Tips For First Visit to Disney World Orlando

11 Tips For Surviving Your First Trip to Walt Disney World

January 20, 2013

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Plan, Plan, Plan

Here's the secret no one tells you about a Disney trip: it isn't a leisurely vacation — it's exhausting. Before ever setting foot in a park, have a plan.

Know which days you will be visiting which parks. With seven days in Orlando, we decided to get a five-day pass allowing us to visit the Magic Kingdom twice, Hollywood Studios one day, and Animal Kingdom another, and then to go to the Magic Kingdom night/firework show on our "down day."
Check the parks' website to know what time they open and get there at least 20 minutes before they open. (We were there during the week of Presidents' Day, and several of the parks opened at 8 a.m. rather than 9. Most people either didn't know that, or didn't care, because for the first two hours we were there, the park was virtually empty, and we literally walked right onto some of the most popular rides.)
Know what rides are most important to your kids and send someone there first. Each day upon entering a park, we sent our husbands to get FastPasses (see the next slide for an explanation) for the most popular rides (Toy Story, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, etc.), while we went straight to rides that don't offer them (The Speedway, It's a Small World, etc.) so we reduced wait times everywhere.
Plan to run around in the morning to beat the lines and then take a more leisurely pace (even squeeze in some character visits) in the afternoon.
Buy a guide, but don't live by it. We used a combination of The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World 2012 and Tour Guide Mike to plan our days (they both offer full-day plans for each park) and learn which rides are considered popular, but once we got the lay of the land, we just followed our own instinct.

2 / 13

by Rebecca M Gruber 6

Plan, Plan, Plan

Here's the secret no one tells you about a Disney trip: it isn't a leisurely vacation — it's exhausting. Before ever setting foot in a park, have a plan.

Know which days you will be visiting which parks. With seven days in Orlando, we decided to get a five-day pass allowing us to visit the Magic Kingdom twice, Hollywood Studios one day, and Animal Kingdom another, and then to go to the Magic Kingdom night/firework show on our "down day."
Check the parks' website to know what time they open and get there at least 20 minutes before they open. (We were there during the week of Presidents' Day, and several of the parks opened at 8 a.m. rather than 9. Most people either didn't know that, or didn't care, because for the first two hours we were there, the park was virtually empty, and we literally walked right onto some of the most popular rides.)
Know what rides are most important to your kids and send someone there first. Each day upon entering a park, we sent our husbands to get FastPasses (see the next slide for an explanation) for the most popular rides (Toy Story, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, etc.), while we went straight to rides that don't offer them (The Speedway, It's a Small World, etc.) so we reduced wait times everywhere.
Plan to run around in the morning to beat the lines and then take a more leisurely pace (even squeeze in some character visits) in the afternoon.
Buy a guide, but don't live by it. We used a combination of The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World 2012 and Tour Guide Mike to plan our days (they both offer full-day plans for each park) and learn which rides are considered popular, but once we got the lay of the land, we just followed our own instinct.

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6 Comments

aprilallard 13 weeks 3 days

love this! great pics! we are going in april (first time with kids...we have been alone once before). it's going to be tough, but i am really excited. i want to know how much the stroller rental was in the park for a double?? thanks!

rmfranze 1 year 7 weeks

This is a great list! I would also recommend doing the disney hotel, because that gets you extra hours at the park, free shuttles between parks/hotel, and pickup/drop off at the airport. A meal plan is also a good investment. There are plenty of websites that will help you get a great deal on them. For my husband and I, we did the basic plan (a snack, usually our breakfast, a stand up, usually our lunch, and a sit down, which we made reservations for) and it cost us $50 a day for both of us. That may seem like a lot until you look at what just your dinner bill would have been...most times it was $70-$80 to get all the things included in the meal plan dinner. Another bonus, if you ask the wait staff for the recipe for something, they are supposed to give it to you. Good luck on future planning!

Susi May 1 year 9 weeks

I am not so afraid now — thanks for the tips!

Bloomdl 1 year 10 weeks

These tips are invaluable & couldn't come at a better time! I've just started planning our first real family vacation with our daughter who will be 5 in December when we go. We have lodging arranged, now I'm trying to plan all the details but since it's been, oh, about 25 yrs since my last trip, I was clueless. Now I feel much more prepared, thanks to you!

inbliss01 1 year 11 weeks

wow! these tips are really good! If you did all these things you definitely did better than me. Our first time at Disney was amazing...but it was tough! glad you had fun!

Nancy Einhart 1 year 11 weeks

These are great tips. Honestly, I love Disney World, and I kind of want to go right now. I haven't been since they had the FastPass or rider switch things; what a smart idea!