Well friends, we are back from our very first family vacation to Disney World, and I wanted to write a follow up post to share with you some things I learned on this trip. Some of them are big and some of them are small but I hope all of them will help you as you prepare for your family trip to the most magical place on earth! Don’t miss out on my other Disney vacation posts where I show you where to start when planning a Disney vacation, a Disney budget breakdown, and our Disney World Fastpass strategy!
Let’s start with the BIG lessons I learned on our trip.
1. Once again, having a Disney travel rep is worth its weight in gold! Working with a Disney travel rep is actually FREE (no, seriously!) and the value just can’t be underestimated, friends. I texted and emailed my rep, Leanne, several times during our trip, and she was 100% on the ball and quick to respond to me and help with any issues that came up during the trip (such as realizing we were going to be late for a lunch reservation). I just can’t emphasize enough that you are doing yourself a HUGE favor by working with a Disney travel rep. You can read more about the process and who we worked with on an earlier post I wrote about getting ready for a Disney World vacation.
2. FastPass Strategy. We really messed up our FastPasses, and if we had gone at a busier time of the year, it would have been a disaster. Fortunately, we went during a low crowd time, so it wasn’t a big deal. Here’s the mistake we made: we thought that once you use the first of your 3 pre-booked Fastpasses, you could go ahead and sign up for another one. WRONG! You have to use all 3 of your pre-scheduled fastpasses before you can get a fourth one. Tim scheduled our fastpasses throughout the day and well into the evening, so there was really no way for us to take advantage of a fourth or fifth fastpass. A better strategy would have been, for example, to pre-book an 11 am, 12pm, and 1pm fast pass so that we could be eligible for any remaining fastpasses later in the afternoon and potentially see/do more. Again, it all worked out ok for us, but if it had been more crowded, our mistake would have meant lots more waiting in line.
3. The Quick Service Dining Plan: Meh. We also took advantage of a free dining offer promotion that Disney was offering, so in that sense, I totally don’t regret having the quick service dining plan because for us, it was free! But let me tell you, if I had paid for it, I would have been disappointed, and there are two main reasons why. First, it is WAY too much food. Quick service meals come with an entree, a beverage and a dessert. The portions are overly generous, typically, so it’s more than one person can eat. If you bought dining plans for everyone you will be wasting a lot of food, and that also means wasting a lot of money.
The second reason I wasn’t overly impressed with the dining plan is because I actually thought the kid meal options were quite limited. Most establishments offer the same 3 options for kids, and when you have a picky eater like I do, that means that she is eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at every single meal. She was totally bored with that by the second day and I ended up packing extra food for her, even though she had dining credits. When you have a child with you, you are required to use the children’s dining plan for them. Otherwise, I would have gotten her something else for the sake of variety.
Ok, so now let’s dig into the minutiae a bit, and talk about things to pack.
What I’m Glad I Brought
There are two things that I’m really glad I brought that might not necessarily be on your packing list. The first is one of those over-the-door shoe organizers. I read this on someone else’s blog and at first didn’t think I would bring ours, but then I had a change of heart, and I’m so glad I did. We used this in our hotel room simply to hold all sorts of toiletries and accessories. It kept our bathroom counters from getting junked up, and since it had clear plastic holders, it made finding things we needed quick and easy. We didn’t hang up many of our clothes, so we just kept it on the coat rack. I will be using this trick the next time my family stays in a hotel for more than a night!
The second thing I’m really glad I brought was a linen freshener. You might think of it as Febreeze, though I use a different brand. Even though it wasn’t too hot while we were there, you still might find that at the end of the day you smell less-than-spectacular…especially your shoes, which will be doing some seriously hard work every single day for you.
What I Wish I Had Brought
We stayed in a family suite for most of the trip (switching to traditional rooms for the last third of it, simply due to booking issues). In a family suite you are actually provided with plates, cups, bowls, forks and knives. For some bizarre reason, you are NOT provided with spoons. I brought one of those plastic cutlery sets that has everything in it, but if I had to do it again, I’d just buy one with spooons, as we ran out of spoons rather quickly. When eating breakfast in your room, as we were doing, not having spoons kind of stinks. Alternatively, we also would have been ok if we had just brought some dish soap and a sponge.
