Planning a Disney Vacation – Part 4

 

Introduction

OK, so people say that I am an extreme planner... actually mostly my wife says that. By the end of this, you’ll probably agree with her. But my belief is that if you are going to spend thousands of dollars on a vacation, why not eliminate any possible variables that would cause you not to have a perfect vacation? Huh? huh? huh?

This blog entry describes the planning process I went through for our 2014 Walt Disney World vacation. Naturally, everything is tracked in a spreadsheet, because boxes and straight lines are your friends - good and neat and clean. My spreadsheet was 12 pages, but your results may vary.

When starting the process there were 4 primary things I wanted to consider for the trip. Ok maybe 10 things, but all I can think right now is 4:

1. When do we want to go ?

2. Where do we want to stay ?

3. Where and what do we want to eat ?

4. What do we want to do while we’re there and when?

#1. When do we want to go

To me, this is the most complicated category, since one should look at multiple factors to decide when to go: weather, price and crowds. I did this simple chart to show how each of these factors relate to one another during the year. See how simple it is? That’s all you really need to know! Holy crap! So it comes down to a process of elimination.

clear as mud?  Just pick the perfect dates when crowds are low, temp is perfect with no rain or humidity and prices are reasonable.

WEATHER

Weather in Florida can be miserably hot and humid at the wrong time.

Humidity: June, July and August are really hot and humid and get a lot of rain, plus school is out, so nobody in their right mind would go then. September can also be a bummer, though not quite as rainy at the others.

Temperature: For the remaining dry months, Jan, Feb, Mar, Nov and Dec temps are in the 70’s. Apr, May and October is in the 80’s.  So you really have 8 good months of decent weather to choose from. Or just go in the summer like everyone else and suffer.

PRICE

There are essentially 6 different room rate periods: Value, Fall, Regular, Peak, Summer, and Holiday.  The rates increase from value through holiday according. Weekends are about 10% more than weekday rates. The prices shown are an example of how prices change during the year for a Wilderness Lodge resort (Deluxe) “Woods View” room, weekdays, before taxes.

Value: ($353) Jan 2-8, Jan 20 – Feb 12, Jul 13 – Sep 25, Oct 19-Nov 24 and Nov 29 – Dec 11 .

Fall ($357) Oct 13 – Nov 21

Regular: ($406) Feb 23–Mar 6, Apr 27 – May 29,

Peak ($500) Mar 7 – Apr 12, Apr 21-26, Dec 12-18

Summer: ($405) May 30 – Aug 2

Holiday: ($425-$583 depending on holiday) Jan 1, Feb 14-16, Apr 13-20, Oct 10-12, Nov 22-28, Dec 19-31

Also Disney usually announces additional discounts around 15-25% off during the year. For our trip at Port Orleans Riverside, the rack rate for Feb 1 was around $200 with tax, but we got an additional 25% off to $160/nt.     A great resource to look at all of the resorts and prices is Mousesavers.

CROWDS

This area is a bit of a conundrum as crowds vary a lot depending on any particular day and what’s happening in the parks. If possible, it would be nice to go to parks when the crowds are at most, moderate, otherwise you may be looking at some 1-hour lines for non Fastpass attractions.

The highest crowds are in the summer when school is out, and holidays – another reason to avoid those times of the year. Generally, Mid Jan through early March and Sep-Dec are fairly moderate crowds if you avoid the holidays. April and May can be pretty busy depending. This is a good chart that shows the crowd fluctuations during the year.

My suggestion is to pick some date ranges you might want to go, based on weather and rates, then take a look at historical or predicted crowd calendars on touringplans or undercovertourist to see where the low crowd windows are within those dates. This is the kind of information you can get on those sites. The numbers represent crowd levels in a 10 point range. 

So, if that first chart doesn’t do it for you, narrow down the time of year you want to go when the weather is good, then see of there any value or regular rate periods that match up, then from there take a look at crowds. Typically though (except for summer) for the off season periods, lower rates and lower crowds do track to some degree

#2 WHERE TO STAY?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a strong advocate of staying on-property, despite the fact that you might have to pay a slight premium over hotels “on the edge” of the park, many of which are very nice. Not only do the Disney hotels give you the advantage of allowing you to use their excellent free transportation system, but you also get the advantages of being able to make early dining and Fastpass reservations. You also get earlier access to the parks on some days. Lastly, if you’re going to “do Disney”, then you need to stay at a Disney hotel to get the feel and magic of being there. My 2 cents. 

Thing to consider when deciding on a resort is:

• What theme are you looking for?
• How much you’re willing to pay
• Do you want any special transportation options?
• Reviews of resorts

Resorts

Disney runs 17 resort hotels within Walt Disney World, plus several Disney Vacation Club Villa facilities. Each are located near one of the parks or Downtown Disney. All resorts utilize the excellent Disney bus system to take you where you want to go, while only some resorts offer additional transportation options like boat and monorail. Some, such as Contemporary, Yacht club, Beach club, and Boardwalk are within walking distance of a park.

