DisneyWorld In October

Halloween time is a GREAT time to go to Disneyworld. This is my favorite time since it's not busy, the weather is still great and the park does a fantastic job celebrating Halloween. You're kids will love it! I've never really found "deals" per se on tickets so I just order them online through Disney's website. You could try travel agencies that specialize in Disney vacations that may be able to let you know on some secret deals.

We did Mickey's Not So Scary Party last year with our 11 and 9 year old. We have been many times in October but this was the first time for party. The parade was the best one we have seen there. It isn't scary at all but dressing up with everyone was lots of fun. The kids thought it was awesome. We probably won't do it again just do to the extra cost. We also did the Hoop de doo review for the first time. Very entertaining. We paid the extra to get up close and it was worth it once - crowd participation was great. If we were to do it again we would get the cheap seats but then you don't get to be as involved.

When you are at Epcot get your tickets for the Soarin ride first - it almost always has a long line and then the fastpass fills up quickly too. Also when visiting the world do the Kim Possible thing with the kids. They get little "cell phones" to walk around each country and follow clues to a mystery. It gives Mom and Dad a chance to sit and enjoy the food and wine festivities while the kids are solving the mystery. Our kids thought it was really cool and would have done each country if we would have had the time.

Have a great time!

October is a great time to go! I do agree with Julie B and think that you may want to look in to Universal Studios. Your boys are at a great age for it!

As for Disney...there really are no ways to get good deals on park tickets. The more days you go, the cheaper the tickets get per day. Basically, it will probably only cost you $10 more per person to buy a 5 day ticket than a 3 day, so I would recommend buying 5. AAA may have something small going, but they usually want you to buy a package deal (meals, tickets, hotel, etc.).

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party is definitely geared toward younger ones, but I think your boys would probably like it. It is trick or treating in the park, and a special parade. Whether it's worth the extra money or not is in the eye of the beholder, but if your boys still love getting dressed up to trick or treat (what they want you to do), it is probably worth it!

Where are you thinking about doing a dinner show? Disney has two options that are yummy and fun (Hoop Dee Doo Revue and the Hawaiian Luau), but I know that Orlando has Medieval Times which is really cool (especially for young boys!).

As for the parks themselves, I think your boys would enjoy all four parks. Magic Kingdom is younger stuff, but there is still enough they would like. Epcot has some cool thrill rides, and the countries are great to eat at. Animal Kingdom is overrated (in my opinion it is just a glorified zoo with some rides), but your boys would enjoy a day there. Hollywood Studios is also great for their age because of the thrill rides, shows, etc. If you can financially swing it, get a park hopper pass. You will be able to see SO much more of the parks (as you don't have to stay in the same park all day) and have a better choice of where you want to eat every night!

We do Disney every year, so if you have any other questions, feel free to PM me! :)

We just got back from DisneyWorld and we did 6 parks in 6 days! My kids are 14, 10 & 8 and my niece and nephew were there - 6 & 2. Our favorite park ended up being Typhoon Lagoon - it has a Water Coaster!! And then Animal Kingdom (the Safari and Everest Coaster were awesome! "It's Tough to be a Bug" was cute, Kali River Rapids was so not worth the wait, the Tree of LIfe was cool), Hollywood Studios - (my kids all did the Tower of Terror! ALL of the kids LOVED Honey I Shrunk the Kids (Who'd a thunk that?!), Indiana Jones was cool, Narnia wasn't worth the wait, the Stunt show was awesome, my 14 & 10 year olds did the Rock and Roller Coaster, you could probably skip the Little Mermaid show :), we missed the backlot tour, and tried to do Toy Story, but it's so new and the fast passes ran out quickly and the wait was nearly 2 hours! We ended up doing Star Tours twice - it was cool!) Epcot - (Illuminations was cool at the end of the day, we didn't do Kim Possible (my guys weren't interested), but we did do the bears that got stamped in each country - they got their names written in different languages and liked that, my daughter met Mary Poppins, but trying to meet a ton of characters is a full day's work!, Soarin' was awesome (we did a fastpass), and the Test Track was cool, we did Mission Space too, and Talk Time with Crush was really funny!) Magic Kingdom - (Big Thunder Railroad was fun, had to do It's a Small World, did Buzz Lightyear, Space & Splash Mountain were fun! We did the Haunted Mansion and the Hall of Presidents, Swiss Family Treehouse, Pirates and the Laugh Floor was really funny!!) Some things we did just to cool off! We also stayed at a condo and loved it! We ate breakfast, packed a lunch - food in one bag and then a second bag around that one had frozen water bottles to keep our lunch cool and it melted fast enough at the end of May to be able to drink cold water. We just found a spot, and had a make-shift picnic. We refilled our water bottles at the drinking fountains throughout the park. Then we'd eat dinner out. My guys really did a good job about not being too cranky as well, they knew this was a trip that doesn't happen every year (we saved for over 2). We also separated the late night park hours with the parks that closed earlier, so we didn't have too many late nights in a row. As for tickets, my dad is retired military and my parents were there, so we got discount tickets that way! We ended our trip on the beach at Treasure Island - great way to relax after the hustle and bustle of Disney! Feel free to message me and ask any questions - I could go on and on!!!! The best thing to do is check things out ahead of time, so you can prioritize what you want to do as a family, so you have a game plan - Disney will even send you a DVD!

