Thank you (particularly the Floridians screech-owl and Sassafras) for all of the advice, which I will pass along. The children are five and ten respectively, and in school, so that it will be difficult to plan a trip during the autumn. I know that August will be unpleasant. Will late June be any better weatherwise?
You’re quite welcome. Being in the parks five days a week, and seeing anywhere from 5,000 to 32,000 people per day (depending on the season and hours), I see a lot of stuff that people should and should not do. Just passing on my observations and opinions.
Big thing for everyone: patience with each other, especially with the kids. They get tired easily, they cannot walk as fast as you do, they may or may not have the same interests as you do, the do not have the same attention spans as you do, they cannot always understand that you worked hard and overtime so they can enjoy themselves, they can get overstimulated from the fun and colors and sounds and smells and noises. Add to that the change in sleeping habits, food, time zones (in some cases), temperature, humidity, and normal routines. Add to that being jammed into a park/ restaurant/ parking lot/ giftshop with 5,000 to 32,000 people all heading in the same direction. All of this can add up to lots of tension.
Take your time. Look at things. Notice the flowers and horticulture and topiaries. Get your hand stamped, head back to the hotel for a swim or a bite to eat outside the park, depending on the park hours, of course. Take some time just to talk to the people who work there: most of us actually enjoy our jobs and are quite friendly to talk to. (We’re not always trying to sell you something - most of us just like to chat with a new person, and believe me, after loads of cranky people in a hurry, a relaxed guest with a smile is a welcome relief.) The parks are not going to pack up and move in the middle of the night like the county fair does. They’ll be there.
Worst quote I ever heard from a parent (paraphrased): “You’re going to have fun whether you like it or not!”
As far as weather in August: your guess is as good as mine. Expect hot, sticky, rainy, and sweaty from the beginning of April to the end of August. I can tell the change of seasons by what I have in my locker: hat, scarf, and gloves for winter, sunscreen, baby wipes, talcum powder, and an extra can of spray deodorant for summer.
I agree with this advice 100%.
I like Epcot and AK, and MGM is my least favorite park…
My advice is to spend the first few days park hopping (I think MGM and Epcot are good afternoon/evening parks - MK and AK better morning parks). Then they can make their own decision about where to spend the rest of their time.
Arrive when the park opens. Take advantage of Early Entry if staying on site. Get out of the early entry park before you go find lunch, though and hop to a different park. Or visit the park that had EE yesterday.
We go back to the hotel for a swim mid afternoon - which gives everyone a little energy to keep going in the evening.
I love Epcot. Disney/MGM studios is my least favorite.
Go to Islands of Adventure.
Go to the Adventurers Club (Pleasure Island).
Mousesavers will save you some money.
Glad you like it!
It’s somehow gotten into ShadiRoxan’s head that Disney would be a good plan for a honeymoon. I’m not sure where this notion came from, as neither of us are big Disney fans, but I really don’t think “recently married childless couple” when I think Disney. She doesn’t particularly like 'coasters and the more benign rides seem aimed at young children… so I really don’t know what we’re supposed to do there beyond hemorrhage money.
Pretty much the only thing going on at Disney that I might find interesting is watching for the paedophiles exchanging child slaves.
I just got back from spending a week in Orlando for a conference. It was already pretty warm, and that’s coming from someone who grew up on the Texas coast. I can only imagine July/August will be much worse, but take plenty of sunscreen and water and it’ll be fun. Right? 
I have to agree about taking lots more money than you think, and be prepared to pay out the wazoo for public transportation to the parks. I stayed in a hotel on I-Drive and taxi fare to Disney (a few miles away) would have been nearly $60 round trip. :eek: There’s lots of cool stuff to see and do on the I-Ride route, though, $3 for a 3 day pass.
Wish I’d had more time to spend there. Everyone I met was very friendly and the city (what I saw of it) was gorgeous.
One sensible piece of advice is that if you’re going with kids, don’t go to the Magic Kingdom on the first day. It’s the one that will impress children the most, so if they see it first they’ll find the other parks disappointing in comparison.
The Pundits went to see The Mouse in August of 2001 when the kiddies were 9 and 7. I have several comments:
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Don’t go to Florida in August. What the hell were we thinking? We were in the park by 9am each morning and by noon we were positively wilting.
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Don’t spend everyday at Disney. Check out a water park, SeaWorld or GatorLand – anywhere to get away from the infernal lines.
