Disney World

The most magical place on Earth…..

Ah, Disney World. There is a reason people love you and why I do too. I am sharing our experience in hopes that it helps someone begin to plan their trip. Our child rated the experience as 10,000 out of 10 and my husband and I agreed that it was the best vacation we have ever taken. Full disclosure, our trip was in early October of 2024 so some of the information may have changed, but the rules for planning a Disney vacation have not. This page does not go into the nitty-gritty of planning, but gives you guidance on how to plan. Disney World is a beast, follow the advice for planning that will make the experience more manageable and help make your vacation as successful as ours.

Tip #1: The number one tip I will share is to thy own self be true.

After almost two years of research and finally executing the trip, this thought resonated throughout as we experienced various adventures/foods/encounters etc. Many times, the common advice that was given was spot on, but for the most part I was grateful I had listened to my gut and planned the trip that was right for MY family and not for what the popular advice was. Please do the same for yours. So, with that in mind, let’s continue with tip number two….

Determine your budget

Do not go into debt for this trip. Unless you live in NYC or San Francisco be prepared for sticker shock and whatever you think you need to have saved for the it, triple it. I am not trying to be dramatic or discouraging with that last statement, but if you do save triple the amount of what you think you will need it will give you a better cushion for the unexpected expenses you may encounter along the way.

Determining our budget helped determine when we would go, how many days we would take, and where we would stay. We assumed Disney would be one and done with us so we backwards planned our budget (planned out our fantasy trip and determined everything else around that). Next time we will set our budget first and then make everything else fit into it. Will it possibly mean a shorter trip or a different time of year? Yes, but that is one of the ways in which you make Disney work for you. If you decide you can only afford one day at Disney, that is great. We only ever did one day growing up and that was enough.

Travel Agents

Are travel agents necessary? No, but they help and they are free, or at least the good ones are. They can book your hotel, dining, and enchanted extras reservations so you are not a nut staying up very late at night and waking up very early the next day. They will also help explain the lightening lanes (Disney’s fast pass), best days to go to each park, pros and cons of each time of year, recommend car and stroller services, and answer general Disney questions. They will also alert you to any promotions that could save you money. Our agent cut the price of our vacation in half by alerting us to a qualifying promo. She saved our restaurant reservations because the night our window opened (midnight EST) I got sick and she booked everything for us. Vacation saved.

When selecting a travel agent there are things you should look for. Your travel agent should be a certified Disney agent. Disney pays for them, but there is a catch. If you are not staying on property, they might not be as interested in working with you. I think that is the key to their payment. Please keep in mind that there are Disney Good Neighbor hotels off property and they may get commissions when booking those. Some will book your reservations, and some won’t, but I recommend one that will. They should also be available for questions, because you will have many of them.

No matter what, if a travel agent charges, walk away.

I used Catherine Nicholas at ET Travel: https://www.etfamilytravel.com/. Please note, I get nothing for providing this link and I am not promoting her use or disuse. What I can verify is that in the huge sea of Disney Certified agents, she is legitimate, did everything I asked, and did not charge. There are plenty of great agents out there, but if you are having trouble finding one, she is one I can vouch for.

Where to Stay

Figuring out where you are going to stay is one of the earliest decisions that you need to make. Once you figure this out, everything else will begin to fall into place. If you decide to stay on property, consider the transportation from the resort to the parks, the location of the resort relative to the park you are most interested in, and what amenities the resort has to offer.

When I began planning, I was so lost. Fortunately, I found a website that pushed me in the right direction. It literally said to begin planning your Disney World vacation, click here. Spoiler alert, the link took me to the Disney World resort reservation page. If you are interested in the website it is https://yourfirstvisit.net/. I am not promoting it and cannot speak to accuracy and helpfulness of the advice they provide.

On the Disney site you can choose a Disney resort, select your ticket type, determine if you want a meal plan, and put down your deposit of $200 to lock in your days. While only tickets are mandatory for a Disney World vacation, and I am not pushing anyone to stay on property, going through the steps is still a good exercise to go through so you can get an idea of the cost. When I first did this, I threw up in my mouth a little bit, but once I got over the nausea, I went to work on planning the trip and creating the budget for us.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/

On Property or Off Property

What I will say about this decision is holy cow to thy own self be true. I have stayed on property and off property, and did I feel like we had more magic by staying on property? Absolutely not (gasp). Did I really enjoy the convenience of the park transportation, not having to worry about a car, being really close to the parks, having 7 day advanced access to LL and reservations, being able to book all my lightening and single pass lanes for my whole trip, and access to the dining plan? You betcha! Would I recommend staying at the resorts if the budget allows? Absolutely. However, if you stay off property, I think it is fine too. There is something special about being on the ferry from the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) and having it make the turn to reveal the castle. If your budget is better accommodated by staying off property, please stay off property. Minding your budget is part of being true to yourself as well.

