What to do in Walt Disney World

[mbuchecker]

Hi, Roberts' post of what to do in Orlando was great as many of us will be spending extra time there. As you can tell from my profile pic I'm a huge Disney fan and have been to WDW countless times. So if you are interested in what there is to do specifically in WDW, I have an app in the App Store for iPhones called "500 Things To Do in Walt Disney World Before You Die". Just search "500 Things" and it'll come up. Sorry Droid users, no app for you!

Reservations for restaurants has already opened for our time period. If you are staying at a Disney hotel, you can also make reservations (called FastPass Plus or FP+) for the rides 90 days in advance. If you are not staying at a Disney Hotel you can make FP+ 30 days in advance. 

Questions? Just ask!

p.s, Post approved by Chris H. (admin) as I wanted to make sure I didn't break any rules. 🙂

[mbuchecker]

Hi again, someone sent me a PM and asked me to put the answer here so others could see it as well. The question was: I am traveling with my child and my mother who will be doing the parks for 7 days while I'm at the conference for 4 days and then I'll do 3 days at the parks with them. I've heard about dining packages. What packages do you recommend?

Answer: In that situation I would not recommend a dining plan/package. To get a dining plan, you must purchase it for the entire length of stay for all people in your room. So you'd be paying for 4 days worth of meals for yourself that you couldn't use. So unless you get 2 rooms and put mom and kid as the names on 1 room OR do what is called a split stay with 1 reservation for 4 days during SGF with no dining and then 1 reservation for the other 3 days (assuming consecutive) with dining.

Also, in my opinion the dining plan is more for convenience than saving money, unless you tend to eat a lot. Most times you are better paying OOP (out of pocket).

[jmhorstman]

Thanks for all the information, Michelle!  

I wanted to clarify that FastPass+ reservations for those staying on-site at a Walt Disney World resort are only available 60 days in advance, not 90.  If you want to get reservations for the most popular rides (like "Frozen Ever After" or "Soarin" at Epcot or the "Seven Dwarves Mine Train" at Magic Kingdom), your best chance is to be online making reservations as soon as they open 60 days before your date of arrival.

Secondly, it's worth noting that the Swan and Dolphin resort (our conference hotel) is not technically considered a Disney resort because it's run by Starwood, not Disney (although it's located on land owned by and leased from Disney).  That said, guests of the Swan and Dolphin still enjoy some (but not all) of the benefits of staying at a Disney resort.

Here is a list of the benefits included at Swan and Dolphin. The main ones that are not included are free hotel parking, free transportation from the airport on the Disney Magical Express, free MagicBands, and the ability to charge Disney World purchases to your room.

One more thing - dining reservations open 180 days in advance.  If you desire to dine at any of the more popular sit-down restaurants in Walt Disney World, make your reservations now.  (It's already too late to get some of the most popular ones, but you may get lucky and catch a slot that someone else cancelled so keep trying!)

Josh

[MichelleHomes]

Thanks for this information @jmhorstman - helpful to know to make use of the benefits available.

Cheers,

Michelle