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Olaf takes over.
Is it OK if I don’t show this to my wife?
My parents took my sister and I to Disney a few times when we were kids. While I haven’t been there since I was like 7 years old, I will tell you that I still have vivid memories of all sorts of cool stuff. Even certain songs or smells remind me of those trips. Bring your kid, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
So there are a shitload of vacation homes on homeaway and vrbo for Orlando disney area.
I have stayed at a pretty nice 4 bedroom house for the price of a disney room.
Also, all the big hotel chains have family style rooms which are like 1200 sq foot houses with three bedrooms. I did stay at the Marriott Resort a couple weeks ago, the place was almost as big as my house, for less than 200 per night.
As for parks, I did like Busch Gardens more than Disney. That is in tampa about 90 minutes west. It has more exhibits and less rides, also is very clean and we liked seeing the Budweiser Clydesdale horses.
The best times I have had in Florida have not involved theme parks of any kind. Just get a house on the gulf and check out the local stuff. So many parks, battle fields, and neat shit to see.
A few years ago at Disney in California, there was this company right outside the doors of Disney in a shitty office park. They were selling multi day tickets to people for like 50 percent of the price of the single day price. Not sure if that is still in affect, but we did buy a “shared pass” as they called it, and paid pretty much nothing.
LOL at comparing a camper to multi billion dollar, 40+ mile Disney vacation. Apparently you don’t have a princess for a daughter, my daughter has absolutely 0 interest in camping. We have gone 5x in the 3 years and just booked our 6th trip but this time to Disneyland and we have also done the 3day Cruise on the Disney Dream.
We have stayed on property every single time and if you stay at a value resort you can book a room for a little over $100/night and have free transportation from the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the parks everyday and not have to pay the $17/day parking at the parks. So the hotels can be very affordable, now keep in mind we have also splurged and stayed at the Bay Lake towers which were gorgeous and had a view of all 4 parks from our 11th story balcony and also got spoiled by taking a 2 min monorail ride to the parks everyday. And Yes if you stay at the value resorts the food is nothing special but all the food in the parks is above average and some are excellent, and definitely buy into the dinning plan!! If you ever have any questions call/text or email me anytime I could talk about it all day lol. 716-255-1139 or ctobias@westherr.com. Also you can buy $150 disney gift cards at Sams club for $142.98 so if you are spending $4000k +++ it adds up and is worth the few bucks in gas to get to sams. Also you need to book all your sit down and character meals 6 months in advance!
I was waiting for Cal
:tup:
I had never been to Disney as a kid and that always bugged my wife who had gone several times in her youth. So when our niece was going for her birthday my wife insisted that her and I do the whole experience.
On resort hotel, the Disney bus from the airport, meal plan, drinking our way around Epcot…yes it was more expensive than it had to be, but I think even as an adult I really appreciated the experience even though I could also appreciate the waste of money it represented.
if you aren’t sure if you will go back again any time soon you might as well go big. 8 is a good age where he will still think a lot of the corny stuff is fun and will be able to remember it later on.
One thing about Disney is, if you have any appreciation for a very well run huge company it is amazing to see it in action in person.
I am not sure if it was mentioned yet but, there are travel agents who are Disney experts and only book Disney trips.
I’m going to take you up on a conversation, we are going in November. My wife is always saying Cal and Shannon just got back from Disney…lol. I’m looking forward to taking the boys.
+1, Our company does all the food service/facilities mgmt/etc. behind the scenes for all the workers at Disney. I’m going to get a behind the scenes tour when I’m there by one of the managers. I’m looking forward to that more than the park itself, I’ve heard it’s like a city that you never know is there when you are in the park enjoying times with the family.
Fort wilderness was awesome to stay in. You can rent a golf kart to scoot around on and the ferry takes you to each park. It is a bit expensive tho
Updates on our Disney trip when I get back this weekend.
I had to wait for the holidays and crap to calm down before I had time to update this thread. Not sure how many are interested but I’ll give you my thoughts / experiences on our trip.
Overall, the level of hospitality was fantastic. There really wasn’t one occasion I can recall where anyone was even remotely rude or less than helpful. Everyone down to the bus drivers really seemed like they were up beat and had a smile. Also worth mentioning was that everything was clean, neat, and tidy. While I honestly don’t remember seeing a great number of cleaning staff, I don’t ever recall seeing a messy dirty area of the park. Even the restrooms were impressively clean. I’m told Disney prides itself on this.
