This summer we took a break from our typical mountain adventures and took the kids to Disney World! Disney World has been one of my favorite places since I was little! I have been to Disney World four times now and Disney Land way too many times to count! My husband and our kids had never been to any Disney parks so this was a treat for both of them.
I will tell you, going to Disney World with kids is way different then going with no kids! I am so grateful that my whole family went with us to help out! In my mind I thought the kids would just be so excited to be there that it would be smooth sailing. There were plenty of melt downs, tears, and naps! Don’t get me wrong, they had a blast, it was just a little different than I pictured it in my head.
Disney has been one of my favorite family adventures. Even when I was younger I loved when my parents would take us to Disney. I do believe my love for Disney comes from my dad who is just as excited to vacation at Disney as I am!
While I have never had a bad vacation at Disney World, there are a couple of things I will do differently next time. Planning a Disney vacation can be overwhelming and frustrating. Some people make whole careers out of planning Disney World vacations for other people. Talk about a dream come true! I did a lot of research before we went and I got some awesome tips that I am so glad we used! Also, there are some things I will be doing differently next time. Here are all my tips to make sure you have an awesome experience:
1. Go During Cooler Months
Orlando gets so hot and it is so humid! My husband and I hate the heat. I should have known before I planned this trip that going in a hot month would be a bad idea. We went in June which isn’t typically the hottest months in Orlando, but of course when we were there they were experiencing record highs! Go figure!
There is a ton of walking around and while Disney does a very good job of keeping the attractions air conditioned, you are still outside so much! For some people this might not even be a problem. Some people like the heat. We are not those people. Next time I plan a trip for Disney I will be planning it in November.
Also, it’s a good idea to go during the months that get the least amount of rain!
2. Stay At The Same Hotel
This summer when we went to Disney World, my whole family came. My parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister. We all made our reservations and we were all at separate hotels, except my sister and my parents. This was annoying because Disney does not run shuttles between hotel rooms. So, in order for us to all eat breakfast together at my parents hotel, we would have to either take a shuttle to a park, then grab a shuttle back to their hotel room, or you’d have to take an Uber.
After one or two days there, we all ended up changing our reservations to move over to my parents hotel. It just made things so much easier, especially with kids. This made it so easy for my parents to take my kids back to rest and then Justin and I could come back and we wouldn’t have to ping pong all over Disney to get back to our rooms.
3. No Meal Plan With Little Kids
Disney has some amazing restaurants and some pretty over priced food! Even a plate of snack nachos Justin and I got were around $20. Disney has made these meal plans to eliminate some of the burden of paying for food while in the park. These plans really entice people because they don’t have to think about spending money on food in the park since it is pre-paid.
The meal plans typically include a certain number of meal tokens and a certain number of snack tokens. If you use your meal tokens on higher end restaurants, the meal plan pays off. At these higher end restaurants you will get a drink, an appetizer, a meal, and a dessert. It’s a lot of food and it’s good food!
So I know what you are thinking, why would you not get another meal plan. The dinners can run pretty long. Sometimes even two hours since you are having so many courses. My kids do not want to sit at a table for two hours. Also, to get into the higher end restaurants, you typically have to have a reservation. This puts a time crunch on anything that you want to do. If you’re half way through the line for Splash Mountain, you’ll have to leave to make your reservation.
When my children are a little bit older, I will more than likely consider the meal plan. But when I plan to take them back in about five years, I will not purchase it.
4. Bring a Small Stroller
When we left for Disney, I asked my dad if I should bring my small fold up stroller or not. He told me no because Disney stroller rentals are incredibly reasonable and we would just rent one. Turns out, stroller rentals are not incredibly reasonable and they are quite expensive. We ended up buying a cheap fold up stroller for around $45, that would have cost maybe $20 at Target, but it was way cheaper than renting a stroller for a week. If I remember the numbers correctly, we would have hit $45 in stroller rentals on day 2.
