Broke-______ college kid thinks he can plan a WDW trip--questions inside!

[hammysammy59]

My girlfriend and a friend and I are considering to saving up for a trip to WDW. This would mark my first trip not planned and funded by the fam', so I obviously have a lot of questions.

Thanks to this fine board, I'm looking at September of '07, mainly for the near non-existent crowd and the free dining(!?!?). Is the heat and humidity as bad as I've heard? No crowds and free food make hammysammy (and his wallet) extremely happy, but unbearable heat and mugginess will make hammysammy sweaty, gross and sad.

Obviously I want to stay on-site, to take advantage of the bus system, as well as the Magical Express and Extended Magic Hours. The poll on this board pretty much said that between the two value resorts, Pop Century is where it's at. And with uninterrupted bussing to the 'World, I'm going to have to agree... unless it's substantially more expensive than the All-Stars. The last time my family went, we stayed at All-Star Music, and it was very suitable for what we needed: a place to put our stuff, sleep and get ready in the morning... this is pretty much all I need this time around as well.

So let's say I was planning on having 4-5 days in the 'World (parkhoppers of course), arriving by plane from Michigan, staying at a Value resort, partaking in the free dining(!?!?) and keeping souveneir [sic?] and impulse buying under control (i.e. avoiding it all together), can someone give me a price estimate?

And if this is a totally bad idea, or I need to rethink my basic strategy, or if you have any tips or anything for a first timer, please post away! As of now this is still kind of a pipe-dream, but I'd like to see just what kind of price a trip of this magnitude would come out to, and of course get good info from seasoned WDW veterans.

 

[kachow]

You probably COULD do $20/day, but I think you would FEEL that you were doing $20/day. You could always bring cereal to take care of breakfast, and maybe some snacks to pack. But I would try to budget for at least 1-2 table service meals, or I feel like you're missing part of the experience. Like the guy about me said, check out the menus and you can pretty much calculate what you would want to budget for food.

 

[hammysammy59]

So what are the restaurants I absolutely MUST hit? Any suggestions? My past trips have been strictly counter service, but I'm considering getting the DDP and getting some sit-down meals as well.

I've always wanted to hit MGM's Sci-Fi Drive In diner, but what are some others?

 

[LeeSeeBabe]

Some people here don't care for Sci-Fi, but it is a MUST for my group when we go. To me, most of the World Showcase restaurants are fantastic, so mainly to me, it depends on what type of food you like. Our usuals are San Angel Inn (Mexico), Le Cellier (Canada), Teppanaki (sp..but it's the steakhouse in Japan), etc. I've heard fantastic things about the Italian and French restaurants.

In MK, we usually do quick-service, and almost always eat dinner at Liberty Tree (all-you-can-eat Character dining, traditional-type food).

Also Brown Derby in the Studios is fantastic, a bit pricey, but their Cobb Salad for lunch is AMAZING. You could split that with someone and then just have room for an appetizer or so.

Don't eat sit-down at AK.

I'm getting hungry just thinking about it all!!!!

 

[kachow]

Based on your eariler hope of $20/day, it doesn't seem like the dining plan would be the right plan for you unless you have the flexibility to adjust that number to $38/day. If you do, then definitely get the package because you'll have access to restaurants/meals that cost much more than $38/day.

If not, then I'd suggest maybe adjusting the number to $25-$30, and do maybe mostly counter service meals, but allow for 1 or 2 days to hit places like Sci-Fi, or 50's Diner, or one of the sit-down places in the World Showcase, or MK. Places like Brown Derby and Le Cellier are definitely great, and my wife and I usually hit at least one of those per trip, but they're going to cost you $30-$40 per person.

allearsnet has menus for most if not all the restaurants, so you could easily price out what counter service meals would cost you based on how much you want to eat, and then see what you might have left over to substitute in a nicer dinner 1 or 2 nights.

 

[LilRoo714]

Some of the best restaurants on property in my opinion are outside of the parks. I really enjoyed Boma at DAK Lodge, Olivia's at Old Key West and Yachtsman at Y&B Club. However, $20 a day will not be enough to eat at these places daily. I would do as others suggested and have a couple nice meals and then mix in the counter service to save $$. :wave: Have a great time!

 

[shoppingnut]

Don't eat sit-down at AK.

There aren't any sit downs in AK.

I'd recommend:

Le Cellier
Chef de France
Brown Derby
Sci-Fi
50's Prime Time
Flying Fish
Yachtsman
Crystal Palace

 

[hammysammy59]

Okay, so with no food plan, I really have no strong ties to September as a date. I've read lots of good things about January through February, and, well, I don't want to wait over a year to take this trip.

So more questions.

Are the hours pretty decent Jan-Feb? Are we going to not want to ride Splash Mountain or Kali River Rapids this time of year? Bear in mind we're from Michigan, so 70 is often a "hot" day (though it's been in the upper 90's here lately )

Also, for some reason, my friend (but not my girlfriend) is absolutely hell-bent on going during Valentine's Day. It's weird, I know. I just need to know... is the 'World "normal" during V-day? I really don't want the 'World to be covered in hearts and pink crap, and I DEFINITELY don't want to have to deal with any hard-ticket nonsense. I've only heard of Halloween and Christmas celebrations, so I assume they don't have a V-day equivalent, I just want to make sure. I don't know, for some reason I want the 'World to be in it's most classic state when we go, I guess.

That's actually a big part of the reason I frequent the board. If any CLASSIC rides are down for refurb when I plan to go, I HAVE to reschedule, because I want my newbie Disney-maniac friend to have the fullest, most classic WDW experience.

Also, if we do switch gears and hit up the 'World this Valentine's (I honestly don't know why he HAS to go on V-day :veryconfu) do I have enough time to get everything ready to roll, as far as hotel, food (I think we're going to do the dining plan, just to get a deal on the expensive stuff) and park tickets go. It's going to be at least a couple months before I actually have the money to fund such a trip.

Thanks, guys!