Several months ago, I promised y'all a guest post from my sister B. Basically, she is a wizard when it comes to Disney trip planning...so much so, that she actually has a job doing just that. On purpose. For real. It's like a hobby for her. In her spare time (read: in addition to her full-time job and other extracurricular activities), she is a Disney Travel Agent. It is thanks to her diligent planning and my parents' generous funding that my rag-tag family got to experience the magic of Disney. I had been to both World and Land, but not for decades. It was the first time for Habibi and the kids and let me say this: watching them was my favorite part. Even someone as stoic as Habibi couldn't remain impassive when Winnie the Pooh came to our lunch table for a hug.
Magic.
But a trip like this takes planning. A ton of it. And maybe that's not your thing. Lord knows that planning the details of a Disney trip while handling life with two tiny people is not MY idea of fun. In fact, even thinking about that gives me anxiety. Thank God for people like my sister.
I have added a few brief comments of my own throughout her post (the "Anouchka adds" notes you see) and have also divided this post into two parts, on account of it being so thorough. Honestly, B's attention to detail is delightful and, if you are planning a Disney trip, give this a quick read-through, and come back to it later as a reference manual. You won't regret it.
Now, without any further introduction, please enjoy B Knows Disney (Part 1)...
PART ONE
Hello Mouseketeers!
My sister asked me a while ago to write up a guest post for her awesome readers about planning a Disney World trip. This combines my two favorite things: writing casually, and Disney. Win-win for me, and if you get something out of it...well, that’s the cherry on top of the Dole Whip.
Some background: I have loved Disney for as long as I can
remember. I was 5 when The Little Mermaid came out and Disney movies
got good again (after their venture into movies far too depressing to
be cartoons, like The Fox and the Hound and The Rescuers). I
distinctly remember seeing Aladdin six times in the theaters, and
constantly re-enacting scenes as Princess Jasmine with my dad, who
graciously agreed (read: was forced on pain of my whining) to be
various and sundry villains. My high school graduation present from
my parents was a trip of my choice -- and I picked a Disney cruise.
We visited the parks a few times growing up, and even cutting a trip
short to make it home in time when my grandpa passed away never
soured the experience (that was left to Figment, the annoying little
purple dragon thing at Epcot, literally the only thing at Disney that
I actively detest).
When I got married, I successfully found the only grown adult man
to be more of a DisNerd than me to be my Prince Charming. After a
disastrous honeymoon right after our wedding, we decided to try it
again, and the next spring, we went to Disney World for our “re-do
honeymoon”. That was my first trip to Disney World since late
elementary school (for our cruise, we JUST did the cruise, no park
visit), so a lot had changed! An entire park had been added (Animal
Kingdom), there were actual fun things at Epcot for grown-ups (hello, Flower and Garden Festival pop-up kitchens), there were more hotels
than I ever knew had existed, and FastPasses had been introduced
(LIFE-CHANGING). Nevertheless, we planned as much as we could, and
had an absolutely magical time...once we figured out the system and
swing of things.
But I won’t lie...it was overwhelming, even for a planner like me. There was SO much to figure out, from where to stay, to how best to navigate the parks themselves (and planning FastPasses so as not to have to trek across Liberty Square a million times), to when to take a break (because even as an adult, you need one). That first trip, I didn’t even scratch the surface. It was fun, but in hindsight, there’s so much more I could have done differently...but you don’t know what you don’t know.
Then came 2017. My parents had already announced that we were going to take a family trip to Disney World, on them, in spring of 2018. And my husband was doing a Disney Institute training in May 2017. And the local university basketball team (for whom he works) was playing in a tournament down there at Thanksgiving, so I got to tag along then and actually spend the holiday with him, for just the second time in our married lives. So it made sense to get an Annual Pass.
AND THEN WE MADE USE OF IT.
In addition to a one-night stay at a resort in March 2017, after going to a couple of spring training baseball games in Tampa, we made five separate trips to Disney World from May 2017 through May 2018. During that time, I pretty much experienced it all -- staying in a Value Resort, staying in a Deluxe Resort, staying off property, eating at a whole range of restaurants, figuring out which rides usually have FastPasses available on the day of my park visit, how to navigate the Magic Kingdom to avoid tons of unnecessary walking, where to find the best souvenirs for a kitchen or the person watching your mail or for a four-year-old to take home, how to maximize my Annual Passholder savings, and so on…
So by this point, you could say I’m pretty seasoned.
