We recently surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World, because we were meeting up with my family in Orlando for my mom’s birthday. Disney World is not exactly a relaxing vacation, but it was fun to see the kids having such a great time. If you’re thinking of taking your kids, read on for our Disney World tips and tricks.
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Disney Vacation Travel Planner
Planning our first trip to Disney World was really overwhelming so I worked with Lisa, who was recommended by friends, at Polka Dot Bow Adventures.
Lisa helped me figure out which Disney resort would be best, arranged for our MagicBands, booked FastPass+ for us at our 60-day mark and answered all of my million questions. The best part is that this service is completely complimentary when staying at Disney. I was skeptical, too, but it’s true. If it’s your first time going to Disney, these free travel planners are so worth it since they go to Disney all the time and know everything there is to know.
Theme Parks
We talked to lots of friends about their Disney experiences (some of them go to Disney every year), which was so helpful in figuring out what our kids might be interested in. We chose Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
I’ll prepare blog posts with complete one-day touring plans for each theme park based on our experience. We have a pretty wide age range with our 9.5-year-old boy, our just-turned-8-year-old boy and just-turned-2-years-old girl. We really didn’t want to deal with the toddler at Disney, but she actually was a net plus. You’ll see why when I write about each park experience.
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Disney Resort Hotels
Disney categorizes its resort hotels into deluxe, moderate and value. As you can imagine, there’s a cost difference between those categories. After much research, I chose Pop Century, a value resort. It was perfect for us.
I knew we wouldn’t take advantage of the resort amenities given our park plans. We were literally only in our hotel room to shower and sleep. The rooms were recently remodeled so they’re new and very nice. The bed was super comfortable. If you like to have a separate sleeping space you could consider the Art of Animation resort, which is literally next door to Pop Century and still in the value category. It was already booked during our stay, but it was totally fine to share one room for two nights at the Pop Century. The boys were so tired at 8:45 p.m. that they were asking to go to sleep and were asleep before I finished brushing my teeth.
We rode the resort bus to Animal Kingdom, and we had to wait less than 10 minutes for a bus and you’re dropped off directly at the entrance. My husband took the little one back for nap at the hotel and then met up with us again after. On the day we went to Magic Kingdom, we were moving to our off-property hotel and drove our car, which was much less convenient.
Rental Car
If you’re staying on property and take advantage of Disney’s complimentary Magical Express airport shuttle, you may never need a rental car. Since we were moving off property after the first two nights, we needed a car to get around. In-terminal car rentals at Orlando airport were really expensive so I booked Economy Rent A Car, which picks up and drops off directly at the airport. We paid $72 for 6 days. In-terminal cars were $300+ for the same type of car. We expected the worst based on that price, but it was great. The shuttle was super easy and took about 10 minutes.
Here’s what you need to know though if using this company:
- Make sure that you bring a copy of your car insurance declarations page. Otherwise, you’ll be charged an additional daily fee. We didn’t know this, but my husband was able to get online and email ours while we were checking in.
- We declined the additional insurance since our credit card adds protection.
- Their deposit is really high, based on your car insurance deductible. If your deductible is $1000, that’s your deposit amount.
- We brought our own car seats since they’re free checked luggage. Much easier for us since we’re familiar with how they install, the straps are adjusted to the correct height, etc.
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Dining
You’ll hear a lot about the Disney Meal Plan when you’re planning your trip. I did a bunch of research on this, talked to a bunch of people. In a nutshell, it wasn’t worth it for us.
We ate our breakfasts and lunches in the park, dinner at the hotel. It just worked out easiest this way. Since we enjoy food, I’d researched where we should eat in each park. We ended up just eating wherever was most convenient around meal times. Food is pretty good and varied enough.
Between the five of us, we ordered 2 adult lunches and 2 kids meals and that worked perfectly. I should note that all three kids always eat a ton of food, and this was still fine for us.
Cost wise it was all comparable to eating out in DC. Our breakfasts, for instance, were Starbucks sandwiches in the parks, which were the same price. The kids meals for lunch and dinner are a great value for the money. We brought snacks from home for in-between meals, and we used our water bottles for water everywhere.
If you’re more motivated than I was, it would be really easy to bring all meals into the park. Many people do this.
Ages of Kids
If a Disney trip is something you’re considering for your family, here’s what I can tell you from my own kids: My boys (9.5 and 8) loved the roller coaster rides, the haunted house, anything with thrills. Quite frankly, I was a bit surprised, because my oldest, in particular, is not a big risk taker. They tolerated the few shows and rides that we did for their sister. Every kid will have different interests, which can be overwhelming in a huge theme park with long lines and FastPass+ to consider, so we listened to our friends and decided to go to Disney without my sister’s family. Turns out, this was the right call.
Neither of our boys was ever a big Disney fan. Disney Fans, cover your ears, but the Disney themed everything was lost on them. My younger son considered getting autographs from the Disney characters (yes, that’s a thing if you don’t know. My husband thought it was crazy.) when he saw other kids doing this. Once we explained to him that we would have to stand in line to do this, he quickly decided against this and didn’t mention it again.
My daughter, who turned two just four days before we went, enjoyed only the outdoor kiddie rides, liked the music from the parades and outdoor shows, and was terrified of the Disney characters. I’ll elaborate on this more when I write our one-day touring plans.
I think that’s all the Disney World tips and tricks for now. Stay tuned for more! I’ll share our one-day touring plans for each park and anything we learned along the way. Have some Disney World tips and tricks of your own? Drop them in the comments below!
