My Top Ten Disney World Vacation Tips

There are dozens of books on this subject already. Most go into great detail giving you descriptions of every feature and every strategy for maximizing every moment of your stay at the Walt Disney World Resort or whatever the marketing department is calling it this year.

Dozens of my fellow bloggers strive to give you tremendous pools of information on every aspect of these great parks. There’s  touring guides, menus from every conceivable dining opportunity, packing guides -  the works.

All of these resources are very valuable. Not only because of the amount of detailed information they give you but because, quite honestly, they feed that desire to extend the enjoyment of your next trip to “the World” beyond the days you are actually on property. As I’ve said in previous posts; planning a trip can be half the fun.

I have the somewhat unusual and yet somewhat planned advantage of living just a short drive from Disney’s Orlando home and as such find myself and my family visiting the parks dozens of times a year. So, with that experience and history under my belt, I thought I would try to give you my top 10 tips of having a happy, wonderful, and somewhat affordable Walt Disney World vacation.

Tip #1: Bring a car

Just the first tip on the list and already I’m bringing controversy to the table. Read just about any guidebook and they will tell you that the Disney World transportation system is amazingly clean, efficient, and free to all guests. Arrive at your airport, check your bags and allow Disney to take care of the rest. Soon you will arrive at your resort via luxury motor coach and discover that your bags have magically arrived at your resort as well. For the rest of your stay you can easily get just about anywhere around the resort via the various buses, boats, and the ever famous Monorail. At the end of your stay you are again swept back to your airport via motor coach. All of this is included in your room rate.

Sounds rather wonderful, doesn’t it? If you’re squeezing every dollar out of your budget to pull off this trip, then I have to say, (despite this tip) you should probably take advantage of Disney’s services. Plus, it is the “green” thing to do, I guess.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that having the convenience and flexibility of your own vehicle to get around “the World” on your own schedule has some strong advantages – not the least of which is the ability to venture off of Disney property during your stay.

“What?”, I hear you say. “Leave Disney property?” I know. I was waiting to get hit by a bolt of lightning when I wrote it. But there are a few reasons why you might want to, or need to, leave the Disney grounds -  which I’ll cover in my next tip beyond the concept that you might actually want to visit Sea World or Universal Studios during your stay as well. I know. Sacrilege.

The biggest reason I’ve always appreciated having my own transportation available at Disney is that, while the Disney system is solid, it has this nasty habit of not picking you up and taking you exactly where you want to go at a moments notice like your own car usually will.

As good as the Disney system is, you’ll find many people that can tell stories of waiting in long lines for buses that arrive already packed to capacity. You’ll hear stories of bus routes that seem to wander all over the park before finally getting back to their specific hotel and specific bus stop. And then there is the Monorail system that, while still impressive, doesn’t seem to have enough capacity to prevent hot, cranky, and tired people from being crammed into closed quarters together at the end of a long and expensive day.

As an aside, can anyone explain to me why every time I get on the Monorail on a warm day it smells like a wet diaper? I digress.

I’m sure folks could point out how if I just learn to use the system, and catch the right bus at the right time, that getting to and from the parks is much easier and faster using the public transportation system versus my own car. I’m sure it may be at times. But with my own vehicle, while it may not be quite as efficient all the time, at least I’m in my own car, with my own air conditioner, and my own privacy as we move around the property.

But there is another advantage to having your own vehicle…

Tip #2: Eating on Disney property is expensive

Let me be clear. Even though you may have budgeted yourself within a dime prior to coming down to Disney World you will blow that budget almost immediately during your first meal on property. You simply cannot properly prepare for how much money you are going to spend on mediocre food and expensive liquids while at Disney World.

As I’m writing this I’m just a few days removed from being on Disney property for a long weekend with my family. Our first meal on property, from the “affordable” cafeteria dining hall in our resort, cost us $35.00 for just two people (since my daughter brought her own food). She’s a smart kid for six years old. What did we get for our money? We got  a turkey sandwich that was mostly bread with bland chips, a cookie, and a Coke, along with a bowl of chicken pasta that was actually not bad, a small piece of greasy garlic bread that was very bad, a brownie, and another Coke.