If you do decide to stay on property, definitely to thy own self be true. We saw Polynesian, Animal Kingdom, and the Contemporary. Asides, from a magical skip through the lobby with Goofy, we were not impressed with Poly. Husband and I are still very much scratching our heads at its appeal. However, we were blown away by Wilderness Lodge and found Port Orleans to be very beautiful as well. We will stay at the Lodge every single time. It was perfect for us, but I know it would be very wrong for others. Please research the resort before deciding which one you choose.

If you stay off property, compare the full picture to see if you are actually saving money. Once you rent a car, pay resort fees, pay for parking at Disney, pay for parking at the hotel, etc. it might not be that much of a difference. Also, you will only be able to you’re your lightening lanes 3 days in advance of your first day at the park and have to book each subsequential day after that.

There are great reasons to stay off property, though. If you have points to use at a hotel, that can be a huge chunk of change back in your pocket. The Swan and Dolphin, Disney good neighbor hotels, are Marriot owned and accept points. Many hotels have complimentary breakfast, a free happy hour, shuttles to the parks, and some like the Drury Inn off a complimentary evening kick-back buffet that is enough for dinner. Others have full blown water parks or may be priced low enough to make Disney possible.

Many people book through Air BNB and VRBO. I am reluctant to promote this as I read horror story after horror story of last-minute booking cancelations by the property owners. I am not saying don’t book these. I am saying do your research on the property before booking it. It was heartbreaking to read the cancelation stories. I don’t want you to be one of them.

DVC rental is another option. Use a legitimate broker like DVC rental or David’s vacation club rentals. The pros of these are great rooms at great prices. The downside is you might not be able to reschedule your vacation; you may not get the property or room type you want during the dates of your stay, and you may have to pay up front. Each site has different policies, so you need to review them both, but each place gets positive reviews.

Remember, the only right answer to the question of where you should stay is the place that works best for you and your budget.

Deluxe vs. Value Resorts

If you decide to stay on property the next question is whether it is a deluxe, moderate, or value resort. If you are going to utilize the resorts frequently, and you have older kids, I would spend the money on a moderate or deluxe resort. It was completely worth the investment for us. However, if you are rope drop to close people and the resort is only a place to sleep and shower, stay at the value because you will not utilize the features that come with a deluxe or moderate.

Other differences that might matter….moderates and deluxes have restaurants on property, values have food courts. Supposedly the beds are nicer the higher the resort level. Sidenote: We were shocked because we found the beds to be very uncomfortable. From the mattress to the pillows, there was nothing special. Maybe we simply have a perfect mattress at home, but to the honest, the ones at Disney made our backs hurt. Be warned.

Club Level

Only you can decide on club level or not; again, to thy own self be true. We had originally booked a club room, but Disney made us an offer we could not refuse. By booking a promotion that required a water view room we cut the price of our vacation package in half. Was I a little bit nauseous about whether I made the right decision? Yup. Did that all go away by the second day of the trip. Yup. Aside from breakfast, we would never have used the club, and it would have been a complete waste. The hours of operation are funky, the alcohol offered was not for us, and the evening appetizers occurred at a time that we would never eat. We would consider it if we were having a resort only vacation, but only under those circumstances.

Park Hopper

Once you get the resort decision made, the next question is which ticket type. Though the common advice for a first trip is to skip park hopper tickets, we got park them and loved it. It gave us a lot of flexibility, and we were able to change our plans on a dime. We were also going during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) and would never have seen the fireworks without them. We will probably get it again for our next trip for flexibility alone. However, it is not necessary and is an expense that can easily be dropped. If our budget is better served by spending the money elsewhere, we will do so.

Meal Plan

Another option if booking on property is the dining plan. The dining was included in our package, so it didn’t cost us anything, but we fell victim to having way too many credits in the end. Despite knowing it, I did not follow the best rule of using your meal credits up as fast as you can. We were left with several snack and quick order options sitting on the table. On the last day I was buying meals for other families so they would not go to waste, and we still didn’t use them all. Disney knows what they are doing.