I also wish I had brought extra zip-loc bags. It would have made dividing snacks for the park days easier to do. Just wasn’t something I thought of beforehand!
I would also bring at least one plastic bag for wet clothes that you might accrue toward the end of your trip, such as if you decide to swim in the hotel pool the night before you leave.
On a related note, I think it is a good idea to bring a change of pants, if nothing else, for your younger kids when going to the parks. Both of our girls at various points got dirty (spilled milk) clothes at the parks and we didn’t have new pants for them. Darah actually had on a new dress at one point, and we realized after we got to the park that the straps were too low. We had to buy her a new ($30) t-shirt on the spot. This could have been avoided if we had brought a change of clothes with us.
Notes about Hotel Location
When staying on property, you might want to do your best to see if you can stay in a room that is reasonably close to your hotel’s food court (side note: we LOVED Art of Animation, and we thought their food court had some of the best food we had during our entire stay). You may find, as we did, that your room is quite a hike from the food court. This won’t seem like a big deal at all until you start touring the parks, and then you will be reluctant to walk any more than is absolutely necessary, I promise! Furthermore, at least for our hotel, the food court is also really close to where you wait for the bus to go to the parks, which is yet another reason to stay as close to it as possible.
You might also want to note the distance from your hotel of choice to the parks. Disney World property is HUGE; just because you are staying on property doesn’t mean you are actually close to one of the parks. We were reasonably close to Hollywood Studios, but we were a solid 25 minute bus ride from Magic Kingdom. While using the bus system was totally easy, we really discovered that being able to go back to the hotel room and nap AND being able to actually do all the things you really want to do in each park are, in fact, mutually exclusive. I don’t regret staying on property, but I did realize during our stay that you still aren’t so close to your hotel that you can see everything and take a sizeable break. You will still have to choose one or the other, because there’s just too much to see, even on a low crowd day.
The Number One Thing I Would Change If I Could Do it Over
My family stayed on property for 6 nights, and we spent 5 days in the parks. If I had to do it all over again, I would actually stay 1 more day, and I’d spend that day just relaxing at the hotel. Disney resorts are marvels in and of themselves, and most kids really love to get to watch cartoons on the television, swim in pools, and just run around having fun and playing games (such things are offered throughout the day at the hotels). We were so burned out by our 5th and final day at the parks, which is the day we did Epcot, that we sort of hobbled along in that park and did about half of the stuff we likely would have done had we been energized. I think it was a mistake not to take a break in the middle of our park days to just chill out and enjoy our hotel. It would have been worth the extra time and money to get a little bit of rest and relaxation on the trip. While our Disney vacation was absolutely jam packed with magic and fun, it was VERY short of relaxation. An extra day just for that purpose would have been wise.
We also just returned from our first family trip to Disney – here is what we would have done differently or wished would change.
1. Totally agree with you about the food options for the kids meals. I have an 8 year old who typically eats pretty well. He quickly tired of burgers/chicken tenders/fries. I would have liked to see more options for kids, even if they offered smaller portions of the adult meals. I also would have like to have seen the option for fresh fruit or carrots/celery as a side. (We did the Disney dining plan- one quick service, one table service and 2 snacks per person per day, so my child had to eat kids meal if they offered it on the menu.)
2. Adult meals. I would have like to have seen more healthy options for every meal. Offering a side salad instead of fries or having wraps would have been nice.
3. We would have planned more down time. My child wanted to swim at the resort pool every day. I wish that we had scheduled time to just relax, as there was so. much. walking. In August. Over 100 degrees every day.
4. We planned an early (7:30) character breakfast at the Ohana. Way too early. Do a lunch or dinner instead.
5. We ended up with 20 or so snacks left on the day we checked out. If you having the dining plan. Enjoy every snack in the parks.
I told myself on my second trip to Disney World, I would not make the mistake of running around like it was a marathon. I did anyway and was exhausted by 7pm. I rushed the first four days trying to ride every ride that I missed parades and fireworks! On the fifth day, I took the whole day to sleep in, relax, wash clothes, and swim.I enjoyed that and my last day at a park most. On the last park day, we relaxed and took frequent breaks. We were more refreshed and staying past 7pm was no problem at all.
