Who should use it?
• Adult-only groups
• Families with teens
• Groups who want to visit one park during the day and dine at a restaurant at another park in the evening
Who should avoid it?
• Families with smaller children who probably won’t make it to more than one park per day anyway
Option 2: Water Park Fun and More Option
The Water Park Fun and More option gives you access to the two water parks at Walt Disney World (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach), the DisneyQuest indoor entertainment facility at Downtown Disney, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex or a round of nine holes at Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course. You do not get Park Hopper access with this option, although you can go back to the water parks and other park options multiple times. You are limited in the total number of visits to these added attractions during your stay, based on the number of days on your ticket, so check how many special-area admissions you get for your money. The general rule is that this option added to a one-day ticket gives you two admissions to these extras; after that the number of admissions to these extras is equal to one per ticket day.
Regardless of the length of your stay, the cost of adding this feature is $55 (for each guest, both adult and child), so the longer your stay, the better an idea it is to add this to your ticket options.
A great way to determine whether this will be a good option is to compare the $55 cost to the number of times you think you will visit the water parks or other features. Basically, if you know you will visit water parks at least twice, it is worth it—otherwise, it’s probably not.
Who should use it?
• Adult-only groups planning on several water park visits
• Families with younger teens who plan on visiting the water parks
Who should avoid it?
• Families with smaller children
• Groups not planning on visiting the water parks
Option 3: No Expiration Date
This option makes your tickets valid indefinitely, letting you bring back the ticket and use the leftover days whenever you want. The cost increase can vary, but unlike the other options, the cost gets higher the more days you have on your base ticket.
Who should use it?
• Anyone from central Florida
• Someone who frequently travels to the area
• Those with a Disney vacation planned in the next few years
Who should avoid it?
• Anyone who is remotely uncertain of when they might return and those who know they won’t be back anytime soon
DISNEY DON’T
Don’t think that you can save your unused ticket days on a standard pass for a future vacation. Regardless of how many days you choose for your ticket, you have only the 14 days from the first day you use your ticket to use all the days on your ticket. The only exception is if you purchase the No Expiration option.
What Options Should I Buy?
Well, it’s really up to you what options you choose. Of course, we show suggestions with each option, but it’s important to consider your particular group needs. Here are some general things to keep in mind:
• Families with small children find that they rarely are able to hit more than one park in a day. They also find that they need to use part of their days to go back to their hotels for either naps or pool time. The chance to use the Park Hopper or the water park option is pretty infrequent, so why pay for them?
• Recommendations: Park Hopper: No
• Water Park Fun and More: No
• Families with teens often find the Park Hopper to be of some value, especially if the teens are very active. But the water park option is even more valuable, if they like water sports and will go regularly to the water parks.
• Recommendations: Park Hopper: Yes
• Water Park Fun and More: Yes
• Adult-only groups find the Park Hopper invaluable, as they often need to change parks on any given day for a change of scenery or for dining plans, especially at Epcot. The water park option can be valuable if they plan to go to water parks repeatedly, but that’s not a sure thing.
• Recommendations: Park Hopper: Yes
• Water Park Fun and More: Maybe
• I think the No Expiration option has little to do with your group type and more to do with geography. If you know you’ll be back within two years, do it. If not, you might be wasting your money. I usually find that the option is one that’s just not worth the extra cost, especially because there will be new deals for that next vacation. If you take the new deals, you still won’t use the extra days on the second go-around.
Other Attraction Tickets
What if you want to just buy a water park ticket for a day? You can do that; here’s the cost.
Use these prices to determine whether the Water Park Fun and More option is one worth adding.
The Bottom-Line Cost of Your Ticket
The following shows the ticket pricing as purchased online from Disney for 2011. Prices will surely change sometime in the future, but this chart should give you a solid figure for budgeting purposes.
To get to your price, simply select the number of days you will visit, and find the correct column. If you are going to add options, you will see them in the same column, in the second set of rows. For each person in your party, add the base cost with all options that you desire. Do this for each person, and then add up all your prices for your final total.
2012 online ticket prices (does not reflect 6.5% sales tax).
Special Ticket Packages
Where can you get special ticket packages? As mentioned in earlier chapters, packages that include hotel rooms, meal plans, and other elements will usually lower your overall trip cost. But it’s not always clear whether that cost reduction is from the tickets, from the dining plan, or from the hotel. In reality, it really doesn’t matter.
The important thing is that you determine in this chapter how much your tickets will cost if you purchase them individually. Then you will have a figure to use when comparing different vacation packages to see just how good a deal they really are.
