Disney World advice???

Stay on Disney property if you can afford it.

Another trick to stay off-site AND use the park transportation is to park your car at one of the Disney hotels and use the transportation from there. We always park at the Swan hotel and take the boat in to the back gate of EPCOT. Plus, you can sometimes get in up to 30 minutes earlier. Get the latest copy of "The Unofficial Guide to Disneyworld" at any bookstore. Lots of tricks and money saving advice.

We always stay on Disney property so that we can use the Disney bus/Transportation system and also so that we can get immersed in all the Disney Magic. The Disney Value Resorts (All-Star Music, All-Star Sports, Pop Century, etc...) are really good values and they have great food courts and themed pools and free transportation to the Disney Parks.
We love, love, love Disney and staying on property is well worth it if you possibly can.
No matter where you stay you will have a great time.
Hope you have a great trip!

STAY ON PROPERTY!! Pop Century or the All Stars are the cheapest but if you can afford it, go Port Orleans. They have their own buses and also boat transportation to Downtown Disney.

This is a hard one. I have been to Disney well over 50 times - used to live not far and now I go once or twice a year. Early March is awesome but begining the 2nd week those spring breakers swarm in like crazy! But do what you have to do.

On property is awesome for all of the above mentioned reasons...off-property is good only if you have a car as most shuttles from the off site hotels don't run as often. At Disney hotels they run every 15 minutes and the bonus of the extra magic hours is awesome.

We were there in November and it was great. Defininitely bring your snacks to the park - apples, cereal bars, fruit leathers and water bottles (save to refill)! I have never done the meal plan because I have Florida residency and they don't offer it with my resident deals...but it is well worth the money and takes the hassle out of carrying extra money and credit cards. Also you get character dinings included.

Check out www.mousesavers.com for more info and PM me if you want so other "freebie" tips and ideas!

We're also planning a trip to WDW, so I'll be watching this thread. Has anyone stayed at Shades of Green? It's a resort on Disney property that is for military families. It looks like decent lodging prices and I am wondering if their ticket prices are beatable anywhere else.

On that same line...does anyone know where to get the best prices for both WDW tickets and Kennedy Space Center tickets???

If you haven't done so, be sure to check out the TripAdvisor.com forum for Orlando
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum...o_Florida.html. I love Trip Advisor and use it all the time whenever I'm planning a trip somewhere.

It's not cheap, but I won a trip to Nick Hotel and it was amazing.

Pack food, though, because all of the restaurants are $15/meal or more!!!

What is your daily budget per night for a hotel?? That would help even more with suggestions. I too, would advise staying on property if you can at all. The value resorts at Disney are not the most luxurious, but they are very resonably priced. When in March are you going. I have been many, many times, with little children, teens, spouse only, so the more specifics the better.

Fire away!

We live in Altamonte Springs, just north of Orlando, so we just drive to the park.

Tips:

Don't go in the Summertime. Orlando gets horrifically hot and humid in the Summer. Also, there's usually a thunderstorm every afternoon at about 4 PM, complete with downpour. This is why Central Florida is literally the Lightning Capital of the USA. Also, bring a bill cap or light hat to shield your eyes from the glare of the Florida sun.

If you plan to rent a scooter, go early. They are generally all gone by mid-morning. The parks are BIG, and if you have the least doubt about your ability to cover a large amount of walking in hot weather, rent a scooter. They are only $40 a day, and they will give you back $5 of your money as a 'deposit' when you turn the scooter in. Also, if you switch parks during the day (ie Epcot to Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom to MGM), they will provide you with a receipt that allows you to rent another at no charge, when you arrive at the next park.

If you want to eat somewhere special inside the parks, make reservations in advance. These go very fast and are usually gone before the day you arrive.

Don't miss other fun attractions around Central Florida that are not related to Disney, like Gatorland, Dixie Crossroads, Mideval Times, the Kennedy Space Center, Universal, Sea World, etc. As much as Disney would like you to never leave their property, you aren't a prisoner. Enjoy.

Visited WDW 4 or 5 times and never stayed right on the property. Did stay downtown, International Road, couple different timeshares, and a couple of the lower cost Ramada type places. Frankly, I like having a car. We could walk into Epcot right when it opened without cuing up for yet another tram. If we wanted to go to the water park at noon, home for a nap at 2, back to another park and so on...I found having the car more convenient than not having it. As I recall all the parks had free parking??? That would be an important feature, since a week of car rental has gotta run an extra $150 weekly at least, right?

If you have small children and will focus completely on the various WDW parks, maybe staying right in the middle would make more sense. But everything is INCREDIBLY spread out, you basically can't walk between any two attractions. I liked having a quiet 2 bdr. condo with a big empty pool- it was complete break from Mickey Mouse, and a cheap place to drink booze, lol. Plus the kitchen helped us save money on meals - Disney charges huge for mediocre food almost everywhere in WDW. There are so many timeshares close to WDW that the rental market is soft, and you can pay simlar to hotel prices for condos.

If money wasn't key, then I'd want to stay on the property AND have a car. A convertible, thanks. But you need to generate some actual numbers from the reservation webpages so you can compare the features and benfits of each alternative. Isn't the taxi cab from the airport to the park a good $50 each way (which could influence the car rental decision)? I guess NO CAR is the greener choice, and those who've assured you the on-property transportation system is perfect certainly know more than me.

Another disboards.com member and fan here, too. We also relied heavily on allearsnet.com and mousevaers.com for our May trip... plus we got a free membership to tourguidemike.com (subscription based site) through our travel agent. I think the latter was worth every penny!

have a GREAT trip... I'm jealous!

Thank you everyone who gave us the suggestions. We will ( I can see) do somemore research. Thank you again Lee

When I went to Disney World in the early 90's, I found "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World" to be indispensable. Your local library may not have the 2007 guide available, but should certainly have the 2006 one. I doubt that the 2 editions have changed drastically. This book saved me from long lines, aggravation and time wasters.

You can take a peek inside the book at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Gui...e=UTF8&s=books

Disney World has a free vacation guide on DVD that goes over the parks as well as each of their many hotels. If it is not available via the Disney site, let me know and I would be happy to send it to you.

Have fun!