We have been a number of times, flying in from OH with three kids of varying ages. Our best trips tend to include six days or so but with only 4 park tickets. We don’t park hop (takes too much time and money) since the parks are so far apart and you can’t really see any of them in a half day.
We love an afternoon flight in, settle in and swim, then hit a park early the next morning for rope drop. MK especially is perfect for first day. We make no more than one dining reservation for each day in the park, and this time we are actually doing fewer than that.
We don’t FP because our middle child
Is a type I diabetic, so we use a disabilities pass for rides. If you have a person in your party with health issues, or learning disabilities, where waiting in line is difficult for them, this is the way to go. Works like a FP with no advance reservation and no limit per day.
Take lots of breaks and don’t try to see it all in one trip! You’ll feel better for it in the long run! And winter trips always trump summer! Fewer crowds and cooler temps. 🙂
You can use diabetes as a disability? I’m type 2 so I’ll have to do that when I go next month! Thank you.
Hi! I’m traveling to DW next month with my t1d son and I heard you couldn’t get a disability pass for diabetics anymore. That rumor isn’t true? Did you have any issues get one? Thanks:)
Our big mistake was on our first day. We took an early flight, and landed in Orlando by 9:30am (and had been up since 2am), and once we were checked in, we hopped on a bus and headed over to Animal Kingdom. Then we went to Hollywood Studios till almost 10pm. By day three, we were EXHAUSTED! We now know next time we will definitely hang out at the pool on arrival day and check out the resort more, and maybe head to Disney Springs for dinner.
We just returned from Disney last Friday. We had a 4 day Park Hopper Pass. We stayed off property at our timeshare 15 minutes away. We are EXHAUSTED. We did a park every other day with a relaxation day in between. We should have done 3 days with more relaxation time . Altho we would do a break during each day we were at a park. Still didn’t manage to see everything we planned. Missed Animal Kingdom. Glad I packed the rain ponchos from previous years, glad I did goody bags from things I purchased before going to the parks, Saved a ton of money there. Saved money also by only eating in the park 3 times and taking picnics or eating in our condo. All in all 7 days with tickets $3500 including travel expenses for 8 people…we drove from Atlanta. Your page helped us so so much. Thanks tons. The Magic will NEVER be forgotten.
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m just thrilled to hear that my post was helpful to you! Love the idea of taking every other day off. Do you think you still left very exhausted simply because of the summer heat, or do you think you needed even more time in between each park day?
Good info. I love the quick service especially as we drove from MA and the dining/restaurant manager helped us put together “meals” with our leftover credits for the trip home. Also, what I saw on another site and now do whenever we travel(family of 6) is bring a hand pump soap because those little bars stink for the kiddos!
One thing to note, counter service credits are not “required” to be used as children’s meal which would give you a lot more choices.
We went to Disney the last week of October 2014. Our trip was booked already and then the free dining came out but our WDW travel rep was able to apply free dining to our package! (We had the plan with a table service meal and quick dining credit each day) my advice would to really plan your meals out in advance ( book reservations early) to get the best food. I too thought the kids meals at the restaurants were limited, but if you go to the buffet style restaurants, then it was not an issue. It sounds like the dining plan rules have changed since we went in relation to kids on the dining plan only ordering off the kids menu, if so, that is a great improvement! If you get free dining with table service credits, I recommend the Crystal Palace in MK, and Biergarten in Epcot. We also had great food at our resort’s Whispering Canyon Cafe. Flame Tree BBQ ( quick service) is really great too. I took breakfast bars and used some snack credits for breakfast . You cannot see everything, so don’t even try. Pick out a few must -dos in each park and plan relaxation time too. If you are on a budget, plan your trip so you do not have a Friday night and Saturday night stay. With our package, if we would have arrived Saturday instead of Sunday, it would have been $700 more (2 adults and 1 child).
