Mickey, Mulan, memories, money and more — it’s been less than 24 hours since we’ve been home from our inaugural trip to Orlando, and I took lots of notes for tips for Disney first-timers while on-site at the Parks, some we were prepared for; others we learned on-the-spot.
1. It takes a minimum of 15 minutes to get to Magic Kingdom from the parking lot or drop off from shuttles. You go through security and ticketing and then have to take a ferry or the Monorail to the actual park, which I was unaware of and not prepared for. With the other three Disney Parks, the actual entrance to the park was adjacent to the parking lot and you enter the Park near transportation. This miscalculation almost cost us a breakfast reservation, but luckily, we had a forgiving hostess waiting for us who understood.
2. Visit Guest Relations (at the front of the park, usually close to the entrance) to get a special First Visit at Disney pin. They also have birthday, anniversary and other specialty buttons. It was also Alex’s birthday, so he got a birthday button. Almost every cast member wished him a “Happy Birthday!” and they brought him birthday cupcakes with meals.
3. You can’t use a Disney gift card to order mobile food service at a quick service restaurant – only a credit card.
4. Some in-park savings tips: Pack water bottles or drinks and bring them with you. Drinks are like $4.50 a piece (no joke). For some reason, paying $6 for a pretzel was not a problem for me, but paying $4.50 for a 16 oz. Coca-Cola made me sick. Likewise, if your child likes to wear a costume, bring it with you vs. paying the $60 for one in a shop.
5. Continue checking fast pass options and dining reservations even while you’re on site. We landed a coveted restaurant reservation and got a couple of wanted Fast Passes a day before our visit. I’m not sure if it made a difference, but I checked as soon as I woke up at 6am,and found them then. My guess is that other moms were also up early making plans and shifting things around for the day.
6. If you have early risers like I do and plan on being at a Park at rope drop (opening of park), make your first Fast Pass for around 10 or 10:30 a.m. Once the Park opens, try heading straight to the rides with hard-to-get fast passes or long wait times before they get too crazy. We were able to do this with Dinosaurs at Animal Kingdom and Soarin’ at Epcot. We hopped on both with just a 10-minute wait and still had plenty of time to get to our Fast Pass rides.
7. Determine what your maximum wait time tolerance is in advance. We lost out on a 45-minute wait versus a 60-minute wait for Space Mountain because we couldn’t decide how long we were willing to spend in line, and by the time we decided to go for it, the line was even longer (My husband and Nate still decided to wait). Not only that, but patience is not Alex’s strength, so he was a maximum 30 minutes in line.
8. Don’t be afraid to split up to make the most of your day. With an 11-year old interested in rollercoasters and cool rides, and an princess-loving 8-year old, we had a couple of days where Nick and Nate would take off for rides, and Alex and I would meet Mulan, Belle, Tiana and Rapunzel. We still spent most of the day together, and this ensured that both boys had the magical experience that each one wanted .
9. Check out wait times for your Fast Pass rides before you scan your Magic Bands. If there was a 30-minute wait or less, we’d wait in the Stand By line, cancel the Fast Pass, and then rebook another Fast Pass. It worked especially well before 11am.
10. Bring a compact umbrella on a sunny day to grab some shade while waiting for the Magic Kingdom Parade as there is little to no shade along the route, and you’ll need to find a spot at least 20 minutes in advance.
11. If you like broadway musicals ( or if your kids have never seen something of that caliber), don’t miss the shows. Even my husband was stunned at how good they were. Hollywood Studios, in particular, had some great ones – Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Frozen.
12. I was hesitant to purchase the $169 Memory Maker (where you have access to all professional photographs taken in the parks), but it was well worth it, especially if you have a kid who loves meeting characters. It enabled us to enjoy the moment instead of worrying about getting good pics – and the pro shots are tons better than what we could have taken on our phones anyway.
13.Do not overschedule or feel bad if you do not see or do everything. There is probably no way that you can hit all of the sites, but do prioritize a few key things they want to do. My kids didn’t care that they didn’t ride Flights of Passage at Animal Kingdom (known as the coolest ride anywhere) and we never made it to Adventureland at Magic Kingdom, but they were thrilled with riding Expedition Everest, Space Mountain, and Soarin’ and getting autographs from Belle and Jasmine. We never saw the evening shows. Did we miss out? Yes. Could we have dragged our kids out there for even more Park time? Probably not with our sanity in tact.
14. Even if you’re not a Disney person, you will find some magic and likely shed a few tears at a moment or two that brings you great joy. My son’s excitement at meeting his beloved princesses was beyond our expectations and had both me and my husband welling up. And, Nick, who was not super excited about this trip, keeps saying it was much more fun than he expected.
Some of this advice we learned on our own, but much of it was thanks to great mom tips and tricks from Smart Moms Plan Disney and info from MouseSavers and Undercover Tourist. We had a great time, regardless, but some of these tips can make an awesome trip even better.
