6 Days?

[LizfromOz]

Hi all,

I'm in the early stages of planning our next trip to the US in Sept 2014. We're planning on a cruise which leaves Port Canaveral on 20/9. We will hopefully fly into LA on 12/9 and stay overnight before continuing to Orlando the next morning. I think a stopover will be beneficial for the mental health of our family of myself, DH and DD16 and DD10.

This will give us 6 days for WDW. We have been to DL twice and love love love it, but I also want to visit "the other one", lol. For first time visitors, do you feel 6 days is enough? We want to stay onsite and I've been looking at Dave's Vacation Rentals and their prices seem reasonable. If anyone can give me their thoughts on where to stay I'd appreciate it. To be honest the whole thing is doing my head in, it's sooo different to DL I think I need help deciding where to stay.

Once we're off the ship I was thinking of going to Universal. Maybe 3 days? We will stay at the HRH because DH fancies himself as a bit of a rock afficionado (sp?) and who am I to argue? I can justify staying there because it will be just for him!

Any thoughts and comments will be gratefully listened to. Thanks in advance

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Hi all,

I'm in the early stages of planning our next trip to the US in Sept 2014. We're planning on a cruise which leaves Port Canaveral on 20/9. We will hopefully fly into LA on 12/9 and stay overnight before continuing to Orlando the next morning. I think a stopover will be beneficial for the mental health of our family of myself, DH and DD16 and DD10.

This will give us 6 days for WDW. We have been to DL twice and love love love it, but I also want to visit "the other one", lol. For first time visitors, do you feel 6 days is enough? We want to stay onsite and I've been looking at Dave's Vacation Rentals and their prices seem reasonable. If anyone can give me their thoughts on where to stay I'd appreciate it. To be honest the whole thing is doing my head in, it's sooo different to DL I think I need help deciding where to stay.

Once we're off the ship I was thinking of going to Universal. Maybe 3 days? We will stay at the HRH because DH fancies himself as a bit of a rock afficionado (sp?) and who am I to argue? I can justify staying there because it will be just for him!

Any thoughts and comments will be gratefully listened to. Thanks in advance

By 'Dave's Vacation Rentals' do you mean David's DVC Rentals?
If so, I have used them for my upcoming trip and can recommend them so far.
I've booked a 5 night stay at the Boardwalk using DVC Rental Store, followed by 6 nights at the AKV (Jambo) using Davids. So far, both companies have been very good and I can recommend both for slightly different reasons.
You can save a lot of money by renting DVC points, but there are cons and risks that you should be aware of. I'm not sure how much research you've done, but let me know if you want we to go into more detail.
As far as where to stay, it pays to be a bit flexible. There is no guarantee that the broker will have any points available for the property of your choice, so you may have to be prepared to go with the flow. I was keen on all the resorts except for SSR and OKW, and Davids had no points available for any of them when I first enquired. DVC Rental Store had only BoardWalk points. A few days later AKV points came through with Davids. The split stay seemed to offer the best of both worlds.
Also worth knowing is that the cheaper rooms (Standard at BWV or Value at AKV) are near impossible to get unless you can secure points right on the 11 month mark.

If you can stretch your stay beyond 6 days, it could be worth it. Even in the 11 days we have at WDW, I'm feeling like I wish I had more. However, you do what you can with the budget and time you have, and any time is better than none.
Also, if you are interested in the Epcot F&W festival (begins late September) perhaps consider doing Universal before the cruise and WDW afterwards.

 

[aussietravellers]

6 days for first visit (or second or third ) isn't very long. There is SO much to do there. 4 Parks, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT that can take a good two days to get through. Then there are the waterparks which are great in September. I would say if you could stretch it to at least 10 days (you could do a day trip to Universal) you would get so much more out of it.

As to where to stay.

Well I had stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge a few times now and we absolutely LOVE it! So I can recommend that. We have also stayed at Yacht Club and Beach Club. We liked Yacht Club more than Beach Club (but it was great too), just a little quieter and we loved the decor, felt more sophisticated if that doesn't sound strange. But they share a pool and restaurants, their room size and layout is the same (just different decor) the location is amazing! So handy to EPCOT, we absolutely LOVED YC and loved the location, the resort, everything. Can recommend that too.

