Disney World Do's and Dont's

Because I was “begged” to give a list of my do’s and don’ts of Disney World and because I have nothing interesting to say today, here is my list.

Disclaimer: This is what worked for or didn’t work for my family. Everybody vacations differently- especially us.

Don’t try to see everything. We tried to see everything we could the first couple of days and as we slowed down to enjoy what we could, we really enjoyed it. I know there are miles of cool, fun, fabulous stuff we didn’t even think about going near the last couple of days. And we were ok with it, because we enjoyed the places and things we did see. Plus, now we can always plan to go back, for longer. And if you know that you will not see it all you won’t force yourself to

If you are planning to make evening ADR’s (Advanced Dining Reservations) for any place while traveling go with early evening over late. We had some of both and the early evening reservations allowed us to head back into the park revived and energized. We were actually able to see more this way than on the evenings of late reservations, because those evenings left us with very little time after we finished eating for time in the parks. Or, just plan your sit down meals for lunch.

Plan. This is so very important. I know that we were able to enjoy ourselves as much as we did because of all the planning. I was very commando, as some Disney travelers are, we really flew by the seat of our pants, but we had acquired some key information and were able to use it in order to minimize our wait times and increase the fun factor. One key piece of advice: If your kids want to ride Dumbo, DO IT FIRST. Period. Be there when the gates open and get to Dumbo as quickly as possible. You may still be in for a 20 minute wait with this strategy, but it is better than the 90-120 minute wait later in the day. Also spend time at these websites: All Ears and DIS boards. I received SO much invaluable information from these sites. I also highly recommend picking up books. I carried my Unofficial Guide with me almost everywhere during the months leading up to the trip. We also picked up The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World a few weeks before the trip and it has quickly become a favorite of my husband who has lent it out twice already to people traveling. It has lots of fun, colorful pictures and lots of trivia and facts included as well. I also picked up the Passporter which was nice, but not my first choice. We used this one for the wonderful descriptions of the restaurants and food available, which is nice to have because there are so many different kinds of eateries, many that we found because of this book.

Take more sunscreen than you ever think you will need. Florida is HOT and sunny. We took a can of spray sunscreen for the week. I mean seriously, these usually last us an entire summer, but we were out by day 3. And sunscreen prices in Florida are inflated beyond control. We had to pay $11 for another can of it, because that was all that was sold at our hotel. Better to have too much, than to run out.

If it is in your budget, stay on-site and in a Moderately rated hotel. We stayed on-site, in a Value rated hotel. The hotel was nice, but just a room. If you have children they will NEED to swim. And the value resorts have a pool, but they are just a pool. The moderately rated hotels have POOLS. They have really cool slides and they are larger and just nicer. Not just a hole in the ground. Next time we will pay the little bit extra to bump up in the hotel ratings. But I think staying on site is fabulous. There are so many perks to it, plus you are simply immersed into the whole Disney culture. Which is what I love anyway.

Don’t force your kid to ride something that frightens them. As frustrating as it can be, just don’t. We saw way too many kids being drug onto rides that the child didn’t want to be riding. Jacob tried everything he was tall enough for once. And only chose a few to ride more than once. Like I mentioned earlier in my daily re-caps, he loved the ride parts of the ride, but the story lines got to him on several of the rides: Expedition Everest and Tower of Terror. He rode EE more than once, but would shut his eyes at the “shadow part” that was too scary for him. The Unofficial Guide does a great job of letting you know if a ride might be too intense for a child, but like anything else everybody’s kids are different. This also goes for the characters. has never been a fan of characters at any theme park we have gone to. I finally think I figured it out. He was fine with all the “face” characters, but the only “fluff” one he would see was Mickey. And Scooby Doo at Six Flags. But those are the 2 favorite characters, so concessions were made. I think they scared him a little. Not enough to scream and cry and make a scene, but enough to where he wasn’t interested in meeting them or taking a picture. But, he did always want an autograph.

Give you kids their own spending money. This really worked for us. They got to buy what they wanted and I didn’t have to tell them no. Even if your budget is $20 per kid, they will quickly learn to budget it and buy something that they really love and will want to keep forever, rather that some junk that will be forgotten within a week of your return. I think this may have been one of the best ideas we had, because the items that our kids bought are still in high demand in our house and items that can be “played” with are, on an almost daily basis. That horrible Indian Jones hat is put on at least one head everyday, and it has been nearly a month since we purchased it, which is long past the life span of most toys in this house.

Make sure to take lots of funny pictures of your family in hats. And you don’t even have to buy them! We only purchased one set of ears for each kid, but we had lots of fun with the hats that are located in nearly every shop. And we didn’t take pictures with nearly half of the hats available. This is a fun way to “shop” and not spend any money. Plus, it takes you out of the heat for a few minutes.
















I think that if you just slow down and remember that it is a vacation, you will have a great time. Once we did that, it was some of the best days our family has had in a long time. I am glad that we did it, and I can’t wait to go back. In 2011. At least that’s the plan. :)