First-timer

[InLikeSin]

Hi everyone- My husband and I are planning our first trip to Disneyworld. We are thinking of going mid to late Feb and are booking hotel/tickets together using their website... I just have a few questions. Would 4 or 5 days be enough time to explore for the two of us (no children)? Is the disney dinning plan with one table service meal, a counter meal, and a snack be worth the price? If so any table service restaurants we should make reservations for, any reccomendations? And finally if we book our own flights can we still use the magic expess transportation? Sorry I know thats a lot of questions, and im sure I'll think of some more, but we'd like to get the most magic out of our trip!

[wdw_bound]

You've found a great place to plan your first trip! As for length of your trip - that really depends on you and your DH. Just know that you will not see/do everything your first time. Our family usually stays six or seven nights, so I would think that a four or five night stay would work well for two adults.

We like the DDP for many reasons, convenience being chief among them. As to restaurant recommendations, it really depends on the type of food you like, atmosphere you are looking for, etc. Some of the places we really like are Whispering Canyon, Coral Reef and Biergarten. You'll hear great things on Intercot about LeCellier, and it is on our list to try - we can never seem to get ADRs, though.

Enjoy the planning stages of your trip - for me, it's almost (but not quite) as much fun as the trip itself.

[Disneyfun]

As wdw_bound mentioned, you've found the right spot to plan your trip!

DW and I also go without children and have a blast! We've done the dining plan and have really enjoyed it as we love the restaurants down there and we were able to save a lot of money when compared to the actual cost of the meals - but we did a lot of planning in order to do that! You may want to forgo the dining plan on your first trip and just pick a few restaurants to try out to get the lay of the land. Check the menus under Infocentral here on Intercot to get an idea of the menus and pricing.
Here are some links to some surveys that I did here on Intercot as to the best Table Service and Counter Service Restaurants at WDW according to we Intercotees:
MK Counter Service
MK Table Service
EPCOT Counter Service
EPCOT Table Service
Studios Counter Service
Studios Table Service
I did not run polls on Animal Kingdom as there really aren't many places to eat there.
Some notable restaurants not in these polls as they are in resorts is California Grill & Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary, Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge, Jiko & Boma's at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Yachtmans Steak House at the Yacht & Beach Resorts, 1900 Park Faire at The Grand Floridian, and O'hanna's at the Polynesian Resort.
Whatever your choices on the dining, I would call and make ADR's (Disney's reservations) ASAP as they go very quickly at the more popular Table Service locations.
I would recommend 5 days - that way you will have one day for each park and then one day to go back to a park of your choice. Magical Express will definetly pick you up at the airport if you give your flight info to the reservationist -definetly will save you alot of $$ instead of renting a car.
If you havent picked a resort yet, I would recommend Wilderness Lodge for the Deluxe category, Port Orleans for the Moderate, and POP! Century for the Value category.

[TinkerbellT421]

Hi everyone- My husband and I are planning our first trip to Disneyworld. We are thinking of going mid to late Feb and are booking hotel/tickets together using their website... I just have a few questions. Would 4 or 5 days be enough time to explore for the two of us (no children)? Is the disney dinning plan with one table service meal, a counter meal, and a snack be worth the price? If so any table service restaurants we should make reservations for, any reccomendations? And finally if we book our own flights can we still use the magic expess transportation? Sorry I know thats a lot of questions, and im sure I'll think of some more, but we'd like to get the most magic out of our trip!

First of all to intercot!! You have definitely come to the right place to help you all the way through your planning up until the first day you leave!!
Personally, me and DBF dont go without the dinning plan. Same plan you mentioned, 1 snack, 1 CS and 1 TS is perfect for us. Also go without kids. There are ALOT of restaurants we would never eat at if we were not on the plan. There are a lot of restaurants you should always make ADRs at for a lot of reason. But until you figure out which restaurants you want to try we can all help you along there. Personally, if me and DBF were to make a trip for not going to the parks or maybe just one or two parks then yea we would go for 4 or 5 days. But if we wanted to do a park a day we would for for atleast a 7 day trip. But we dont go for less then 7, we cant bring ourselves to make our magical trips less then that :-) but thats us. Thats really up to you...you have to consider affordability. That all varies person to person and what they want to do, can do, can afford to do, etc...And for your last question *in this post at least lol* yes you can always use the magical express. When you make your reservations thru disney reservation system. You wil have to provide them with all flight information, so you have to have the flights book first before scheduling. You will need to provide names, flights numbers and flight times. Have a blast planning you vacation! One of the best parts!

