back from disney world

[moonpie23]

just took the fam to DW to watch the wife run 26.2 freakin miles in a marathon....stayed at the Coronado Springs resort....


1. Transportation - A+
2. Luggage handling A+
3. Resort room B- (ac unit not working first day, fixed immediately the following morning)
4. Room Maintenance - A+
5. Food availability - A
6. Food quality - C
7. Food availability for someone on low carb diet - F
8. staff A++
9. parks and attractions A
10. Availability and coordination of characters for autographs - C
11. Wait times for attractions - B (fast pass..)
12. Tv stations on room tv = F
13. Price of water - F
14. in room internet speed - F
15. Coordination and execution of park - A+

seeing sweetie cross the finish line of her first marathon - priceless...


overall trip - B+

[OldPhiKap]

Congrats to your better half for completing the run!

Not familiar with Coronado Springs -- is it "on property?"

[Matches]

We made our first trip back in October and will definitely be going again. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort which was excellent (except I agree about crappy internet service). I definitely recommend the Deluxe Dining Plan - we ate like pigs. The Halloween party at the Magic Kingdom is fantastic. My daughter has talked about the trip every day since we've been back, so we will definitely be making another trip whenever I can save up the scratch for it. Highly recommended for kids and adults.

[devildeac]

just took the fam to DW to watch the wife run 26.2 freakin miles in a marathon....stayed at the Coronado Springs resort....


1. Transportation - A+
2. Luggage handling A+
3. Resort room B- (ac unit not working first day, fixed immediately the following morning)
4. Room Maintenance - A+
5. Food availability - A
6. Food quality - C
7. Food availability for someone on low carb diet - F
8. staff A++
9. parks and attractions A
10. Availability and coordination of characters for autographs - C
11. Wait times for attractions - B (fast pass..)
12. Tv stations on room tv = F
13. Price of water - F
14. in room internet speed - F
15. Coordination and execution of park - A+

seeing sweetie cross the finish line of her first marathon - priceless...


overall trip - B+

Oooh, great timing. Daughter #1 and newest SIL have trip planned in March so your timing is just about perfect. Keep dropping your thoughts here and I will relay to them.

Congrats on your better half's 26.2. My wife ran one marathon in 1980 in Greensboro and won the women's division with a time of about 3:23:and change, just missing qualifying for Boston by about 3 minutes. I ran the first and last 10K of it with her and helped staff the aid stations during the middle of her race. It was quite the experience for her to finish and for me to watch her complete the race.

[moonpie23]

Not familiar with Coronado Springs -- is it "on property?"

It's an official disney resort on property....we were going to stay at the caribbean, but we missed on reservations and it got booked up. There was a HUGE turn out for the marathon. over 50,000

http://www.marathonguide.com/news/ne...ney%2DMarathon


the trip was really nice. It's an introspective experiment in parenting for sure.


as far as food is concerened, there is plenty of chicken nuggets/hot dogs / pizza fare throughout the park and resorts, however, i am on the "no sugar/no starch" diet so it was more than challenging for me. i got pretty tired of the standard cheeseburger, so by the time we hit a sit down dinner on sunday night at T-REX in Downtown Disney, i was ready for a meal that i could "customize". T-REX was awesome by the way....

when you're in one of the resortss, with no car, you're pretty much stuck with what they have to offer.

[moonpie23]

Oooh, great timing. Daughter #1 and newest SIL have trip planned in March so your timing is just about perfect. Keep dropping your thoughts here and I will relay to them.

water averages about $2.75 for a regular bottle. you can buy "bottomless mugs" for soft drinks for $14.95 , but it's only good WITHIN the resort you're staying in. For two adults, two kids, we never had a meal tab under $30. We thought about carrying a water bottle with built in filter next time...the weather was very warm and we drank a lot of water.


as i'm sitting here thinking back, there's really not to much to complain about...ok, maybe WHINE about, but not really complain...i mean, it's a RESORT...it's SUPPOSED to be over-priced.


Notes:

if you take a back-pack, make sure there is identification IN PLAIN SIGHT so you can run it down if it's left somewhere....figure 1.5 hours to run it down. DON'T LEAVE YOUR PARK PASSES OR RESORT KEYS IN YOUR BACKPACK!


