Disney World : Magical Chaos
Wowzzza! A week ago we got back from taking our older two kids (ages 6 and almost 4) on their first trip to Disney World. It was a 4 day trip filled with magic, nostalgia, joy and also overstimulation, pure chaos and long days.
Disney is SO magical, there is no denying that. The joy my kids experienced was nothing I have witnessed and my husband and I were reminded how much we love rides. But, after taking my own kids I don’t think people talk enough about how truly insane it is! I got back and felt like I had been hit by a bus haha, after walking 20k steps a day for 3 days in a row, having the kids stay up until almost 11pm four nights in a row and sharing a hotel room as a family of 4 I was happy to be back in my own bed and finally process what we had just experienced.
It is a fast paced marathon. Every moment of our 14 hour days were filled with running from ride to show to ice cream stop to ride to popcorn stop to parade to ride to firework show. Every moment in between those was spent on the Disney app attempting to sign up for the next best lighting lane pass and refreshing the app like a psycho the second you get off a ride. It felt like if you didn’t show up with a deep knowledge of how Disney works, you are disadvantaged. Luckily, we have a friend who is a Disney lover and equipped us with so much helpful knowledge, but even still it felt like you needed a PhD to make the best of your day.
Did I love Disney? Absolutely. It was worth the trip and money spent and my kids will talk about it forever. Do I need to go back every year? Nah. My husband and I agree you can find us on a beach in Turks and Caicos any day. Maybe we will go one more time to take our youngest who stayed home with grandparents when he is older.
So, while I am not an expert, here are my takeaways and honest advice from one Mom’s experience.
Hot Tips
Tickets:
Park Hopper passes: I highly suggest paying for park hopper tickets so you can hop between the parks on any given day. No matter how much you plan your day, you have to go with the flow and how our days played out and where we went was not how I had planned. We were at the mercy of lightning lane ride times, queue ride times, etc!
Lightning Lane Passes: I have a love/hate for them. Are they worth it? 100% yes pay for them! But it pissed us off how one day we could only get on the first 3 rides we had signed up for and then once we were ready to sign up for more there were literally no rides available because they had sold so many passes. If you are going to sell lightning lane passes, IMO you should only sell enough so that people who buy them can truly take advantage of their benefit. Our first day we literally could hardly sign up for more than 3 rides with them, the 2nd day we had a lot more luck. Also, if you are staying on Disney grounds you can purchase your lightning lane passes 7 days in advance of when you check in, I missed this by a day and they were already picked over so make sure you sign up asap the morning you get access.
Virtual Queue: there is a special virtual queue line you have to use for the most popular and new rides. The only way to get on these rides is to either pay for a lightning lane single pass or sign up in this queue, you cannot just walk up to the rides. (To me this is crazy and again why you are disadvantaged if you do not have intel before going) At the time we went, the rides that offered a virtual queue were Guardian of the Galaxies and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the old Splash Mountain. Watch this YouTube on how to master the Virtual Queue. We used it for Guardian of the Galaxies which was our favorite ride of the entire trip.
Travel Agent: I had NO idea but when you book a trip to Disney, having a Disney travel agent is included in the price of your trip, so it’s essentially a free service you should take advantage of! We have a family friend Coco of @mainstreetmeandering who is an expert of Disney and loves to help. Her services work similar to an affiliate link, where at no cost to you she can help you plan your trip and Disney pays her a commission fee.
Ages and Height Restrictions:
You can certainly do Disney with kids of any age! There are so many fun rides and shows that the whole family can enjoy. In terms of age, I would personally wait to go with kids who don’t need to nap during the day. While there were plenty of kids snoozing in strollers, I think to make the most of it I would wait until they don’t rely on a nap. In terms of height, it depends on what kind of thrill your family is looking for. We love a ride and discovered our kids also love rides and wanted to go on every one they could. The magic number to go on some of the better roller coasters is 40 inches tall though. My daughter was just shy at 39 inches and had to sit out a lot of rides while my husband and I did rider swap. Rider swap is an amazing option where one adult and kids can ride, while someone has to stay back with a kid who isn’t tall enough. The adult who had to sit out can then swap and skip the line so they get a chance to go. My son lucked out because this meant he got to ride most rides twice, once with my husband and then with me without waiting in line again. To sign up up for rider swap, an employee at the lightning lane entrance of every ride can help you. My daughter was SO close to 40 inches, so I bought her shoes that would help her height and they definitely gave her .5-1 inch of height but she still had about an inch to go. The style I bought is now sold out, but they were a look-a-like Nike Air Max, so I would suggest those if you are in the same boat!
Favorite Attractions:
Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Because we went in October, we also got tickets for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party one day and we loved that. The parade and fireworks show were amazing!
