What You Need To Know When Planning A Family Trip to Disney World!

Ahhh…Disney World, the most magical place on earth! At least that’s what some would say. I happen to be one of those crazy people who have fallen completely in love with Disney after my family’s most recent trip there just a few weeks ago. My husband and I took our 3 kids to Disney World for our 2018 family trip so I’m here to give you all the details on the planning that went in to the trip, as well as all the details while we were actually there. There’s A LOT that goes in to Disney so you may want to grab some snacks for this blog, it’s a long one!

Yall…I didn’t realize the amount of planning that actually goes in to a family trip to Disney. I’ve taken Carrington once before when she was two prior to me getting married, but it was with a big group of friends and I didn’t plan the trip. I just went along with the flow. This most recent trip I did ALL of the planning. I’m typically a very laid-back traveler. I don’t like to have an entire trip planned down to every minute. I’ll lock in the big things like flight and hotel, have a tentative schedule, but “wing” the rest. All the planning that is required for Disney was initially overwhelming. If I’m honest, off-putting as well. You can even select some of the rides you want to ride 60 days in advance. I kept thinking to myself “is it THIS serious?” But it really is THAT serious. Especially if you’ll be visiting during peak season. We went during Thanksgiving week which is a very busy time to visit. I’m glad I eventually gave in and just did the leg work required for a trip to Disney World. It makes a huge difference in how smoothly your trip will go.

My first piece of advice would be to start planning EARLY! I started planning our family trip almost a year in advance. We are a family of five so traveling can get pretty expensive. Starting early allows us time to save up and make payments towards our trips. Even if you aren’t a big family, I would still suggest starting early just due to the amount of details that go in to a trip to Disney. There’s just soooo much to do and see. From the multiple theme parks, rides, parades, firework shows, different resort amenities you can take advantage of, and so much more. Starting early ensures that you make the most out of your time there. And it can save you a lot of money because if you don’t know, you can end up spending your kid’s entire college savings visiting Disney, ha! Take in consideration peak season and off season when deciding when to visit. Summers and holidays the parks tend to be the most crowded. Also, research the weather. Florida can get VERY hot and some seasons it rains all the time. We visited in November during Thanksgiving week this past trip. The weather was supposed to be perfect…mid 70s for the high and sunny, but it ended up still getting a little warmer than a pregnant person would’ve liked. It reached the low 80s mid-day but I’ll take that over the summer temps in Florida any day. I will admit the crowd was pretty intense with it being Thanksgiving break. The wait times for the rides were insane. Which makes me glad that we did the planning months in advance so we at least got to ride a few of the popular rides without a crazy wait time due to our fast pass selections.

You’ll have to decide if you want to stay on the Disney property at one of their resorts or off property. The first time we visited we stayed off property at a time share. This trip we stayed on property. Opting out of staying at a Disney resort does save a ton of money but some may argue that the convenience and the perks of staying on property is worth the cost. Now that I can compare the two from personal experience, I would definitely recommend staying at a Disney resort for the convenience. Not having to worry about renting a car or having to drive anywhere ourselves the entire week was lovely. All Disney resorts have 24-hour shuttle services to anywhere you want to go on Disney properties. This allowed us to visit the theme parks right when they opened, be dropped off right at the park entrances, take a mid-day break at our resort, then go back and finish the night off at the park. (considering I was 7 months pregnant on this trip that was a game changer) All by simply taking advantage of the shuttles that run all day from the resorts to the parks. We avoided having to drive, park, and walk all the way to the front of each park.  Another perk of staying on Disney property is you get to take advantage of magic hours. Which are extra hours before the parks open and close to the public who aren’t staying on a Disney property. You can catch breakfast with some of the characters, get some great photo ops in front of the castle before the park gets extremely crowded, and ride a few rides without the extra long lines. Lastly, if you stay at a Disney resort you get the awesome magic bands. Everything you need for your trip is on this cute little “bracelet” which is super convenient. Your magic bands are the key to your resort rooms, you can enter the theme parks with them, you can connect your fast passes for the rides to them, all the pictures any Disney photographer takes of you and your family are linked to your bands, and your credit card is connected to your bands so you can pay for anything you need with your magic band.

There’s a TON of resort options. They range from very budget friendly to luxurious. There’s so many different activities and restaurants at each resort. This will take some research and depend on your budget. We ended up staying at our resort due to multiple close family members and friends suggesting it. I will share which resort we stayed at below.