THEMES

While all of the Disney hotels have oodles of Disney theming, the difference between them relate to location, amenities, food, luxury, transportation, pools, and general ambiance. Each hotel has a unique feel, so that is also something to consider when helping you decide where to stay.

PRICE

The resorts are categorized by “Value”,  “Moderate”, and “Deluxe” for pricing purposes.

The example prices I’ve shown below for each resort is based on the minimum and maximum rate for a “preferred” room (unless otherwise described), rack rate. Typically most resorts offer 4 room types of increasing price, which are standard, garden view, preferred, and pool view, but each resort is unique.

VALUE RESORTS

There are 5 Value resorts: All-Star Movies, Music, and Sports, Pop Century, and Art of Animation

Value resorts tend to be larger and spread out with less amenities, simpler pools, less theming, etc, but less expensive than the Moderate and Deluxe.

Prices range from $114 - $226 depending on the resort and time of year

MODERATE RESORTS

There are 4 moderate resorts: Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans – French Quarter and Riverside.

In these resorts, you’ll find better pools, larger rooms, mini fridges, and more dining options than the Value resorts. They can also be spread out, so some rooms can be a ways from the central hub of the resorts. In some case there will be additional transportation options, such as boats that travel between Port Orleans and Downtown Disney.

Prices range from $216-$324 depending on the resort and time of year

DELUXE RESORTS

There are 8 Deluxe resorts: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, Boardwalk Inn, Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Polynesian,Wilderness Lodge and Yacht Club.

Here you’ll see more elaborate theming, great pools, interior corridors, great restaurants, and in all cases, at least one other transportation option beside buses: boats, or monorail.

Wilderness and Animal Kingdom Lodges come in price-wise in between Moderates and Deluxe. Their range is $325-$583 depending on time of year and room view. Wilderness Lodge is next door to Fort Wilderness Campground and across the lake from Magic Kingdom. So you have the great option to take a boat to MK, then hop on a monorail to go to Epcot. Animal Kingdom is beautifully themed and people really enjoy it, but despite being next door to Animal Kingdom park, it is not walkable safely, and all other parks must be accessed by bus like the moderate and value resorts.

The other deluxe resorts, Contemporary, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk Inn, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian come is price-wise in the $400-$750 range, but the individual resorts get more expensive as you go through that list (i.e., Contemporary is cheaper than Floridian).

The Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian resorts are on Lake Buena Vista and each have a monorail dock.  The Contemporary is also walking distance to Magic Kingdom.

Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Boardwalk Inns are all very near Epcot and have boat access to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios parks, and walking distance to Epcot.

In addition to the above, Disney also has:

Fort Wilderness Cabins located in the Fort Wilderness campground. These units include a double bed and bunk beds in the bedroom and a Murphy bed in the living room, which sleep 6.  Ft. Wilderness cabins have a full kitchen with all the basic cooking utensils, pots, pans and dishes supplied. Pricing is between moderate and deluxe.

Villas: At most of the resort locations, there are also Disney Vacation Club Villas, which range from studio to 3 bedroom suites. These condo-like lodgings have kitchenettes through full kitchens, balconies, and sleep more than the hotel rooms. Great for a large group or if you want to save money and make most of your meals. You can rent them directly from Disney, in which case prices can be a bit on the high side - $600-$800 at the Beach Club Villas for a one bedroom unit. Or you can rent from a pool of individually owned units from a place like David’s Vacation Club Rentals for quite a bit less. Disney Vacation Club is a timeshare-like program where people buy into a “home” resort with a given number of vacation points to be used each year. If you were going to visit Disney World on a regular basis, you’d want to consider ownership … (Debbie won’t let me, so don’t ask)

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

For the Value and Moderate resorts, I believe that it is a good idea to pay the slight adder to get “preferred” rooms, if available. For our stay at Port Orleans Riverside, it made the difference between a very short walk to the restaurants, boat launch and main pool, or being so far away that you’d never really want to go that far. Really. These resorts are really spread out. This isn’t an issue with the deluxe resorts because they are smaller and the rooms are better situated centrally to be able to access the amenities from any room. For the deluxe’s, the choices really boil down to what kind of view you want.

REVIEWS

Here is Touring Plan’s author reviews of the various resorts

Here are some other great resources to learn more about the resorts, reviews and pricing:

• www.mousesavers.com
• WDWinfo.com
• Allears.net

#3 Where and What to eat at Walt Disney World

Food at Walt Disney World is one of my most favorite subjects related to WDW. There is nothing more fun than eating your way around the parks.

DDP or not?