If you take children 5 or under, go ahead and get the stroller, they get tired pretty quickly, and you'll wreck your neck/back carrying them when they do...also, go ahead and get the "leash" for the real little ones...it only takes one moment of panic when you're looking at something and they run to something else to make you understand how crowded and chaotic it is....sure it looks bad to have your kid on a leash, but it will save you some real panic time...


now, for the handicapped child part, I'd have to give them a pretty decent grade....prolly B....there's plenty of access via ramps, even though they're off to the side of the attractions and sort of "out of the way"...however, we boarded busses first, and there are plenty of handicap entry ways to attractions that actually cut waiting time. Sam would have been in trouble if he could not leave the wheel chair. He's pretty mobile with his walker, but if he were confined to his wheel chair, there would have been a lot of ride stuff he could not have done. I fixed up a little extra board on the back of his wheelchair so his little sister could ride standing up on the back....that helped a lot.

[nocilla]

Oooh, great timing. Daughter #1 and newest SIL have trip planned in March so your timing is just about perfect. Keep dropping your thoughts here and I will relay to them.

A stroller can come in very handy to haul stuff in addition to the kids. We carryed a small cooler with bottled water and sandwiches. It was small enough to fit under the double stroller along with some other things like sunblock. We then found a spot in Magic Kingdom to sit down and eat our sandwiches. We found a lot of useful stuff at disboards.com, especially the budget board which has a stroller swap page in case you are flying in and don't want to rent one.

http://www.disboards.com/

[devildeac]

A stroller can come in very handy to haul stuff in addition to the kids. We carryed a small cooler with bottled water and sandwiches. It was small enough to fit under the double stroller along with some other things like sunblock. We then found a spot in Magic Kingdom to sit down and eat our sandwiches. We found a lot of useful stuff at disboards.com, especially the budget board which has a stroller swap page in case you are flying in and don't want to rent one.

http://www.disboards.com/

They are DINKs (not OUR DinK ;-)) ) for now so just the 2 of them on this trip. Good stuff from you and moonpie so far. Thanks.

[gotoguy]

As a family of three, we have been to DW 8 times in the last 12 years, most recently last spring break for 2 days prior to Universal/Harry Potter/Hard Rock Hotel which was awesome. My son is 17 and he now prefers Universal. As for Disney, I love that place, ersatz and all. The Unoffical Guide to Disney World is a useful tool, especially for first timers with small kids.

Spring break this year will be spent visiting prospective colleges...should be fun but no Disney. Hope to be back in Atlanta for the weekend and a Duke-UNC final in the ACC tourney at Phillips.

[Mal]

Oooh, great timing. Daughter #1 and newest SIL have trip planned in March so your timing is just about perfect. Keep dropping your thoughts here and I will relay to them.

We just got back last week, too (there right before the marathon crowd, right after the Christmas-New Year's crowd, and right at the same time as the coldest two days of the season with highs in the '40's). Two days at Magic Kingdom with a 7- and 5-year-old, stayed at the Grand Floridian. First time there since the early '80's when I was 8. Things I learned:

