so new and so confused..

keke5656

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 2, 2017
hello all you planning kings and queens! We are planning a trip to disney in September and I would love your advice.
Here is my revised tentative plan based on some of your suggestions

September

9/14/17 Thursday. Fly in from Ohio. Check into one of universals hotels and explore (i know they will be little for a lot of this but we are big harry potter fans!)

9/15/17 universal

9/16/17 universal

9/17/17 Check into wilderness lodge. We are thinking about getting the bunkbeds. We will take this day to chill out and check the area out. Take a taxi/uber from universal to wilderness lodge. I am considering extending to a four day ticket since the difference is small and if they are up for it visiting one of the parks.
**a note on ticket lengths, september sometimes has better room discounts/free dining. I would like to take advantage of one if possible. This may mean we can park hop in the end but I don't know yet. If we stick to the plan of coming and going back to the room to relax it won't matter. If we do one park a day then we may not come back to the ones further away and just stay longer that particular day.

9/18/2017, Monday- someone said mondays can be rough at MK. So AK in the AM and HS later?

9/19/2017, MK

9/20/2017, Wednesday epcot

9/21/2017, thursday Msshp

9/22/17 fly home



Kids will 7 and 4. We plan on going back the hotel midday to relax. I would love to do rope drop and I know they will be dropping if we are there till after dark without a break. I have heard this can take 1-2 hours or ten mins. We will be at wilderness lodge so that makes a difference as to what park your are coming or going from.
 
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hello all you planning kings and queens! We are planning a trip to disney in September and I would love your advice.
Here is my tentative plan.

September

9/14/17 Thursday. Fly in from Ohio. Check into one of universals hotels and explore

9/15/17 universal

9/16/17 universal

9/17/17 Check into wilderness lodge. We are thinking about getting the bunkbeds. We will take this day to chill out and check the area out. Maybe go to Animal kingdoms free area.

9/18/2017, monday MK

9/19/2017, tuesday HS

9/20/2017, Wednesday epcot

9/21/2017, thursday Msshp

9/22/17 fly home

I want to take advantage of the free dining plan if possible. I am confused on how to go about all those aspects. I booked these tentative hotel dates at wilderness lodge for those five nights through disney site. Recently I have read how booking everything through their site doesnt save you a dime and costs more infact. Do you buy and link your tickets?? What if you get your tickets that way, how do you get the free dining plan if it becomes available. I know the dining plan is hard to make it worth it but, if its free why not! Unless there is discount on the room that would make more sense.

Kids will 7 and 4. We plan on going back the hotel midday to relax.

I am very naive. be gentle :)
:welcome: to the DISboards, keke!

For 9/17, do you mean you'll be going to Animal Kingdom Lodge to view the savannas? You can see the savannas from Jambo House - AKL and from Kidani - the AKV (DVC) section.

If free dining is offered, you'll have to have tickets as part of the resort room free dining package. You can ask Free Dining questions on the Dining Plan board:
http://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-dining-plan.116/
 
In addition, if your really after free dining it's a great time to use a travel agent who can help you quickly determine if it's a better deal than taking another discount when it comes out. Dreams unlimited travel has a connection to this forum which we enjoy so it's a good place to start and they are really good at watching disney and looking for ways to lower your price. If you can navigate it on your own you'll find the same prices so it'll cost no more than if you do your best and watch options like a hawk.
 
Welcome! People will do their best to help. There is a lot here to digest because this isn't really a "Plan". People will have a lot of opinions, but let me first start by asking some questions.

1). You mention going to "Animal Kimgdom's free area." I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. There is no free part to AK. Do you mean you intend to go explore AKL?

2). You have a 4 and 7 year old but don't want to go to AK?

3). You are kind of paying the maximum for your tickets because you only have three days. Once you start buying park tickets beyond three days, they start getting noticeably less expensive. What time are you leaving on the 22nd? You may actually find a better value in buying 5 day tickets and have the ability to go into the parks on the 17th, the 21st, and/or the 22nd.

