First Time Disney World Visit Tips
First time visitors to Walt Disney World make a lot of mistakes. There are many things that are simply impossible to know until you go, and due to many planning resources being written by seasoned Disney veterans, it can be easy for those sharing tips to completely gloss over something because they are so familiar with the parks and just take certain things for granted.
With that in mind, we’ve written this blog post with some important things that first time visitors ought to know. If you’ve been to Walt Disney World even one time, you will know most or all of this information. In that case, you might ‘pay it forward’ by sharing a basic bit of info about Walt Disney World that you didn’t know before your first trip, but that you consider important.
Okay, let’s dig into our list of some basic things first time Walt Disney World guests should know…
Walt Disney World is Huge
If you’ve done any amount of research, you probably know that Walt Disney World is the “big place” in Florida and Disneyland is the “little place” in California.
It bears reiterating: Walt Disney World is HUGE. It’s located on 25,000 acres, has 24 hotels, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, and more “other stuff” beyond the parks than you can shake a stick at. On the one hand, it’s awesome to have so many different great things to do.
You could easily visit for 2 weeks and not run out of things to do–the options beyond theme parks, from fishing to golfing to spas and more are staggering. On the other hand, because there is much, the distance between hotels and parks, parks and other entertainment, etc. can be fairly substantial. Walt Disney World is not a place that you can cover on foot.
The other consequence of this is in terms of time. Whether you rent a car or use Disney’s free transportation, you are going to spend a lot of time during your trip commuting. The best case scenario, if you only visit one park per day and rent a car, puts your total commute time at an hour.
If you park hop and use Disney transportation, you might spend 3 or more hours per day commuting. Yes, all of those options are great, but the time it takes to get from one of them to another is not. We have a post dedicated to Walt Disney World Transportation Tips that can help you take shortcuts (not literally) to save time with Disney’s transportation system.
Make Advance Dining Reservations
You can make Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) to Walt Disney World restaurants 180 days before your trip. Take advantage of this, because popular restaurants like Le Cellier, Cinderella’s Royal Table, Be Our Guest Restaurant, and Chef Mickey’s book up months in advance.
While the importance of ADRs isn’t as significant as it once was thanks to Disney putting in a new deposit system, if you want to dine at the most sought-after restaurants or you travel during busy times (or during the “Free Dining” promotion, the importance of ADRs for popular restaurants cannot be understated.
We’ve heard horror stories from guests who book Free Dining, then just show up, expecting to eat anywhere…and unable to find a table at even the most unpopular restaurants. Make your reservations as early as possible. When we have used the Disney Dining Plan in the past, we’ve made reservations months in advance. Sometimes, even at 170+ days, we still didn’t get what we wanted.
Rental Cars Are Expensive in Orlando (But Don’t Have To Be)
We normally use Disney’s Magical Express, which is a complimentary transportation service from the Orlando International Airport to Disney-owned hotels, and that’s partly because renting a car at the airport can be prohibitively expensive. In fact, when we’ve priced it out in the past, the prices have often been substantially more than we’re used to paying whenever traveling elsewhere.
There are two ways to avoid this. The first is renting a car at an off-airport location, and taking a shuttle to get it. Likewise, you can use Disney’s Magical Express (if you’re staying at a Disney-owned hotel) and then take a bus to the Swan & Dolphin to pick up a car when you need one. An Alamo/National rental desk is located near guest services at the Dolphin. This can be a real money saver if you only need a rental car for a day visit to SeaWorld, Universal, or another theme park.
Another option is using Uber or Lyft. We started using these services instead of rental cars a few years ago (see our Uber v. Rental Cars at Disney World post for more), and we haven’t looked back. Uber and Lyft are inexpensive and drivers are abundant so waits are minimal. In our view, these services mixed with using free Disney transportation is the best of both worlds–and better than having a rental car.
Visiting Walt Disney World is Physically Exhausting
Walking around the parks for a day will tire you out. Walking around for an entire week can leave you downright exhausted. Seriously.
This is not to say that you need to do some sort of marathon training regime prior to visiting Walt Disney World. However, if you plan on lasting the entire day in the parks without fatigue and blisters, you should physically prepare yourself for the trip.
How you prepare is ultimately your call, but you’ve been warned. (This could explain why moleskin is one of the top recommendations from commenters on our Unique Disney Packing List post.)
