Hi

I had the amazing opportunity to visit Disney World this summer. Since I won the trip through 4-H, my family was unable to come with me. As anyone who has visited Disney previously can understand, I immediately fell in love and have been trying to find a way to get my family there since.

I am hoping to try to plan a trip sometime during 2010. 4 members of my family would be attending (the youngest being 16/17 in 2010, so it would be all adult tickets).

We live in Lake Charles, Louisiana and would most likely be driving, So gas would need to be included in our budget. I know it’s very hard to count for gas, since there is no clue how much it will be in 2+ years.

This budget of $2,000 would need to include:
-Gas
-Tickets(and bonus options such as fast-passes, park hoppers, etc)
-Food
-Hotel
-Souvenirs
-Wheelchair/electric scooter rentals
-And other things I’m probably forgetting

I have many questions/options to conceder such as:
- Is it better for us to buy a package or to buy tickets separately?
- If we do buy a package, which one?
- When is the best time to go?
- Should we stay inside or outside of the parks?
- Which hotels inside the parks and outside of the parks are the cheapest?
- Should we purchase a meal plan?
- Can you buy fast-passes for all of the parks?
- Where can you buy fast-passes? How much are they? is it worth it?
- Also, my father is physically disabled. What can we do to help him enjoy his stay?
-Is it better to buy a package/tickets ourselves, or should we contact a traveling agent?

I have done some research, so please don’t just tell me to look at the Disney web sites. What I really want/need more then anything is first hand advice from others who have planned Disney vacations before.

Of course we would like to stay as many days as possible for our budget and be able to visit as many parks as possible for our budget.

If anyone could give ANY advice on how I can make this budget work, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also if I have not provided enough information, please contact me at Hyperchick1037@aol.com and I will try to help you help me. (please title your e-mail : Referring to your Yahoo Post about your 2010 Disney trip…)

Thank you so much for taking your time to help my family
Hey guys. I think I should have been a little more specific about my father. He isn't wheelchair bound. He has major back problems. He is able to walk on his own and gets around daily with out any assistance. However, with the walking required at Disney, he would need a wheel chair (preferably a motorized one).

Also, we would not be going to either of the water parks, but we are interested in going to Orlando Universal Studios Islands of Adventures. We definitely would like to go to Magic Kingdom (of course), Animal Kingdom, and Universal Studios. As for Epcot and MGM…it would just depend on how long we would be able to afford to stay and if we could afford the tickets.

Just thought I should clarify.

And thanks SO much for every one who has responded, it really means a lot and I'm getting a ton of great advice!

It would be really difficult to try and get everything included for $2000. At a stretch you may be able to spend 5 days at the most. Depending on what sort of ticket you buy depends on the price. Remember to shop around and look out for the best deals. I am from UK and shopped around and managed to find an old web page from Disney Orlando Ticket deals that had a two-week Disney park hopper. So, I got 6 tickets for our family – with one ticket costing the equivalent to 3 days! So in short I got it for £80 – not sure what the exact exchange rate for dollars is – maybe about $100, but you'll have to check. Always be on the lookout for the tickets. If you don't feel confident about a website, but it does have cheap tickets, go on a reliable website and it you should be able to contact them and quote them the price you've found and they will sell you the tickets at that price. That's what I've done before.

Fastpasses are completely free. The ticket you use to enter the park is the ticket you will use to get your fastpasses. Selected rides have a fastpass option – often the most busiest or thrill rides! On your map it will have a little FP symbol by it meaning this ride has a fastpass option. Go to the ride of your choice and nearby will be the fastpass booths. Insert your ticket and you will get a fastpass printed. But, beware, you can't get another fastpass for an hour. Then return to the ride at the time given and queue in the fastpass queue. The tickets are slightly different to Universal. Universal charge for their tickets and you can't get another fastpass until the time on the other ticket is up – i.e. if you get a Universal fastpass at 10am and get a fastpass ticket telling you to return at 6pm, you can't get another fastpass until 6pm. But because your father is disabled, you and you family should be able to enter through the exits and get on the ride without having ot queue (only if your father is able to go on the ride, if not then you can't do this).

The best sort of time to go is in November. If you go in the summer the weather won't be that great. It's usually hot, sticky and humid even in the thunderstorms! About 4pm onwards the thunderstorms strike and can last for ages. Very heavy rain, lots of lightning and loud thunder. In the morning it's slightly cooler and the sun is out for a while. November is cooler and the queues are alot shorter. The parks aren't open for as long but the emptiness of the park makes up for that and you should be able to do everything within that time.

With your budget you wouldn't be able to afford to stay in the Disney area. You may have to stay quite a bit it and catch buses to the parks, or sometimes the hotels offer transport services to Disney. Buena Vista Resort does and isn't to expensive. Or Holiday Inn would be a bit cheaper.

