where to stay

[cooks123]

HI there 1st post, me and my grilfreind are thinking about going to diszeny next september around the 7th. We will be flying from mancxhetser airport and we have a budget of £3200 that includes our travel, park tickets, resort and sepending money. Its my girlfreinds 1st time ive been before and the 1st time i stayed was in 1999 inn oldkeywest when i was 8. Any info would be good. Thanks

[cooks123]

thanks

[jarretth]

Originally Posted by cooks123

Thanks flyign with virgin seems to be the best price atm do diseny not offer there magical tranfer anymore

Just to break down the jargon for you, if you get any flight into Orlando International Airport (MCO) then you can use the Magical Express. This is the same whether you go direct from the UK with Virgin or BA or if you get an indirect flight.

If you get a charter flight from the UK, the majority of these fly into Sanford (SFB) which is further away from Orlando but usually much quicker to get through immigration and baggage collection. Some tour operators will offer transfers from Sanford but there is usually a cost for this.

MCO and SFB are the official codes for the airports and used here to save our fingers. Other examples you'll see on here are LGW (london Gatwick), LHR (London Heathrow) and MAN (Manchester).

[cooks123]

thanks for the breakdown WOULD YOU RECCOMMNED QUICK SERVICE DINING PLAN OR NOT?

[Disney Dad]

Magic Express was still up and running when we went in Aug. We have done the All Star Resorts...next trip we are thinking about the Pop Century

[Tinker]

My DH and I used Disney's Magical Express just last week . So they are up and running .

[mom2munchkins]

Originally Posted by cooks123

WOULD YOU RECCOMMNED QUICK SERVICE DINING PLAN OR NOT?

I think that depends on how you plan to do your trip. If you don"t feel you'll want a sit down meal and want to just grab a quick bite to eat and then on to more Disney. Then yeah I'd say go that route. If you think you'll want to sit and relax a bit one meal a day then go that way. It's really comes down to your trip style. We personally liked the sit down meal. We have 2 children so we did ALOT of character meal(sit down,don't be confused not all sit down places have characters) so that worked for us. And we did our sit down meals as dinner..my tired feet loved me for it

[jarretth]

Originally Posted by cooks123

thanks for the breakdown WOULD YOU RECCOMMNED QUICK SERVICE DINING PLAN OR NOT?

If you can get if free then yes I'm not sure that I could cope with it for more than a few days as the menu choices aren't that inspiring. Have a look at the menu section of the site and see what you like and don't like. Also check the places which don't do the normal Burger/chicken strips/pizza/fries stuff. EPCOT and some of the deluxe resorts have a much more varied selection of QS meals than other places.

[h2odivers]

Hi,
Welcome. Just wanted to give you a few suggestions that our family has used in the past and seem to work for us. 1st, if you can find a good package deal it is usually the best deal. 2nd, the dining plan is a good idea if you can get it for free, or if you and your girl are big eaters. We tried it once and we found that it was less expense to pay for our meals out of our pockets. You get alot of food for your money and we are not big eaters (usually my wife eats a kids meal), so if you like to eat three good size meals a day, it is a good deal. 3rd, Since this is your second and its been 10 years, and your girls first trip I would not pay extra for the park hopper pass. If you dont know a park hopper pass allows you to go to different parks in the same day. I would just plan on spending the whole day at each park, besides you can leave the park and come back on the same day if you wanted to go back to your hotel. 4th, try to fly into Orlando International Airport (MCO) so you can get free transportation to and from the airport. Once you get to your hotel Disney provides free transportation to the parks and all disney locations. 5th, hotel, I would stay at one of the All-Star/ Pop Century hotels. We like All-Star Music they have movies at the pool at night and you can watch them from inside the pool. The rooms are just as big, the pools are great, the food courts food is good, and the beer at the bar is cold. CHEERS! And you are probably not going to spend to much time at the hotel. As a guest at Disneyworld, you can go to any hotel and eat at there restaraunts. 6th, Dont leave Disnyworld property. No I dont work for Disney, but me and my family have been there about 10 times. The reason I say that is there is so much to do on your first trip you wont have time to go or do anything else. Taxis are expensive. I recommend going to Downtown Disney, there are lots of shops, restaraunts, and at night the clubs/bars are a lot of fun. Go visit the Grand Floridan for afternoon tea, or evening cocktails. Other hotels to visit are, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, and go to the Contemporary and have dinner or drinks on the roof and if you can get the reservations at the same time as the fireworks start at the Magic Kingdom. Its the best place to watch them from.
I could go on forever but i will end now. Write if you have any more questions.

Have fun planning and on your trip.
Ray, from Oklahoma, U.S.A.

[Minnie Mad]

If you book early with Virgin from Manchester you get the best deals. Of £3200, I would budget arount £800-900 for flights, £1200 spending money (I assume you are going for 14 nights) and that leaves about £1000-£1200 for your hotel. I have just paid £1100 for Port Orleans for 14 nights in January so prices may go up a bit for 2010 but September is a cheaper and quieter month so if you keep checking the WDW Travel UK website you may pick up something cheap, especially if you are flexible about when you travel.

[Minnie Mad]

Sorry I didnt realise I have forgotten to include park tickets in your budget. If you are going for 14 days the best value is the tickets you buy in or from the UK for about £250. If its just the two of you and you are only or mostly doing Disney this is the best value. If you factor this into your budget I suppose you will need to look at a value hotel instead but it is still doable!

Oh - and travel insurance and airport carparking - I always include them in my budget too so its not a nasty shock when its nearly time to go.