I often get asked what my top tips are for Walt Disney World. So if I only had your ear for 10 minutes, this is what I would tell you….
1. Don’t spend time in line if you don’t have to. Utilize Disney’s Fastpass System (it’s FREE for everyone).
2. Counter service restaurants and snack windows that serve fountain drinks will give you ice water for free. Just ask!
3. Animal Kingdom does not have lids on their drinks and they have paper straws. If you have young kids, make sure you bring them a sippy cup/water bottle to this park.
4. You do not have to carry your packages around with you all day. You can either have them sent up to the front of the park to pick up on your way out or if you are staying on Disney property you can have them sent to your resort’s gift shop (next day).
5. You do NOT have to tour Disney World together. It is okay to split up and do your own thing. Just schedule meals together and leave it at that. When you have a large party, everyone is not going to want to do the same thing at the same time. Disney is all about having fun! It is okay to have your fun without your 10 person family having it with you.
6. Cast members are there to help you. Ask them everything! They know secrets you wouldn’t believe. And there is a great chance they can direct you to the perfect parade viewing spot. If we hadn’t asked a cast member on our first trip if we had picked a good spot for the fireworks, we would of missed the whole thing because of trees! (For the record we like to sit at the tables in front of Casey’s to see Wishes.)
7. Aren’t sure where to find characters? Just read the free Times Guide that you can pick up each morning at entrance to the park (you can also find it next to just about every register too). It lists the times and locations of almost every character that is meeting that day as well as parades, fireworks, shows, etc.
8. If you are looking for a specific character, just ask a character handler (the cast members that work with characters). They have a radio that they can use to call around and find out where and when that character is suppose to meet.
9. Photopass photographers will also use your camera to take pictures. This is a great way to get the family photographer actually in your pictures! You do not have to purchase anything from Photopass to use this service!
10. You can make your own autograph books at home and save money! Characters will sign anything really… shirts, hats, pillow cases, canvas, etc. They just won’t sign anything that you are currently wearing.
What would your top tips be if you only had someone’s attention for 10 minutes?
Learn more tips and tricks for your next Walt Disney World vacation. Destinations in Florida can also help you add tips and tricks to your next vacation.
Emily H. says
Make sure you secure your park pass on the Dumbo ride. It takes a while for the employees to fish it out of the pool…oops!
I went around and took pictures of people sitting there waiting to ride so they weren’t so angry with me.
tina says
I agree about the cast members. They are extremely helpful. The hotel staff is quite knowledgeable too. If you can catch them at the desk when it is not in the middle of peak of check in time, they too have a wealth of great knowledge.
linda says
i have motion sickness problems and really knew better than to get on mt. everest. but the cm said it wasn’t too bad – no loops- . well….the backwards part got me. i was soooo sick. barely made it off the ride. i had to sit down just inside the gift shop entrance. threw up all over my dress.
the store manager directed people around me for about 10 minutes, gave me a bottle of water, gave me a voucher for a new dress ($50 value), then they gave me a wheel chair ride to the clinic, (all the while, i was still so sick i couldn’t talk), let me lay down for an hour or so, gave me something to help with nausea, then they pulled up a van right outside the clinic and drove me directly to our resort so i wouldn’t have to walk to a bus – oh a bus ride would have been awful!!!!
I actually felt bad because i really knew better than to get on that ride. but i love my mickey mouse dress!
Katie says
I always try to make sure we take plenty of breaks. A 15 minute sit down break with some popcorn or a Mickey ice cream can really take the edge off.
Lisa S says
Not really sure if this is a regular thing or not, but we were debating whether or not to stay on property for my 40th Birthday this weekend. We decided to Stay at the All Star Sports resort. We like the Sports best, since it is the first of the All Star Resorts on the bus route, so you generally have less time to wait for the busses. I made sure to let them know when I booked our rooms that it was my birthday and we had several rooms celebrating with me. Not only did they wish me a happy birthday when I arrived, along with the button, when we got back to our hotel room the next day after being at the parks all day, I was surprised to find an All Star Resort cool full of goodies, including 2 Mickey shaped Rice Krispie treats, and a photo frame and several balloons attached to it. They also made a cake out of towels, and a 10″ plush Mickey. Who says Disney’s just for kids, this really blew me away.