Everything Takes Longer Than Expected
What’s that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men? That might as well have been written about you and Mickey. Once you’ve developed a daily itinerary for your trip (and you absolutely should make at least a loose one), take a red pen and randomly cross off about half the things on that list. That’s how much you should actually expect to get done–if you end up finishing more, consider it a pleasant surprise.
Everything takes longer than you’ll expect at Walt Disney World. The odd thing here is that this is usually not a result of waiting in lines longer than you expect (in fact, usually posted wait times are higher than actual wait times). Instead, you’ll find that transportation, walking between attractions, dining, and various other things all take longer than you plan.
In some cases, this is a good thing. There will be times in the parks when you’ll stumble upon roaming entertainment or a fun detail that will preoccupy you for a bit, and these diversions are a pleasant surprise. Other times, this is a not so good thing. You plan for 30 minutes to get from your room to a park, but due to bus delays or parking time, it might actually take an hour.
Disney Springs Is Better Than Ever
The heading on this one used to be “Downtown Disney is Not for Everyone.” However, a lot has changed since this post was written a few years ago. At that time, Downtown Disney was basically just a mix of stores selling the same merchandise and a bunch of stores selling virtually identical merchandise to what was sold in the parks, plus a few third party options that were uninspired.
Since then, the area has transformed into Disney Springs, adding a slew of new dining and retail options in the process. Now, Disney Springs features some of the absolute best restaurants at Walt Disney World, and plenty of interesting retailers that are worthwhile. It’s a mix of Disney-owned and third-party options, and a lot of things you can’t find inside the parks or in most cities in the United States.
In addition to a better mix of shopping and dining options, the layout has been improved, transportation and parking are now significantly better, and the ambiance of Disney Springs is significantly better than what you would’ve found only a few years ago at the previous incarnation of this area.
Basically, if you’ve read criticism of Walt Disney World’s shopping and entertainment district (here or elsewhere), that is probably outdated, as Disney Springs is better than ever, and now definitely worthy of your time. We do several meals at Disney Springs each trip, and find visiting this area well worth our time.
Long Wait Times Do Not Equal Popularity or Quality
“If there’s a long line, it must be for something good.” While this sounds a bit silly, this describes Disney guest behavior to a degree.
Just because an attraction has a long line doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy it, and just because it has no line doesn’t mean it’s no good. There are a lot of factors affecting wait times, including an attraction’s hourly guest capacity, its location in the park, the type of attraction it is v. other attractions in the park, etc.
Some of our favorite attractions at Walt Disney World rarely have waits, and that’s often because they have highly hourly capacity or aren’t thrill rides (as a general rule, thrill rides have the longest waits–even though they’re typically the shortest and least-detailed).
Rider Switch Allows Both Parents To Do Rides Their Kids Can’t
Beyond Disney’s free FastPass+ system, another similar time-saving option is the Rider Switch Pass (more commonly known as a “Child Swap”), which can be obtained from Cast Members outside attractions with height limits. This pass allows one parent to stay with the kids who don’t meet the height requirement for an attraction while the other parent (or group of above-height people) waits with the kids.
When the riding parent/group is done, the waiting parent/group (up to 3 per pass) can use the pass by going to the FastPass+ return line. Since three people can use the pass, your kids or other party members who are tall enough to ride the attraction can conceivably go twice: once in line with the first parent, and the second time by using the pass with the parent who did the watching the first time!
You Can Schedule Attraction Times in Advance
As part of a system called MyMagic+, guests can now schedule time windows for bypassing the lines at attractions via something called FastPass+. FastPass+ can be obtained via the My Disney Experience app or via in-park kiosks and are stored on the MagicBand. Guests then “redeem” their FastPass+ by swiping it against an RFID reader outside applicable attractions. Guests are able to book 3 FastPass+ tickets in advance of their vacation (so, from home) 60 days in advance.
This can be a confusing and convoluted system for the first time guest to understand. For further information about FastPass+, check out our Guide to FastPass+ at Walt Disney World. To figure out where you should use your initial 3 FastPass+ selections per day, check out our Disney Ride Guides.
Suffice to say, you’ll definitely want FastPass+ for Slinky Dog Dash, Frozen Ever After, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and other popular attractions. Having FastPass+ for these attractions can save you hours in line per day and be the difference between experiencing only a handful of attractions per day and well over a dozen.
