Disney Tips for Parents: Where to Visit

I've been going to Orlando, FL every few years since I was 9 years old. We've seen a lot in Orlando over the past 25 years and I feel that I have enough well-rounded insight to aid someone who's never been to Disney World on how to get the most out of their trip to the happiest place on earth!



Speaking of being 9 years old, that is really a great age for most children to really enjoy all that Orlando, FL has to offer. You're old enough to appreciate good food and good entertainment, but still young enough to squeal in genuine delight when spotting characters in the various theme parks. My sister was 6 years old, and that my friends is the PERFECT age. Too old for midday naps, but still a child in every way. So, my sister and I were 6 and 9, respectively, when we took our first jaunt to Orlando. Over the years I've made mental notes about things I would do differently with each trip, and as an adult, I feel like I've got hands-on experience on how to keep the family happy on a trip to Orlando; especially a family with at least one toddler on the trip; So let's get started!

Tip 1: Take the time of year into consideration Disney World is a truly magical place. But even Disney World gets OLD in 90 degree weather. Especially with the park completely filled to capacity and hour-long minimum wait times for each attraction.

Suggestion #1: If at all possible, avoid Disney World after Memorial Day and before Labor Day if you have children younger than 5 years old. Visit Universal Orlando or Sea World which are never as ridiculously crowded as Disney World on a summer day. If not possible (as is the case for most people, obviously) here are a few more suggestions.



Suggestion #2: Be at the Disney Main Gate 30 minutes before it opens. Try to be within the first couple hundred people to enter the park, if possible. This is very possible if you have small toddlers who wake up at 7am anyway! NOTE: Once you have entered the park, go all the way to the back of the park as far as you can get. Human studies show that most people do one of two things: they either stop at the first thing they see once they enter the gate, or they immediately run to their favorite attractions and jump on those. If you can get further into the park and work your way forward, believe it or not, you'll actually be better off than if you follow the crowd.

Suggestion #3: Go the Disney "Fast Pass" route. Disney offers what are called Fast Passes at all of their most popular attractions. And trust me, if your child is older than 3, they will be ALL about these particular rides/shows. So after heeding Suggestion #2, go ahead and get your Fast Pass for the ride your toddler seems the most excited about. The pass should display a time to come back that is one to two hours later than the current time. Spend that 45 min searching for characters in the park, grabbing a snack, or visiting a much less popular attraction to kill the time. If the kids are younger than 5, I promise they should be okay with this. Be sure to keep track of the time, so that you don't venture off too far from the area of your Fast Pass attraction. Also, be sure to confirm that the attraction you're visiting to kill the time won't spill over into your time to visit the Fast Pass attraction. Once your time listed on your Fast Pass arrives, keep in mind that you may still have a 30 min wait if it's noon or afterward. Once you leave the Fast Pass attraction, repeat this whole process for the rest of the day. (i.e. find another Fast Pass ride that the kids will love, get your passes, and do something else in the meantime) Suggestion #4 is pretty important so I will list it as another Tip.



Tip 2: Use one of Tami's Disney World calendar methods As you may know, Disney World Orlando has 4 theme parks. Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Disney Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios), and Animal Kingdom. There are two tricks of the trade frequent Disney travelers like myself use when determining which park to visit on which day.

Method 1: The FBT (Florida Bureau of Travel) method Most people in the US work Mon - Fri, and don't take vacations in the middle of the week. So Saturday is the incoming TRAVEL DAY for the bulk of people visiting Orlando. Trust me, there are still a TON of people already in FL visiting the parks on Saturday, but it doesn't come close to the sheer number that will be ready to visit the parks by Sunday! Also take into consideration the fact that most people visit the Disney parks each day in this order: 1)Magic Kingdom 2)Epcot 3)Disney Studios 4)Animal Kingdom.

So with this knowledge, if you are arriving to Orlando sometime Saturday late afternoon, early evening like most people, you don't want to waste money on visiting a park with only a few hours to play. Once you wake up bright and early Sunday morning, eat a very light breakfast (you don't want to set yourself up for feeling extremely tired before noon even hits, so I suggest sticking with continental breakfast), and get to that Main Gate. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT visit Magic Kingdom on Sunday. EVERYONE does this, so dare to be different. Epcot is a great park to visit, in my opinion. Lots of cool rides that the little ones can ride. Most popular is Spaceship Earth. It's the landmark of Epcot, and the kiddies will most likely want to ride it, just because it looks so cool from the outside! But again, it's the first ride you hit, so you may consider implementing my previous suggestion from Tip 1 which involves making your way deep into the park and working your way back to the front. This may work differently at Epcot, however, because it's twice the size of Magic Kingdom, not to mention that Epcot is made up of two distinct parks in itself so the "go further into the park" rule can be implemented separately in either one of them. On Monday, visit Disney Studios. Tuesday, Animal Kingdom. This would put you back at Magic Kingdom by Wednesday.

Method 2: The Extra Magic Hour method When you choose to stay at a Disney resort, you receive an EMH (extra magic hour) before the Theme Park opens and after it closes to the general public. Only one of the 4 parks has an EMH each day. So if
Monday happens to be Magic Kingdom's day to have EMH, none of the other parks will have it on that same day. Here's the trick: avoid the park that has the EMH on that day, because it will be extremely crowded due to being visited by almost all of the guests staying on the Disney resort. So if Magic Kingdom has the EMH, skip Magic Kingdom that day. Any of the others will be less crowded. Here's some more information about the EMH.



Method 3: Pad your trip to Disney with other fun things Traveling with toddlers to Disney World for the first time is going to wear you out. Especially if you have a small toddler. The frequent trips to the potty, the need for a nap (lest they become a public embarrassment to you), the heat, etc..., all of these things make for very grumpy parents during the summer at Disney World. My suggestion to you is to leave at least 1 day between each visit to the Disney parks to do something other than Disney. Please trust me, you will love me forever if you try this! Every other day, my family takes a "rest day". This involves either laying around the suite watching tv, hitting the pool, staying in the area doing some shopping at the Mall at Millenia, or just visiting another theme park all together. You could even drive 45 - 50 minutes south east and hit Cocoa Beach for a relaxing time there! Even those with the patience of Job will need a break from the over stimulation and excitement of Disney. Also, don't even think about utilizing the Disney Park Hopper if you've got toddlers. Total waste, because you'll most likely never get around to more than one park in one day; the kids (and you) will be restless by mid afternoon and need a nap so that just won't leave enough time to get your money's worth unless you plan on keeping them out really late.

I really hope that the tips come in handy. Please email me or leave comments with any feedback!