Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe Disney did away with shared buses, so don't worry about that element. We stay at the value hotels. We could afford better but are perfectly happy with the value ones. You really can't go wrong so don't stress yourself out.

I just got back from Disney World last night. The Polynesian still shares some buses with the Grand Floridian. We would get on at the Polynesian and fill the bus, so when it arrived at Grand Floridian there was no room (or maybe room for a couple people, but there were many waiting.)

NP here. When would people use buses over the monorail at Polynesian or GF? Thanks!

For Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. No monorail there.

PP who just got back from Disney here. Yes to the above. Also, one morning we were going to Epcot and were told that the monorail was down, and had to take a bus. I don't know if I just have bad luck or what, but it seems like the monorail is frequently not working when ever I go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe Disney did away with shared buses, so don't worry about that element. We stay at the value hotels. We could afford better but are perfectly happy with the value ones. You really can't go wrong so don't stress yourself out.

I just got back from Disney World last night. The Polynesian still shares some buses with the Grand Floridian. We would get on at the Polynesian and fill the bus, so when it arrived at Grand Floridian there was no room (or maybe room for a couple people, but there were many waiting.)

NP here. When would people use buses over the monorail at Polynesian or GF? Thanks!

For Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. No monorail there.

We just got back from a 4 night stay at Wilderness Lodge - it was fabulous. If they hadn't told me ahead of time that there would be some construction going on, we wouldn't have even noticed it. Our stay was not impacted in the least. After a full day at the parks, it was nice to escape to the soothing, natural environment of the Wilderness Lodge - we are very glad we chose to stay there. MK is a few minutes' boat ride away, and you can also take the boat to the Contemporary and Fort Wilderness. Buses run frequently to all of the parks. We had a promotion where we got the Deluxe Dining Plan for free. It was a ton of food and we ended up not using all of our dining credits, so unless you are really big eaters you might consider the regular dining plan. Do plan for some character meals - the harvest feast at Garden Grill at Epcot was wonderful, as was the princess meal at Akershus in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot. You'll need to book your dining as far in advance as possible to get the best times. In general, food at Disney is very good but not spectacular, but the variety and quantity make up for it. Epcot definitely has the best food out of all of the parks. That said, the Dole Whip at Aloha Isle in Magic Kingdom has a cult following and now I understand why! The Memory Maker photo service is worth every penny - tons of great photos with no effort! Magic Bands are great - no need to carry park tickets, money, etc. Have fun!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe Disney did away with shared buses, so don't worry about that element. We stay at the value hotels. We could afford better but are perfectly happy with the value ones. You really can't go wrong so don't stress yourself out.

I just got back from Disney World last night. The Polynesian still shares some buses with the Grand Floridian. We would get on at the Polynesian and fill the bus, so when it arrived at Grand Floridian there was no room (or maybe room for a couple people, but there were many waiting.)

NP here. When would people use buses over the monorail at Polynesian or GF? Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:I believe Disney did away with shared buses, so don't worry about that element. We stay at the value hotels. We could afford better but are perfectly happy with the value ones. You really can't go wrong so don't stress yourself out.

I just got back from Disney World last night. The Polynesian still shares some buses with the Grand Floridian. We would get on at the Polynesian and fill the bus, so when it arrived at Grand Floridian there was no room (or maybe room for a couple people, but there were many waiting.)

We went in one of the quiet weeks, and the buses weren't bad at all. We stayed in the French Quarter - first time not at the Poly. At the FQ, there's a boat to Downtown Disney which has a lot of good dining choices. So we would get up in the AM, take a bis to whichever park we were going to during the day, and in the evening head to DD for dinner.

I have learned that the single most important factor for Disney is to pick one of the very low crowd weeks. Then almost any arrangement works well. Ride times are fine, buses are never full, and you don't have to make dining reservations six months out.

If you want. Slow key cheaper day mixed in my 18 month old LOVED Gatorland. For his age is rate it higher than Animal Kingdom and we did both this trip.

For older kids AK is probably still worth it. I'm glad we went because I wanted to see it and had never been but it was no comparison to Magic Kingdom which I LOVE.

Contemporary.

If you stay close to a particular park, I do think the Park Hopper is a good value. When we went and stayed at Wilderness Lodge, we'd go to one of the parks for most of the day, return to WL, do pool/shower/change, and then take the boat over to MK for evening activities.

I could see the same being true if you are staying convenient to Epcot - great access to restaurants.

Most important--are you still tied to a nap? If so, then you definitely want to stay in the Contemporary Resort (CR), Grand Floridian or Polynesian resort. All three are on the monorail with the Magic Kingdom. When we went with 2.5 yo twins, we stayed in the Contemporary and it was a godsend. We went at rope-drop (9am) and stayed until about 1:00 (including lunch). We headed back to the CR and from leaving the park to walking back into the park, it was almost exactly 4 hours, including a monorail trip back, walk to our room, 2 hour nap, snack in the CR cafeteria and monorail trip back. It would take at least an hour longer to do all that if you were not on the monorail.

If money is not a huge issue - Grand Floridian, park hoppers, no meal plan. (Poly is slightly more convenient because you can walk to the transportation center to get to Epcot, rather than wait for the monorail to,get to the TC). Get the app, make reservations for dinner around lunchtime for what's open. Got to a park in the morning,then come back early afternoon and hang out at the pool or room. Head out in the evening for dinner.

If your only reservation about AK is the food, don't worry. Disney's weakest link by far is the on-site food - it's pretty cafeteria -like. There are some good restaurants, but average meal for things like breakfast are pretty blah. You don't have to worry about picky eaters.

We loved the boardwalk. Everyone I know loved contemporary.

Boardwalk

I would pick Polynesian or Grand Floridian if money is no object. Super convenient. We have also enjoyed our stay at Wilderness Lodge. My personal favorite was at the Four Seasons. Amazing kid friendly pool.

We have been 5x now and my children are now 5 and 7. At that age, I recommend doing 1 park per day. Go during no school break (late april was my personal favorite followed by 1st week of December). Make sure you get to park at rope drop (opening). Come back to hotel after lunch, rest and hang out at the pool. If you do it that way, the trip is actually enjoyable and even somewhat relaxing if you leave one day at the end for no theme parks.

The Wilderness Lodge renovations are to the smaller pool and the beach area where they're expanding to have villas similar to the new DVC ones at the Polynesian, so the main pool and Lodge really won't be impacted. We've stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary and Polynesian and loved all 3, so I don't think you can really go wrong with any of them. The Yacht and Beach Clubs are also amazing and convenient to Epcot and Hollywood Studios so I'd happily stay there anytime.