So we have taken our kids to disney 3 times now and we have gotten the dining plan every time that we have gone. Again...I am not sure that this is the most frugal option and if you REALLY are pinching pennies than you can certainly stay at the campground and cook your own food. So why didn't we cook our own food?
The first time we went to Disney we had a 3 month old baby that didn't sleep through the night and a preschooler that was up at 6:30am every morning! My sweet husband suggested that we get the dining plan so I could have a vacation too! Love him!
The next time we went we got the dining plan because we wanted to go to sooo many character meals. The dining plan includes those meals so it was actually more economical to get the plan than to pay the prices (they are $$$$$$$) to go to those meals.
The most recent trip to Disney included free dining at a value resort. Staying there with free dining was cheaper than buying the dining plan and staying with the camper so that was a no-brainer for us.
So now you knw why we pick the dining plan when we go to Disney. The standard Disney dining plan includes 1 sit down meal, 1 qiuck service meal (think fast food) and 1 snack per day per person. The children are suposed to order from the children's menu when available. We have talked about going to Disney without the plan but we will have to wait and see on that. If the girls outgrow the character meals it may be worth it to pack our food in and buy 1 meal at the parks but you just can't do the character meals as affordably without the plan. We also really enjoy being able to indulge on some snacks. Being frugal, without the dining plan we would probably avoid the in park treats. $5 for an ice cream sundae is pretty steep but when you have already paid on the dining plan you just get to be cool parents! To get the most bang for our buck, we also try to have as many character dinners as possible because they are more money/value than breakfast or lunch. That said, we have had breakfast at the castle and we had breakfast in the animal kingdom once too. We enjoyed the animal kingdom meal as there were some different foods that aren't standard as well as the usual breakfast fare.
I think if you are just looking to eat to be full the dining plan may not be the best choice. If you want to go to a number of character meals and sit down dinners this is a great plan. We have never looked at the quick service plan (no character meals) or full sit down plans (too much food). Disney dining is, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy the food at Disney!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Magic Kingdom
So now that you have read about Fort Wilderness campground on Disney's property I will start talking about the parks. After all, that is really why we go...because really, a 12 hour drive, 7 days of walking for miles and staying up past bedtime with 2 small chidren probably wouldn't be fun anywhere else!
For the uninitiated parents, this is where it starts! The Magic Kingdom!!! The place where dreams come true and everybody is happy (even my hubby I think, although he is not a disney lover...weird). There are so many different views on how to visit the parks so I am going to happily give you mine! I might even manage to pepper in some other less worthy (just kidding) ideas.
First of all you need to figure out how you are getting to the magic kingdom. If you stay at the campground you need to take the boat. It is by far the best way to go. There are actually 2 boats, one that goes to the contemporary resort and then you walk to the gates and another that drops you right at the gates. The contemporary boat leaves earlier so is a great bet if you have an early breakfast. Either way I recommend getting to the park before the rope drop to avoid some of the crowds. If you are on property, Disney provides transportation. I recommend you use it! If you choose to drive yourself you have to go to the Transportation Center (TTC) and take Disney transportation anyway! We made this mistake one time. We drive ourselves to all the other parks though. If you are off-site I know some people go to downtown Disney and park for free and take Disney transportation from there. A frugal option but it is slightly more time consuming.
The Attack!
So you may have different priorities depending on the ages of you family members. As a family of younger children, we head immediately to Fantasyland and ride the popular rides there first. One of the best things about the Magic Kingdom is that most kids can ride most rides. There are very few height requirements so you can even take infants on many rides. Check the height requirements here (www.heightrequirements.com) We make a point of grabbing a fastpass to something on the way tp our first ride. Sometimes my hubby will take our tickets and run to a ride we know we want to fastpass and then he will meet us back at an agreed upon ride. We only have one cellphone (frugal) so we can't call. Isn't it quaint? We're old-fashioned! If you have older kids you probably want to hit the "thrill" rides first and pick up a fastpass too.
