My family is fresh off our first visit to Disney World, and we soaked in all of the Disney magic! My husband’s parents decided to celebrate a few life milestones together at Walt Disney World, so we had a group of 10 that got to experience it all together. We discovered a few tips and tricks that helped make our trip even more magical.
Here are 7 reflections I made after returning home from our trip.
Download the My Disney Experience app. The app will provide you with so much information and you can familiarize yourself with it prior to going. On the app, you can access maps for each park with wait times for rides, characters, and shows, and search for dining and restrooms. You can get GPS directions to the place you want to go. You can manage Fast Passes (if you are staying at a Disney Resort up to 60 days prior to your trip), reserve dining (up to 180 days prior to your trip,) and even unlock your room door. One of our favorite parts of the app was to order food from Mobile Ordering. There are a variety of counter service restaurants that allow you to order through the app. You can use food credits or pay for your items, and pick up at a special window at the restaurant. It was a huge time saver. In addition, my 8 year old lost his Disney Band while on a roller coaster. We found out that all it takes to replace a lost band is to purchase a new one (for $15) and download his profile from the My Disney Experience app.
Think about comfort over fashion. My family decided to go all in on the Disney Experience. We bought all the Mickey Mouse shirts we could find, and even wore matching tee’s a few days. I was a little worried we might stand out (not in a good way) since we matched, but we had so many sweet comments on our matching shirts, it made our trip even more fun. Our large group of 10 wore matching shirts one day, and it made it easier to spot one another in the crowds. We ditched the cute sandals and wore the comfy and supportive shoes, and were so thankful since we walked many miles each day.
Consider portable charging for your phone. Since you will use your phones so much, you may need to consider some charging options. While they have Portable Phone Charging System Kiosks that you can purchase for $30 and drop in a kiosk located in every park and get a fully charged one, we purchased a portable charger that could charge both of our phones at the same time a few times if necessary.
Order from Amazon Prime Now. While we had the Disney Food Plan, we didn’t want to waste snack credits buying water to drink throughout the day. We ordered water, snacks, and fresh fruit through Amazon Prime Now once we arrived at our resort. You can order through your Amazon Prime Membership and have items from Whole Foods or Amazon (limited options) delivered to the front desk. With a minimum order of $35, you can get your items delivered for free in a 2 hour window. If you are in a bit of a hurry, you can request a one hour window for a $5 fee.
Research ahead of time. We used Disney Food Blog to give us lots of food items to look out for while we were at the parks. We all had picked a snack item that we wanted to find while on our trip, and it was like a treasure hunt while we located the item. You can also use Disney Travel Agents for free to assist in all of the planning. If you stay in a Disney Resort, you can get access to some of the parks before they open at 9:00 a.m. to the public. We discovered that if we went straight for a ride that typically has a long wait time and no fast pass for it, you can usually get through the ride before your fast pass window closes.
Disney Memory Maker is a fun way to remember your trip. I can’t help myself, I love to look at pictures from special events. The Memory Maker package is a great way to have professionals take your picture in the dozens of picture spots in each park. You can also check out all of the fun pictures on rides and scan your Disney Band to add the pictures to your Disney Photo Pass. If you purchase the Disney Memory Maker more than 3 days before your trip, you can purchase it at a reduced price.
Discuss realistic expectations with your family prior to going. We tried to help our kids understand that we would be waiting in lines all.day.long. We waited for transportation, getting our backpack searched, going in the parks, for rides, for bathrooms, for food, for characters, etc. It helped a little bit that they were warned that we would wait. We also found that since rides were the biggest priority for our children, we needed to talk through the different parks since some have more experiences than rides. I’m looking at you, Epcot.
Our family made so many wonderful memories at Disney World. Now if only there were an app for laundry and meals for the Disney World Hangover. I suppose every kind of magic has its limits.
