First time WDW

[cemberella]

We are planning our first trip to WDW and would like any advise anyone wants to send our way. We will be going from the 2-14th of Dec. Now we just have to pick the hotel and plan the trip. We have a son who will be 11 at the time almost 12 and then A daughter who will be 21 months. We travel to DL about twice and year and so this will be a new and exciting adventure for us. Thanks in advance for all your advice.

[SummerInFL]

Well where you should stay depends solely on your budget. There are three tiers of hotels in the Walt Disney World Resort, Value, Moderate, Deluxe. Now there are DVC resorts as well but I always just clump them into Deluxe.

For recommendations, my personal favorite and it doesn't break the bank is the Port Orleans French Quarter. I have some photos of the resort HERE. It's intimate, the theming is wonderful and the boat to DTD is a welcome retreat from the bus.

You can find more information at www.allearsnet.com regarding the hotels, they provide a brief description of each and photos as well.

Here are my personal favorites for each tier.

Value = Pop Century
Moderate = Port Orleans French Quarter
Deluxe = Contemporary, Polynesian and the Beach Club (simply for the pool, it's FABULOUS)

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

[yoyoflamingo]

The Wilderness Lodge is a great choice too! While it's a deluxe, it's a little less expensive than the others, so it falls somewhere between the moderate and deluxe categories. I agree with all of Summer's recommendations, but just thought I would add that one too. Such a gorgeous hotel, and probably my favorite onsite Disney hotel.

[cemberella]

thanks for the help we were debating between the Wilderenss lodge and the polynesian so its good to see that out of two posts both were mentioned. There are just so many choices. If you have any other recomendations for our trip I would be glad to here them.

[nbodyhome]

The Wilderness Lodge is beautiful, especially for Christmas! Though there isn't a really wide difference in price between a garden view Polynesian room and a courtyard WL (in that case, I would take the garden view Poly). The Polynesian has MUCH larger rooms, and is on the monorail.

I also really like the FW cabins.

[tayakaleb]

The Poly would be my pick just for the monorail access. The Wilderness is a beautiful hotel though!

[MJMcB]

My wife and I have put out a few articles on trips to the various WDW parks for both toddlers and preschoolers. Here's a link to the toddler ones we did

http://www.mouseextra.com/2007/07/25...art-2/#respond

http://www.mouseextra.com/2007/07/23...rt-1/#comments

http://www.mouseextra.com/2007/05/14...gdom/#comments

We have a DHS Toddler one coming out soon

Hope it helps

[cemberella]

Thanks so much for all your help we ar getting really excited about this trip. I think Disney World just seems so much more overwehlming than Disneyland there are so many choices and it seems like we will be rushing to do everything because they are all so far apart. and then there is loosing a whole day to travel.

[sir clinksalot]

Just remember to take your time. You have PLENTY of days to see everything.

I think alot of people make that mistake on their first trip and try to do too much the first few days and then get worn out.

Our first trip we took the red-eye, but we made a conscious decision to make sure to rest the first day, despite our excitement.

What we did was go to Universal from the airport until about noon. Checked in, cleaned up and napped until about 5 or 6pm. Got up, had dinner, took a drive around (we had a rental, which I would suggest if you can swing it) went to the store, etc. Our first day at WDW, we didn't do any Disney parks. Weird, I know.

Reason I suggest having a car is for store runs. There is a Winn Dixie very close to DtD and also a Super Wal-Mart (that I didn't care for). You'll pay a little more for groceries at Winn Dixie, but it's a nice store. We usually will have breakfast in the room before heading out to the parks. Have a BIG lunch in the parks and then light dinner either in the parks or at one of the resorts.

Make sure you make reservations for dinner one night at 'Ohana. But don't have a big lunch that day. It's in the Poly so it would be easy.

The other reason I suggest a car is if you want to spend a day checking out the other resorts (which I would suggest) it's MUCH easier to do so with a car. Really, it took us a few days just to get the layout of the land. WDW is HUGE, but is very easy to navigate after you get the hang of it.

I think the Poly would be great for you guys based on the ages of your kids. You'll probably spend most of your time at the MK and it's VERY easy access from the Poly. It's also very easy to get to EPCOT (which my kids love, but not all kids do) from the Poly.

[MJMcB]

http://www.mouseextra.com/2008/02/18...udios/#respond

Dave from Mouse Extra published our Toddlers Guide to DHS. Hope it helps