Disney Vacation Club

In my family, the jury is still out on whether a Disney Vacation Club is the answer to our future Disney trips with a growing family. It's become increasingly difficult to share a room for a week with 2 teens. And while we always say we'll just deal with it for a week, we usually leave our vacation wondering if in the future we should invest in a vacation club.
Future trips in the next couple of years will also include our oldest daughter and our granddaughter. Now that brings us to 6 total. At that point, just a room is no longer an option.
Disney's Vacation Club operates on a point system. The minimum amount of points you can purchase is 160 for a cost of just over $16,000. The vacation club is good for 50 years and can be transferred to your children or whoever else you want to leave it to.
For that amount of points, you can spend 10 nights in Disney per year, according to the Disney Vacation Club person I spoke with. You choose your vacation club resort based on how many people you need to accommodate. Depending on the time of year, that is how the points are charged. You'll be charged more points on weekends than during the week and peak season will also cost you more points.
Then there's the maintenance fees. They will cost you about $65 a month.
You also have to factor in the cost of financing the vacation club unless you plan to pay cash. If you don't use a home equity loan or line of credit to pay for your vacation club, you can expect to pay about 10% interest on the financing. OUCH!
So while doing my research and seeing the cost of this investment rising rapidly, I decided to check out booking a suite at one of the deluxe hotels that would accommodate six of us. I was again surprised when I saw the price range from $3,500 to $8,000! OUCH again!
Fortunately, our granddaughter is only 3 months old so we still have at least a couple years to make this decision.

Upgrades

It's always a nice surprise to arrive in Disney and find out you've been upgraded free of charge. There seems to be no pattern to Disney sprinkling a little pixie dust on your vacation, but it happens on a fairly regular basis.
Some upgrades are small like a water view instead of a woods view. This happened to my family in August 2004 when Hurricane Charlie forced us to drive instead of fly because the airport terminal was damaged and no flights were going in or out for days. We had booked a "woods view" at the Wilderness Lodge. We called the resort to let them know that because of the hurricane, we'd be driving and arriving very late. We were given a room with a view of Bay Lake, overlooking the dock where the boat picks you up for the Magic Kingdom. My guess is Disney wanted to add a little magic to a trip that was starting out on the wrong foot.
In December I booked a package with a room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Savannah view rooms (where you can watch the animals from your balcony) were not available when I booked. So I booked a standard view room. Our flight arrived early in the morning and our room wasn't ready when we arrived. We got our park passes and were told to come back at 3 p.m. and our room would be ready. When we returned, we had a room overlooking the Savannah. Now these are nice little surprises! But I've heard talk about upgrades at deluxe hotels that include being upgraded to concierge or club level. I've also heard about upgrades from value resorts to deluxe resorts, though they appear to be a little more rare.
The only advice I have on upping your chances for a free upgrade, is letting Disney know (when you make your reservation) if you or anyone in your family is celebrating anything while there, such as a birthday, anniversary or graduation.

Finding Characters in Disney

It's not hard to find characters in Disney. They're everywhere. But to get an up close visit with a specific character, you might have to do some planning.

If you don't want to stand in line at the parks with your child waiting for a photo opportunity with a character, you may want to consider a character meal. Chef Mickey's at The Contemporary has Chef Mickey Mouse, Chip and Dale and Chef Goofy and the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom has Winnie The Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eyore. While you dine on good food at these restaurants, the characters make their way around the tables to interact with you and your children.

One of my favorite places for a character meal is the Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom. Here you'll find family-style dining on smoked pork loin, turkey and roast beef, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls and butter. Oh and for dessert, warm cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. One nice thing about Liberty Tree Tavern is that for many of the character meals in Disney you must make advance reservations, sometimes you can get a reservation at the Liberty Tree Tavern by checking with them when they open. If you definitely want to dine there, by all means, make the reservation, but depending on the time of year and crowd levels, you might be able to get a reservation when you arrive.

On our Disneymoon in 2004, my husband and I walked into the Magic Kingdom donning our bride and groom ears, a tell-tale sign we were newlyweds. A cast member stopped us and asked if we had made plans for dinner. We said we hadn't. She told us to go to Cinderella's Castle right away and they would make sure they found a seating for us. We did, and at 4 p.m. that day we were eating at Cinderella's Royal Table in the Castle. Our table was decorated with confetti and after dinner and dessert, we were brought a boxed "wedding gift" from The Castle. It was a pair of champagne flutes that said Cinderella's Royal Table.