 

[LizfromOz]

Thanks so much for your input ladies. I suspect 6 days won't be long enough - I'm really torn. Our other option is to do 6 days at Disneyland before flying over for the cruise, 6 days will be just enough for DL this time.

The upside of this is that we will need to plan a whole other trip to spend about 2 weeks at WDW! I can't really put any concrete plans into place this early so I've plenty of time.

Another couple of questions if you don't mind - what are crowds like in September, and is it too hot? We can handle some heat, last time we were over there was a heatwave in Cali (105 degrees!)

Thanks for your help.

 

[tapdancer]

I would suggest to fly straight through and not overnight on the way over. We did Syd LAX MCO September '11 with no trouble at all and I had 3 children (11,13 and 16).

We had 10 nights on our trip, stayed at Beach Club and we are returning this September as I felt we didn't see all there was to see, so 6 nights would be a stretch. 10 nights gave us return days to Magic Kingdom and Epcot, a day at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood studios, universal, blizzard beach and 2 shopping days.

Weather in September was hot but not unbearable, we had afternoon rests at our resort then headed out again in the evening. We are going late September early October this time so I'm sure the weather will be similar.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

It takes so much time and money to get across to the East Coast, I think you should take the opportunity to go to WDW while you can. Even if it is just for 6 days, you'll at least know by the end whether you want to return another year or are happy to stick with DL.
Your kids are a bit older, so as long as you programme in a few meal breaks, you should be able to last fairly long days at the parks.

Happy planning.

 

[aussietravellers]

Your kids are older so I too would fly straight through. We have never had an overnight in LA on our way to NY or Orlando, we just hop off the BNE or SYD flight and jump on the next one.

September weather if fine. We didn't ever find it too hot. We have hotter summer days on the Gold Coast than we experienced there. There were a couple of days where it was warmer than others, those days we did waterpark or pool, but it wasn't unbearable, it was just hot. There were often afternoon storms too which cooled it right down.

 

[LizfromOz]

Ok, you've convinced me - WDW it is! I suppose an overnight stay is just prolonging the inevitable, lol. That will give us another day

I'll definitely look into AKL, from what I've seen it looks gorgeous. Thanks for your advice, I'm sure I'll be back picking your brains again soon.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Ok, you've convinced me - WDW it is! .

Yay!

Also good choice with the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The feeling I got from Davids is that this resort is one of the easiest for them to secure. Start making enquiries from about 11 1/2 months out if you want to increase your chances of getting what you want.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I agree with everyone else about flying straight through. When you book flights, try and make sure you arrive at MCO about 6pm. This gives you plenty of time to head to your resort, get checked in and settled. We do this (flying from Sydney) and we are ready to go into MK by 9am the following morning It's a long trip but worth it to get an extra day

 

[LizfromOz]

Yay!

Also good choice with the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The feeling I got from Davids is that this resort is one of the easiest for them to secure. Start making enquiries from about 11 1/2 months out if you want to increase your chances of getting what you want.

That's great news about Animal Kingdom Lodge. I'll be sure and contact them around the 11 month mark.

Disney_Princess, I'll keep your advice in mind when planning our flights, thanks for your help

 

[gogo65]

If you are pushed for time, you could do universal in two days if you are staying onsite, due to the front of line pass. We managed it easily in two days, would give you an extra day in WDW.
My concern is you saying you could do DL in 6 days, if that's the case you will need three weeks for WDW

 

[LizfromOz]

If you are pushed for time, you could do universal in two days if you are staying onsite, due to the front of line pass. We managed it easily in two days, would give you an extra day in WDW.
My concern is you saying you could do DL in 6 days, if that's the case you will need three weeks for WDW

Well, we actually usually spend 10 days in DL so I guess we're in some trouble then, lol

We'll do what we can in the time we have and just leave some things for next time.

