More Disney World questions and help

rosetobe

Thank God for the knot.

My fiance and I want to get our honeymoon locked down, but our plans keep changing. We are finally 100% set on Disney World but I am feeling overwhelmed with all of the details of planning this trip. I think mostly because I have never been there. We go to Disneyland all of the time, but have never been to Disney World.

We want to fly in and take a day or two to relax and spend some time either at the beach or at the hotel and pool. Where are the nice beaches near Disney World?

I am pretty set we want to stay at the Grand Floridian for at least part of the trip because of all of the reviews, but need to stay at a less expensive one for a part of the trip. I don't want to change hotels more than once though. What would you recommend for the second hotel?

If we go for 7 nights - 6 days - and one of those will be a beach day - how many parks do you think is realistic for us to visit? Which ones do you think are must visits? I am thinking Magic Kingdom, Epcot and the Animal Kingdom for sure. Any that you think is a must visit? I am thinking Harry Potter world, but don't know the location in relation to where we will be.

Thanks in advance fr any help. I am doing a lot of research but sometimes it is nice to hear from others that know the ins and outs.

aimers1525

Love Disney World, love Florida.  First, Orlando is in the smack dab center of Florida, so the beaches are 1-2 hours away; either coast if you go straight east or west. So I would guess you might want to have that as an all-day trip.

The hotels off-property near Disney are less expensive than on property, and since it sounds like you'll have a rental car if you want to go to the beach it's easy to drive to and from Disney at a lot of the off-property hotels.

You can realistically do a park a day depending on the time of year you go, if you head to the parks right when they open, etc. Also, Animal Kingdom is smaller so you could easily do that with time to go back to another park.  My H and I have done all four Disney Parks, plus Universal and one off day in the span of a week.  The Disney parks are: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom and thei are all worth it.  Harry Potter is at Universal Studios, and not on the same grounds as Disney parks. I think they are about a half hour 45 mins. away from each other?

HTH!

alithebride

if it were me i'd plan on 4 days at disney at grand floridian and then a few days at the beach or somewhere else. i wouldn't want to switch hotels in disney halfway through.

ricciardi2013

I was just at Disney World, and my fiance propsed to me in Cinderella's castle! It was also my first time there. Everyone has given you great advice in the above posts. As a first timer to these parks, I suggest a park per day with some breathing room. Don't get the "park hopper" pass option, it's unnecessary and you won't want to hop. We made it to all of the parks except Hollywood at Disney. All of the parks are unique and special, but Magic Kingdom was my fav!

ENJOY!!!

MoonlightSilver

I highly suggest you do some reading on  http://www.mousesavers.com/ to learn more about disneyworld, prices, parks and hotels. 

cornflwr33

i love disney... . i went quite often with my ex mil.   Going there for our honeymoon and can't wait.> I've stayed at the Polynesian and also at Port Orleans riverside- was going to try a value resort this time until FI's BM sprang a timeshare on us that we can use!

I have always used park hopper option. I like to move around.  I agree check out mousesavers. I'm going to get my tickets thru mousesavers and save money:)

Blondy214

I live in Orlando, so I'm familiar with the area, and pretty familiar with the parks. As far as beaches go, you're looking at an hour - hour and a half drive. The closest beach is probably Cocoa, but the nicest benches are definitely the west coast. If you are planning to switch hotels, then maybe you can stay in Orlando for a few days and do the parks, and then stay at a hotel at the beach, either Cocoa, or Tampa. 

For parks, Magic Kingdom for sure! I was there in March and it was one of the best days ever! I don't care how old you are, Magic Kingdom is awesome! I haven't been to Epcot or Animal Kingdom in a while, but they are also good choices. Universal and Islands of Adventure are great if you like roller coasters. They are less expensive than Disney. I'm partial to Sea World myself. I have a year pass, and we go about once a month. I love it! 

strlzfan11

If it's not feasible to get to a beach, you could consider spending a day at one of Disney's water parks (or stay at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club and take advantage of Stormalong Bay, the best pool on Disney property).

