We are wanting to take our soon to be 3 and 5 yr olds to Disney World. My question is to those of you who have went....did you book through a travel agent or did you make all the arrangements yourself? If you did it yourself, how or where did you find all the info.
Thanks
Thanks to all who posted, you were VERY helpful! I ended up at disneyworld.com, finding what we wanted and then called to speak to a customer service person who could answer the questions that I had. They were wonderful! It took some time to get everything booked and scheduled, but I did it! Thanks again!
went through www.travelocity.com for hotel and airfare. We got 4 roundtrip non-stop plane tickets and 7 night stay at the HILTON downtown disney (considered disney property) with shuttle to the parks all for $1500
I thought that was GREAT-- tickets to the park are seperate through the disney store or on-line-- i heard that they are cheaper if you buy them before you get to the park... happy planning!
I booked it myself. I went to a travel agent to see if they could get any discounts, but I found that the price was the same...and I would pay for the travel agent. So I did it myself.
We got the club level in our hotel that has a concierge for you, and that was wonderful!! They did everything else for us...tickets, booked restaurants for us, got times for shows, booked spa appointments, gave advice, & we got a private safari-type tour that our hotel offered. The club level is a bit extra, and my hubby was furious at me. THEN we got to the hotel, and he LOVED it! He said he would always stay at club level with the concierge.
My favorite web sites for planning a Disney vacation are mousesavers.com and disboards.com
Those 2 are all you need for info from the pros!
Good luck! Your kids will love it.
There are tons of disney websites out there that can help you plan. I'd definitely get the Passporter book at the bookstore, it's a fantastic resource. One of my favorite websites for Disney info is allears.net.
You'll be just fine calling Disney directly and taking care of everything yourself.
you should do the special they are having right now buy a 4 night package and get 3 more nights with tickets free. check their website, thats what we are doing and we are going in july. plus they are having a military special too. my kids will be 2 and 4 when we go.
We went in 2006 and are going again later this year and each time we've booked everything except air travel through Disney's travel company. It's so easy to do online or over the phone and they are experts. They can recommend lots of activities outside just visiting the parks, like behind the scenes tours and other things.
We just booked our trip to Disney World thru there website http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/
Click the buy 4 get 3 free and select a hotel. We are going to stay at the Carribean hotel in August. I picked out everything and then called the 1-800 number and they booked everything for me and you only have to pay for your flight when it is booked. Hurry and do it by Friday as the special ends Friday. The 3 free includes hotel and park tickets so it is a great deal. We also did the meal package as it would be alot cheaper to do it if you are planning any character meals since they are around 60.00 a person. We chose the one fast meal and one sit down meal and a snack as I don't think we will eat 3 big meals while we are there. If you need any help send me a message and I will be glad to help you out since I did alot of research before booking ours.
We just got back from Disney for Spring Break. This was our 6th trip. We took our daughter at ages 2,4,6,8,10 and 14.
I have always booked it myself and avoided an agent. I am by far no professional but I manage all travel for my hubby and I prefer working with airlines and hotels directly.
We have always stayed at the Polynesian which is on the monorail line and super convenient if you have little ones. MANY people say it is not worth it becuase it is more expensive but it is worth it to us. We actually stat in the Conceirge area which has food availalbe for guests. No, it is not food to use instead of any other food at the parks but it is a decent snack for breakfast, some lunch snacks, dinner snacks, desserts at night, all sodas available anytime. You hop on the monorail or boat to go to MK. You are close to the transportation area to catch the monorail to Epcot. Busses for other parks come to the hotel for pickup. Also, for the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Contemporary (I am not sure if they have added any other resorts)....1 park opens early every day for these guests and 1 park stays open late every day for these guests. There are other perks for Concergie...we went on a semi private (3 adults 7 children ages 4-17) on a private safari at Animal Kingdom. This is not offered for all Disney guests. It is so AWESOME.....you go off the safari path, get up close with some of the animals. It was worth every penny.
Since I know what hotel we will stay at, I go to the polynesian site and book our stay. I usually go ahead and add the tickets to the package so that I don't have to worry about that as well. The tickets we get are good for the time you arrive at the park until midnight the day you leave, any park, any time as much as you want.
We always fly directly from DFW. We take a personal cab to our hotel ($80 each way with tip). There are shuttles you can take and the Polynesian has a free shuttle. The reason we don't care for the shuttle is that you might be the first one on and last one off....no telling how long you will be on the shuttle.
We do not do the food plan. We just do waht ever we like. This past time, of course we did not do any character dining. That is a lot of fun for the little ones. Contemporary has a nice buffet, Polynesian has a good breakfast, Pooh has a place in MK.
You do need to make all reservations in advance and expect to pay in full in advance.
Feel free to pm me if you want any other info. Have FUN!