Lines to Meet Characters Are Often Long
A lot of Disney commercials show kids and Disney characters romping around the parks hand-in-hand, as carefree as can be. While there are some spontaneous character interactions, most of the time you will need to wait in line in order to meet Disney characters. In some cases, these wait times are longer than what you’ll encounter for popular attractions.
While Frozen is a bit of an anomaly due to its incredible popularity right now, it’s not uncommon to wait 30 minutes or more to meet “ordinary” characters. That can be less or considerably more depending on the time of year you visit, and the character’s popularity. To make matters worse, many of these lines are outdoors and do not offer shade.
If you must meet characters, doing a character meal is a good way to save time by having the characters come to you while you eat. Of course, there is an additional charge for these meals, and most of them are not cheap. (Here are our recommendations if you’re on the Disney Dining Plan.) Still, it can be worth your time, money, and sanity if your kids are really into characters.
Disney Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive
In pop culture, Disney trips are portrayed as expensive, highly commercialized affairs. This sentiment has become so commonplace that Jungle Cruise skippers often joke that everything leads to a gift shop. While much of this is deserved, visiting Walt Disney World doesn’t have to be ridiculously expensive.
Guests can stay in cheap, off-site hotels that are in abundance around Orlando. (We far prefer staying on-site; click here to read our article weighing the pros and cons of off-site v. on-site.) Disney allows guests to bring their own food to the park (a rare policy among theme parks), but even if you don’t do this, prices are still significantly lower than what you’ll find at a movie theater or ball park.
You can buy discounted souvenirs at nearby outlets or online, or have freebies offered in-park substitute as souvenirs. About the only thing significant aspect of a Walt Disney World vacation that can be done significantly cheaper with an alternative approach is theme park tickets. Then then, though, you can save money by purchasing them from a third party.
Walt Disney World will never be as cheap as visiting a state or National Park, but compared to a lot of other entertainment and vacation options, it can be a better deal. It’s just a matter of perspective and being willing to do things a certain way to save money.
PhotoPass Photographers Will Take Free Photos
PhotoPass is a free service where Disney photographers around the park will take photos of you in front of park icons and other photogenic scenery. Normally, the catch is that while the taking of the photos is free, downloading and printing them costs money (as does the Memory Maker package).
This would render that “free” tag illusory, but for the fact that PhotoPass photographers (and any Cast Member, for that matter) will also take photos for you with your camera.
Given the fact that PhotoPass will take photos of you with your own camera, I have always had a really hard time recommending guests purchase Memory Maker. Granted, there are benefits if your camera isn’t very nice, and the PhotoPass photographers are more “aggressive” in getting good photos with their own cameras than with yours, but to me, that’s not enough to justify spending a lot of money on Memory Maker.
Most guests would come out ahead buying a camera (or even having PhotoPass photographers use their phones to take photos), having PhotoPass photographers use that to take their photos, and then purchasing photo books through reputable online services.
Advance Planning is Necessary
One theme of this post is that planning is important. This really cannot be understated. While it’s true that every destination you visit is best experienced with advance planning, this seems especially true at Walt Disney World. There is so much to do, and so many of the things that exist at Walt Disney World involve waiting or lines, making it seriously advantageous for anyone who is knowledgeable or has an efficient plan of attack.
Some guests go all out, planning every detail of their trip, making binders full of color-coded stuff, and all sorts of other craziness. This type of thing is best reserved for those who actually enjoy doing those things–more power to you if that fits your personality. That degree of planning is not necessary, and the amount of time you’ll expend on those efforts will be grossly disproportionate to the amount of time you’ll save over someone who is moderately prepared. (Moreover, you’ll put pressure on yourself to have an unattainably ‘perfect’ vacation.)
To avoid first-timer pitfalls, read a variety of blogs and find some planning tips on Pinterest or Facebook. We also recommend reading a comprehensive book, like The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2018 or The Easy Guide to Walt Disney World. You’ll spend anywhere from a few hours to several days doing this, but you will poise yourself to have a great vacation.
Planning, or a lack thereof, is ultimately the key difference between those who visit Walt Disney World for the first time and have a great time, and those who have an awful time. As with all things, you get out of it what you put into it.
That’s it for our list of first timer tips. If you are planning your first trip to Walt Disney World, make sure to check out our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for comprehensive planning ideas, our dining reviews to find the best restaurants, and our 101 Great Walt Disney World Tips posts.