If you decide to buy the tickets separately, where’s the best place to buy them? Here are some pointers:
• Online ticket vendors: A lot of people are selling Disney tickets online, and they all claim to have the best deal. For most of them, I say buyer beware. Many advertise their prices as being lower than the gate prices at the parks, and they are. But they are rarely, if ever, lower than the price of buying them directly from www.disneyworld.com.
Example: In a recent review of a popular ticket seller’s prices, all those ticket prices were higher than that of the Disney park website.
DID YOU KNOW?
Annual theme park passes are available as well. Standard ones that give you access to the four theme parks go for $499 per adult ($450 per child ages 3–9). Premium ones that also give you access to the water parks and DisneyQuest cost $629 per adult ($567 per child ages 3–9).
• Human resources programs: Some companies offer employee benefits programs that can save you on tickets. Make sure you check with your HR department for any such deals.
Example: A recent site visit to one such company saved around $20 to $25 on each adult ticket for a 6-day stay.
• Travel services companies: Everyone asks about AARP,
AAA, and other similar organizations. Sometimes you can save at these organizations, so make sure you check them. Sometimes, however, you don’t. Be sure you’re also looking at the direct purchase prices, too. Of all of them, AAA seems to have the most regular discounts.
Example: A recent visit to one of these organizations found prices that were exactly the same as at www.disneyworld.com.
So what do you do? Go to the source! I get the price at www.disneyworld.com, and then I look at the vacation packages from a few different sites and organizations. I don’t look at more than three because the savi
ngs rarely gets to be more than about $100 per trip, and my time is worth more than that. Yours probably is, too. The key here is to get that ticket cost so that you can compare the value of different packages; don’t get too consumed in chasing the deals at this point.
Summary
So that’s the ticket situation in a few easy steps. Pick the number of days you want to visit the parks. Decide whether you need to visit more than one park a day. Consider whether you need to visit the water parks. Plan far ahead, and perhaps save some of your days for a return visit. Finally, make sure you have a solid idea of what tickets will cost you so you can weigh the value of different vacation packages. I’ll bet you thought that was going to be much more painful, didn’t you?
Chapter 5
Vacation Strategies
In This Chapter
• Learn about special kid-friendly ideas to make the trip even better
• Discover great ways to make the trip fun for adults
• Save time and money with simple ideas
As you’ve seen, a vacation to Walt Disney World has a lot of options, as well as places to spend money. But you probably don’t have an unlimited budget, and you’re there for only a limited amount of time. So how do you make the most of both? I walk you through some of the best ideas I know of to save one or the other (or both!).
I also let you know about some of the general services available that might be of interest to you.
General Trip-Planning Strategies
Let’s start with strategies that work for any kind of traveling party, whether or not kids are involved. Make sure you have your Weekly Schedule Card from Appendix B handy so that you can make any necessary changes. So what are some general trip-planning strategies that can help you in your overall planning? Let’s look at a few key ones.
Important Strategy #1: Plan Your First Day’s Activity
Odds are, the day you arrive in the Orlando area, you will not be getting there first thing in the morning, rested and ready for a day at a theme park. For most, it’s an afternoon arrival via plane, with some time needed to settle in to the hotel. Remember, of course, that if you hit a park, you will “spend” one day of your tickets, so it may be better to save that for another day when you can go for the whole day.
Plan something different that will start the vacation off with a bang! Some ideas include:
• Hit your hotel pool for a relaxing dip.
• Try kick-starting your Disney experience with a character meal or dinner show.
• Take your first monorail ride!
• Visit Downtown Disney or the BoardWalk for some nightlife.
DID YOU KNOW?
Looking for some specific recommendations, or have a question not answered in any of the guidebooks? Then ask a mom (or dad)! Disney started the Disney World Moms Panel to help. Go to www.disneyworldmoms.com and you can ask specific questions to the panel of moms and dads from around the world. They bring a range of different experiences, and the mom or dad who is an “expert” on your question will try to get you a reply. I was on the 2009 and 2010 panels, and return to answer questions from time to time. I recommend it highly!
Important Strategy #2: Plan Your Parks and Meals
Flexibility and spontaneity can make the vacation fun, but you should still work a little advance planning into your days at Disney. Plan what parks you intend to visit on each day of your trip, as well as at least some of your meals.
My recommendations for how to pick what park to go to on what day are the following:
• Busy season: If you are visiting during a busy time of the year (when schools are NOT in session or during the holidays), then I would avoid whatever parks have the morning and evening Extra Magic Hours on that day.
• Moderate season: If you are visiting during a moderate time of year, then avoid the morning Extra Magic Hours, but consider the evening ones if your party is old enough to stay up and enjoy them.
