing the return time now. Made the evenings sooo much less stressful.

Reserving times weeks or months in advance? **** that shit.

Yeah, I'm curious to see how that is going to work. The only plan I make in advance is knowing what day I will go to what park. Once I am in there I have a set pattern I follow in the morning that would allow for a very relaxed afternoon and evening.

It's going to suck for people like you. People will just make appointments back to back and just walk from ride to ride in the order that they want. What is so fun about that?

Here is a article that explains the xpass system as it stands now. Not as bad as it originally sounded.

http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_ch...d-to-work.aspx

I haven't read through this whole thread yet, but will do so when i get a chance.

We are planning a trip and i wondered if anyone here has stayed at the Contemporary Resort Hotel? We have pretty much decided that is where we want to be (for a variety of reasons), but i thought i would check and see if any Planeteers have stayed there and had any inside info.

Havent stayed there, but have eaten there and been through it. Its definitely the one you would want if you want easy monorail transportation to and from the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

It's nice, but all the premium hotels are nice.

Dolphin/Swan take Starwood Preferred Guest points.

Went to the magic kingdom yesterday and today is Epcot. I will post a full review when I can get back to my computer. I can't type all that on my phone.

I will say that there are entirely too many people here for my taste. The christmas stuff is cool, but apparently that is what everyone else thought too. Depending on the ride, I have seen two hour lines.

Also....damn, I forgot to DVR today's game.

I've always heard Christmas time is their busiest time if the year. We went the end of January/beg of February and it wasn't that busy at all except for the Saturday. Apparently that's the time of year all the locals go since the tourists dont

do you have a mobile app that you can use?

We went Dec 1-8. It wasn't very crowded at all.

It gets so busy at Christmas that they have turned people away from entering the park some years.

I love the last week of May at WDW.

This. I thought it would be nice to take the wife there for Christmas a few years back. It's great if you like to stand in line 1 1/2 hrs for each ride. Huge waste of funds but, you live & learn. We're planning on taking the Grandkids in march after all the snowbirds have gone home

Christmas 2002 was awesome. There was nobody there.

Wow. I've always heard Christmas and Thanksgiving they are extremely busy times.

I'm planning another trip to Disneyland in June next year. Can't wait.

Was there a hurricane in the area?

I found, through a work trip turned into mini-vacation, that if you're not afraid of a little rain (not a hurricane or even a driving rain) that it can be a ton of fun. Especially SeaWorld where you're supposed to get wet!

Some of you guys that consistently travel should really look into buying a timeshare. Yes, some of them are shit. But they have changed a ton in the last ten years, and can be very valuable for travelers. If you need some help, let me know. I'll help you wade through the shit, and **** NO you don't want to buy one from me, because it would be at retail, and you can do better than that. Seriously, you're throwing thousands of dollars away that you don't need too.

The beautiful thing about selling timeshare is that I get to use it. They're ****ing incredible. The ones I've seen anyways. I've heard there are some that aren't worth a shit, but why would you go there?

I pay anywhere from $300 to $800 per week for any vacation in some kick ass condos. I'm fine.

post 9/11. even the planes were empty.

ahhhhh

$300? For a week in a vacation destination? Where? And they're nice? Are they 60 miles from Disney? I mean, $800 I can see in some situations, but less than that? Where can I find those?

But besides that, how often? How many years have you done it? How many more are you going to do it? And how often do you go?

I'm the first person to say timeshare isn't for everyone. You have to travel. But they can be had for dirt cheap online, and the trick is finding the right ones as far as maintenance and what not goes.

:shrug: Just trying to help. You, more than anyone on this board are usually looking for a way to save a buck. But I don't buy $300 for a nice condo remotely close to anywhere anyone wants to be. I'd really like to see that, so I can use them myself.

It was a joke man.

Sorry. I thought I pissed you off, or something.

No, your post just had too many questions so I decided to look for a pic that demonstrated my headache. I obviously chose the wrong pic. But I have serious cold and massive headache so my sense of humor is all out of whack.

Mine is too. I'm hungover, and recovering from that same cold.