- Get to the park for opening. There's a noticeably smaller crush of people around until about 10:30.
- If you want a real lack of crowds in the morning, head toward Adventureland and Frontierland - everyone goes to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland early. We literally walked right on to Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Aladdin and Big Thunder Mountain, no wait whatsoever. Of course, it was 37 degrees, so maybe the whole place was empty at 9:00-10:00 that day. Also, I should say that, beyond the two coasters in Frontierland, the entirety of Frontierland and Adventureland seemed dated, tired, and in need of a makeover and replacement/updating of attractions.
- Staying on the monorail line is nice (can't compare to not staying on the line, but I assume it's a pain to get around on buses all the time).
- Expect to overpay for average food, but I will say you get a good quantity of food at the quick service lunch spots in the park, and obviously the quantities at buffet dinner places are whatever you want.
- Eat lunch before 12:30 and you'll avoid long lines and overcrowded seated areas.
- Depending on where you're from, you're likely to come away thinking you've paid way too much for a dinner at the "nicer" restaurants on property. We're coming from a big culinary center, so weren't impressed by quality or innovation, and thought the bill was huge for the experience.
- It is amazing how many people will voluntarily wait an hour in line when they could use a Fast Pass and go do something else for an hour. I guess for folks without younger kids, they can't while away the time at Dumbo or on the carousel or whatever, so if they're limited to 7-8 things in the park that they'd enjoy riding, there's no other way around it.
- The fireworks at night combined with light show at the castle are pretty fun, even for adults.
- Do not go to the parade unless you (a) have kids (who will think it's pretty awesome) or (b) enjoy having a horribly cheesy, earwormy 1 minute song they sing repeatedly for the entire 20 minute parade in your head for weeks. My son's still singing the refrain, and I'm still wanting to tear my hair out. The stage show in front of the castle is totally for kids, too (again, mine loved it, but grownups on their own will probably not). The wandering marching band and barbershop quartets added a lot more to the experience for me.
- We went the first morning without a stroller for our kids just to get a sense of scale see how it went. Never bothered to rent one thereafter. The place is big, but not as gargantuan or overwhelming as I'd remembered (not surprisingly). Our two kids, while tired at the end of Day 1 and needing some pep early Day 2, were fine being ambulatory, and I think enjoyed the freedom of darting about a little bit, and hopping around in excitement, skipping, etc. You can fit everything you'd need for a day at Disney World in a backpack.

[Matches]

- Do not go to the parade unless you (a) have kids (who will think it's pretty awesome) or (b) enjoy having a horribly cheesy, earwormy 1 minute song they sing repeatedly for the entire 20 minute parade in your head for weeks. My son's still singing the refrain, and I'm still wanting to tear my hair out. The stage show in front of the castle is totally for kids, too (again, mine loved it, but grownups on their own will probably not). The wandering marching band and barbershop quartets added a lot more to the experience for me.

Ha! I have had "It's Good to be Bad" stuck in my head for three months!

[moonpie23]

Ha! I have had "It's Good to be Bad" stuck in my head for three months!

oh yea....at 125 DB when it goes by...

the disney show on the castle steps was pretty good....excellent audio for that large of an area...

[Rich]

Oooh, great timing. Daughter #1 and newest SIL have trip planned in March so your timing is just about perfect. Keep dropping your thoughts here and I will relay to them.

I took my kids a few years ago for a week and the one thing we did, which I will never, ever regret, is taking a day to NOT go to the park. We made several trips to the Magic Kingdom at different times (day and night for character breakfasts, lunches and even dinner in the castle) and trips to EPCOT and MGM, but we also set aside a day in the middle of the trip to hang out at the resort (we stayed at the Polynesian, which I recommend because it is walking distance to the tram center) and just swim, eat, and relax. It re-charged all of our batteries. Nevertheless, I have to admit that when we came home from that trip, my wife and I were ready for a vacation!

[OldPhiKap]

I took my kids a few years ago for a week and the one thing we did, which I will never, ever regret, is taking a day to NOT go to the park. We made several trips to the Magic Kingdom at different times (day and night for character breakfasts, lunches and even dinner in the castle) and trips to EPCOT and MGM, but we also set aside a day in the middle of the trip to hang out at the resort (we stayed at the Polynesian, which I recommend because it is walking distance to the tram center) and just swim, eat, and relax. It re-charged all of our batteries. Nevertheless, I have to admit that when we came home from that trip, my wife and I were ready for a vacation!

Orlando has a GREAT kid's interactive museum. Not too far from the parks. Especially nice thing to fit in if you go in the summer, because it is air conditioned and out of the sun.

[cf-62]

when you're in one of the resorts, with no car, you're pretty much stuck with what they have to offer.

Actually, that 'ism' is only true if you are at Coronado Springs or Animal Kingdom Lodge. When you stay at one of the resort clusters, you are within walking distance of at least 5 or 6 different restaurants. If you stay at an Epcot resort, you are also within walking distance of World Showcase, with another 20+ restaurants to choose from.

At M/K you've got 3 restaurants in Grand Floridian, 2 in Polynesian, 2 in Contemporary, 2 in Wilderness Lodge, PLUS Fort Wilderness' buffet, as well as the 3 or places inside MK other than snack stands (Tony's, Crystal Palace, King Stephan's).