Rather than give you a blow-by-blow of the whole planning process, which would fill pages upon pages, I’m giving you my top 10 quick-hitter tips. This is by no means the ONLY advice I could give, but it’s the stuff you might not necessarily find by reading the usual easy-to-find blog posts about the Best Cupcake On Property or Most Fun Character Buffet or Is The Fireworks Dessert Party Worth It? (Spoiler there: it is.)
1. Get super familiar with the My Disney Experience app.
This Disney-created app will be your lifeblood, both during your planning process and in the parks. This is where you can make Fastpass and dining reservations, find wait times for each ride, locate characters for meet-and-greet opportunities, find out what time the parade or fireworks are, customize your magic bands, and more. It’s not too tough to figure out, but if you have a trip coming up, the first thing you should do after making your hotel reservation is get this app set up on your phone, and start familiarizing yourself with it. Even if it’s just flipping through your plans (and trying to modify your FastPasses), or checking current wait times at the park at any given time, or looking for dining reservations you have no intention of making, you want to know how this app works before you get to Orlando. It’ll make allllllll the difference in how much you get to experience while you’re there.
Bonus tip: If you don’t have a rockstar portable charger, there are FuelRod stations set up all over every park and resort. For $30, you get a portable charger that actually works pretty well (my Samsung Galaxy S7 would charge up fairly quickly and nearly fully), along with a little cord and an adapter for mini-USB ports or iPhones. Whenever that charger is spent, you can swap it at the stations for a new one -- for life. And the rod is rechargeable, too, so you can charge it up in your hotel room (or at home) and keep using it indefinitely, but also make sure you have enough power when you (inevitably) will need it in the parks.
In some cases, depending on the length of time you’ll be at
Disney World and how you plan to get there, it may make more
financial sense to purchase an Annual Pass -- for one member of your
party. For example, currently a five-day park ticket with a Park
Hopper option (letting you visit more than one park per day) will run
you $500.55. Then add on the Memory Maker photo option, and it comes
to $669.55. The Disney Platinum Pass (which includes the Memory Maker
service) costs $904.19 with tax -- a difference of $234 and change.
But an Annual Passholder is entitled to free parking at the parks (not a benefit if you’re not driving there, but if you are, that adds up QUICK) as well as a 20% discount on merchandise and most table-service dining, and often about a 5-10% better discount on room rates. So let’s assume you have a family of four, and you want to have one table-service meal per day (at an average of $30 per person per meal -- it’ll fluctuate some, depending on where you go and what you order, but that’s a pretty fair average). Over your five park days, not including your travel days, you’d spend $600 on those meals. Subtract 20%, and that’s $120 right there. Now let’s say you stay in a room that costs $250 per night at the rack rate. If you saved an additional 5% over any announced discounts during your six-night trip (as would generally be the case, at a minimum), you save another $75. Is it likely that you’ll buy more than $200 in souvenirs during your trip (resulting in a 20% savings of $40)? If so, you’re better off buying the Annual Pass.
I know that’s a lot of math -- and it might be kind of hard to follow. Bottom line, though, is if you’re planning on being in the parks for five days or more, and you want to enjoy sit-down meals but don’t need the Disney Dining Plan, an Annual Pass may be the way to go. If you’ll be there less than five days, or don’t plan on having sit-down meals very much, go à la carte.
Just because you booked a trip doesn’t mean that’s the final
price you’ll pay -- especially if you book your trip quite a while
in advance. Disney will often announce discounts a few months out,
and by then, it’s likely you’ll have your trip already booked at
the full rack rate. But fear not! You can call the WDW Reservations
Line (I’ve never been able to do it online, although I wish that
capability existed) and modify your reservation to the lower,
discounted rate. Depending on what level of resort you’ve reserved
(Value, Moderate, or Deluxe), you’ll generally save anywhere from
15 to 25% -- which adds up quickly!