 

[AussieNSW]

Hi last year sept/oct we did WDW a Disney cruise a quick side trip up to Charlotte NC then back to WDW before heading up to Washington DC and Canada. I was actually surprised at how warm it was and there was a quick storm most days around lunch time. We spent 3 days at the Grand Floridian with just myself and three kids and after the cruise stayed off site with hubbie and kids. Make sure if you are going in the September/oct time period you book for Mickeys Halloween party we loved it. One other thing you need to have bookings for restaurants at WDW it is very hard to just walk up and be able to get a table. Certain places book out months in advance. Having been to Disneyland a number of times I was surprised at how organised you needed to be for WDW.

 

[LizfromOz]

Hi last year sept/oct we did WDW a Disney cruise a quick side trip up to Charlotte NC then back to WDW before heading up to Washington DC and Canada. I was actually surprised at how warm it was and there was a quick storm most days around lunch time. We spent 3 days at the Grand Floridian with just myself and three kids and after the cruise stayed off site with hubbie and kids. Make sure if you are going in the September/oct time period you book for Mickeys Halloween party we loved it. One other thing you need to have bookings for restaurants at WDW it is very hard to just walk up and be able to get a table. Certain places book out months in advance. Having been to Disneyland a number of times I was surprised at how organised you needed to be for WDW.

We went to Mickey's Halloween Party last year at DL and loved it - but geez it was packed! I had to stop my girls from taking more candy because they ended up with too much.

Thanks for the heads up on dining. I'll do some research on different restaurants and book when the time comes. I can already tell that I'll need a relaxing cruise after WDW to destress, lol.

 

[Minniemum]

A trip to the WDW!

Once we're off the ship I was thinking of going to Universal. Maybe 3 days? We will stay at the HRH because DH fancies himself as a bit of a rock afficionado (sp?) and who am I to argue? I can justify staying there because it will be just for him!

If you are pushed for time you could probably get away with 1 1/2 - 2 days at US/IOA.

Ok, you've convinced me - WDW it is! I suppose an overnight stay is just prolonging the inevitable, lol. That will give us another day

Yes it is!

Well, we actually usually spend 10 days in DL so I guess we're in some trouble then, lol

We'll do what we can in the time we have and just leave some things for next time.

We all appreciate a good forward planner here!

We went to Mickey's Halloween Party last year at DL and loved it - but geez it was packed! I had to stop my girls from taking more candy because they ended up with too much.

MNSSHP at MK seemed a lot less busy than at DL. Maybe because MK is much bigger

 

[LizfromOz]

MNSSHP at MK seemed a lot less busy than at DL. Maybe because MK is much bigger [/QUOTE]

Yep, sounds about right! Thanks for your help

 

[Aliceacc]

The reality is that, no matter how much time you spend at WDW, you'll wish you had more time. So don't let that be the deciding factor on where you go

Can I put in a plug for the Beach Club? It's a gorgeous resort, and you can WALK to 2 different Disney pakrs. It's 5 minutes from Epcot (with an amazing assortment of restaurants!!) and maybe 10 minutes from Hollywood Studios. (Or you could take the boat there, as we did. My kids loved it!) And the pool, StormAlong Bay, is simply amazing!!! We're hoping to return in August 2014, and are sincerely hoping we can return to the Beach Club.

 

[LizfromOz]

The reality is that, no matter how much time you spend at WDW, you'll wish you had more time. So don't let that be the deciding factor on where you go

Can I put in a plug for the Beach Club? It's a gorgeous resort, and you can WALK to 2 different Disney pakrs. It's 5 minutes from Epcot (with an amazing assortment of restaurants!!) and maybe 10 minutes from Hollywood Studios. (Or you could take the boat there, as we did. My kids loved it!) And the pool, StormAlong Bay, is simply amazing!!! We're hoping to return in August 2014, and are sincerely hoping we can return to the Beach Club.

I agree, there is no such thing as enough time for Disney!!

Off to check out Beach Club .....

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Have you seen the Disney Tourist Blog website. It's my second favourite source for WDW info (after the DIS) because this guy's photos are so beautiful.

Hopefully I'm able to post a link below of his post about renting DVC points - it's quite informative.

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