Tford Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 The wife and I are thinking about taking a trip to Orlando to do the Disneyworld thing while our kids are still young enough to really enjoy it. Any huddlers have some tip/tricks for a family of 5? Deals that I should know about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geeteebee Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 How old are the kids? We went 18 months ago with our 4 kids, then aged 3,5,7,9 and they each enjoyed different things. We took them out of school and lines were still longer than I thought they would be. We stayed on Disney property and didn't go to Universal Studios. Even though we were there for a week, I'm glad we didn't try to anything else. If you search for threads on here, you'll find some good info as a few people go regularly. If you want to maximize your time at Disney, buy the book "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World". It reviews every park restaurant, let's you know what the best deals are, helps you with ride strategy so you minimize your time in line, etc. Also, while you are there, make sure you download a line wait time app for your phone so you can easily tell how long waits are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tford Posted September 26, 2012 Author Share Posted September 26, 2012 My daughter is 8 and my twin boys are 5. The boys are really into super heroes so we wanted to make sure that we got in a couple days of Universal Studios for the Spiderman/Superman stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpwallace49 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Also look at the undercover tourist site. I am going next week with my 11, 9, and 7 year old. We are renting a house off site with my parents and in laws for 5 days. I will be happy to give you a full report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Two words for you: Fast Pass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tford Posted September 26, 2012 Author Share Posted September 26, 2012 Two words for you: Fast Pass. Where do you buy a Fast pass? Can you use it everywhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuke'em ttg Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Two words for you: Fast Pass. wurd and i'll add one more Flask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geeteebee Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Where do you buy a Fast pass? Can you use it everywhere? You don't buy them, you get them from kiosks for certain rides. There are rules on how often you can get them, I think it is every 2 hours and each ride only offers a certain number each day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Where do you buy a Fast pass? Can you use it everywhere? http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/fast-pass/ So, first thing when you get to the park in the morning, go and get fast passes for the popular rides. While you wait for your time slot to come up, go on less popular rides with shorter lines. Whenever your fast pass time is eligible again, go get fast passes for the next popular ride. When you show up to the ride that you have the fast pass for during your time frame you will wait a few minutes for a ride that may have a 90 minute line. It's awesome. If I recall, when you get your first fast passes in the morning, it will tell you when you can get your next fast passes, which may be before you can go on the first fast pass ride, so you may end up having fast passes for more than one ride at a time. Other times the fast pass waits are pretty long and that doesn't happen. Hope I explained that somewhat well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 (edited) Man, last time I was there, Jaws and the parting of the sea trick were the latest jam. That was at the Cali version, mind you. Forgot to mention the green-screen deal where you could get on a motorbike and, to everyone else, it looked like Steve Austin was chasing after you. Some high-tech chight that was. Edited September 26, 2012 by detlef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sundaynfl Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Under cover tourist also has a great phone app. that gives you the wait times for the rides. Right now, I am 2,706,151 yards away from Splash Mountain and there is a 35 minute wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 We are going there this coming Spring Break. Check out mousesavers.com for some tips and links. We have decided not to stay on site. We are renting a house from VRBO.com and will be saving thousands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 We are going there this coming Spring Break. Check out mousesavers.com for some tips and links. We have decided not to stay on site. We are renting a house from VRBO.com and will be saving thousands. I did both, stayed on site and off site. The two main advantages to being off-site are cost and dining choices. If you're in Disney, you pay Disney prices for everything. However, you can get to the parks earlier (they give you an extra hour in the morning I think), you won't need a rental car, you won't have to deal with parking, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Epcot is the bomb. Start in Mexico with a margarita, have a tall beer in Germany, persecco in Italy, Sam Adams in USA, etc. By the time you make it to Japan, you won't care how much their beer sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuke'em ttg Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 we booked fast pass ahead of time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Epcot is the bomb. Start in Mexico with a margarita, have a tall beer in Germany, persecco in Italy, Sam Adams in USA, etc. By the time you make it to Japan, you won't care how much their beer sucks. This is one of the truest statements I have read at the huddle in many a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpwallace49 Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Epcot is the bomb. Start in Mexico with a margarita, have a tall beer in Germany, persecco in Italy, Sam Adams in USA, etc. By the time you make it to Japan, you won't care how much their beer sucks. Last time I almost lost it doing an "around the world" with the enormous cup of warm sake. **this was without children Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puddy Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Did the onsite thing when my daughter was young. Stayed offsite later on when my son was 6 and she was 13. Really enjoyed staying in the house with the Florida room with the pool. Both had their advantages however. I have a unwritten rule that I get to maximize the sex when paying for a vacation so the house had the advantage there. I often wonder if Mrs. Puddy has figured out that every vacation we've taken over 24 years never took place when Aunt Flo was in town. Oh and mousesavers.com is a great idea. I saved a boatload on my rental car with a code I got from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Couch Potatoe Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Two words for you: Fast Pass. +a million Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tford Posted September 27, 2012 Author Share Posted September 27, 2012 we booked fast pass ahead of time How do you do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 One thing I forgot to mention about Epcot, make sure you eat at the Germany restaurant. Huge buffet of really good food, huge delicious beers, and gorgeous authentic young blonde waitresses shipped in directly from Germany. And every hour they have a band come out in the ridiculous outfits, one guy has the big horn from the Ricola commercials, another guy plays the accordion and they all smile and make jokes for the tourists but they have just the right amount of contempt just beneath the surface. Which reminds me, a fun thing to do in all parts of Epcot is to ask the foreign workers if they are there against their will and if they need help, and watch as they choke back the tears. Some of the notes they slip you are heartbreaking, most of them haven't had any contact with their families for years and Disney won't tell them how long until their "contracts" run out. You can tell that some of the older workers had their spirits broken long ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 How do you do that? You can't. Maybe at one time you could, I don't know, but as it stands now you can't. This link explains much better than my other post exactly how fast works and includes some useful hints. Trust me, fast pass is the ONLY was to enjoy Disney unless you like waiting on 90 minute lines. http://www.ehow.com/how_7690152_can-fastpass-tickets-ahead-time.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tford Posted September 27, 2012 Author Share Posted September 27, 2012 We will be staying at the Disney site for 5 days. Decided to get the meal plan for simplicity sake. Anyone have recommendation on where to eat onsite? What about offsite? We are staying at the Nickelodeon hotel for the other 4 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tford Posted September 27, 2012 Author Share Posted September 27, 2012 BTW, thanks for the help/suggestions so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geeteebee Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 (edited) We will be staying at the Disney site for 5 days. Decided to get the meal plan for simplicity sake. Anyone have recommendation on where to eat onsite? What about offsite? We are staying at the Nickelodeon hotel for the other 4 days. I can't recommend enough the book I mentioned above. It reviews every restaurant and helped us get much better value than we otherwise would have. With the meal plan, you get certain items like an entree, side, drink and dessert. The book told us exactly what that would include at each restaurant so we didn't have to walk into each one and try to figure it out on the fly. It also gives great advice on which character meals to do. By the way, you'll need to make reservations as far in advance as possible for many of the character meals. Edited September 27, 2012 by geeteebee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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