Thank you for giving that information, Mike. I had no idea Disney had their own hotels. Amazing. Obviously, Disney is a megabusiness with lots of land, so it shouldn't have surprised me. But it just didn't occur to me they were into accomodations, too.
They've only got about 25,000 rooms.
(reference
Answers.com - How many hotel rooms are there at Disney World)
most of their resorts have at least 2,000 rooms per resort.
The Holiday Inn website says it's close enough to walk to Disney, so we can avoid renting a car. I sure hope that's true.
Depends on what you mean by "Disney". This Holiday Inn is close enough to walk to "Downtown Disney", which is a huge shoppig and entertainment complex.
It's not close enough to walk to Disney Magic Kingdom. That's 6-7 miles away. see distance/map at
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...sspn=0.070674,0.140419&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=12&via=1
The hotel will have a shuttle bus, but I suggest you call and get a DETAILED shuttle bus schedule from them before you go. I've stayed at a Hotel outside Disney before that offered "free shuttle" to the parks, only to find out that they only went to each park once a day in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening to pick up. So you had to go on their schedule if you didn't have a rental car.
Using the transportation system isn't a bad thing..... cause parking at Disney is $14/day per park. Unless you're staying in a Disney Property and then it's free. Since this Holiday Inn is located on Disney property, but it not part of the Disney 'empire', you'd have to check with them to see what's included and isn't.
I'm not against a good walk, but if it's a half hour, that might be a little much! We're looking forward to our vacation. Have heard it's fantastic, even for older children like we have (9 and 12). Have a good day!
You'll have a good trip. It's a fun time for kids of all ages.
sounds like you might want to do some reading up though on stuff. I'd suggest getting the "Unofficial Guide" to Disney. It'll save you a lot of grief reading and learning about the parks before hand.
Also, if you've not made dinner reservations for any dining "inside the park" (at theme parks or resorts), you want to do that now. Hopefully you can still get some. A lot of the places book up for dinner reservations 180 out. (no... I'm not kidding). I can make some recomendations as I'm sure others here can also.
you also might want to check out
The DIS Discussion Forums - DISboards.com - Powered by vBulletin . It's the Disney equivalent of Scubaboard.
If you want to do the Epcot Dive, you'll need to book that early also. FYI, you get a 10% discount if you tell them you're PADI, NAUI certified. A discount if you've got AAA Auto Club (can't remember how much). a 20% discount if you book with the Chase Disney Visa.
Read about their ticket structure. You can basically buy a one day or add on several multiday tickets. It's cheaper to do the multi day. Read about Park Hoppers and see if it'll be good for you. (it basically allows you to visit multiple parks in one day on the same ticket.).
have fun... it'll be a great trip.
