Need a Disneyworld Primer - 5 days there, how do I spend them? (1 Viewer)

RazorOye

carry all the groceries in in one trip
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So, my wife and I are taking our first real vacation since our honeymoon. In the past, our vacation time has been spent visiting her family in Canada (when we were living in Texas and Louisiana) or visiting my family in Lake Charles (since we've moved to Toronto).

We decided that we were long overdue for a vacation for just the two of us to get away and have fun.

I wanted Vegas and my wife wanted Disney.

The mouse won. I lost. (Henry Giroux will not be happy with me, I think).

So we booked a hotel on Disney property - one of their theme hotels. French Quarter or Carribean or something like that. I don't rememebr which she picked.

We also have our flight set.

My question is - since I don't remember my last trip to Disney (I was 5) I am wondering if anyone here at SR.com has any advice for a first-timer.

It will be me (age 31) and my wife (30) by ourselves - so if there are any adult-things to do - pubs, bars, etc nearby - those recommendations are welcome.

I just have no idea how many days we will need for the park to see everything and what to do with the rest of any time we might have.

We fly in Sunday afternoon and fly out the following Friday afternoon. So we have 4 full days in Disneyworld. And we won't be renting a vehicle, just fyi.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations - I am excited but thoroughly intimidated at entering this entertainment juggernaut.
 
with no kids, you can completely avoid the magic kingdom......


pleasure island has all different kinds of bars/clubs...
 
Epcot was my favorite. Get the "unofficial guide to Disneyworld" book; I've used it twice and it was incredible. Pay attention to the FastPass attractions, and plan your days accordingly. Don't miss Soarin' at Epcot; that was my favorite. If you're staying on site, you get "Extra Magic Hours" which means every day a certain park opens an hour earlier and stays open a few hours later strictly for Disney resort guests...take advantage of that.

I agree; skip Magic Kingdom if you don't have kids...although Buzz Lightyear, the Comedy Club, and Mickey's Philharmagic were really good. MGM had some fun attractions, too. I haven't been to Animal Kingdom yet, so I can't comment on that one.

I liked Downtown Disney too, but that is open to everyone...no ticket required.

As I think of more I'll let you know. :)
 
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If you skip Magic Kingdom then you miss Fantasyland, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and the Electric Light parade.

My wife and I mostly enjoyed MGM and Epcot. The kids liked mostly all of it. All of us could've done without Animal Kingdom.
 
Allocate one day per park... there are four parks, so with a five day pass, you have a "catch-up" day.

I recommend MGM first if you aren't interested in revisiting your childhood... especially the back of the park and the tours. It's a nice walk through and the animation tour is pretty interesting/fun. Go see the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular at dusk. The explosions look even better at night.

When you go to Epcot, go out to the giant Golfball and make reservations for dinner that night (I recommend Germany), then head straight for the back and catch all the rides in the various countries first.

It will feel like an adult vacation as you visit the countries around the world. The rides in the front are fun, but you don't feel like you have to get everything done in one day. Hit the rides you want to in the front, and go back on the catch-up day.

The Magic Kingdom is still fun, even as an adult... take advantage of the quick pass for the popular rides so you don't spend a lot of time in line... the quick pass tells you when you can come back to go in the faster line for a ride, meanwhile you go off and catch another ride that has a smaller line.

Animal Kingdom should be saved for the last day because it is the smallest. The 3-D show in the Tree of Life is fun, and I liked the safari tour...

You can bring your own food/drinks into the park... pack a bookbag if you want to save a little money and drink your own water throughout the day.

Go to Pleasure Island at least one night...

Hope this helps and have fun!
 
No kids= skip Magic Kingdom. Don't miss Epcot, MGM, Universal. Have dinner at the Medieval Times in Kissimmee right down the road, it's a blast.
 
There is absolutely no reason to skip the Magic Kingdom. There are plenty of things to enjoy there as adults.

I just got finished working there, when I get back from class, I'll try to help you out.
 
We just booked a trip to stay at the Pop Culture place on site in May.

We are taking a 4 year old though.

Everyone keeps telling me to get this book-
Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 2008

I haven't yet but plan to order it soon. We'll be there 7 days so I'm sure I can just take my time and see everything and maybe even hook up with some princesses.
 
