Sure, but when I took the Keys to the Kingdom tour at the Magic Kingdom, one of the things they pointed out is just how much effort has gone into making sure each area of the park stays in theme–they don’t want you to see Tomorrowland’s Space Mountain from Frontierland, so in a way the Magic Kingdom is intentionally made to seem “small.”
And the only place IMO where they really fall down in the transition is right where the Plaza Restaurant and Tomorrowland Terrace meet. At the end of Main Street USA, if you turn right, you walk past a lovely Victorian building housing the Plaza Restaurant, then a little break where there’s a castmember entry to/from the parking lot / bus stop behind Main Street, and then the bathrooms of the future with the Tomorrowland theming, all connected as a piece of a continuous structure. The transition between most of the other lands is less jarring, and this spot has always struck me as something they could have handled better.
As far as raw sizes, MK is only 107 acres, whereas Epcot is 300 – with a parking lot itself larger than MK and Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Studios is 135 and AK is 410 (exclusive of parking lots – the figure I quoted earlier mistakenly included the lot).
Both are girls.
And yet the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse will never go away, no matter how much I hope otherwise.
Isn’t it the Tarzan Treehouse, now?
I’m laughing hysterically at the idea that 14 is the perfect age for a girl to see DisneyWorld for the first time. With her parents.
In California, yes. In Florida, no.
Depends on the girl, but yeah.
Disney isn’t a thrill ride sort of place. Its “marketing edu-tainment,” its a great big theatre set, its “Africa as you imagine an idealized slice of Africa to be, Adventureland from your pulp fiction storybooks, Tomorrow as imagined by H.G. Wells and thrown through the Disney blender.”
I adored it when I saw it for the first time as a teen with my parents, but I was the sort of edutainment loving, imagination made real, theatre geek that appreciates it.
As a grown up, my husband and I geek out on the logistics of the place - queuing theory. How DO you make transitions between Adventureland and Frontierland be relatively seamless?
But your average teen - male or female - is going to want to know where the BIG roller coasters are. And they aren’t really there (Rock N RollerCoaster is as big coaster as it gets, and it isn’t all that for a thrill ride.)
Reviving a near zombie: Mrs Magill and I are in the middle of planning a trip to Disney World this June. Does anyone have any advice? As was said upthread booking it is pretty damned overwhelming. We’re trying to decide between a cabin and family suite, park passes, and meal plans.
Personally, I blame Squeaky (3). He’s told his Mom, he wants “to play with Micky Mouse.”
+1 to the service at the parks being a big draw. When we went to WDW, we were eating at the 50’s diner at (then) MGM and my daughter spilled her shake down the front of her sweatshirt. Not only did the waitress go out of her way to help her get cleaned up, but the manager came over to help and during this happened to ask her size. 10 mins later he was back with a brand new sweatshirt for her that we did not get charged for, because he ‘did not want her to have to walk around the park in a wet shirt’. As we were wondering around the shops latter we found the shirt and it was a $50 shirt that they just gave us!
We were there for her birthday and she had a “first timer” button and people from the characters to the store clerks to the guy sweeping up trash on the streets would go out of thier way to wish her a happy birthday. I can’t think of any other place that would give that kind of service.
Go to the library and look at some guide books. I like the passporter books. Start with a budget. Then you can divide your budget out based on what you want. Renting DVC points can be a good option to get a “suite”. DVC is disney’s timeshare.
June isn’t far, if he wants to eat with Mickey mouse, pick some dates and call for dinner or breakfast reservations now at chef mickeys
Yeah - I think we were a bit taken aback by just how much advance planning Disney required. We’re usually just thinking about booking a mountain cabin right about now.
So far this thread has talked about only people who are just avid fans of Disney and its parks–who go maybe a dozen times a year-- but I read an article somewhere (I think in the LA Reader) about a subculture of people (maybe about fifty or so) who go to the Anaheim park just about every day. They live in the area, and they have basically structured their lives in a way so that they can spend as much of their free time at Disneyland as possible. I think they do this for the same reasons that Voyager describes upthread–but really, it’s almost like a kind of mental illness with these people. Essentially, they want to live 24/7 in that sanitized, sterile, completely controlled world where everything is exactly as it is “supposed” to be, without uncertainty, ambiguity, or difference.
We went to DW in 2009 for a family occasion. I am not a Disney fan but was unable to weasle my way out of it. My kids had a good time so that is all that really matters. All of the Disney parks in Orlando are like their analogs in Disneyland in southern CA, only on steroids. The two parks not replacated were the water parks (Buzzard Beach, and I forgot the other one), which were unique, in my view, and actually fun!
I do not have anything against Disney lovers, but it is not my cup of tea.
For starters:
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Go as early as possible. Summer is bloody busy, but families don’t always jump the very minute the kids get on vacation.
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You probably don’t want the meal plan, because unless you intend to use all of it every day, it’s not a good deal. However, you can often use two meals’ worth for the nicer restaurants, and that’s often a good deal. In short, only get the meal plan if you intend to stay mornings and evenings at the parks.