That came to $17.50 a plate (on average) for some fairly mediocre food, paid for after a nine-minute wait in a six-deep line that did nothing but cause our food to get cold. On top of that, of course, being the bargain dining option, at the end of our meal we removed our resulting mess ourselves on plastic trays just like in your favorite fast food joint or school cafeteria. Oh, and apparently ice from the self-serve soda fountain must have been an upgrade because none of the machines I found had any in them during this particular meal.

While you may try to argue with me to dismiss this as a uniquely bad experience, sadly, this has been pretty much par for the course every time we’ve eaten in these places during our numerous visits. And yet, even at these prices and with this quality and service, we go again and again.

Why?

Because you so easily get into the mentality that you’re on vacation and that these captured audience prices are somehow just a cost of doing business. I watched a man pay $10.50 to buy two 12-ounce domestic beers while I waited to pay for my bread sandwich. I know for a fact you can buy those same two beers at the local grocery store for about $1 each. That’s a pretty rough mark-up for a bargain dining experience. But, back to the pool he went with his beer he had just paid the equivalent of $61.33 a gallon for – and with a smile on his face.

So, know going in that not only you will have to do your homework to find only the handful of exceptional places to eat at Disney World, but you are going to have to be ready to pay ridiculous fees for the privilege of eating no matter where you go.

To compare quickly, later during that same visit I paid just $2.50 more per person and dined on a wonderful bowl of onion soup, a tasty quiche Lorraine, and a dessert of creme brulee freshly crusted prior to being served thanks to the fine dining experience available in the French pavilion at Epcot.

Buyer beware.

Looking back on Tip #1 you can see the building advantage of having your own transportation available to you. There are dozens of affordable dining alternatives just minutes away from your room, as well as a few grocery stores, as long as you have a way of getting to them in your own vehicle. Again, the Disney buses do not run out to the grocery store or area eateries.

Is it going to be cheaper to just suck it up and pay Disney dining prices instead of renting a car and paying for food outside of the parks? Maybe. That depends on how many folks are eating. But I promise you will find better food at better prices outside of the parks in nearly every case.

And as long as I’m on the subject, beware of the bottomless soda mugs that they will sell you in the resorts for around $14.00 apiece. Again, using rough math, you will have to fill these mugs at least half a dozen times during your stay just to be a few pennies ahead versus simply buying a paper cup that can be refilled over and over again while you are eating your individual meals. Unless your room is very close to the soda fountains or you think you and the kids will be spending your vacation sitting at the resort pool all day instead of playing in the parks, you might want to consider just how much soda you really need while staying on site. And… you can buy a 2-liter of Coke at the local grocery store for around $1.50 to keep in your room if you have a way of getting out to the store to buy it.

Tip #3: Stay on Disney property

I know. I just got done telling you to rent a car and that eating on Disney property is a price and quality rip-off in most cases. Why would I suggest you actually stay on property when International Drive is just a few minutes away with affordable clean rooms and solid dining options?

The answer is service. As bad as the dining experience often is at Disney World, the customer service is amazingly good. It isn’t the convenience of having the Disney Transportation System available, nor is it the 24-hours-a-day of being “at Disney World” that makes the upcharge for Disney resorts worth the price. It’s the people that make it worth while for me.

I’m sure there are fine people working at the local Hilton and Holiday Inn as well. But, while on the grounds of a Disney resort, you are surrounded by people that have been trained within an inch of insanity to make sure that you are having a great time during your stay. Not just a good time. A great time.

I could cite dozens of occasions of Disney “cast members” going out of their way to do little things to make sure we felt special. I have four stories I could tell you just from this past weekend. Realize, these are not people trying to improve a bad situation. This isn’t damage control to keep a customer after an error. Some of the most memorable perks we’ve received staying at Disney World have come during times when we were already perfectly happy. Disney cast members still went the extra mile to make us feel completely special and appreciated.

The people who work for the Disney Company are a special type of special and you should take advantage of that and enjoy having them on your side if at all possible.

Tip #4: Staying late in the parks? Plan on staying really late.

