Leslie Blogs

writing about my life on a tiny island

Disney World Tips: When to Book


When should I book my trip to Walt Disney World? 

So you’ve decided to book a trip to Walt Disney World Resort and you definitely want the best deal. So, when should you book? Unlike trying to figure out when the best time to book a flight, car rental, or hotel room at another destination, it’s actually pretty easy to decide when to book your Walt Disney World Resort stay! Book as soon as you decide on your dates.

But what if a special offer is released after I book? 

The great thing about Disney is that they actually make it pretty simple to get the best deal. Booking early assures that you get the resort and room type that you want, because resort space can fill up quickly depending on the resort of your choice and they time of year you’re planning to visit. However, if Disney releases an offer such as a room discount or free dining, as long it is applicable to your resort and dates, you can always call (or have your travel agent call) and modify your reservation to apply the discount. I’ve done this to apply both free dining and room discounts (on separate trips) to my own personal reservations and it was super easy.

So take one item off of your to-do list- book your resort, then you can spend your time on the fun part of planning such as deciding on dining!

Update: I am now a travel agent specializing in Disney destinations- so let me handle your booking and worry about looking for discounts! Email me at leslie@marvelousmousetravels.com!

Surviving a Kidani Christmas

Kidani Christmas

Even though it has taken 4 months to start writing about this trip, it was so fabulous that it has be documented!

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my love for Disney World, evident in the number of times I’ve managed to visit in the last few years.  One thing I never thought I’d do was spend Christmas at Disney. Well, last year, my family did just that. That’s right- my parents, my brother, and I braved the Christmas week crowds to celebrate the season at Disney.

And you know what? It was wonderful. In many ways, it was the best trip we’ve ever taken. I could never put into words just how wonderful our trip was, but I do want to document a few thoughts and highlights about our trip, which took place December 21-27, 2014.

  1. For this trip, we rented points from The DVC Rental Store. This was my second experience working with Lauren, and it was great from start to finish! Originally we booked at Coronado Springs with free dining, but found that for about the same price, we could rent points at Kidani Village and just pay out of pocket for the dining plan. We booked a Savannah View Studio at Kidani, and it was amazing! There’s nothing like waking up to this view every morning! We did take an air bed with us, and we never really felt crowded in the room, even with 4 people staying in a studio. Of course, we didn’t spend a ton of time inside, and having the balcony and really helped!
  2. We went in with realistic expectations about crowds. During Christmas week, Disney is crowded. In fact, it is one of the most (if not THE most) crowded weeks of the year. We’ve been lucky enough to experience Disney during very low crowd periods and knew that this trip would be drastically different. We planned accordingly, making our dining reservations at the 180 day mark and Fastpass + reservations at the 60 day mark. We went in not really expecting to ride much other than what we had Fastpasses for and planned on spending a lot of time exploring resorts and taking advantage of things we wouldn’t normally do instead of fighting crowds in line for rides. This worked perfectly! We got to ride all the head liners thanks to our Fastpasses without waits.  
  3. We enjoyed a few amazing meals! We did the Deluxe Dining Plan, which was way too much food. But, it was great to have two meals a day scheduled so that we knew we had a break from crowds. As always, we tried to do an early lunch or late breakfast along with a signature dinner each day. This worked out well, and there was no way we could have eaten three meals every day! Not only was the food amazing, but it was great to end each day with a relaxing dinner where we could all just talk and rehash the day. 
    California Grill dinner
  4. We took advantage of what our resort had to offer. Kidani’s table service restaurant, Sanaa, offers free cultural tours each afternoon! Animal Kingdom Lodge does the same for their restaurants, Boma and Jiko. My family were the only ones in attendance the afternoon we toured Sanaa, and there weren’t many others for the Boma and Jiko tours. It was really interesting to learn more about these restaurants, meet the cultural ambassadors, and get to taste a few appetizers! We also spent time just relaxing at the animal viewing areas and walking around the resort. Usually we’re only in the resort long enough to change clothes or sleep, so it was really nice to relax a bit, especially at a resort as beautiful as Kidani!
  5. We were flexible. Remember how I said that all our dining reservations and Fastpasses were made well in advance? They were, but we also were open to change. For example, we ended up canceling a pre-park opening breakfast at Crystal Palace. After a long first day in the parks, we realized we weren’t going to want to get up and ready early enough to make our breakfast, so we cancelled it. We did it before midnight so that we wouldn’t be charged, and were even able to find a later breakfast in our resort so that we could sleep a little later and not have to travel to eat. My brother and I also spent a last minute late night in Magic Kingdom after dinner on Christmas night and it was one of the best decisions we made! We ended up there because it was the first bus that came after dinner, and even on Christmas night we managed to ride 8 rides in two hours! It was amazing how empty the park was after Wishes, even on Christmas! We rode Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Big Thunder, Space Mountain, and the People Mover all between 10pm and midnight. In fact, the longest line we stood in during the whole trip was for Winnie the Pooh! We laughed at ourselves, but it was the only ride in the park that I had never ridden, so we waited 15 or so minutes to ride. During those two hours we also managed a stop at Starbucks, shopping, and Photopass stops. It was pretty magical! 