The Fastpass!
You MUST use this! Disney does it right! So there is no fee for a disney fastpass. You go to the kiosk, put in your disney ticket and it will spit out a fastpass. On the pass is a 1 hour time frame. When the noted hour arrives, you can go to the ride and get on the fastpass line for a shorter wait. So if your fastpass starts at 1:00pm you can go to the ride starting at 1:00pm. Now, if you look at your fastpass it looks like you can only go from 1:00pm - 2:00pm. That is not the case! You can go ANYTIME after 1:00pm. In addition to that, once the first time passes you can now get out another fastpass. So even if you haven't used your 1:00pm fastpass, after 1:00pm you can go to another ride and get another fastpass. You cannot get another fastpass until the start time of your current fastpass passes! That's a lot of passing! If you do this from the start of the day you will have a pocketful of fast passes at the end of the day when the lines are long and you can just hit the rides in whatever order works for your family.
Eating!
So there are a couple options here. I can really only speak to the dining plan because we have always bought into it. I mean, if you are going to Disney in a pop-up and you cook your own food you are really taking some of the vacation out of the vacation. We don't have a fridge or an oven and our 3 burner gas stove mounts outside. We also have no hot water to wash dishes. My saint of a husband suggested the dining plan the first time we went to disney and we are sold on it! Go read my post on Dining at Disney for all the details. As for other options, you can pack food into Disney (love this!!!) So if your family is happy with sandwiches you are good to go! You can also take in juice boxes, sodas, snacks etc. You can not take in rolling bags and coolers so it has to all fit in a backpack. We still take along the stroller even though the girls don't spend that much time in it just to help cart our stuff around. We do take in some drinks and snacks too. The final option is to buy food at Disney. I generally like the options for food at Disney. Our favorite quick service place is the Cosmic Cafe in tomorrowland. They offer FOOD. Half a chicken, ribs, green beans mashed potatoes. I can't however speak to the affordability of this option. I think you probably can eat on a budget but we have always been on the dining plan because if you want to do the character meals it really is your best bet. It will be interesting to see if we still want the dining plan if the girls outgrow the character meals. I would also recommend shifting your meal times some. Eat lunch early or late to avoid the crowds and then snack it up to hold you over as best you can. Don't forget to splurge somewhere, somehow.
I think the best part of going to the Magic Kingdom is seeing your kids faces. They are so happy to be in a place where the stories and fantasy come to life. Plus they get to be there with their parents who amazingly enough are two of the coolest people in their lives. As parents we get to say YES a whole lot more on vacation than any other time. There is no laundry to do, no errands to run, no bills to pay (they come shortly after the trip! Ha!!) just us and them and TIME! We push our kids to go as long as they can and because of that they have impressive stamina but we also try to remember that if we need a break there are ways to do that. You can go back to where you are staying but we tend to pick something laid back to do, like the people mover. Nursed my itty bitty a bunch on that ride. It is never busy and you can just sit and chill. I love Disney and if you have young children it still doesn't get better than the Magic Kingdom.
For the uninitiated parents, this is where it starts! The Magic Kingdom!!! The place where dreams come true and everybody is happy (even my hubby I think, although he is not a disney lover...weird). There are so many different views on how to visit the parks so I am going to happily give you mine! I might even manage to pepper in some other less worthy (just kidding) ideas.
First of all you need to figure out how you are getting to the magic kingdom. If you stay at the campground you need to take the boat. It is by far the best way to go. There are actually 2 boats, one that goes to the contemporary resort and then you walk to the gates and another that drops you right at the gates. The contemporary boat leaves earlier so is a great bet if you have an early breakfast. Either way I recommend getting to the park before the rope drop to avoid some of the crowds. If you are on property, Disney provides transportation. I recommend you use it! If you choose to drive yourself you have to go to the Transportation Center (TTC) and take Disney transportation anyway! We made this mistake one time. We drive ourselves to all the other parks though. If you are off-site I know some people go to downtown Disney and park for free and take Disney transportation from there. A frugal option but it is slightly more time consuming.