There is no way around the fact that Walt Disney World is an expensive place to be unless you go crazy and actually move here like we did. One natural reaction for vacationing families is to try to maximize every minute of their stay. If the park they want to go to today opens at 8am they will be there at gate open. Many of these same crazy people will stay in the park until the cleaning crews kick them out at Midnight whether they’re still having fun or not. (More on this later)

As a result, Disney’s previously discussed public transportation systems will get crushed early in the morning and even more so at park close. And, because of the way parking is designed, even having your own vehicle may not even help your situation much (when leaving The Magic Kingdom, for example). Experience has taught me that the absolute worst time to try to leave The Magic Kingdom is right after the closing fireworks show. Lines for the transportation options back to the resorts or off-property are long and filled with cranky parents and even more miserable kids.

There are two ways to beat this. First, you can always opt to just avoid park open and close. Beating the heat early in the morning is nice and the closing shows at the parks are spectacular. But so is being back at your resort with the pool practically to yourself and finding the restaurants quiet and the service fast.

If you must stay for the late show, and you probably should at least once during your stay, then realize that your best strategy after the smoke clears is to just find a comfortable place to rest and wait for about an hour. Depending on which park you’re in, you might even be able to get on a ride or two that was packed just a few hours ago. You aren’t going anywhere anyways, so you might as well be comfortable and have some fun. Just know this: If The Magic Kingdom fireworks are scheduled for 10pm, you will not be back in your room much before midnight unless you leave at 9:45pm or are paying top dollar to stay at one of the luxury Magic Kingdom resorts. Keeping that in mind and part of your overall schedule will make everyone much happier.

Oh, and here’s a mini-tip: Factor into your physical equation trying to save enough energy to walk out to your car in the parking lot instead of waiting in line for the tram service at the end of the night (assuming you drove, of course). When the crowds are big you can almost always get back to your car faster by walking unless you’ve been parked at the far edges of the lots. And, since you probably are parked up front since you were one of those crazy people that arrived at park open despite my advice, you should be all set.

Tip #5: Give up your afternoons in the parks

I just told you to avoid the late evenings in the parks and now this? Yes. Don’t be one of the thousands of families that beats down the gates at 8am and then drags their crying children around the various parks all afternoon and evening while you and your honey snap at each other just because you’re committed to getting your full value out of all this money you’re spending on this magical freaking vacation and they say they’re tired!

This is a popular tip from most sources, but I’m here to tell you it’s true: Leave the parks around noon and don’t go back in until after 4pm, especially if you’re determined to be there at park close.

First of all, you’re likely paying a premium for your resort room. Go and use it! The resort will be fairly quiet because a rather small percentage of guests take this common piece of advice to heart. The pools will have chairs. The restaurants will have tables. There may be rental boats available. There will be short lines in the gift shops. The air conditioning and cable TV is included in the room price. Take a nap! Enjoy the fruits of going against the grain. Remember that a big part of a vacation is the relaxing. Standing in your seventh 30-minute-plus line of the day to ride in some giant tea cups, for about 90-seconds, in the Florida heat, is not what I call all that relaxing.

You need to realize long before you arrive on Disney property that you’re not going to have enough time or energy to see and do everything that you want to do during your stay. Disney wants you to believe that they have provided a huge amount of entertainment options to you and that there is actually time during your stay to enjoy them all. That’s how they convince you that your ticket and room prices make some sort of financial sense. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to happen. Even if the parks were completely empty there just isn’t enough time to physically do everything. Admit defeat and move forward.

Take the time while still at home to come up with a list – a small list – of the rides and activities that you simply have to do during your next trip. From there, the rest needs to be viewed as a series of bonuses that present themselves along the way. And besides, you were looking for an excuse to come back next year anyway, right? More on this later.

Tip #6: Don’t forget to enjoy just being there

In case you haven’t picked up on my theme yet, you need to realize that even with a down economy that the Walt Disney World Resort is a busy and expensive place to be. There are long lines for nearly every ride throughout the day and often first-timers are shocked that their 45-minute wait has been rewarded with a 90-second ride with Winnie the Pooh that is over before you even settle in for the experience.

So don’t forget to take in the no-effort pleasures of just being within the environment that Disney has worked so hard to create for you using all of the money everyone else is spending.

Sit down on a bench on Main Street and listen to the sounds piped in to lend some color to the corners and side streets. Find out when the Beatles tribute band is playing next at the British Pavilion and spend a few minutes just listening to the tunes on a shaded bench in one of Disney’s most attractive gardens. Go ahead and park yourself near the coaster in The Animal Kingdom park. Laugh at the crazy people that waited so long in line just to be that scared while you recharge your batteries. Appreciate just how real that man-made mountain actually looks from where you are.

