Trip Reports

• Time of Year: Fall
• Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
• Resort: Port Orleans Resort
• Accommodations: Standard Room
• Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Adult
• WDW Experience Represented in Group: Rookie
• Comments: Ray and his family decided to stay on-site at Port Orleans on their trip, too. Ray discusses the planning of his trip, literally from scratch, that began eight months before the trip. He also summarizes information that he had to learn the hard way...but you won't, if you read up!

Hi everyone,

This was my family's FIRST trip to any Disney destination. I hope that this information helps you as much as this web page helped us plan an excellent vacation. Thanks also to Brian for sharing all of this information. (Editor: and thanks to Ray for the shameless plug and kind words.)

We (My wife, Cindy, our 5 year old son, Josh & myself) just got back from our trip on 9/10/96. We spent 13 days in the Central Florida area, 5 of those days at Disney World. We stayed at the Port Orleans Resort & purchased the four day park hopper tickets. We started our tour of WDW the day after Labor Day 9/3 (Tuesday). What follows is an explanation why we made these choices & how I feel they worked out. After that I will try to summarize our trip, as amazing as it was!

PLANNING: We actually started planning our trip in January of this year ('96), the reason we started so early is because we had never taken a vacation before & were curious on what to expect on spending. We met with a Travel Agent who got us started. The first thing she recommended we do was to call 1(407)WDISNEY & request their complimentary trip planning video & some brochures, which we did. She also suggested that we pick up one of the WDW guidebooks. We picked up "Walt Disney World With Kids" by Wiley. We wanted to get an unbiased opinion to help us plan for our son. From what we read, we decided that the Port Orleans Resort was definitely the Hotel of choice. "Scales" the Sea Serpent water slide won our sons heart the moment he saw it. We had also decided that with all of the talk about the crowds, standing in line & the heat that we would go in the off season. The off season starts the day after Labor Day when most schools have begun their new school year. Since our son was beginning Kindergarten, we both agreed that missing the first four days of school would probably not be that detrimental. We discussed it with his school & they agreed. That was what made us set our days as 9/3 through 9/6. We met again with the Travel Agent to set our dates & plans. Through WDW Travel, you are required to put down a $200 deposit & the balance is due 4 weeks before you leave. This worked out great for us, it basically gave us seven months to make "payments".

HOTEL: We had many discussions of on-site vs. off-site, Thank goodness we settled for the on-site. I would never think of staying off site. Going to the parks was magical in itself, but when you bring it full circle to include the hotel, the Disney Transportation System, the hotel package delivery, & the surprise mornings, unless you are on an extremely tight budget, go for the on-site. "Scales" the Sea Serpent water slide at Port Orleans is just about an attraction within itself. Then you add in all of the colorful alligators playing instruments around the pool, the Jazz music, the food court, and the happy hospitality off the Port Orleans cast members, and you just can't beat it. There isn't anyone out there who could convince me to stay off site.

TICKETS/PACKAGE: With all of the packages that were offered ie: Magic Plan, Food & Fun, etc, we decided to forgo all of that and purchased the four day park hopper pass. This allowed us to jump between the parks whenever we chose. A fifth day would have been nice, but going in the off season, the lines were not that bad at all. We had to wait about 50 minutes for "The Voyage of The Little Mermaid" show. Other than that, there wasn't much waiting longer than 20 minutes. Since we did go in the off season, the park hours were 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with World Showcase staying open until 9:00 p.m. This actually worked out pretty good, because under the "Surprise Mornings" program, the parks were supposed to open up at 8:00 on their selected days, we found that generally, the selected park opened up at 7:30. This gave us 1 1/2 hours before the park opened up to the general public. Plenty of time to catch the more popular rides. The parks closing early had some benefits, since the parks closed at 7:00, we decided that instead of going back to the hotel to take a break mid-day (like most guidebooks suggest), we just took a little extra long lunch break right at the park. With this in mind, we were typically back to our hotel by 7:30, giving us plenty of time to relax in the pool, or check out some of the other hotels. Also, the lines at the eateries were not that bad, even at 12:00. There was typically no more than three people in front of us at any meal. We opted for winging it as far as food went & had no problem, though most of the time we did do one of the many cafeteria style eateries. Many of them offered fresh fruit & salads, as well as the usual burgers & pizza's.