If you can't spend all of your time at the GF, I'd suggest either Pop Century or Port Orleans French Quarter.

Mears transportation offers shuttles between Disney hotels and the Universal parks.  I think the cost is $18/day, but you'd still have to purchase your park tickets.

Visit disboards.com.  You'll get a lot more information about planning your trip there than you will here (even though the ladies here give fabulous advice).

If I were planning a trip, I'd plan on 1 day each for AK & HS, 2 days each for MK & EP, at elast 1 day of rest/downtime, and 1 day to do anything you might have missed or want to take another crack at.  Utilize EMH and fastpasses.

balletdawn

Just FYI about Clearwater - mass amounts of people and lots of buildings. I grew up in the Tampa Bay area and we never, ever, ever went there except when we were teenagers and were cruising for guys. But if you're looking for a lively, loud beach, that is where to be.

If you're going to the gulf coast, I would go to the St. Pete area and go to Fort Desoto (a state park), Siesta Key, or Treasure Island. Less people and buildings and more real Fla. But the bay area beaches will be more like 2 hours away or more depending on traffic.

If you're going east coast, I love New Smyrna Beach (about an hour from Orlando) - smaller community and great surfing, if you're into that. New Smyrna has a cute downtown and great restaurants. The Canaveral National Seashore is just south of there. Daytona is just north of there if you want to check out the craziness that is Daytona.

daria24

I've stayed at Carribean Beach, Port Orleans, Pop Century, and All-Star Sports. If you stay at the Grand Floridian part of the time, I would probably just spend a couple days at one of the value resorts, especially if you will be in the parks most of the time. I personally prefer to spend the extra money to stay on property and take advantage of the extended park hours and shuttles. Pop Century & Port Orleans were much quieter than the other places I have stayed. 

You don't need a full day for Animal Kingdom, if you go one of the mornings that they have an early opening for hotel guests, you can get through the big attractions in 1-2 hours. You can spend that evening at Epcot or Magic Kingdom.

I'm not a huge Epcot fan so I usually skip the World Showcase and just spend half a day in Future World. Magic Kingdom you will want 1.5-2 days. 1 day for Hollywood Studios.

A 5 day park hopper pass is only $12 more than a 4 day, so I think it's worth it to get the 5th day.

dazyabbey

We went to all 4 parks in one day at Disney. I think that depending on what you honestly want to go and what your favorite parts are. My favorite was Magic Kingdom of course and Epcot followed close 2nd. I think we could have spent an entire day at each park. I think Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios you could do in one day together. Animal Kingdom was decent, mostly geared towards little kids I though. Hollywood Studios I thought was very boring. We managed to do both Universal Studios parks in the same day too. I probably could have spent the entire day at the Harry Potter World but we wandered and explored. I liked how everything had a theme. It was the same there where the Studios park was a bit boring and I mainly liked Isle of Adventures. (I don't do Roller Coasters though so that may have a big effect on my theme park experience)

Make sure you take time to explore other parts of Orlando too. There is so much to do there. I think you could spend the entire week just in Orlando and get to see a ton and experience so much fun. We rented a car for very cheap and we were going to go out to a beach one day but decided we would rather stay close and have fun in Orlando then drive that far just to be on a beach.

MrsKathyC

If you go to DisneyLand all the time, I would skip Magic Kingdom.  I wasn't too fond of Animal Kingdom either, we much prefer Busch Gardens, but they're in Tampa.

We loved Universal and Sea World too.... Hmmmm, I guess we're not Disney people.  Never mind

midgetthemighty

H and I went to Disneyworld for our HM as well. We took a day and went to Cocoa beach but that's a little far and it was super windy so we didn't get to spend much time there.

Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios were my two favorites but we loved every second of every park. Fantasmic is a show at night in Hollywood Studios and I highly recommend it. It was AMAZING.