The first planning decision you need to make is whether you want to spring for a Disney Dining Plan. Sometimes, packages become available that include the room, DDP and tickets… so you need to evaluate whether it is worth it over paying for everything separately. There are three DDP options available:

• Quick Service – Includes a refillable mug*, (1) snack and (2) counter service meals for $40 per person per room night
• Standard - Includes a refillable mug*, (1) snack, (1) counter service meal, and (1) table service meal for $59 per person per room night
• Deluxe - Includes a refillable mug*, (2) snacks, (3) counter or table service meals, and (1) appetizers for $105 per person per room night
• * refillable mugs can only be used in your home resorts for unlimited coffee and soft drinks.

Table and counter-service meals include:

• A main course/entree or a complete combo meal
• Dessert (except breakfast, where Disney does not offer dessert)
• A nonalcoholic drink

Dining Reservations

Whether you decide to go with a DDP or not, you really need to think about dining reservations, particularly at Magic Kingdom or Epcot table service restaurants restaurants and any character meal. Unless you eat dinner at 3:00pm. Go ahead and walk up to the Be Our Guest restaurant podium at 6:30pm and ask for a table…I dare you. I am pretty sure the kindly cast member there will stifle a hearty laugh.

Resort guests have the privilege of being able to make dining reservations up to 180 days in advance. For really popular restaurants and character meals, you’ll probably want to take advantage of most of that time period.  For others, 30-90 days will be ok.  Unfortunately, Disney now requires a credit card hold for most restaurants, requiring a day-before cancellation to avoid a $10 per person no-show charge.

So if you have special meals you are thinking of going to – make a reservation … you can always change or cancel it later.

I won’t go into a lot of details about restaurants and food at Disney World. The best web site to see all the detail you’ll ever need is www.disneyfoodblog.com. Subscribe to their email list to get daily updates. They also publish excellent pdf ebooks on general dining, and my favorite subject, snacks, for each of the parks and resort hotels.

#4 What do we want to do while we’re there and when?

Well, you might want to visit a theme park or two, huh? One big factor is whether you are buying “MAGIC YOUR WAY” (one park per day) or PARK HOPPER (multiple parks per day) tickets. There are also tickets that include the water parks. We typically buy one park per day tickets and try to make each day as leisurely as possible. A lot of people advocate going back to you hotel for a mid-day break/nap before returning for another round – great idea.

But once you’ve decided where you want to go during your stay, the Touring Plans site has a couple of excellent tools to help you make the most of your visits. One is their crowd calendars, which help you determine which park will have the least crowds during your stay. The other too, is their “touring plan” section where you can either pick a pre-defined touring plan or create you own touring plan for a particular park on a particular date.

So if you are seeing that Epcot has a relatively low crowds on a particular date during you week, you create a customized touring plan based on the attractions and shows you want to see, and when you want to come and leave from the park. Their algorithms then create a step by step plan that will minimize lines and walking distance. It really does help reduce stress and make the visit more relaxed. They do charge a fee for this, but you can also buy their great book, Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, which includes most of the pre-defined touring plans as well as other DW information. The alternative of course is to do what most people do … walk in, get a map, then figure out what they want to see … proceeded by waiting in long lines.

This is an example of a touring plan at Magic Kingdom. Notice how they make suggestions for which rides you get Fastpasses. It also gives you estimated wait and walking times.

 

So if you follow all of these Walt Disney World planning suggestions, will you have a perfect vacation? Nah!, but it will definitely help make it as fun as possible.

Our Florida trip – part 3 - The keys

For the second half of our vacation, we visited the Florida Keys – staying in a great townhome in Islamorada we rented for a week from Homeaway.com.

We rented a car on the second to last day at Disney and drove from Orlando to Islamorada ~ about 5 hours. We looked at several options (flying out of Miami or Key West), but in the end, driving down and back was the least expensive and cleanest option.

The Florida Keys starts in Key Largo at the North and end in Key West, about 110 miles. Everything is based on mile markers (MM), so starting from the south, Key West is a MM 0, and Islamorada is 85. The other large town on the keys is Marathon around mile marker 55.

We stayed at a townhome at Angler’s Reef In Islamorada, a 52 unit facility on the Atlantic side. The house was a two bedroom (very spacious for us) with full kitchen, three baths, and a large living room. The gated complex has a nice pool, a sandy beach, and boat slips. A nice place, but in retrospect we’d wished we’d spent a little more to get a pool front unit with a better view and to be able to hang out at the pool while Kyle was in the house.

On the arrival day, we had a dinner reservation at Lazy Days Restaurant in Islamorada, with a great balcony ocean view table. Deb had mahi-mahi that she said was good, and I had a seafood platter which was so-so. I think Kyle picked a burger.