Don’t forget to stop, look up from your guidebooks and realize, “Hey, I’m actually at freaking Walt Disney World!” Long after you’re home from your Disney vacation it will be these little moments that stay with you. They’ll mean so much more than your brief time riding in a circle on some plastic elephant. Not that the Dumbo Ride is a bad thing. It’s just that there are opportunities for memories to be made away from the rides as well.

Tip #7: Celebrate when it rains!

If you’re coming to hot and humid Central Florida, especially during the summer (crazy), you need to be prepared for the fact that we can get some pretty serious thunderstorms in the late afternoon. When the weather systems are just right you can bank on getting a good hard thunderstorm somewhere between 3pm and 6pm nearly every day. They normally won’t last long, maybe 30 minutes to an hour, but they will be windy, loud, and somewhat dangerous events.

Learn how to be smart and see these storms as your friends.

Those unprepared for these fast moving storms will run for the parking lot or their hotel thinking that the day is ruined. But not you! You were ready. You knew that when simple rain approaches that relatively inexpensive plastic ponchos suddenly appear ready for purchase at nearly every cash register. You know that if you just duck inside somewhere while the bigger storms pass, maybe on a long ride like Epcot’s Universe of Energy or into one of the huge souvenir stores, that by the time you come back out the skies will be calmer, if still a bit drippy, but you’ll have only a fraction of the people left in the park to deal with for the next several hours than were there before the rain started.

Does Disney ever close down due to rain? While several outdoor rides do stop running due to rain the majority of the park stays active and the cast members really reach out to make sure the rain doesn’t stop the fun. If the storms are right on top of you and then, yes, everyone does pretty much run for cover until they pass. Like I said. Be smart but be patient.

If you and your crew are willing to get a little wet, and play it smart and safe, your reward will be a window of opportunity to discover the magic of having one of the Disney parks practically all to yourself.

Tip #8: Pay low – Play high

Disney probably isn’t going to be thrilled with me on this one and it is a bit sketchy but I’m going to put this one out there anyway. For all practical purposes you don’t have to be a guest of a particular resort in order to take advantage of the features of that resort. So, for example, during a recent stay my wife and I were staying at the Caribbean Beach resort. What did we do with our day? We spent it enjoying most of the luxuries that come along with staying at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort. We were able to drive over to the Boardwalk, park our car in the guest parking area thanks to our Caribbean Beach resort credentials, walk inside the resort and enjoy our afternoon and evening of first class access.

While there are rules on the books that are meant to limit guests access to other resorts, we have never been denied access to any other resort once we have been able to quickly flash some sort of other resort’s credentials. So, as another example, in the past we’ve parked our car at the main Magic Kingdom lot, walked over to the Polynesian Resort and have never been challenged about boarding the Resort Monorail or the small boat launches that take you from that resort to the Magic Kingdom. Once we were asked to show resort I.D. but a quick flash of a room key took care of it. They never even noticed that it was for an All Star Resort room.

Is this a scam or even illegal? Well, like I said, it is a bit sketchy. Naturally these boat launches and Monorail rides are capacity and financially budgeted to accommodate the luxury resort guests and not folks like me that suddenly show up looking for the luxury experience on a budget price. And, I suppose I could end up a little stranded if challenged by someone to prove that I have luxury resort I.D. on me. But, like I said, this has never happened and I’ve never seen it happen to anyone else. Just be cool, act like you belong there, and there will likely not be any problems.

Just be cool about it and don’t abuse the concept. Anyone can come and go from the Boardwalk of course. We just used our credentials to gain a little easier access than some. And it isn’t like we run over the the Polynesian resort every time we visit The Magic Kingdom. We actually were married on the grounds 16 years ago and like to visit our wedding spot from time to time. It seems silly not to just go ahead and use the available boat launch or express Monorail service since we’re already there.

No, my ethics are not entirely in the right place on this one but as Jiminy Cricket says, “let your conscience be your guide…”

Tip #9: Meeting the characters

Personally, I’m not a big fan of the characters. For all of my Disney love you can keep your underpaid young lady standing in an out-of-the-way corner pretending to be Mexican Donald Duck. My day will go along just fine, thank you. But I understand that a whole bunch of you other folks out there enjoy getting to meet Mickey Mouse and Cinderella (my daughter included) so…

Know that for any of you that visited Disney World years ago as a child that the “deal” with the characters has changed a bit. They very rarely randomly walk around the park meeting people anymore. Nearly every character experience is highly designed and managed these days, and that equals more lines but it also promises that you can get your must-have moment with your friends.

