Our Disney Vacation-Lessons learned

[Nurse Kim]

We unfortunately learned many lessons during this trip. We had a wonderful time but there were things we learned from this being our first trip.

1. NEVER NEVER stay off Disney Property without a rental car. I am not sure we will ever stay off Disney property after this.

2. Never take a taxi anywhere especially from the airport

3. 5 days just ain't enough time

4. Utilize the park maps so you aren't walking from one side of the park to the other

5. Take a roundtrip airline flight next time

I know we learned many other lessons but I can't remember them all.

[Buttercup]

Oh yeah, you gotta stay on property. People don't realize just how huge Disney World is until they've seen it for themselves. Staying off property (especially without a rental car) is utterly inconvenient. And with Magical Express, you don't have to bother with a taxi from the airport either!
I hope you still had a good trip though!

[Hull-onian]

We unfortunately learned many lessons during this trip. We had a wonderful time but there were things we learned from this being our first trip.

1. NEVER NEVER stay off Disney Property without a rental car. I am not sure we will ever stay off Disney property after this.

2. Never take a taxi anywhere especially from the airport

3. 5 days just ain't enough time

4. Utilize the park maps so you aren't walking from one side of the park to the other

5. Take a roundtrip airline flight next time

I know we learned many other lessons but I can't remember them all.

We stayed off Disney property the first time. Fifteen miles out. Never again.

We use Magic Express, before that Mears.

We did four days not enough time. Before AK.

Learn the park first then go.

How about never do a layover at Atlanta. That is a pain in the neck.

But in the end, a good time was had by all.

[Carolanne]

How about never do a layover at Atlanta. That is a pain in the neck.

Uh-oh. DH booked our flight for 5/4 with AirTran and it involves a 1 hour layover in Atlanta Hull-onian, was your layover that bad? I've never ever flown on a flight that included a connection or layover. I've always flown non-stop from Philly to Orlando.

[BronxTigger]

I had a layover in Atlanta once, on the December 2000 trip. My flight was late leaving out of Denver and I had the last flight out of Atlanta to Orlando for that night. My flight from Denver landed at the same time that my plane to Orlando was supposed to take off. Fortunately for me, that flight was also delayed about a half hour - just enough to catch it. However, the flight was on the other side of the cavernous Atlanta airport. The only memory I have of that layover was RUNNING across one terminal, running down countless steps, taking a train, running up countless steps, then across the terminal.

My family had already been in WDW for a couple of days; I was meeting up with them a little late because I was in college and I had finals. I was so glad I made that flight because I REALLY didn't want to spend a night alone in Atlanta at age 19 when I should have been in WDW with my family!

Carolanne- You should be okay with an hour in Atlanta. It's a very large airport but apparently the signs are decent because I was able to successfully navigate through the airport at a fairly high speed!

[tinkerbell04]

However, the flight was on the other side of the cavernous Atlanta airport. The only memory I have of that layover was RUNNING across one terminal, running down countless steps, taking a train, running up countless steps, then across the terminal.

That same thing happened to us during a layover in Atlanta on our way to Vegas. I never booked it so fast for a flight! That airport was HUGE!

[Carolanne]

Thanks BronxTigger! I normally get the 7 AM AirTran from Philly non-stop, but DH wasn't able to book it (guessing it's a full flight). The next non-stop wasn't until 3:30 PM, and we're only there 4 days, so it's almost like you're losing a day (considering we're taking an early afternoon non-stop home the last day). The best he could find was the 7:55 AM Philly-Atlanta-Orlando. DH is a man of great patience; me, um, not so much. When I saw we had the layover, I figured it can't be horrible if it's only an hour.

[BluewaterBrad]

Have fun planning your next trip!!

[Nurse Kim]

Uh-oh. DH booked our flight for 5/4 with AirTran and it involves a 1 hour layover in Atlanta Hull-onian, was your layover that bad? I've never ever flown on a flight that included a connection or layover. I've always flown non-stop from Philly to Orlando.

