AffordableDisney-Trip Reports
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Brought to you by...
John and Donna Gross "The Full Mickey - At a Discount!" The Wall Street Journal
Carol writes about her vacation at WDW from May 24 through June 7, 2003: "Hey John! We were in Orlando from May 24 through June 7! We had a GREAT vacation! We have 4 children, ages 8, 10, 12, 14 and, as you know, all but one had to have adult passes. Our first stop was to see Omar to purchase our tickets, which were the Disney 5 Day Park Hopper plus 4 options. This adds up to great savings for a family of six! We also purchased our tickets from Omar for our 2002 vacation! He is so courteous and eager to please his customers! We also purchased the 2003 Orlando Entertainment Book for 10 dollars thanks to you. We played putt-putt and went to Wonderworks, but only paying for 3 of us at both. We saved lots more using more of the coupons. Although I could go on and on about our magical vacation, there is one activity that I would recommend to families. The "Family Magic Tour" at The Magic Kingdom was a blast! My 14 year old son asked if we could do this every time we came. Although Disney World is the only place that our family gets those special magical feelings, we also like to do other things while visiting Orlando. Islands of Adventure is very exciting and SeaWorld is wonderful! Blizzard Beach and Wet n Wild are our favorite water parks. Chef Mickeys is a must for families! (we go every year) We were able to do the extra special things with the money we saved by following your recommendations. Thanks again John!" Thank you, Carol, for the great feedback! We'll be here when you're ready for another dose of the Disney magic! |
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Carmon visited WDW April, 2003: "We arrived at Disney on 3/29 and left on 4/7. Now, I must say that there will always be good and bad in every trip. I will admit that the bus drivers were not all that great. Of course, some are what we expect. They talk and one even had us do a sing a long. Others were quick with the hello and not so friendly. Because we were there kind of at the end of spring break, we were not overburdened with crowds. The parks close earlier, but we just parked till we dropped and then went back to relax or swim. It was Music Days at Disney and some of the High Schools had their Senior trip while there. These kids never seem to bother anybody. I overheard people complain, but never encountered any "bad" kid. On 2 different occasions, we were around a large group waiting for the bus and some 4 letters words were spoken. We asked the kids to watch for our little ones and they obliged without incident and even apologized. I was disappointed, though, with MGM. It didn't appear that there was much to do. The Great Movie Ride is under construction, the Hat is also under construction. The Doug show has not yet been replaced. Indiana Jones is getting old. If it weren't for the coaster and Tower of Terror, there wouldn't be much to do. A lot of the stands were closed and crowds at MGM were minimal. Of course Magic Kingdom, my personal favorite, was crowded whether we went in at early entrance or not. I love being there and was still pleased with the parade. I am a snow globe collector, so this is my kind of parade. The characters in the parade were very interactive with the kids. Mine enjoyed the parade as well. The only problem with the parade and this is not Disney's fault, is the people. Many people go and reserve their spot an hour or more before 3 pm, parade start time at the other end of the park. When the parade starts down Main Street, these people push up and take over. This is very frustrating to those who have waited. Animal Kingdom still is only a half day park to me. I don't care for animals, but the Festival of the Lion King is excellent. The Safari ride is a definite. One shouldn't miss that. We did meet a man from India whose sole job at Disney for the next 11 months was just to talk to people about his country. He was dressed in authentic clothes and was a wonderful man to talk with. I learned so much in that 30 minutes. What a great idea! Epcot is always a great place to spend time. My 9 year old was required to report on one country since she wasn't at school because of the trip. She talked with a few people from France who were fabulous. they taught her a lot and helped her to understand some things. We did purchase a book about the country because she needed more info. They also had a mime show and luckily both of my kids were selected to play parts. They loved it. This park was crowded. The night show was as good as always. We strolled through and left the park happy. We have decided to take a break next year from visiting Disney. We have vacationed there for 10 straight years from our honeymoon to this most recent 10 year anniversary trip. My kids know the parks without maps now. That is a true Disney World fan. Thanks for the tips. Saved a lot of money as usual."
