Disney World

So, we’re planning a trip to Walt Disney World for this fall. We're excited, but there are lots of decisions to make yet!

We debated driving vs flying, but decided for the safety and timing, we should fly. We all want to arrive alive :), and we don't want to use up two extra vacation days for travel. We’ll be flying down on a Saturday and back the following Saturday, with 5 days to hit the Disney parks (one each day plus an extra to decide where we want to go back to), plus one day for Sea World.

We debated staying on- vs off-site, but decided to stay onsite at a Disney resort, for the convenience. Even though Jock is familiar with Orlando, having lived there for a while, we decided having Disney take care of transportation and our luggage, when we have three kids’ hands to hold would be very helpful. Then we can enjoy it, take it all in, and not have to deal with maps, parking, etc. Also, we will likely be going to the parks when they open, coming back to the hotel for afternoon naps or cooling off a bit by the pool, then heading back to the park or to another resort’s restaurant/activity for the late afternoon/evening – so the location is important.

So, for those of you who have “done” Disney, what are your tips and suggestions?

What rides and shows should we be sure to do/see or skip? Keep in mind we’ll have an 8-year-old girl, 5-year-old boy, and 4-year-old girl at the time. We know about fast passes, and do plan to do that.

We want to make a couple dinner reservations now – we’d like to do the Luau at the Polynesian resort. We also want to do breakfast with the characters one morning, but haven’t researched how this works as far as where to go, what characters we want to see, etc. Any other suggestions?

We have a couple kids whose legs might get tired – what do you recommend for a stroller? My double-jogger stroller is not doorway- or air-travel-friendly, and our other is an umbrella stroller. Will that even cut it, or is that best because of the transportation to/from hotel, etc? Or should we rent strollers at the parks? I'm good with a single stroller though, as they can take turns riding.

Any tips for Sea World? How to get there from a Disney resort? What should we skip or be sure to see/do?

We're planning to take a backpack or two for the camera, water bottles, sunscreen/bug spray, change of clothes for my not-so-well-potty-trained kid, rain ponchos, snacks, and souvenirs. Snacks aren’t a problem to bring into the park? Do they dig through bags at the entrance?

Anything else you can thing of that would be helpful – please comment. We’re probably going to be booking things within the next week.

Oh - one more thing... Kaylen's outgrown them, but should we bring J's princess dress-up clothes? :)