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  • Haley Haskin
    • Aug 29, 2017
    • 9 min read

Disney for Dummies: Making the Most of your Disney Vacation


Ever since I did my Disney College Program, I have had many families and couples coming to me for advice in planning their next Disney vacation. I have also heard some horror stories from people who tried to do Disney, and did not end up having a good time, simply because they were unaware of all that Disney has to offer, and didn't utilize their time and money properly. I'm going to use this Disney for Dummies post to answer all those questions and improve the quality of your next Disney vacation. Consider this your basic tips and tricks travel guide for all things Disney parks and resorts. Here is how to do Disney, the smart way.

Smart Lodging

Because Disney resorts can become very expensive, a lot of people think it is a better idea to stay in a hotel off Disney property, and drive into property each day. It is true that this can be a much cheaper option. The only downside to this is that when you don't stay at a Disney resort, you have to pay a minimum of $20 for parking each day you go to the parks. You will also be farther away from the parks, not in the Disney bubble, and your resort won't be fun and themed to Disney.

If you do stay at a Disney resort, there are three tiers of price ranges: value, moderate, and deluxe. Depending on the season, value resorts, especially the All Star resorts, can be a good option, as they are as cheap as a hotel off property, they give you free parking access in the theme parks, and they are themed really cutely. If you are going to Disney to enjoy the parks, you probably won't spend that much time in your hotel room anyways. If you just need a place to sleep, the value resorts are for you. If you are looking to spend more money on a more luxurious trip, then definitely go for the moderate and deluxe resorts!

Don't forget to plan a “rest day” into your vacation, especially if your goal is to do everything in the parks from open to close (which I don't recommend). Between the heat, the walking, and the long hours, you are going to be utterly exhausted by day three, and suddenly your Disney vacation becomes a laborious chore. Give yourself that day to sleep in and sit by the pool, so you can refuel for the rest of your week.

Smart Fastpassing

Disney has these magical, free, little bits of efficiency called Fastpasses, that allow you to skip lines and board a ride or attraction in a quarter or less of the wait time. While these magical bits of efficiency are extremely advantageous to marking attractions off your bucket list, they seem to be a source of confusion for many Disney guests. We are going to clear up this confusion right now.

To use a Fastpass, all you have to is go through the Fastpass entrance to an attraction (not the Standby entrance), tap your magic band where the cast member tells you to, and essentially skip the line, because you planned in advance.

To make a Fastpass, you can either go to the My Disney Experience app (downloadable for free on your phone), or find a Fastpass kiosk in the parks, where cast members are stationed to expedite the process. Using your park ticket, you can make up to three Fastpasses at a time (for only one park at a time). If you are with a group of people, you are able to link all of your tickets together so that you can get the exact same fastpasses at the exact same times. Once your tickets are linked, you simply scroll through the list of attractions in that park, and see what is available and for what times. Then you select the three you want. After you have selected your three Fastpasses, you are still able to modify the times and attractions the Fastpasses are for.

Each Fastpass has a time frame of an hour, and Fastpass times cannot overlap each other. This means if you have a Fastpass for Splash Mountain between 2:00pm-3:00pm, you can scan it and enter the ride in the Fastpass lane at any time during that hour window. Once that time window has ended, or once you have used your Fastpass to enter that attraction (whichever happens first), your Fastpass will expire. After you have used all three of your Fastpasses, you can continue using the My Disney Experience app, or a Fastpass kiosk in the park to continue making more Fastpasses as the day goes on.

Thus, it makes sense to get your first three Fastpasses for times that are earlier in the day, so that once those three have been used, you can continue to make more. As you can not make more fast passes until you have used all three of the ones you first made.

Do I recommend Fastpasses? Absolutely yes. I never enter a Disney park without Fastpasses made. It saves you so much time to plan ahead. Even if you don't make them a week in advance (which I recommend, because the earlier you make them, the better the availability is), you can still make them the morning of, and save yourself hours of waiting in line. Do not go to the parks without utilizing Fastpass! They are free and save time, so you have nothing to lose!

Smart Parkhopping

Disney sells a special form of park ticket known as a hopper ticket. These tickets are normally about $50 more than a standard park ticket, because they allow you to enter into multiple Disney parks in one day, whereas a standard ticket only lets you enter into the designated park you paid for. Hypothetically, you could enter Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios all in the same day, if you really wanted to.

That brings me to my main stigma with the hopper pass. Transport to and from parks can take up to an hour sometimes. That means that while you could be spending your whole day in just one park, you are spending an hour of the day you paid for on a bus, or a monorail, or a tram, or a boat of some sort. Then you have to go through security again. And it can turn into a big hot mess, especially if you are going to three or four parks in a day. Some people spend all their time hopping, when they could have saved those hours to enjoy what the individual parks have to offer.

As it stands right now, Magic Kingdom is a full day park. Epcot and Animal Kingdom could go either way. And Hollywood Studios is definitely a half day park. So if you are planning to park hop at all, be strategic about how you buy your tickets. Don't buy a 4-day park hopper if you are only going to park hop on one of those 4 days. Because remember, the park hopper adds a good premium onto your ticket prices. You don't want to pay to hop if you end up staying at the same park all day anyways.

