Planning DW vacation

[mjl6907]

I'm in the beginning stages of planning a Disney vacation with my two kids who will be 5 and 3 at the time. I want to stay onsite, to take advantage of complimentary transportation to airport and to parks and back, plan on going to Magic Kingdom possibly 2 days, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. These are my questions:

1. Should I allow for 6 days, 2 travel days and 4 park days?
2. Is transportation to the parks from the onsite resorts convenient?
3. Is transportation from the airport to the onsite resort convenient?
4. which onsite resort would you recommend (value resort)? Thinking of Art of Animation...
5. Is it easier to book a package with resort/ticket/dining and get plane ticket separately?
6. What is a good place/site to book a disney package?

If you made it this far, thank you SO much!

[stephm0188]

What time of year are you going?
In the past, we've always done 4 park days and felt like it was fine. We do get park hopper tickets and will do multiple parks in the same day. For us, Epcot isn't a whole day park. Neither is Hollywood Studios. So we do both in the same day. Def. do 2 days at Magic Kingdom.

I've not done Magical Express from the airport to the resort yet. We stayed off site once and at the Swan another time. The buses can be cramped with strollers at times, but overall its not too bad. The monorail is fabulous.

Art of Animation is the newest resort, and also the highest price of the values. I'd consider looking into moderates as well. We're going next week and staying in a royal room at Port Orleans. It was actually cheaper than Art of Animation. I liked the location of Swan/Dolphin a lot. We were able to walk to Epcot from the hotel and enter through the back entrance.

I've never done a package, so I can't help you there.

[dragonfly08]

1. Should I allow for 6 days, 2 travel days and 4 park days? I could stay at Disney for twice that and still not do everything. But two of my last three visits were only four days long because that's all the time I had, and they were still great. We did plenty. You just have to prioritize, and you may want to pay for park hoppers so you can maximize your time.

2. Is transportation to the parks from the onsite resorts convenient? Depends on your definition of convenient. You don't have to worry about parking or navigating unfamiliar roads. The buses are right there. On the down side, they can be a decent walk from the park gates and there is sometimes a really long wait to get on a bus, especially at the end of the night and/or right after a parade when so many people are leaving. That said, I always stay on site and use Disney transportation because I prefer to not have to worry about a car.

3. Is transportation from the airport to the onsite resort convenient? I like it because it starts the vacation off nicely, and you don't have to worry about picking up your luggage. Magical Express does that for you and delivers it right to your room.

4. which onsite resort would you recommend (value resort)? Thinking of Art of Animation... Supposed to be nice. It is more expensive than the other value resorts, though. My girls really like the theming at POP Century, so we stay there.
5. Is it easier to book a package with resort/ticket/dining and get plane ticket separately? Easier, not really since you have to do the plane tickets yourself, but definitely cheaper. Disney has always charged more for plane tickets than I can get by shopping around on my own. Also, be sure to run the numbers on the dining plan. Many people, myself included, find that it isn't worth the cost. I spend less out of pocket on food without it based on the way my family prefers to eat.

6. What is a good place/site to book a disney package? I usually just book it myself directly through Disney. Super easy, and I have full access to/control over my booking should I have questions or want to make changes. If you use a TA, those things have to go through them since as the person who makes the reservation, they are who Disney will deal with. You can make dining reservations on your own even if you use a TA but you can't make adjustments to the room/dining/ticketing aspects of the package without going through the agent and if you end up with a bum TA who isn't responsive to you it can get frustrating.

[ckinla]

1. Should I allow for 6 days, 2 travel days and 4 park days? You will want a week (and really, that's still not enough time!) - depending on where your flying in from, you could include a travel day in with a half day at magic kingdom, which is what we did when our flight was 2 hours.

2. Is transportation to the parks from the onsite resorts convenient? Convenient, yes - but depending on where you stay you will have to factor in at least an hour each way (may take less, but if it's really busy you'll be waiting)

3. Is transportation from the airport to the onsite resort convenient? Yes, very - you just pick up the shuttle in the same location as the rental car areas.

4. which onsite resort would you recommend (value resort)? Thinking of Art of Animation... We always stay at Pop Culture. Love it!

5. Is it easier to book a package with resort/ticket/dining and get plane ticket separately?

6. What is a good place/site to book a disney package? We used AAA to book the whole trip - airfare, hotel, dining packages, etc. It was very convenient.