On day one we took off back north to visit the Everglades. En route to Shark Valley, we stopped at “Robert Is Here” fruit stand in Homestead. This is a good example why I like to do a lot of research for trips. Had I not, we never would have given this place a second look. Not your average fruit stand, they specialize in tropical fruits, so we bought a few to sample back at the townhouse including passion fruit, black sapote, mamey sapote, canistel, and guanabana. We liked the black sapote best, which when ripe is a pretty miserable looking thing, and the pulp is very soft and black, tasting like chocolate pudding …sort of. They are also famous for their fruit shakes which we of course had to try.

We headed off to Shark Valley which is the park headquarters on the northern side of Everglades NP. We took a 2 hr tram ride through the saw grass marsh prairie where we saw many birds and at least 50 crocodiles. We took the tram tour option because of Kyle, but given a choice, would have preferred to do the 15-mile route on bikes.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On day two we took off south past Marathon to visit Bahia Honda state park, touted as one of the best beaches in America. It was ok, and it turns out that award was from 1992, as the beaches we saw were largely covered with seaweed. This is a good time to say that the Florida Keys really has pretty poor “beaches”. Most are rocky shorelines, or weedy shores, or muddy. Because of the offshore reef, there is no surf, and the water depth is very shallow everywhere.

On the way home, there was a big accident on US 1, closing the highway for 3 hours, (there is only one road) so we decided to take a break and stopped for an ice cream cone and while there noticed a place renting kayaks … so we rented a couple for an hour. Paddling the estuary, we stopped to watch a dolphin training facility.

We came back that afternoon and hung out at the great pool at Angler’s Reef.

On day 3, on a whim we decided to take an eco tour with Caribbean Water Sports in Key Largo. This is a 5-passenger Kodiak inflatable with a tour captain. It was a whim because I had researched it on Tripadvisor as the #1 attraction on Key Largo, it is a little spendy at $60 each, so I didn’t think we’d want to do it. It was the highlight of our Keys visit and I am really glad we decided to do it.  We spent about 3 hours exploring and learning the history and geography of mangrove forests in the southern portion of the everglades NP, saw many cool birds, fossilized coral reefs, Indian boat trails, and near the end had a close up and personal play time with a jellyfish and a pod of manatees.

little jellyfish

 

A kestrel

  On day 4, we decided to take a break and just hang out at the pool, check out some local shops and hit a beach. My preconception about the Keys is that it would be lined with small funky beach hotels and shops. While there are many funky places, the big towns have large grocery stores, big hotels, and expensive restaurants. It’s nice, but not the mellow funky beach place Jimmy Buffet sings about. Anyway, the beach we went to wasn’t very good, so we came back to the house and hit the pool and played some games.

That night we went to a nice small seaside restaurant called the Hungry Tarpon. Really good fish tacos…our kind of place

Day 5 was planned as an excursion to Key West, a 2-hour drive from our place. It was an ugly day weather-wise, so a nice day for travel. I really enjoyed the drive down and you really get to see all of the keys.

Key West is a lot larger than expected and touristy. We had pre-purchased cheaper tickets online for a tram tour of the town, which really wasn’t necessary – the interesting part is not that big. A big draw is Hemingway house, which Kyle wouldn’t enjoy, so we passed on that. We went to the southernmost point in the US, and walked around the Duvall street and the wharf area.

So here’s what I think the city fathers discussed when laying out Duvall street, the main drag in Key West: “OK guys, so we’re all agreement that the layout of the street will be: a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, Hemingway House, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, then a bar… right?”  Perhaps it’s because it’s a cruise ship port, but aside from the great place we ate at for lunch: Lobo’s grill, we really didn’t like Key West very much. Smelly and crowded with a lot of bars and tee shirt shops. I bought a hat.

 

For Day 6, our last full day in the Keys, we decided to take an excursion up to Key Largo to take the glass bottom boat reef tour at Pennecamp State Park. Most of this park is underwater as it is a big draw for snorkeling and scuba.  Since Kyle can’t snorkel, this was a great way to see the reef. The state park was beautiful and the beaches weren’t too bad – certainly the best we saw on the trip. The boat trip takes you out 6 miles to the reef then scoots around looking at the reef area while a narrator described what you were seeing. The best thing we saw was a sea turtle. Kyle really enjoyed the trip.

 

We were given a free pass to observe at a local swim with the dolphins place, so we did that too. It was pretty cool, but I couldn’t see spending $150 each to do it.

That night we went to another great restaurant in Islamorada, Ma’s Fish House. We both had fish of the day - Deb had grouper and I had hogfish and both were excellent.

The next day, we made the trek back to Orlando and stayed at a hotel one night before we flew back home the next day.

All in all, we really enjoyed seeing the Florida Keys, particularly the Key Largo and Islamorada areas. I think if you did some deep sea fishing, snorkeling, or scuba diving, which is the Key’s claim to fame, you’d get more out of a visit there – but we still had fun, enjoyed the warm weather and stayed busy.

Next blog entry: planning a trip to Walt Disney World