sheryl Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 (edited) We just returned home from our FIRST visit to Disney World late Saturday. Wow! What an experience! I’m sure it will be boring for most. But, this is for you Jennifer/MI. After looking at some of the recent threads where many of you are going for 10 days or so, it seems we vacationed on the "whirlwind tour plan" of 4 days! :lol: Basically 1 park each day. For us, we can’t imagine a better time of year to go. I wanted to go the 2nd week in Nov, but we can never go the 2nd week anywhere as my husband has a continuous work week including meetings etc that he MUST be present for the 2nd week of EVERY.MONTH.EVERY.YEAR! He works late hours those weeks and prepares/sets up for the next day’s events and must be present each day. The 3rd week would have worked for us. My dh wanted to go at a time that was not real hot, but warm enough to go swimming. I would personally like Jan or Feb, but not sure if dh would. DD wouldn’t care either way. It was NOT crowded at all. There were many people there and it was GREAT to see so many kids (out of school’s routine, enjoying DW), but it was.not.crowded. Before choosing this week, I researched months with “average” highs and lows. November’s high average is 79 and low average is 59 with little precip (20 %). That was one reason why we chose this week…the average high/low and chance of rain. It did rain just a bit, but not much. Friday was actually very cool for there and I’m originally from Ohio where it gets bitter cold. Ironically, coming back to NC, we’re going to have temps in the low 70’s this coming week. Here's the breakdown: A week ago yesterday/Sat we left. Sat night we arrived in St Augustine, FL. Sunday we visited the old, historic city of St A and shopped! Sunday night drove to Orlando and spent the night in a motel. Monday we checked in with the resort where we stayed M-F. Monday - Epcot Tuesday - Hollywood Studios Wednesday - MK Thursday - AK Friday - Downtown Disney and drove to Kennedy/NASA. (We were going to go back to one of the parks for a morning only, but dd was indecisive b/c she likes all the parks….as it turned out it was better schedule wise for us to NOT try to squeeze that in). We did not budget time or $$ for the NASA tour, but we were right there and taking pics of the rockets. Heading north we stopped off again at the outlet malls in St A and shopped and bought! Then we drove to Savannah, GA and ate lunch and visited the river's board walk/downtown area (GREAT). From there we drove to Tybee Island and dipped our toes into the ocean. Drove to Darien, GA and spent the night. Drove home to Charlotte and arrived Sat. night. Now I need that vacation! We calculated from our driveway to DW it took 9 h 15 m and that's stopping 2 times for about a total of 30 minutes. Yes, we could easily drive it in one day, but I really wanted to revisit St A. My dh and I were there in March 1989. Really like to visit there. The parks are big, but the walking was not bad at all. We all wore new socks and new tennis shoes. My feet did not hurt….until day 4 and that was only a little. We were not exhausted and that in and of itself was a blessing! We did find benches, curbs and sat down here and there. Rested during rides and eating a snack/meal. We drank Gatorade and water constantly so we stayed hydrated. Wore the sunscreen. And, tickled it was NOT unbearably hot. Here's each park's tour. This is what we ended up actually doing. We did not have time for these that were originally planned Magic Carpet – dd not interested, ran out of time for all of these: Jungle Cruise, Seas Main Tank and Seas/Nemo friends, Festival Lion King, Beatuy/Beast, Toy Story, Honey/Kids, Lights, Motor. Epcot/Mon -Test Track -Mission:Space (we all really liked this concept….I ended up queasy on the “extreme” version) -Soarin’ -Club Cool (indoor station featuring beverages from around the world, it’s free) -Kim Possible and some countries -Innoventions (dh and dd “created” a robotical program of twists and turns) Hollywood Studios/Tues -Backlot Tour -Rock n Roller (I was too scared to go on this one) -Voyage Little Mermaid (live action) -Tower of Terror (dh’s idea, not mine) MK/Wed -Big Thunder Mtn RR -Splash Mtn -Tom Sawyer Island -Hall of Presidents -Peter Pan’s Flight -Astro Orbiter -Space Mtn (this terrorized me) -Speedway -People Mover -It’s a Small World -Buzz Lightyear -Princesses autographs AK/Thurs -Kali River Rapids (no wait time so after dh, dd and I rode it for the 2nd time that day, my dd and I went back and rode it another 5 times or so right in a row). FABULOUS! -Expedition Everest (too scary for me) -Kilimanjaro Safari -Maharajah (tigers) -Tree of Life (from a distance) -Dino Land -Flights of Wonder (bird show) Friday early we went to Downtown Disney All the rides were great, but some were a little too much for me. I felt that we were going to fly off the track in Space Mtn and end up where :D! Thanks Jennifer for all your help and to others too who offered suggestions. Edited November 8, 2010 by sheryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenpatty Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 Thanks for sharing! We are headed there in about 2 weeks for our first