Also remember that if you have made a reservation for a restaurant located in one of the parks, make sure you are in the right park at the right time. Look at the times guides located alongside the park maps. Make sure that if you want to watch The Festival of the Lion King in Animal Kingdom at 2:00pm, you aren't in Epcot at 1:00pm. Make sure that if you have a dinner reservation for The Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom at 6:00pm, you aren't in Hollywood Studios watching a Indiana Jones at 5:00pm. I know it seems like common sense, but you have no idea how many times this has happened to guests who didn't know what they wanted to do, and didn't plan a little in advance.

So scout out the park offerings ahead of time. Know what shows they have to offer, look at the schedule for character meet and greets, and bear in mind when you have made your fast passes for. You don't want your Disney vacation that you paid thousands of dollars for to be a bunch of missing things. It is okay to play most things by ear, but a little anticipation is good in the way of park hopping and dining reservations.

Smart Transportation

The good news is, Disney has oodles of free transportation methods that you can utilize to make your single park visits or your park hopping methods a little more efficient. There are monorails that take you between the Magic Kingdom resorts and that run between Epcot and Magic Kingdom, so you only have to park your car once. There are boats that run from the Boardwalk resorts to Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. There is also a walkway between Hollywood Studios and Epcot via the Boardwalk. There are buses that leave from every single Disney resort, park, and from Disney springs that will transport you to any Disney location, and there are Minnie Vans, which are essentially Disney Ubers that can take you anywhere on property you need to go. There are even trams that take you from your car in the parking lot, to the park gate. Even if it takes a while, it is possible to get from one place to any other by using only Disney's transportation system. Do consider though, that sometimes things like the tram or the boat take longer than your own two feet. It just depends on how tired you are.

Smart Eating

While Fastpasses and transportation are gloriously free, food is regrettably not. In fact, food is one of the most overpriced things you will come by on Disney property. I'm talking $12 for a basket of chicken nuggets, and up to $60 a plate for a nice sit down meal. Though I will hand it to Disney that the theming and experience of a lot of their dine-in locations is worth the money, paying $10-$14 for the quick service food, such as a small sandwich or burger for lunch, is just ridiculous. But like I said, the dine-in restaurants can be some of the most enjoyable parts of a Disney vacation, especially if you have kids interested in getting character meet and greets with no line.

So my recommendation is this: make one dine-in reservation for each day of your vacation, whether it be a nice steak house in Epcot, a fun character meet and greet breakfast buffet, whatever. Then eat breakfast in the room or at McDonalds, and bring sandwiches and snacks for the rest of the day. This way you get to enjoy the restaurants that are worth the money, and save on the burger and fries you could get at any fast food chain for a quarter of the price.

Must Do's

Now before I set you free on your long awaited and much planned for Disney vacations, let me give you a few more things to think about adding into those plans.

Disclaimer* It is hard to give advice on what to add to your plans when I don't know who will be in your group, but these are things that I consider to be the core of Disney World, and universal for most all age groups.

I will list the location, name, what it is, and when it happens.

Magic Kingdom

Festival of Fantasy: parade; once in afternoon

Happily Ever After: fireworks; once at night

Move it Shake it Street Party; parade/dance party; three times a day

Space Mountain; mild coaster ride; all day

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; mild coaster ride; all day

The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train; mild coaster ride; all day

Splash Mountain; water flume/dark ride; all day

Animal Kingdom

Festival of the Lion King: show; shows all day

Finding Nemo the Musical; show; shows all day until 5:00pm

Hollywood Studios

Fantasmic; show; once at night

Food

Eat a Mickey bar; found in any park

Eat a Dole Whip; found in Adventureland in Magic Kingdom and the Polynesian resort

Eat a Mickey waffle; most commonly found at breakfast dine-in buffets

Tips

And here are my last words of advice before I send you off to experience the magic.

1. Don't exhaust yourself. You will not, and you don't have to see everything. Retain the fun by giving some things up, and focusing on what you really came for.

2. Magic bands are extremely convenient. These are the little rubber bracelets that go on your wrist like a watch. On them you can link your room key, park ticket, fast passes, credit card, and photo pass card. You scan everything from your wrist so you never again have to dig in your wallet that is buried in your backpack under you child's sippy cup, a bottle of sunscreen, and a mountain of poptart crumbs. Note: if you stay in a Disney resort, these will be mailed to you included in your room deposit in advance. If you are not, then they are available to purchase in the parks for about $13.

3. Bring an umbrella to the parks. Not only because it storms every day in Florida at 3:00pm, but it is also really nice to have when you are lining up 30 minutes in advance to see a show or parade and need some protection from the sweltering Florida sun.

4. Disney roads are nice, but can be very confusing, especially when there is construction going on, which is always, because Disney never stops expanding. Make sure you pay attention to those purple road signs. 5. The most important in my opinion. You don't have to document every single blink, breath, pee, and poop of your trip. Miraculously good news, I know. It's true! All you have to do is relax and enjoy it. Of course take some pictures and videos of things when the time is right. But guess what. If you want to remember what It's a Small World looks like, or see a crappy video of the Fireworks behind the castle, I assure you there are about a thousand videos on Youtube of the same content that you would document on your phone. And wouldn't you rather enjoy the moments that you paid thousands of dollars to experience, rather than stress out about getting everything on your Snap story?

Now, go, leave this world, and enjoy the magic of the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy!

If you'd like to see a video version of this blog post, check out my series of Disney Travel Guide videos in the following links:

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