However, in your budgeting, you should never count on a discount, because you never know exactly what it will be. My best advice? Budget as though it’s full price, but do be diligent on checking for those discounts. (I suggest setting a calendar reminder every week at a particular time -- it’ll only take you a couple minutes, but could save you literally hundreds of dollars.) Then use the savings either to supplement your souvenir budget, or -- my personal preference -- to book an extra adventure. In the case of our family trip, we used our savings to enjoy the Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party, with a dessert buffet and a prime, reserved spot for viewing the fireworks at the end of the day at the Magic Kingdom.
Anouchka adds: If you do save a little coin and do the dessert party, make sure that you monitor your little one's junk intake. We were all giving Ribbers a little bite of this, a taste of that...without communicating with each other. He got so much dessert that night that he barfed all over himself and his precious "Mickmey" t-shirt. None of this seemed to bother him, however, because he instantly went back to begging for more sweet treats and thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks afterwards.
Bonus tip: If you fly Southwest, you can adjust your price there too! If you book a flight, which later drops in price, you can modify/rebook your flight at that rate instead. The difference is issued as a credit that you can use any time in the next year!
This one is a no-brainer. Disney stations photographers all over the parks, at the best photo locations (in front of Cinderella’s Castle or the Epcot ball or the Tree of Life, at character meeting points, or in front of notable or pretty scenery), and many rides have a photo taken on them too (like my favorite Space Mountain picture ever, featuring former NFL running back LaMichael James).
For these Memory Maker photos, you can pay-per-download, or actually purchase Memory Maker, which gives you unlimited downloads of any or all of the photos for 30 days.
Rather than trying to stick your arm out far enough to get a good selfie (note that selfie sticks are banned in the parks -- if only that extended to life outside Disney as well…) or relying on random strangers to capture the memories you’ve paid a ridiculous amount of money to enjoy or trying to pick and choose only the best pictures to download to share or print...spend the extra money and preserve those memories. It’s $169 to purchase Memory Maker in advance, and it will easily be 169 of the smartest dollars you’ll spend.
Anouchka adds: Plus, the professional photographers will sometimes insert Disney characters or special scenery into your photos, which is a lot of fun.
Don’t roll your eyes. There are two reasons you should have
matching shirts, at least for one or two days, in the parks:
Bonus tip: If you have kids, consider using Etsy for temporary tattoos with your phone number, in case of separation. You never ever ever want to think it’s possible, but kids do get lost at Disney World, and even though the Cast (what Disney calls its employees) is specifically trained in how to handle these situations, it doesn’t make it any less anxiety-inducing to even think about your kid wandering around with 50,000 of their fellow park-goers. It’s super unlikely that you’ll need it, but putting a temporary tattoo with your phone number in case of separation on a noticeable place, like your child’s arm, can provide at least a measure of comfort, and you can find lots of cute, inexpensive options on Etsy.
Anouchka adds: Word. On all of #5, a thousand times Word.
You can purchase Disney gift cards at lots of retailers, but two of the most notable ones are Target and Sam’s. If you have a Target Red Card, you can save 5% on your purchases -- including Disney gift cards. (I’ve heard some stores don’t allow this now, but as I don’t really shop at Target, I can’t vouch for that. If you do, it could be worth a try still.)
My personal preference, though, is Sam’s Club. (I suppose it could be the same at Costco, but I honestly don’t know -- we just got a Costco where I live and it’s way across town so I’m not a member there.) You can buy gift cards at a discount there, over time, using your regular credit card to stack rewards (i.e. I use my Capital One credit card to buy a $50 gift card for $47.98 -- meaning I save $2.02 on the gift card plus I get the reward points on my Capital One card). Sam’s has gift cards in $50, $150, or $500 denominations.
A word to the wise: buy more, smaller cards, to maximize the savings -- a $50 gift card is $47.98, where a $150 pack is $144.98. However, three $47.98 gift cards would cost $143.94 -- a dollar less. Not that big of a deal, until you realize you can easily drop $5000 on a Disney trip, and in gift cards, that could amount to $100 extra (over the $200 you’ve already saved by buying discounted gift cards in the first place). It’s also a little less jarring to pick up a $50 gift card every time you go to Sam’s over the course of a year than it is to buy $500 all at once. And the Disney Gift Card website will let you consolidate those cards, up to $1000 per card, so you don’t need to pack around a ton of little gift cards.