visit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheryl Posted November 8, 2010 Author Share Posted November 8, 2010 Thanks for sharing! We are headed there in about 2 weeks for our first visit! Oh, have FUN! Thanks to Jennifer/MI advice, my dh and I mapped out rides and fast passes. Each day he went one direction to get a fastpass and my dd and I went the other to stand in line for the first ride. My dh and I stayed in close contact with our mobile phones and everything turned out successfully in terms of getting on ALL the rides we wanted AND we didn't get lost from one another. HTH! Have a BLAST! Sheryl <>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom in High Heels Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 Sounds like you had a great time! I'm just sorry you didn't get to see the Festival of the Lion King or Beauty and the Beast on stage. Those were two of our favorite shows. Disney is loads of fun! We went for 10 days once and honestly, that was about 3-4 days too long. Seven days is about the most we can handle being that happy. By the end of the 7th day, James Bond and I were tired of being happy and had had it with all the smiling we were doing. We wanted to be grumpy, but unless you're one of the seven dwarfes, it's virtually impossible to do in WDW. :D I'm glad you guys had a great first trip. I hope it's the first of many for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2J112903 Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 We are headed down in just under 3wks for our 2nd visit, we like to go after Thanksgiving so we can enjoy the Christmas decorations and low crowds. :) We don't do the shows either, minus Fanstamic and the stunt show. J doesn't have any intrest in the stage shows. We LOVE the Aquarium and the Nemo ride, not sure why-maybe it is because Nemo is one of our favorite movies. So happy you had a great time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugarfoot Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 Sounds like you had a great time! I need to finish packing-we leave on Wednesday. We're flying, but it still feels like it takes all day to get there.:glare: I love hearing about "first-time" trips! We've been there too many times to count, but we keep going back because we love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 I'm tired just reading about your trip LOL!! I'm glad you had a great time! We just got back from 9 days at the World on Friday. So we were there at the same time for some of the time. We don't do consecutive park days though.....we did a campground day (we were staying in Disney's Ft Wilderness campground) in between the park days. The weather was AWESOME on the day that we left LOL (Friday)....it was quite rainy before that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 We just returned home from our FIRST visit to Disney World late Saturday. Wow! What an experience! I’m sure it will be boring for most. But, this is for you Jennifer/MI. After looking at some of the recent threads where many of you are going for 10 days or so, it seems we vacationed on the "whirlwind tour plan" of 4 days! :lol: Basically 1 park each day. For us, we can’t imagine a better time of year to go. I wanted to go the 2nd week in Nov, but we can never go the 2nd week anywhere as my husband has a continuous work week including meetings etc that he MUST be present for the 2nd week of EVERY.MONTH.EVERY.YEAR! He works late hours those weeks and prepares/sets up for the next day’s events and must be present each day. The 3rd week would have worked for us. My dh wanted to go at a time that was not real hot, but warm enough to go swimming. I would personally like Jan or Feb, but not sure if dh would. DD wouldn’t care either way. It was NOT crowded at all. There were many people there and it was GREAT to see so many kids (out of school’s routine, enjoying DW), but it was.not.crowded. Before choosing this week, I researched months with “average†highs and lows. November’s high average is 79 and low average is 59 with little precip (20 %). That was one reason why we chose this week…the average high/low and chance of rain. It did rain just a bit, but not much. Friday was actually very cool for there and I’m originally from Ohio where it gets bitter cold. Ironically, coming back to NC, we’re going to have temps in the low 70’s this coming week. Here's the breakdown: A week ago yesterday/Sat we left. Sat night we arrived in St Augustine, FL. Sunday we visited the old, historic city of St A and shopped! Sunday night drove to Orlando and spent the night in a motel. Monday we checked in with the resort where we stayed M-F. Monday - Epcot Tuesday - Hollywood Studios Wednesday - MK Thursday - AK Friday - Downtown Disney and drove to Kennedy/NASA. (We were going to go back to one of the parks for a morning only, but dd was indecisive b/c she likes all the parks….as it turned out it was better schedule wise for us to NOT try to squeeze that in). We did not budget time or $$ for the NASA tour, but we were right there and taking pics of the rockets. Heading north we stopped off again at the outlet malls in St A and shopped and bought! Then we drove to Savannah, GA and ate lunch and visited the river's board