We'll be there 7 days so I'm sure I can just take my time and see everything and maybe even hook up with some princesses.

IMO, Jasmin and Ariel were the most worth seeing. Could be they showed the most skin though.
 
My wife and I went down there the week before Christmas with her sister's family and had a blast.. We were like big kids, taking pictures with the characters and getting their autographs..

We had a couple more days than y'all do, but here's what we did.. Also, like someone said earlier, take advantage of the Magic Extra Hours..

We went to MGM the first day.. Missed out on the rides b/c Rockin Roller Coaster (supposed to be awesome) was closed for "technical difficulties" and Tower of Terror b/c those of us that wanted to ride it already had.. Don't miss the Lights, Motors, Action! Stunt Spectacular.. Also, the Fantasmic show in the evening is pretty cool..

Then we did Animal Kingdom.. The safari was pretty cool (think taking a bumpy jeep ride through a zoo).. There's a new ride there called Expedition Everest.. Definitely ride it.. I had to ride it a couple times and bought the tee shirt.. The Bug's Life 3D movie is pretty cool too..

We did Magic Kingdom next.. Definitely hit Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain.. They're classics and cannot be skipped.. Also, do the updated Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean rides.. There's generally a fireworks show at night around 9 I think (at least when we were there).. We came back to the Magic Kingdom another of our evenings and when the fireworks were going off, we hit Space Mountain..

We did Downtown Disney one day and did the DisneyQuest interactive arcade.. It was pretty cool.. Couple of neat virtual reality type rides/games in there and a ton of arcade games.. Downtown Disney is free (open air mall) but the Disney Quest is $38 extra per person..

We did Epcot another day.. Definitely do Soarin' (probably one of the best rides of all the parks) and the Test Track.. Didn't get to do Mission:Space, but that might be open now.. Nice fireworks/laser show at night as well.. There are generally vendors in every country with the beer/wine/mixed drink of that country available..

We didn't get to do Pleasure Island, but that's also available for adults..
 
There is absolutely no reason to skip the Magic Kingdom. There are plenty of things to enjoy there as adults.

the best thing about the magic kingdom is that it is a highly effective form of birth control.....
 
My wife and I went down there the week before Christmas with her sister's family and had a blast.. We were like big kids, taking pictures with the characters and getting their autographs..

We had a couple more days than y'all do, but here's what we did.. Also, like someone said earlier, take advantage of the Magic Extra Hours..

We went to MGM the first day.. Missed out on the rides b/c Rockin Roller Coaster (supposed to be awesome) was closed for "technical difficulties" and Tower of Terror b/c those of us that wanted to ride it already had.. Don't miss the Lights, Motors, Action! Stunt Spectacular.. Also, the Fantasmic show in the evening is pretty cool..

Then we did Animal Kingdom.. The safari was pretty cool (think taking a bumpy jeep ride through a zoo).. There's a new ride there called Expedition Everest.. Definitely ride it.. I had to ride it a couple times and bought the tee shirt.. The Bug's Life 3D movie is pretty cool too..

We did Magic Kingdom next.. Definitely hit Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain.. They're classics and cannot be skipped.. Also, do the updated Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean rides.. There's generally a fireworks show at night around 9 I think (at least when we were there).. We came back to the Magic Kingdom another of our evenings and when the fireworks were going off, we hit Space Mountain..

We did Downtown Disney one day and did the DisneyQuest interactive arcade.. It was pretty cool.. Couple of neat virtual reality type rides/games in there and a ton of arcade games.. Downtown Disney is free (open air mall) but the Disney Quest is $38 extra per person..

We did Epcot another day.. Definitely do Soarin' (probably one of the best rides of all the parks) and the Test Track.. Didn't get to do Mission:Space, but that might be open now.. Nice fireworks/laser show at night as well.. There are generally vendors in every country with the beer/wine/mixed drink of that country available..

We didn't get to do Pleasure Island, but that's also available for adults..

Mission Space....if gravity-type rides bother you, do the "easy" version. Drew actually got a bad headache when we rode the "real" version. Soarin...best ride ever. Test Track...FUN!! Fireworks/laser show at Epcot...great; seen it a few times.