Rose visited WDW in February, 2003: "We just returned from our Disney trip, the first time with a 2 1/2 yr old and it was great!!! She totally enjoyed the 12:00 pm show in front of Cinderella castle, and the 3 pm parade, even got to dance in the parade with some of the characters. The playhouse Disney show at MGM was good too, only she had a hard time seeing the "puppet" characters, as we were seated on the floor in the front row and she was too short to see, my recommendation is to see this show seated no more than half way up in front if you have little ones. We also ate at The Grand Floridian Cinderella Dinner, but were a little disappointed with it. The food isn't that good and it took 3 requests from our waitress to even get Cinderella and Prince Charming to come by our table. For $32 per person, you would be better off going to a different Character meal. Otherwise, everything was great. The weather was warm and humid, a great change from the snow and cold of MI in Feb. And we stayed at The Holiday Inn, Family Suites just minutes off Disney property. This is a good neighbor hotel, and believe me, they treat you as good as, if not better than the treatment you get when you stay on Disney property. I will definitely stay there again." We've heard nothing but good things about the Holiday Inn Family Suites Hotel Lake Buena Vista which is located 1.5 miles from Downtown Disney.
Nick visited WDW January, 2003: "We just returned from our short jaunt - 5 nights from Tuesday Jan 28 thru Sunday. The weather hovered in the low 70's during the day, and not a single raindrop could be found - just the prescription for 5 New Englanders escaping the coldest winter in 10 years! Average wait time for main attractions never hit 10 minutes (until Saturday night when the shivering masses of Florida residents emerged from their collective slab homes all at once to celebrate the first truly warm weekend of the year). Our well-traveled children had a blast, and were often heard reciting tips from your book in a transparent effort to convince the two of us they really did care about how much money we could save with a little knowledge." Now that is music to my ears! :) "Just a couple of parting notes on this visit. First, if you stay at the Fort Wilderness Cabins as we did (again!) and you are using a car to get around, get used to passing the first FW entrance after the Magic Kingdom gates. Drive another 400 feet to the Pioneer Hall driveway. You will not encounter the guard booth or chance getting stuck behind a camper, which can take a few minutes to gain admittance. It may not be the longest line you wait in at the parks but after a long day the last thing you want to be stuck behind is a caravan of campers." That is a good tip! "Second, as much as we enjoy eating on property, the cost makes it unreasonable - especially for larger families - to eat properly for every meal. You often make budget-busting mistakes or simply chow-down on unhealthy foods to save a few bucks. We were very pleased, for example, with the pricey but tasty meal at House of Blues. The SciFi Theater experience, on the other hand, was pretty lousy. ... on this trip we ate in a pair of off-property eateries. The first was a place called Buca De Beppo, part of a small chain of restaurants that make dining Italian an event! The food was very good, the atmosphere was crazy and the prices are fantastic. The menu reads $16 for pasta. Fancy? No way. Hand-made with love? Fugetaboutit! It's TWO POUNDS of pasta for everyone to dig into! The Eggplant Parm was better than my own and there was enough for about 8 people! The pizzas are huge (the younger kids loved them) and the wine is cheap and unpretentious. Everyone in our party (I was treating 12 family members) wanted to know how I found the place. Go to http://bucadibeppo.com/ for directions and menu." I've read good things about Buca De Beppo. And your description makes me want to go there now! :) "We also ate at a hotel restaurant called The Outback (not Outback steak house). High prices, stuffy atmosphere, mediocre food...very much the kind of place I would urge vacationers to avoid unless they, themselves, are stuffy and rich. Finally, for anyone wondering how Disney handles national tragedies, we were unfortunate to have been there for one. During our last trip in December 2000, we actually got some great video footage of a 10pm shuttle launch as the glowing ball passed over Cinderella's Castle during the Christmas celebration. This time, I left the video camera running for several minutes, expecting to record the sonic boom as Columbia returned to Earth. Thirty minutes later, a