couple of questions

[Swat1]

Hi everyone,

New here and this is my first post.

We are planning a large scale family vacation to Disney starting late November - early December 2007 (total of 12 days).

The basics:

There are ten of us altogether, my family of four (two adults and two teenage children coming from West Coast), my parents (two AARP age adults coming from Upstate NY), my brother's family (two adults two 6 - 8 age children coming from SE Virginia)

For the first seven days we will be staying at an all star vacation homes 6 bedroom home. On the seventh day we will be moving on to Disney property at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the last 5 days.

We expect to spend 6 days total going to Disney parks, which leads me to my first question.

While staying at AKL will we be allowed to just hang out at the resort without using a day of our 6 day park tickets?

We will start going to the Disney parks while staying at the off site house with some built in rest days and a Sea World day so in our last five days (really 3 days that are park worthy due to our check out for offsite and then check in to AKL we will probably not go to a park and then our last day check out we leave very early to catch our plane we will not go to a park). If we just wanted to hang out at the resort for like the day before we fly, etc that is what I'm asking above.

For the six days we are at Disney parks do we really need park hopper tickets or is it too ambitious and should we spend one day in each park and then use the last two ticket days to visit the two parks we want to go back to?

As of right now here is our tentative schedule:

November 28th, Wednesday - arrive in Orlando and check in to our off-site house.
November 29th, Thursday - First day of Disney
November 30th, Friday - Disney
December 1st, Saturday - Disney
December 2nd, Sunday - Rest
December 3rd, Monday - Sea World
December 4th, Tuesday - Late wakeup - Orlando (mini golf, shopping, Pirates Show, etc.)
December 5th, Wednesday - Check out of house (12 noon) and into AKL (3:00 p.m.) - Rest of day Disney
December 6th, Thursday - Disney
December 7th, Friday - Disney
December 8th, Saturday - hang out at AKL resort
December 9th, Sunday - Check out fly home

Does this seem like a good plan?

We haven't been to DW since I was 18 (20 yrs ago).

My kids have only been to DL so they are way excited even though they will be 16 and 17 respectively.

I'm also wondering if we should get the dining plan?

There is so much to plan for, it's hard to even know where to start:veryconfu

Thanks in advance,

Swat1*

 

[dreamscometrue]

I would go to an 8 day ticket instead of 6. For a little over $4 per ticket you could get two more days, that way if the teenages wanted to go do a park one morning, they could and the cost would be almost nothing. Sounds like you have a really nice vaction planed.

Agree wholeheartedly. Last year we decided to get 10 days instead of 7 (with park hopper and water park options) when we found out that the total cost added to the trip was only $36 for 4 people (I mean $9 per person, not $36 per person)! Add days to your tickets for very little money to give your group a lot more options.