If you should choose not to add a day to your tickets, you may want to spend some time on the 17th at Disney Springs, the Boardwalk area, or even the monorail resorts.

4). Is the free dining plan being offered while you are there? If so, you would have booked that as part of your package when you booked your room. I haven't checked, but I don't think the fall offers have been made yet. Keep your eye open as time moves on and you may find discounts or special packages being offered for the time you are there. You can change your reservation at that point if you need to. Sometimes those packages will include tickets, discounted rooms, dining options, or extras options. If you are just paying "rack rate" for your room, the likelihood is at this point, you are paying more than you will need to. But again, things will change and there will be offers and you just need to jump on the one that works for you when it shows up. For some people, a 20% discounted room is a better deal than a free dining package. Usually they are not offered together.
 


Just a quick tip- there is no resort-to-resort transportation. Wilderness Lodge is about 15-20 minutes from Animal Kingdom Lodge (which, as has been pointed out, is not the same as the Animal Kingdom theme park) on the Disney highways, but you can't take their transportation directly. You'd have to go from Wilderness to MK and catch the bus from MK to AKL if you wanted to see the animals in their habitats at the resort. Add at least an hour each way for transportation for this activity.
 
If a free dining promotion comes out, you have to book tickets with it, so could not do separate tickets. You would have to call and rebook when that promotion was announced. Sometimes there are room discounts offered as well, and you can compare to see which saves you more money, since with "free" dining you are paying rack rate for the room. Last yr for my cousin, staying at the Polynesian, free dining saved about the same as a room discount for Deluxe hotel.

I would suggest going to Mousesavers.com to get info. on cost of dining plan and rack rate of rooms, so you can see those to evaluate discounts when they come out. You can also sign up for their newsletter and deal alerts for those announcements. Fall deals will probably not be announced until late March-early May.
 
I book my ticket thought Disney ( well I am an AP ) but my rooms and if a discount comes out I just call and get this added.

I would not plan on going back to your hotel every day as Disney is big and it can take a while to get any were maybe 1 or 2 days

for each park pick your tope 4 or 5 must do weather rides or show and then a few it would be nice to dos ( you will not be able to do every thing so do not try)

I would not get the free dinning one you will more then likely have to do table service and all thought it is great I would not wast an hour or 90 minutes for table service once a day.

book you r FP for your 3 must do ( EPCOT and HS has a tired system so this get complicated there is a thread so look at that )

the one thing I will say is try to get to the park at opening you can do some much in the first 60 to 90 minute and do not book FP for this time.
 


hello all you planning kings and queens! We are planning a trip to disney in September and I would love your advice.
Here is my tentative plan.

September

9/14/17 Thursday. Fly in from Ohio. Check into one of universals hotels and explore

9/15/17 universal

9/16/17 universal

9/17/17 Check into wilderness lodge. We are thinking about getting the bunkbeds. We will take this day to chill out and check the area out. Maybe go to Animal kingdoms free area.

9/18/2017, monday MK

9/19/2017, tuesday HS

9/20/2017, Wednesday epcot

9/21/2017, thursday Msshp

9/22/17 fly home

I want to take advantage of the free dining plan if possible. I am confused on how to go about all those aspects. I booked these tentative hotel dates at wilderness lodge for those five nights through disney site. Recently I have read how booking everything through their site doesnt save you a dime and costs more infact. Do you buy and link your tickets?? What if you get your tickets that way, how do you get the free dining plan if it becomes available. I know the dining plan is hard to make it worth it but, if its free why not! Unless there is discount on the room that would make more sense.

Kids will 7 and 4. We plan on going back the hotel midday to relax.

I am very naive. be gentle :)
When you say animal kingdoms "free area" do you mean exploring the animal kingdom lodge? Please note that the lodge is separate from the park.
Will you have a car rental? Just wondering because it's easier to explore other resorts when having a car. Another option to explore is the fort wilderness resort. It's a short boat ride away from the lodge and has playgrounds, a horse barn to visit the Disney horses, and a fun (free) campfire sing along in the evening.

