The five of us (grandparents, parents, and a 5 year old) spent a week at Marriott’s Imperial Palms Villas beginning October 3rd. Without giving you a day-by-day trip report, I thought I would pass on some of the things I learned that might be helpful in your trip planning.

First let me say that I will NEVER go to Disney again during high season. Disney is a different place when you go in October. The longest waits anywhere were about 15 minutes. It makes a world of difference when you’re not standing in line for hours.

Preplanning: One of the most helpful guidebooks I used was “The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World – 2010”. It literally saved me hundreds of dollars. The promo code provided in the book for a rental car (minivan) brought the weekly price from $580 down to $227. A 60% savings! We also purchased 7 day Disney tickets from Undercover Tourist (got them 3 days after ordering) and I still don’t understand how they sell them cheaper than Disney does. Note that 3 day, 4 day, 5 day, 6 day, and 7 day tickets are essentially the same price.

Arrival: Arriving in the Orlando airport mid afternoon on Saturday, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the guidebooks had led me to believe. I sent the rest of our group to retrieve luggage while I made arrangements for the rental car. There was no one in line at the Dollar rental counter when I walked up and I momentarily thought they might have gone out of business and I missed the news. I had the keys to the car before the rest of our group had our luggage.

About 25 minutes later, we arrived at the Marriott Resort & Convention Center which is less than 2 miles from Disney. Our 3 bedroom villa at Imperial Palms was super nice with full kitchen, dining room, and living room.

Doing Disney: Our plans included 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 2 days at Epcot, 1 day each at Disney Studios and Animal Kingdom. We used the Unofficial Guide and their associated web site TouringPlans.com to print out daily step-by-step plans. Even though the parks weren’t crowded, I really think these plans saved us considerable time each day as you get specific instructions mapping out the whole day. We varied from the plan slightly at times, but overall stuck to them.

Park Arrival: Although many guidebooks advised arriving 40 minutes or more before opening, it wasn’t really necessary in October. One thing I noticed at Epcot was the two special entrance lanes for those with reservations for character breakfasts over to the left of the other lines. About two minutes before opening, those two lanes were opened up for anyone, so if you get there early, get in the far left line and then merge left when you are given the signal that the lanes are open to all. Don’t be surprised that the park may open 15 minutes early and then you have to wait behind a rope after going through the turnstile for the official opening time.

Because of the low crowds and our early arrival (10-15 minutes before opening), we usually were parked within walking distance to the entrance and didn’t have to use the trams. Make sure you write down your location. After our first day, our group had some difficulty remembering row numbers that seemed so very clear first thing in the morning.

Some days we were asked to place our finger on the turnstile reader and other days we were told not to. After a few days, the magnetic strip on two of our tickets got erased somehow, but a stop by customer relations on the way out of the park resulted in two new tickets being issued. If you cannot get a fastpass machine to take your ticket, explain it nicely to the nearby Disney staff member, and they can issue you a generic fastpass.

PhotoPass: Purchasing the pictures taken by Disney can be quite expensive. Example – $15 for two 4 X 6 prints. However, if you preorder the photopass CD, you can get a CD with all the pictures taken by the photopass photographers for $99. We had nearly 200 pictures taken by the photopass photographers over the course of a week. Remember, to ask the photographers if they do the “magic” photos. If so, things will magically appear in your photos when you see them later. The photographers are all dressed the same and can be found lots of places. The only places I saw any real waits for the photographers were at the meet-the-character spots.

Disney Visa Card: I saw this advertised on Disney’s web site and said, “what the heck”. It doesn’t cost anything and they actually credit you back some $ after you first use it. The most valuable reason to have the card is the special meet-the-character session that takes place in Innoventions West every day at Epcot from 1:30 – 4:30. (it’s not marked and it’s kinda across the aisle from the Segway attraction) Your family/group gets a private session with two Disney characters and a free 5 X 7 photo. We stood in line for about 20 minutes and were ushered into a private room with Mickey, Minnie, and a photopass photographer who took every group and individual picture that we asked for. They won’t tell you before you go in who the characters are so I guess it’s just the luck of the draw that we got Mickey and Minnie.

Dining at Disney: Since we had a full kitchen where we were staying, we prepared our own breakfasts and dinners and had a nice lunch at Disney each day. Can’t complain about any of the food as it was all good but will mention a couple of highlights. The first was dining at Epcot at Chefs de France. They have a reasonably priced 3 course fixed price menu for $20 that was good, but the highlight was when a waiter wheeled out a large covered cheese tray to our table. When the cover was removed, Remy (from Ratatouille) stood up in the middle of the cheese and started talking. This little animatronic Remy was quite a hit. My grandson was speechless.