Your Thoughts…
If you are a Walt Disney World veteran, what other ‘overlooked’ things to know would you add to this? Which would you emphasize, and with which do you disagree? If you’re a first-timer, is there anything else you’d like to know? Chances are if you have questions still, so does someone else! We love hearing from readers, so please share your thoughts in the comments.
My friend made reservations for Disney World this is their first time going to Disney World and she that the representative giving them free passes to ESPN Staduim shopping discounted coupons and some other free passes and stuff. I don’t recall them giving anything free beside a button for first time experience I think it’s a scam
We are planning our first trip. We arrive June 24th. We are driving in from Texas. Staying at art of animations. The kids (12,10,7,2) seen the nemo room and had to have it. My first question is should we drive to the parks or use the transportation. I think from reading MK will be a Disney transportation day so we don’t have all the transportation changes when we get to the parking lot but I’m not sure about the other days. We only get 4 park days. 1 for each i just don’t want to lose valuable time getting from park to resort since we will take mid day breaks at least 2 of the days. So Disney transportation or use or own vehicle? Second question a lot of crowd calendars I’ve checked out show for red days. I already figured this was coming but with my husband being a teacher I don’t think we can skip out in the middle of the year for Disney . On a red day can you even enjoy the parks? Not even necessarily rides but like your surroundings? I made probably a huge mistake a went to good ole Google to see what Disney crowds look like….. I’m now completely freaked out!! Even if we wanted to see a shrub it didn’t look like we would be able to . We already made our dining reservations excited about that. I’m still not sure on the fastpass stuff because i have no idea how long it will take use to get from one place to the next. We got the kids pins to trade which looks like that’s probably impossible to and they cleaned pennies to press. Someone please ease my mind that this is do-able.
Sure. You may have trouble in front of the character topiary, but most shrubs will be readily accessable :-). There are always less crowded places if you look around and don’t follow the crowd. Your days show 6 or 7 out of 10 for crowds on Touring Plans (I have used them for Disneyland and Disney World). That is busy, but not crazy. I have managed that several times. You do need to plan, though, which is hard if you don’t know for sure what you want to do most. Staying at a resort hotel is a huge advantage. Make sure to make your FastPass reservations as soon as you can! I can arrange a fun disney day for my family (kids 10, 8, 6, 3), even on a busy day, if I schedule the FastPasses and arrive at the park first thing. And I can only schedule 30 days early as we live in Florida (we have annual passes) and so I cannot justfy the expense of a Disney Hotel (especially with 4 kids, as most rooms only accomodate 4-5 people, not six). Remember that the 2 year old will not be able to ride many things your older kids will want to, so schedule different passes in the same area for the 2 year old and a parent. Like Peter Pan instead of 7 dwarves, etc. Check the geography. You don’t want fastpasses near each other in time, but across the park! You’ll spend an hour walking back and forth. But make the passes ASAP! Plan it out. Get on at 7:00am eastern the first day you can and schedule the passes. Use the extra magic hours when available! If you arrive first thing, you can ride most everything (besides 7 dwarves or Frozen) with a short wait. You can do more in the first hour than in the next 4. Use the extra magic hours when available! You can ride all of the long wait stuff then, and ride less popular things later when lines increase. You can also do A Pirate’s Adventure or Sorcers of the Kingdom (or smash coins or trade pins) when lines are longer.
I have never used Disney transportation, so can’t say for sure about that, but parking is $20 a day, if that matters. Regardless, it takes a looong time to get into the parks. Especially first thing. Magic Kingdom can take over an hour! Stupid ferry! After you park! Plan to get there at least an hour before opening. Magic Kingdom is changing where they security check this month, so maybe it will go faster. Hopefully.
My kids have never done pin trading, but I have certainly seen people doing it, mostly with cast members in the gift shops. It seemed to be no big deal. The cast members were very friendly. My kids do like to press pennies (and quarters, unfortunately) so I bring quarters. Some machines take credit card (the one at the end of Splash Mountain does). Does it make a difference if they are clean? I just put the dirty ones in there and they seem to come out fine.
If you have park hopper, you may only want 1/2 day at Epcot and the other 1/2 at Magic Kingdom. Unless you want to explore the World Showcase or take a nap during Ellen’s Energy Adventure, it only takes my kids until about 2 or 3 to be done with Epcot. And there is just so much at Magic Kingdom. Depends on what you want to do. There are not many rides at Hollywood or Animal Kingdom either, but we like to do Jedi Training (you must sign up very first thing in the morning) and the Shows, so we spend the whole day.
