Disney World

Recently my wife and I went to Florida with my son and his family. We spent 3 nights in Disney World at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort. The parks were impressive and expensive. The best time was a lunch with the princesses from the Disney movies. My granddaughters were greeted by Cinderella at the entrance and later six princesses individually came to our table to talk to our girls. They were excited and happy.

I was impressed by the Disney operation. One worker said that the parks have 70,000 employees. The food and drinks were very expensive. $7.50 for a 12 ounce beer. We bought a mug at the food court for $17 . This was not bad because you could fill it with pop or coffee for free any time at the food court.

A Disney trip is better for your liver than a Vegas trip with "free" alcoholic drinks. The transportation by shuttles between the parks is quite impressive.

 

Glad your family had a great visit to Disney. My wife and I moved to Tampa Bay after graduation in 1973 and raised three children here. Even by the time they were school age, Disney’s pricing was still very affordable for families. As I recall, adult admissions were $7.50/day and the kids were like $4.50. By the time the kids were in high school, they were Disney veterans having been there fifty times. Since then, we have only been back on a few occasions with the grandchildren. Walt Disney wanted families to be able to afford his park but that changed dramatically following his death and the hiring of Michael Eisner as the new head. The Magic Kingdom is still very magical but imagine what it was like back in the early 80’s when you could walk on to many attractions in the park without waiting, stay at the Contemporary for $100/night and feed the family lunch on a $20 bill.

 

It's definitely not as affordable as it used to be, but I feel like it's not ridiculously overpriced, but it's beginning to creep that way. G/f and I did a trip by ourselves in March for 5 nights at a value resort (Pop Century). All in might have been $2500 plus souvenirs.

We stayed at Riverside in Nov. 2015 with her parents and 5-yr cousin and generally hated the place. Curious at to what you thought of the place bullhead. I will say this though, it's a very bad resort to be at if you have someone in a scooter. The multiple bus stops create scenarios where you may have to wait multiple buses to get a scooter on.

 

We went recently as well and loved it. Ordered from Garden Grocer and had food delivered to our value resort. Had the time of our life!

 

In April of this year, we took our youngest grandson (5 yrs) and his parents (who insisted on coming along) to Disney World for 5 nights. We have been taking our two daughters to Disney World since 1981 when Epcot was still under construction and there was only the Magic Kingdom and the scariest ride was Space Mountain; since then we have visited about 12 times, now include daughters and spouses and now grandsons. Our oldest daughter and her husband honeymooned at the Grand Floridian. Two years ago we took our oldest grandson (whose parents also insisted on coming along) who was also 5 at the time of his visit. It used to be our favorite place before Vegas came into the picture....

Even though it has gotten more expensive over the years - not to sound like a cliche - but it really is still MAGICAL.
We have stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort, Port Orleans (previously called Dixie Landings) now Port Orleans Riverside, Yacht and Beach Club, Contemporary Resort. Our kids loved Dixie Landings - we favored Yacht and Beach Club.

The buses are a bit slower, more crowded and overall not as efficient as they used to be. The free Magic Kingdom Express from and to the airport and the resorts can't be beat - just have to be a bit patient for multiple stops.. The food at the food courts has improved. The 'reservation' restaurants with character meals - which often need to be reserved 6 months in advance, or earlier, are worth every dollar. Seeing our kids and now our grandsons anticipation and interactions with the characters, collecting autographs, and getting hugs are the most memorable experiences we have of the trips.

So even though it remains an expensive trip - we find it a better value than any other 'fun' vacation with the kids because there is SO much to see and do - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom plus a water park and Disney Springs Marketplace to choose from, quick food places, sit down restaurants, characters everywhere and the resorts range from budget conscious to high end. In addition to a multitude of themed pools, the resorts have many activities and programs for kids when they need a break from the parks. And the parades and fireworks are, well, MAGICAL. Can't wait for the new Star Wars attraction now in the pipe - our grandsons got to be Jedi's and interact with Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers on their trips.
Hmm, this is starting to read like a commercial for Disney.