Animal Kingdom: Dinosaur, Festival of the Lion King, Kilimanjaro Safaris. We wish we had more time to go on Expedition Everest and Avatar Flight of Passage but due to one of them being broken and a long line/height restriction we didn’t but we have heard they are both awesome.
Hollywood Studios: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Slinky Dog Dash and for those that love a thrill, Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (need to be 48 inch tall though for this one)
Epcot: Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Soarin’ Around the World and Guardian of the Galaxies
Waiting in Lines: Our kids shockingly were ok waiting in lines and we found that the lines typically moved quicker than the estimated wait time. I am not exaggerating we probably played several hundred rounds of 20 Questions with them. They were completely obsessed with taking turns guessing anyone from family members to Disney characters to friends.
Food and Character Dining:
Snacks: Pack tons of snacks! Everyone gave us the advice to order groceries to our room for quick breakfasts in the hotel room and snacks/lunch for the park and we ran out of time and didn’t do this, I wish we had. Especially healthier options for on the go because you will get plenty of ice cream, popcorn, etc at the park. Get the dang refillable popcorn tub they sell at the park if your kids like popcorn. We avoided it the first day and then found ourselves buying it often, so we finally gave in. Popcorn made for an awesome snack while my daughter patiently waited while we did rider swap and refills are only $2.
Quick meals at the parks: order your food online on the Disney app and do pick up so you don’t have to wait in lines at restaurants.
Character Dining: we had a reservation at the Tusker House at Animal Kingdom and last minute changed our plans based on what park we were at to Hollywood & Vine at Hollywood Studios. It was a lot easier to get last minute reservations for character dining than I would have thought. Beware, the prices of this are insane. I think our adult fee for the buffet was $80/person for mediocre food and the kids were $40 each. My daughter literally only ate 5 buttered noodles, a roll and soft serve. But, you are paying for the character experience which my kids will say was one of the best parts of the trip. We got to hug and take pictures with 4 characters and the restaurant is really good about making sure every family gets an intimate experience which was really special. I believe hotels offer character dining experiences too, we had just looked into ones that were at the parks.
What to Pack
Here are the essentials that I would suggest bringing to the parks each day. A few of these are weather dependent, so obviously this may change based on time of year and weather forecast.
Travel Stroller - this is a MUST no matter how old your kids are. We borrowed and loved my SIL’s Uppa Baby G-Link Double stroller, but I did a community poll on the best strollers, including travel you can read here
Backpack - we brought our Dagne Dover Diaper Backpack which was perfect, but any will do
Packable Cooler - like I said above, we did not pack enough of our own food, but if I did it again I would pack things like PB&J, fruit, healthy snacks
Leakproof Water Bottles - I highly suggest bringing water bottles for each kid and yourself, I love these Ello water bottles because they lock and are entirely leak proof when thrown in a bag/bottom of stroller
Air Tags + Air Tag Bracelets - we had our kids wear these in case they got lost for peace of mind
Portable Phone Charger - you will be on your phone a lot navigating maps, lightning lane sign ups, attraction info
Disposable Ponchos - If your weather forecast is calling for rain, you will be happy you packed these
Neck Fan or Handheld Fan - Disney can often be very hot, and everyone I have talked to suggests bringing fans, especially for your kids
Kid Outfits
I think the best places to shop for Disney apparel for kids are H&M, Zara Kids, Etsy and Target. All of them have year round assortments with a lot of variety. I will link what exact styles I can below, but I shopped at Zara Kids and Etsy for our trip and got our family matching Mickey Halloween shirts on Amazon.
Mickey Halloween Mummy Matching Familiy Tees
Other Info:
Where to Stay: I suggest staying on the grounds, we stayed at Port Orleans - Riverside and enjoyed it! We spent half a day at the pool which the kids loved, but other than that our only time around the hotel was to sleep. If we had another day, I probably would have planned a rest day in between our 3 park days. When choosing a hotel on Disney, you can select from value, moderate or luxury hotels. This was one of their moderate ones many people had suggested to us because the pool has a slide and the food options were decent.
Getting around: Because we stayed on a Disney property, they offer a free bus service that was very easy to navigate between the parks and hotels. We also used a shuttle service called Mears Connect to get to and from the Orlando Airport and our hotel. I booked it online ahead of time and we paid for the express service, which is a bit more money, but you get priority drop off. We were landing late the first night and knew that getting to the hotel quickly was a priority. This meant we didn’t need to travel with car seats or boosters which was a plus.
Customer Service: The customer service at Disney is truly incredible. Every single employee is clearly trained to be the most helpful and happy person, which made the experience so seamless and wonderful!
Magic Bands: Magic Bands are wrist bands you buy that you can swipe anywhere within the parks and use as your form of payment, room key and tickets. We didn’t buy them and just synched our tickets to our iPhone wallets or Apple watches. But, if you are someone that sees yourself going to Disney often, I think they would be worth it, but we didn’t mind using our phones or credit cards.