We just got back from our first WDW family trip!! I’m reading this blog and nodding my head in agreement! Lol We also spent 6 nights in a Disney resort and 5 at the parks, with the only free days as travel days. If I had it to do again I would also take an extra day as a break to regroup from all the running around, 10 miles of walking and the meltdowns from my 4 & 2 year old.
Things I was proud about all my research and preparation, first I had made a little family vacation guide; including our flight info, fastpass Times and locations, I even researched the quick service menus and jotted down where to eat, average price and what they served, lastly I looked up the Times of all the parades and events of all the things that would be appropriate for my family’s interests. I put a lot of work and time into it and it became my go-to many times during the trip. And while I know and I did use the app and I took a park map and the Times guide while inside the park it was handy to have all my personal info in one place, especially when my battery was low! 😉
Another thing I found to be a great money saver was bringing drink powders and mio flavor squirts. We would go to any place and ask for a cup of water with ice, which they gladly gave and then add our own flavor to each cup. We did not buy one drink the entire trip and always had a cold drink, which was necessary because the weather was hot and sunny for our trip!
We also found another way to save some money since we didn’t have any dining plans, we got the offer for free dining plan AFTER we already booked 🙁 . We took advantage of the Green Grocer and had a delivery of groceries sitting in our fridge when we got there. I ordered milk, yogurt, juice boxes, cold cuts and bread so we had lunches packed and I was able to bring plenty of snacks. I read a blog where someone packed food in their checked luggage but I was afraid the wear and tear would damage our food, so I put it all in a carry on. It helped to have all the things we like and things I knew my picky kids would want.
I miss it already and I’m glad for blogs like this so next time we go I’ll be even more prepared!! Can’t wait to go back!!
Awesome suggestions! Thank you for adding them here, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the post!
Just back from my first trip to WDW, too. Just me and Hubby, although he had been twice before but never to Epcot or Animal Kingdom. Went during the International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. Spent 2 1/2 days there. 1/2 day at MK. 1 day at Disney Hollywood Studios. 1 day at Animal Kingdom. What we did right: 1) Stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, newly remodeled, quiet, excellent access to transportation. The bridge was out so in resort travel to Old Port Royale was covered by van transport and the bus stop from Jamaica was a short walk. Perfect for us. Never saw housekeeping-room was just clean/magically. 2) Took advantage of Disney Meal Plan and traded the daily counter service several times for the Food and Wine vendors @ Epcot. Outstanding food. Used the snack there too to maximize. 3) Had tickets to Disney Springs for Le Cirque and ate at Earl of Sandwich instead of using Table Service. That freed up two Table Service to use at Premium Restaurant. Had advance reservations for all Table Service restaurants and chose the California Grill because of the advantageous seating to view the MK fireworks show. The show was worth it. The 8:55 seating time at the California Grill was tough. 4) Drove to Disney Springs twice. The night before Le Cirque and the night of. It was worth it because the first night we traveled the boardwalk and shopped. The second night we went straight to the show. Taking the car was easier than navigating the bus system home.
What we did wrong: 1) Everyone said I had to do the MK and see the Castle, but it was closed and they were recording something there. But, I didn’t do everything I had scoped out to see at MK because of the traffic. It was crazy. 2) I used a Table Service Credit for both of us for Hollywood & Vine at lunch because of the vouchers for early seating for Fantasmic. Wasn’t necessary. The show was great, but seating was not a problem and H&V was overpriced and not worth it. It cost as much as the California Grill. While covered by the meal plan, the tip was high and it wasn’t necessary to dine there. 3) I didn’t take enough pictures in The World in Epcot. Yes, sometimes it was crazy with traffic, but the Christmas folk art in Africa was outstanding. There was a lot I wish I had recorded, but I didn’t.