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Figure out where you want to eat and check for reservations. There’s only about a million awesome places to eat, but many are packed. If you can’t get dinnertime reservations, check later in the evening. Dining in fact is what takes the most planning. The good news is that while food is a bit pricy, it’s as bad as you might fear and you rarely encounter a poor meal.
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Choose your room based on time - specifically, how fast you can get to where you want to go. Most guests don’t spend that much time in their rooms (unless they’re on honeymoon…)
Fort Wilderness has cabins and offers reasonable transit times. Plus it’s fun and offers some free evening entertainment if you’re too tired to venture out, plus some variety items like River Country (a mini-waterpark good for families), horseback riding, and such.
If you budget allows it, a hotel on the monorail line offers the fastest trek to and fro, without requiring you drive in and out.
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Take advantage of the early morning entry available to guests at Disney hotels. You get in an hour earlier, see the busiest attractions, and then head to the back of the park. When the flood (of people) comes, just leave and enjoy a relaxing afternoon elsewhere. Then go to back or to another park when it gets cool.
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Take advantage of Fast Pass when convenient.
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Don’t kill yourself. Some people (first timers) will just go nuts and rush around trying to do everything. Naturally, they hit the crowds head on and end up doing very little. If the crowds are going nuts, just leave. Park traffic is worst from about 11:00 to 5:00, so either don’t be there, or find things to do which crowds can’t ruin (the really big shows are great for this, as are some of the tours which fewer people desire).
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Above all, enjoy yourself. Some people are schedule-holics, but I advocate being a little more loose. If you see a band suddenly walk up and start playing something fun, just find a spot to listen. The big attractions will be there afterward, I promise.
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If there’s nothing blocking you, take the left queue line. Always.
Doable, but always keep in mind little kids have less stamina and can be freaked out by crowds. I’ve heard of people actually going for longer and longer walks to train the kids, and keep in mind that at age 3, the kid simply can’t do many of the things you want. Keep this in mind and set things up so that the family can trade the kiddie back and forth. This is much easier in a world of cellphones. 
(Note: I got a lot of this from a guidebook I borrowed from the local library. Check and see if yours has one. It might have been Fedor’s guide, I can’t recall. I wouldn’t have even checked it out, except that my family may)
River Country has been closed for more than a decade - check the dates on guide books from the library.
I’d go to the library and look at guide books…I’d decide what you like…then I’d swing by Barnes and Noble and buy whichever one you liked best.
The three big ones are:
Birnbaums - which is the official guide. Its simplistic, upbeat, always positive with lots of color pictures. Its biggest plus is that it’s easy to work through.
Passports - a planning book as much as a guide book, this is one made to write in, has folders for your tickets. Not being official, it has opinions on what is worthwhile - and what isn’t.
Unofficial Guide - this is the one Len writes for. I’m not a fan, but many people are. I find it too opinionated (the last copy I had said people with small kids NEEDED to return to their rooms for naps to be successful - naps never worked for us and turned into a wasted afternoon when ours were little - on things like that trust your knowledge of your own kids over a book). Jam packed with information, its the biggest of the three and probably has the best touring plans out there.
Fedor’s mentioned above, is less detailed than the UoG, but more detailed than Birnbaums. Much less of a planning book than the Passporter.
A friend of ours with a small daughter just got back. We talked to her and she pick Animal Kingdom Lodge (I think we talked her out of staying at Caribbean Beach Resort, if I remember). And got hit with the magic that Death of Rats talked about. Having booked a parking lot view, her room hadn’t been vacated yet when she checked in - very apologetic and so they gave her a Savannah view - which meant they could sit on their deck and watch giraffes and elephants.
The book was new. I simply went there as a kid and loved it. That makes me kinda asd. True, it wasn’t a “water park” like Bliizard or Typhoon, but I really liked the cozy tradition of Rver Country.
We decided to let someone who sound knows what she’s doing take care of things. We went to AAA. It’s a good thing, too. We had forgotten about AAA discounts. Turns out there are member perks, too.
Thanks for the advice, everyone. You all gave us a great starting place, and armed us with the right questions.
We have friends who are in their 60s, and while they’ll take their grandkids occasionally, they love going to WDW themselves. They’ve got a timeshare, and they’ve also done Disney cruises. The pulls on their kitchen cabinets are Disney characters.
I don’t get it. I haven’t been to a WDW park since 2002 or 03, and that was just to hear my daughter’s choir sing in EPCOT for the Christmas program. I don’t find the place to be magical or enchanting. To me it’s all plastic and fake. It was fun to take my daughter when she was little, but once she hit her teen years, I was done with the entire Disney experience.
Guess it’s a good thing we don’t *all *like the same thing, or that thing, whatever it might be, would be way too crowded…
Maybe the single best piece of advice to enjoy the parks. Get there before opening. You can get a lot done before the crowds hit and the weather is more bearable. When it gets hot & crowded, time for a swim/nap break and then back again when the weather cools and night time entertainment. A good touring plan can save you hours of line waits.