A First-time-trip-to-Disney Planner's Guide to Not Screwing It Up
A first-time-trip-to-Disney Planner’s Guide to Not Screwing It Up.
Hi, there. My name is Cyd, and I’ll be guest blogging for 101 Dream Vacations today (Oh, good! You’re excited, I can tell). I’m going to tell you all about our recent trip to Disney World – what we did right, what we did wrong, and why using a travel agent is the best idea I’ve had since that one time I decided to try beignets with Nutella (Seriously. Try it. Right now – I’ll wait).
So, let me start out by saying: I’m not a planner. When we decided to bite the Disney bullet (because all kids should experience Disney at least once, right? It’s like a rite of passage), I started getting anxious. There were SO many options for hotels, food, parks, attractions, non-resort activities, EVERYTHING, and I was completely overwhelmed. I NEEDED to have as much information as I could gather, especially because my youngest child is autistic, so we would be utilizing Disney’s accommodations for special needs children.
Every time I started to look at restaurants and rides and parks and OMG, ALL OF THE CHOICES TO BE MADE, I suddenly remembered things like the fact that I hadn’t dusted under my couch in six months, and that’s REALLY important, so I should probably go do that right now and think about all of that other stuff later, K? (What? Like you haven’t done it.)
Using an agent to plan my first trip made that part of the whole thing so easy for me. I gave Tiffany my budget and travel dates and said, “HERE. DEAL WITH THIS,” she went to work, and I could go back to Netflix binge-watching (Um, I mean dusting. I totally dusted). She did come back to me for preferences on dining reservations and ride selections for Fast Pass, but for the most part, my job was done. I just had to stress about packing, which is pretty much the only thing your travel agent won’t do for you, apparently.
She didn’t JUST put everything together for me, though, which is something that you technically could do yourself (although, really, let’s reiterate: SO MANY THINGS TO DO), she also saved us a good bit of money by knowing when to book the trip to find the best price, made us hard-to-get dinner reservations, and she made Fast Pass ride changes for us last minute while we were in the park, at a time in which we had difficulty making the changes ourselves on a finicky data connection.
She’s also been to Disney many, many more times than I have, so she’s familiar with all of the things there – the best techniques for avoiding crowds, answering questions about rides, the best method of transportation to get from this place to that place – all of that. Sure, people who really enjoy doing their own planning (who ARE those people, anyway?) could technically find all of that information online, but it’s in a million different places, would take longer to find, and it’s nowhere near as satisfying as picking up the phone and asking your agent who has your itinerary in front of you (in what may or may not have been a slightly panicked tone) what to do in any given situation.
We in particular really needed the experience to go smoothly. We had two situations going on: my teenaged step-son was a part-time resident of Florida, and would only be with us some of the week (thus not on our “package” and meal plan); and we had an autistic child in a completely new environment. A really BUSY, potentially overwhelming environment.
So, we had a lot of things come up for which we were in need of assistance. And Disney’s great, but when you’re overwhelmed and have three children to juggle, you can’t really remember your own name at any given moment, so it’s so easy to just pick up the phone and talk to someone who already knows what’s going on and can pretty much fix anything (okay, so not ANYTHING, but pretty close).
Let’s start with what we did right.
First, using a travel agent (see above). She did most of the work for us, we just had to think about the fun stuff and do the actual trip financing. She was also there to explain all of the little things that you don’t think about but need to know (like how to tip when you’re on a dining plan, exactly how the disability service works, the best places to find the most amazing foods that you should totally hoard your snack credits for, etc). And, despite my initial what’s-the-catch confusion when first learning about Disney travel agents, they don’t cost you money – they really do save you money (as well as time). Disney wants you to have a flawless experience, and having a Disney sherpa as your guide increases your chances there by a LOT.
The disability pass thing went pretty well. I was a little nervous at having to head to Guest Services immediately after arrival to sign up for a disability pass (waiting in a line to get a pass to help us avoid waiting in a line? I wasn’t looking forward to that). Fortunately, one particular employee took the time to talk to my son about his First Visit pin, and kept him suitably distracted and entertained for the length of time of our wait.
(She looks very put out, no?)
We got his photo taken, were given a pass to carry, and went on our way. For any ride, we could hand the pass to the attendant, have them write our come-back time on it (current ride wait time minus ten minutes), and then return at that time to present the pass again, and proceed through the FastPass line. This essentially let us wait out the line time elsewhere, where things were a little calmer, should we need to.