MGM, specifically the Fantasmic! show...that was an absolutely awesome show. Don't sit too close to the front; there are flames on the water and I imagine it gets pretty hot. There is limited seating and a dinner reservation will include seating at Fantasmic, but if there are two shows of Fantasmic that day, wait until the later one and you can usually walk in (we were able to do that in June, when it was busy). Check the Disney site for the schedules of events like that. Again, I absolutely loved Fantasmic! ... we went on the very last day at the 11pm show, and it was the best way to close our Disney week, IMO.

We didn't do the parades, etc, at MK since the kids were hard to control in that sort of crowd, but I do remember going without kids many years ago, and we really did enjoy that sort of thing. So, especially if you have the Park Hopper option, you may want to do part of a day at MK and then catch up at another park, go to Downtown Disney, etc. Again, I liked the 3-D Mickey's Philharmagic at MK (right by the carousel), Buzz Lightyear was a favorite for both kids and adults (we rode it at least a dozen times, thanks to my autistic son's endless fastpass -- it was his favorite ride), and my husband took the boys to the Comedy Club (near Buzz) -- it was an interactive, funny show. Turtle Talk with Crush in Epcot is like that...geared for kids, but I went back a second time since it was so well done and funny.

MGM -- another funny 3-D movie is the Muppet one. If you liked the Muppet Show, you'll like this. I loved the Muppet store....I have a stuffed Beaker and the Swedish Chef on my desk. :D Star Tours was good, and I loved the Tower of Terror (make sure you leave just an inch of slack in your seatbelt so that you actually come out of your seat...!!!). Skip the Little Mermaid show...yawn, and with a long wait to boot. We did the Indiana Jones show years ago, and I liked it, and my boys liked the Lights, Auto, Action show a lot (what boys don't like explosions....:) ).

Skip "its a small world"...unless you feel the need to punish yourself....:D
 
Man I can't wait to go. We're contemplating going for Spring Break next year (this year we already have plans). We've taken the kids to the one in Cali but Florida is a whole different ball game.
 
We're big Disney addicts having been there 12 times since 1996 and the last 2 times without kids.

Second the advice of take advantage of Disneys magic hour program. Also remember to use to Fastpass system.

Try to find one or two restaurants you want to eat at and make your reservation before you go. The good places will be booked solid. If you are big eaters or like to eat at the more fancy restarants, Disney's meal plan is the way to go. We did it last year for Christmas and it really saved us a lot of money and we got to try a lot of new restaurants ( and gained a few pounds...)

A really good place to find all kind of disney info is http://www.disboards.com/

They even have a Disney for adults section. Hope you have a nice trip
 
I went there for the first time on my honeymoon the week before XMas.

Magic Kingdom - Do the 3 mountains (Splash, Thunder, and Space). After space mountain, go to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Show (which a few other people suggested). It's hilarious. Pirates of the Caribbean is ok.

Epcot - Walk around the countries, do Soarin and Test Track.

MGM - Rock'n'Rollercoaster is AWESOME. Tower of Terror was cool too. Both rides get busy FAST. Get to the park right when it opens, grab a fast pass for one, and go wait in line for the other. By 11am, RockNRollercoaster had dispensed all its fast passes for the day, so I suggest getting a fast pass for that, then waiting in line for Tower of Terror. Also, Lights, Cameras, Motors stunt show was awesome, as was the Indiana Jones Stunt Show (which my wife and I got to be extras in!)

Animal Kingdom - Everest is really the only "must see" thing here. Bug's Life 4D movie was ok. And the dinosaur ride was pretty cool too.

Downtown Disney: SEE CIRQUE DU SOLEIL. It's an AWESOME SHOW. Probably my favorite thing there. Disney Quest was also a lot of fun. Loads of cool interactive games. We didnt go to any Pleasure Island Clubs though.

Tips: Make dinner reservations in Epcot TODAY. Buy a Disney Book, whether it's the Passporter (my wife's favorite), or the Fromer's unofficial guide.

Oh, also, dont get started on the Disney pin trading if you have an addictive personality... $300 later, we learned that :p
 

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