You should totally get the hats pictured below. We wore them in every park and got random congratulations from workers and patrons, even a free dessert in Epcot. A few times we got special treatment from employees as well. Plus, the character pictures were awesome with the hats because they were so excited. We also got to hear/see employees ask Mickey where Minnie's engagement ring was and his reaction. Hilarious.

If you're not comfortable with the hats, you have to at least get the free "Happily Ever After/Just Married" pins at guest relations.

hoffse

I'm a huge huge huge Epcot fan.  It's the only place in the states where I've found you can buy legit french perfume that doesn't get watered down - "france" has chanel, guerlain, etc and it's pretty amazing.  They also have a ridiculous bakery.  I also love norway and germany, and morocco has some amazing food.

I liked animal kingdom, but I somehow managed to get lost there.  I thought the map sucked.  Magic kingdom is cute, but it's sort of geared more toward small children than Epcot is.

I LOVE pleasure island - its really close to a lot of the resorts.

All in all I would probably do a day for each park (magic kingdom, epcot, and animal kingdom/pleasure island - see a cirque show while you're there), spend a day at Harry potter/universal, and then the remainder of your time at the beach.

PP is right about the beach, but since you're close to the gulf I'd make a point to go there.  Definitely go gulf side instead of atlantic side.  The water in the gulf is wonderfully warm.

091109brIANna033013

My family usually went for five days so that we could do a park a day with one rest day (I hate rest day and would rather be in the park every day from open to close). Every Disney park (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom) will take at least one day to get the full experience. When I was younger and there was less to do at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, we would do Animal Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. But now that they have added more to each park, they take a full day each. A couple days in Magic Kingdom is better for the full experience and 1.5 to 2 days in Epcot is also better.

We are huge Disney people, so for us the more time in each park the better. We are going for two weeks next October, but since they only go up to 10 day passes, we have three down days. One down day we will go to Harry Potter World and another down day we are planning on going deep sea fishing in St. Petersburg off Florida's west coast.

Since we will be there for two weeks, we plan on having the park hopper option for our tickets. After the first four days (one visit to each park), then we may start hopping parks during some days of our trip. If you are only going for one week, then you probably do not need the park hopper option.

We were thinking about switching hotels part way through our trip, but we have decided to only stay at the Contemporary Resort instead. We had been considering the Saratoga Springs (but they do not book rooms as early since they are mainly a Time-share Villas resort) or the Caribbean resort near Epcot. The Grand Floridian is really cool and has some of the best transporation options, but is out of our budget for a two week stay.

091109brIANna033013

If you have AAA and you call and make a roomonly reservation, not a vacation package with dinning or tickets, then you can ask if there is a AAA discount available for the dates and resort you want. There is a limited number of rooms that are available with the discount, so booking early is best. You have to put down a deposit of one night's stay, but if you book at the Grand Floridian and decide in a few months you rather stay at some place less expensive, then you can call Disney up and change your hotel and the deposit will count towards your new hotel.

lexi913

I would also suggest visiting disboards.com and mousesavers.com, both are great sites with loads of info.  Also, sign up for a disney.com account with your email and play around with the site (checking hotel availabilty for your dates, etc) this will put you into their system and they frequently send out discount codes via email and reg. mail, it's worth a shot as I've saved up to 40% disney hotels with those codes.  

Also, I would suggest looking into the swan and dolphin hotels, they are not technically owned by Disney but they are in a prime location on disney property, you can walk to Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Boardwalk area from the hotel.  It is a Starwood hotel, so if you are a member of their travel rewards group you can also get a discount (i believe they also offer teacher and nurse discounts)  This is also a more "adult" hotel with fabulous restaurants and a large lounge like pool area.  

