Katherine's Next Trip!

So, you’ve decided that you need some magic in your life, and you want to take your family to Disney, yay!  I think that’s a great idea, and I wanted to share a few things that I have come to understand throughout my Disney travels.  

I grew up going to Walt Disney World as a kid.  In fact, my mom was just telling me yesterday that the first time I went with my parents and grandparents when I was 3, it was 10:30pm and my mom had to bend down and tell me, “Katherine, your grandparents are tired, we need to leave” even when I was still rarin’ to go late into the night!  When my family moved to Florida when I was only 5, we took advantage of the great deals for Florida residents that they offer throughout the year and went A LOT.  And being a Floridian, we went for school trips, the Christian music festival Night of Joy, and even the famed Grad Night, when the high school seniors took over Magic Kingdom from 11pm until about 5am!  

I moved to Orlando to go to UCF, and IMMEDIATELY got an annual pass, and ended up working there for 2 years at the end of my college career, so I didn’t have to pay at all!  Well, besides all the Casey’s hot dogs and dole whips I enjoyed over the years 😉 When I take those Disney surveys you get from time to time, they usually ask, “How many times have you been to Walt Disney World?” and my answer is 99+, because I really couldn’t count.  

I have been to other Disney parks as well.  I studied abroad in Spain in 2002, and one of my friends on the trip was a “friend of Pluto” at WDW, so he got to use his maingate pass to get us into Disneyland Paris one weekend!  When I lived in Italy with Cru after college, my friends and I were passing through Paris after Christmas, and we made sure we included a trip to the parks then as well.  I start going through “Disney withdrawal” in about 3 months, so making it to Disneyland Paris during my first year abroad was SO GREAT.  

I ended up visiting Disneyland in California for my 30^th birthday just WEEKS before Carsland opened, and then a few years later before Pixar Pier opened.  My luck with Disneyland timing is pretty bad!  I haven’t been to Aulani yet, but my parents and I JUST booked a Disney Cruise (a dream of mine!) next September, so I am expanding my Disney “world” bit by bit!  

A visit to Walt Disney World can be VERY complex, and the thought of trying to plan one from scratch with no knowledge can be a little overwhelming, but I can share some of my wisdom that I have amassed over the years to give you a bit of a head start and to help you wrap your mind around the enormity of all that is Walt Disney World.  

Things to think about:

How long do you want your trip to be?  

WDW is HUMONGOUS.  You can’t do it all in one trip, heck, with all the times I have visited, I haven’t even done CLOSE to everything there is to do there!  Since there is so much to do, you will be VERY busy every day.  How long can your family sustain the non-stop entertainment and activities?  If you have young children and aren’t sure how they will do with all the stimulation, or even how YOUR stamina might last, a shorter trip might be best.  Does your family want to visit the parks AND relax?  A longer trip can give you time to space out your park days and time to go swimming or sleep in and visit activities located outside the parks, like miniature golf, water parks, or shopping at Disney Springs!  

Where should you stay?

There are NUMEROUS lodging options on Disney property, Disney property adjacent, and throughout the Orlando/Kissimmee area.  If your plan is to go to ONLY the parks at WDW, the closer you are to WDW, the better, and the closest is actually ON property.  There are 25 hotels included in the Disney Resorts Collection, with a WIDE range of prices.  They all include complimentary transportation to the parks and Disney Springs as well as the water parks.  

There are two reasons that I find the complimentary transportation from the Disney Resorts EXTREMELY beneficial, the first being that I don’t have to rent a car during my stay when it would be mostly sitting in parking lots during my trip, and the second being that when I want to go anywhere, there will be a bus usually within 20 min or less.  

There are many offsite hotels that offer transportation to and from the parks, like the “Good Neighbor Hotels” located in and around the WDW property, but they are more infrequent as well as they don’t run at the most convenient times (to me at least, when I want to go, I want to go!).  I have even stayed at the Four Seasons Orlando, which is on Disney property in Golden Oak, Disney’s vacation house community, and their bus schedules that are only hourly for Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom and only twice an hour for Magic Kingdom (and the bus stop is in an inconvenient area) are not helpful when I don’t want to have to schedule my departures from the parks.  

Another reason that staying on property might appeal to you is the extra time in the parks that your status as an on-site guest gives you.  You have access to the four main parks 30 minutes before official park opening to ride some of the most popular rides with shorter lines (because less people in the park in general means less people in line).

There are different levels of hotels on site.  The Value Resorts are the most economical, with MANY multi-story buildings, outside hallways, brightly decorated pool areas, and a large food court.  The next level up are the mid-range priced Moderate Resorts with smaller buildings more spread out, table service dining options as well as food courts, a larger recreational pool complex as well as smaller quiet pools placed throughout the resort. 

The top of the top will be the most expensive Deluxe Resorts and Disney Vacation Club Resorts with the largest pool complexes (Stormalong Bay at the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts is EPIC), more table service options on top of the counter service restaurants, more spacious rooms, and they are located closer to the parks, so the transportation time is less and on more varied methods.  I want to warn you, you will almost NEVER pay this much for rooms the sizes of the Disney rooms, but you’re “staying in the magic” so you need to decide how much that means to you.  

