We hadn’t been to Disney in years, and honestly I wish I would have had a trial run so I could learn strategies before I had 6 traveling companions, but here are a few of the do’s and don’ts i took away from our trip this fall. Hang on, its a long list, but I pray it will be a blessing to you and save some confusion as you plan your own Disney World Vacation.
1. Do book dinner reservations for places you would like to eat for dinner as far in advance as possible. Prepare to plan your park visits around the reservations you are able to secure. For example we went to eat at Prime Time Cafe in Magic Kingdom and so visited that park the day of our reservations (If you don’t know already there are 4 Disney parks within Disney World. Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot.) These restaurant reservations can be booked on Disney.com even a year in advance.
2. Do plan to use a travel agent that specializes in Disney if you are so intimidated by the process and decisions that you would never otherwise go. One I would highly recommend is Jeff Lemmonds who offers his travel planning services at NO CHARGE and can be reached at 615-604-3343 or jeffl@mei-travel.com. For those pioneers among you or those just stubborn enough to think they are their own best planner I would recommend some of the following choices that we made.
3. Consider booking your hotel in a nonconventional way. I have purchased someone’s time share week multiple times for our family vacations and have loved, loved, loved the results. For example I purchased this Presidential Suite on ebay which had sleeping for 8 a full kitchen and laundry facilities for right at $1k for the entire week. (pic below) I recommend Wyndham as they hold a high standard for their hotels and provide transportation to the parks on a frequent schedule. (go to ebay and type in the search bar wyndham disney and then look for the week you are wanting to go. Time share owners can typically only schedule 3-4 months in advance so if your trip is around a far corner mark your calendar to search 2-3 months in advance. I checked today and right now you can get a 2 bedroom that sleeps 4-6 for $500. With our large party similar facilities within the Disney package would have run in excess of $3k. (These hotels will request you to attend a time share meeting but DONT DO IT, there is not obligation to and if you are truly interested you can buy these memberships on the aftermarket for sometimes 10% of what the price is at the presentation.) They may call you once a day but just RESIST that gift card or other bait to go. It really isn’t worth it.
4. Do not waste your money on the hopper option. I would recommend this especially if you have young children. These hopper options add quite a bit to your tab and we found them to be unnecessary. I purchased the hopper option on my teen tickets thinking they would safely hop around between the different parks using the monorail system but I was wrong and regret spending the money. There is enough to see and do in each park without even thinking of trying to hit 2 parks in one day. If you buy a multiple day ticket and decide near the end of your stay that you would love to have a hopper for the last day or two you can take your ticket and have it upgraded and pay the additional expense to cover your last two days. But hindsight 20/20 I wish I would have saved my money.
5. Do plan in advance and take a bit of effort to be organized. Map out what park you will visit on what day.
6. Bring rain coats and don’t avoid the parks when it sprinkles. These are the least crowded days and often the drizzle is a welcomed break from the heat. We learned this on our first trip years ago and again this year confirmed we actually appreciated those overcast drizzle days the most. (lightweight rain ponchos can be purchased at the park that fit easily in a back pack if you want to go that route, you just need to budget a bit as they run about $8 each.)
7. Consider a visit to the closest Walmart to the park for souvenirs. Within a 10 minute drive is the closest Walmart to Disney with a dedicated section to many of the same treats you will see at the parks for quite a bit less. T-shirts, hats, all kinds of Disney Gear, so if your kids are pestering for “stuff” consider this less expensive option.
8. Budget for the kids to have some discretionary money of their own. From our 15 year old to our 5 year old we provided a fanny pack and a daily allowance. Ours was $25 a day but that covered any snack they couldn’t live without and anything they wanted at the store. That took away so much of the commercialism really and we ended up with some souvenirs we would have never chosen but they loved! (I will try to post pictures of the sequin encrusted skull gangster ring that 2 of my boys purchased, or the green monkey string puppet that Keaton couldn’t live without.) For the teens or those you will allow the freedom to go on their own consider loading a Disney gift card at the entrance for them to use for their lunch. They have a swipe and wristlet model. Lunch budget is safety between $12 – $15 per person. (snacks typically run $4 each and dinners between $25 – $45 at most park hot spots.)
9. If you are traveling with small children and have access to laundry facilities consider planning for all of your family members to dress in the same color. Call me crazy but I was determined not to wrestle with 7 suitcases and all that goes with them on this trip as we were flying. Each child had 2 outfits, 2 orange shirts, 2 khaki shorts, 1 bathing suit, and one set of pi’s plus undergarments and shoes. Believe it or not we fit our whole gang into one big suitcase. I said over and over and over and over how glad I was that we all wore orange. Not only did it give peace to us parents who are constantly looking for our crew but it gave peace to the little ones as they could easily detect any of their party if they got separated for a moment. Each night I washed the outfit from the day before and 2 outfits suited us just fine. They got to wear their fun Disney shirts they purchased on the plane ride home, but everywhere we went we knew the orange glow was our gang. I saw other families do the same thing and seeing their choices I would recommend any bright color, but with boys and girls together orange was a good choice. (and our TX and TN connection…..well it just had to be orange.)
