California sisters to hopefully make a trip to Florida

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
As some of you may or may not know, I am active on WDWMagic, but spend 99.9% of my time in the Disneyland sub-forum. I'm a native of Los Angeles and have been visiting Disneyland all my life, and I truly don't know how many times I've been. I've always wanted to see Walt Disney World, and now the chance may be on its way.

While paying for a hotel, park tickets, and food was never a problem, paying for a plane ticket, on top of paying for hotel, park tickets, and food was, especially now that I've graduated from college and will have to start paying my loans off in just a few months. While a few of my friends have been traveling in celebration of graduation (Colombia, England, France, Italy... These are just a few of the places my friends have been going, and I'm obviously jealous), I've been...in Los Angeles. Working. Plans of traveling further than Northern California weren't in the cards, until the best uncle in the world surprised me and sent two Southwest Airline tickets to me in the mail for finishing college.

After days of figuring out where we (my little sister and I) wanted to go, my mom suggested the brilliant idea of going to Orlando, Florida to visit Walt Disney World. What a smart woman she is. My sister has agreed, and now we are trying to make it to Walt Disney World sometime next year, before July, which is when our flight tickets expire.

A date has not been set, however, we're thinking of setting 5-7 days aside for our trip. Four days will be spent in the parks, one day for each park, and the other days will be for relaxing/possibly doing something else in Florida (like USO/IoA!). We know we will be staying in a value hotel and we most likely won't be eating at any table service spots because no one has money for that, times are hard, and the struggle is definitely real. I know the counter service options aren't like Disneyland's and California Adventure's, but I'm sure we'll survive.

I'm EXTREMELY excited for next year. To all my friends here (you know who you are) and others, please reply with some helpful tips and information and help your California friend out!
 

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Since it doesn't sound like you're going to be doing a dining plan...you can try and save $ in a few ways.

- You can look to a site like Undercover Tourist for tickets. Savings will vary, but it's usually a tad cheaper. Right now a 5 day ticket is the same price as a 4 day ticket (single park or hopper) through Undercover Tourist
- You can use Mousesavers to 1) determine time of year with lowest rack rates that fit your schedule 2) determine best room only discounts for any times that appeal to you for travel...i.e. so you're getting the room at its cheapest rack rate with best discount for that resort (probably around 15% off for a value).

Now as for dining, while it's going to be different than Disneyland, I think you'll still find a number of offerings that should keep you fairly happy.
- In MK, if you can get a breakfast or lunch ADR for BOG, you can have better than average quick service in an awesome environment
- Leaving MK to hit the quick service in the resorts is also a great option. Contempo, Captain Cooks and Gasparilla all have some decent options. And while it takes more time, you could also take the boat to Wilderness Lodge and try out Roaring Fork.
- Flame Tree and Pizzafari are where we usually end up in AK if we do quick service, but there's also the option of taking a bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a meal at their quick service, The Mara.
- Not everyone loves the options in DHS, but we have always enjoyed the pressed sandwiches at Studio Catering, had decent food at Starring Rolls, and nice snacks at Writer's Stop.
- If you were to leave DHS or Epcot, Boardwalk Bakery has some good meal options and some great sweet treats and snacks. You can't sit down and eat in there, but you could head out to a bench on the boardwalk OR there's a nice covered patio area on the 2nd floor of the Boardwalk Inn that would make for a nice relaxing meal spot.
- Epcot will give you your widest choice of options. Sunshine Seasons in the Land has a little of everything, but we enjoy snacking our way around the world in the World Showcase. We've had decent quick service in a number of spots, but our new fave is Tangerine Cafe in Morocco for shwarma and baklava.
- We don't hang out much in DTD (tried to drive in the other day, but parking and weather made it impossible), but Earl, Cooke's of Dublin, and Wolfgang Puck Express seem to be popular.

Not sure if you want to try and have groceries delivered to your room to save $, but you could always pack snack options in your suitcases to cover some expenses.

OK...there's probably more, but I've already written you a novel. :D
 
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Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Since it doesn't sound like you're going to be doing a dining plan...you can try and save $ in a few ways.

