Orlando ~ Disney or Other Attractions
- Thread starter Mystic Terminator
- Start date
Park hoppers are cool. That way you don't have to stay at one park all day. Some parks are worth an entire day, some aren't.
I don't know if you can get meal plans if you aren't staying at Disney but if you can, the meal packages work well if you go to the more expensive restaurants. The restaurants in the hotels are usually much better than the restaurants in the parks.
I don't know if you can get meal plans if you aren't staying at Disney but if you can, the meal packages work well if you go to the more expensive restaurants. The restaurants in the hotels are usually much better than the restaurants in the parks.
We just got back form Disney in February. We got our tickets at AAA in South Elgin for about $250 and kids $225 for a 5 day hopper with no water parks. But nice part was they gave us a Disney AAA diamond parking permit it’s the parking next to the handicapped spots. If you’re not staying in the parks I think they charge for parking. There are lots of restaurants just outside the park. Try to go to Richard Petty racing for a NASCAR ride if you into that stuff their right at the park.
Very true. To prepare for the Disney experience, go to the bank and get $100 in dollar coins. Cut holes in your pockets, place the coins in the pockets and walk around for an hour. This replicates the way you will feel at Disney.
Disney's fun but it's an expensive place if you want to experience everything.
The meal plans were a bargain because you could eat for half the regular prices at some restaurants. $100 for lunch is not exaggeration at many Disney restaurants. You can save money if you want to buy food outside the parks and load the car with a picnic basket.
If you haven't already, go to Disney's website and surf around. It will give you an idea of what is available and what to expect.
Cliff,
I was thinking we would be @ the park 5 days, and maybe one or more @ the beach or somethine like that. I was thinking of buying 10 day base tickets instead of 5 day hopper. I could use two tickets a day and it would be like hopping. It is much cheaper to buy base tickets rather than hoppers. Will this work?
7 Day Base $203
10 Day Base $210
5 Day Hopper $235
7 Day Hopper $243
Vince, that should work. Animal Kingdom isn't worth a whole day. Epcot and Magic Kingdom can fill a day. MGM is ~. We sent our kids to the water park while we went to MGM to shop around and then met them later at Epcot so the hoppers came in handy for us.
Problem with staying off site is that you can't stay late at whichever park that is open late each evening. Might not matter as much with smaller kids but our kids loved the extra hours with not so many people.
Regardless of what you do, you will have a great time. Disney knows how to provide fun. I think Great America's rides are actually better but Disney's build up blows Great America away. Great America has a theme oriented building facade to look at while you are in line. Disney builds the whole building.
As mentioned, ask an attendant if you can ride in the front of the monorail. 4 people will fit. It doesn't have to be your birthday but you may have to wait for one or two cars since many people want the front car.
Some of the better rides include:
Tower of Terror [a little scary for little kids but fun], Buzz Lightyear is great for kids, Soarin' is awesome for everyone, Mission Space gives some G forces but is really cool if the kids and wife can handle it, Honey I shrunk the kids is fun for little kids although watch out when they get stung in their seats, Dinosaur was wild, the wildlife train was OK if you want to quietly see some animals.
Problem with staying off site is that you can't stay late at whichever park that is open late each evening. Might not matter as much with smaller kids but our kids loved the extra hours with not so many people.
Regardless of what you do, you will have a great time. Disney knows how to provide fun. I think Great America's rides are actually better but Disney's build up blows Great America away. Great America has a theme oriented building facade to look at while you are in line. Disney builds the whole building.
As mentioned, ask an attendant if you can ride in the front of the monorail. 4 people will fit. It doesn't have to be your birthday but you may have to wait for one or two cars since many people want the front car.
Some of the better rides include:
Tower of Terror [a little scary for little kids but fun], Buzz Lightyear is great for kids, Soarin' is awesome for everyone, Mission Space gives some G forces but is really cool if the kids and wife can handle it, Honey I shrunk the kids is fun for little kids although watch out when they get stung in their seats, Dinosaur was wild, the wildlife train was OK if you want to quietly see some animals.