The best part about bringing a stroller is that it can literally stay with you the whole time and come in really handy. It would have been really nice to have the stroller with us through out the airport as well. And, strollers can be brought on the plane and do not count as a carry on!
5. Bring Water Bottles
This was the smartest thing I think we did on this trip. Any sort of bottled drink is so expensive but it’s so hot that you are going to want water. Disney allows you to bring water bottles into the park and they have water fountains and fill up stations. I brought in two and made sure they always had water in them!
I do not think you can bring any sort of liquid into Disney so I do believe the water bottles have to be empty when you enter the park. I’m not sure how closely they really check this but I always dumped out our water bottles at the end of the day and started with fresh water in the mornings.
6. Bring Snacks
I don’t know how many blog posts I have written that include how much my children love snacks! And at Disney, there is nothing worst than a child that refused to eat the breakfast you paid for and then wants a $10 pretzel for a snack. Disney does allow you to bring in snacks so I made sure our backpack was full of them!
When we were in the park, I packed my backpack with easy snacks like granola bars and fruit snacks. Back in our hotel room, I kept a lot of other snacks too. I had pretzels, animal crackers, and a couple of other things for the kids to eat after we had swam or left the park for the day. Having a lot of snacks can save you from spending a ton of money on food that your child may or may not eat.
I would also suggest bringing breakfast food to eat before you go to the parks. I didn’t this time since we had a meal plan, but next time I will for sure! Since food is so expensive already, you might as well cut out one meal by just bringing the food and eating it in they hotel room before you head out. Also, I do believe all the hotels have a small general store where you can get things like milk or cereal.
7. Find Mickey and Minnie ASAP
My daughter would not stop talking about meeting Mickey Mouse even months before we left. In my mind I though, “We are going to Disney World so Mickey should not be that hard to find.” Well to my surprise, it is very hard to find Mickey. It was actually hard to find a lot of characters. The majority of the characters that we saw were at character dinners.
Finally, on the last day we found Mickey in Hollywood Studios Park. He actually has his own little building where you can come and see him. This helps so much because when you find the characters outside, they can only stay out so long and a lot of times they walk away with no warning.
I can say if you are looking for characters that are just out and about, Hollywood Studios was the best park to see them. Lotus even had a dance party with The Incredibles!
8. Relax
I know Disney can be a stressful trip. You just spent a lot of money and you want to make sure you do everything!! Well I am here to tell you that you won’t be able to do everything so it’s better to just relax. My whole trip I worried if the kids were having enough fun, if they were going on enough rides, or how I was going to find time to get them to a different part of the park.
It can be very hard for a lot of people (like me!) to relax on a Disney vacation because there is so much to do and it can be very overwhelming! So, don’t worry if your kids are having fun or not. They are! Don’t feel bad about taking an afternoon off and napping or swimming. Your kids probably need it! Also, if you are going with family, don’t feel guilty for taking some time for yourself in the park and letting someone else watch your kids. My parents took my kids multiple times so we could all go and have some kid free time!
9. Have A Rough Plan
Now that I told you to relax, I am going to tell you to have a plan! Before heading out the door to Disney, you should have a rough plan of what you want to do. And I say rough because plans always change and nothing will ever go 100% according to plan. I would make a list of things that you absolutely want to do. A list of things that you will be really upset if you don’t get to see or do. For me, my favorite thing at Disney is the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. So I made sure when I could get my fast passes that I got one for that ride.
Also, I only wanted to have a rough plan when I went to Disney because not only was this my kids first time at Disney, it was Justin’s first time too. I had no idea if he was going to like it or not. I know Disney is not necessarily his favorite thing in the world but he was a good sport about everything!
There are so many wonderful memories to be made at Disney World! I really loved taking my kiddos this summer and I can’t wait to go back in about five years! Let me know any of your Disney tips or tricks!! I will be visiting Disney Land early next year with my sister and I can not wait for that!