Disney Travel Tips

8 Great Disney Travel Tips

If you are planning a family trip to Disney any time soon, I have a few Disney travel tips to share with you. Our family used to live in Florida, and we took frequent trips to Disney World because it was only about 90 minutes away from our house and they have a great discount for Florida residents. 

Here are a few of my favorite tips that I use when we plan out own trips to Disney World.

1. Stay on the property. Even when we lived in Florida and it was only an hour and a half to drive home, we would still sometimes rent a Disney room just for one night. Staying in a Disney hotel has a LOT of perks, like the extra magic hours (extra time you can stay in the park), and free parking and transportation, and you can have your purchases sent back to your room so that you don’t have to carry stuff around with you all day. We have stayed in the All Star Resort, Caribbean Beach (several times), and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Animal Kingdom was by far my favorite, but also the most expensive. I prefer the mid-grade resorts because they don’t cut your pockets quite as deeply, but they are not as crowded as the value resorts and the busses are not as crowded. At the end of a long day, waiting three or four times for a bus with a toddler for a value resort got to be a bit much.  
2. Look for Special Events. We try to book our trips to Disney around special events like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party or the Very Merry Christmas Party. On the day of the party, instead of buying a ticket for the entire day, we will only buy a ticket to that event because it is usually about $25 cheaper per person than a full day in the park (which saves us $125 as a family of 5!), less crowded, and there are special things scheduled just for those events. We go to Downtown Disney and take a nap during the day, and then to the event in the afternoon. They sell a limited number of tickets, so the lines are very short compared to what they normally are, and there are special parades and fun things to do. On Halloween the characters dress up and give out candy to kids (and adults) who go trick-or-treating around the park. For Christmas, they make it “snow” on Main Street and hand out hot chocolate. 
3. Call Disney. Disney will help you plan your trip and they do not charge for that service. Call them. There is no reason not to. They will also send you a free vacation planing DVD if you request one. 
4. Bring Souvenirs. One tip I read about several years ago on a few different blogs and I am glad I started doing was to bring souvenirs for my kids. I go to the Disney store or outlet near home and spend $30 buying a few Disney items for each kid ($10 on each kid), then I put them all in a bag. That way, I have a small bag of surprises to keep in our hotel room. If they are well-behaved throughout the day, they get to pick a surprise out of the bag when we get back to the room. It saves us money and cuts down on a lot of begging for stuff in gift shops because they know that they will get something later, and while we are at the park we can move on to rides and experiences. 
5. Make reservations. This is the only thing that irritates me slightly, because I like to relax on vacation. It stresses me out to feel like I’m not sure if we really have time to get in this line for this ride because we have to be at that restaurant by a certain time. But it is true. If you want to be sure to see as many characters as possible while you are at Disney, the character meals are the best way to do that, and you really should make reservations because those meals fill up fast. We are talking months in advance. The same goes for certain experiences, like the Bippity Boppity Boutique. You are definitely going to want to make reservations if you want those things to be part of your experience. HOWEVER, if you are like me and you don’t like feeling rushed into being a certain place at a certain time, then don’t let anyone tell you that you have to have reservations. You don’t. You can certainly do Disney without them. We have done it often. Just expect a lot of cafeteria-style meals if you go that route. 
6. Think about your day. I know I just said that I’m not a huge fan of reservations because I like to be able to live in the moment, but it is kind of important to have some focus at Disney. Think about what the important things are for each person in your family that day. For us, we have never really cared about staying for the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. It gets very crowded later in the day and, while they are lovely, fireworks are fireworks. When we have Park Hopper Passes, we always go to Magic Kingdom as early as possible in the morning, and then leave in the afternoon and head over to Epcot or Animal Kingdom for a few hours before they close. We have found that most people tend to do the opposite, because most people do want to see the fireworks, and the other parks close earlier. 
7. Food. Surprisingly, Disney has the most lenient policy about outside food that I have seen just about anywhere. You are allowed to bring your own food and snack into the park. You can’t bring glass containers or alcohol, but you can save a ton of money by packing your own snacks. I know a lot of people are in favor Disney’s meal plan, but we have never used it so I can’t say anything about that one way or the other. 
8. Strollers. If you think your 5-year-old is too big for a stroller, get one anyway. They come in super handy for lugging around all the junk and the kids get so tired, you will be happy you have that stroller six hours later. If you are flying and don’t want to check a stroller as luggage, you can rent them at the park. Or you could buy a cheap one when you get to Florida for the same price and donate it to charity after your trip. 

There are tons of other Disney travel tips we can share, but this post might go on forever. What is your best advice for anyone headed to Disney?  

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