Another really smart thing we did (read: *I* did, since the husband has absolutely nothing to do with keeping up with these things) was to put our schedule into the calendar on our phones – which park we were in on which days, the hours of those parks, which Fast Passes we had scheduled for which times, as well as our dining reservations. This was smart for two reasons: it was simple having everything in one place in a format which I was already familiar with, and because it made all of our information available offline, for as long as I had battery life in my phone. This was very important, because while the Disney app is useful for keeping an eye on your itinerary, it’s only useful if the internet connection is working. Which, fair warning, is not a safe assumption. Wifi was rarely ever useful in the parks – it mainly just drained our phones, because they kept trying to make a connection, but couldn’t. The resort’s wifi was useful, but we learned pretty quickly not to rely on having a data connection in the parks. There were so many people on the cellular network that that wasn’t much use to us either. Disney’s a large place with tons of people trafficking it every day (including approximately half of all of Florida’s natives on a long weekend for President’s Day, as we discovered), so it’s possible that the network is not usually that overloaded – although it’s definitely something to keep in mind if you’re vacationing during what you know is going to be a busy time.
Now for what we did wrong:
Don’t take your never-been-on-a-roller-coaster-before 7-year old on Space Mountain as his first real ride. ‘Twas a learning experience. See below.
(For the record, he’s fine. While he loves telling his friends he went on this ride, he has made it abundantly clear that he does not want to try it again before, say, age 30). It’s still kinda one of my favorite photos from the trip, though.
Also, the roaring dinosaur restaurant with the flashing lights and periodic simulated “meteor shower” is probably not the best dining choice for very overwhelmed and exhausted children. Try not to make that reservation at 8pm, no matter how hard it was to get into. K? I didn’t realize how lighty-y and flash-y and noisy it would be until we were there and everyone was exhausted and it was too late to pull the ripcord. My autistic kid buried his face in coloring pages and was fine, but if your child is at all prone to sensory sensitivity, T-Rex is definitely not the restaurant for you. For kids who A) love dinosaurs, and B) don’t mind lights and sounds, however, it’ll probably be their own little slice of heaven.
What went well:
Just about everything. Despite feeling like we were the Griswolds trying to plan a family vacation (if you don’t get that joke, we will, sadly, probably never be friends), most things went very smoothly. Check-in and check-out was a breeze (did you KNOW you could express checkout and just LEAVE whenever you want to on the day of departure? So cool. You can even go straight to your room for check-in if you have your Magic Bands pre-loaded with your room information), the staff were efficient, friendly, and disgustingly chipper at 8am before I’d had coffee; and ride waits were really pretty manageable with the Fast Pass system.
My autistic son is perseverating on Sonic at the moment, and the cleaning crew even posed his plush for him every night, which he got a kick out of.
The disability system was there for us if we needed it, although we did not end up using it since every time we were between Fast Passes, there was a ride nearby with a manageable wait that the kids were eager for.
What went less than well:
Fast Passes work well, until they don’t. Our first day in Magic Kingdom was a mess, between us wandering around not knowing where anything was, and the Fast Pass system breaking under what was (presumably) the strain of so many people in the park. It was the Saturday before President’s Day, so the park was absolutely packed. We were unable to make changes to our Fast Passes during the down time, although ride attendants assured us that they would honor Fast Passes for rides all day long, so time constraints were essentially removed. One of our Fast Pass rides had mechanical issues, and another was so backed up with Fast Pass claimees by the time we got to it that we blew it off. Disney did its best, but that day was not really our most successful day. It’s worth noting, though, that the system worked pretty well for the remainder of our stay. One of our smartest decisions was scheduling all of our daily allotted Fast Passes one right after the other one day, so that we were done with them by noon-ish. We then had the rest of the day to just explore the park at leisure.
Now, onto scooters. This one wasn’t anything Disney could control, really, but it was kinda bad. Scooters are absolutely everywhere in Disney – some people use them because they need them, some use them for convenience; but suffice it to say that not everyone with a scooter is terribly responsible with them. Seven-year olds should be kept away from said irresponsible people, FYI, unless you’re just super interested in what the inside of Disney first-aid stations look like. For the record, employees in that particular section of the park are very nice people when presented with a screaming kid. I’m also fairly sure these employees sent balloons to our room, although I can’t be sure because there was no card. It’s entirely possible that there were no Sorry-Your-Kid-Got-Run-Over cards at the ready, though, so that’s perfectly understandable.
*Takeaway advice: If there’s a scooter behind you, move.
