going to disney for the first time: tips,tricks, advice please (1 Viewer)

Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
338
Reaction score
151
Age
46
Offline
me the wife my mother and 4 kids are loading up in september and going for 7 days. my buddy and his family are also going and he has been there a few times so we have a guide.kids ages are girl 14, 2 boys 11, and 1 18 month old. wondering if anybody had any money saving tips food, tickets ect.. sweet condo is already reserved and got a good deal due to going in the off season. thanks in advance
 
Are you planning to stay on Disney property or off property ?

In recent years Disney have often had a free Dining offer when staying on property in September and for a large family that can really save a lot of money. We have used it a few years ago and our daughter and her friend used it last September. The dining plan more or less covered all their meals and a lot of the snacks during their stay.
 
If y'all are staying at a Disney resort, get the meal plan, worth every penny.. Check to see if it's offered for free, sometimes they do that....
 
I live in Anaheim, so feel free to ask any questions. If you're going to the Orlando one, then disregard this haha

Your kids will hate you, but GO EARLY. We're all super lazy in SoCal, so usually the lines dont pick up until 10-11. After then, the popular rides are basically 1 per hour because of wait times, unfortunately.


Fast passes are a must. They cut lines times in half. When you get there in the morning, go get the first fast pass for the ride you want. The fast pass will be activated an hour after you get it. You can only have 1 "activated" fast pass at a time, so the trick is to get the 2nd fast pAss right before you use the 1st one on the ride.


The newest (and best IMO) part of the park is tomorrow land.


The firework shows are the same every night, so once you've seen it once, you've seen it for a while.


World of color at California adventures is really cool if you're ever in that park. The rest of California adventures is kind of meh, not worth the extra money unless you have a dual park pass.


Make sure to go to downtown Disney, especially at night. A lot of street performers and the shops are pretty cool for a night out. There's also an ESPN zone for games.


Disneyland to me is about a 3 day max trip. Once you go 3-4 days in a row, you've kind of seen everything to do in the park. I'd recommend looking at other things in the area. We have some really nice beaches, knotts berry farm (another theme park) and other sightseeing stuff to check out.


Let me know if you have any other questions!
 
are you going to disneyland or disneyworld?

how long is your vacation?

Try to stagger the days if possible.

There is no tired like Disney tired. At the end of the day you will be beat and exhausted.

To do Disney 3-4 days in a row is tough.

Most of the time ee would do a day at disney then a day of rest at the resort.

Other times we go as soon as they open then come back to the resort for later lunch around 1 or 2oclock. stay at the resort until 4 or so then go back to that park.

That's a much better way to go other than all day for 4 days straight.

Definitely see the fireworks. Disney's every night fireworks displays are better than most 4th of July displays I've seen.

If you're going to Orlando you may have to plan what to see. Between Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, MGM and Animal Kingdom, Pleasure Island you might not get to see everything.


You're going at the right time. Temps should be comfortable, the park should be half empty and there should be little to no lines for rides
 
Which park

me the wife my mother and 4 kids are loading up in september and going for 7 days. my buddy and his family are also going and he has been there a few times so we have a guide.kids ages are girl 14, 2 boys 11, and 1 18 month old. wondering if anybody had any money saving tips food, tickets ect.. sweet condo is already reserved and got a good deal due to going in the off season. thanks in advance

Disney world in Florida or Disney land in Cali?
 
patience.. hope you have plenty of it..
take advantage of the fast pass..

Sent from my Samsung Infuse using Tapatalk 2
Who Dat!
 
sorry guys.. its disney world. we will be staying at a condo off site (3 miles from there).
 
Any advice I'd have would pertain to staying onsite.

Still, go to touringplans.com, get the $10 membership, and start making plans. Figure out based on their crowd forecasts which parks are most likely to be least attended, and hit those parks for those days. And know what you want to see/do at those parks, and get an idea of the order in which you'll want to do them.

If you're planning on having sit-down meals, make your reservations ahead of time, ideally based on what park you'll be at that day. I.E. if you want to eat at 50's Prime Time Cafe' in Hollywood Studios, make a reservation for the day you'll be in that park. No sense traveling to a different park JUST to eat. It would really stink if you didn't have Park Hopper tickets.

You've got plenty of time. Get online and find some planning sites, like disboards.com, or pick up a book or two to start making your plans.
 
There's a network of tunnels underneath The Magic Kingdom. If you can find your way in and navigate their labyrinthine structure, you will eventually come to a room that houses a cryogenic freezer that contains the remains of Walt Disney.

There is a machine next to it that accepts $20 bills. If you place one in, Walt will briefly thaw out, revive, and go on a long defamatory rant about people of Hebrew descent. Then he freezes again.
 
There have been some big changes lately in the FastPass system which allows you to skip the line. They used to not enforce the return time window but now they do. I strongly suggest educating yourself on the system and leveraging it. Some rides you need to get FastPasses really early for because they run out early in the morning. You have a return window so you want to plan it out so you aren't running back and forth across the pretty large parks all day trying to use the passes. For instance, at Hollywood Studios the FastPasses for Toy Story Mania for the whole day is usually gone by 10:30 AM and the standard line wait is usually close to 2 hours. If you time it right and get there when the park opens you can ride TSM three times with hardly any wait.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom