WDW - like I’m 5

[kdubs923]

Ok, time to finally bring the kids (age 8 and 10) to Disney! I never went as a kid and I want to do ALL the things. I haven’t been in 15 years, so I’m sure a lot has changed.

This isn’t exactly a once in a lifetime trip, but we’re definitely not a family that will be going back every year, so I’d like to splurge in some areas.

We’re thinking 10 nights, mid August. I know it will be hot as balls in FL, but it’s the best timing between school/work schedules. I’m thinking 6 days in the parks, 2 at Universal, and some pool/water park days mixed in.

The value/moderate hotels are fine, right? It looks like if we book in the next week or so, we can get the dining plan for free.

DS likes Star Wars and DD is still excited about Princesses. Which character meal(s) should we do? Is the Bippidy Boppidy Boutique worth it? I think there’s a Star Wars experience or something?

If you’ve been recently, what was worth the splurge and what’s overrated? What’s the deal with the Genie+ fastpass thing?

[sparty04]

We stayed offsite so I'm not super helpful but I'd recommend more than 2 rest days for 8 park days. We did 4 park days but only did 1 rest day. I wish we had done one more (specifically after magic kingdom)

[sparty04]

Feb 2, 2024 22:51:03 GMT -5 sparty04 said:

We stayed offsite so I'm not super helpful but I'd recommend more than 2 rest days for 8 park days. We did 4 park days but only did 1 rest day. I wish we had done one more (specifically after magic kingdom)

Also, my kids are terrible eaters so we only did quick service meals (mobile ordering was amazing) and we were happy with that.

[mccallister84]

Genie plus was worth every single penny we paid for it. It’s dynamic pricing though so you don’t know how much it will be before hand. We went in early December and I budgeted $25 per person per day. Only our MK day was that much. But keep an eye on pricing leading up to your trip. Since you’ll be there so long though you can probably get away without it, or you could just use it the first time you go to each park and then not repeat the big headliners.

Look up early entry. You can get so much done if you are able to get to the parks for early entry plus the first hour they are open.

Definitely mobile order. I swear it’s the best thing to ever happen to Disney.

I think Bibbity Boppity Botique is geared a bit younger. We have never done it though.

I’d try to stay on a skyliner resort.

Everyone always says the dining plan isn’t worth it, but if you get it for free, why not? But if you’re going at a time with free dining I think it’s even more important to make your dining reservations right at the 60 day mark.

[sadie]

We went for 7 park days recently. Genie + was great. My kids are 11 and 8 and we didn't bother with rest days. We'd go at rope drop, rally til early afternoon, come back to the hotel for some chill/swim/nap time, then head back out for dinner reservations. We liked having a mix of sit down and quick service meals, though towards the end of the trip, we ended up canceling a planned sit down meal or two.

We loved staying on the skyliner. Moreso than being on the monorail. We also liked traveling by boat around the Magic Kingdom area.

We weren't excited for character dining, but ended up doing two that were some of our favorite experiences: breakfast at Cape May Cafe in Beach Club and Storybook Dining at Artist Point in Wilderness Lodge.

We would probably skip a park on day one to explore the resort/get groceries/etc. By the time our flight got in/we got settled at the resort on day 1, we didn't make it to Hollywood Studios until 3pm.

Skip the expensive Magic + bands. We never got the extras to work right.

The Memory Maker photo package was well worth it to us. Also-if you forgot to scan your band to load the post-ride photos, they have a really great track down your photos service.

[expectantsteelerfan]

We last went to Disney in 2018, so it was before Genie+ and the new star wars stuff. We stayed at the Polynesian and loved it there, but we also had the military discount. We didn't find the dining plan 'worth it' but it was free when we booked. If you miss that promotion I wouldn't worry and I would prefer a different promotion, although I think the dining plan one might be the best they offer. You might want to use a travel agent who specializes in Disney in order to find the best promotion. Ours also booked all our dining and scheduled our 1st fast passes for us, which had to be done on a specific date and early in the morning to get what we want, so I was grateful for that.
I showed my daughter pictures of her friends who had had the Bibbity Boppity Boutique makeover, and she didn't want to do that (my kids were the same ages as yours when we went). But we did eat at Cinderella's Royal Table or whatever it's called to eat at the Castle, and we all loved that, and you got to meet a ton of princesses at that meal. We also did Chef Mickey's, the Lilo and Stitch breakfast at the Polynesian on the last day (and that food/experience was one of our favorites, but I don't know if we would have traveled to the Polynesian for it if we hadn't been staying there), and the African character meal at Animal Kingdom (can't remember what it's called). We enjoyed all of them, but if we didn't have the dining plan we def. wouldn't have needed to do more than 1, and I would have picked Cinderella.

We also JUST went to Universal 2 weeks ago. We stayed at the Hard Rock, which is one of the hotels where you get free Express Passes for staying there. I can say that if we hadn't, we would have wanted to purchase Express Passes for sure. They are much easier to use than Disney's, you just scan your hotel key card (that you wear on a lanyard) when you enter the line...no scheduling, no limits, and pretty much EVERY attraction has an Express Pass line except for Hagrid's Motorbikes (which usually has a line of at least 120 minutes...we waited that full amount the 1st time we rode it, and got lucky with only a 90 min. wait the 2nd time).

We did 3 days at Universal, but 2 would have been fine. We were done with the parks around 4/5 PM most every day, and were able to relax in the evenings, but were still exhausted. And we rode every single thing, and the things we liked more than once. We did not do Volcano Bay (the water park, needs an additional ticket).

I think we had 5 park days at Disney, but I can't really remember. Another thing a travel agent can help with is which tickets are the best value for you. You def. want the ones for Universal that allow you to go from park to park, but we didn't really need that at Disney. But we also had 5 day park tickets for Universal because there was a promotion to buy 3 days, get 2 days free, and that ticket only cost us a total of like $80 more total for all of us than if we had only done 2 days, so we decided to get 3 days and just let the 2 free days go to waste. I think Disney tickets might have promos like that too.

[ggirl]

Value/moderates are fine

My daughter is turning 9 and still loves BB boutique. She also still loved all things princesses. We’ve done Cinderella’s castle and the restaurant in Norway for princess meals. Food is fine. You are paying for experience. Other character meals we enjoy is garden grill at Epcot. I’ve heard good things about Toppolinos (spelling?) breakfast at riviera resort but we have never been.

With 8 park days I don’t know if you would need to splurge for genie plus if you are doing every park twice. That’s enough time to do everything if you don’t mind standing in line. I would spring for the individual lightning lanes (separate from genie plus) though. Especially for flight of passage in animal kingdom.

We always use mobile ordering. I have never done the dining plan (local pass holders) but I’ve heard it doesn’t so much as save you money as help you budget since the food is already paid for.


Edit: sorry 6 days at parks. I find HS tends to have the longest waits due to less attractions so we tend to use genie plus there. Especially since slinky dog always has a wait and is one of the first to go for genie plus.

[Jalapeñomel]

Wait, if you book now you can get the dining plan for free??

Hmmmm....

[sent]

My DD was into princesses so we did an equivalent BBB experience at the Four Seasons when she was 5. It was ok, she definitely would not have been into that age 8. It's going to be so hot when you go, I couldn't imagine traipsing around in full out princess gear after visiting the boutique. I do think eating in Cinderella's Castle is kinda cool. Only me and DD did that meal to save some money since my husband didn't care for it and DS was a tiny baby back then. I was just telling a friend that one of our "strategies" is to sometimes split the kids up to be able to tackle something that really interests one but not the other. One morning I took just DD to Hollywood Studios to rope drop. I ended the same day with just DS at Magic Kingdom as we did lots of rides back to back in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland with very low waits because he doesn't do so well waiting in long lines while my husband went back to the hotel with DD.

We've only taken one trip since the Genie+ and Lightning Lanes came out. I didn't use either because I could not handle starting my day logging in at 7 am to try and get it. I don't know if that's changed. Instead my tactic was to either rope drop to and run to a popular attraction (we did this when DD wanted to ride the Runaway Railroad again) or wait until the end of the night to get in line for another popular attraction (we were going to do this for Slinky Dog but the family decided they didn't want to ride it at that point.)

Moderates or Values should be fine as long as you plan and prepare for transportation. If you can stay at a Skyliner hotel, that would save time getting to the parks. Sometimes we took cabs to or from the parks if the bus times were inconvenient. The MEARS cab company has an app to call for a cab (I'm anti Uber/Lyft).

[kdubs923]

Feb 3, 2024 10:18:05 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Wait, if you book now you can get the dining plan for free??

Hmmmm....

Free for Disney+ members 😊

[kdubs923]

countthestars am I remembering that you did Disney vacation planning? Or can you recommend someone? 😊

[ilikedonuts]

We are out of state Disney and Universal passholders. My girls are 10 and 12.

We actually did a quick trip this past August (2 days universal and 2 days Disney). It was a heat index of 115+. It was freaking brutal. That being said I already booked an august trip for this year too 😂

My girls love Tusker House and Ohana breakfast for character meals. Topolino’s at Rivera is another popular character breakfast that people seem to love.

Genie+ varies in price based on when you go. I’m lazy and hate waiting in lines so we’ve done it almost every day of all our trips since it started. Plus we like that we don’t have to rush to the parks for early entry if we buy it.

My 10 year old still loves Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My oldest did it up until she was 11.

Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions. We did March, August and Halloween week last year and we are doing the same times this year as well.

[ilikedonuts]

And for universal, stay one night at one of their 3 deluxe hotels and you get unlimited express pass for the day you check in and the day you check out. So you only need to book one night to get two days of Express pass for everyone in your room. And then you also get early entry on the day of check in in the day you check out so both days if you only do one night plus all three of those hotels are walking distance to both universal parks.

We’ve stayed at all 3 universal deluxe hotels and I like Hard Rock the best.

[Velar Fricative]

We went this past August. 5 days in the parks (all 4 parks, but MK was two days). It was the first time for my kids (9 and 6 at the time) as well as for me. I was so overwhelmed so I had a friend plan my trip since she works as one of their “agents” or whatever they’re called.

Yes, it was hot. But we went at the very end of August and the lines weren’t that bad. Genie+ was definitely worth it though. It took me one day to really get the hang of it though. We felt very prepared for the heat, even though I haaaaate heat. Still, the cost savings that time of year were worth it. We booked Pop Century but then got an upgrade to Caribbean Beach; being by the skyliner was great.

I would say every park/activity was a hit, though they found EPCOT a little boring. I didn’t like Hollywood Studios all that much myself. Animal Kingdom was the favorite because it rained all day and the park was eeeeeeempty. The workers kept telling us how lucky we were to have the park to ourselves lol. We were prepared and still had a great time.

There was still no dining plan back yet when we went, so we just booked one reservation each day and did to-go food the rest of the day. We kept it simple and did the stuff we knew they’d want (character dining twice).

I had fun, but I don’t get the obsession lol. We definitely won’t go back anytime soon because even with the cheaper time of year, it is still not a vacation we can swing with any regularity. The kids loved it but they get this won’t be a regular occurrence. They were actually relieved to be going home at the end; they walked every single day through every park like pros and never once complained, so they were just tired by the end.

[countthestars]

I’ll recommend someone! I used to be one, but it was more work than it’s worth.

A lot of people think free dining is a rip off because Disney runs promos often and it’s usually better than if you pay more for your room with “free dining”. Some people love it for budgeting though!

I would stay at Caribbean Beach preferred to be on the skyliner. If you want Value, make sure there are queen beds (not sure if they’ve changed but a few years ago they were mostly or all full sized!). I would do Pop Century or Art of Animation over the All Stars. Value resorts won’t have pool slides, which my kids love.

We have never done Bippity Boppity but I don’t think T is too old.

We like Genie+ and if you do it, I would highly recommend Standby Skipper. It’s a third party app and it’s amazing. I think it’s $45 for a week and you have to buy your own Genie+, but then you tell the app which Lightning lanes you want and it books them for you so you don’t have to be on your app they whole day looking for LL.

[midwestmama]

We stayed at Caribbean Beach years ago (2016) and enjoyed it. Before the Skyliner, the busses were a nightmare because it is such a big resort (so if the bus filled up before it got to your stop, it would leave for whichever park, and you'd have to wait for the next bus), but is probably better with the Skyliner now. Our favorite on-site resort is Polynesian, but of course that is a Deluxe resort. (We had rented DVC points, and it was in December, so not peak season, which made it a similar price point as the regular rate as a Moderate resort.)

We did free dining one time, and it was just way too much food for us. There were some meals where DH and I would have preferred to get an appetizer and share a meal, or each get a side salad and share a meal. Mobile ordering for QS meals is great, as others mentioned. We generally liked to do one QS meal a day and one TS (table service) meal a day for lunch and dinner. Having a TS meal was a nice way to relax a bit more and sit in AC.

I think Genie+ only works well if you stay at a Disney resort. We tried using it when we were in Orlando for a week, but not staying at a WDW resort, and it was not worth the money. Everything was pretty much gone by the time we were able to go on to get reservations.

We have gone in August and the heat and humidity were brutal. You may want to plan to rope-drop in the morning, go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a few hours, and then go back until park close. Or maybe do that 1-2 parks days where you don't have enough planned to fill the whole day. We sweated non-stop, so you may want to plan a half-day to do laundry, unless you are taking bags large enough to fit all your clothes (and maybe extra) for the week plus room for souvenirs.

[mccallister84]

Feb 5, 2024 9:35:02 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

We stayed at Caribbean Beach years ago (2016) and enjoyed it. Before the Skyliner, the busses were a nightmare because it is such a big resort (so if the bus filled up before it got to your stop, it would leave for whichever park, and you'd have to wait for the next bus), but is probably better with the Skyliner now. Our favorite on-site resort is Polynesian, but of course that is a Deluxe resort. (We had rented DVC points, and it was in December, so not peak season, which made it a similar price point as the regular rate as a Moderate resort.)

We did free dining one time, and it was just way too much food for us. There were some meals where DH and I would have preferred to get an appetizer and share a meal, or each get a side salad and share a meal. Mobile ordering for QS meals is great, as others mentioned. We generally liked to do one QS meal a day and one TS (table service) meal a day for lunch and dinner. Having a TS meal was a nice way to relax a bit more and sit in AC.

I think Genie+ only works well if you stay at a Disney resort. We tried using it when we were in Orlando for a week, but not staying at a WDW resort, and it was not worth the money. Everything was pretty much gone by the time we were able to go on to get reservations.

We have gone in August and the heat and humidity were brutal. You may want to plan to rope-drop in the morning, go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a few hours, and then go back until park close. Or maybe do that 1-2 parks days where you don't have enough planned to fill the whole day. We sweated non-stop, so you may want to plan a half-day to do laundry, unless you are taking bags large enough to fit all your clothes (and maybe extra) for the week plus room for souvenirs.

I am pretty sure everyone can do genie plus at 7 am. It’s the individual lightening lanes that you have to wait for park open for.

[nicolewi]

We went in 2018 and I had all the systems DOWN, and then everything changed!! We did fast passes back then.

IN any case, I just want to say that we did the dining plan in 2018. It was a hard call, but as we were doing a bunch of character meals (my kids were 4, 6, 8 and 10), I do think it paid off for us. We used our sit-down meal credits to choose character meals or other things that we felt would be a great experience/good break for the kids. We used quick-service in between and I also enjoyed having the snack credits available. I know it's just a numbers game, but I liked having things "prepaid" and not feeling the stress of paying for things left and right while in the parks. We bought candy at the end with some remaining snack credits but we didn't leave anything on the table at the end.

I don't really understand the "way too much food" thing. We liked having the sit-down meal experience as a break. DH and I enjoyed getting our one included cocktail with many of the meals, which would have been really expensive a la carte.

That said, we did really long, full days at the parks, so we were busy and hungry!

[brooke77]

sadie - Can I ask a question about the magic bands? We are going to Disney for Spring Break. It is me, DH, and DS (6). Should we skip magic bands altogether or skip the + bands? Would it make sense to just get one for DS or is it better if we all have one?

[sadie]

The things we used them for were park entry, room checkin and entry, and to "claim" our photos from rides/photographers around the parks. All of those things can be done with the regular bands. You can use your phone/app to scan park entry tickets, but it's easier for everyone to scan individual bands.

The room key and photo features worked maybe 75% of the time.

I'd say there's no need for magic +, but a regular band would be convenient for all.

[sparty04]

Feb 6, 2024 9:03:01 GMT -5 brooke77 said:

sadie - Can I ask a question about the magic bands? We are going to Disney for Spring Break. It is me, DH, and DS (6). Should we skip magic bands altogether or skip the + bands? Would it make sense to just get one for DS or is it better if we all have one?

We used the cards that you get at entrance and they were fine as well (we stayed offsite so they weren't our room key)

[redpenmama]

We just got back! We were there for dance, but we did three days at the parks while we were there. It was just my oldest DD (12) and me (along with 15 other girls the same age...). We stayed at a value resort (All-Star Sports) and it was nice! Not luxury accommodations but rooms were clean/updated, food was decent, and service was great.

Genie+ was worth it. Price is variable but it was $25 at MK and $16 at AK when we were there. It's easy to use and gets you on the rides much faster. We did a lightning lane a couple of times as well with limited success (two rides happened to be closed during our window so we had to get them refunded).

We didn't have Magic Bands because we booked with a group, but the app was easy to use. I would bring a portable charger because you do rely on your phone for everything (if you don't have a Magic Band), so we were having to charge throughout the day.