If the plan is not included with your stay and you are on the fence about getting it, I would say that if you plan on doing a lot of character dining, then yes it is worth it. If you are not doing a lot of sit-down meals and plan on mostly utilizing quick service, skip it. We did not find the food to be overly expensive for a theme park, but we live in NYC. The only reason I would get it again is simply so the meals are paid for and it is one less thing to think about.

Memory Maker

You can purchase memory maker which is Disney’s picture package. For this I say 1,000% YES!!! We have so many amazing photos that we go through regularly. Yes, there are a couple of duds, but very few. I will purchase it every time we go.

Enchanting Extras and BBB

Since we thought this trip was going to be once in a lifetime, we went all out and booked every experience we wanted. It was overkill. While I am glad, we did what we did, for our next trip we are going to cut them all out, not because they were not worth it, they all were, but it was too much. The exception to this is Bibbidi Boddidi Boutique That was so much fun that I would book that again in a heartbeat as it completely added to the magic of the day.

Lightening Lanes

We bought the LL’s and were happy we did. The humidity was no joke, and I would have lost it standing in the hour-long lines outside surrounded by other hot bodies. While they are not necessary, you will not be sad about having them. For our trip there were a lot of options, and we were able to book everything we wanted. If I had to choose between park hopper and LLs, it would be LLs all the way. For us it was worth the investment. The LLs may have been the whole reason the trip was so great.

Strollers

Just say yes. We got one for our nine-year-old, that’s right I said NINE-YEAR-OLD, and did not regret it one bit. If we got looks or comments, I did not hear them, nor would I have cared. Had we not had one there would have been whining, and I definitely would have heard that. I also knew that for one of our days the only way we would make it to the end would be with a stroller. Heck, my husband was in the stroller by the end of that day. To thy own self be true and do what is right for your family and your situation. We used Kingdom Strollers and it was seamless. We would use them again.

After Hours Events

One of the last purchasing decisions you need to make is whether or not to attend an after hours event. The afterhours events are great and we did not regret purchasing ours. If one occurs during our next trip, we will go again. With that being said, they are pricy and not worth it if your kids are going to poop out after a couple of hours. Depending on which one you attend, food may be limited so be aware.

Disney World Logistics

Transportation from the airport

What the heck, Orlando!? Why are there no taxis!!? There are a few ways to get to and from the airport. If you want to save some money, book the Mears bus, but price compare first. This may be cost effective for smaller families but for larger ones it may be the same price as booking a Lyft or Uber. We used a private car service. While it was nice, and the car service company was amazing, we won’t do it again because I didn’t see any huge benefit to it. When we go again, we will use Lyft. I think the average price is about $50 from MCO to the resort areas.

Travel at MCO

I have read about horror stories at MCO. Multiple reports of the people arriving four hours early and barely making it through security. We did not have that experience. When we went, there was no line but maybe that was because we didn’t go at peak season. My cousin has seen it. If you do not have pre-check, use MCO reserve to schedule your time in security and skip the lines. I have also heard that if you fly Jet Blue it is a little better because the terminal where Jet Blue is has less traffic.

Transportation to the parks

If you are staying on property, buses and skyliner are the main ways to get to the resorts. Some resorts have direct access to the monorails and limited boat service. Transportation from the resorts for many is a guiding factor in choosing a resort. For us, since our daughter wanted to take the boat to Magic Kingdom, it mattered.

Lyft and Uber are also available, as well as the Disney taxis called Minnie Vans which can put you closer to the entrance than Lyft. We took a Minnie Van once, and while it was lovely and novel, it didn’t offer much of an advantage for our trip. I learned the expensive way that it is great for EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, but silly for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

Scheduling

The days that were the easiest and best planned were the ones that we could make as seamless as possible. We did a fair amount of jumping around to accommodate all that we wanted to do, and I would change that so we could stay in one place as much as possible. Our best day was our MK day, and I know a big part of that was because we had all our experiences in one place. We began the day with BBB and ended it with CRT and did rides in between. I think a hop to the Contemporary for dinner would have been fine but a hop to AKL for dinner would be too much.

Rope Dropping

We are very much morning people. We naturally wake up around 5:30 or 6:00. However, we don’t like to rush on vacation. The thought of waking up at the crack of dawn to go wait in line for an hour and a half only to wait in another line for 45 minutes, has no appeal. We are very much against rope dropping and it was fine. We would sit on the balcony and enjoy our coffee while we watched the rope droppers shlep to the parks in the dark. While we thought they were foolish mortals, I am sure they thought we were idiots for skipping early entry. To thy own self be true. We avoided the parks on Saturdays and created a loose agenda based on the trends and advice for wait-times and got to ride almost everything we wanted.