The options offsite are ALMOST endless.  The only downside is the time it takes to get to and from the parks, which will usually be longer than anything on property.  There are any number of types of hotels for various prices and family sizes.  Since we all know that park tickets are EXPENSIVE, your lodging is a place you can economize.  There are even Disney-themed Airbnb options nearby, which would be so fun, especially if you are traveling with a larger group.  Which leads us to….

What is your budget?  

WDW is EXPENSIVE.  Even the tickets will most likely be a larger part of your budget than you originally thought.  After you decide the type of trip you want to have you can start to lock in your budget.  Do you want a non-stop parks everyday trip?  You will most likely only be using your hotel to sleep, so there is no need to invest in a fancy hotel.  Will you want to relax at the resort and go with the flow some days?  

Maybe cutting down on days in the park will take some of the stress of “getting your monies’ worth” out of those park tickets off you and allow you to enjoy relaxing in the magic of your resort and exploring the fun that is outside the parks while spending less money.  If that is the case, you might want to invest in a resort with more activities and amenities to enjoy when you aren’t in the parks.  

You won’t be stuck paying full price for everything though, there are many websites that can help you find deals at Disney World!  Mousesavers.com is a favorite of mine, they compile all the resort discount codes they can find, and you might be able to find one that you qualify for!  

Some other ways you can save money:

            Buy tickets from undercovertourist.com or other sites you have access to through affiliations or your workplace

            Stay off property (but be sure to factor in the cost of your rental car and parking costs!)

            Bring your own food and snacks in, but make sure your cooler and its contents adhere to the guidelines of items allowed in the park and store in a locker until you need it 

I would also plan for a souvenir budget, as it seems like “every ride ends in a gift shop”. You don’t want to miss out on something fun to commemorate your amazing trip to WDW! 

 The last budget line you need to account for is for SNACKS!  There are so many fun snacks throughout the parks, and usually more fun and more delicious than the straightforward counter service meals you will get throughout the parks.  If you are bringing your lunch in, this is a MUST.  You can’t go to Magic Kingdom without trying a Dole Whip (a refreshing treat of pineapple soft serve) and a trip around the world in Epcot isn’t complete without a visit to the Norwegian bakery, as eating is half the fun!  

What tickets should you buy?

We discussed tickets a little bit before, but once you get your budget nailed down, it is now time to focus on a HUGE part of your budget.  If you are going for a short trip, unfortunately the price by the day is the highest compared to a longer trip.  Over the next year, one day tickets in the “slowest” times (there’s no such thing as a slow time at Disney World, but the end of August seemed to be the cheapest) are $119, but for most of the year the prices are $154 and above for a single day.  The multi day tickets make your average daily price go significantly down, starting with just a few dollars off the average per day price for 2-4 days, but as soon as you hit 5 days, the average daily price drops $15 or more.  The longer you are there, the more money Disney makes, I’m onto their schemes!  The difficulty is to zone in on the best way to get the most bang for your buck and to stay within budget.  

I would suggest sticking with the one park per day ticket for first timers, especially if you are visiting WDW between January and July.  There is no need to overwhelm yourself trying to get across property to another park when there is plenty to do in the park you started out in.  PLUS, the one park per day ticket is cheaper than the park hopper ticket!  If you are traveling between the months of August-December, early closures of Magic Kingdom for after hours events like the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party make it difficult to catch the fireworks on a night they are open late, causing EVERYONE ELSE want to be there too, making Magic Kingdom a VERY busy park.  You will want to be able to enjoy another less-crowded park that day before hopping over to see the fireworks at night, so I would consider purchasing the park hopper option to be able to escape the crowds with ease.    

If it’s your first trip, I would suggest skipping the water parks this time and leave them for a future visit.  It is hard enough to give your family enough time to rest without adding ANOTHER activity to get to.  Though in 2025, any guest staying in the Disney Resorts Collection gets free admission to a water park on your arrival day!  Your arrival or departure day (because those park tickets need to be used to their fullest!) or even a day in the middle of your vacation (because sometimes people just need a day with no schedule) are also great opportunities to go for a swim at your hotel!  If you’re paying for it, you might as well use it.  ALL the Disney resorts have heavily themed pools that kids of all ages can enjoy, and the moderate and deluxe resorts have waterslides too!  The main pools have activities all day long and sometimes the pool day is the family’s favorite!  

When should you go?

Taking cues from that ticket price calendar, you can see the prices vary with supply and demand.  Are you off for Christmas?  So is most of the country, and MANY will want to go to WDW as well.  Want to take the kids to Disney World for spring break?  So will most of your child’s classmates.  First, you should consider your crowd tolerance.  The Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday breaks are some of the busiest times at WDW.  Recently, spring break has been much busier than summertime but checking with any crowd calendar (like the one at touringplans.com) website will give you a general idea of the most busy times at Disney World, even though it ALWAYS seems to be busy.  I can vouch that if you can travel the few weeks before Labor Day or JUST after Labor Day, the parks are SO empty (in comparison I guess). 

You have nailed down your budget, lodging, and tickets, now it is time to get prepared for the magic.  Tune in next time for ways to get ready for your next trip!