general tips and info i've found in my wdw expierience

[goofy4disney91]

great advice dizzy

 

[Johnfish]

My son and I made our first trip to the world this August and we had a great time.

Here are a few of the things I found very useful.

1. Buy and read the Unofficial Guide to WDW several months prior to your trip. Also make copies of the touring planes in the back of the book. We took this plans with us each day to the parks. Although we didnt follow the plans exactly, they really minimized our wait times. Also the ride descriptions in the book were very accurate.

2. We found park hopping on the same day added a lot of fun to our trip. It was great to visit AK in the morning and MGM in the afternoon as an example.

3. Do not visit MK on friday afternoons. The biggest crowds we saw at any of the parks were when we went to MK on the day before we left for home. I guess everyone had the same idea. "Lets make MK our last stop before leaving"

4. Do not skip AK!! This is a beautiful park and has lots of cool stuff to see. I think it is a more relaxing park to visit because it doesn't have quite as many rides as the others. Its great to just explore all the different areas.

5. If you go in the summer I can't stress this enough. WATER WATER WATER. Drinks lots and often.

6. Dont miss Ice Station Cool at Epcot. Its agreat place to cool of and quench your thirst for free. Just watch out for Beverly (YUCK!)

7. Although we had a great time at US/IOA and we loved riding the coasters it just isnt DISNEY. The MAGIC is alive and well at WDW.


John

 

[aladdinsgirl]

My advice is this: know going in that you CAN'T see and do everything. Decide before you go what attractions you would most like to see, what would be nice to see, what to see if you have time, and what you are not interested in at all. Take lots of breaks, what's the point of spending all of that money, rushing every where, but you are too tired to enjoy the vacation? Our motto is: quality over quantity.

Krista

 

[Del]

My tips:

1. If you need a stroller, don't forget to bring a brightly colored
Bandana to tie onto the handle. It will save you so much time
When you look for your stroller in the stroller parking lot!!!

2. Don't forget to just sit, get the kids and yourself some ice
cream (love mickey ears) and just take it all in. My favorite
memory is sitting on the MGM fountain with the whole family--
just enjoying the moment.

3. If you are renting a car, consider getting one from the airport
that is on-site. We used Budget. Well worth it---no long trip
to the parking lot area. I go to baggage claim with the kids
hubby goes to the car counter and then swings around to
pick me, the kids and the bags up. How cool is that!


Good luck and enjoy!

Del

 

[bubba's mom]

i believe one can never take enough photos! it gives you something to look forward to when you return home! while thumbing thru them at home, you just might be surprised at what you've forgotten about.....oh yeah....i remember..... happens to us all the time!!
I challenge everyone to see how many pictures they can take. While in Disney World for only 2 days (1 at resort and DTD, the other at MK), my DH took almost 600 digital pictures and I took appx. 17 rolls of film......
happy shooting.....

 

[SondraD11]

Lots of great tips so far. When I first went to Disney, I didn't realize the importance of having a general idea of what parks on what days and I missed quite a few things that I wanted to see. On subsequent trips, I went to the other extreme and planned everything down to the minute. I made priority seatings for almost every meal. Needless to say, that stressed me prior to the trip and during the trip I felt a need to stick to the plan even though it involved rushing from place to place.

What I do now is organize my days in an Excel spreadsheet with two columns - one for the day and the second for the activity. I plan which parks on which days and I make sure that I plan the evenings around the night time shows (Fantasmic, Illuminations, and Wishes) because those are important to me. If I'm going to have a very busy day or late night, I plan the next day to be less demanding and have an early night. Sure, I still make a few Priority Seating requests for favorite restaurants, but I allow time to stop and enjoy just being at Disney. You never know what might happen and it would be a shame to leave something you are enjoying just to keep to your schedule.

Sondra

 

[missypie]

Measure your kids BEFORE you leave home. If your child is too short to ride TOT, talk about it in advance and plan with that child what one parent is going to do with him or her while everyone else is riding TOT. A little disappointment at home beats tears in line at WDW any day.

 

[ILOVEPOOH1]

My #1 tip.... start a walking program a few months before your trip. Take your spouse, kids, dogs, whatever. Make a commitment to walk each night. This will get you in shape for WDW. You WILL do A LOT of walking there!!!!!! And walking is such great exercise. Do it not only for Disney, but for your health as well!!!

