Disney World: please please research

[Anonymous]

For PP who asked, we spent about $2,800 on flights, another $1,600 on the hotels. We got a car for about $350. We upped our phone plans for a month, which cost about $80 more than normal. Food was around $750 (we had a lot of meals with family or not a lot of full meals -- snacks, apps here and there). The "stuff" we did was largely free. We took gifts and new stuff she hadn't seen from here, so I think we only bought like one toy item there for her.

And for the other PP who criticized our decision, we went because we have family we wanted to visit. But we did not stay with them. We have one kid so that probably made our trip a little easier. I was worried about the flight but she did great. She eats everything so no problem there. It did mess with her sleep a bit but only took her two days to get back to normal once we were back. And we balanced the museum/touristy thing with other fun things (she enjoyed just walking around, people watching and hearing a different language!) and it all turned out fine. Much better than I thought it would, actually.

Not saying I don't want to go to Disney, because actually I really do. I can't wait to see DD's face light up with the excitement of it all. But I do find it fairly obscene that you get a whole, adventurous, relaxing vacation in another COUNTRY for about the same price.

It's all in your perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol at grand Floridian being called a "decent" place.

you do realize how pathetic you sound, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My vacations will never take this amount of work. Listen to podcasts? LOL

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol at grand Floridian being called a "decent" place.

you do realize how pathetic you sound, right?

We're poor and can't even the Grand Floridian, but it's not a decent place. It's a fake Disney hotel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol at grand Floridian being called a "decent" place.

you do realize how pathetic you sound, right?

We're poor and can't even the Grand Floridian, but it's not a decent place. It's a fake Disney hotel.

Whoops, can't even afford.

[Anonymous]

When we went to Disney we all like the Disney hotel and pool
Way more than the theme park part (beach club hotel).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks 1142. Priced a cruise out last year and it was still close to $6,000 for 4 days. Probably a little more than normal, because I get seasick so wanted a room in the middle of the ship with a window, but still, that's A LOT. It wouldn't have been THAT much less without those caveats.

Like I said, I just went to Europe for two weeks, stayed in hotels and with airfare for 3, ate like kings, rented a car and still paid less than that. Just not feeling it right now....

good for you. seriously. it should be criminal how much people spend for disney, and go multiple times a year.

Says who?

Guess what? Most parents don't think schlepping small kids to Europe on long flights, screwing with their sleep schedule, messing with their diet, and dragging them through museums is much of a *vacation.* Most parents take their kids to kid-friendly destinations when they are young, and then branch out to other kinds of trips as they get older.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I believe the harshest disney critics are those who simply can't afford it.

i am the harsh pp disney critic. trust me, i could afford it if i wanted to go. instead i traveled to 5 new countries in 2015.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Some folks actually enjoy the planning but it isn't for everyone. Definitely stay home if you can't put time into planning. Lots more places to spend your money. Lots of sour faces and kids getting yelled at in the parks.

OP, my husband and I enjoy planning trips especially Disney ones. We just booked our first with our son for October and are excited to be able to plan and talk about it. We also enjoy listening to the poscasts. They are interesting.

[Anonymous]

op and other disney "enthusiasts" should check out the disney tourist blog website...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol at grand Floridian being called a "decent" place.

you do realize how pathetic you sound, right?

We're poor and can't even the Grand Floridian, but it's not a decent place. It's a fake Disney hotel.

Just stop. They aren't "fake." They are great hotels, by any standard. with what would be considered to be great service outside of Disney.

People are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Please help me understand what you have to research....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Some folks actually enjoy the planning but it isn't for everyone. Definitely stay home if you can't put time into planning. Lots more places to spend your money. Lots of sour faces and kids getting yelled at in the parks.

Half the enjoyment of taking a vacation is planning it! That way I don't only enjoy the actual days there, but I daydream about my vacation while tweaking my plans. I don't understand the people who leave it all to chance.
But then I'm a research scientist. This is what I do anyway

+1

I do both. I plan for months and line up all of the set things (like where we're staying, flight times, ADRs you can't get last minute) and then have a loose plan for each day. There are apps that will recalculate ride schedule on the fly to work around FPs for high wait rides, but there's no need to obsess about sticking by a set schedule.

And the best WDW vacation we had was 2yo, 5yo, and me. We didn't go on all the rides because of height limits for the 2yo, but we had a blast and it wasn't stressful at all. The last time we went was more stressful but that was mostly because it was 10 degrees warmer than average that week.

I do want to say there's a lot of room between pre-planning everything and yelling at your melting down toddler, though. If you're of the mindset that you have to do everything, then you should probably pre-plan that.

this alone speaks volumes. go see the grand canyon. the trevi fountain. the air and space museum. absurd.

You know they are not mutually exclusive, right? My kids have seen all those places and a whole lot more. But sometimes they just want to go on a roller coaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Some folks actually enjoy the planning but it isn't for everyone. Definitely stay home if you can't put time into planning. Lots more places to spend your money. Lots of sour faces and kids getting yelled at in the parks.

Half the enjoyment of taking a vacation is planning it! That way I don't only enjoy the actual days there, but I daydream about my vacation while tweaking my plans. I don't understand the people who leave it all to chance.
But then I'm a research scientist. This is what I do anyway

+1

I do both. I plan for months and line up all of the set things (like where we're staying, flight times, ADRs you can't get last minute) and then have a loose plan for each day. There are apps that will recalculate ride schedule on the fly to work around FPs for high wait rides, but there's no need to obsess about sticking by a set schedule.

And the best WDW vacation we had was 2yo, 5yo, and me. We didn't go on all the rides because of height limits for the 2yo, but we had a blast and it wasn't stressful at all. The last time we went was more stressful but that was mostly because it was 10 degrees warmer than average that week.

I do want to say there's a lot of room between pre-planning everything and yelling at your melting down toddler, though. If you're of the mindset that you have to do everything, then you should probably pre-plan that.

this alone speaks volumes. go see the grand canyon. the trevi fountain. the air and space museum. absurd.

You know they are not mutually exclusive, right? My kids have seen all those places and a whole lot more. But sometimes they just want to go on a roller coaster.

Check our privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks 1142. Priced a cruise out last year and it was still close to $6,000 for 4 days. Probably a little more than normal, because I get seasick so wanted a room in the middle of the ship with a window, but still, that's A LOT. It wouldn't have been THAT much less without those caveats.

Like I said, I just went to Europe for two weeks, stayed in hotels and with airfare for 3, ate like kings, rented a car and still paid less than that. Just not feeling it right now....

good for you. seriously. it should be criminal how much people spend for disney, and go multiple times a year.

Are you being sarcastic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol at grand Floridian being called a "decent" place.

you do realize how pathetic you sound, right?

We're poor and can't even the Grand Floridian, but it's not a decent place. It's a fake Disney hotel.

IT'S DISNEY. If you want the four seasons, go stay there. What a weird sentiment.