The Attack!
So you may have different priorities depending on the ages of you family members. As a family of younger children, we head immediately to Fantasyland and ride the popular rides there first. One of the best things about the Magic Kingdom is that most kids can ride most rides. There are very few height requirements so you can even take infants on many rides. Check the height requirements here (www.heightrequirements.com) We make a point of grabbing a fastpass to something on the way tp our first ride. Sometimes my hubby will take our tickets and run to a ride we know we want to fastpass and then he will meet us back at an agreed upon ride. We only have one cellphone (frugal) so we can't call. Isn't it quaint? We're old-fashioned! If you have older kids you probably want to hit the "thrill" rides first and pick up a fastpass too.
The Fastpass!
You MUST use this! Disney does it right! So there is no fee for a disney fastpass. You go to the kiosk, put in your disney ticket and it will spit out a fastpass. On the pass is a 1 hour time frame. When the noted hour arrives, you can go to the ride and get on the fastpass line for a shorter wait. So if your fastpass starts at 1:00pm you can go to the ride starting at 1:00pm. Now, if you look at your fastpass it looks like you can only go from 1:00pm - 2:00pm. That is not the case! You can go ANYTIME after 1:00pm. In addition to that, once the first time passes you can now get out another fastpass. So even if you haven't used your 1:00pm fastpass, after 1:00pm you can go to another ride and get another fastpass. You cannot get another fastpass until the start time of your current fastpass passes! That's a lot of passing! If you do this from the start of the day you will have a pocketful of fast passes at the end of the day when the lines are long and you can just hit the rides in whatever order works for your family.
Eating!
So there are a couple options here. I can really only speak to the dining plan because we have always bought into it. I mean, if you are going to Disney in a pop-up and you cook your own food you are really taking some of the vacation out of the vacation. We don't have a fridge or an oven and our 3 burner gas stove mounts outside. We also have no hot water to wash dishes. My saint of a husband suggested the dining plan the first time we went to disney and we are sold on it! Go read my post on Dining at Disney for all the details. As for other options, you can pack food into Disney (love this!!!) So if your family is happy with sandwiches you are good to go! You can also take in juice boxes, sodas, snacks etc. You can not take in rolling bags and coolers so it has to all fit in a backpack. We still take along the stroller even though the girls don't spend that much time in it just to help cart our stuff around. We do take in some drinks and snacks too. The final option is to buy food at Disney. I generally like the options for food at Disney. Our favorite quick service place is the Cosmic Cafe in tomorrowland. They offer FOOD. Half a chicken, ribs, green beans mashed potatoes. I can't however speak to the affordability of this option. I think you probably can eat on a budget but we have always been on the dining plan because if you want to do the character meals it really is your best bet. It will be interesting to see if we still want the dining plan if the girls outgrow the character meals. I would also recommend shifting your meal times some. Eat lunch early or late to avoid the crowds and then snack it up to hold you over as best you can. Don't forget to splurge somewhere, somehow.
I think the best part of going to the Magic Kingdom is seeing your kids faces. They are so happy to be in a place where the stories and fantasy come to life. Plus they get to be there with their parents who amazingly enough are two of the coolest people in their lives. As parents we get to say YES a whole lot more on vacation than any other time. There is no laundry to do, no errands to run, no bills to pay (they come shortly after the trip! Ha!!) just us and them and TIME! We push our kids to go as long as they can and because of that they have impressive stamina but we also try to remember that if we need a break there are ways to do that. You can go back to where you are staying but we tend to pick something laid back to do, like the people mover. Nursed my itty bitty a bunch on that ride. It is never busy and you can just sit and chill. I love Disney and if you have young children it still doesn't get better than the Magic Kingdom.
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