Walt Disney World

[Brianfo]

My wife and I will be taking 2 small children to Walt Disney World in Florida in 2 weeks. I get to go as a bonus thru my work. We are staying at the Hilton. My question is what is the weather like down there in January? Any good ideas on what to see and do with twins that are 2 years old? I am kind of looking forward to it. A chance to get out of Iowa in January. Oh well, enought blabbing. Any responses are greatly appreciated.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by Silock

I'm at WDW now. FP+ sucks.

We stay offsite but booked a campsite and linked our tickets so we could book FP in advance. Only one night at the campsite (which we won't even go to) and it lets you reserve for all your ticket days.

Workaround found. The system still sucks. Only 3 FP and no park hopping is ducking lame.

I am guessing you are just purchasing the primitive campsites. I often wonder if Disney checks to see if people actually stay at those.

But you have shown how some beat the new FP+ system to some extent.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by God of Thunder

We own at Grand Floridian. We just bought into DVC last year.....every other trip was paid out of pocket. I proposed to the fiance at the Polynesian and we decided to buy as a present to ourselves. We've stayed at the GF and the AKL.

As far as the actual resorts, we've stayed at nearly every one.

EDIT: If you enjoy going to the parks, buying DVC is the way to go.

Congratulations on your proposal at WDW. Did you get Disney involved in it in any way? Surprised they didn't try to sell you on having the wedding at the Pavilion.

How do you compare the GF to the other resorts? Like you I have stayed at all resorts but fancy the Wilderness Lodge more than the others with AKL a close second. I have made the mistake of staying at every one of the All Star resorts....never again.

[Deberg_1990]

I need to look into the DVC. Never looked into it that deep.

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Congratulations on your proposal at WDW. Did you get Disney involved in it in any way? Surprised they didn't try to sell you on having the wedding at the Pavilion.

How do you compare the GF to the other resorts? Like you I have stayed at all resorts but fancy the Wilderness Lodge more than the others with AKL a close second. I have made the mistake of staying at every one of the All Star resorts....never again.

Our favorite is the Polynesian. The GF is a close second and we've stayed there quite a number of times. We usually stay club level or MK view at the GF, but we prefer the more 'relaxed' feel of the Poly. DVC is currently adding on to the Polynesian, so we intend to buy more points there.

The GF compared to the others.....it's certainly their flagship, but I think it has a feel that you either love it, or hate it. It's very common to see businessmen sitting at the pool on laptops doing business. So it certainly can lose some of the vacation feel. For us, we like it a lot.

We really like the Wilderness Lodge as well - but with buying the DVC, we wanted to be somewhere on the Monorail line. Since GF just became available for sale while we were there, we thought "why not" and went with it.

The nice part about the DVC is that we can stay almost wherever we want, so it's going to be fun to try some new resorts that we haven't stayed at before (like the Beach Club). The other nice part is we can bring some friends or get more than one room and not have to charge whoever comes with us.


As far as the wedding....I really wanted it to be there. The fiance didn't want a destination wedding, so she ruled it out. She also ruled out a honeymoon there because "We'll be going enough anyway". I didn't get Disney involved, I just took her out to Sunset Pointe and did it there.

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

I need to look into the DVC. Never looked into it that deep.

If you'd like, I would love to give you more information about it. It's truly a great way to enjoy the magic....!

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by God of Thunder

If you'd like, I would love to give you more information about it. It's truly a great way to enjoy the magic....!

thanks. But i dont think id get my usage out of it. We only go to Disney every 3 or 4 years.

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

thanks. But i dont think id get my usage out of it. We only go to Disney every 3 or 4 years.

Yeah, it's probably not the best option for you. You can use it to go other places, but its not a good use of points.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

thanks. But i dont think id get my usage out of it. We only go to Disney every 3 or 4 years.

GoT might know more, but I think you can rent out your points in the years you don't go.

We have talked about DVC for many years but each time we would have an unexpected expense in relation to my son's Autism. So it just kind of fell back to the back of the bus.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by God of Thunder

Our favorite is the Polynesian. The GF is a close second and we've stayed there quite a number of times. We usually stay club level or MK view at the GF, but we prefer the more 'relaxed' feel of the Poly. DVC is currently adding on to the Polynesian, so we intend to buy more points there.

The GF compared to the others.....it's certainly their flagship, but I think it has a feel that you either love it, or hate it. It's very common to see businessmen sitting at the pool on laptops doing business. So it certainly can lose some of the vacation feel. For us, we like it a lot.

We really like the Wilderness Lodge as well - but with buying the DVC, we wanted to be somewhere on the Monorail line. Since GF just became available for sale while we were there, we thought "why not" and went with it.

The nice part about the DVC is that we can stay almost wherever we want, so it's going to be fun to try some new resorts that we haven't stayed at before (like the Beach Club). The other nice part is we can bring some friends or get more than one room and not have to charge whoever comes with us.


As far as the wedding....I really wanted it to be there. The fiance didn't want a destination wedding, so she ruled it out. She also ruled out a honeymoon there because "We'll be going enough anyway". I didn't get Disney involved, I just took her out to Sunset Pointe and did it there.

Here's an odd question....what is your oldest and most obscure momento that you have from all your visits to WDW?

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

GoT might know more, but I think you can rent out your points in the years you don't go.

We have talked about DVC for many years but each time we would have an unexpected expense in relation to my son's Autism. So it just kind of fell back to the back of the bus.

You can rent them. You can use them to go to other places (most places in the world). You can bank them into the next year.

If you use your points to go somewhere else, you typically don't get as good of a rate for your points, so its more common to rent your points for cash, and use that cash to go where you want.

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Here's an odd question....what is your oldest and most obscure momento that you have from all your visits to WDW?

I convinced a guy at the Wilderness Lodge to give me the thing that they were around their necks. He said "I can't" about 4 times, and finally I offered to trade him a pin for it and he agreed.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by God of Thunder

I convinced a guy at the Wilderness Lodge to give me the thing that they were around their necks. He said "I can't" about 4 times, and finally I offered to trade him a pin for it and he agreed.

Pretty cool....mine is a polo shirt with the Dixie Landings logo on it.

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Pretty cool....mine is a polo shirt with the Dixie Landings logo on it.

That's retro!

Here are some backstage pics of a old 20,000 leagues sub.



Here are some photos of the Walt Disney Suite.









And here's my ticket from the opening day of Animal Kingdom.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by God of Thunder

That's retro!


And here's my ticket from the opening day of Animal Kingdom.

That's pretty cool......seeing the pics of the Disney Suite made me think. Have you tried to get into the Cinderella Castle Suite?

[God of Thunder]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

That's pretty cool......seeing the pics of the Disney Suite made me think. Have you tried to get into the Cinderella Castle Suite?

No. I have tried multiple times. The guys face I blurred out is one of the managers at the Grand Floridian. He's been a dear friend of mine for many years, and no matter where we stay, he always calls and upgrades us. I've tried so hard to even get a tour of the Castle Suite, and he says its the one thing even he can't get us close to.