The worst thing, in my opinion, on crowded days, is the hordes at the parades/shows without seating. Wishes (now Ever After or something) was horrible. You have to hold the kids up to see anything and there are people crowding everywhere. Same with the Star Wars one at Hollywood. I would definately do Fantasmic at Hollywood. You can arrive early and get good seats, even on busy days. Stadium seats. No people shoving you on all sides.
You are not going to be able to do everything at a park in one day, so just choose the stuff you want to do most and enjoy it :-).
You may want to pay Touring Plans the $7.99 or whatever. I am not affiliated with them, but you can put in your information and reservations and have them make you a custom plan you can use as a guide. The plan will suggest what to get fastpasses for. You don’t have to stick to it, but if you have no idea what you are doing as a first-time visitor, it would help arrange the things you want to do so that they are close to each other and have lower waits.
If you are going to want attraction photos or indoor character pics or Jedi Training pics, go ahead and buy Memory Maker. And bring ponchos.
Good luck!
My best tip is to relax. A lot of things you read on line and actually real and are over exaggerated. If you are uptight and nervous the whole trip no good is going to come of it. So just enjoy it
Hello we will be there in the very near future and I keep hearing about purchasing park tickets from a third party vendor. I’m skeptical and wondering if you have any advise on doing so and or the specific website to go to .
Undercover Tourist is the only third-party that I personally would trust.
https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/walt-disney-world-resort/
They’ve been around for awhile. I’ve also used them.
We have two kids, one of which loves thrill rides and the other not so. Can my wife and I still use rider swap even though the child who doesn’t want to ride actually meets the height requirements. Would be great to know as it effects our strategy with booking fast pass options.
Yes! It is for anyone who does not want to ride and is a GREAT service!
Can anyone recommend a good resource for doing Disney with a Type 1 Diabetic. Our 8 y/o son is an insulin-dependent T1D. This is our first trip to Disney and we are so worried about managing his blood sugar levels in the hot FL sun, long lines, etc. I’m thankful we are able to bring snacks into the park because one of my biggest fears is that he will have a blood sugar crash while we are in line and we will have no access to food to help get his blood sugar up quickly. On the flipside, he can go into DKA quickly if very hot, dehydrated, etc. I’ve read a few articles on the JDRF website to prepare and I also read something about Disney having a Guest Assistance Card but don’t really understand what it does. I would love to hear from anyone who has done Disney with a T1D and if you have any tips or tricks to share. Thanks in advance, a very worried mom!
I would highly recommend visiting in the cooler months like January or Feb. No only is it less crowded but the weather is much cooler and less humid. If that is not a option then maybe purchase a mister fan and of course lots of water.
For those looking to save money on your trip to Walt Disney World: I live in Arizona, and by far one of the biggest costs for our vacation is the airline tickets, I think they’re even more than our 7 Day Disney Park Hopper tickets, so just getting to Orlando is a big deal for us. So what we do is sign up for the Southwest Card (The one with the $79 fee) and earn the points bonus about 6 months before our trip. Now generally they’ll advertise 25,000 points as a signup bonus, which will get you one round trip ticket if you watch for sales, but if you search for “Southwest Card 50,000 points” you can sign up for one with the same spending requirement, $1,000 in 3 months (easily spent by most), and then you get 50,000 bonus points which is almost enough for two round trip flights from Phoenix to Orlando(again watching their sales). So for a $79 card fee and $20-$40 if you have to buy a few more rewards points to cover the ticket costs, you have two round trip airline tickets to Orlando on Southwest which also has no baggage fees, which saved us $850 on our Airline tickets. Plus there was one random point where the ticket price dropped significantly and I was able to get 14,000 points back to use on a future trip.
Also, you can only get the signup bonus every 2 years, but if you’re married you can alternate which of you signs up for the credit card each year and cancel the other so you get the 50,000 bonus points every year. Just be sure you have good credit and enough other long term credit cards that only having a card for a year won’t affect your credit score by more than a few points.
This tip has allowed us to take more vacations every year by alleviating one of the biggest vacation costs for us.
We are planning our first trip to Disney during fall break in October. Are there any helpful tips you can give me ??????