Spending Christmas at Disney with my family was a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll always be thankful for!

Disney’s Yacht Club – A Short Review

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a 4 day conference to learn about using Alice, software that teaches about computer programming in a 3D environment, in the classroom. I won’t bore you here with details of what I learned (I’ll write a recap on my professional blog though), even though trust me- it was far from boring!

Not only was I excited to be attending the conference, but I was also excited because of where the conference was held! The conference was at Disney’s Yacht Club, which meant that’s also where attendees stayed! An added bonus was that I convinced my mom to join me and add an extra night to the conference covered nights so we could have a bit of a mother-daughter trip.

In our past Disney trips, we’ve stayed at one of Disney’s moderate resorts, Coronado Springs Resort, which we absolutely adored. While I’ve always wanted to stay at the Yacht or Beach club, mainly because of the walking proximity to Epcot, I’ve never wanted to pay the price difference to stay at a deluxe. Thanks to conference rates, the price point was just right for us to stay at the Yacht Club for this trip. I mean look at how beautiful this is.

Disney’s Yacht Club as viewed from the Boardwalk

Our experience at the resort was pretty great! Here are a couple of highlights.

Disney’s Magical Express

If you’re flying to Disney, take advantage of this service! This was the third time we used it, and you just can’t beat the convenience of dropping your luggage at the airport for departure and having it arrive in your rooms after check-in. We were off the plane and on the Magical Express within about 15 minutes (including a pit stop at the restroom). Before stopping at the Yacht Club, our bus dropped guests at Caribbean Beach Resort and then Boardwalk. It still made the trip from the airport under an hour, cheaper than renting a car we wouldn’t otherwise need, and most importantly- stress free! Perfection!

Check-In

I did online check in 60 days before our check-in date, and made no special requests at that time. I did add my credit card to be used for room charges, and set up a 4 digit pin to verify charges at that time. We were greeted by name as soon as we stepped off the Magical Express and ushered to the Online Check-In area. Within just a few minutes, we had added another credit card so that my mom’s Key to the World Card would charge to her card and were pointed in the direction of our room, which was ready when we checked in (around 1:30 pm).

Our Room

Daybed in Yacht Club Room 1079
Yacht Club Room

As part of the conference rate, we booked a Standard Room. I was surprised that when I did online check-in, we saw that we were assigned a Pool/Lagoon View room. Sure enough, once we got to our room, we saw that we had a perfect side-view of the lighthouse right on the lagoon. We also had a daybed, which we were shocked to have since it wasn’t a request and there were just 2 of us. The room was clean and smelled fresh, stocked with plenty of towels and toiletries. I wasn’t sure if I would like having a first floor room, which meant a patio instead of a balcony, but it was nice to walk to the sliding door to get in when I ran to refill our mugs each night! Housekeeping was great, with the exception of one day when our room didn’t get cleaned at all. We never called because we thought maybe they were just running behind, but even when we returned from the parks that night no one had been in. I wouldn’t say this is necessarily a negative at the Yacht Club, because I know that this could happen at any resort. I will say, that after staying at Coronado, we really missed the doors that can pulled-out to partition off the bathroom/sink area. These would have been a nice touch to have on this trip especially since I was getting up each morning to get ready for a conference and mom was sleeping in (and I was staying out at parks later than she stayed up also). I think these were an addition to CSR after the last refurbishment, and I think it would be great to see this at the Yacht Club too! If I’m being completely honest though, our rooms at Coronado have been just as nice (albeit a little smaller) and included the same H20 products as amenities, same queen beds, etc. If we were simply comparing rooms, I don’t know that I would pay deluxe prices to stay at the Yacht Club over Coronado.

