I'm going to Disney World! (Page 2)

If you have an Iphone or an Android based phone, there is an app called Disney World Wait times (and its free) and you can look at the parks and the wait times for each of the rides.  Was helpful when we were there for the WDW Marathon :-)

MGM is now Hollywood Studios.  They re-named it a few years ago.

We go several times a year, we live 45 minutes away and have a 3 and 4 year old.  I love the Mickey's Philharmagic great show plus it's a nice break from standing in line.  MomX3 did a great job listing each park.  Just to add a few things. 
In Animal Kingdom skip its tough to be a bug, kids will get scared and the show is creepy.  Also, my kids love meeting characters if yours do, you can take the train out to the science center and meet a few out there.  Most people skip the train so it doesn't get very crowded.  Also, in the area with the Lion King show, if you go down there after the show starts or when the parade is going to start there's 4 areas to meet characters, usually Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  This place clears out and you can have the characters to yourself.  There was 3 families down in this area, and all the characters got together and took group pictures with all the families.  The kids loved it.

Also, look into Chef Mickey.  It's a buffet breakfast with all the characters...lots of fun.

Lastly, like MomX3 said, get to the parks early.  Depending on the day and park you can knock out half the park by 11ish go back to your room take naps and come back at 4 and finish the other half of the park.  Plus the park will empty out a little in the afternoon.

Have fun!   ? 

I live here, and we've just had a Disney marathon month hitting a park each weekend day. Momx3 gave you THE BEST info, cut and paste her stuff and print it out.

We used the Wait Time app on our phones and it was very accurate. Nice little thing to have.

http://www.mousesavers.com/is a good website full of lots of info

As stated, eat at weird times if possible. Use snacks to fill the gaps.

And, sadly, you can no longer ride in the front of the monorail (at least the last I heard) - they had an accident last year, a driver was killed, and they cut that program out. May have changed since then, but I doubt it.

DEFINITELY do the Jedi Training if your kids aren't too shy. You get the cutest pictures of your kids in jedi clothes! Sometimes I think they get to be in the parade, too.

Haunted Mansion has been breaking a lot. We got stuck in there for 20 minutes, and my students tell me it breaks all the time.

Agree on the Dinosaur ride being REALLY SCARY for littler kids. There is a really cool play area close by with all sorts of climbing and sliding and stuff.

If you want a nice non-Disney thing and have a car, Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve is close by and has a little history/education building and about 3 miles of trails through a couple of habitats and a dock on a lake. Very peaceful and non-theme-parkish.

There is an informal tri training group in Celebration that always welcomes visitors. They run on Tues and Thurs mornings, meeting at the flagpole in the center of town. They usually do a ride on Thursday evenings about 6pm, and have some sort of weekkend thing. They are really friendly, great people.
http://trijunkies.webs.com/

Lucky's Lake Swim is THE BEST! They swim every day of the year. In winter during the week it's usually just the regulars and you can chill in the hot tub and chat. Lucky's house always makes me wish I lived there.

AND - go to the website for the IM or HIM races based at Disney - they should have maps for the bike and ride sections. Ride part takes you out of the park on some nice roads, you'll probably see other tri folk riding on weekends. If you lean to the hardcore riding, check out the Windermere Roadies: http://windermereroadies.com/

I highly recommend The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World , which has served us well for five trips over the past twenty years. Particularly invaluable are their touring guides which I describe as guerilla-style assault plans on the parks. Worked extremely well for us, following their advice we would get to the parks before opening (my kids have partaken in the official park opening? ?c?e?r?e?m?o?n?y), see and do everything we wanted in the early part of the day, and would be heading back to the hotel for lunch about the same time the crowds were still getting there in throngs. After lunch, naps, pool time, etc. at? t?he hotel we would head back for  the evening festivities???.?  ??  