Rest Days

If time allows plan for rest days and when I say rest days, I mean rest days. Stay at the resort and go to the pool and nothing else. I scheduled character meals and other events on our rest days, and it was too much. We never had a down day as a result.

Rides at the Parks

Please research the rides and make sure they are appropriate for your kids. Just because it is Disney doesn’t mean that there are not thrill rides. Flight of Passage was much more intense than expected and took us all by surprise. Mission Space Green was fine, but based on what I have read, I would never take my daughter and possibly myself on orange. If you have kids that jump first and then ask questions later you are probably fine with all the rides, but if there is doubt, do your research.

Shoes and walking

You’re going to have shoe try-outs and walk a lot to know which ones are best. We all wore crocs, but in different styles. I wore my worn-in echo crocs every day of the trip and had absolutely no problems. The rest of the family wore clog Crocs and were fine. I shouldn’t say no problems; by the last day I had to apply Mega babe to the tops of my feet to prevent them from blistering, but there was no soreness from walking. No matter what, don’t wear new shoes on day one. Break them in first to confirm they will work.

You will walk and your feet might not be used to it. You need to prepare. Many people’s trips are ruined because of the amount of walking. There is something called the Disney Rash that is a result of capillaries bursting on your legs from all the walking and heat. The walking is no joke. I think we were averaging 20,00+ steps a day. Not a big deal for New Yorkers but shocking for most. Please train for Disney

Disney Food

Disney Food: I had read so many reviews about all the amazing food at Disney and was kind of disappointed. In all fairness, it probably is better than your average theme park but living in NYC makes it nothing special. With that being said, please review the menus and read the reviews before booking any dining reservation. For example, Space 220 in EPCOT gets horrible reviews and you go there more for the experience, but Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge gets consistently good reviews but may not be for everyone. The dining is fine, but be sure to do your research

How to Behave at the Parks

Please be flexible: While it was really hard at times to stick to the goal of flexibility, we made the choice to roll with the vacation a bit and it was a really good decision. Day one in the parks, our child was done by 3:00 pm and we had only gotten there at 10:00 am. We hadn’t hit up all the rides or met all the characters we wanted, but it was really hot and everyone was exhausted. I had to let go of the perfectly planned day and understand that relaxing at the resort for the evening was the new plan and the best plan. Just roll with it, whatever it is, and remember that you will be happier in the long run. This also ties in with another great piece of advice that I got for Disney…..

Please go to the park with the right attitude: Something will go wrong. Whether it is rain, a ride closure, illness (please wash your hands), a long line, or a meltdown, there are some things you cannot control, but your attitude you can. Yes, it rained on our Halloween party night, and we didn’t get to see the parade or headless horseman. Yes, the first full day of the trip I woke up with a cold. Yes, Jungle Cruise, one of my two must-dos for the trip, was closed. Yes, my husband missed our child pulling the sword from the stone, but did any of that kill our vacation? No, of course it didn’t. There were so many other amazing moments (did I mention our child pulled the sword from the stone 😊) that they eclipsed all the not so great ones. If we only focused on the negative it would have taken so much away from the trip.

Planning Tools

YouTube: Meet your new best friend, YouTube. If time permits, watch YouTube videos. I highly recommend Disney Food Guide. She has a wealth of information to cover just about every question I had. Mammoth Club and EarScouts are great for lightening lane information. Mammoth Club, Paging Mr. Morrow and Wright Down Main Street were great for food reviews. Not everyone loves Mr. Morrow and I get it. Allears seemed a little young for me but they are popular as well

Facebook: There are a ton of Facebook groups for Disney and I advise joining them. I found great tips and tricks and had answers provided to my many questions through the Disney groups.

Miscellaneous

• Read through the Facebook pages and find the common themes and recommendations. They are pretty accurate.

• There is no cold medication at the resorts, allergy meds galore.

• Bring a nightlight; the bathrooms at the resorts are dark at night.

• Get a Disney certified travel agent; they are free and can help save you thousands.

• Shipping from the resorts is very cost effective but they do not ship things like popcorn buckets.

• Invest in some form of glide cream, such as Mega babe. I applied to all kinds of places to prevent chafing (tops of feet, bra straps, arm pits, etc).

• Eye glass classes are notorious for holding you up at security. Take everything out of your pockets and zombie walk through. We followed this rule and had no issues.

• You don’t need magic bands but they make life a whole lot easier. Be sure to buy the guards so they do not slip off.

• Bring cooling towels/fans and drink more water than you think you need.