Bottom line: Planning ahead like that may not save you enough for an extra room night in a Disney resort, but buying gift cards ahead of time can easily save you the cost of a couple meals, and that’s worthwhile!
This marks the end of Part One of B Knows Disney. Stay tuned for the second installment of this post, to be published in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, if you have more questions about Disney travel, or would just like to speak directly with B about a trip (actual or hypothetical), you can find out more about what she does as a Disney Travel Agent here. It's totally free of charge for you (she is paid by Disney), plus she is very nice. She would probably have some adorable Disney-themed closing statement here but, since you're stuck with the meaner sister, I will say nothing.
Magic.
But a trip like this takes planning. A ton of it. And maybe that's not your thing. Lord knows that planning the details of a Disney trip while handling life with two tiny people is not MY idea of fun. In fact, even thinking about that gives me anxiety. Thank God for people like my sister.
I have added a few brief comments of my own throughout her post (the "Anouchka adds" notes you see) and have also divided this post into two parts, on account of it being so thorough. Honestly, B's attention to detail is delightful and, if you are planning a Disney trip, give this a quick read-through, and come back to it later as a reference manual. You won't regret it.
Now, without any further introduction, please enjoy B Knows Disney (Part 1)...
PART ONE
Hello Mouseketeers!
My sister asked me a while ago to write up a guest post for her awesome readers about planning a Disney World trip. This combines my two favorite things: writing casually, and Disney. Win-win for me, and if you get something out of it...well, that’s the cherry on top of the Dole Whip.
 |
| Dole Whip is the pineapple soft serve you get at Disney World. It's one of their iconic treats. |
 |
| Figment the dragon: B's archnemesis |
But I won’t lie...it was overwhelming, even for a planner like me. There was SO much to figure out, from where to stay, to how best to navigate the parks themselves (and planning FastPasses so as not to have to trek across Liberty Square a million times), to when to take a break (because even as an adult, you need one). That first trip, I didn’t even scratch the surface. It was fun, but in hindsight, there’s so much more I could have done differently...but you don’t know what you don’t know.
Then came 2017. My parents had already announced that we were going to take a family trip to Disney World, on them, in spring of 2018. And my husband was doing a Disney Institute training in May 2017. And the local university basketball team (for whom he works) was playing in a tournament down there at Thanksgiving, so I got to tag along then and actually spend the holiday with him, for just the second time in our married lives. So it made sense to get an Annual Pass.
AND THEN WE MADE USE OF IT.
In addition to a one-night stay at a resort in March 2017, after going to a couple of spring training baseball games in Tampa, we made five separate trips to Disney World from May 2017 through May 2018. During that time, I pretty much experienced it all -- staying in a Value Resort, staying in a Deluxe Resort, staying off property, eating at a whole range of restaurants, figuring out which rides usually have FastPasses available on the day of my park visit, how to navigate the Magic Kingdom to avoid tons of unnecessary walking, where to find the best souvenirs for a kitchen or the person watching your mail or for a four-year-old to take home, how to maximize my Annual Passholder savings, and so on…
So by this point, you could say I’m pretty seasoned.
Rather than give you a blow-by-blow of the whole planning process, which would fill pages upon pages, I’m giving you my top 10 quick-hitter tips. This is by no means the ONLY advice I could give, but it’s the stuff you might not necessarily find by reading the usual easy-to-find blog posts about the Best Cupcake On Property or Most Fun Character Buffet or Is The Fireworks Dessert Party Worth It? (Spoiler there: it is.)
1. Get super familiar with the My Disney Experience app.
This Disney-created app will be your lifeblood, both during your planning process and in the parks. This is where you can make Fastpass and dining reservations, find wait times for each ride, locate characters for meet-and-greet opportunities, find out what time the parade or fireworks are, customize your magic bands, and more. It’s not too tough to figure out, but if you have a trip coming up, the first thing you should do after making your hotel reservation is get this app set up on your phone, and start familiarizing yourself with it. Even if it’s just flipping through your plans (and trying to modify your FastPasses), or checking current wait times at the park at any given time, or looking for dining reservations you have no intention of making, you want to know how this app works before you get to Orlando. It’ll make allllllll the difference in how much you get to experience while you’re there.
