Disney World Honeymoon Tips/Marriott Grande Vista

Re: Disney World Honeymoon Tips/Marriott Grande Vista

• daria24 member

  

  April 2014

  2. I've only ever stayed on Disney property, so I'm not familiar with outside hotels. The Disney property I've stayed at with the fewest kids was Port Orleans French Quarter.
  
  3. I have been to DW that exact week. January 11, 2015 is the Disney Marathon, it runs through all four parks until about 1pm. I would go to Universal (or elsewhere) that day. Despite the 30,000+ runners, the parks are very uncrowded that week. The further into the week you get, the fewer people. We barely had to wait for anything. The only long wait was Toy Story. And Peter Pan in the Magic Kingdom because that line is slower than molasses. But the very few waits we saw, we were able to get on those rides at the end of the day, after all the kids had gone home.
  
  4. Food is the biggest money suck in the parks. I always bring breakfast with me-a bag of granola is easy to pack, and you can get a quart or half gallon of milk to keep in your room fridge. Versus spending $6+ each for breakfast. I find the portion sizes at Disney very large, I often would split an entree with my friend and buy an extra side or a snack. You can bring your own refillable water bottle into the parks, and they don't seem to care if you bring in snacks.
  
  5. If you stay on Disney Property, transportation to your resort is free. Some other hotels might offer free airport transfer as well. I've never rented a car-you can take a taxi from Disney to Universal for just a little bit more than the parking fee.
  
  6. There's a free "My Disney Experience" app. Download it. It shows you wait times for attractions, maps, food vendors, etc. you can also reserve times for certain attractions.
  
  I've only been to Islands of Adventure in the past few years-at that time of year you can get through all the rides (twice) in about 4 hours. You can probably get through both Universal parks in one day.
  
  Some of the more popular attractions in Disney and Universal have single rider lines. We usually wait in the main line the first time to ride together, then if we want to ride again, get in the single riders line. Usually less than a 10 minute wait. Most of the time you walk right on.
  
  
  

  

  Report1 Reply
• delujm0 member

  

  April 2014

  If you are staying off-Disney property, and you intend to also go to Universal, rent a car.  yes, you will have to pay for parking at some point, but taking a shared bus (which takes FOREVER) or cab to the hotel from the airport is going to set you back at leats $30/person each way...and then even if your hotel includes free transportation to Disney you'd still need to somehow get to Universal, which would require more cabs.  Having your own car shouldn't cost more than a $200-300 for the week, and it gives you the freedom to go wherever you need to, whenever you want to.

   

  If you can afford to stay on Disney property though, i would suggst doing so.  I would still rent a car, because the free Disney airport busses are annoying, but if you stay on property the parking at all Disney parks, and the hotel, is free.  So you'd only have to pay for parking when you go to Universal, and you'd be able to get around very easily.

   

  I've been to Disney twice the following week (around MLK day) and that holiday weekend is a bit busy, but nothing terrible.  Get fast passes for Toy Story Midway Mania and Soarin if you can; the other rides won't be that bad.  Avoid Disney on Marathon weekend if you can.  It can be pretty chilly then, so if you were expecting to lay by the pool you may be unplesantly surprised - last year it didn't get about 60 the whole time we were there.  But the year before it was in the 80's a few days.  You just never know.

   

  If there are specific Disney restaurants that you want to eat at, book them on the first day you can (180 days in advance) or ele you may not get them.  Allears.net has a listing of all of the restaurants and their menus that may help you decide where you want to go.

   

  As for flights...try Southwest.  And make sure you are booked up more than 4 weeks in advance.  Nothing you can really do about flights but wach their price progression online.  There's no way to tell what's going to happen with them.

   

  You can do Universal easily in one day for each park as long as you pay the extra cash for the "skip the line" tickets.  I've only been there once in the past 10 years, but that was definitely good to have. 

   

  At Disney parks, keep in mind that whatever park has the "extra Magic hours" in the morning that day (you can see that online) will be the busiest early in the day, because a lot of people who are staying on-property will take advantage of that.  So you may want to avoid those parks.  Evening Extra Magic hours are great though, especially if they're very late (midnight-2am) because people with kids will take them home early and you'll have the park pretty much to yourself.

  Report1 Reply
• redrosedl42 member

  

  April 2014

  Wow thanks guys!
  
  And great tip about the marathon daria, I'll keep that in mind!
  
  Thanks again!
  

  Report0 Reply
• LarraO2530 member

  

  April 2014

  My FI and I went last April for a Keys/Disney trip with his family and we stayed at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek. It was goregous, not too many kids even though it was spring break time, and it was so close to everything. The tickets to all the parks we went to came at a discounted price when my FMIL booked the stay, and they just built a hotel that is part of the resort open to non-timeshare holders. Also, we have seen that some who own timeshares will rent them out, you could check that out if you're interested. From our balcony we could see nightly fireworks from the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, which was cool and the resort holds little "theme nights" a few nights through the week if you wanted to kick back and stay on the grounds for a night. The lines were not terrible at any of the parks, I think the longest we waited was for Harry Potter and we were in line for about 1 hour...again, not bad considering we went on spring break. We also ended up going to Downtown Disney a couple times, just to change up the pace a bit. The farthest we drove was to Universal about 10 min away from the resort.

  Report0 Reply
• Giaspo member

  

  April 2014 edited April 2014

  Hi, Coincidentally, I'm currently on vacation sitting in the Marriott Grande Lakes which isn't far from Grande Vista. We passed it a few times and it is in a great location. I'm a Marriott timeshare owner and I just wanted to say that if it's available and in your budget, see if you can upgrade to the one bedroom. If it is like others, the studio is the "lock off bedroom" of a two bedroom villa and, while it is very spacious, the extra living space and full kitchen is really nice to have for breakfast and leftovers. If it's not available, the guest room is big and should have a balcony with outside space. There isn't a kitchen but should be a microwave, mini fridge and coffee maker. Good luck!

  
  

  Report1 Reply