All can be gotten to within 15 minutes without a car.

The buses are also ALL complimentary and run constantly, so even if you desire something else (i.e. Komodo's sushi bar in the Swan or the ESPN Club (not a Zone) at the Boardwalk, it's a quick bus ride.

[cf-62]

In the summer and at holidays,
Fast Pass = Pure Heaven
In the Fall, Spring, and Winter
Fast Pass = Pure Evil

Our trips to Disney waned significantly when F/P was introduced. You could go to the parks in Jan, Feb, Mar, April (except for NY or Fla spring break), September, or October, - and literally walk on EVERY ride (Splash, Space, Pirates, RocknRoller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Test Track, etc.).

Now, thanks to Fast Pass, there's always a 30 - 60 minute wait for any premium ride (which, of course, is how the ride product managers want it).

On the other hand, we can now tolerate a trip in June or July, though since we have Universal Season Passes (which give you access to the Express lines after 4), we'll spend more time there.

The key, of course, is learning how to work the fast passes so you get loaded up with them during the day, do the non-fast pass events, then go walk on the 3 or 4 premium rides you've collected.

2 secrets of the fast pass:

1. If you pick up a return time more than 3 hours in the future, you will be eligible for another fastpass before that time - pay attention
2. While each fast pass lists a time range (i.e., 3:05 - 4:05), the only "qualifying" time is the front. Once 3:05 hits, you can use it any time the rest of the day.

[nocilla]

They are DINKs (not OUR DinK ;-)) ) for now so just the 2 of them on this trip. Good stuff from you and moonpie so far. Thanks.

Oh, I do remember a wedding/football game dilemma you had a few months back.

[nocilla]

I took my kids a few years ago for a week and the one thing we did, which I will never, ever regret, is taking a day to NOT go to the park. We made several trips to the Magic Kingdom at different times (day and night for character breakfasts, lunches and even dinner in the castle) and trips to EPCOT and MGM, but we also set aside a day in the middle of the trip to hang out at the resort (we stayed at the Polynesian, which I recommend because it is walking distance to the tram center) and just swim, eat, and relax. It re-charged all of our batteries. Nevertheless, I have to admit that when we came home from that trip, my wife and I were ready for a vacation!

This is good advice. We planned ahead of time which parks we were going to each day and left no time for the resort because we didn't think we needed it. But once there we realized that the resorts have great swimming pools and other activities to do. The kids never even got to get in the pool and they made sure to point it out to us. Of course they wouldn't have wanted to leave the parks early to do it, but we should have left some down time in our plans for stuff like that.

[moonpie23]

we SHOULD have done that on our last day, but the better half wanted a short trip to adventureland...so we did...

we spent a half day in the resort doing hot tub, heated pool and resort stuff...

[OZZIE4DUKE]

First time we went to DW was in November, 1986 when OzzieDaughter was 4. The brand new Space Mountain ride was going to OPEN the next week, so I couldn't do that. We bought 3 day passes for all of us - $61 each for adults, $49 for kids - I just looked at the original receipt dated 11/24/86 (yes, a 2 digit year was printed on the tape). We realized that one day was enough because OD really wasn't old enough to enjoy any of the rides outside of the kiddie area, which we did the first day, so we left and went down to visit my folks in Ft. Lauderdale earlier than expected, and we had (have!) 2 days left on the never expiring passes!

My next visit to DW was 3 years ago for a 2-day tech show in Orlando. I was there solo. I took one of the passes with me, stayed in a timeshare exchange (the newest Orange Tree resort) for 5 days and spent a couple of days at DW and Universal Studios, using up one of the passes. I had a great time!

My daughter and her husband both teach, and one of "his parents" gave him three three day passes as a present last year, good for 1 year (they cost what now? $160 each? More?) We plan to join them, probably in late June after the school year is over, for several days down there. Between their 3 passes and the 2 I have left (with 2 days remaining on them), it should work out just about right. Ruthie turns 2 next week, so her attention span will be less than OD's at four. We'll spend time there and then head down to visit my folks in Lauderdale for a couple of days. Amazing how history repeats itself!

Great thread on reading the recommendations and reviews! Thanks all!