I had the opportunity to counsel a friend on his family vacation to Disney World. He said he wanted to come and bring his family. He thought about staying three nights and enjoy the parks for two days. He had two children ages 3 and 5. He asked for my advice.
Since we have been advising folks for over 15 years, I feel somewhat capable of showing them the seven keys to a successful family outing to Walt Disney World.
1. Do not look to come down for two or three days unless you are in the area. The cost of gas or airfare will make the trip far too costly. If you are going to do Disney World this year, plan to stay at least five or more nights.
2. If this is your first visit to the parks and you have young children, you don’t need to consider Hopper Passes. You won’t be able to use them and for a family of four, this option will add $120 to the vacation total. Keep in mind that a young child can only absorb so much of the parks in a day…when he reaches that breaking point the vacation for everyone is put on hold.
3. Keep in mind, the more days you purchase the less the cost. You learned this in Economics 101. If you buy five apples, you will get a better price than if you purchase just one. The same holds true with Disney World tickets, the more days you purchase the better the price. A one day adult ticket at the gate costs $71. If you purchase a 7 day base ticket from orlandovacation.com (one park per day), you get entrance to the park of your choice for only $29.57 per day. Note: to get these discounts, you must book your lodging through this site.
4. If you are plans call for a visit to Orlando for five or more days, you would be wise to consider a vacation pool home close to all the "magic". Not only will you have far more space, but you will have the ability to have a full kitchen which will permit the preparing of meals. Now, I know….the wife is not coming on vacation to slave behind the stove. OK…what about breakfast? You can save upwards to $250 a week in purchasing cereal, coffee, juice, fruit and sweet rolls.
5. Speaking of space….the average three bedroom two bath Orlando Vacation Home has some five to six times the amount of space as a normal hotel room. And the nightly rates are identical to an average three-star resort close to Disney World
6. What about laundry. Why pack all of that stuff. Shorts will be the dress for day as well as evening. Whether you stay in a vacation pool home or a hotel, all feature guest laundry facilities which will make packing much simpler.
7. The best time to vacation is….when the kids are in school. If you can vacation in the fall, you will find the crowds will be far less both at restaurants and the lines at Disney World will be far smaller. Further, since this is known as value season, the nightly rates for hotels and vacation homes are stupendous.
These tips have been very helpful to many traveling to Orlando. We hope that the logic and wisdom passed on here will be helpful to you.