1) Get to the parks at or before opening.
2) Go to the parks that offer early opening for resort guests.
3) Schedule your meals ahead of time.  Otherwise you will end up eating turkey legs that taste like ham.  Google disney dining.
Our favorite in park restaurants: Magic Kingdom, Liberty Tree Cinderella's Royal Table (you get to eat in the top of the castle) / Disney Studios, 50's Prime Time / Epcot, Le Cellier / Animal Kingdom ~ Tusker House <---don't skip
Our favorite resort restaurants (kid friendly): Boma @ Animal Kingdom Lodge, Chef Mickeys @ Contemporary, Whispering Canyon @ Wilderness Lodge
Our favorite restaurant (if you can get away from the kids for a night) is Citricos @ Grand Floridian  Just get the short ribs.  Trust me.
4) Fast pass is free.  Basically, it waits in line for you.  When you enter each park, go to the most popular ride and get your fast pass for that ride immediately.  (Special Hint ~ You can use fast passes on the same day, after they have expired).  I would recommend getting the following fast pass for each park.  You (the Dad) can grab all of your family's tickets and hustle to get fastpasses for them, while they stroll to a nearby less busy ride.
Magic Kingdom, Buzz Lightyear / Epcot, Soarin' or Mission Space / Disney Studios, Toy Story / Animal Kingdom, Everest.
5) Use Disney Magical Express.  Bus ride from airport to resort and you don't even have to touch your bags.
6) Use the bus/boat/monorail system to get around WDW.

Good luck and allow yourself to catch the Disney Spirit.  Don't be afraid to ask any employee (cast member) for help, or even the other guests.

As far as training, CBR (Carribean Beach Resort) has a maze of roads and paths to run on.  Big swimming pools abound.  Bike? Nah!

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Fast Past trick he just mentioned.  The Fast Pass will have a time listed as a return time, say "return between 9:45-10:45."  You can ignore the ending time, you can use that all day as long as it is after 9:45.  So what we do is load up on Fast Passes some days.  Like we get one for Peter Pan right away that usually puts our return time about 9:45am, then even if we're not ready to ride at 9:45 we go to another ride and get a second Fast Pass.

It used to be that you could get your next set of Fast Passes after the return time on your last passes OR two hours after you got your last passes.  For example, say you are late to get Toy Story Mania and it is 10am, tour return time will be something like 3pm.  You used to only have to wait until 12 to get your next set, but I am not sure if that is still true, you'll have to read the bottom of the ticket.  We always get them early in the morning so don't have to worry about that.

Oh, and another thing I like to do even though my husband thinks I'm nuts - if I'm leaving a park and have any extra passes left or am walking by a good ride I'll grab extra passes and I gave them to a family who is just on their way in - especially if they have kids.  This last trip we had 10 passes to ride Peter Pan and only three of us ended up riding.  As I walked out a family of 4 was looking at the wait time and told the kids no, it was an hour wait.  They started to walk away and I gave them my passes, the kids were so happy!  

You need to talk to my wife.  She is a Disney Fanatic/Bargain Shopper.  She is taking 24 women to the Princess 13.1 in a couple of weeks.  They all think that she is fantastically organized.  However, I know that it only applies to vacations with the MOUSE.

You might already know this, but Toontown closed this weekend.  If were planning on trying Goofy's Rollercoaster or seeing Mickey/Minnie's houses you can skip them now and you'll have more time in your day for other stuff!

I just want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread again. We had a really great time and the advice (and especially MomX3's day plans) were especially helpful. That "Unofficial Guide to Disney World" was also indispensable. We saved so much time and accomplished so much more than we otherwise would have.

I'm not going to be throwing on a Mouse-eared beanie anytime soon, but I have to say I was quite impressed with the Disney experience, except for the absolutely awful "Not-so Magical Express" ride from the airport to our accommodations. That was atrocious.

Thanks again, CoJ! You really came through for us!

I'm just glad I didn't miss anything interesting going on here in Wisconsin while we were gone.

Actually, we only did "Pirates" once (there was NO line) and I never got the guys into "Haunted Mansion" though I snuck in by myself once-- apparently they just re-did the Mansion this year so it's a lot different than I remember.

The big hits with the kids and the rides we did most were:

"Test Track"
"Soaring"
"Buzz Lightyear"
"Toy Story"

They really loved the interactive nature of the last two. I'm also really proud that to say, while the guys weren't up for "ghost stuff", they were up for some of the most aggressive thrill rides like "Thunder Mountain Railroad", "Expedition Everest" and "Splash Mountain"-- that's big stuff for a 5 and 7-year-old!

We all also really enjoyed the "Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show" and the "Indiana Jones" Show-- my youngest even got to meet and have his picture taken with Indiana Jones after the show!

Just a great time. My only disappointment was that I somehow pulled my calf on the first day down there and couldn't do any running in the beautiful weather-- luckily it didn't seem to affect my walking too much, which as anyone who's been to Disney knows, is huge due to the incredible amount of walking involved.