September 2018
Orlando, FL
Disney truly is the most magical place on earth! This trip to Disney World was after I had just graduated from PA school and completed my board exam. What a treat it was! We spent 5 days there and hit the 4 main Disney parks - Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. Disney really is fun for all ages! My husband and I enjoyed tackling the parks together as young adults and we can't wait to bring our daughter there once she is a bit older!
Disclaimer: all of the information in this blog post is pre-COVID. I know a lot of things have changed recently (mask requirements, limited Fast Passes, etc). Make sure to check Disney's websites for the most recent updates!
Check out our other pages for our FULL itinerary & highlight video!
Tips & Tricks
Where to Stay: I recommend checking out the Disney World resorts! There are a variety of resorts for all different budgets
We stayed at the Caribean Beach resort which was perfect for what we need. Our location had frequent buses to all the parks and a pool for our chill day. Nothing fancy, still comfortable, and budget-friendly.
What do you want out of your resort? Convenient access to park transportation? Themed restaurants vs buffet? Pool? Kid-friendly? Luxury?
Transportation: We utilized the Disney bus system since we stayed at a Disney resort. Otherwise, you may have to rent a car to get around. There were also Ubers available which we used to get to Disney Springs.
Disney Bus even covered airport transportation!
Plan in advance! Sit down with your group members and get an idea of each other's interests and expectations for the trip. Some people are thrillers and want to ride all of the fastest roller coasters. Some people prefer to meet with all the characters. Some people get motion sickness really easily and should avoid virtual rides. Figure out what the group vibe for the trip will be and discuss possible plans for the parks in advance. But be flexible! I’ve always had rough plans but never actually followed them. Usually, I plan my day around my fast pass times. We chose to do one park per day, saving our favorite park (Magic Kingdom) for the last day, and squeezed a chill day off in the middle where we slept in, hung out at the pool, and then spent the afternoon at Disney Springs. Here is a rough outline of our plans for each day:
Verify opening dates & times for each park. Sometimes parks close early on certain days and you don’t want to miss out. For example, we left Magic Kingdom for our last day and it closed early (4pm) for a “private event.” Luckily that private event still had tickets that we could buy at an extra cost and got to stay for the after-hours Halloween event until midnight! It ended up working out in our favor bc we got a lot of extra time in my favorite park. But this is definitely something you want to look into before planning your days.
Memory Maker Photo Package: I highly recommend spending the extra money on the photo package - it costs $ for all of your pictures from the entire vacation (but you have to purchase the package at least 3 days in advance). We basically just scanned our magic bands anywhere in the park and got unlimited photos taken of us! Didn’t have to pass our phone around to random people or rely on selfies. We got pictures with tons of characters and in front of major Disney landmarks! And all of the photos automatically upload into the app which makes for easy downloads/sharing.
My Disney Experience app: Speaking of the app… download it! This will be your best friend along with your magic bands. The app includes hotel info (if you stay at a Disney resort), meal plan updates, transportation timetables, uploads all your pictures, and has maps of all the parks with live wait times for the rides.
FAST PASS: Once you have purchased your park admission or Annual Pass, then you are able to make your FastPass+ selections as early as 30 days before you arrive. If you have a Walt Disney World Resort hotel reservation, then you can start making your selections up to 60 days before check-in. Choosing which rides and what times to use your FAST PASSes is a science and an art! Make sure to familiarize yourselves with all the rules. You can book 3 FAST PASSes per day in advance. And once you use those 3 passes, you can add one at a time that day while you're walking around the park (either in person at the ride or via the app). So play your cards right, and you can end up using 4-5 passes per park! There are lists of popular rides that you can only book one pass from that list per day. I recommend planning your time to go to a popular ride (but not one of the big famous heavy hitter rides) right at the opening of the park. And time your first FAST PASS for a second or third ride. Space out your FAST PASSes throughout the day but I recommend scheduling them mostly for the morning (before 1-2pm). That gives you the opportunity to use them all early and still have time to use a few extra in the afternoon.
Dining Packages: We got the “Disney Dining Package” which includes 1 Quick-Service Meal, 1 Table-Service Meal, and 2 Snacks/Nonalcoholic Drinks (per person per night of stay). You also get 1 Resort-Refillable Drink Mug per person - you can get unlimited refills at resorts only. We still brought them to the parks with us to fill them from the water fountains. They have a loop on them and attach easily to your fanny pack too. This meal plan worked best for us. Make dining reservations far in advance - guests can book dining reservations for Walt Disney World resorts up to 180 days in advance! Read carefully because some of the more coveted dining experiences actually use 2 table-service meal “tokens” (ie: Cinderella’s castle, Be our Guest, Luau, etc). We really wanted to do the Luau so splurged on that one. We then used our quick-service meals and snacks to make up most of our lunches/snacks. And we bought some granola bars at a local grocery store for quick breakfasts. I’ve included some additional notes below.
Akershus: Disney princess dining! This is one of the few restaurants that has all the big Disney princesses walking around (other than Be our Guest & Cinderella’s castle). American & Norwegian food
Luau: at the Polynesian Resort, we got tier 2 (out of 3) seating. Luau style food with pacific islander dancing entertainment
Hollywood Brown Derby: we had a great fancy steak dinner with wine here!
Chef Mickey’s: famous for Mickey-shaped waffles!
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