Sharing helpful tips for visiting Disney and planning the best trip!
PLAN AHEAD
Disney requires both a park reservation plus an admission ticket. Reservations fill up so if you have a date in mind that your visiting, reserve your tickets sooner rather than later.
ARRIVE EARLY
The park is significantly calmer (and cooler) before 11am. Check to see if your hotel offers Disney Magic Hours for early admittance.
PACK LIGHT
No one wants to carry heavy bags around all day. Some essentials to include:
- Sunscreen: carry a small size stick or tube, you’ll want to reapply often
- Refillable water bottle: you need to hydrate often in the Florida heat.
- Lightweight ponchos: Florida is notorious for mid day/evening showers. Often they clear up quickly and a lightweight poncho will keep you moving.
- Snacks: lines can get long and instead of stopping for snacks save time by packing your own snacks and munching on them while you wait. As a side note you probably want to take easy, non messy foods like granola bars, fruit pouches, non messy fruits. We took clementines and Trader Joe’s cheese puffs.
- Phone charger: from taking pictures, using the Disney app, your phone will get drained pretty quickly. Take a portable charger or wire charger to juice up when you can.
- Disposable wipes: I have a travel pack of wipes with me anytime we travel, life is messy and having a quick way to clean up makes it so much easier. Throw in lots of Disney ice creams and treats, you’ll be thankful you thought ahead!
- Stroller: If you are traveling with younger kids take your stroller, kids get exhausted plus you’ll want the wheels to store your diaper bag.
DISNEY WORLD APP
Download the Disney World App before your trip. You can map out all the things you want to see and experience plus when you’re there the app gives you real time wait times so you can plan your day accordingly.
BEAT THE HEAT
The Florida sun is no joke, wear light breathable clothing and shoes that are comfortable! If you’re prone to chafing and decide to wear a skirt or dress, I highly recommend wearing bike shorts under —this will save you! Check the weather before you go, during winter and early spring, mornings and nights tend to get cooler so it would be a good idea to pack a light cardigan or sweater. All our outfits are linked here, including the matching tshirts.
TAKE BREAKS
The heat + long wait times are exhausting. Plan your shows and sit down meals during the hottest part of the day. We even took the boats and skyliner for a midday break and recharge.
GENIE + LIGHTENING LAKE
Is it worth it? There are hundreds of blogs that are dedicated to the experience of Disney and how to plan best so I’ll leave that to them. In short, if you are tight on time or only in down for a quick few days I’d suggest opting in for this option.
SAVE MONEY + HYDRATE
A simple way to save hundreds of dollars. Anytime we stopped for a snack or treat, we ordered ice waters and kept filling our bottle, this saved us both time and $. Think about it, let’s say you have 4 people in your party, every time you buy water bottles it will be around $16. Because it’s so hot in Florida you will need to keep hydrating, by the end of the day it’s easy to spend $80 on water alone. And if you plan on going to multiple parks, you would be spending around $300 on water bottles alone, plus all that plastic. For us taking a water bottle that we could fill up was a no brainer!
WHERE TO STAY
If you stay at a hotel that is a Disney partner you get to avail Magic Hours, which is basically extra time at Disney.If you are planning a trip that is centered around the parks, I would stay at one of them. It also means that most of these hotels have complimentary shuttles so you don’t have to worry about parking at Disney.
HOW MANY DAYS
A common question I got asked is how long to go and if the park hopper option makes sense. If you are visiting for the first time I would say purchase a few days and make reservations at the different parks accordingly. Disney usually gives discounts on the more days you purchase. We declined the hopper option so we could just focus on one park. Another thing I recommend is to space out your days between parks as it’s quite exhausting and it’s nice to have a break. We kept a day in between parks and walked around Disney Springs along with having some pool time at the hotel.
I hope this helps you have a fun and relaxed trip to Disney!
