Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Vacation to Disney World

 

Planning your first trip to Walt Disney World can be a bit daunting, but with the right advance information, you'll be ready for days in the park. The Magic Kingdom alone received over 17 million visits in 2009, making it the most popular tourist attraction in the world. With four major parks, two water parks plus Downtown Disney and the Boardwalk, Disney World has something to entertain every visitor who walks through the gates.

You Can't Do Everything

You can't do everything, so don't even try. Walt Disney World is filled with dozens of world-famous icons and attractions. The parks are designed so guests can have a new experience every time they visit. It's intentionally too big to visit in a week. Keep this in mind when planning your days in the park. Choose a list of attractions to visit, but narrow it down to a reasonable number. For those with small children, you may want to concentrate on only four or five attractions for an entire day. Those with longer attention spans might plan on as many as eight or 10, but only for a full day at the park.

Rooms are for Sleeping

Walt Disney World offers resort hotels with rooms in a range of prices. There are also dozens of hotels near the parks, from inexpensive to extravagant. When you visit the park, especially for the first time, the only time that you may be in your hotel room is to sleep and shower. So before deciding on a deluxe resort hotel, think about whether sleeping with nicer decor and concierge service is worth hundreds of dollars per day. Many off-site hotels and resorts even offer free shuttle service to the parks, such as the Holiday Inn Main Gate East and the Royale Parc Suites, so you don't have to worry about transportation between your room and Walt Disney World.

Avoid Biggest Crowds

The bigger the celebration, the longer the lines. Thousands of people decide to spend holiday vacations in Walt Disney World, no matter what the holiday. Disney puts up decorations and plan celebrations; there seems to be an extra bit of magic in the parks during holidays. With that magic come extremely long lines for every attraction and restaurant, which can take up hours. Consider going one week before or after the actual holiday. The decorations will still be up, but the crowds will be much smaller.

Don't Overschedule

Every day at Walt Disney World, parents get their children up before daylight, reach the gate in their designated park before opening and strictly follow a list to guide their day. These people are so anxious to make sure the family has a good time that they forget to relax and enjoy the vacation. You definitely want to make a plan, especially for your first visit. But schedule in some free time as well. You may want to spend it in a different park, or you may want to lay around the pool at your hotel. After all, if you discover an award-winning rose garden or a dancing fountain to play in, you'll need some extra time to enjoy your find.

Fun Can Be Free

Anyone who looks at the Walt Disney World website knows that a vacation in the parks can become expensive. So seek out the fun things to do in Disney that are free. Hidden Mickey hunting is a classic pastime everywhere in the parks. Look for the hidden silhouettes of Mickey Mouse's head. You can find them on rides, in wallpaper and on ceilings.Make a contest of seeing how many hidden Mickeys each family member can discover during the trip. Tour the deluxe resort lobbies. You may end up spending the afternoon sitting on a sofa listening to live piano music at the Grand Floridian or perusing the artwork in the Wyland Gallery at the Polynesian. Rock in the rocking chairs at Wilderness Lodge until it's time to watch the geyser. You may enjoy the best day of your trip without even trying.

Wear Good Shoes

Walt Disney World is for comfort, not fashion. Wear comfortable, broken-in shoes that give your feet support. Veteran Disney guests sometimes spend the morning spotting the bad shoes in line, knowing that these people will be limping toward their hotels in a few hours with a ruined day at the park. There is even a website dedicated to bad shoes in Disney World at badshoe.com. If you can't walk in your shoes for four hours without feeling them, don't wear them to Disney World.