 

[goofy4disney91]

*bump*

 

[ibouncetoo]

Originally posted by beebumble
I bring the ribbon I purchased from MADD and tie it on our rental car antenna and put a box of kleenex on back dash. You wont believe how much easier it is to spot your car.
Have a disney day

OR, buy a DIS antenna ball from the DIS store.....we do that and it's makes our rental car easy to spot!

 

[DisneyIsMyShrink]

We were just at WDW this past weekend, Thurs. - Sunday. One of the things I learned this trip was that most, not all of the water fountains are hooked up to refrigeration. Sometimes on the same fountain, one will be cold and one will not. Just feel the water first. The water isn't the best, especially when you are spoiled on R.O. water BUT, when you are hot, and don't want to dish out $2.50 for a bottle of water, refill yours with COLD water. It tastes MUCH better when it's cold.

Other tips:

1. I didn't get any blisters this trip, and I am 6 mo preg. My *Secret* was spray anti-persprent/deoderant, I just sprayed my feet every morning, and they stayed dry all day.
2. If your shoes do get wet and you don't have an extra pair, stuff they full of socks and throw them in the dryer at your resort.
3. If you have young children, put name tags on the back of their shirts with their names, your name, your cell and resort info. We went with a DS 18mo., DS3 and DS4. They all had on tags, though thank goodness we never needed them.
4. We watches Wishes from Adventureland, right before the bridge that goes over to the Crystal Palace. We could see Tink and the castle and FW, plus there was a hidden speaker right there so you could really hear the music and enjoy how the FW were in perfect sync with the music. Plus, instead of fighting the crowds, we grapped a table at the hotdog place and got a drink while we waited for the crowds to thin.
5. The best thing that happened on our trip was accidental. We had a PS for LTT Sat. night at 7:10, when we finsihed up with dinner we walked right out on the porch and watched Spectromagic. It was so magical and unplanned! We were going to avoid the parade because of the mobs of people, but this was perfect. Though next time I will make a PS for about 6:30 instead, we did miss the beginning of the parade.

 

[goofy4disney91]

make sure too look for a detailed tip post on fast passes tomorrow sometime!! I just love this website!!!

 

[goofy4disney91]

bump

 

[jsmla]

If you rent a car from National you will probably have a choice from a parking lot of cars in your class (in our case economy). Get a red one. MUCH easier to find later on than the endless rows of beige, grey and white.

Jennifer

 

[goofy4dis]

wow guys i know its been a while! I was having computer trouble and finally went to getting a knew name. I am the same person as goofy4disney91. I did start this thread. Good to be back and hope the advice keeps coming. Thanks.

 

[goofy4dis]

o yeah i really will write that thing on the fastpasses sometime in the next day or so.

 

[cthetulips]

If at all possible, try to pick a resort closest to the park where you will be spending the most time. Our budget doesn't always allow for this but we do it when we can. You are spending so much money for your resort and the parks. It is more relaxing and one can take a slower pace doing what you really want to see rather than be on a bus/monorail/boat for long periods of time. We made this mistake by making all restaurant PSs in the MK area but were staying at AK. It took almost an hour to get to any PS and once it took an hour and a half. Even though the restaurants were fun and we had a great vacation, we should have chosen closer restaurants and had more time to see other things. Halfway through our trip we realized this, changed our PSs and had a much better time.

 

[Jridou]

.
3. If you have young children, put name tags on the back of their shirts with their names, your name, your cell and resort info. We went with a DS 18mo., DS3 and DS4. They all had on tags, though thank goodness we never needed them.

I wouldn't do this because then a stranger could call the child by name. We always put a business card with OUR names and cell phone # in their pockets instead.

 

[peacefulgirl]

Good point about the ID tags ....I assumed she meant hidden.

A GREAT tip from a police women that did a safety meeting at my work years ago taught this:

She said to us, You teach your child not to talk to strangers, right? YES we said. The she said, and then your in the store and the child is being hard to handle and what do we do ... We say "Mary Lee Smith, if you do not stop right now" ..... well now we just gave the kids FULL name to everyone!!! Now the guy that comes to you kid and says, "hey Mary Lee, how are you" ..... is NO LONGER a stranger to them, they KNOW their name so they think its ok. Interesting huh! Oh and make sure you explain "stranger", doesn't mean ugly-scary or mean, explain anyone who they do not know, is a stranger!

I call mine missy or missy girlfriend or something like that...

Wow I just went off and blah blah blah ... I am sure most of you know all this .. but hey, new mothers out there too huh .......

 

[rigsby25]

My son's absolutely favorite ride is the Haunted Mansion. ANYTIME we go to MK, we immediately board the train to that area and go from there. Saves a lot of walking.