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Honestly, I learned so much from our Disney World trip that I’ll probably have to write another one of these next week, but here are ten tips I can pass along from my trip to Walt Disney World that might be able to help you on a future trip to Disney World. (I’m sure most apply to Disneyland too.)
1. I mentioned before that making reservations (and the like) can become a full time job. Your job is not done once you get to the Disney World. If there were restaurants that you couldn’t get into, keep checking – even once you’re already in Disney World! I had tried over and over to get us into both Chef Mickey and the Crystal Palace over the course of a few months. I was finally able to get into both by checking the computer while we were on our Disney trip.
2. Speaking of checking things online — Make sure you check your resort’s Internet offerings, if you’re staying at an on-site resort. We had been at the Coronado for six days before we realized that there was a free option for wireless Internet! We had been given a sheet about it, but it was buried in with all of the other papers we got, and just hadn’t paid attention.
3. At least once during your stay, stay late for fireworks or a light show. We often were out of the parks before that happened, but we were thrilled to stay one night for fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. (We also were able to see them light Cinderella’s Castle for Christmas each time we were there, as well as to see the amazing Christmas light show at Disney’s Hollywood Studio.)
4. If you or anyone in your party needs to use a Scooter (or ECV), definitely consider renting it through Walker Mobility. My Mom needed a scooter and was able to save so much money by renting each day at the park. Plus, Walker Mobility then delivered the scooter, so it was waiting for us at the resort. She was able to keep it for the entire stay, and then we dropped it off at our front desk on our last day. We were very impressed, and it really made it possible for my Mom to visit all the parks, Downtown Disney, and all around our resort.
5. Bring along extra sunscreen. Or, at the very least – try to buy it somewhere offsite. The spray bottle of sunscreen that I bought at Target before our trip stopped working during the very first application. (Ugh!) This left me needing to buy a $14 bottle of sunscreen at our resort. Ouch! (Although, it still felt better than getting sun burns.)
6. Bring hats too! Of course, you may not be into wear hats, but we all bought baseball caps when we got to Disney World. We needed them not only for the sun, but it helped for all the rain we got too. Plus, I have a tendency of having my scalp get sun burnt, so it was a delight to not have that happen. (Oh, plus my hair hates the weather in the south. So, that helped me not have giant, poofy hair.) We were happy to have the hats as souvenirs, but it would have saved us money to bring our own hats.
7. As long as I’m mentioning what to bring along – pick up some of those $1 cheap ponchos that you sometimes see at the check out at the big box stores. They often fit in small pouches, won’t take up much space, and will save you over buying ponchos for around $8.50 while it’s pouring down rain at Walt Disney World. (Even though it rained four of the days we were there, we still didn’t buy ponchos though, because we were able to duck into rides or just walk around anyway.)
8. If you’re one to seek out pictures with characters (and autographs), we found it easiest to do it at character meals. Be warned though – for a family, character meals can get very expensive. (That’s one of the reasons we were so thrilled to get a free Dining Plus plan!) There are lots of opportunities to get pictures and autographs in the parks though, so don’t feel like you have to do a character meal if it’s not in your plan or your budget.
9. Now, if you have any little girls with you (or just love Princesses yourself), don’t miss the Storybook Princesses attraction as you enter the Magic Kingdom. It was only on our third (and last) day at the Magic Kingdom that I understood that Storybook Princesses was a place to wait in line for a chance to meet Princesses. We were thrilled to go check it out and find only a 15-minute wait when we expected that we were going to find a long wait. (We had planned to get a Fast Pass for it for later in the day, but just go in line instead.)
We also didn’t have to wait long to get autographs at some other parks with some characters when we just happened to be at the right place at the right time. (Or, in the case of Mulan, we happened to speed through half of the World Showcase to be in China and waiting about 20 minutes before her arrival.)
10. If you can go during an off time, make sure to watch for a package that includes free dining! We saved so much money by booking during one of these specials. I told my Mom over and over, “I can’t believe we’re eating all this food for free!” (My Mom went to Disney World at the same time and also had a free dining plan.)
On a side note: If I was going to Disney World again, I would still probably buy a dining plan just so that I could use my “Key to the World” and pretend my meals were free, rather than having to pay for each meal when we were eating it. (Seriously – one of the bills for me and the kids was $148 before tip.)