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Rental cars are CHEAP in Orlando, esp. if you have an Entertainment coupon. See the previously mentioned mousesavers.com site for tips on saving money on rental cars. We stayed in Disney but didn’t take their transportation because driving was so much more convenient. After a long, hot, sticky day waiting in lines, you’ll want to get into that air conditioned car and get the hell out of there. If you stay off-site, you will have to pay for parking, but you only have to pay once a day. If you plan on park hopping, pay once and just show your receipt at subsequent parks.
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The kids liked the pool far better than they did anything at Disney. Seriously.
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If you can swing the price, I highly recommend Discovery Cove. http://www.discoverycove.com/default2.aspx It’s a great alternative to the manic atmosphere of Disney. Plus you get admittance to Sea World for 7 days, which the kids really enjoyed.
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There is nothing magical about staying on site. Yes, you can get in early and stay late, but how realistic is this for your family? Our 7 and 9 year old kids were BEAT by the end of the day and would fall asleep on the ride home from dinner because of the heat and walking. It would have been heartless for me to wake them up early to get to the park by 8am. It’s your vacation, for pete’s sake. If you get a great rate, that’s one thing. But don’t pay a huge amount of money expecting your hotel room to somehow make your vacation magical.
Consider the many alternatives available off-site. You can stay in very nice surrounding area hotels for less than $100 a night. Or, if your budget allows, consider something like Marriott’s Grande Vista. You can book a one-bedroom villa for $189/night for this August. (Marriott.com) That’s not cheap, but compared to a regular hotel room, you’ll get: a) a separate bedroom with a king sized bed for the adults; b) a separate t.v. ; c) a fully equipped kitchen where you can eat breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, saving tons of money each day; and d) a washer and a dryer. When traveling with kids, a villa is a great alternative to a regular hotel room.
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Booking things a la carte is almost always less costly than doing the package deal. The exception may be if you get a phenomenal rate of flights by booking with DeltaVacations or something like that.
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Call hotels or villas directly and ask for their best rate, including AAA or Entertainment rates. You don’t have to belong to AAA OR have an Entertainment book to ask for, and book a room or car at that rate. If you find a tremendous deal you can book it and THEN buy an Entertainment book or a AAA membership. Hotels participating in 2004 Entertainment program include: Amerisuites, Days Inn, Doubletree Club Buena Vista, Hilton WDW, and the Swan and Dolphin.
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The forums/chat section of Pete Werner’s site http://www.wdwinfo.com/ is very helpful. One of the nicest things we did at Disney was take a sunset cruise on a pontoon boat from the Boardwalk to Epcot to watch the fireworks. It was expensive, but by using these boards we were able to get two other families to join us and split the cost.
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Florida in August???! Are you nuts? :smack:
I honeymooned there and we loved it. But then again we both like Disney.
But there is a certain perverse pleasure in trying to have sex in the park.
If you do go, be sure to get the bride and groom Mouse ears and wear them all around. That way everybody is just a little bit nicer.
Screech Owl
I thought NASA advised on the project. I recall seing a NASA logo on the building while it was under construction. I really liked the animation tour and I got the talk from someone working on Brother Bear. Was that you? Is your fav The Lion King and did you get started in animation relativly late in life?
Absolutely. And not just for the kids – doing the parks takes a lot out of the adults, too.
If you are staying at an onsite hotel, taking a break is very easy. Just grab a bus (there ususally isn’t much of a line, unless you are unfortunate enough to be staying at one of the rock-bottom budget hotels – we stayed at the mid-priced Dixie Landing), get back, jump in the pool, take a nap, and head back to the activities a couple of hours later, much refreshed.
I haven’t been to Disney since I was four and have no memory of it. I went to Universal Studios for my 22nd or 23rd birthday – which is in July. We found water and sat in it until they threw us out (Fievel’s Playhouse). And we live here!
I just wanted to chime in and say, “Florida in August. Are you nuts?” June won’t be much different. Skip all that and go to Daytona and hang out at the beach! This Floridian wouldn’t even subject herself to any Orlando-area theme park between Memorial Day and Labor Day. And I’d question most of the rest of September.