Bonus tip: If you don’t have a rockstar portable charger, there are FuelRod stations set up all over every park and resort. For $30, you get a portable charger that actually works pretty well (my Samsung Galaxy S7 would charge up fairly quickly and nearly fully), along with a little cord and an adapter for mini-USB ports or iPhones. Whenever that charger is spent, you can swap it at the stations for a new one -- for life. And the rod is rechargeable, too, so you can charge it up in your hotel room (or at home) and keep using it indefinitely, but also make sure you have enough power when you (inevitably) will need it in the parks.
2. Consider an Annual
Pass.
But an Annual Passholder is entitled to free parking at the parks (not a benefit if you’re not driving there, but if you are, that adds up QUICK) as well as a 20% discount on merchandise and most table-service dining, and often about a 5-10% better discount on room rates. So let’s assume you have a family of four, and you want to have one table-service meal per day (at an average of $30 per person per meal -- it’ll fluctuate some, depending on where you go and what you order, but that’s a pretty fair average). Over your five park days, not including your travel days, you’d spend $600 on those meals. Subtract 20%, and that’s $120 right there. Now let’s say you stay in a room that costs $250 per night at the rack rate. If you saved an additional 5% over any announced discounts during your six-night trip (as would generally be the case, at a minimum), you save another $75. Is it likely that you’ll buy more than $200 in souvenirs during your trip (resulting in a 20% savings of $40)? If so, you’re better off buying the Annual Pass.
I know that’s a lot of math -- and it might be kind of hard to follow. Bottom line, though, is if you’re planning on being in the parks for five days or more, and you want to enjoy sit-down meals but don’t need the Disney Dining Plan, an Annual Pass may be the way to go. If you’ll be there less than five days, or don’t plan on having sit-down meals very much, go à la carte.
3. Check early and
often for discounts
However, in your budgeting, you should never count on a discount, because you never know exactly what it will be. My best advice? Budget as though it’s full price, but do be diligent on checking for those discounts. (I suggest setting a calendar reminder every week at a particular time -- it’ll only take you a couple minutes, but could save you literally hundreds of dollars.) Then use the savings either to supplement your souvenir budget, or -- my personal preference -- to book an extra adventure. In the case of our family trip, we used our savings to enjoy the Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party, with a dessert buffet and a prime, reserved spot for viewing the fireworks at the end of the day at the Magic Kingdom.
Anouchka adds: If you do save a little coin and do the dessert party, make sure that you monitor your little one's junk intake. We were all giving Ribbers a little bite of this, a taste of that...without communicating with each other. He got so much dessert that night that he barfed all over himself and his precious "Mickmey" t-shirt. None of this seemed to bother him, however, because he instantly went back to begging for more sweet treats and thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks afterwards.
Bonus tip: If you fly Southwest, you can adjust your price there too! If you book a flight, which later drops in price, you can modify/rebook your flight at that rate instead. The difference is issued as a credit that you can use any time in the next year!
4. Buy Memory Maker.
Now.
This one is a no-brainer. Disney stations photographers all over the parks, at the best photo locations (in front of Cinderella’s Castle or the Epcot ball or the Tree of Life, at character meeting points, or in front of notable or pretty scenery), and many rides have a photo taken on them too (like my favorite Space Mountain picture ever, featuring former NFL running back LaMichael James).
 |
| LaMichael James (front left) loves Space Mountain. |
For these Memory Maker photos, you can pay-per-download, or actually purchase Memory Maker, which gives you unlimited downloads of any or all of the photos for 30 days.
Rather than trying to stick your arm out far enough to get a good selfie (note that selfie sticks are banned in the parks -- if only that extended to life outside Disney as well…) or relying on random strangers to capture the memories you’ve paid a ridiculous amount of money to enjoy or trying to pick and choose only the best pictures to download to share or print...spend the extra money and preserve those memories. It’s $169 to purchase Memory Maker in advance, and it will easily be 169 of the smartest dollars you’ll spend.