A says
At Disney World this past summer, my 4 year old decided she had to go potty in the middle of the line waiting to see princesses. As we got out of line and made a beeline for the nearest restroom, she lost it…all over my shirt, since I was carrying her to move faster. Thankfully, I had spare clothes for her, and ran into the nearest gift shop to find me a new shirt. An amazing cast member asked if she could help me find something, and I explained the situation to her, also mentioning that this t-shirt wasn’t in the budget, so I was looking for something relatively inexpensive. She said “Hang on just a minute. Let me see what I can do.” and went to the back. When she returned just a minute later, she told me to find any shirt I wanted and bring it to the register – that it would be free because they wanted us to be able to continue to enjoy our day, as planned. The cast members really do go out of their way to make your day go well!
elizabeth hernandez says
that is such a nice story!! :)
Sheila says
On our last trip during Spring Break, it was very crowded at HS and by the time we stood in line for Toy Story we got over to Rockin’ Rollercoaster around 11:00 and literally the person in front of us got the last FP for the day on the ride and standby was never shorter than 90 min the rest of the day…we checked back for the last time and realized we were not going to have time to ride it again and it was a short trip so I knew we wouldn’t be able to come back…my daughter was about in tears…so I just decided to find a cast member and just tell them about the FP and turns out he had a pocket full of FPs and gave us 2 and we were able to ride it right then with one minute to spare getting to our dinner reservations for the night! Bottomline…just ask…they are certainly there to make your experience great :)
Melissa Fontes says
In regards to Disney workers bending over backwards to help if something goes wrong….we ended our night riding the Aladdin Carpet rides…went to catch our bus to A.S. Movie Resort .. our son started gagging and getting sick to his stomach…guess the last ride was too much for his little tummy. I was in panic mode because I knew as soon as we got on that hot/crowded bus was when he would end up throwing up…and that bus was going to be packed! I told the loading guy at the bus stop the situation and they quickly sent an empty bus just for us that went straight to our hotel without stopping! It was so nice of them. So YES always say something if there is a problem because they really do want to help!
Beth Anne says
We went to universal this past weekend and we said we need to buy one of those chains with the plastic attached to put our tickets in…when we went to disney in 2006 we got one free for booking through disney vacations…i don’t know if they still do this but i remember it was very helpful!
Beth Anne says
oh yeah but go to walmart and somewhere and buy one cheaper than $8+ in the store…also getting a mister is very helpful too
matt d says
you can split alot of meals at pacos bill they have a burger big enough for two make good use of it and at eletric umbrella you can get free refills 2. keep your fast passes handy if you loose it on the way to the ride sorry. 3. for verizon customers using the mobile magic app is great very helpful.
Cindy McVey says
I’ve been to Disney nearly 50 times, and for our family, it is absolutely essential that we have at least one sit-down meal per day. We LOVE the food at Epcot, but we also find that we need a break out of the sun and off our feet to make it through a long day. But the real bonus? Most of the restaurants have the same or very similar menus at both lunch and dinner, but lunch prices are lower. It’s the best time to try one of the more expensive restaurants.
Jen G. says
Make sure people know that even though you can use your Fastpass after the time listed (for the whole day), you can’t use it on on a different day than on the day you got it. (Hope that makes sense!)
Dan B. says
If your family is into PIN Trading like mine is, DON’T shell out the $30 – $40 for 7 pins just for trading fodder…. before your trip look for pin lots on EBay and you can pick up large quantities of pins for around $1 each. We’ve started getting lots of 40 every few months to build up a great stock for the 5 of us to trade with when we go back in ’12!!
