1) WDW Admission. My daughter and I recently renewed Disneyland AP's (1 Deluxe/1 Premium). My understanding is we can upgrade our current AP's to the Premier Passport for about $580 (as of today). This seems like a better option than buying WDW tickets.

2) Disney Dining Plan. RCI gave me a DVC number I can call to book the dining plan outside of a "package". But is it worth it?

Here are some of the things I am struggling with. I am used to Disneyland AP and getting 20% off food. I see this "Tables In Wonderland" offers 20% off for $100 membership fee. So, what use is the Premier Passport if you don't get 20% off food??? Is it just me or is the Disney site benefits section for the Premier Passport extremely vague? Because of this I can't determine if the Dining Plan is a good value or not. I also have the Disney Visa. At Disneyland we eat less often since we're busy all the time and have more snacks than meals. We would like Character Dining though.

I tried to figure out if instead of upgrading you could buy a WDW no expiration ticket from a reseller and use the remaining days/face value the next year to get a DL AP. But, it doesn't seem like that is an option. We can dream, can't we?

I've never been to Disney World. My husband and I were always talking about it and he passed away in Feb at age of 39 and now I really want to take my 11 year old daughter. (I could go on for ages questioning why we wait on some things?) I already booked a 1 bedroom through RCI at the Animal Kingdom Villas from 9/27-10/4. I will probably extend the trip 3-4 days as well to go to Universal and maybe Sea World. Is there a place that has details about the on site WDW car rentals? I read somewhere that the resort offers this. But I am such a deal hunter it may be cheaper to do a whole 10 days in advance than to do 3 days last minute.

Thank you!

Just got back yesterday from a wonderful 9 day vacation. One thing I have always been curious about and now I've decided to ask about is this......When crossing the bridge to get into Camp Minnie-Mickey the waterway underneath the bridge always has that vile green slime on it. None of the other waterways in AK have this that I could see. Does anyone know why this is and can Disney not do anything to clean this area of the park up? Just curious...I have noticed this slime in the MK on some of the water areas on the left of the train tracks as you're traveling through Frontierland, but in AK the slime goes on as far as the eye can see. I'm sure some MPer has the answer...

Just ordered my convention tickets this morning for my upcoming trip. They gave me the option to pick up the tickets at will call at Epcot, HS, AK, or MK. I chose MK since that will be the first park I hit. My last trip I was able to pick up my tickets in the hotel lobby when I checked in. Is this no longer an option for will call?

Also, in planning that I can't pick them up at the hotel, where at MK is the will call window?

What did you miss last trip? I missed riding EE, Spaceship Earth, Dole Whips, Shopping the Boardwalk at night,Stormalong Bay....UGH!

I have the trip booked. Early December this year, 11 nights at the Poly.

I'm a planner, an over planner, if you will. For my first and second WDW trips I had park touring plans for each day *laminated,* hole punched, and clasped onto my touring backpack for each day. I freak out when I miss something (in my defense, before that first trip DH said I should count it as a once in a life time trip... well... all that did was make me want to fit in *everything* under the WDW sun. I like to mention to him we've been back almost every year since). ;)

So. It's our 6th trip. I doubt we'll stay at the Poly again after this trip due to cost. This really is probably a once in a lifetime stay for us, staying at the Poly for such a long duration. I want to soak in the all the resort has to offer. Our littles will be 4 years and 15 months. Reality is we will be slow moving through the parks.

I only want to hit rope drop once at each park, meaning 4 out of the 10 days we will need to wake up and go. 4 days are free to hang out at the resort or go to a park or do whatever. 1 day is for MVMCP with nothing planned before it in hopes we'll be able to stretch the kids that night. 1 day the morning is open and we'll book babysitting for the kids so DH and I can have dinner, watch the Candlelight Processional and see Illuminations.

After doing several completely planned out trips and being at the beck and call of the ADR list, the thought of throwing caution to the wind and waking up each morning and deciding what we want to do and where we want to go sounds fabulous. I definitely want this trip to have a more relaxed feel than my past trips.

Yet I know WDW favors the prepared. I know I won't get into some of my favorite restaurants without deciding to eat there 6 months in advance. I know I'll hit bigger crowds than necessary without taking a look at touringplans.com. I'm having a hard time reconciling achieving the relaxed vibe/not having to follow a touring plan with experiencing low crowd days and our favorite places to eat. I think I am realizing that we won't get a lot of park stuff done this trip and that is okay. The point is to enjoy being together as a family, not get on as many rides as possible. And as I said I definitely want to take in as much of what the Poly has to offer.

Thoughts? Advice? I'm tempted to make ADRs for restaurants around the monorail but I don't want to keep dragging us away from the Poly. I want to watch the movie on the beach, wishes from the beach, and the water pageant. I want to leisurely eat Tonga Toast. I also don't want my 4 year old to go crazy due to lack of park time. Also, my DH hates being rushed so I'm going to really try to "live in the moment" instead of constantly recalculating in my head what we can do in the time left and how much we will be "missing."