young cast member informed us of the awful truth. I kind of wish he had not, for throughout the rest of the day, not a soul mentioned it and we would have spent the day in blissful ignorance. Something tells me the CM who passed along the bad news was breaking with a Disney rule of keeping bad news from their customers...even when the parks were evacuated on 9-11-01 no one was told of the events to the North by Disney employees." It was probably better that Disney did not announce the news of the Columbia explosion. Visitors would have found out about it as soon as they left the park anyway. As a nation, we pray for the astronauts who lost their lives and our hearts go out to their families and friends who mourn their passing. God bless them all. Thank you, Nick, for sharing your trip with us. We'll be here when you're ready for another dose of the Disney magic! --------------------------------------------------- Lauren writes about Nick's comments on 9/11: "My family and I were there 9-9-01 thru 9-13-01. We were in Magic Kingdom when the park was closed. Disney announced over the PA system that the park was closed for reasons beyond their control. When we got to the Fort Wilderness launch (we were staying at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge), the captain pulled away from the dock and then announced over the loudspeaker that there had been an attack on New York, that "the World Trade Center is no longer." Living 30 minutes from New York myself, that news hit me like a ton of bricks. We had left our room early for a character breakfast and hadn't seen the news. But can you imagine the pandemonium that would have occurred in Magic Kingdom if they had made that announcement any earlier? I think it was a very smart move to make the announcement to a smaller group (the people on the boat) than to the whole park at large. Just had to put in my two cents."
Mike visited WDW January, 2003: "We just got back from a great trip from the 13th thru the 23rd, and thanks to you and your great advice, saved money and time! Beth, [your travel agent], was a HUGE help! ... In total we saved about $3000 for our group of 6. E-ticket nights are seasonal. They don't start until Feb. We were kind of disappointed about that. Park news: The Timekeeper in Tomorrowland closed. It was a charming show I loved, and was chagrined to see shut down." Disney opens Timekeeper lately only during the busy seasons. "It was about 30 degrees out when we saw Illuminations, so we did not have to fight crowds anyway (brr). The parks during our stay were very down in attendance. Our avg wait for rides was 3-5 minutes, usually as long as it took us to get thru the entrance :-) A money saving tip for coffee drinkers, if you like cappuccino, get an espresso in an oversized cup and then ask for cream. You will save $2 per drink! Cleanliness and incredible service are still the norm. We are going back within a year to use our passes again, and think our per person cost will be in the $150-200 range, flights and all."
Lori visited WDW in January, 2003: "Just returned from a 5 day trip (Jan 30 - Feb 3) and wanted to share a couple of things. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside (last time stayed at French Quarter) and had no problem using our refillable mugs from last time. My husband purchased a new mug, which did not have any barcode on it so they definitely are not enforcing this yet. I chose Riverside over French Quarter because I previously found their food court far superior, but was disappointed to find that they closed one of their counters that offered great chicken and rib dinners. Now the only choice you have is the Pasta/Pizza and Hot Dog/Burger counters, and the Bakery. Four days prior to our arrival date, I faxed a very specific room request. I highly recommend this as they met every request that I made. I also recommend checking in as early as possible (I checked in at 8:00 am). I have found that every time they will either offer me a room immediately, or I end up getting a great location later on because I beat everyone else checking in for the day and get first dibs... I would also like to highly recommend the Animal Kingdom Restaurantosaurus. I found the food to be excellent with a wide range to choose from (even breakfast pizzas, banana bread pudding, and a home fry casserole along with all the traditional breakfast items). The characters came around frequently and my son really enjoyed it. Already looking forward to our next trip and will probably stay at Caribbean Beach... Look forward to the newsletter every Wednesday!!!"
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