Shelley says
This is a great tip! We have bought pins from Ebay for our last two vacations to Disneyworld. It was so much fun trading knowing that we didn’t spend a pile of money on the pins. It took the pressure off and we were able to trade pins freely and not hoard a really expensive pin. The only thing is …It’s addicting! We end up getting more pins each time we go. First time, I bought only 10 apiece for the four of us. That wasn’t enough. So next trip, I upped it to 20 apiece. Still not enough. This year, it is 33 apiece! We’ll see what happens!
Staci says
Here are my tips for Disneyland in CA!!! From dining, to memory making, to hotels, and more. Check out my link.
http://designingandmotherhood.blogspot.com/2010/03/stacis-disneyland-disneyworld-vacation.html
Staci
Ellen O says
Bring refillable water bottles and keep filling them up (with the free ice water you mentioned!) It is hot in Florida and Disney charges a lot for bottled water.
DEFINITELY bring picnics to the water parks. They only sell fast food and it’s pretty pricey. Then splurge on ice cream or something.
If it is on/near someone’s birthday or other special day, go to Guest Services an get a free birthday button. Free souvenir and sometimes cast members will do special things for you if you are wearing one!
If you are disabled, also go to Guest Service and pick up a ride pass and an accessible info brochure/map. On some rides, you can bypass really looooooong lines. Two caveats, though. One, bypassing lines sometimes means missing some of the “intro” stuff that happens in line (like in Haunted Mansion). And two, Disney cast members are great but they aren’t all specially trained to handle all sorts of disabilities so they may think someplace is accessible when it really isn’t (like the water parks).
Finally, if something goes wrong… TELL A CAST MEMBER. They will literally bend over backwards to help fix stuff and make sure you have the best possible time at Disney.
Courtney B. says
1. Bring ALL of your food. You save so much money. Just buy 1 important snack a day (disney ice cream).
2. If you know someone who works for Disney and has a friend passes they will give you, you can get into the park for free (some are FREE park hoppers). We are fortunate to know some employees who are generous.
Robyn says
About the photopass – have them take your pictures eveywhere and add ride pictures to your pass…it’s FREE! Then when you get home and your budget recovers a little you can order these prints online. In the old days you had to buy the picture that day in the park, but not anymore!
angela west says
Also, if you pre-purchase the photopass CD it’s $99 thus saving you $50.
Roberta Belwood says
I thought I see where the CD was $29.99. I guess I better check that out! I was planning on purchasing one and that is a substantial difference in price!
Siobhan says
Here is my best tip, instead of waiting in line to see characters-which can take forever! just plan one sit down meal each day at a different restaurant that has different characters. that way you get to eat and get pictures with all the characters without it eating into the rest of your day. :)
Suzanne says
This was what I was going to say! In a 5 day trip with my 4 year old niece we managed to see every single Princess and every other character too!
We took full advantage of the DIning plan to do so but each meal was a sit down table service so it’s a pricey way to do things, but after watching multiple children walk away crying after not meeting the character they were in line to see (Characters are only out for 15min so a long line means you might not get a shot) we figured it was worth it.
Another thing to note if you are going to do this you HAVE to plan ahead. We booked our October trip in mid-March, as soon as we had our confirmation number we got on the phone with Disney Dining and told them we had a 4 year old and wanted to be sure she met everyone. She managed to schedule meals for each day and we didn’t even repeat characters.
Erin says
To keep the Dsney Magic Alive after we get home I used a lot of our snack credits & bought things like Minnie’s cookies & Mickey’s Rice Krispie Treat. I also took a few extra napkins home. When I know my son is going to have a busy day or it has been a long week, I put a Disney napkin or some Minnie cookies in his lunch as a pick me up!! Just puts a little Disney smile on our faces!! :0)
Beth says
We have lived in Florida for 5 years, and had Disney passes for 4 of them. We have always brought in food. I have never seen a Disney policy against this, or had any cast member say anything when they checked our bag. I don’t think they allow you to bring a giant cooler, but we have always packed a small, soft-side cooler with drinks, snacks and food for one meal. That way we only have to purchase one meal out if we are at Disney for a long day. Saves tons of money!
angela west says
they actually have posted on the Disney site now that you can bring in small coolers..no glass bottles, etc.