walk/downtown area (GREAT). From there we drove to Tybee Island and dipped our toes into the ocean. Drove to Darien, GA and spent the night. Drove home to Charlotte and arrived Sat. night. Now I need that vacation! We calculated from our driveway to DW it took 9 h 15 m and that's stopping 2 times for about a total of 30 minutes. Yes, we could easily drive it in one day, but I really wanted to revisit St A. My dh and I were there in March 1989. Really like to visit there. The parks are big, but the walking was not bad at all. We all wore new socks and new tennis shoes. My feet did not hurt….until day 4 and that was only a little. We were not exhausted and that in and of itself was a blessing! We did find benches, curbs and sat down here and there. Rested during rides and eating a snack/meal. We drank Gatorade and water constantly so we stayed hydrated. Wore the sunscreen. And, tickled it was NOT unbearably hot. Here's each park's tour. This is what we ended up actually doing. We did not have time for these that were originally planned Magic Carpet – dd not interested, ran out of time for all of these: Jungle Cruise, Seas Main Tank and Seas/Nemo friends, Festival Lion King, Beatuy/Beast, Toy Story, Honey/Kids, Lights, Motor. Epcot/Mon -Test Track -Mission:Space (we all really liked this concept….I ended up queasy on the “extreme†version) -Soarin’ -Club Cool (indoor station featuring beverages from around the world, it’s free) -Kim Possible and some countries -Innoventions (dh and dd “created†a robotical program of twists and turns) Hollywood Studios/Tues -Backlot Tour -Rock n Roller (I was too scared to go on this one) -Voyage Little Mermaid (live action) -Tower of Terror (dh’s idea, not mine) MK/Wed -Big Thunder Mtn RR -Splash Mtn -Tom Sawyer Island -Hall of Presidents -Peter Pan’s Flight -Astro Orbiter -Space Mtn (this terrorized me) -Speedway -People Mover -It’s a Small World -Buzz Lightyear -Princesses autographs AK/Thurs -Kali River Rapids (no wait time so after dh, dd and I rode it for the 2nd time that day, my dd and I went back and rode it another 5 times or so right in a row). FABULOUS! -Expedition Everest (too scary for me) -Kilimanjaro Safari -Maharajah (tigers) -Tree of Life (from a distance) -Dino Land -Flights of Wonder (bird show) Friday early we went to Downtown Disney All the rides were great, but some were a little too much for me. I felt that we were going to fly off the track in Space Mtn and end up where :D! Thanks Jennifer for all your help and to others too who offered suggestions. Yeah!!!!!!! I'm so glad you had a good time. I always worry when I give people suggestions about vacation. If it goes wrong, I'm to blame!!! LOL Well, being that you missed two of my favorites, Beauty and the Beast and Lion King, you simply MUST plan another trip. I'll be there Jan 5 − 15 (or so! Ours is a split stay - we're staying at a condo during the races - we want our own space for those days. Then, we're checking in to Port Orleans Riverside for the rest of it.). I think you should come back then. There's free dining for part of our trip! So, you could eat for free too. My kids tell me that they'll take you to Lights, Motor! That's their favorite part of MGM. What did you think of the Flights of Wonder? I just loved that show!!! Welcome home!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheryl Posted November 8, 2010 Author Share Posted November 8, 2010 Hey everyone! Thanks for your responses. Jennifer, I REALLY liked Flights of Wonder. I even went up to the guys afterward and told them this is a little gem of an event here at WDW! I was a few rows back from center and enjoyed some downdrafts of bird flying! :001_smile: Oh, I'd like to meet up with you and your family in Jan, but it's too soon. However, let's think future on this................ You know all of this worked b/c of the season. We stayed at LBV Resort and Spa which was only about 10-12 min to the parking lot. Never had to wait hardly at all for the tram. The condo had 2 separate bedrooms with a living room in the middle. Full kitchen and dining area. I'm thinking Best Western or some other place. Hey, is the BW "inside" the Disney property? Are there any reasonable priced rooms that are condo-like style with 2 separate bedrooms, etc on Disney grounds? I'm planning again........................:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karenciavo Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Sounds like you had fun :001_smile: There is so much to see and do at WDW you could go back for years and not do it all. Did you catch any of the night time shows/fireworks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 What an awesome trip! I'm going to save your post because we are planning to surprise the kids with a trip - their first - next year. I think we'll have to go in Nov because we need that much time to save up for it. DH wants to stay on Disney property but I keep thinking we could save tons of money not. We will have to fly and don't want to rent a car, so maybe as this is our first with the kids we ought to stay on property to make the most of it. Congrats on a wonderful vacation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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