We only plan our Disney trips around the free dining plan. We have always stayed at Pop Century, so we get the free quick service plan. This year my family of three is staying 8 days so the meal plan is valued at around a thousand dollars. Now grant it we would NEVER pay for everything that the meal plan covers but let me tell you….. I do know how to use it. Very rarely do we use a snack credit cause you get dessert with every meal. We save them for the last day and stock up on Mickey treats to take home. I’ve even used them for tie dye cheesecake that we bring home in our cooler and freeze them for latter yummy time. If we eat at the hotel foodcourt we get a take-home-able dessert so we are not always over indulging. Since the meal plan comes with the refillable mugs we use those when we are eating at the hotel and get a milk or juice for breakfast since your meal comes with a drink anyway. Since there is soooooo much food, we will be splitting meals (my son is 14) so we can save some credits for breakfast before we leave and get a take away lunch pack. We also pack some healthy things to add to our meals like fruit, carrots, milk and juice boxes and for me, those cute little cans of V8 juice. Hope this helps a little in saving the reputation so the quick service meal plan!
So I know this is an older post but I found it really helpful on our trip. We went for the first week in November this year 2015. I just wanted to add a quick note about the dining plan. We got the Dining plan too and it is A LOT of food. My daughter is 12 so her meals were automatically adult meals, but our Hotel Cast Member told us, the Quick Service meals are all lumped together and not separated by children/adult meals. Basically you can get either on the plan. Not sure if it was like this in 2014, but now since they’re all lumped together you can get what ever you want at a quick service location. The only place it’s specific is the table service, in which case they have to order off the kids menu. Just thought I’d add that info.
Oh, I forgot to mention that we had two children. One who is 4 and one who is 12, so we were able to get adult quick service meals for my son and my daughter. We did end up having 5 credits remaining at the end of the week. We used them to get Power Packs (great box full of snacks for kids) and sandwiches for lunch on the way home.
Thanks for that update! I’m always so thrilled to hear about this post helping someone else plan their Disney vacation!
We recently spent a week in Disney, our first family trip and yes we learned lots. We got the free dining deal with a quick service and a table service, let me say if it had not have been free the table service meals would not have been worth it. I will definitely leave the park to eat on my next trip. The quick service is kind of a necessity in my opinion because you don’t want to have to leave the park to eat lunch and it is terribly expensive to eat inside the parks. Also if you don’t use your quick service meals you can exchange them for 3 snacks, so they don’t go to waste. We stayed at Coronada Springs, it was awesome, but huge so everything is a walk. But it seemed to be pretty close to most of the parks so the bus ride wasn’t bad. Plus it is one of the hotels with its own buses so the wait time for buses isn’t as long. We tried getting to the parks at opening times (like all the advice blogs said) and we ended up waiting in line for an hour to get in, so I advise against that, the next day we slept in and got there around 10. Much better no bus crowds and no lines at the park. Also if you have a wee one do not bring a huge bulky stroller, it will be more of an aggravation than it is worth, get one of the small strollers or spent the $15 and rent one in the park. Hope these tips help!
When we went a few years ago with my parents and sister, we rented a house with a pool. A lot of days some adults came back with the kids in the early afternoon to let them nap and then swim. It feels a little like wasting money on the Disney tickets, but I think we had such a great time because we weren’t trying to do EVERYTHING all the time. We also ate breakfast and dinner almost every night at the house, saving us a ton of money since we weren’t on a dining plan.
We decided to go right before Christmas (you may recall we always decide pretty much last minute to go to WDW!). My kids’ birthdays are the week before Christmas so we are heading out to catch the last Mickey’s Christmas party. Anyhow, we have never had the QSDP but we have had the regular – when at least ONE kid is under 3. We always do the buffets and it works out great then. Right now? Not so much! I agree with the kid’s food issue (lack of variety, small portions).
I need to write a post about our last few visits. I grew up going to Disney and now I’m a pro at taking kids! For us we love to do the special events even if they cost more, and the Pirate cruise was one of my daughter’s favorite experiences.
This is really great info. I agree 100% with your assessment of the dining plan and the proxomilty to parks.
Thanks Tiffany!
Thanks for sharing all this, Tiffany! Getting real feedback from someone I know is so helpful when planning a trip – especially to somewhere as massive and overwhelming as Disney! I’m definitely pinning this for the day we plan our own Disney trip!!
Thanks for the tips! We’re saving to go next October. My friend went last year and her Disney rep scheduled them a free day at the hotel in the middle of their trip, and she said they absolutely needed it! Plus, there was so much to do just at the resort.