- You can look to a site like Undercover Tourist for tickets. Savings will vary, but it's usually a tad cheaper. Right now a 5 day ticket is the same price as a 4 day ticket (single park or hopper) through Undercover Tourist
- You can use Mousesavers to 1) determine time of year with lowest rack rates that fit your schedule 2) determine best room only discounts for any times that appeal to you for travel...i.e. so you're getting the room at its cheapest rack rate with best discount for that resort (probably around 15% off for a value).

Now as for dining, while it's going to be different than Disneyland, I think you'll still find a number of offerings that should keep you fairly happy.
- In MK, if you can get a breakfast or lunch ADR for BOG, you can have better than average quick service in an awesome environment
- Leaving MK to hit the quick service in the resorts is also a great option. Contempo, Captain Cooks and Gasparilla all have some decent options. And while it takes more time, you could also take the boat to Wilderness Lodge and try out Roaring Fork.
- Flame Tree and Pizzafari are where we usually end up in AK if we do quick service, but there's also the option of taking a bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a meal at their quick service, The Mara.
- Not everyone loves the options in DHS, but we have always enjoyed the pressed sandwiches at Studio Catering, had decent food at Starring Rolls, and nice snacks at Writer's Stop.
- If you were to leave DHS or Epcot, Boardwalk Bakery has some good meal options and some great sweet treats and snacks. You can't sit down and eat in there, but you could head out to a bench on the boardwalk OR there's a nice covered patio area on the 2nd floor of the Boardwalk Inn that would make for a nice relaxing meal spot.
- Epcot will give you your widest choice of options. Sunshine Seasons in the Land has a little of everything, but we enjoy snacking our way around the world in the World Showcase. We've had decent quick service in a number of spots, but our new fave is Tangerine Cafe in Morocco for shwarma and baklava.
- We don't hang out much in DTD (tried to drive in the other day, but parking and weather made it impossible), but Earl, Cooke's of Dublin, and Wolfgang Puck Express seem to be popular.

Not sure if you want to try and have groceries delivered to your room to save $, but you could always pack snack options in your suitcases to cover some expenses.

OK...there's probably more, but I've already written you a novel. :D

Thanks for this useful information!
 
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StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
Awesome! I'm glad you're going next year as this year is the year of some major construction. Should be better next year.

As for CS locations, there are some awesome places in WDW, especially Epcot. Other than at DHS, I would say overall the food is better at WDW than at DL.

At MK, try:
Columbia Harbor House
Be Our Guest (get a time for lunch. I've only had their dinner, but lunch is supposed to be really good as well)
Cosmic Ray's has a really good chicken dinner.
Pinocchio's Village Haus has good flatbreads
Pecos Bill has a good salad and good chilli. Their burgers are also decent.

At Epcot, try:
Seasons (over in the Land and Soarin')
Any of the countries.
Basically, anywhere besides American Adventure and Electric Umbrella. The food in this park is fantastic.

At DHS:
Meh. I think Backlot Express is better than anywhere else. But this park definitely has the worst food.

At AK:
Flame Tree BBQ

If you're breaking for a while or exploring the resorts, some of them also have really good CS locations. Contempo Cafe at Contemporary sticks out in my mind. Their food is great. And if you're staying at Pop (best of the values IMO), the food court there has really, really good food.

If you do one TS, make it Kona Cafe at the Polynesian for breakfast. Their entrees are huge, so one entree could probably feed both of you, and the most expensive entree is $15.99, most are around $10 or $11. Not bad at all. And it's fantastic. You could take a day off, explore the MK resorts and ride the Monorail (unlike in DL, you don't need park admission to ride), then head over to DTD for the evening. If you have time, Animal Kingdom Lodge is another resort worth seeing. QS over there is good as well.

The other non-expensive TS meal you might want to consider is Prime Time Cafe at DHS. Food there is much better than at QS locations, and again, it's not terribly expensive and you could possibly share an entree (fried chicken :hungry:). It's also a really fun environment.

I vote for Pop. It's a nice resort, the food is good, and the busing situation is good.

AS far as hopping goes, we hop, but we're used to it. The only way it might not benefit you is if you decide to hop from AK to another park (in which case, just go to DTD or AKL) or if you got tired of DHS and decided to go to Epcot. Otherwise, it's your first time after being used to DL, save hopping for whenever you come back. Especially since you're not there for a long time and really aren't doing any TS meals.

Have a great trip! Keep us up-to-date on the planning! :)
 
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