There are 4 different theme parks at Disney (not including 2 water parks)…Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom,Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. You’ll have to decide which parks you want to visit according to the amount of time you’ll have on your trip. I personally would allow a full day to explore each park if it’s your first time visiting. There’s just way too much to see and do at each park to rush off to the next one. We planned on park hopping our third day in Orlando but after half a day at Animal Kingdom we were like there’s no way we have it in us to try and go to another park at this point. Always remember, there’s next time. It can be overwhelming and you can burn yourself out trying to pack too much into one trip. I personally believe you have to visit Disney multiple times to take everything in it has to offer. Also, be sure to consider your children’s ages when making your park selections. Older children may be able to enjoy and appreciate certain parks more than younger ones would. I will share which parks we visited on this particular trip below.

Then there’s your fast past selections. Each ride has a line for people who just walked up to the ride and a fast pass line. The fast pass allows you to bypass the regular line and have a shorter wait time. If you’re staying at a Disney resort you can make your fast pass selections 60 days in advance. Definitely take advantage of this. Some people literally wake up the morning of the 60^th day out to secure the rides they want. When we were there Thanksgiving week, most popular rides had at LEAST a two hour wait time. Some rides were as long as 3-4 hour wait time. Look up the rides that are most popular for your child’s age, then look them up on YouTube to see if you think they would enjoy it. You can find a video of almost every ride on YouTube.

Last but not least, dining! You can even make all your dining reservations in advance with Disney or purchase meal plans. We opted out of the meal plan because the cheapest was $645 for the 5 of us. It included one snack, quick meal, and sit down meal each day per person. Which isn’t a bad deal but I still believed we could make it out cheaper on our own. One of the things I love the most about Disney is they allow you to bring your own food in the theme parks. We had groceries delivered to our resort using InstaCart and packed stuff to make the kids sandwiches, chips, water bottles, and snacks (granola bars, gold fish, lollipops, gummy bears, etc). This saved us a ton when it came to food each day.

WHEW! I think that just about covers all the important parts of planning. If you have more detailed questions ask me in the comments and I’ll get them answered. My biggest piece of advice is to be flexible when visiting Disney. It can be A LOT. The crowds, the long theme park days, tons of walking, and we all know traveling with kids isn’t for the faint of heart. BUT it’s what you make it. The better you plan, the smoother the trip will go. Not going to lie, I didn’t understand all the Disney hype after our first visit but this second trip there changed my mind. It truly is magical. Every child should experience it. We’ll definitely be back in a few years!

Now on to the specifics of our trip. A lot of people were curious to what exactly we did while we were there and where we stayed etc.

• We went Thanksgiving week for 4 days and three nights. That’s on the shorter side for Disney. I would suggest at least 5 days. The weather was great. Crowd was pretty intense.
• We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort. I LOVED it. The grounds are so pretty and plenty of activities for the children and the family to do there.
• The first day there we just explored our resort and Disney Springs (used to be downtown Disney. There’s a bunch of places to shop and eat here). We knew we wouldn’t have the energy to brave a theme park after a super early morning of traveling with 3 kids.
• Second day there we did a full day of Magic Kingdom. We got there right when the park opened. Took a break around 5pm and went back around 7pm until close. It was such along day but so fun! You have to watch the firework show right before the park closes!
• Third day there we planned on doing half a day at Animal Kingdom and half a day at Hollywood Studios but we ended up spending the whole day at AK. There’s just too much to do at each park to park hop in my opinion.
• Last day there we slept in. We were already exhausted at this point. Once we got up and dressed we explored a few other resorts. If you’re staying at a Disney resort you have access to all resort’s amenities and restaurants on the entire Disney property. Exploring other resorts allows you to see if you would want to try out a different one for your next stay.
• Finally, this trip would not have been the trip it was without the assistance in planning from the Disney guru herself that is Stephanie Howard. Her company is Traveling Ears and she offers free travel planning. Here’s her Instagram handle https://www.instagram.com/travelingears/. USE HER if you’re planning a trip to Disney. This isn’t sponsored in the least bit. She is seriously amazing when it comes to all things Disney. She came in and turned a horrible situation around. We got scammed by a fraud travel agent early on in our Disney planning (I could write a whole blog on that. Just be careful with travel agents). She made all the crazy planning that goes in to Disney a little more bearable lol.

I pray this answers all the questions I got about our trip to Disney. If you’re still reading this at this point you’re the real MVP because this was a long one. Just wanted to make sure I covered all that I could, in as much detail possible.

As always…Love you all,

Courtney N. Williams

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