For free dining, you would have to change your reservation to a package with tickets that meet the requirements of the deal. When/if it is offered, you'll want to call asap to see what the availability is. You may find a free dining watch thread on here to follow to keep up on when the deals come out.
As far as booking through disney costing more, you are paying rack rate now as no deals through disney are being offered at this time for September. Yes people do save money by finding deals with travel agents. But sometimes the deals may not be the resort you want or the dates you want.
I donto like to pay for the dining plan but I will take it if I can get it for free. Our family would spend more on food than a % off discount would get us for the resorts we choose to stay athere.

If you are hoping for free dining, I would not get tickets now because a package with tickets has always been required for free dining.

Hope this helps!
 
Just wanted to add my opinion on 2 things:
One, we take a break in the afternoon. We do rope drop most days of our trip and also like the night time. All of us, kids and adults enjoy a break from the hustle and bustle of the parks. Sure that's less time in the park but our time in the park is more enjoyable after a little swim break or down time at the resort. You'll know what way your family would prefer. A good thing about staying at the Lodge is that you will be close to the MK. There is a boat to take over to MK and it's a short trip.

Another thing we enjoy is table service dining. With the ages of your kids, they would probably enjoy some character meals which are expensive out of pocket. I would get tired of quick service only. So I'm of the opinion that time spent dining doesn't take away from my trip but adds to it. The whispering canyon cafe at the lodge is one fun table service restaurant that would be convenient for you.
 
The main question I have is, what length of ticket are you buying? Are you getting a 3 day ticket + party ticket, 4 day ticket + party ticket, or 5-day ticket + party ticket? Another question I have is why you don't have Animal Kingdom on your list? I want to point out that there is no "free" area to Animal Kingdom. They have savannas at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but not every animal can be seen from that resort. Animal Kingdom has a lot of fun things to do like the Safari and many other attractions. Pandora should also be open by then. Animal Kingdom also has the most popular show at Walt Disney World called Festival of the Lion King. If you are curious, you can easily get a lot of Animal Kingdom done before you go to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on the 21st. Your won't be able to get into the MK until around 4 p.m. that night with the party ticket.
 
One thing no one has mentioned yet -- crowd calendars often have Monday as the most crowded day at MK. Basically the thinking is: everyone flies in on Saturday or Sunday and starts out their week at MK first thing. My personal experience has been consistent with what the calendars say.

So, you may consider starting your week on Monday somewhere else and doing MK on Wednesday.
 
My family and I love doing split stays between WDW and Universal. But we didn't start doing this until my boys were big enough to ride most of the rides at Universal. The Harry Potter themed areas are great and my boys love them but they've also read all the books and seen all the movies so they actually understand it. If you are staying at a Universal Hotel that gives you an Express pass you would probably need a day to a day and a half to get it all in. (So you could go to WDW a day earlier.)

This past November we did 6 days at WDW and then went to US for Wednesday, Thursday(Thanksgiving), and Friday until 1pm. We rode every ride we wanted to, multiple times with the express pass, and after 2 1/2 days we were done! We were there at a crowded time but our express passes got us on to the rides we wanted as many times as we wanted so we didn't need as much time in those parks as we did in the WDW parks.
 
One thing no one has mentioned yet -- crowd calendars often have Monday as the most crowded day at MK. Basically the thinking is: everyone flies in on Saturday or Sunday and starts out their week at MK first thing. My personal experience has been consistent with what the calendars say.

So, you may consider starting your week on Monday somewhere else and doing MK on Wednesday.

I was thinking this also. I've been in terrible crowds on a Mon in the MK then came back on Wed to an almost empty park.

My family and I love doing split stays between WDW and Universal. But we didn't start doing this until my boys were big enough to ride most of the rides at Universal. The Harry Potter themed areas are great and my boys love them but they've also read all the books and seen all the movies so they actually understand it. If you are staying at a Universal Hotel that gives you an Express pass you would probably need a day to a day and a half to get it all in. (So you could go to WDW a day earlier.)