[wdwfansince75]

You can "explore" WDW in four or five days, and the DDP will allow you to sample the many resturants they have to offer. But.....
for a first timer, only a single day in each park will require a lot of walking, and a minimum of strolling and observing....

You will see a lot, but will miss even more....

You can have a great time, and wonderful experience....or you may be frustrated by how much you missed....and you may blame it on the long lines, and crowds or weather....

Relax, enjoy what you can see, and vow to come back, just like the rest of us!

May I suggest....

• One park per day....choose the one with evening EMH....for your time of the year, Park Hopping seems like an unnecessary extra....saves more than enough for an Out of Pocket Meal....
• Get ADR's....for the day at EPCOT, get ADR's for one of the EPCOT resturants...perhaps either Coral Reef or LeCellier....I say that in spite of the fact that our last trip to LeCellier was disappointing. Do one meal at one of the Grand Floridian resturants....and one at the California Grill...Perhaps your last night....You may have trouble getting an ADR, but for only two, you may get lucky....takes two dining credits, so you would still have to do a meal Out of Pocket (OOP).
• Do not miss the classics...especially Haunted Mansion, Pirates. Big Thunder, and Space Mountain....nor Soaring, Test Track, Rockin'Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Expedition Everest.
• Plan to be at your park of the day at opening...get Fast Passes do the classic rides....then as noon approaches, stroll the park, and observe the details....
• Use Counter Service meals for lunch....lots of great ones in the parks....Columbia Harbor House in MK, the Fish and Chips cart in EPCOT, or the Mexican Cantina....
• Check the menus on this site, but also check out Allearsnet.com.....check out the tips on both...

And above all, relax, and enjoy....you are about to discover why we are all nuts about the place!

[KAT1811]

to Intercot!!! I think you're going to like it here!!!

I would recommend booking with Magical Journeys. They saved us $700 on our upcoming trip. They will book your vacation and then keep checking for additional deals and specials for your dates and apply them as they come along. That way you will not miss any money saving deals that may come your way after booking. Disney will not do that for you. Here is there link if you are interested in checking them out. Magical Journeys


For starters I would recommend adding a few days to your vacation if possible. Disney has a theme "The longer you play the less you pay" which only means that each additional day of park tickets is cheaper based on the length of stay. Typically the Magic Kingdom can be done in one day, EPCOT is a two day park if you want to see everything. Disney's Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom can also be sone in one day. I would advise you to get to the parks as early as possible and do the most popular attractions first:

• In the MK I would head straight to Fantasyland and do all the rides there (It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Pooh, Snow White, Dumbo, Mickey's Philharmagic, etc.) They may not be the most exciting rides in the MK but they are most of the rides that bring the longest lines in the afternoon (can be 60-90+ minute wait times). Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain you can grab fast passes for.
• In Epcot I would head straight to Soarin' and ride that as soon as the park opens. Then head to Test Track, grab a fast pass and the head over to Mission Space and ride that while you are waiting for the times on your fast passes to come up for Test Track. Depending on how much time you have you could also ride Ellen's Energy Adventure (keep in mind Ellen's is about a 45 minute attraction)
• You may find that on your first day in Epcot you may not even get to the countries if not don't worry that is where you can go on your next planned day in Epcot.
• For AK try to get there first thing in the morning and stay until park closing (usually about 5:00pm) then either hop over to another park you want to go to or head to Downtown Disney for some shopping or get an ADR at a resort restaurant and explore some resorts for the rest of the day (the monerail resorts are a blast and you can ride the monerail). Keep an eye on show times here as you won't want to miss Nemo and the Lion King!
• In DHS try to keep an eye on the show times and make sure you get to see all the shows you like. Also get fast passes for Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster.