Whether you're celebrating an occasion or just want some up close interaction with Disney characters, booking a character meal is the way to go.

The happy faces of a Disney vacation

"We're going to Disney World." The words my kids wait every year to hear. Now that our trips have become yearly, our daughters have come to expect the yearly dose of magic. And although we've vacationed a few other places, you can't capture these kind of smiles anywhere but Disney.

There's the "I'm getting dessert with my dinner every night" faces.

A picture with her favorite Disney princess (even if she had to stand in line with a bunch of 5-year-olds!)

And it's not just the kids having fun....

My husband gets in on the fun in Disney MGM Studios as he seized the opportunity to play Gene Kelly "Singing In The Rain." The umbrella came complete with a rain shower!

The saddest faces are on the last day when it's time to say goodbye till next year~

Buying park tickets

Part of planning your Disney vacation is deciding what tickets to buy. You can include your tickets in your package if your booking through Disney or any other travel agent, but you still have to decide which ones are best suited for how you'll roam the World once you get there. The more days you stay, the less expensive the park ticket. The Magic Your Way base ticket gets you into one park per day. If you're going for 7 days, it breaks down to about $32.00 per day for an adult. And in Disney, adults are anyone 10 years old and older. I don't think you can get into any of the local amusement parks for that price. If you think you may want to go to more than one park a day or at least have that option, you'll want what's called a park hopper added to the ticket. That brings your price to just over $40. per day for an adult and just over $34 for a child 3-9. If you want to add options such as waterparks and Disney Quest, the amount only goes up about $5 per ticket. You also need to know that you'll be asked if you want the No Expiration option. If you're staying 7 days and planning to use the tickets every day, you don't need a no expiration option which costs more. The one benefit to adding tickets to your package if you're staying in a Disney Resort is that your park ticket is your room key and can also have charging priveledges added if you choose. Last year in the Animal Kingdom, my youngest daughter's ticket got lost when we forgot to take it out of the fast-pass machine. Since we were Disney resort guests, we just went to guest services in the park and they gave her another temporary ticket. When we got back to our resort, they issued another pass like the original with her name on it.
There are a couple Web sites where you can buy discounted tickets but after checking them out I didn't see much savings. For me, it's more about convenience. I'm not sure we would have been able to replace that park pass that was lost had we bought them online or stayed offsite and had regular paper tickets.

Let's talk about resorts

How do you choose where to stay when there's 22 themed resorts to choose from? Money always factors into the decision but even the deluxe resorts can be had at a fairly reasonable price at specific times of year. I've spent most of my Disney trips at moderate resorts. These are the middle of the road in price, location and amenities. So now it comes down to theming. The four choices include Port Orleans Riverside, a southern-style resort along the Sassagoula River with Mansions and lush gardens. It's sister resort, French Quarter, will give you a healthy taste of Mardi Gras. Riverside offers horse-drawn carriage rides at a very reasonable price. And from both Riverside and French Quarter you can take a boat ride to Downtown Disney, which is something not offered at any other resort. The Caribbean Beach resort has an Island theme. There you have the unique ability of mailing someone a coconut instead of a postcard.
Then there's the Coronado Springs, a Southwest style resort that boasts one of the best pools with a 46-foot tall pyramid and a cascading waterfall. So just when you think you've narrowed the choices down to four, the decision becomes more difficult because each resort offers something unique.

Bounceback offers

If you're planning more than one trip to Walt Disney World this year you may be lucky enough to take advantage of what's known as a bounceback offer. Fliers are left in Disney Resort rooms explaining the offer and the dates available. If you are planning more than one trip within a 12 month period of time it can save you money. A friend recently visited Disney and said a flier was in her room for 30% off a deluxe resort if she booked before she went home. Sometimes the bounceback offers free dining and sometimes it's a room discount. Either way, it's a significant savings. There are blackout dates for the offer but it's worth checking out. The flier will have a phone number that you can call from the resort. If you don't see a flier in your room, check with the hotel concierge and ask about a bounceback offer. To book the offer you need to make a $200 deposit on the trip. Then Disney, like many other travel agencies, allows you up to 45 days before your arrival to finish paying for the trip.