+100
Disney had so much more attention to detail, GA doesn't even compare. I remember the log rides @ GA, wait in line... go on a little trip and then climb up and go down. Disney's Splash Mountain took you through a theme w/ plenty to look @ before you went down, and even after that, more to look at. Definitely Disney knows how to provide fun.
We never made it up late at night, we went back around 9:00 ~ 10:00 every night to recharge for the next day. Getting to the park early was key to getting some good rides in and early fast passes.
We did every ride we wanted at all (4) parks + both water parks and Disney quest. The only ride we missed was space mountain @ the kingdom. The lines were reasonable (And July is supposed to be the busiest month). With the fast pass, most lines were only minutes.
Tuesday Morning - Tinley Park - Crestwood Shuttle - ORD - MCO - Mustang Convertible Rental.
Tuesday Noon - Epcot
Tuesday Evening - Rental Home + Swim in Pool
Wednesday - Animal Kingdom + Disney Quest
Thursday - Typhoon Lagoon + Disney Quest
Friday - Magic Kingdom
Saturday - MGM / Disney Studios
Sunday - Epcot
Monday - Blizzard Beach + Downtown Disney
Tuesday - Return Home (I4 Hassle)
One thing we noticed about Disney is how clean the park is. You don't see trash anywhere. You don't see chipped, peeling paint, you don't see worn out rides, etc. Even attractions that are 20+ years old are still maintained in good condition and look like new. Everything looks good. We saw two Disney Employee's doing water fountain check (Using a check sheet) and they spotted a piece of gum on the ground. Even though it probably wasn't their job to clean it, they carefully scrapped it up and spent several minutes getting it all off of the pavement.
You don't see delivery trucks going into / out of Disney property, yet they must have hundreds of trucks shipping in merchandise and food every day. This is all done behind the scenes, perhaps @ night, to add to the magic @ Disney.
Dining @ Disney is not too expensive if you stick to the one $ restaurants. Generally we brought in Frozen water bottles to the park along with snacks and either ate a light lunch in the park or ate in the parking lot. We later found that we could bring in our own sandwiches into the park.
We did the 7-day Park Hopper w/ The Water Park Fun @ More Option. We bought the tickets online before we left and saved a small amount of money. We bought them from http://reserveorlando.com/. Other web sites seemed to all be priced the same w/ above site beating other web site prices by about $20/each.
We rented this house for $110 a night. http://www.vacationbythemouse.com/16622highgrove.htm. I figured it was about the same price to rent a house as two hotel rooms. Never got to use the pool that much, Disney wore us out pretty well. House was only one or two years old, very clean, good condition. House had 4 bedrooms (2 Master Bedroom Kings + 2 Twin Bedrooms w/ (2) beds each) for a total of (6) beds. It could easily accommodate two families.
I wanted to do some dinner shows, but there was no time. It was a 100% Disney vacation, other than for staying off Disney property.
I got a spreadsheet comparing prices for dinner shows from different vendors as well as Disney ticket prices if anyone is interested. You will save money if you compare prices before you buy.
Breakdown estimate on cost
Airfare for (4) - $832 (Orbitz)
House with tax - $862 (Check)
Disney Tickets 7 Days (3) Adult, (1) Child - $1166
Groceries, etc @ Publix - $120 +/-
Crestwood Shuttle - $56 Roundtrip for (2) adult + (2) Child
Souvenirs - $200 Est.
Mustang Convertible 7 Days - $350 (Could have been $305 w/ Payless)
Gas - $40 Est.
Park Money - $150 ~ $200 Est.
Total - About 4K
Yes, went through both. They had the one @ the Magic Kingdom and the one @ Disney Quest.
Disney Quest...wtf is that? guess i havent been there in a while. Anyone get the top ranking?
DisneyQuest had Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (bumper cars). It was in a somewhat dark room w/ black lighting. There were about 100 rubber 12' dia. balls on the floor. The object was to run over one of the rubber balls and it would come up into the cars passenger compartment. The gunner (Passenger) would grab the ball and load it into the firing chamber and fire it @ another car. If you hit another car, they would spin out of control for 10 seconds.
Attachments
Thread Info
-
Created -
16Replies
-
786Views
-
Participants list