There are many cheap places to eat. BIG TIP: Take your own food with you to the parks. Make some sandwiches and take packets of crisps (oh yeah I mean chips for you guys) and bottles of drinks for your lunch. It is very expensive to buy food and drink in the park – on average costing $30 a day! Your hotel may include breakfast and dinner – if not go to Publix and buy the essentials. Sizzler and Ponderosa are brilliant cheap places to eat for breakfast and dinner. Beef 'O Grady's is also a nice cheap place to eat.

Walmart and Publix sell Disney Souvenirs for a fraction of the price. Also, try going to the shopping outlets, where there are Disney shops with a year long sale on. Also in Downtown Disney there is a shop with gifts for under $10. You can't go wrong.

Disney is very easy to get around, even with disabled guests. As I mentioned early there is another ride access point for disabeled guests. If your father is unable to ride the ride or 'transfer' you can not use this, without your father actually going on the ride.

Make sure you buy simple Disney tickets without all the unneeded extras. You may not want to buy the Disney quest tickets and waterpark tickets as they cost extra and are not as good as the four main parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom. These are really fantastic parks and are lots of fun!

I've been countless times and loved every single second. Going to Disney on a budget is tough, but do able as long as you don't go wild and spend lots of unnecesseries then you may be alright. As you said it is near impossible to predict the price for gas in two years.

Get saving! You should be able to swing it. But good luck and I hope you and your family have a fantastic trip! Let me know how you get on.

Looking to move down from New York in a couple of years. Both my wife and I use power wheelchairs and we are looking for information from those with first-hand knowledge of the areas which have the best accommodations as far as public transportation, all civil necessities (supermarket, drug store, post office, etc.) being in close proximity, and some general info as far as day to day experiences. Please bear in mind that we do not drive.

Hidey!
My hubby I "rescued" from Buffalo NY. Although the weather was brutal and crime rampant, public transportation was very good and receptive to the disabled community members.

We moved him down here to Texas, where the general mentality is "everyone is healthy" and services for the disabled are hard to change and get applied for (what little public transportation that accomodates wheelchairs that exist!).

I truly can not speak for Florida. All I can do is give you ideas from a couple in Texas and what resources we have found thus far:
I work at a college, and we have what is called an "Access" department. People who work for that department work with students who have special needs. They are usually well versed of the different programs out there and can connect you with key persons who can help.
We live in a city that does NOT have the transportation service that connects us with DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) because our city voted out of DART program over 20 yrs ago. So, my hubby is like a fish out of water and has no way to get about except by me. We applied for DART over 2 yrs ago, and went through the medical requirements and such to meet the "disabled" criteria for discount. We missed our appointment (they cancelled the first one, and we forgot about the rescheduled date), and therefore, they threw our application away and said "tough luck. You will have to resubmit all of the information again". That killed it and we blew it off.

Constantly, I am informing people to NOT park in handicapped restricted only parking spots & the striped ramp areas. For over a year at our apartment complex, I left notes on cars asking people to please not park in the handi spot right in front of our apartment. Over a year, that is all I did – a note to not park, understand that parking is "at a premium", then noted web sites. It worked to no avail.

Finally in frustration, my hubby became angry and asked I take him to the police department to see if they can do anything; we also called out apartment complex (new owners; prior ignored our calls). For 2 wks, citations were done and the apartment called for tow trucks. Then, after a month, it started up again. Someone, in the meantime (haven't checked with the apartment), placed some of those bright pink caution cones under the Handicapped sign. Haven't had anyone park in the spot, nor the striped area next to it since then…but people still block the sidewalk, which, again is not good if quick exit from building is needed. So, it still continues…

So, you may be for a bit of a battle if Florida is anything like Texas. Many new changes are needed, and very slow to come by. Many of the handicapped violations are "grandfathered" in, so therefore, business' don't have to update their sidewalks, doors, or bathrooms to accomodate. Very sad and insensative!

A friend of mine moved his sister down to Houston so that she could be near her kids & grandkids. He had to fight for 6 months to get a handicapped spot placed before her apartment with signage and paint. She died one month after they complied. Just wonderful grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Anyway, I am approachable, as I can be emailed thru my Profile on Yahoo, if you have any further questions or just want to chat. I am my hubby's hero & champion for his rights, as he has said. It took seeing life thru his eyes for a while to begin to comprehend how tough life is for a disabled person.

My heart and prayers go out to you both!!!!

051508 12:00

Boy racers are always getting the blame, im just wondering if you lot do it under the cover of darkness?

No but I raced my neighbour on one down the street. He is 67 and has two. I challenged him to a race one day and he agreed. The whole street was watching and I two wheeled it sideways when turning to come back. WICKED!!