We stayed at Corronado Springs Resort which was just a short bus ride from any of the major parks. It was one of the less expensive options available and we figured we weren’t going to be spending much time in the room so it was no big deal. The room was adequate but nothing to write home about. On average, we were back to the room by 10:00-11:00 each night and out to breakfast by 8:30. There was some really cool wildlife out there every time I took a walk and I saw tons of different birds and animals.
Transportation to and from the hotels and parks was fantastic. It was more than I expected it to be. We rarely waited more than 5-10 minutes for a shuttle and I think the longest we waited was 15-20 minutes. Once the evening was winding down busing became a little more of a challenge because my wife scheduled dinners at various Disney resorts and attractions (we had the meal plan) and buses didn’t run between parks so you had to go from hotel to them park and then them park back to your own hotel. This only created one situation where we needed a cab but every other night worked, it was just a little tight.
The weather was interesting. It was an average of mid to upper 70’s with only one day approaching 80 degrees. The only time rain became an issue was the second evening we were there and got caught in a monsoon while trying to get from the Grand Floridian Hotel where we had dinner and back to the Magic Kingdom on a little water taxi. We were soaked to the bone when we got back to wait for the shuttle bus from Magic Kingdom to our hotel. Other than that, each day seemed like a repeat of clouds, sun, and 40 second sprinkles in between. I was comfortable with the temps from a walking perspective. My wife who like it’s just a bit warmer was a little put out, but I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like going through this vacation in the summer months. Even some employees there said it can be a challenge in the warmer months.
I enjoyed the rides and attractions. If you’re looking for the biggest, fastest, scariest rides imaginable, Disney isn’t it. They have some great coasters and some really cool rides, but they have to cater to a wide range of guests and they can’t be killing people with their own adrenaline rushes. The shows were great and I can tell you that Disney does not “cheap out” on the experience. I recall waiting in line for some of the rides and noticing how they pay great attention to detail from the time you walk through the entry gate until you get to the loading area. Every nook and cranny has been carefully detailed and looks as “authentic” as possible. There were no broken chains, poles, split handrails, slivers, chipped paint, dead plants, etc. like you see in other parks. It’s truly a marvel to watch the operations work. There is management on a HUGE scale here and it’s cool to see hoe\w it appears to seamlessly just happen without a hitch.
Most rides had relatively manageable wait times and I don’t honestly think we waited more than 20 minutes on most rides. If the sign said 45 minutes, we were on in 20. If they said 30 minutes, we were on in 10-15. The fast pass offered with our “Magic Bands” came in handy here and there and i would say were worth it. There were only a couple times when the lines were short enough to make us feel we “wasted” our fast pass.
The shows and attractions were great. We typically didn’t have to wait for these and walked right in and were always surprised how cool they were.
I guess the biggest discussion was “is it worth it”? I’m going to say yes, partly because I have no point of reference to speak from as I’m not a big traveler and this is my / our first real vacation. There’s no doubt it wasn’t inexpensive but we did have a good time, ate well, and saw and did many things that were memorable and will never forget. As to whether or not we’d go back, I think we’d have to try some other destinations to have a better reference point. I know my son enjoyed himself but at 44 years old, it was enough constant motion each and every day to make me go back to work to rest. I think I would’ve broken one of those step / walking counters if I was wearing one.
Since I can only post 5 pics on this post, I’ll add more to follow.
We ate dinner one night at the Wilderness Lodge and I think if we came back, this is where we’d want to stay. Whole place was just unreal.
Expedition Everest mountiain / coaster. This was a really cool ride and one of the better coasters we rode.
This was the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror ride. If you don’t like vertical drops (and the feeling it gives your stomach), this is one to avoid. With the dental floss seat belt they gave you, I never expected those kinds of drops. My back wasn’t quite right after that one.
We did watch the electric light show one evening and true to form, it was amazing. Went on for quite some time and seemed like the parade of floats would never end. They also did the “Frozen” theme show and had Elsa freeze the castle. The pics didn’t do it justice.
We went on this ride more than once. I forget the name but it was cool.
The new animal park was really huge, and cool. Didn’t get to go on the safari ride but enjoyed everything else. Some really cool animals to see.
Building something new in the distance. Pretty friggin big.
Had to laugh at these…
“Fantasmic” outdoor amphitheater. Unbelievable show.
No fuckin joke wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon. The first one caught me off guard and I learned a lesson.
:tup:
The pictures make me want to head back down. Maybe I will pull the trigger if it is still snowing in may.
I want to jetski in Typhoon Lagoon.
based on the picture they only offer whale watching
lol