Do not assume you are ready for a trip to Disney World after having found cheap travel options, such as cheap airplane tickets, cheap vacation packages, or discount travel packages to Orlando or found discount hotel rooms and cheap auto rentals in the city.
The following is advice from Nicholas DeRenzo that will prove valuable to Disney World first timers as well as many experienced visitors:
Embrace your impulsive side when deciding how to approach Disney World. At first glance its sheer scale can be daunting given that it consists of four theme parks, 25,000 acres, almost 500 places to eat, and is home to 28,000 hotel rooms. Instead of creating a rigid agenda, check the morning forecast before deciding what to do.
If rain is predicted, head to Hollywood Studios where almost all of the rides and lines are indoors or sheltered. Cloudy days are when you should visit Animal Kingdom since the big cats, great apes, and Serengeti grazers are much more active when the sun is not out.
Epcot is the park to visit when the temperature is expected to rise over 90 degrees given that many of its most popular attractions last over 15 minutes, maximizing your exposure to air conditioning.
Perfectly sunny days are great to visit Magic Kingdom.
Do not pay for parking, which currently runs $14 a day. The parking lots at Disney water parks, miniature golf courses, and the Downtown Disney entertainment district are free. Shuttle buses will take you wherever you want to go from those locations. There is an unmarked overflow lot across the street from the BoardWalk Inn that is usually half empty.
Fastpasses are the best time savers at Disney World. They are distributed from special machines at many popular rides and they provide a time window when guests can return and skip the line. They are limited to first come first serve. Given that popular rides such as Space Mountain and Splash Mountain are located far from the entrance, it is advised that you send the fastest member of your group ahead to collect passes for everyone.
Be open to visiting rides other than the most popular ones. Hollywood Studios Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Epcots Mission: Space often have hour long waits. Epcots Sum of All Thrills is no less exciting than Mission: Space, but typically has no more than a 15 minute wait. Magic Kingdoms Tom Sawyer Island is another inexplicably empty attraction. Each morning employees hide six paintbrushes on the island. The first kids to find them receive front of the line passes to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad or Splash Mountain.
While Disney World offers few giveaways, Epcots Coca-Cola sponsored Club Cool offers free samples of eight soft drinks from around the world. It is located in a nondescript storefront behind Epcots silver geodesic sphere.
Given that Magic Kingdom sometimes stays open as late as 2 am in the summer, guests can enjoy a refreshing afternoon snooze by taking a 23 minute ride through the Hall of Presidents, enjoying the air conditioning while relaxing.
If you want to take in as many rides as possible, you need to be open to time saver tips. Many rides offer guests the ability to fill any empty seats that open up between larger parties. While this means that everyone will not take rides together, this sometimes allows guests to cut hour plus wait times in half.
Epcot is a park where you can drink your way around the world. Chinese green tea plum wine slushies are offered at $7.50 and icy blended French Grey Goose citron cocktails can be had for $9 at the grab and go bars that ring Epcots World Showcase Lagoon.
Disney has introduced a line of souvenirs that are cartoonish, crowd pleasing and hip all at the same time. Three inch tall Vinylmation figurines are available from $10 in hundreds of designs. These pop art inspired action figures are sold in unmarked boxes so the purchaser never knows which pattern will be inside.
Do not automatically assume that Disney resorts are too expensive. The All-Star (Music, Sports, and Movies three separate hotels) and Pop Century resorts are only a few minutes from the parks via Disney buses and are priced starting at $82 per night.
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