Disney World Florida

I am taking my two daughters (12 & 15) to Disney for a week in September. Any suggestions as to what attractions are not to miss.

Thanks

F

When I went at that age, the only thing that I actually really remember was Water World and the kid that showed me how to get free credits on the machines in the arcade of the hotel.

It will be spendy, but after you buy in to a few days, doing a few more won't hurt. Do 6 or 7 if you can.

Your kids are old enough that they may benefit from a park hoping pass. They sell a cheaper one-park-a day pass too.

If you get the park-hopper, you can do things in downtown disney. The Disney Quest is a neat arcade deal, good for an afternoon of fun. Some neat VR stuff and old school games.

Down from that is pleasure island, more of a bar scene, but the adventurers club show is neat to see. It left an impression on me when I was a kid.

As for parks, hit them all if you are there for a week.

Use the Fastpass system. Insert your ticket, it says come back in an hour, go rides something else, comeback to the first ride and skip to the front of the line. My wife and I hit almost everything in the Magic Kingdom this way (before kids). It was like standing in line in two places.

They have parades everyday, get a schedule. The fireworks are also awesome.

Magic Kingdom-I liked exploring Tome Sawyer island. Pirates of the Caribbean is a classic. The new Monsters Inc in Future world is good. I think space mountain is overrated for the wait.

Disney Hollywood- Muppets movie, meet the characters, ride the Aerosmith.

Epcot - We did the behind the scenes hydroponic tour. Wanted to do that for 20 years, pretty good. Race track test course was good too.

Animal Kingdom- Safari ride, Yeti rollercoaster, Nemo show.

BTW, they don't seem to mind if you bring sandwiches or snacks into the park. We did PB&J a few days to save a little cash and not have to wait in lines.

It is all great, you can't go wrong.

try to get a reservation for the Cinderella Dinner at the Castle.

We did a character breakfast, but my kids were a bit young to appreciate it. The big head costumes scared them. At 12 and 15, they may be too old to appreciate it.

However, we did see a lot of girls doing the princess makeover near the castle.

one of my friends did that for her honeymoon.
But then again, she did have a Cinderella and Prince Charming Cake topper.

i'm not sure if you only ment the amusement parks themselves, but if i had a chance to visit florida, i'd want to go someplace like this.
http://www.manateetouranddive.com/manateeinformation.htm

Fat families riding around on Golf Carts. That is one attraction not to miss

now, now don't make fun of the Sea Cows... oh you said driving around, not swimming never mind you're not talking about the manatees.

You make fun, but it is not that bad a life. My wife and I went to a "family campground" near Myrtle Beach SC where everyone had golf carts.

It felt like a retirement villiage. Take the cart down to the ocean, take it down to the pool or over to get ice cream.

Sure, you could walk it. But why carry all your beach stuff half a mile when you can take a cart?

And at night, the local kids ran amok. They appeared to have devised some sort of tag / spotlight game using carts.

There was very little car traffic and the golf carts really can't go that fast, so it seemed both safe and relaxing.

I did not try it, but someone told me it was also ok to drink beer on your cart (private roads). You probably would be open to liability if you did something, but no DUI penalties.

And back on topic- If you go in the summer and stay in the park, I hear they have certain days where they open a park all night. The heat is oppressive I would imagine during the day. We were just there in January and I was burning up. So they would apparently clear out the park after the late fireworks, then let people back in if they were staying in the Disney resorts. Years ago I stayed in the park and they would open a single park an hour or two early for people staying with Disney. So check that out to avoid lines as well.

The fireworks at Epcot are good, the ones at Magic Kingdom are fantastic. I don't think the animal park has them, they close early. We missed them at Hollywood.

Ride the monorail in the front. You can ask to ride with the engineer, but others do this too. You may have to wait a couple of trains to get in the front cabin but it is pretty neat.

If you don't mind driving 15 minutes to the parks everyday, stay off site and rent a house. Lots of Brits own houses in this area and rent them out for a week or more at a time. Depending on the season, you can get a 4-bedroom with your own swimming pool for around $500 per week. We enjoyed doing this, just to get away from the mayhem for a while.

Here's a good website for properties:

http://www.villas2000.com/Central/index.html