CAR RENTAL: We did rent a car while we were in Florida, mainly because we were spending two weeks in Florida, checking out Kennedy Space Center, the beaches, St. Augustine, etc. We only used the car twice while at WDW. The first time was to go off property to pick up some milk & cereal (more on this under "TIPS"), and to go have dinner one night at The Wilderness Lodge. Other than that, the car never moved from the hotel parking lot. Getting from our hotel to any of the parks was simple. However, if we wanted to go check out another hotel, we had to do some transferring between monorail, busses, etc. If we were going to just go to WDW, I would probably not rent a car, you really don't need it. One thing to be aware of (we weren't) is that even though we booked a package through WDW Travel, and we thought we had paid for everything, we got hit with a $46.00 tax on the rental car the day we turned it in. Apparently for some reason, Disney travel can't include this in the final price.

TIPS:Here are some tips I thought I would pass along that I hadn't read anywhere:

1. If you are staying on site, typically you will have to go to your hotel to register & pick up your tickets to the parks. Because check in is not until 3:00 p.m. this means that a) you have to leave your luggage in the car or with guest services and b) you will probably miss at least two hours of entry into the park while this is being taken care of. We chose to pay for one extra nights lodging at the hotel. This was very beneficial in many ways: It gave us the whole afternoon to get settled in, check out the hotel gift shop, enjoy the pool and get a good nights sleep ready to go first thing in the morning. On the park hopper pass that we purchased they deduct each day from your ticket. If you spend 12 hours, or two hours, a day is a day. We were already taking advantage of the "Surprise Morning" while others were standing in line to get pre registered. Cosidering that this could cost you as little as around $70 (If staying at All-Star), it is definitely worth the extra money for the convenience.
2. We rented a refrigerator at the hotel for $5.00 per day. Then we went off the property to Goodings Grocery Store (right outside the main gate) and purchased milk, cereal, juice boxes & donuts. This allowed us to have our breakfast in the room (our son is hooked on cold cereal) before we even headed for the parks. It was a great time & money saver. If you've got kids who are hooked on this, it is definitely something to consider.
3. Rain ponchos: We purchased rain ponchos before we left home & carried them with us. It seems like in the afternoon, the skies mysteriously darken & a quick downpour takes place. If you are prepared for this, it's not a problem. It's kind of a drag if you're standing in line, the downpour starts & you start scrambling for cover, or you end up behind the 15 people who are trying to buy them at the closest gift shop. They are fairly lightweight & don't take up that much room.
4. Strollers: We didn't figure that we'd need a stroller with our 5 1/2 year old. WE WERE WRONG. The strollers are fairly good sized & rent for $6.00 (You get $1.00 back at the end of the day). The ones at EPCOT & MK were pretty nice, For some reason, the ones at MGM were much smaller. At EPCOT, you fill out a card with your name on it that fit's into this nice little "license plate". We had no problem with someone swiping our stroller at EPCOT. Disny/MGM was a completely different story. You attach a much smaller card to your much smaller stroller. We lost our stroller by the fourth attraction. It's not that big of deal except that you have to go all the way back to the rental booth, show them your receipt & they give you another one. We had read in one of the guidebooks that one family had taken a clear plastic bag, a diaper & some chocolate sauce & had created a "dirty diaper". They tied the plastic bag to their stroller & never had a problem with their stroller disappearing. You would be surprised at how many "dirty diapers" we saw hanging from strollers. The next day we brought a plastic grocery bag & put some paper towels & a pop can in it, tied that to the handle & never had a problem. It's almost as if there is something personal attached to the stroller, that takes it out of the loop. Anyway, we went through a lot of "pick me up" & whining until we rented the stroller. After that, no problem.
5. Character Breakfasts: We did the character breakfast at the Soundstage (Disney/MGM). I must admit we were disappointed. The food was great, but the characters were few. By the time we had finished our breakfast, only one character had visited our table. They do encourage you to stay at your table because the characters are supposed to come to you. 1/2 hour after we had finished eating, we were still waiting for two of the four characters that were there. I don't think I would do that again. My son met at least 20 characters at Disney/MGM, in the courtyard.
6. Souvenirs: From what we had read, the Emporium at MK was one of the better choices for souvenirs. I would have to disagree. The last night we were there, we took the Port Orleans/Dixie Landings pontoon boat to the Disney Village Market Place. This, in my opinion, is THE best place for souvenirs. Unfortunately, we had already bought our souvenirs at the Emporium. The Marketplace had quite an assortment of souvenirs, most of which I didn't see any where else.

As far as rating the attractions, I thought everything was spectacular. We did just about everything, and saw most of the shows. I give the "Hunchback" show two thumbs up, five stars, & a definite DO NOT MISS!!! If any of you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at RAYCON@WRALP.COM

Happy Disney!

-Ray

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