Disney World Florida - Ft. Wilderness advice
My bride and I will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary during the spring of 2013. She has always wanted to go to Disney World in Florida. So we were thinking about taking our little trave...
Forum Discussion
Figure out the least crowded times in the Spring and make reservations then.
We loved the "meal plan". We did the plan with one "counter service" meal, one "table service" mean, and one snack per day. Those meals and snacks can be combined (you can use two table service "credits" to go to a nicer restaurant, or use the meal credits for part of a meal and just pay cash for the rest, however you want to do it). We made our own breakfast in the TT and then ate out the rest of the day.
We rarely got to the Magic Kingdom at "rope drop", right at the beginning of the day. Why, when you are staying for a week? We would just show up at Fort Wilderness' ferry dock (YES! You go to Magic Kingdom by boat! Awesome) sometime around 9 or 10am... no line to wait in, and walk right into Magic Kingdom or where ever you want to go. Disney has rotating "magic hours" at the various parks, where a park will be open late, so don't worry - you will have plenty to do to make you exhausted without having to get up early in the morning.
Golf carts - Fort Wilderness is a BIG campground. The bus service is excellent and constant (especially during less crowded times), but sometimes it is fun to have a cart. We rented a cart for one day, and spent that day "looping" - driving all over the campground, which is organized in loops - and doing activities in or near the campground. You can arrange for a cart rental from businesses outside the park at close to 1/2 the cost, but I don't know how that works (at least you could, I don't know if Disney still allows that).
Definitely make a reservation at the Hoop-De-Do-Review at the campground. It is a dinner show, and a heck of a lot of fun.
The bathrooms and showers at Fort Wilderness (FW) were basically spotless. It was nice sometimes to take a nice long shower in them.
As to the parks - Hollywood Studios is really good. The Stunt Show is worth going to, along with most other shows. The Sci Fi Theater is fun to have a meal at - it is setup like a drive in movie theater playing clips from old black and white sci fi movies.
Animal Kingdom is good, especially if you take the time to explore it. I was not impressed with the "safari adventure". There are trails all over the place that go to various animal enclosures with park people (Cast Members) there to tell about what you are seeing.
There are a TON of shows and events going on all the time at Disney. Take some time to find out what is happening while you are there. We used Disboards forums a lot for our trip planning, and also asked questions on these forums.
You will not be able to see all that Disney World has to offer in a week. Have fun, and don't over do it! After your first trip, you will have better ideas on what to do on future trips.
Also - ASK, ASK, ASK. If you have any questions, any need, any problem... find a Disney person and ASK. I was just amazed at the level of customer service. A couple times we had issues that I thought would be a problem, but we just asked the closest Disney person and it was taken care of. I think "I don't know" is stricken from the Disney dictionary, you won't hear that from people there.
We loved the "meal plan". We did the plan with one "counter service" meal, one "table service" mean, and one snack per day. Those meals and snacks can be combined (you can use two table service "credits" to go to a nicer restaurant, or use the meal credits for part of a meal and just pay cash for the rest, however you want to do it). We made our own breakfast in the TT and then ate out the rest of the day.
We rarely got to the Magic Kingdom at "rope drop", right at the beginning of the day. Why, when you are staying for a week? We would just show up at Fort Wilderness' ferry dock (YES! You go to Magic Kingdom by boat! Awesome) sometime around 9 or 10am... no line to wait in, and walk right into Magic Kingdom or where ever you want to go. Disney has rotating "magic hours" at the various parks, where a park will be open late, so don't worry - you will have plenty to do to make you exhausted without having to get up early in the morning.
Golf carts - Fort Wilderness is a BIG campground. The bus service is excellent and constant (especially during less crowded times), but sometimes it is fun to have a cart. We rented a cart for one day, and spent that day "looping" - driving all over the campground, which is organized in loops - and doing activities in or near the campground. You can arrange for a cart rental from businesses outside the park at close to 1/2 the cost, but I don't know how that works (at least you could, I don't know if Disney still allows that).
Definitely make a reservation at the Hoop-De-Do-Review at the campground. It is a dinner show, and a heck of a lot of fun.
The bathrooms and showers at Fort Wilderness (FW) were basically spotless. It was nice sometimes to take a nice long shower in them.
As to the parks - Hollywood Studios is really good. The Stunt Show is worth going to, along with most other shows. The Sci Fi Theater is fun to have a meal at - it is setup like a drive in movie theater playing clips from old black and white sci fi movies.
Animal Kingdom is good, especially if you take the time to explore it. I was not impressed with the "safari adventure". There are trails all over the place that go to various animal enclosures with park people (Cast Members) there to tell about what you are seeing.
There are a TON of shows and events going on all the time at Disney. Take some time to find out what is happening while you are there. We used Disboards forums a lot for our trip planning, and also asked questions on these forums.
You will not be able to see all that Disney World has to offer in a week. Have fun, and don't over do it! After your first trip, you will have better ideas on what to do on future trips.
Also - ASK, ASK, ASK. If you have any questions, any need, any problem... find a Disney person and ASK. I was just amazed at the level of customer service. A couple times we had issues that I thought would be a problem, but we just asked the closest Disney person and it was taken care of. I think "I don't know" is stricken from the Disney dictionary, you won't hear that from people there.