If you want your picture with Mickey, you go to where Mickey always is. Find a good guidebook or online resource and do your homework. I can tell you right now where Chip ‘n Dale have been the last six times I’ve been to Epcot and I don’t think they’re going anywhere else soon.

That said, you still get your occasional surprises so it doesn’t hurt to be observant.

During one trip last summer a cast member came up to my family, quietly leaned in and asked, “Would your little girl like to meet Cinderella?” Now, anywhere else I would have punched the guy and called the cops, but for some reason we instead followed him into a small area in the back of a building near the front of The Magic Kingdom. He raised a red velvet curtain and standing behind it was indeed Cinderella. My little girl was thrilled!

What was this all about? Likely either a test to see how the location would work for Disney if they turned the area into a more formal meeting area or we were meeting a “Cinderella in training.” Either way it was a great treat for us.

On another trip we “discovered” Mickey Mouse and a few friends down a rarely used side street near the American pavilion at Epcot. Again, I think we stumbled onto some sort of experiment but it didn’t matter to us. Our little girl had her picture taken with Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Donald Duck, all within about ten minutes and never more than second in line for any of them!

Know where to find your friends to make sure you get that one picture you know you need, but keep your head on a swivel as well. You never know who might be hiding around the next corner.

Bonus Tip: Use the Disney photographers

These folks are everywhere you might possibly want a picture taken it seems. Nearly every character will have a Disney photographer hovering around them snapping dozens of pictures of your visit. Main Street U.S.A. is lined with folks waiting to give you that special picture of your group with the castle behind you. They are everywhere.

Take one of their credit-card like photo passes and let them snap away. But be careful. While you can take a look at your pictures for some time after you get home and order prints over the Internet, the entire process (just like anything else at Disney) is far from inexpensive. However, while you have probably taken a few hundred pictures yourself while on vacation, even handing off your camera to make sure everyone was in the shot a few times, these Disney photographers are pros. They’ve taken these same shots thousands of times a day for who knows how long. They know how to capture the moment.

You won’t likely want to spend the money to buy them all of course, but there will be one or two treasures in your collection that will be must-haves. Don’t be shy. You’re under no obligation to buy any of them, so why not give it a shot?

Tip #10: Plan on going back again soon

This has been the key to my happiness for a long time when it comes to the Disney parks. The minute you relax and realize that you don’t have to do everything on this trip the easier it’s going to be to step back and just take what this particular trip gives you.

This is a hard one for most folks to deal with and I completely understand why. You are paying thousands of dollars for your handful of days at Disney World. It is a trip you have planned for, saved for, and dreamed of for months if not years. And now you are finally here! You are standing on Main Street U.S.A., your little girl has just spotted Minnie Mouse, and the dream is becoming a reality! But soon, that dream starts to slip away as the lines are longer than you thought they would be, and the weather isn’t as nice as you hoped, and the Haunted Mansion is closed for refurbishment… and suddenly your dream is becoming a series of disappointments, so you begin to rush around the parks trying to squeeze in as much fun as you possibly can before you have to go back to the real world…

Stop. Just stop.

There are a million things to do a Disney World and we all have our favorites. But the sooner you stop thinking about this trip as a once-in-a-lifetime experience and just accept the magical moments that do happen as something that simply couldn’t happen anywhere else, well, you’re starting to understand what the Disney experience is really all about.

You may not make it on the Jungle Cruise this time down. Maybe the line to ride Dumbo is just a bit too long and would cost you your chance to see the parade. Take the parade and enjoy that moment for all it’s worth. And would you believe that stupid lion was sleeping again during your safari ride and you never have seen him…

Maybe next time.

Don’t let the things you missed take away from the things you actually got to see and do. If there is one thing Disney has never let me down with, it is their ability to give me one moment, no matter how seemingly simple, that has left a smile on my face and a memory that makes all of the planning and expense seem completely worthwhile.

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Photos provided by the author.  All rights reserved.