Okay, the rest of these things don’t really fit into any particular category, so here are some rapid fire do’s and don’ts, based on our experience.
– Do plan at least one sit-down meal each day. The important part of that statement is the “sit down” part – our meals were included with the meal plan we chose, but I would have happily paid the full meal price just to have a solid hour and a half to two hours of being stationary and in a seated position while the kids were happily consuming more chicken nuggets and fueling up for further shenanigans with dessert.
– Don’t expect your phone battery to last all day. Between the sketchy wifi and increased phone usage due to (attempting) consulting the Disney app so frequently, our phones were toast pretty early in the day. We brought charging bricks, though, and were able to keep them charged for all of the important stuff.
– Do utilize the various methods of transportation offered by Disney. We could have gotten to Downtown Disney via bus, but it was a fun experience for the kids to take the boat from our resort. The monorail was also a fun way to get to one night’s dinner reservation. (Ask my 5-year old how much electricity is flowing through those wire-y things on the monorail. Thanks to an accommodating Disney employee, he can now tell you).
– Don’t tell your kid he can get a souvenir at a particular park at 8am. He will then decide he absolutely has to have the very next thing he sees, and will have zero sympathy for your suggestion of waiting until later in the day so that he has time to see everything, and then YOU won’t have to carry his selection around all day. (Cares-given count = zero).
– Do eat at the Sci Fi Dine In Theater at least once. The kids will love sitting in a car and eating while watching cartoons, and the adults will be super impressed with the food and congratulate themselves on the good sense in having the kids seated in the front so that they are maximally transfixed by the show and you can pretend you’re alone with your significant other for an hour or so. Also: HOMEMADE CANDY BARS!
– Don’t go to quick service restaurants at peak times, if you can avoid it. Lines were long, kids were cranky, and seating was almost non-existent. We almost sat on the concrete once or twice. I was unenthusiastic about this prospect.
– Do stay for the fireworks at Magic Kingdom at least one night. We didn’t manage this due to a perfect storm of various circumstances, but I regret it. I was dying to get castle fireworks shots from a particular out-of-the-way location that I’d found, and I’m STILL kicking myself for not pulling it out. My little photographer heart is still a little sad about that one, but I’m hoping to go back at some point to get some.
My sad, firework-less castle night shot. So close! Two more hours and I would have had it!
– Don’t “waste” a Fast Pass on a show. I’m rolling my eyes a little while writing these words because it’s really more my husband’s suggestion than mine, but he’s insistent that it should be included here. Let’s indulge him, shall we? Here goes.
So, with MOST attractions, there are only so many people admitted at a time, so lines build up, and it makes sense to Fast Pass it. For shows, though, many more people are admitted at a time, so what happens is that you go to the Fast Pass line and get herded into the common waiting room first, but then the non-Fast Pass people just get shuffled in with you. There’s no “line” in these rooms per se, so you don’t really get priority seating. For some of the more popular shows, though, there may be enough people waiting in the regular line at peak times than are able to fit into the next show, so then if you DON’T Fast Pass it, you’re waiting the length of the next show plus the time it takes to prep and fill the next one. (Make sense? Apparently not, to a husband who shall remain nameless).
Do: Spend at least one day at Epcot. We’d had friends tell us that there wasn’t much for the kids to do at Epcot, so we’d initially planned to skip it, and at the last minute decided to go use a park ticket on it anyway (um, sorry about that last-minute curveball, Tiffany!). I’m really glad we went – my kids are really into anything interactive, so they could have spent all day in the various learning centers around the park (And it’s all educational! No parental guilt!), but they loved the rides, too. Epcot was without a doubt the most beautiful of the three parks, in my opinion, so it was really enjoyable for the adults in our party as well. The peace and quiet of that park was nice in contrast to the hustle and bustle of Magic Kingdom. We really could have spent all day in the various countries (but, alas: scooters).
Epcot even has real French artists (or is it artistes?)!
So, I hope my little (or not-so-little) diatribe has helped. My family is pretty much living proof that you can plan a successful Disney vacation despite a complete lack of trip-planning skills.
With, you know, just a TEENSY bit of help.
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Guest blogger Cyd Lapour is mom of 3 boys and owner of Bayou Rose Photography based out of South Louisiana. Cyd travels all over to document families lives in what she calls Life Unscripted Sessions or more commonly referred to as “Day In the Life” sessions. For more information about Cyd, her work, or maybe even having your next Walt Disney World vacation documented check her out here, and don’t forget to let her know 101 Dream Vacations sent you.