This past November we did 6 days at WDW and then went to US for Wednesday, Thursday(Thanksgiving), and Friday until 1pm. We rode every ride we wanted to, multiple times with the express pass, and after 2 1/2 days we were done! We were there at a crowded time but our express passes got us on to the rides we wanted as many times as we wanted so we didn't need as much time in those parks as we did in the WDW parks.

This reminded me of the first time we went to Universal. I wanted to check out the Harry Potter stuff, so we added a couple of days before a WDW stay. It was before Diagon Alley was open. DD was four and had never even heard of Harry Potter. That trip turned her into the biggest Harry Potter fan ever! When we got back I read the first book to her. Everything after that was Harry Potter (and still is). She read the first book herself the next year then the others followed. She's seen the first three movies. She has the other world-building books and a costume. She was Hermione for Halloween. We ended up getting Universal AP's so she could go back. She even had her sixth birthday at Universal purely for HP. She is seven and a half now. And she is terrified of most rides, so she's never ridden a single HP-themed ride. LOL
 
We did Disney Sept 2015 and were able to get free dining. We used a certified Disney travel agent which I highly recommend! From my understanding of your trip does happen to fall into free dining offer you must have dining plan booked already and still not guaranteed but our travel agent was able to get this for us.
 
We did Disney Sept 2015 and were able to get free dining. We used a certified Disney travel agent which I highly recommend! From my understanding of your trip does happen to fall into free dining offer you must have dining plan booked already and still not guaranteed but our travel agent was able to get this for us.
No you don't have to have it booked already. You could have nothing booked and book free dining if it's available.

And there is some speculation on the boards that booking ahead of a promo release in hopes of getting free dining, hurts the chance of having free dining. The thought is that if hotels are already booked, why would Disney offer a promo designed to get people to book on site resorts.
 
I can't help with the free dining stuff, but I wanted to repeat what's been stated above about going to Animal Kingdom park. You MUST see the lion king show, ride the safari and expedition Everest! You MUST haha! Many other rides too and your kids will love the boneyard play area.

Please please also book some restaurant meals, especially character meals. You can cancel them the day before if needed. I booked Cinderella castle breakfast and it was one of the highlights of our trip. I have only been once and did not realize how important the restaurants are. And it's very discouraging to walk up to every single restaurant and be turned away because they're booked. I did not realize how many people cancel the day before and how this was avoidable!! Sign up for the My Disney experience free website and it will list every restaurant in Disney world. Book whatever appeals!
 
Did anyone mention that free dining has required you to buy a package with park hopper or water park add on with your tickets? That may change some of your plans as far as adding in some time at animal kingdom.
When planning your park days, you'll need to see what the Halloween party schedude is also. Wednesday sometimes becomes the busiest day of the week if it's one of the few days without a party in a week. People want to go to the MK when they can see the nightly entertainment. A party day at MK is typically less crowded in the early part of the day, up to about 4 when the party guests start arriving.
 
My only suggestion is to do Universal after WDW; the express passes will spoil you silly and can affect how you feel about Disney after all that freedom to choose ride access so easily!

You don't mention if this is your first trip or not but I would think it will be hard to hold young kids back from the MK early in the trip even on that first day at WDW! Heck, I couldn't even hold DH from MK on our first family trip! And Universal requires almost no planning like WDW does.
 
Also typically Mondays are not good for MK visits. I would suggest HS or AK on the Monday and MK on a Tuesday is best, maybe you could get away with a Sunday since it's September.
 
Totally agree with @Accident about using a TA, a good TA can save you tons of money, time and frustration!
They also don't cost you a dime, a Disney TA is paid by Disney, not you...
(No, I am NOT a TA, but even though we have been to WDW more times than I can count, we love our TA anD can't imagine a trip without her guidance!
 

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