I’ve been reading your blog and following on FB for a couple of years now. This was a very helpful post as it has been about 15 years since I’ve been to WDW. I must say, planning a trip to WDW is overwhelming… and I am a DLR pro. So much easier to show up at DLR and FP your way around the park!
My best advice for first timers (aside from the excellent tips Tom provided in the main article) is to wash your hands frequently. Wash them far more often than you think you need to.
This may seem like common sense, but there are thousands of people around you from other parts of the world and they are carrying illnesses that you’re not yet immune to. I’ve seen trips ruined because someone catches some sort of stomach plague and can’t leave their room for the last half of their vacation.
Awesome tips, as always!
For us, it’s all about time in the parks, so transportation (how long it takes to get from point A to point B) is our #1 consideration.
On our first trip ever in October/November 2014, here’s what we did right:
1) used the free park transportation for most of the trip, renting a car for just one day (Alamo/National rental near MK) for a little off-site exploring
2) chose a centrally located resort with dedicated bus service
3) planned well ahead with dining reservations and FP+
4) used crowd calendars to pick the best days to visit each park
5) planned down time for most days
6) waited to buy the water park and more tickets until we got to WDW — the weather is quite changeable in Florida.
7) ordered breakfast food from Amazon to be delivered in advance and ate in our room before hitting the parks at rope drop.
What we’ll do differently next time (and yes, there WILL be a next time!):
1) The DDP is just way too much food and the wrong food for us. Even though numerous warnings exist about this, I would not ever have been able to predict just how much food we’re talking about. We’ll go for the room discount next time and eat the way we normally would.
2) We’ll skip Downtown Disney/Disney Quest next time. Again, about the transportation — takes too long to get there and back and there’s just not enough there to draw me.
3) Depending on the weather and the length of our trip, I might skip the “Water Parks and More” tickets and just pay for the water park. There just isn’t enough “more” I’m interested in. Mini golf and the offerings of Disney Quest can be found almost anywhere in Western Civilization)
4) No park hopping next time. Again — about the transportation time.
5) Next time we’ll plan more down time. Hard to make yourself do that on the first visit, but next time we’ll spend more time at the resort or just people watching at the parks.
If you don’t mind sharing, which resort did you choose?
Coronado Springs. Not crazy about the ambiance, but it was 5 min to Blizzard Beach, 7 min to AK and Hollywood, 12 min to Epcot and 18 min to MK when we went in Oct/Nov.
i jave been to disney world 4 times now and i alwalys see something new each trip. My tip is for the new system for Fasspasses/room key /park hopper/everything eles. When we went back in January 2014 it was still new we downloaded the free app on to our iphone and used it the best we could. The issues we had was that we could not put all the fass passes on one phone due to that we had 2 reservations ( 2 rooms) and we had issues in getting the ones that we wanted. We were only allowed to get 1 major ride and 2 smaller riders per day for only 1 park. For example when we went to Epcot we wanted to ride Sorrin and Test Track but we could only get one and had to wait in line for the other. Then if one or two of our group wanted to use one for something diffrent they could not. Also, we could book the early( as the day if not week before. But we did not find this out till we got down there) and don’t waste money on the charms for the bands you will just loose them. But the bands were great in park hopping and had less to keep up with when it came to passes and keys along with they made a good suiviner to take home at the end of the trip. Due to you can get them in diffrent colors and they are engraved with your name on the back. I remeber when they still had plastic cards for everything. Oh and rember which finger your scan the first time if not you will have to reset it agian with the help of a CM. All the ones we talked to were very helpful in getting stuff straightened out and it was nice to just touch and go for everything. Hope they have the kinks worked out by the time we go back in 2017 when the new Avatar section opens in animal kingdom. 😃😃😀😄
One more tip make use of the transportation provided and stay within the park boundries. You get extra perks from doing so than people coming in for the day or that stay off the park. We used every form of transporation to get around and had no trouble with geting a ride back to the horel or between parks. And some of the perks may include extra magic hours at certain parks or get in early to others before the day people are let in and you get access to other perks if just ask a CM at your hotel to find out. And a good budget friendly hotels would be the All Star ones, Pop Centrey and the Art of Animation hotels all within a short drive to all the parks. Hope theses tips help😀
We just came back from a trip a few weeks ago and are plannin gto go again in Jan or Feb. We were/are on a pretty tight budget and felt that the dining plan was not worth the money. We ordered groceries on Gardengrocer.com and had them delivered directly to our resort, mostly breakfast items in addition to a case of water and some sodas. We and ate our breakfast in the room every day, packed a non-perishable lunch for the parks (now that they officially let you bring in food), and had counter-service dinners. We saved SO much money this way, esp. since water & soda are now $2.50 in the parks & resorts. We did buy some snacks in the parks, couldn’t miss those, and had one lunch @ Be Our Guest. My favorite restaurant for price & quality of the food was Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney – best sandwiches we ever had (bacon/avocado & Hawaiian BBQ)!
