Hello Disboards!
My name is Rob. My family and I live in Calgary and I am planning our first trip to WDW for the end of next summer. Five of us will be travelling; My wife and I, our two children (7 and 9 at time of travel), and grandma! Ill lay out the potential plans I have so far and then I have a few questions I hope someone will be able to help with.
We intend to fly out the last Saturday, August 25th, stay over labour day weekend, and return on Saturday Sept 8th. We will be flying those days for the following reasons:
-Westjet flies direct on Saturdays
-We have 2 Westjet rewards mastercards and therefor 2 pools of points to draw from as well as two of the 99 dollar companion flights
-All signs point towards those dates being low crowd days
-My kids will only miss the first week of school as opposed to missing 2 weeks later in the year (mid summer crowds are not a thing for us)
With these dates in mind we will have 13 days outside of travel days. We will be buying 10 day park hopper + passes which leaves us with 3 days to fill (or relax).
We intend to stay at the Art of Animation but are more than open to suggestion to other suggestions. The most important features of the hotel for us are sleeping comfort, a decent place to buy breakfast/lunch foods, a decent pool for those off days.
Unless something drastic happens we dont plan to use a travel agent. I will take care of booking our dining reservations and fast pass + as well as the usual travel bookings.
So my questions are (some might seem obvious but I'm asking to reassure)
1. If we book our room and buy our passes as early as possible and a deal comes up (like the 25% off ticket prices deal for Canadians that I just missed) am I able to contact Disney and get the deal? Or would I have to cancel my current reservations or get the tickets refunded and then rebook/repurchase in order to get the discount?
2. I noticed a transportation option in the Disney website menus when making a reservation. Is this simply transportation from hotel to park or is this transportation from the Orlando airport to WDW? What is the best way to get from the airport to the hotel reliably?
3. When I purchase the tickets are the directly entered into the mydisney experience? Perhaps a better way to ask is... is the disney website login and mydisney experience the same thing?
4. I took a look at the chart under the ticket faq but was still confused. How easy is it to add a couple days to the 10 day pass, how expensive (ballpark), and how do I go about doing it?
5. Who makes the best itinerary spreadsheets?
6. Whats everyone's favorite dining experiences? I will be booking asap so I should be able to reserve anywhere. Are the meal and fireworks combos worth while?
Thank you for your time and advice! It probably seems silly to be obsessing 14 months in advance but it keeps me motivated. We traveled to Disneyland last year and made the mistake of telling our kids 8 months before hand. This time we are going to keep it a surprise but I want to make sure I have done everything that I can do to make the trip the best possible experience for everyone!
My name is Rob. My family and I live in Calgary and I am planning our first trip to WDW for the end of next summer. Five of us will be travelling; My wife and I, our two children (7 and 9 at time of travel), and grandma! Ill lay out the potential plans I have so far and then I have a few questions I hope someone will be able to help with.
We intend to fly out the last Saturday, August 25th, stay over labour day weekend, and return on Saturday Sept 8th. We will be flying those days for the following reasons:
-Westjet flies direct on Saturdays
-We have 2 Westjet rewards mastercards and therefor 2 pools of points to draw from as well as two of the 99 dollar companion flights
-All signs point towards those dates being low crowd days
-My kids will only miss the first week of school as opposed to missing 2 weeks later in the year (mid summer crowds are not a thing for us)
With these dates in mind we will have 13 days outside of travel days. We will be buying 10 day park hopper + passes which leaves us with 3 days to fill (or relax).
We intend to stay at the Art of Animation but are more than open to suggestion to other suggestions. The most important features of the hotel for us are sleeping comfort, a decent place to buy breakfast/lunch foods, a decent pool for those off days.
Unless something drastic happens we dont plan to use a travel agent. I will take care of booking our dining reservations and fast pass + as well as the usual travel bookings.
So my questions are (some might seem obvious but I'm asking to reassure)
1. If we book our room and buy our passes as early as possible and a deal comes up (like the 25% off ticket prices deal for Canadians that I just missed) am I able to contact Disney and get the deal? Or would I have to cancel my current reservations or get the tickets refunded and then rebook/repurchase in order to get the discount?
2. I noticed a transportation option in the Disney website menus when making a reservation. Is this simply transportation from hotel to park or is this transportation from the Orlando airport to WDW? What is the best way to get from the airport to the hotel reliably?
3. When I purchase the tickets are the directly entered into the mydisney experience? Perhaps a better way to ask is... is the disney website login and mydisney experience the same thing?
4. I took a look at the chart under the ticket faq but was still confused. How easy is it to add a couple days to the 10 day pass, how expensive (ballpark), and how do I go about doing it?
5. Who makes the best itinerary spreadsheets?
6. Whats everyone's favorite dining experiences? I will be booking asap so I should be able to reserve anywhere. Are the meal and fireworks combos worth while?
Thank you for your time and advice! It probably seems silly to be obsessing 14 months in advance but it keeps me motivated. We traveled to Disneyland last year and made the mistake of telling our kids 8 months before hand. This time we are going to keep it a surprise but I want to make sure I have done everything that I can do to make the trip the best possible experience for everyone!