Stacey says
Oh how awesome! I love the make your own autograph book idea! And free from shutterfly!! Love it!
Chris says
Along the lines of using the encyclopedia to sign, I used pictures from previous Disney trips to make photobooks from Shutterfly. I was able to make 2 books free of charge from different offers they had throughout the year. I organized the pictures by character and each “major” character had his/her own page. I also had several pages with photo collages of meet and greets with random characters. The kids loved that the characters where signing their “special” page with the pictures of the previous meet and greets. We received many comments from characters and cast members who loved our unique autograph books. Now the kids each have an autograph book and a memory book that shows how they have grown and changed from our previous trips.
Heather H says
We haven’t been to Disney World yet but we have taken several trips to Disneyland. I think my best advice would be to do your research on the rides and parades and shows and watch what you can on YouTube to make decisions on what is best for your family and then plan each day accordingly with your top choices first and then leave a day at the end of your trip to hit your favorites or things you missed. Also we bought the “Disney Junior Encyclopedia of Animated Characters” from Amazon for characters to sign (and for my kids to read when we aren’t there), we got great reactions when the characters found “their” pages.
Jennifer B. says
Love, love, love your tips! They are all certainly true and helpful.
Thinking back to one of your previous posts (the one, sadly, about theft), I would say it is important to mark your stroller well with something rather outrageous so it can be easily spotted and not mistakenly taken. (Cannot really thwart a true thief unless you go with a lock!) This is also useful because the stroller parking areas are often rearranged during shows (they do this for a reason, not just to make it difficult to find your stroller).
I’ve heard of people tying on stuff that looks gross (to look like a dirty diaper in a bag for instance) to discourage people from touching their stroller! Yarn or ribbon pompoms or braids or some colored electrical tape would probably work well to make your stroller easy to spot. And I’d go ahead and put your cell phone number somewhere on the stroller so that if someone accidently takes it, they can at least try to call you to let you know where it is!
angela west says
This ins’t particularly a Disney tip, but it would work well there, too. I had a friend that was in the medical field. She would get the red biohazard bags at work when we’d go shopping. Stuff those full of things (paper, small boxes, etc) and leave them in plain view in the car. No one ever bothered the car and that might be why. I know I wouldn’t think about touching a stroller/wheelchair that had a biohazard bag on it. LOL
Jody says
A friend just returned from 9 days at Disney World. She gave me a great tip!
They have a 8 year old daughter. At counter service meals they were buying her a kids meal. But… that is not necessary. With counter service you can buy an adult meal for kids. That way if you have two children they can share the meal and you will have an extra meal to use later. At a table service meal, however, you must order from the kids menu. I had not heard about this idea but I am certainly going to try it next week when we go to DISNEY!
RK says
Do they charge less for kids?
DisneyFan says
Yes, they do charge less, but I think Jody is talking about the Dining Plan. If you are not utilizing the dining plan, then it would be better for you to order from the kid’s menu. If you are, however, on the dining plan, the kids can order from either the regular menu or the kids menu. It just takes away a counter service from the card balance – no difference. We have done this before. It also works out great if you only want a light meal to share with the kids.
Carrie says
Pace yourself! I like ti sit on a bench and people watch!
Jennifer E. says
I Had No Clue That Fastpasses Dont Expire! Thanks!
My Tip For Disney Would Be Take A BReak Mid Afternoon Florida Is Hot! All The Time So Take Some Time To Relax In The Afternoon You Will Be Glad You Did ;)
Anissa says
That’s news to me too! So awesome. Last trip we were so concerned about missing our window that we missed out on other things!
charissa says
They do expire, watch your timing!