Disney Advice and Information (children mntd)

[Irishcreme]

Hi Everyone!
we leave on saturday June 9th for Disney! Our families very first trip ever.

I was told that in downtown Disney there is a Mr. Potato Head store and (if you have girls) in the back of the store they have a place where the kids can fill up baskets with little pony's and the my little pony accessories! I heard it costs around 20.00. Of course you can do the same thing with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

I would love to see photos of those who have gone before us too!

2 more tips for those who don't know:

always check out www.mousesavers.com for the best disney deals. Smallworld Vacations was fabulous in getting all of our details taken care of, getting us a good price for our package, and securing our character dining reservations.

also the Unofficial Guide to Disney has been absolutely invaluable!

[BC-Shelli]

Your going to have a great time! We went at the exact same time a year ago and had such fun!

I agree the Unofficial Guide to Disney was invaluable. It had the most helpful advise and so many tips! And once we got back I sold it on ebay and got most of my money back!

A few of my favorite Disney tips:

~Plan a list of highlights you want to hit each day...
~Use the fast pass system if the wait is longer than 25 minutes
~If it rains, go anyway! We went to Epcot during Tropical Storm Alberto and had the best time! Wait time was minimal for all the rides, crowds were small, so we got a little wet....no big deal we dried off later!
~Get the Park Hopper tickets...then you can go to more than one park in one day. We loved Epcot's evening fireworks show so much we returned serveral evenings to see it after a day in another park.

[Irishcreme]

Thanks for sharing your photos. You have a great looking family.

I think I'm more excited than our kids. We definitely got the parkhoppers.

Oh one other thing that we're doing (on the advice of some friends) is taking a full day off and away from the parks in the middle of our trip and we may take another day at the end of the trip. We're going to spend one of those days in Downtown Disney, and I'd like to spend one around the hotel resting up before we head home.

[TessToo]

Thanks for the heads up (lol) about the potato heads. We'll have to check that out.

We are going to Disney this August for the very first time ever. This is also our family's first extended trip anywhere. We've done little day trips before, but nothing like this.

Has anyone ever traveled with different age groups? We are really worried about our guys. Our kids will be almost 10, almost 8, and almost 4 when we go. We're worried the little guy is going to get bored waiting outside the bigger kid attractions and vice versa.

We kind of looked into one of those Disney Daycare kinds of things to hire a mother's helper for one day to watch the little guy so we could take the older ones off on some of the bigger rides. But we haven't decided. Has anyone ever used any of the disney childcare services before? Which one/how much/did you like them?

And keep those tips coming! I don't have the guidebook yet, but I do have a big notebook of everything I've been told so far!

[BC-Shelli]

TessToo....Get the guidebook ASAP! It's the best single source of info out there! And keeping a notebook is a great idea too.....

[Pebbles]

Keeping a notebook is a must. I have already started our for our trip in October. I have our dinner reservation confirmations in it and we have started plotting out the different parks and what we want to do and see in each park and prioritising it.
we are also taking a day out of the parks in the middle for a break.

[Irishcreme]

I agree. We did the same thing as Pebbles with our reservations and character meals. I'm grateful we did because I forgot about some of them. I actually wrote them right in my planner that I take everywhere with me.

Oh I also was told to buy Disney waterbottles or sports bottle outside the park and bring them into the park and refill them from the drinking fountains. Not sure how "kosher" that is. But it will save us a lot of money with a family of 5 going in the summer time.

[Irishcreme]

O.k. We're supposed to be leaving for Disney on Saturday morning at 5:30 am (not our choice of times believe me) and I was wondering is it really expensive to do laundry at disney? Do all the resorts have a place to do laundry?

Also is it worth the expense to have a refrigerator in your room if you have the dining the plan?

Thanks!!

[LandJ]

Has anyone ever traveled with different age groups? We are really worried about our guys. Our kids will be almost 10, almost 8, and almost 4 when we go. We're worried the little guy is going to get bored waiting outside the bigger kid attractions and vice versa.

We kind of looked into one of those Disney Daycare kinds of things to hire a mother's helper for one day to watch the little guy so we could take the older ones off on some of the bigger rides. But we haven't decided. Has anyone ever used any of the disney childcare services before? Which one/how much/did you like them?

I live two hours from WDW, have annual passes and go frequently. I've never used the daycare services and frankly, I think it would be a waste of $$. Last fall my niece and nephew (ages 13 and 9) visited and I took them for their very first visit. So I had my 3.5 yo, a 13 yo and a 9 yo. Of course the roller coasters were the two older kids' favorite, but other than that ALL THREE kids agreed that Buzz Lightyear was awesome. I was pretty impressed that Disney could get a 13 yo GIRL and a 3.5 yo BOY to both be in love with the same thing. And it doesn't stop there, either. I think you'll be fine as long as one person is willing to stay and eat ice cream while the big kids run onto Space Mountain for a bit...and use the fast pass and it'll be rather a quick wait.

[LandJ]

Has anyone ever traveled with different age groups? We are really worried about our guys. Our kids will be almost 10, almost 8, and almost 4 when we go. We're worried the little guy is going to get bored waiting outside the bigger kid attractions and vice versa.

We kind of looked into one of those Disney Daycare kinds of things to hire a mother's helper for one day to watch the little guy so we could take the older ones off on some of the bigger rides. But we haven't decided. Has anyone ever used any of the disney childcare services before? Which one/how much/did you like them?

I live two hours from WDW, have annual passes and go frequently. I've never used the daycare services and frankly, I think it would be a waste of $$ in this case. Last fall my niece and nephew (ages 13 and 9) visited and I took them for their very first visit to WDW. So I had my 3.5 yo, a 13 yo and a 9 yo. Of course the roller coasters were the two older kids' favorite, but other than that ALL THREE kids agreed that Buzz Lightyear was awesome. I was pretty impressed that Disney could get a 13 yo GIRL and a 3.5 yo BOY to both be in love with the same thing. And it doesn't stop there, either. I think you'll be fine as long as one person is willing to stay with the little ones and eat ice cream while the big kids run onto Space Mountain for a bit...and use the fast pass and it'll be rather a quick wait.