My family all live in Ohio. My sister was threatening to bring her husband and kids down here to hang out, in June. Now the adults are morbidly obese and my sister has always hated and been uncomfortable in any temperature above 70 degrees. As much as I’d like to see my sister and her family, I had to call her and level with her: “Look here. You are going to be miserable. The car is 120 degrees when you get in it, and by the time you get where you’re going, the A/C has barely had a chance to cool it off inside. When you get in the car at 10 p.m. the steering wheel is STILL too hot to touch. Just walking from your car to inside the mall, you will melt and it feels like you are breathing through a garden hose. If your idea of a fun vacation is sitting around inside my house and watching TV, come on down. I’d like you to consider coming down instead, in November or December, for one of the holidays or something.” Now I’m a big nature lover and Tallahassee is not the most touristy place in this state. But I couldn’t think of a thing to do with them that didn’t involve being outside, besides going to the mall or the movies – which they could do at home and skip the whole driving for 15 hours thing.
If you already live in the south or in Death Valley, you may be somewhat prepared for the heat and humidity. If you live anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line, I’d seriously reconsider your timing. You are simply not prepared for hot hotter-than-the-sun hot it is down here in the summer time. That’s why I go north to visit my family in Ohio. It’s about 20 degrees cooler in Ohio in August.
October is really really nice in Florida. What’s your kid going to miss, rocket science?
If you want Rocket Science, drive an hour to Cape Kennedy. It’s worth the trip.
Caladisi (sp?) Island, on the Gulf Coast near Tampa, looks like your tropical fantasy. Swimming, beaches, palm trees. Get your reservations beforehand–the State restricts access to preserve the Island.
Caladisi was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Go there. Spend a day. Beachfront perfection.
Another vote for onsite hotels. I know that they are a little more expensive, but there are several, and not all of them are really expensive.
We stayed in one of the Kissimmee hotels the first night and in an onsite hotel the rest of our visit, and we all agreed that it was so much more convenient to stay onsite.
Make sure you know how their “fast pass” system works – you just scan your park ticket in a machine by the ride you want and it will give you a ticket with a timestamp. When you come back, you will go in the “short” line. The catch is that you can only have a single fast pass ticket at any given time (once you get one, you have to wait for its timestamp before you can get another one anywhere in the park).
We found that if you go to the front of the monorail and ask nicely, they will allow your whole family to ride in the “locomotive” with the “engineer” – there’s seats there for one big family. It’s the absolute coolest way for kids to ride the monorail. We went in 2000, so maybe they have stopped this practice in these post-9/11 days.
I agree with the person who said to buy stuff at WalMart. In August, you will probably want those silly fan+squirtbottle gadgets. They sell for a fraction of the price at WalMart. Get your hat there as well. It’s going to be really hot.
I spent the first thirty two years of my life in FL (and went to Disney the year it opened…yikes!), so I guess I can put in my 2 cents…
There’s already been some great advice posted here. Let me add:
Yes, it WILL be hot…hotter than you can probably imagine. Those little mister bottles with the fans on them look pretty silly, but do help in you insist on going in the summer.
No one has yet mentioned International Drive (or I-Drive, as the locals call it). If you have a car available to you, it’s pretty close to all the parks and there are lots of hotels, restaraunts, places to shop, etc. A little less expensive that the Mouse Trap, and marginally less crowded.
And finally, if the adults get to have a special dinner on their own at any time, let me recommend Arthur’s 27, on the top of the Buena Vista Hotel. Beautiful view, five star service, great food. The best!
Yeah, I finally went on this for the first time on Saturday and it absolutely rocks. I wanna go again!
I’m actually in Disney World at the moment. Kinda. I’m actually at my brother’s house in Celebration, which is pretty much WDW. The crowds right now aren’t too bad, there were some lines on Saturday, but you come to expect that sort of thing on the weekends, anyway.
TEACUPS TEACUPS TEACUPS YAY! Sorry… I was there back like 10 years ago, and for 2 weeks, all I did was ride the teacups and the dumbo ride. They still have em, right? If so, the kids MUST ride them. Best rides ever. Anyway, I advise you to bring LOTS of Advil. And get used to vomit.
"This Floridian wouldn’t even subject herself to any Orlando-area theme park between Memorial Day and Labor Day. "
I second, third, and fourth this. Summer activities consist of running from the air- conditioned car to the the air-conditoned movie theater, mall, restaurant, etc.
Except for sitting at the beach- in the water, since its too hot to just sit on the sand.
You guys should try those bandanas ( I dont know what they are called) that have these little pellets in them. You soak them in ice water and they expand and stay cold for days. I actually a visor with these pellets in the rim that touches the front of my head, and its the only way I can get thru ballgames in the summer.
I’ve stayed onsite & offsite and I much prefer onsite. It’s worth it for the mid-day swim/nap break if nothing else. And the mid-day swim/nap break is a must for summer trips.