We went to Disney World in January of this year and I done a blog on the All Star Music Resort we stayed at and for some reason, it is being viewed alot. So I have decided to blog about each of the parks that we visited during our stay. I will be posting them soon. These blogs are just my opinion but I hope they can be helpful to someone who might be planning to visit Disney World.
We took the kids out of school for a week in January to go, but they ended up only missing 2 days of school because of snow days. The weather in Florida was in the 70's (nights into the 50's) . The wait in line for the rides was never more than 10 minutes for any ride and most rides we got right on.
I completely recommend the dining plans. There are different types of plans, so you need to choose the one that fits your family. If you enjoy sitting down and eating a meal, you will save alot of money, plus the character dinners are worth doing and they can cost alot. The only dissadventage to the dining plan was paying 18% gratituty for table service meals. Our group consisted of 3 adults and 3 children (1 child under 1 yr old) and our table service meals would run around $150 (if we had to pay). Also, some places to eat do not accept the dining plan, so you have to check and make sure they accept it. We did several character meals and the entire group (our 6 and 5 in the other family with us), all enjoyed them. I would suggest calling for reservations as soon as you book your trip if you go during a busy time. We were able to call the week of our stay and still get reservations, so it depends on time you go. We never spent a penny on food during our stay with the dining plan, and our plan was $34.99 a person per day.
We stayed inside the Disney Resort, so we parked our van all week and rode the bus (free) to everywhere we went. Advantages: FREE, not worrying about parking, getting dropped off at the gates. Dissadventages: Waiting for a bus to arrive, crowding on bus, and if you have a stroller (like we did) getting it on a crowded bus).
If you stay inside the Disney Resort, not only do you get free transportation, but you get to take advantage of the parks extended hours.
Be prepaded to have any bag or purse you bring into the park completely searched before entering.
Tips:
* if you have a stroller... there are strollers everywhere you look and when you park your stroller, sometimes disney workers will move them to make room, but to find yours among the crowd tie a ribbon on it or a balloon or even a glow stick at night.
* buy some glow braclets for your kids to wear at night so you can find them in a crowd.
* take the $1 disposible ponco's you can buy at Walmart in a small convient package. Ours came in very handy.
* If you stay inside the Disney Resort... souviners can be bought and delived to your hotel for free so you don't have to carry them around with you.
Note to parents with children: About 8pm at night during our visit to EPCOT, we were in line for food when a gentleman (who was beyond drunk) walked up to a complete stranger and punched him in the face and they started fighting along with everyone in their group and my son got knocked over and we almost got trampeled. The gentleman working behind the food counter told me that fights were a nightly thing and that as long as Disney served drinks it would continue to happen.
With the package deal we got, the only money we spent was for souviners we bought.