The other restaurant that I thought deserved special comment was the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. It’s a $21 buffet (includes drink) that has a good selection of meat, fish, and veggies. There is a special buffet line low to the floor for the little ones. I especially enjoyed the seafood stew and the warm banana bread pudding with vanilla sauce.

Attractions: I enjoyed all the attractions (especially the 3D ones) and I’m sure everyone has their favorites. As mentioned earlier, following the Touring Plans saved us significant time. I did notice that by mid afternoon, some of the popular attractions such as Soaring and Toy Story Mania had exhausted their fastpass allocation for the day; however, the standby wait was only 20 minutes. Also, if you can, use the single rider lines as we saw very few folks in them.

Not So Scary Halloween Party: My grandson really enjoyed dressing up for this but there’s not really much extra worth the $50 price. We did get some “magic” photos with ghosts in them that were really neat. The park was actually more crowded after the party began at 7:00 pm than earlier in the day.

Departing: Car return was quick and easy. Despite Southwest Airlines admonition to check in 2 hours early (and we did), it wasn’t really necessary on the Saturday we departed. It took all of eight minutes in the Southwest line and another five minutes in the security line around 10:00 am.

Other Observations: Surprisingly, my 5 year old grandson was not afraid of most of the fast and scary attractions, but he didn’t like those with loud noises. He was usually ok until things got loud and then he closed his eyes and put his fingers in his ears. After he started doing this I realized how really loud some of the music and other sounds are. If it sounds loud to these 60 year old ears, then it must really sound loud to a 5 year old.

I read somewhere that when children were asked about their favorite thing while vacationing at Disney, 80% responded that the pool back at the hotel was their favorite. My grandson was no exception. Most afternoons, as he was wearing down he would complain that he was tired and wanted to go back to the room. As soon as we got to the hotel, he would be re-energized and ready for the pool.

If you have any questions, you can post here or email me at [email protected].

Jeff

Great comments.

That is so cute about your 5 year-old grandson and the pool.

Excellent, concise summary. We are WDW vets and you hit many great points that I totally agree with--going offseason, the Disney Visa photos, Halloween (and Christmas) party is a lot of extra bucks, Tusker House, all great info.

FYI, they've just recently done away with the Photopass CD advance purchase discount. Now it is only offered to some on-site guests (you have to happen to get an e-mail).

Thanks for reporting back. We went in May, off season. It is the way to go.

October is definitely the best month to go. As a kid, we went every October for 4 years as nobody was on school break (including my brother and I). No lines and perfect weather.

We have been twice in October. One time was great another year was the worst visit we ever had there. They even closed two of the parks around noon because it had reached capacity. This was during a golf tourney and car racing events

Thats the week after we always went. I remember when we were checking out of the hotel, Bill Russell (former Celtics player) was checking in. Needless to say he dwarfed me. I recognized him right away and got him to autograph the book on the Celtics that day. My dad was surprised to see me talking with him when he walked outside. Also saw Bob Costas that day.

Sounds as though you had a great trip. How sweet to be able to experience WDW with your little grandson
It's nice that you had low crowds, even though you were there during the Food & Wine festival. One of our October visits was crazy busy and the weather was gloomy.
Very cute about kids and the hotel pool - I've heard that too.
If you saw a standby line of 20 min. at Toy Story Mania I hope you got in it!! Lucky!
Thank you for the report. As a big Disney fan, I'm enjoying the various Disney posts on this forum

If you charge a lot and pay your bill in full every month, you can earn truly free money with the Disney Visa. Last trip I had $1005 and it paid to feed our family of 5 anything we wanted for 6 days.

I really appreciate the informative report. I have family coming in from Indiana in the next few weeks, I live in Orlando. They ask me all the time about how to do Disney. Well, I live here, I avoid Disney at all costs. But, when family visit, we are expected to be experts.
Your report was able to answer most of their questions without having to check multiple websites, travel books and questioning everyone I know! Thanks!

forgiddy, what with living near Orlando and having quite few nieces and nephews, I AM an expert! Willing or not.

Great report, jeff49. Loved the story about Chefs de France. It's true about the pool, and you picked and excellent time of year to go. Another good time is right after Thanksgiving until the week before Christmas. Disney is so much better when you're not standing in a long, long line.

Good comments and I agree about going in the slow time.

Disney does not offer the $99 PhotoPass deal anymore unless you stay on property (and even then you have to get a code).

Here is my trip report from our September trip: http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...py-endings.cfm

I usually keep earplugs in my bag for myself, and used to for my daughter when she was smaller. The show sounds can be especially loud, and I need them on the Dinosaur ride at AK.

jeff49:

Thanks very much - saving for a some day visit.

Sandy

October is bliss!
Great report! Thanks for the details and cute stories. Love the cheese service!