The problem with the layover was we had to go all the way across the airport to get to our next terminal. Not fun with 3 kids even though they are older we had to practically run.

[pabef601]

We flew Airtran and had to change planes in Atlanta to fly to Memphis ( a week ago). Our flight got canceled! Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:00 p.m. and we were rebooked and left at 11:00 p.m.!

[faline]

Thanks for your tips! I'm sure they will be helpful to many!

[pink]

I agree- staying off property was so much of a hassle and it just wasn't as magical. Non-directs flights are also a pain. But I have one question:

Why is it bad to take a taxi from the airport? I've never done this before and I was considering doing it.

[BronxTigger]

Why is it bad to take a taxi from the airport? I've never done this before and I was considering doing it.

Are you talking about in Orlando from MCO to WDW? It's very far, so therefore very expensive.

If you are staying onsite, the DME is free and pretty efficient. If you are not eligible for DME, you can take a shuttle for around $15 per person each way. If you have a group, it may be cheaper to take a town car or taxi than a shuttle because a shuttle is per person but a taxi or town car is per trip.

[Carolanne]

Why is it bad to take a taxi from the airport? I've never done this before and I was considering doing it.

A taxi ride from MCO to WDW would be VERY expensive. About 4 years ago my sister & I returned a rental car (we stupidly rented one, later realized that we really didn't need it). Drove the car back to the airport, it was so late that we couldn't get Mears or anything similar, got a taxi...$40 later, we were back at our resort. And that was before tip!

[pink]

Are you talking about in Orlando from MCO to WDW? It's very far, so therefore very expensive.

If you are staying onsite, the DME is free and pretty efficient. If you are not eligible for DME, you can take a shuttle for around $15 per person each way. If you have a group, it may be cheaper to take a town car or taxi than a shuttle because a shuttle is per person but a taxi or town car is per trip.

I was planning on taking DME from the airport to the hotel but then on the way home (back to the aiport) I was going to take a taxi to the aiport because I'm afraid of them loosing our luggage or missing our flight by stopping at the other resorts. I've never drove anywhere in FL so I didn't realize how far it is. Thank you!

[SgtTigger]

I know we learned many other lessons but I can't remember them all.

Kim I have the answers for you.......

Read more INTERCOT........ you have to spend more time around here...... we will be glad to fill you in on all that stuff................ Just ask us.........

I am glad you learned but that was the hard way.............

[Ed]

...got a taxi...$40 later, we were back at our resort. And that was before tip!

Consider yourself lucky. The signs posted at the airport show anywhere from $50 to $75 for a cab to WDW, depending on which resort you're staying at. Yours was probably less due to the late hour and less traffic.

And some of Orlando's taxi drivers have been known to use "creative routing", taking circuitous routes to run up the fare. They apparently never heard that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

[irish1967]

I was planning on taking DME from the airport to the hotel but then on the way home (back to the aiport) I was going to take a taxi to the aiport because I'm afraid of them loosing our luggage or missing our flight by stopping at the other resorts. I've never drove anywhere in FL so I didn't realize how far it is. Thank you!

Unless you actually do the airline check-in at the resort, your luggage will travel in the same DME bus you take to the airport so you don't need to worry about your luggage.

Also, you are asked for your flight information and given a DME departure time based on that and which takes into account the additional resort stops. I've never actually heard of anyone missing a flight because of DME! I actually think more people complain about how early the DME departure time is!

[chicade88]

Uh-oh. DH booked our flight for 5/4 with AirTran and it involves a 1 hour layover in Atlanta Hull-onian, was your layover that bad? I've never ever flown on a flight that included a connection or layover. I've always flown non-stop from Philly to Orlando.

We had a layover in Atlanta with Air Tran and it wasn't a problem at all. I think it was a whole two gates down from the one we got off of. It was annoying of course to have to wait but nothing terrible.