J.: my suggestion is totally unrelated to what events to see but how to see it all and not have 3 cranky boys. first off, the idea of a condo is THE BEST!! stop at the grocery store and get your food so you can have the kinds of meals YOU want your boys to eat.

Then if you're going to DisneyWorld, you want to get there early, when the gates open. You get in/out priviledges with your parking. Stay until early afternoon (making sure you take snacks so you're not spending an arm and a leg on the food there) and then leave the park. go back to your condo, relax, take a swim, watch a movie, take a nap, have an early dinner and then go back. You can stay and watch the night-time activities and the boys will be in much better moods, will have had a break out of the sun, eaten something other than the junk food they get at an event, and will be ready to stay up a little later.

many times we think since we paid so much $$ for the tickets we need to just go and go and go but in the end, it make it miserable for everyone involved. Good luck and have fun!

We're going in October as well. Not sure what your boys are into, but you may want to check out Universal Islands Marvel Superheroes and the Harry Potter island as well as Sea World and Hollywood Studios -depending on their interests. Animal Kingdom is also supposed to be amazing! You'll probably be done with the actusl Magic Kingdom/Disneyworld park after two days.

The Luau at Sea World there in Orlando or Kissimee is the best I have ever been to including several ones I went to in Hawaii.

There was one dinner threatre in the area about King Arthurs Court (not Mideval Times, which is very good) that was absolutly the WORST I've ever been to. The food was like it was prepared by someone aspiring to work for a burger joint as an apprentice cook. The portions were very meager and I hope it has gone out of business so other visitors are not victimized.

Food costs can almost equal your amusement park costs. We had to watch our budget very close (we took 8 kids) so we used several tricks to reduce our eating costs. I went to Burger King and bought hamburgers off their 99 cent menu, put them in our frig in our room and then took them to the park for our lunches. We went out to eat only three or four times over two weeks. The rest of the times I'd find out what store had fried chicken on sale and we would have that for dinner and sometimes have cold chicken for lunch. We bought 12 packs of soda and took them with us. (FYI: if you take a 40 oz drink cup and fill it up with ice, ONE 12 ounce soda will fill it up to the top.) We had tortilla and potato chips instead of buying french fries. We bought bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes for snacks.

Disney has some meal plans that you can buy, they aren't always available. You'll have to check into that with Disney.

Some times you can buy Disney tickets cheap on Craigs list. My daughter bought Disney Tickets on craig's list for between $25 to $30 per day.

SOUVINERS: We went to the Walmart near Disney World and bought T-shirts and other souviners for slightly more than half what they sold for inside the park and they are the same items.

BTW, we went one time in November, and it was wonderful. The weather was perfect, the lines almost non-existant, but the parks closed early. We went on Space Mountain. We waited about 5 minutes in line. When we got off the ride, we went down the exit and turned right around and went back up the entrance ramp. We walked right up to the people putting you on the ride. Zero wait. We loved it. For the majority of rides, it took us longer to walk between the rides than it took to wait in line for the rides.

Good luck to you and yours.

Did you know Legoland is opening in October ? It is in Orlando and is a themepark. I am not sure i would spend the money on a dinner theater show. They are pretty expensive and I think not that much fun for the kids. Go to the disney website to see all attractions ahead of time. Hollywood studios has a Star Wars event for the kids that is extra . If your boys are into it it would be fun. Must go on Test track at Epcot. You can do magic Kingdom for an entire day . may want to do half day at Animal Kingdom and Holly wood Studios . Go to allears.net It is a wedb site to give you all kinds of tips. Have a magical time !