Bippity Boppity Boutique seems to be geared toward a younger age group based on past experiences and what I saw there last week...but if your daughter is super into princesses, she could certainly do it.

[mccallister84]

Feb 6, 2024 9:03:01 GMT -5 brooke77 said:

sadie - Can I ask a question about the magic bands? We are going to Disney for Spring Break. It is me, DH, and DS (6). Should we skip magic bands altogether or skip the + bands? Would it make sense to just get one for DS or is it better if we all have one?

When we went, we were able to order magic bands. My parents ordered after us and they had to order pluses, you couldn’t order the regular ones anymore (and I chatted with them to ask). My magic band got lost in MK and then I just used my phone which was so easy to use - I didn’t have to unlock it. I definitely don’t think the band pluses are worth the money but the girls did love having bands. If we did it again, I’d let them have the bands and just do the phone for H and me. I also wouldn’t have to wanted to have to managed the kids tickets on our phones since sometimes kid a was with me and other times it was kid b.

[estrellita]

We just went a little over a year ago with my parents and sister (kids were 7 and 5). H and I hadn't been for 9 years but I went almost yearly as a kid and my sister is very Disney obsessed, so she and my parents have been several times more recently.

All but 2 times we've stayed either off property or at the value resorts. The rooms are small and sometimes the busses take a bit, but we usually don't spend much time at the hotel.

We got the Magic+ bands and liked them. I don't think they're completely necessary, but it was fun to have them go off in different places, during fireworks, etc. They worked on our Disney cruise last month also! We had a few times that someone's didn't work, but it was rare.

We were able to get DAS and it was really helpful. So it wasn't Genie+ but similar. We mostly just waited in lines, but used it for a few of the longer line rides (Peter Pan, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, etc). The main issue I have with it is that you have to plan your day around the times you can book. It wasn't too bad, but we usually prefer less planning (we're total outliers in this sense I think lol).

We do quick service the majority of the time for food, mostly because we like to spend more time on rides and walking around. We did do a sit down dinner in the Mexico pavilion which was good, but because it takes longer, we did miss out on some rides.

We usually plan our days to have MK and Epcot during the weekdays because it tends to be less busy. Someone else mentioned rainy days - they can definitely be awesome if you're prepared with ponchos because of less people! If you do two days at a park, watch the fireworks/show the first time, then do rides during it the second time. I'm pretty sure my kids rode the Barnstormer like 10 times in a row on our 2nd MK night 😂

We tend to do Disney differently than a lot of people (no rest days or breaks, we never get there super early, don't do a lot of the character things other than the princesses this last time). BBB is also overrated IMO. I know it's a whole experience, but it's SO expensive. We brought a dress up Cinderella dress and a crown, and A was perfectly happy with that. She also got pixie dusted (literally at a shop with glitter, and also at the bus station when someone gave her a plastic crown) or you could bring glitter or hair accessories. Just my thoughts. Don't feel like you HAVE to do everything or do things any particular way if it doesn't work for you!

[luckystar2]

It’s been a while for us. But we went for the 2nd time when dd was 9. I looked into BBB and honestly kind of hate all the hairstyles they do. I actually ended up finding a mermaid makeover at the Pirate league and booked that. We went in late August so Mickey’s Halloween party was starting. So I did the makeover on the day we had the Halloween party. The mermaid makeover was so cute. I got dd a tank and skirt that were teal and shiny and looked like mermaid scales so she wore that. She loved Ariel so it was a perfect alternative over BBB. We then made sure to go get pics with Ariel.

We stayed at Wilderness Lodge and got free dining. I really liked having the dining plan and we used it to do tons of character meals both times we went.

We did Cinderella’s castle for breakfast. Some people say it’s overrated but I figured I’d at least try to get reservations and was able to. It was fun and pretty cool to go in the castle. The first time we went when dd was younger we did Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. We booked too late to get the castle so this was a good alternative. We liked the food at Ohana.

We went in August for our 2nd trip. There was only one day that was unbearably hot. But the biggest issue we had was rain and t-storms. Ugh. Stuff kept getting shut down because of lightning. We kept getting soaked. I brought some cheap ponchos but I ended up buying different shoes when I was there because shoes kept getting so soaked. Our Mickey’s Halloween party ended up being a bust because it just wouldn’t stop raining. I was totally prepared to be hot but I wasn’t quite expecting so much rain. Not sure how normal that is. I knew to expect some and definitely had ponchos ready though.