• Light season: If you are visiting during the lighter crowd times of the year (while schools are in session), then go on days where parks have morning or evening Extra Magic Hours to enjoy this extra time.
• Non-Disney resorts: If you are staying at a non-Disney resort where you don’t get the opportunity to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours, then always avoid the parks that have them on that particular day to avoid the largest crowds.
• Park order: It doesn’t matter what order you visit the parks, but I recommend that first-time visitors start and finish their trip at the Magic Kingdom.
• How many days per park: I recommend 2 days at the Magic Kingdom and 1 day each at the other three parks. If you don’t have 5 days, I would visit the Magic Kingdom twice, and then pick other parks to visit.
• Animal Kingdom evening: There is less to do in this park at night, as the animals head to bed. An Animal Kingdom park day is a great one to pair with an evening visit to Downtown Disney, the BoardWalk, or a resort for a special dinner.
DISNEY DON’T
Rumor has it that Heelys are banned at all Florida theme parks. These tennis shoes with retractable mini-rollerskate wheels in the heels are very popular, but apparently present a risk to other guests. Make sure you pack other shoes for the kids on this trip.
Once you have the general agenda of what park you will visit on which days, you should plan some of your meals. You should get your character meals, dinner shows, and romantic soirées planned and reserved ahead of time.
DISNEY DON’T
Don’t forget to pack all the essentials! Shorts, swimsuits, sunglasses, and sandals—that’s all you need, right? Wrong! Make sure you take into account the low evening temperatures for the time of year you’re visiting: a pair of slacks and maybe a sweater could transform an uncomfortably cold night into a perfect evening out. Other things you should consider packing:
• A handy list of mail and e-mail addresses—some attractions have kiosks where you can send themed e-mail postcards free of charge.
• Comfortable walking shoes for everyone!
• Sunscreen, lip balm, hats, sunglasses, ponchos, and bug spray.
• One autograph book per child, as well as a big pen (so that characters can grip them).
• Pool shoes for the water parks.
• Earplugs for kids who are scared by loud noises.
• Backpack or fanny pack for carrying necessities into the parks.
Other General Strategies
There are a great many strategies that help any kind of group, regardless of age, group size, or budget. Here are a few.
• Request a refrigerator for your room. Make sure you request well in advance. For some resorts, it is standard; for others it can be added for free, and for others there is a charge. The supply of refrigerators runs out quickly during busier times.
• If you can stop at a grocery store, do so. Stock up on drinks, snacks, and breakfast foods to have back in the room. Doing so can save you a ton of money in the long run.
HIDDEN MAGIC!
Refillable resort mugs can be a great deal. These mugs allow you to get free soda refills in your resort as often as you wish. At around $15 each, these smaller mugs do require a lot of refilling to pay for them, but it can pay off if you plan a lot of resort pool time. They are a great souvenir, too.
• Can’t stop at a grocery store? Mail a box of supplies ahead to your room. You may not be able to ship bottles of soda, but a box of cereal, some dry packaged snacks, and other items will save you food budget dollars and lighten your bags.
• If you have to take a backpack into the park anyway, pack snacks and beverages. Packing a lunch is not out of the question, either. You can always stow it away in a locker or your stroller once you get to the park. Again, the cost savings can be significant.
• Best Friends Pet Care, an extensive kennel facility at Walt Disney World, has air-conditioned kennels for a variety of animal types. You can get more information at www.wdwbestfriendspetcare.com. or at 1-877-4-WDW-PETS. This i
s not your neighborhood kennel, offering an amazing array of facilities and packages. Reservations are required.
DID YOU KNOW?
In many theater seating attractions, people elbow others out of the way to get to the front of the crowd, waiting by the doors that lead to the theater. Let them go! In most cases, being in the middle of the crowd means you will sit in the middle of the theater, where 3-D effects are best and the view of all characters is guaranteed. Let the piggies sit on the sides, where they deserve to be!
Strategies for Families
If you’re bringing kids to Walt Disney World, you’re in the majority. That does not mean, however, that you always have to be in the longest lines and at the busiest restaurants. The following sections describe some strategies that can help you avoid crowds and maximize the fun.
Before You Leave
I’ve had friends surprise their kids by not telling them they were headed to Walt Disney World until they literally were there, and it was great. But you can have fun at the other extreme by following these strategies:
• Let your kids help with the planning. Allow them to select the hotel from a few that you have picked within your price range. Let them choose a few of the restaurants, and have them help in filling out the Trip Cards, selecting what attractions to hit and which to miss.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Walt Disney World, 2012 Edition Page 5