It is difficult to imagine how incredibly vast WDW is. The official documents say it is 47 square miles, but the number doesn't really tell the story. There are 4 theme parks, two water parks, 6 golf courses, about 25 large resort hotels and a number of vast lakes, and yet it is still mostly empty space. For comparison, the "urban sprawl" area of the city of San Jose, CA, is 61 square miles.
One of the first major decisions you have to make is where to stay. Each of the Disney resorts is themed, and few people are better than maintaining an immersive theme experience than Disney. We have two teenagers, so we wanted three beds. At the time we called, three months in advance, the only resort that could guarantee us bunks was the cabins at the Fort Wilderness campground. We like the cabin experience, so we chose that. Fort Wilderness is about 2/3 RV park and 1/3 cabins. The cabins are about the size of a single-wide mobile home (which they might actually be), and were plenty big enough for our family. It had a full kitchen, and a large patio with barbecue.
If you do plan a WDW vacation, start planning your meals early. I had seen the notes saying that one could make reservations up to 180 days in advance, but I merely chuckled at that. I started two weeks out, thinking I was ahead of the game. I was dead wrong. When I called, all three of the dinner shows (Hoop-De-Doo Revue, Mickey's Backyard BBQ, Spirit of Aloha) were completely sold out, all week long. In fact, of all of the "table service" restaurants we wanted, only one was available for dinner at all. By persistent calling, we did manage to get Hoop-De-Doo tickets, but the rest of the table service meals we ate were at lunch.
I've made each day a separate blog posting, and the file times should allow them to appear in order. Here are links to the entries:
Sunday, Arrival
Monday, Magic Kingdom
Tuesday, MGM Studios
Wednesday, Blizzard Beach and Hoop-De-Doo Revue
Thursday, Epcot Center
Friday, Typhoon Lagoon and Downtown Disney
Saturday, Animal Kingdon
Sunday, wrap-up and go home