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I LOVE this! And that’s because I LOVE Disney World! We haven’t been since 2008 when my son got to Make A Wish, but I just love all your planning tips. I’m so hoping we can go back again in the not too distant future. Blessings!
Visiting from Top Ten Tuesday…
Oh, we went to Disney for Thanksgiving in 2010. What an amazing time! Your suggestions/recommendations are dead on, especially 5-8.
Happy New Year…
Oh, this post makes me so happy. I love a good Disney World report!
And yes, how fun is the Dining plan?!! We didn’t do it this year and it was kind of a bummer.
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I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do Disney without the dining plan again. I loved it!
We’re going to Disney World in 45 days! And we’re staying at Coronado Springs with free dining, too. It’s the only way we could afford a moderate resort instead of a value. Our favorite dining experience to meet the princesses has always been Akershus at Epcot. And we love getting an early reservation at the Crystal Palace for breakfast so we can enter the Magic Kingdom and take pics without lots of people. I’m so glad your family enjoyed your trip.
I would love to go there someday with Abby. I don’t know where to start on the planning though!
Let me know if you ever need help! I spent a lot of time with planning, so I feel like I have at least a tiny clue of what to do. 😉
Awesome tips Angie! We’re hoping to plan a trip soon, so this is great help. Every time I go to Disney-anything I get this feeling inside that I have no idea what I’m doing.
If you have any questions or need some help working your way through planning, I’m really happy to help. I was really overwhelmed when I first started our planning. There is just so much to think of! Would you guys try to head to Disneyland or Disney World?
Sweet! We’d probably go to Disneyland, a little closer…but we’ll see.
Oh, and I was psyched to see you comment, by the way. 😉
Haha, it was great post 🙂
With a bigger family, I totally hear you on the Dining Plan.
I was almost to the point where I thought we’d start saving up money to go, and then we found out we were expecting. I think it’s put off for at least 3 years.
And now, we’re a big enough family that we will need a suite! Argh! I’ll be looking for every way possible to save money while we’re there.
We would love to take our kids to Disney soon. Some of them are already teens! Thanks for your tips. Now we just have to find the money to pull it off!
Thanks for the tips. We are going in 2 weeks! I have made a few reservations and am so excited. This is a big surprise for my children!! We will be staying at Pop Century resort – we’ll just be there 2 days (on our way home from the beach in SW FL).
I liked all of your little tips…all great advice. Thank you!
How exciting, Mary! 🙂 I hope that you guys have an amazing time. I hear that the Pop Century resort is the best of the value resorts.
We have started a Disney World savings account but I have no idea how much to save. We want to do it ALL since we’ll probably never go back. We have 2 adults and 3 kids. Did you book everything through Disney or some stuff on your own? I’m not really into souveniers so how much do you think we should plan on?
Janelle –
A really good indication of how much to save can be found on Disney’s site on the “make a reservation” page:
http://bookwdw.reservations.disney.go.com/ibcwdw/en_US/_framework/components/processEngine?startOver=true&gatewayID=landing
You can look at options for different times of year, various resorts, amount of days on your tickets, and to add a dining plan or not.
If you really want to “do it all,” I would suggest either getting a dining plan (their standard plan with one quick service and one table service meal per day), as that would allow you to get character meals included in the plan.
They sometimes have free dining plan options (like they do now for the end of August through the end of September), which is one of their best deals. We did it, and it made it possible for us to do five character meals! (We definitely couldn’t have done that if we were paying for them all ourselves.)
So, I would play around with that to help you get an idea of what you would need to save for your family.
Good luck on your saving!
How do you get a free dining plan? We just got back from florida we rented a villa outside of disney and only went to disney for one day. Next year we want to stay at disney for the whole week!
Jamie –
The last several years, Disney has been offering a free dining plan to resort guests during some off times, under certain restrictions (certain resorts, only a certain number of rooms per resort, staying a particular number of nights, etc.).
They are actually offering it right now for late August through late September. While I know you’re probably not planning to go again that quickly, checking out the special offers page ( http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/ ) will give you an idea of what a plan like this looks like.
Did your mom have any problems getting the scooter on Disney transport And where did she leave it to charge at the resort. Thanks for any info you can give me
She rented the scooter from Walker Mobility, and their scooters are approved for Disney transport, so she didn’t have any issues. We used the scooter on buses, the monorail, and boats.
The scooter she had just plugged in to a regular outlet, so she just charged it each night in her room.