10. Place a form of i.d. in your younger children’s fanny pack. (for the youngest one of ours – the 5 year old I purchased a fanny pack that is the type that is really thin and actually is meant to hold your passport under your shirt so it is minimal and soft to the skin. He would not have managed a bulkier model well.) I put in the pack their money each day and they had a note card that read…..”I am separated from my family” and here are their phone numbers and there I listed the cell phone number of everyone in our party that had one including my teenagers. I instructed them that if they ever got lost to go to one of the Disney Workers and give them the note. We never had to do this but we did see a 7 year old boy that got lost and all that they went through to locate his family and was glad mine were prepared should that have happened to one of ours.)
11. Pack shoes that you would want to wear to run a 5k. Comfort is not the standard, marathon is. Wish I would have thought this through a bit more, I may have avoided the tylenol for pain in the evenings.
12. If your phone handles apps definitely download a couple of really helpful navigators. I would highly recommend one called Disney wait times that has both a version for Android and Apple. You can use it over and over as a resource for accurate wait times for popular rides as well as shows and other events. I used mine all the time.
13. Pre-measure your young ones in advance of your trip and make note of their height to carry with you. I would have saved Christopher the disappointment a few times of discovering he was only 42 inches instead of the needed 44 to ride with his other siblings on some they were so excited about. I would have distracted him while they went on a few of these without him. But the process of being measured and just not stacking up was a bit sad really. On day two he said “mommy can we come back here when I am 7?” He saw our 7 year old get to do everything without restrictions and he was a bit jealous.
14. Consider scheduling in Down Time. Our kids would have loved to do one day at the park, one day at hotel swimming, one day at the park….etc. Or even a 2 days on, one day off. Our kids finally crashed on day #4 and we forfeited a day of ticket purchase. We took that day and were lazy, went to the pool, went to downtown Disney at night to see a movie and go to the lego store. (lego store advice, there are 2 things to do in this store, build legos, or shop. I suggest steering kids to the stations where they can build and play, otherwise your wallet will take a huge hit if they realize this is a huge shopping experience.) Frame it as a building experience.
15. Try to print or get your hand on a Disney map before you are standing in the front of the park. When you are standing there with thousands of people streaming around you and your kids pulling on your clothes it is hard to take in the map and attractions and put together a plan. Get the map in advance and contemplate which things you want to fit into your day. (this was a big mistake on my part and started each day kind of stressful as I was the one trying to take in everything, figure out where it was, and develop a strategy. Having the map in advance would have proved golden.)
16. DO use the FASTPASS system. This system is simple and FREE. The most popular rides honor a fast pass. You can acquire a fast pass by going to the ride and locating the Fast Pass Distribution – there you will scan your entry ticket and it will return your ticket along with a fast pass that will assign you a time to come back to the ride without a wait. The system will typically allow you to secure a fast pass every hour to hour and one half. This turns 2 hour wait times into 10 minutes as you return to the ride and enter into a special lane designated for fast pass holders where you are escorted to the front of the line. Many do not take the time to work this system and you will be amazed once you figure it out how simple it is and how crazy it is that more people at the parks don’t take advantage of the program.
17. Look for single rider lanes as well. My clan quickly figured out on several of their favorite rides that a Single Rider line was available. (these rides as well as fast pass rides are designated by an emblem on the maps). My guys loved Mount Everest, a ride that typically had a wait of more than an hour. They used a fast pass but that only can be used once and is not a great choice if you want to ride over and over again. They quickly realized that Single Rider was the way to go. There is a special lane for single riders and it means you are put in a seat anytime there is an odd number of people riding. This allowed the boys to ride their favorite ride 7 times in one hour as they just kept going in the single rider lane. Obviously if yours are intimidated to sit with someone they don’t know this is not an option for you, but my clan were cool with it and loved this option!
18. The bus system from the hotels to the parks work great. I wouldn’t fool with using my own car unless you are cutting short on a hard time commitment like a flight or dinner reservations. We ended up using a taxi a couple of times at about $15 a pop when we really wanted to get somewhere quick.
19. Family Devotions are a must – Don’t miss the opportunity of vacation to have that family devotion time each morning. We started this last year and it is the best. We typically focus on one key passage and even a memory verse can be fun to include. This week we chose the Beattitudes and focused one one each day. We also each pray for something at the end. Such sweet time and a reminder in the midst of all the “flesh fun” to start your day with Jesus! (and you will need peace, deep inner peace to survive some of the chaos of Disney….and I would never want you to repeat a scene I witnessed where three adults were gathered around yelling at a sweet 7 year old girl dressed as a princess….it is just wrong to yell at a princess!)
20. Take time to meet the people you cross paths with. You will stand in lines (even with great planning) remember to reach out and say hello. We met a family from the Netherlands and many from across the U.S. We even had one divine appointment with a man and his mom who live here in TN and were confined to wheelchairs. Their stories were inspiring and a chance for my kids to slow down and value people in our busy week. My new sweet friend Margie shared how her son was in an accident 4 years ago that left him paralyzed and as a single widow raised he and his brother while just recently discovering she has stage 4 cancer throughout her body. They are believing Jesus for miracles and I got to add this sweet brother and sister in the Lord to my prayer list. I even heard one of my sweet 4th grade girls has added Margie to her personal prayer list as well. Don’t miss the Divine appointments and the chance to love on people….personally that was my favorite part!
Well I hope you got something out of all of these words and my 2 Cents are probably way over spent….but I wanted to take a few minutes to share my lessons learned and wish you the very greatest Disney Vacation.














