Lots of various questions

Let me start by giving you some info on my family. We are a family of six. Hubby, me, and 4 kids ages 16, 14, 12, and 9. We are planning a trip for April......done a good bit of pricing and I am asking for your opinion on.........

Is it worth the price difference to stay IN the park?

Is the meal plan worth it? Are the sitdown dinners ';fancy';?

Are reservations required? Can%26#39;t we just decide we are hungry and go eat? I hate scheduling.......

IF you say not worth the extra money to stay inside the park- where do you suggest?

A 5 day/6 night trip is roughly $1,000.00 cheaper outside the park....no meal plans....the meal plan ups the in park Disney stay by $1,200.00......I am insane to pay this kinda money LOL

Lots of various questions

danitom, you left a couple of things out. Such as are you going to have a car? Is the purpose of the trip to be exclusively visiting disney?

Lots of various questions

Coming from Alabama, will you be driving to Orlando? If flying instead, will you be renting a car?

Staying inside the park is beneficial for the following reasons:

Flying into Orlando, going only to Disney parks, not renting a car.

If you drive or plan to visit other venues, you might find it cheaper to stay outside the Disney property.

The meal plan is worth it if staying at Disney and planning to eat at only Disney venues and will be using all of your table service credits you%26#39;d get. Reservations are highly recommended for the table service restaurants because they fill up and walk-ups aren%26#39;t usually accomodated. This is especially true in a busy time like April.

The ';table service'; dinners aren%26#39;t ';fancy'; in that you don%26#39;t have to dress up or anything for most venues (with a couple of exceptions), but the meals are much ';nicer'; than plain old counter service burgers and fries.

sorry....yes, we will have ';our'; car....we will be driving from Alabama. Yes, we only have plans for Disney...........I guess, if you include Animal Kingdom, Epcot, whatever other parks you get with the ';hopper%26#39;......Is that ';just Disney?';......my brain is FRIED LOL

so, I am thinking......if I don%26#39;t want to have to ';schedule'; my meals, maybe I shouldn%26#39;t do the meal plan and just stick to counter service meals.....we are definitly NOT picky about food.....we are a ball park family.....we live on nachos, hotdogs, hamburgers, and pickle pops(frozen pickle juice)

The necessary reservations you%26#39;d need for table service dining definitely can put a cramp in ';ad libing'; your vacation days. It does confine you to ';be at certain place at certain time'; and does not allow for flexibility.

If counter service is all you%26#39;d really want, then don%26#39;t do the meal plan.

Having your own car really allows for more flexibility, and staying off site will be much easier. However, there are certain advantages of staying at a Disney resort, even with the increase in price. The Extra Magic Hours would be available to you and you%26#39;re almost guaranteed to get a nice room with no problems at a Disney resort.

The problem I see is if you try to get just one room with six people. Disney allows a maximum of 5 per room and then that%26#39;s only a certain resorts. Are you going to have to get two rooms adjoining?

If so, you%26#39;d probably be better off getting a villa or other rental place outside Disney.

Well if you have your own car I would say stay at Disney, don';t do the dining plan as you can drive off site for more variety ( I always say sometimes a sausage egg mcmuffin and hash brown at mickey ds sounds good). But if you are doing Disney, stay at disney. How did I do Kats?

The Disney parks are: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM studios. Other Orlando non Disney parks are: Universal Studios, Seaworld, Islands of Adventure and nearby Busch Gardens in Tampa.

I would stay at either Comfort Suites Maingate East or Holiday inn Express Lake Buena Vista. Both have free breakfasts a great $ saver, free Disney transport and larger rooms than Disney.THey also have very nice pools. Disney will not let 6 stay in one room unless you book a suite which is very expensive. The other option is to book two rooms at a value resort. Still not cheap. I would also get base passes if you don%26#39;t really need to park hop. This will save a great deal of $ on 6 tickets.

Staying in the parks is more convenient but if $ is a concern I would stay offsite at one of the above mentioned hotels. Both have great reviews. We%26#39;ve stayed at both and also Shades of Green on Disney . All three experiences were great . On site is quick ,convenient but expensive. One option may be to look into Doubletree suites in downtown disney. THey have large rooms that sleep 6 but not sure how expensive they are.

BSSD,

The problem is that they have 6 people going and they%26#39;d have to get two Disney resort rooms unless they get a suite.

There are suites available at some of the Disney venues (All Star Music is the least expensive), but that%26#39;s the only way they could stay at a Disney place, I think.

Disney has a max capacity on their rooms.

I thought Shades of Green was for Military personnel only?

Also BDDS,

Did you know there%26#39;s two McDonald%26#39;s restaurants on Disney property?

One is at Downtown Disney and the other is over near the All-Star resorts just off Osceola Pkwy.

neutrogena