If you do your research, there is no reason why you won't be able to visit every park more than once, as long as you don't try to do every single thing in every park!  I would suggest park hoppers..when we travel we like to head to one park at opening, do all of the big ticket rides/shows and then head back to the hotel after lunch for some pool and relaxation time, then we head into a different park for dinner, some more attractions and fireworks. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions! I'm always happy to talk Disney!

worriedbride2012

I used to work at disney that is where my FI and I met. If you want to stay at the Grand Floridian do it its so beautiful. A fantastic cheaper hotel still on disney property is Port Orleans French Quarter. Definitely make your dinning reservations early and also get the dinning plan and the park hoppers. Its all worth it!

theponz512

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_more-disney-world-questions-and-help?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:773057b3-c40d-4fb2-b490-0b1369988245Post:42fcd029-a694-45aa-8a0a-484269273649">More Disney World questions and help</a>:
[QUOTE]Thank God for the knot. My fiance and I want to get our honeymoon locked down, but our plans keep changing. We are finally 100% set on Disney World but I am feeling overwhelmed with all of the details of planning this trip. I think mostly because I have never been there. We go to Disneyland all of the time, but have never been to Disney World. We want to fly in and take a day or two to relax and spend some time either at the beach or at the hotel and pool. Where are the nice beaches near Disney World? I am pretty set we want to stay at the Grand Floridian for at least part of the trip because of all of the reviews, but need to stay at a less expensive one for a part of the trip. I don't want to change hotels more than once though. What would you recommend for the second hotel? If we go for 7 nights - 6 days - and one of those will be a beach day - how many parks do you think is realistic for us to visit? Which ones do you think are must visits? I am thinking Magic Kingdom, Epcot and the Animal Kingdom for sure. Any that you think is a must visit? I am thinking Harry Potter world, but don't know the location in relation to where we will be. Thanks in advance fr any help. I am doing a lot of research but sometimes it is nice to hear from others that know the ins and outs.
Posted by rosetobe[/QUOTE]

<div>
</div><div>I figure since I am live in Orlando, and frequent Disney constantly I will be able to help. :)</div><div>
</div><div>Firstly: Closest beaches to this area are either Melbourne (about and hour and a half drive) New Smyrna Beach (also and hour and a half) and Daytona Beach (about an hour and a half). Your best bet would probably be to just spend a day or two staying at the resort pool and relaxing.</div><div>
</div><div>The Grand Floridian is VERY nice. It is also one of the more pricey ones. If you aren't dead set on that hotel I would reccomend checking out the Old Key West one, the Animal Kingdom Lodge (really cool, most rooms over look wildlife, and when my FI and I were visiting family who were staying there, a giraffe actually came up to the balcony), the New Orleans resorts (Riverside or French Quarter), or the Polynesian (this one has a "beach" that you could spend time on. its really cute) all are very nice, and extremely enjoyable. </div><div>Stay away from the value resorts. They are the cheapest, but are overrun by small children, and that might take away from your honeymoon.</div><div>
</div><div>If you want a cheaper hotel for a few nights, I would reccommend any of the oneson 1-92. It is a straight shot directly into disney from that road.</div><div>
</div><div>If you do decide to stay at Disney the whole time, I would definitely reccomend looking into the Disney Dining plan to use in the parks. My Fi's Aunt and Uncle get it almost everytime they come visit, and it seems like its a really good deal. (If you book directly through disney, usually you can build a vacation package that include the hotel stay, dining plan and park tickets)</div><div>
</div><div>If your are going to be spending an actual 6 days here, (not including travel time) Then you would actually have enough time for all 4 parks (1 park a day) and have 2 days of just relaxing, or maybe hanging out at downtown disney. </div><div>
</div><div>If you only want to do 3 days of park time, then I would cut out Hollywood Studios and just stick with Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot.</div><div>I would avoid Harry Potter or Universal all together (it involves some travel, about 20 minutes depending on traffic and is a real pain to get to,)</div><div>
</div><div>What time of year are you planning on traveling? And are you interested in Cirque de Soleil? La Nouba is a fantastic show in downtown disney. Hope this helps!</div><div>
</div><div>If you have any questions or anything just PM me, and I will gladly help you out!</div>