Tips for Making Your Disney Vacation Easier

  **I was invited to the Disney Social Media Mom's Event, my family was responsible for the conference fee as well as travel costs  **  Review by Mike

It had been a very long time (about 25 years) since either my wife or I had been to Disney World so in many ways it was as if we were going for the first time.  We spent time doing some research and getting up to speed on ways to make our stay fun and as relaxing and easy as possible.  We got some great tips from some fellow attendees of the Disney Social Media Moms conference as well as from the Disney Parks website. 

Below are some tips that helped my family and will hopefully help yours, especially if you have never been to Disney World or it has been a long time.

-Order a Free Disney Parks Vacation Planning DVD from the Disney website.  This DVD gave us a great overview of the theme parks, water parks, Downtown Disney and more.

-Download one of the Free official Disney apps.  I personally downloaded and used Disney Mobile Magic, though My Disney Experience is also a really good one.  I used My Disney Experience on my laptop and it helped me accomplish my next tip.  While at the Disney Parks I used the Disney Mobile Magic app quite a bit.  It has maps of all of the parks, you can look at the ride wait time and FastPass times, check out restaurants, make dinner reservations and look for character meet and greets.  My daughter loved checking out this app to and in between activities or while we were waiting for an attraction she loved looking at the character's pictures and figuring out who was out and where we might find them.

-If you are staying at a Disney Hotel, use My Disney Experience to check-in to your hotel online. My family was scheduled to be in Orlando the night before we were set to check into our hotel for the conference so we were hoping to get an early check-in time.  I went onto My Disney Experience and requested an 8 AM time.  I provided my cell phone number which would allow Disney to text me if the room would not be ready at that time.  I never received a text so at 8 AM we drove over to the Contemporary and pulled up to the front, gave the attendant our name and he took us inside immediately and handed us our room keys and other documents.  This was a huge time saver. Without online check-in we would have had to go to the counter and wait for all of our information to be put together. Our vehicle was unloaded, parked and we were in our room in a matter of minutes.

-If you are flying I would definitely recommend using the Disney's Magical Express service from Orlando International Airport. Here is the description from the Disney website:

Board our buses at Orlando International Airport and we’ll get you and your bags to your Disney Resort hotel.
Begin your vacation the moment you step off the plane. Bypass baggage claim and avoid the hassle and cost of driving or finding ground transportation. With this special benefit of staying at select Disney Resort hotels, get from the airport to your accommodations in comfort and have your bags delivered directly to your room. You’ll also enjoy a complimentary ride back to Orlando International Airport on the day of your departure. Please note that pets are not permitted on Disney’s Magical Express but service animals are.

Luggage Delivery Service
This feature of Disney’s Magical Express is available for flights arriving between 5:00 AM and 10:00 PM daily. Your luggage will travel separately, and it may take up to 3 hours after your check-in at your Disney Resort hotel for your luggage to be delivered to your room.

-Disney's Magical Express is just one example of the great transportation system you will find at Disney World.  Whether you are using the monorail or a bus, getting from park to park and to and from your hotel is very easy and stress-free and free.  Bus stops are clearly marked so you will know for sure if you are getting on the correct bus or not.  The bus areas at the parks are also very well marked so finding the right bus to your hotel is very easy.  The buses are clean and well maintained.  I think the longest ride on a bus was no more than 10-15 minutes. If you are not exactly sure how to get where you are going just ask a cast member.

-Even if you are using your own camera and/or smartphone to take pictures, take advantage of the PhotoPass service.  All you have to do is get a free PhotoPass card from any photographer in any park.  Then when you have a picture taken with a character or landmark in the park and there is a Disney photographer there, hand them your card and they will take the pictures and scan the card and add them to your account.  Then when you get home you can either log in or create an account to view your pictures, share them, order prints, customize them and more.  I just looked at the dozens and dozens of PhotoPass pictures taken on our vacation and the Disney photographers were able to capture some great pictures and angles that my wife and I were not able to get.

-The final tip I have for you is to use FastPass for rides in all of the parks.  FastPass is free and available to anyone with a park ticket. It allows you to scan your park ticket and print a ticket for a return time thus saving you from having to stand in that ride's line.  You come back during the time printed on your FastPass ticket.  Only select rides at the 4 Disney World parks use FastPass. Here is the current list:

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park:

• DINOSAUR
• Expedition Everest
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Primeval Whirl

Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park:

• Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
• Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
• Toy Story Mania!
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Magic Kingdom Theme Park:

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Jungle Cruise
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Space Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid

Epcot Theme Park:

• Captain EO starring Michael Jackson
• Living with the Land
• Maelstrom
• Mission: SPACE Pavilion
• Soarin’
• Test Track

My suggestion to you is to get a FastPass for the ride you really want to ride the most early in the day because for the most popular rides the return time may be several hours later or in some cases they may be sold out.  So instead of waiting in the line you can go off and do other activities or ride less busy rides and return when it is your FastPass time and you enter in a different line.  The longest wait for a FastPass was for Toy Story Mania! at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  We got to the FastPass distribution site less than an hour after the park opened and my family's return time was about 3 1/2 hours later.  You can only hold one Fast Pass at a time so once your FastPass ticket time arrives then you can go to another ride and print a new FastPass.

-Your room key, which is also called "Your Key to the World" gives you the option to apply to credit card to it so that any charges made around any of the Disney Parks will be charged to your room.  Right now it looks like a credit card but my wife found out in her meetings that they may be switching to wristbands.  If you don't want to carry cash or your other credit cards, this is a very handy option to use. 

I am confident that my using some or all of the tips above you and your family will have a much easier and more enjoyable vacation at Disney World. 

What is your best Disney tip?

Personal photos used in this review belong to My Springfield Mommy and may not be used without written permission from My Springfield Mommy. 

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