Anouchka adds: Plus, the professional photographers will sometimes insert Disney characters or special scenery into your photos, which is a lot of fun.
5. Matching shirts are
a good idea.
- There is totally such a thing as Disney Culture -- the way you act in the parks is vastly different than how you act in real life. Would you ever proudly sport sparkly gold ears to go to the grocery store? Or wish random strangers a happy birthday because they have a button on? (Anouchka adds: As the button-wearer whose birthday it was during this trip, this was loads and loads of fun. Seriously, nothing makes you feel more special than having pleasant strangers from across the globe wish you a lovely day.) Or excitedly hug a poor underpaid intern stuffed into a furry costume soaked in the saliva of 400 children? Of course not. But you do at Disney. And in Disney Culture, matching shirts are cool. I can’t explain it, but I’ve been there enough to know it’s true, and you just need to trust me on that.
- Logistically, this makes it SO MUCH EASIER to spot members of your party. Realistically speaking, you will, at some point, split up for something -- whether it’s one person standing in line to order lunch while another finds a table, or one kid wants to ride Dumbo and the other wants to ride the teacups, or you just get separated in a crowd. Knowing what shirt to look for (especially if it’s a semi-bright, non-red one -- you see a lot of red shirts down there already) makes finding your people vastly, vastly easier.
Bonus tip: If you have kids, consider using Etsy for temporary tattoos with your phone number, in case of separation. You never ever ever want to think it’s possible, but kids do get lost at Disney World, and even though the Cast (what Disney calls its employees) is specifically trained in how to handle these situations, it doesn’t make it any less anxiety-inducing to even think about your kid wandering around with 50,000 of their fellow park-goers. It’s super unlikely that you’ll need it, but putting a temporary tattoo with your phone number in case of separation on a noticeable place, like your child’s arm, can provide at least a measure of comfort, and you can find lots of cute, inexpensive options on Etsy.
Anouchka adds: Word. On all of #5, a thousand times Word.
6. Start saving now by
using your Target card or Sam’s Club membership to buy Disney gift
cards.
You can purchase Disney gift cards at lots of retailers, but two of the most notable ones are Target and Sam’s. If you have a Target Red Card, you can save 5% on your purchases -- including Disney gift cards. (I’ve heard some stores don’t allow this now, but as I don’t really shop at Target, I can’t vouch for that. If you do, it could be worth a try still.)
My personal preference, though, is Sam’s Club. (I suppose it could be the same at Costco, but I honestly don’t know -- we just got a Costco where I live and it’s way across town so I’m not a member there.) You can buy gift cards at a discount there, over time, using your regular credit card to stack rewards (i.e. I use my Capital One credit card to buy a $50 gift card for $47.98 -- meaning I save $2.02 on the gift card plus I get the reward points on my Capital One card). Sam’s has gift cards in $50, $150, or $500 denominations.
A word to the wise: buy more, smaller cards, to maximize the savings -- a $50 gift card is $47.98, where a $150 pack is $144.98. However, three $47.98 gift cards would cost $143.94 -- a dollar less. Not that big of a deal, until you realize you can easily drop $5000 on a Disney trip, and in gift cards, that could amount to $100 extra (over the $200 you’ve already saved by buying discounted gift cards in the first place). It’s also a little less jarring to pick up a $50 gift card every time you go to Sam’s over the course of a year than it is to buy $500 all at once. And the Disney Gift Card website will let you consolidate those cards, up to $1000 per card, so you don’t need to pack around a ton of little gift cards.
Bottom line: Planning ahead like that may not save you enough for an extra room night in a Disney resort, but buying gift cards ahead of time can easily save you the cost of a couple meals, and that’s worthwhile!
This marks the end of Part One of B Knows Disney. Stay tuned for the second installment of this post, to be published in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, if you have more questions about Disney travel, or would just like to speak directly with B about a trip (actual or hypothetical), you can find out more about what she does as a Disney Travel Agent here. It's totally free of charge for you (she is paid by Disney), plus she is very nice. She would probably have some adorable Disney-themed closing statement here but, since you're stuck with the meaner sister, I will say nothing.
 |
| #sisterhood |
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