Another vote for animal kingdom lodge (kidani in our case) and April here. It is one thing where DC having a weird spring break schedule helps....

My other advice dovetails the other April posters so closely I had to blink and realize she wasn't me (we only have one kid). Don't bother with park hoppers, and do make meal reservations. I will add to that, I think the sit down restaurants are totally worth it vs the counter service--and that you can do it more cheaply without a meal plan than with one.

Wilderness Lodge has a boat that goes back and forth and is pretty painless.

Anonymous wrote:We will be driving from west palm and staying 3 nights. Will the contemporary give us the most access to the parks? We are taking a 5 year old.

Not sure what you mean by access, but yes, the Contemporary gives you the most flexibility. Being able to walk back to the Contemporary from the Magic Kingdom is golden.

We will be driving from west palm and staying 3 nights. Will the contemporary give us the most access to the parks? We are taking a 5 year old.

I am going to throw in a vote for Waldorf Astoria bonnet creek. Truly beautiful property - they have great rates (for what you get) and you get some relief at night from Disney.

When I was planning our Disney trip couple of years back I came across a "Disney Tourist Blog" - actually quite an amazing blog written by a Disney-obsessed guy (I think he is a lawyer in real life and actually quite young) where you can have absolutely every question you ever had about your trip answered in an informative, independent and intelligent way. I have absolutely nothing to gain here but I highly recommend it (actually it might be the only site you need):
http://www.disneytouristblog.com

Just go straight to his trip planning guides - they are indeed very useful.

Actually I almost feel sorry for him after reading it back then for a couple of weeks - all this passion, intelligence, skills and all for Disney? but what do I know? Let a hundred flowers bloom...

Anonymous wrote:Went to Disneyland (the best!) in Southern California in February. Gorgeous! Stayed at the Disney hotel and the kids loved seeing their favorite characters at the breakfast buffet and loved taking the Disney train back and forth from the park to the hotel. Legoland is right next door.

For us, it was a fantastic and oddly relaxing trip. It is so much easier to go on vacation with little kids when the resort is geared to little kids. DH and I could relax.

Only if "right next door" = an hour drive away

Agree that with the new stuff with pre-booking restaurants and Fastpasses, it's sort of a pain to book with less than 6 months notice. I booked at 5 months for an upcoming trip, and was locked out of almost all restaurant reservations.
Of course, you can always just show up and take your chances with things. It's not like life and death if you don't have meal reservations -- you just have to deal with counter service restaurants.
It usually takes me a couple of hours to sort of plan out where we want to stay and then figure out a reasonable plan for which park when so we can make meal reservations.
Also, they run 35% off luxury hotel reservations all the time. If think if you book at full price, and then they offer a promotion, you can call back and get rebooked at the promotion rate. I always wait for the promotions, but I think that's why I end up having trouble with the 180 day reservation thing.

Used to work there and my best advice is to stay on property (you can score a Value Resort off season for pretty cheap. My favourite is either Pop Century or All Star Movies.) I know that here they don't get a lot of love but they truly are great! You aren't in your room long enough to really care for "concierge" level or the "deluxe" name. Of course, if you can spring it, go for the deluxe but not necessary in the slightest! You get free transportation from/to MCO airport with Magical Express, free continuous transportation to/from Parks to hotel, can book Fastpass+ 60 days in advance, ship purchases to your hotel for free so you don't have to carry them around all day. It really is the best way to go, IMHO.

In terms of times of year my favourites are: September (low crowds but rainy/hot/humid weather) November (if you avoid Nov. 11 weekend and Thanksgiving week, still hot, but not as humid) January/February (avoiding the long weekends and Marathon days, weather is comfortable. Some days can be chilly though.. and I'm talking around the 30s which is downright freezing for Florida!)

Sometimes they have free dining promotions too which make it a really good deal. You basically get your meals and snacks on property for free. Definitely something to check out!

Good luck, OP! And have fun planning!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The two times our family went to Disney we went late January (MLK weekend) and stayed "off property" at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Technically it is off property but Bonnet Creek is the only piece of land in the Disney resort that isn't owned by Disney. It's closer to the parks than some of the Disney hotels.

Driving to the parks was a breeze. We didn't mind paying for the parking/rental car because we were able to get such a good deal on our 2 bedroom condo.

Do you own a timeshare with Wyndham?

Wyndham loves to try and get people to sit through presentations to up their sales.

Nope. We did rent through an owner (it's best to rent through owners instead of the main company). They weren't too pushy when it came to the presentation.

I've stayed at two different Wyndham timeshare resorts before and it's always the same deal. After I check in at the check in desk, they direct me to another desk to get my parking ticket. The lady behind that desk is always super friendly and helpful. She gives me the parking ticket, makes some chit chat and offers a free breakfast/lunch (that really is the sales presentation). I say no, not interested and walk away. They never bother me again. It takes about 5 minutes.

Anonymous wrote:There are only a few posters on here that actually know what they are talking about.

Horrible advice.

OP- go to the Disney Boards and do some searching there.

+1

For that matter, things have changed a bit in the past couple of years since the introduction of Fastpass+ and the crowd level just keeps going up no matter what time of year so there's not as much of an off-season as there used to be. We use TouringPlans.com to watch the crowd calendar and pick dates based on that.

There are only a few posters on here that actually know what they are talking about.

Horrible advice.

OP- go to the Disney Boards and do some searching there.

Anonymous wrote:The two times our family went to Disney we went late January (MLK weekend) and stayed "off property" at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Technically it is off property but Bonnet Creek is the only piece of land in the Disney resort that isn't owned by Disney. It's closer to the parks than some of the Disney hotels.

Driving to the parks was a breeze. We didn't mind paying for the parking/rental car because we were able to get such a good deal on our 2 bedroom condo.

Do you own a timeshare with Wyndham?

Wyndham loves to try and get people to sit through presentations to up their sales.

I used to work at Disney. Down time is between thanksgiving and Christmas. Also- after the new year.
On property staying gets you a 'free' parking pass for the parks. We either stay at carribbean beach- or off property.

The two times our family went to Disney we went late January (MLK weekend) and stayed "off property" at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Technically it is off property but Bonnet Creek is the only piece of land in the Disney resort that isn't owned by Disney. It's closer to the parks than some of the Disney hotels.

Driving to the parks was a breeze. We didn't mind paying for the parking/rental car because we were able to get such a good deal on our 2 bedroom condo.