As for the dining plan I would skip it. There are a great many people who like it and an equal amount who do not like it. For us we prefer to go without. The dining plan does not include appetizers but does include dessert. DH and I much prefer appetizers and often skip dessert, making the dining plan not very economical for us. It also does not include tip (like it used to last year). Some of the restaurants we enjoy include:

• California Grill
• Crystal Palace (breakfast)
• 1900 Park Fare
• 'Ohana
• Whispering Canyon
• Le Cellier
• San Angel Inn
• Mama Melrose
• Beaches & Cream
• Plaza Restaurant

We are trying Narcoossee's, Citricos, and Tusker House (breakfast) on our upcoming trip.

You can book your own flights and still use the Magical Express. Just let either Disney or Magical Journeys (if you decide to book with them) that you would like to use the service.

[InLikeSin]

Thanks for the warm welcome and the great advice. I wish we had the option to stay for a few weeks and sample all the restaurants, but the flight from CA to FL really puts the cost of our trip over the top. Oh well, I guess we will have to just use our new Disneyland annual passes to satisfy our adiction

[TINKinTX]

You'll have so much fun. Our first two trips were without kids and we had a blast. Our first trip we stayed 6 days and even took one day in the middle just to spend the day at the resort. If you are staying on property I would highly recommend it. We all stay at these great resorts but then come back to them at night and hardly enjoy them. Spend at least an afternoon or so enjoying the grounds - you'll be surprised at what you might find. I loved exploring the Beach Club and Grand Floridian.

Have fun!

[1disneymom]

By all means, go!!!!!!!!!!! It will be a wonderful experience, I promise you. The last couple of time we went, we booked with enchanteddestinations.net. Celeste was incredibly knowledgable about the entire Disney experience. She was able to make our dining reservations for us and her recommendations were right on the money. We have always found that the dining plan was more than worth the money. It turns the vacation into an all inclusive type of trip. The food, transportation and amusement park are all prepaid. Celeste has always managed save us money when booking for us. Enjoy your trip!!!

[Tink's Mom]

Disney with no kids (I guess I would miss 'em a little)

Everyone else has given you so much great info there is not much else to add. I'll just mention that DH and I thought that the dining plan was way too much food for us. Our favorite restaurants are Boma, Le cellier, and Narcoossee's. Have a great trip!

[Tick-Tock]

I booked through Disney's website the first trip I took with DH. Turned out to be more expensive that way. I second the recommendation to use Magical Journeys. If a discount comes out, they are on top of it for you (in our case, it's applied even before I wake up that morning!).

[InLikeSin]

Silly question but all the DHs and DWs would that possibly translate to disney husband/wife ect.?

[TinkerbellT421]

Silly question but all the DHs and DWs would that possibly translate to disney husband/wife ect.?

See the following link for all abbreveations

http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/...ns/default.asp

[KAT1811]

Silly question but all the DHs and DWs would that possibly translate to disney husband/wife ect.?

In my little world it does!

[Tink#64]

Glad you're here! I didn't find this site until planning our 4th trip! I wish I'd found it before the first, there's just a wealth of knowledge here with the way more experienced WDW fans than myself!

Our 1st trip we stayed 4 days, of course with DS's in tow, then 4 & 6! But it was a very busy trip without breaks! We felt very rushed. I would definitely opt for the 5 days if possible. Then you could have a day for each park & I always plan Epcot as 2 days, one for FW & one for WS! There's a lot of ground to cover in Epcot & so many fascinating attractions to visit! We always visit the WS in Epcot around 2 or 3 pm, after sleeping in & spending some time by the pool! It makes for a much more relaxing vacation to build in a little time for breaks, I wish I'd known this & planned accordingly for our 1st trip!

I hope you make many magical memories!