Yacht Club Room

Resort Area

This is where you can’t really compare the two! I can’t explain how amazing the location of this resort is. Within 5-7 minutes of leaving our room (and we weren’t speed walking) we were at the bag check area of Epcot. Since Epcot is our favorite park, this really is great, and I can only imagine would come even more in handy during the Food and Wine Festival. Another convenience was being able to either walk or hop on the boat to Hollywood Studios. We also took advantage of being able to walk over to

Boardwalk Bakery for dinner one night! This is where the prices of the Deluxe Epcot Resorts start to make more sense to me. We always get park hoppers (I know actually have an annual pass) because we always end up at Epcot at some point each day. Even on this trip, where we only had evenings in the parks, we still saw Epcot daily- and the convenience alone of walking to or from the park means a lot!

The parks we rode buses to and from were Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. I never waited for more than about 10 minutes for a bus to a park, and never more than 5 on one to take back to the resort. Even with stopping at the Beach Club before heading into the parks, we thought the bus service was great. We don’t have kids, and although I always consult crowd calendars and suggested park days, this location was perfect for our touring style of going with the flow and park hopping. We also really liked the added benefit of the basically having access to 2 resorts at the same time, as the Yacht and Beach Club are right beside each other. 
Yacht Club Lobby entrance from back

Yacht Club view from lighthouse/boat dock

Resort Eats

Bacon Angus Burger from Beaches & Cream
Served with smoked bacon, barbecue sauce,
blue cheese, onion rings, and lettuce and tomato
On our arrival day, we visited the Beach Club Marketplace to purchase refillable mugs and shared a pepperoni flatbread. This was the only thing I had here, and I liked that it was prepared fresh and in front of us. We had reservations one night for dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse– and it was fabulous! It has become our must do every trip, and they definitely did not disappoint. Since I actually have pictures of that meal, I’ll do a separate review of that. We also ate once at Beaches & Cream Soda Shop. Mom and I split the Bacon Angus Burger and it was delicious! The burger The server was nice enough to bring it out on two plates with a serving of fries on each. The burger was great- but the fries are my new standard to compare all fries to! They were that good! I also found out that my mom had lunch here while I was in my last conference session on our departure day. She had the Beaches Hot dog and while I don’t have pictures, she said it was the best hot dog she’s had in years. There are several other dining options at both the Yacht and the Beach Club, but those are the ones that we tried ourselves.

Storm Along Bay

So this is the part I’m embarrassed to write. We stayed for 5 nights at the resort with what is arguably the best pool on property…and I spent a combined 15 minutes at it (not in it!). In my defense, since my days were taken up by a conference, I didn’t want to waste a minute of park time each night! My mom did hang out at the pool for a bit each day, and I did walk out to say hello to her during my lunch breaks, and the whole area looks great! I will be staying at the Beach Club in October, so I’m already planning to set aside time just to hang out at the pool for a while! Since I can’t say a whole lot about it, here are a few pictures!

Storm Along Bay

Storm_Along_Bay_2

Yacht/Beach Club Beach

Storm Along Bay 3

Slide at Storm Along Bay

So in conclusion, I think the Yacht Club is pretty amazing! While I don’t know if I could ever justify paying rack rate for a room there on my budget, I’m very thankful that I had the chance to stay here! I’m looking forward to comparing it to the Beach Club in October (booked with the runDisney discount for the Tower or Terror 10 Miler).

Which Disney resort is your favorite?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.