Whether or not you are a fan of the mouse, a trip to Disney World in Florida is a magical experience. Travelling with a family of Disney enthusiasts makes it even more enchanting. The lineups and crowds, wait times and breakdowns were all met with a happy shrug and a chance to move on to more opportunities. We got up early, stayed out late and suffered (mostly) silently with sore feet and blisters.
Watching the look on my granddaughter’s face when she first saw Cinderella’s castle will be forever ingrained in my memories. Meeting characters, watching fireworks and braving all the rides (them, not me) made for an amazing family vacation. We also took the time to celebrate; a retirement, a birthday and especially a castle proposal.
If you are thinking of this type of trip for your family here are our recommendations to ensure you have a amazing, and economical time.
- The first is not an original recommendation but one I picked up from one of the many Disney blogs I read while planning. Do not plan to go into a park on your arrival day. Check into your resort, get unpacked and enjoy a leisurely day in the bright Florida sunshine. All of us arrived at different times and our rooms were ready throughout the day so we couldn’t all check in on arrival. Most of us drove, and the others had early morning flights so the rest was necessary to ensure we had a great first day in Magic Kingdom.
- Get comfortable using the My Disney Experience app. The maps for each park included wait times for rides, dining options, show times; pretty much everything you needed to know during the day, including the location of the restrooms. We appointed one member of our party as the tour guide and followed him throughout the day. It was also helpful because certain rides were closed or others temporarily broken down and this helped us to better make use of our time. The app allows you to link your party together to make dinner reservation or to use the virtual queues on the popular rides. Travelling with a larger party can have its challenges but patience and a good plan really helped to ensure that everyone got what they wanted.
- Stay onsite at a Disney resort. You can find a resort to fit any budget. We stayed at the All Star Movie Resort. It was less expensive than any other one of the resorts and for a family our size this was an important consideration. There my not have been as many amenities in the resort but it had a pool, activities throughout the day and a cafeteria for simple meals. Having said that we spent little time in the resort outside of that first day. Breakfast, showers and sleep was all we needed it for. That and a convenient bus service that took us to the parks everyday.
- Don’t over pack. The resort had much of what we needed, as any hotel would have, such as toiletries. Comfortable shoes are a must and I would recommend taking two pairs so that you can alternate each day to avoid tired feet. What I would pack is lots of Disney branded clothing. If you can, stop at the local Walmart to get the best deals. Everyone is dressed to impress and it was such fun. Also on our first day we had matching family shirts (thanks Shauna) and it was so much easier to find everyone.
- Some of our other value added suggestions include;
- Bring your own food into the resort for breakfast (microwaves and toasters are available for use in the cafeteria). There are fridges in the room so we also packed lunches and snacks to take into the parks each day to avoid overspending on food. The cafeteria also had all the condiments you would need so not necessary to bring along mayo or mustard etc.
- Investing in the refillable mugs so that you can get coffee, tea and soft drinks in the resort.
- Magic Bands are not necessary but if you do purchase them they have some interesting features.
- We also did not use the Lightening Lanes that cost extra. The parks were not crazy busy when we were there so Standby was fine. We also used the early entry option as resort guests so that we could do the popular rides first thing in the morning which significantly reduced our wait times.
Do for sure splurge on one good meal each day. There are so many fun themed options offering excellent food and service and character interactions. And despite best intentions you will want to pick up a few souvenirs. After all what girl doesn’t want her first pair of ears!