 

We're taking my 8 year old son for his 4th visit in October, staying in a 1 bed villa at Old Key West for 2 weeks, I cannot wait!!! It is expensive but we have the Disney dining plan so that helps a lot. Also coming with us my little sister (33) for her first time, we're so excited.

 

We've probably been to Disney World approx 7 or so times since 2003. It is our second favorite place to go next to Vegas. Back in the day, they would have awesome specials on hotel packages with tickets and also they used to honor an airline employee discount so if my parents went along, we would use that. Now it has gotten so expensive and discounts seem to be disappearing - not to mention both kids are now of Disney "adult" age for ticket pricing.

We still love it tho.. Not sure if we will do any more week long trips there now that the kids are older but maybe a weekend there to enjoy the magic is in our future soon.

 

We've been going to WDW since 2000 and absolutely love the ability to escape back to childhood. The expense is pretty tough and we, for the most part, have traded WDW trips for Vegas trips at about a 4 to 1 ratio since our children have grown up and are out of the house. Both of the children have participated in the WDW college program and had terrific experiences, so much so that our daughter still works at the Magic Kingdom.

 

I liked Port Orleans Riverside. The food court was not too expensive. The food was pretty good. My son's father-in-law had a scooter. It was hard to get all of us (14) on the same shuttle. The room fit my needs, but I don't require much.

 

This is the biggest thing we noticed in our last two trips. But on our last trip this leap day-early March (12 days after Vegas?!?!?!), staying at "Pop Century", we often jumped on the "Art of Animation" bus if it looked like we would get on it faster. They are connected and is a 5-10 minute walk. "Art of Animation" also served Jai Alai IPA...a must have for any beer snob!

 

I love POFQ - it's my moderate of choice. I stayed at Caribbean Beach also - way to dang big. We were at farthest end, even though I had requested as close to main building (in case I needed extra food - diabetic) as possible without paying for the first buildings. With POFQ I can be at the food court or the gift shop for candy bar (and yes I did that last time) within about 3 minutes. (It's a b*tch when you go thru everything sweet in your room & still need more lol). I love also being able to take boat to Disney Springs.

Only deluxes I have stayed at are Wilderness Lodge - Loved it!, and Beach Club - loved location, but not the hotel quite as much. Otherwise deluxe level has been Swan & Dolphin - both outstanding and benefit of not charging to room so you have to think a bit about what you are spending lol!!!!

If I am staying offsite it has been at Gaylord Palms (won a trip & also for work) and the Marriott Village at Little Lake Bryan - had a car those times. Stayed a couple times at the preferred hotels near DTD/Disney Springs but doubt I ever would again.

 

We go every other year so going in November this year. Worst part for us is getting dining reservations at our favorite places such as Ohana and Hoop-Dee-Doo. Otherwise we love it there!

 

Did you get the reservations already? They use 180 day windows. My gf was pretty diligent with the my Disney app this last trip, we got the few reservations we wanted even with a last minute booking!

Hopefully the "Frozen" ride will die down for you by then. Up to 5 hour waits so far, including currently. I've also heard fast pass takes a couple of hours as well.

 

No reservations for Ohana or Hoop as of yet but will certainly keep trying. We're excited about the Frozen ride so I hope the lines do die down by then.

 

If you think the lines are gonna die down, Let It Go

 

We're planning a trip in September to celebrate my husbands 65th birthday - I told him he could go anywhere he wanted and he picked Disney World! We'll be staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and just can't wait. Disney was our favorite vacation spot until we retired from the military and moved to Orlando. I worked at Disney for 8 years and my husband worked at Universal - he got to be the "sack of corn" to test the original Hulk roller coaster - he still very much considers "Islands of Adventure" to be the park he built! We moved to Texas 10 years ago and this will be our first trip back since then. We scheduled it so we'd be able to hit a day of the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival while we're there. Vegas will always be my favorite vacation spot, but Disney still has the magic!

- Linda in TX