Lodging, Eats, Getting Around, Tickets...
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How do you save when you go to Disney?
Has anyone had the Disney Dining plan? Some of the comments on that article rate it as good... I'm wondering what others think about it.

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A tip from Molly of Orlandofoodandfun is: If you can do with out the extra magic hours, try staying at the Suites at Old Town, (about $48 if you book it thru Hotels.com or a similar service.) Its on Hwy 192 just 8-10 minutes from Disney, and your right in front of Old Town, my favorite place in Orlando. Its like being at a Carnival and Beach town, (no water ) the suites are large, but not upscale, there clean but older, if your not a primadonna its fine.
Molly

I forgot to comment on the Fort Wilderness question, My oppinion is YES, FW is a great place, I never slept over only visited some people in their cabin, if you have a large group and can bunk together with no problems its great, buses take you to and back from all the Parks, you can camp also for real cheap if you have your own tent. I was going to do that one time its about $35
Molly
Orlandofoodandfun dot com

We went to Disney World in May and did the Dining Plan for the first time. I liked the dining plan: it has its good points and bad points.
Good Point
Tons of food - good thing for us b/c our 2 year old DD didn't qualify for the plan, so we had more than enough food for her and rarely did we buy her something to eat. We only bought her a drink.
Bad Point
If you are doing regular table service meals, they can sometimes take up to 2 hours to finish. That really cut in to park time for us.

We will probably do the dining plan again but we would use our table service credits for breakfast character meals next time.

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We go to WDW every year so this year we purchased a 10 day parkhopping, no expiration pass for each of us. It brought down the daily cost of a park ticket to the $40 range (from over $60 without the park hopping option--1 park 1 day) and now we have days left over for future years. It is really an investment since the tickets only go up each year. I definitely recommend staying on Disney property for the benefits of transportation, etc....however you do not have to stay at a "disney" hotel to get these. We love the Swan and Dolphin for their proximity to EPCOT and Disney's Boardwalk and they often run great deals. Nurses get a discount and when we were there this year my mom got it for $149/night during Memorial Day week.

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Angela

Me (33)
DH (33)
DD 9/10/2003
DS 10/27/2006

We went to Disney a couple of years ago and it was by far one of the most exhausting, fun and expensive vacations we've ever taken. A couple of things I learned:

Take frozen bottles of water that you can refill at the water fountains. There is never enough water for everyone and warm water is terrible.

Pack snacks. You will need more than you do regularly because everyone's busy and the adrenaline is pumping. Buying snacks is ridiculously expensive.

Decide what you want to splurge on and just do it. If the Cinderella meal is important, give up something else that you *can* live without.

We rented a condo and I'm glad we did. On our off-Disney days, we sat around the pool and enjoyed the quietness of being in a neighborhood. Doing Disney is hard work, so planning quiet off days is important - especially if you have little ones.

My parents brought us to Fort Wilderness years and years ago, and I think it was cheaper there. My dad drove our RV down and we got a campsite there. The resort had everything we needed - in fact at 15, I didn't even want to leave the pool to go to the theme parks, hahaha.

Seriously, I think it's a cheaper way to go, and they do have cabins and such, but things could have changed in a lot of years.... Good luck! :-)

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~dances
Life Tips. Love Tips. Beauty Tips.
www.lifelovebeauty.com

I am going to disney this summer. any help planning would be great

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Janet Mommy to Skyler, Morgan, Trey & Bean Due April 30, 2009ME-33 (8-30)
DH-35 (7-7)
DS-10 (5-21)
DS-8 (10-23)
DS-(9/7/2007)
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