So total newbie question. Are there cubbies at each ride by where you board to put your backpack/other items? I know there are lockers at the front of the park, but I’m wondering about the camera and stuff you carry along. Thanks!!
What lens did you use when shooting Spaceship Earth above?
I photographed that with the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. You can read more about this lens and my other photography recommendations here: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/photography-camera-reviews-disney/
I disagree about staying off-site. We have a time share at Vistana and it is fabulous. It takes us about 10 minutes to get to most of the parks. As a family of 8 we always drive, so renting a car is not necessary. We save a ton of money just not having to eat out for every single meal. We’ve stayed at the resorts on many occasions and the transportation was spotty and time consuming, so if we stay on site again we’ll definitely plan on driving rather than using the buses.
Thank you. This is VERY helpful. My parents have a time share which we are using for our first trip, as a family of 4, to Disney. It was given to us a gift so our lodging will cost us nothing. After reading all the reviews about staying on-site being better I was starting to feel discouraged about our trip, like we made a huge mistake. Sure, I would have loved to stay on-site for our first trip but free is free and not spending money on lodging will definitely help with our Disney budget. Thanks for your comments. I feel a little better now!
I’m planning a trip to Disney for my family in mid September. We are staying off resort at a time share resort that my parents belong to. I’m looking at tickets right now and I have some questions. Since we are not staying on the resort will our tickets have the FastPass+ feature on them or am I able to purchase the FastPass+ at an additional cost? If it is not included in the ticket prices is it worth the extra cost (if available since we are not staying on the resort)with the time of year that we are going? Our kids are young (8 & 6) and we are also debating if we should purchase the Hopper Pass or not. I have read your blog on this and it sounds as if it is worth the extra money but how often is it with young kids that you are visiting more than one park per day?
is june a good time to visit DWorld with my 4yr and a 1yr old daughters? any specific tip with those ages?
June is one of the busiest months of the year due to school being out of session. For dates that would be better, check out our “When to Visit Walt Disney World” post: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/when-to-visit-disney-world/
Great tips and totally agree looking back on my first trip as an “adult” in 2007. By your second trip you feel like a pro! A few musts for our family:
1. Plan out what park you will visit each day
2. ADR’s are a must, especially on the dining plan
3. Always get the dining plan
4. Park hoppers waste time
5. Downtown Disney is meh and also a waste of time
6. Pack cheap ponchos
7. Check rehab schedules
8. Try to visit different times of the year to get a different experience
9. Ride the ferry and monorails
10. Visit a resort or two (Grand Floridian at Christmas!)
11. Read read read blogs and tips, learn a few “secrets”
12. Relax and have fun!
Thanks for such a great blog. We are taking our soon- to- be 6-year old daughter and two-year old son to DisneyWorld in early May and staying on-site. We just booked our trip (and 3 character lunches) last weekend. It is a surprise for my daughter’s birthday, and will be our first time as a family. (I was last there about 20 years ago as a teenager.). My question is this: we bought a five- day pass but are only there for four full days. (With a free day offer, it was almost the same price as 3-day.) We are not doing the park hopper, but could we feasibly use two tickets in the same day to visit two different parks?
We tried to do that back in 2005 and it was a no go. we visited animal kingdom in the morning and tried to visit magic kingdom in the afternoon using one of our extra days. the rule was one park per day if you didn’t have the park hopper option.
I love Disney World. I grew up in Southern California and went to Disneyland all the time, but I must admit that Disney World is my favorite. But I have never been to Disneyland France. That is next on the list I guess. I love and admire all things Disney, but nothing more than the fine art. The artists behind Disney are wonderful. I have a shop on Etsy where I put up my own art but I will never be as talented as Walt Disney. I don’t know how I have never seen your blog. But I love it! Thank you for putting in all the time to run such an awesome Disney resource.