DISNEY TIPS - 2023
❤️🖤💫 DISNEY RECAP! ❤️🖤💫
We had the absolute most magical time at Disney World last week! We are still recovering, but I am one of those freaks that FULLY unpacks the moment we get home, so we were unpacked, kids bathed & in bed all by 8pm Saturday night :) Since then we’ve been running around doing our errands, and getting back into our groove.
I will definitely be sharing all of my tips here, as well as fun details from each park, as well as our overall family travel tips.
A FEW THINGS ABOUT OUR TRIP:
💫We traveled with: my parents, husband & 2 kids (daughter 4yo, son 2.5yo). It was GREAT having more adults to kids, to have the extra set of hands when everyone was feeling a bit burnt out!
💫Our Schedule:
Sunday: flew down, checked into our hotel, played in the pool, dinner at the hotel
Monday: Magic Kingdom all day
Tuesday: EPCOT
Wednesday: this was our slow, easy day - hung out in the pool, & meals at our hotel
Thursday: Disney Springs - here we shopped, did lunch, and rode the carousel & train,
FRIDAY: ANIMAL KINGDOM (this park closes at 7pm FYI), so we grabbed most of our meals at the park, but then had drinks & watched the firework shows back at our hotel
💫STAYED AT: the Four Seasons. We were there for my husband’s work conference, so we stayed at the FOUR SEASONS, ORLANDO, where the conference was held. Absolutely gorgeous resort, and only a 10-20min drive to all of the parks, including Disney Springs.
💫RENTAL CAR: We had a rental car, so we used that to get around to all of the parks, and let my parks primarily use it to drive to/from our hotel. Almost all of the hotels & resorts do shuttles to/from the parks if you don’t have a rental car. (we also rented car seats, and did not bring our own FYI. This was our personal choice, and it worked for our family).
💫GENIE+: absolutely worth it, get it! It’s only about $15/day per person. Some days it increases (you can check exact pricing on the app on the schedule). This was great for getting some of the higher demand rides & attractions, and the longest wait we had across the board was less than 30min. We were not going to wait any longer with little kids!
💫MEMORY MAKER: also completely worth it! We paid $169, and it allows you unlimited professional photos across ALL the parks, and I believe the Disney rep said it’s available and active 30 days from purchase. So for us, we originally only had booked 2 park days, and last minute added on a 3 day a few days after, and did not need to purchase an additional photo package - completely worth it! I also made sure to scout out & take advantage of every photo spot I came across, because the photos turned out great & high quality (even if the kids were fussy in a few).
💫RESERVATIONS: if you want to eat at the restaurants, you definitely need to book those about 3 months out from your ticket dates, because they book up FAST. We were not able to get Bippity Boppity Boutique (which I really wanted for Brooke), but we were able to get breakfast at Beast’s castle & Cinderella’s table for lunch. (expensive, but worth the experience for us!). There are other character meals throughout other parks, which I still recommend booking FAR out, and it honestly might even be worth it to book through a Disney rep to help schedule everything!
💫FOOD: you can mobile order from almost all the restaurants across the parks, and I didn’t try this til Animal Kingdom - which was GREAT because we were getting hungry while waiting for my parents to finish a ride, and we were cutting it close with timing. So I ordered the food and it was ready as soon as they were done, and we were able to scarf it up while running over to our next ride.
💫MORE FOOD: I’ll share more of my food favorites on another, but the popcorn bucket is great (regular size) because the refills across all the parks was super cheap, and great for an easy light snack for everyone.
💫BRING IN SNACKS & WATER BOTTLES: every day I packed a lunch bag of endless snacks & food for the kids. If we were eating at restaurants, Grant ate free (2 & under), but we had to pay for Brooke. And it just helped knowing I had some of their favorite foods (apples, bananas, cheese, yogurt, chips, gummies, & more). We also all brought our own lightweight water bottles, and refilled them throughout the park so we didn’t have to buy any bottles there (same for the airports).
💫MUST HAVES: I will link them in my BIO, and get them up in my Amazon shop, but loved getting the extra stroller storage pouch, bringing water bottles & lunch bag w/snacks in daily! I also brought layers for kids to wear daily since it would be cold in the morning & evening & then hott middle of the day.
💫DISNEY TEES: I bought all of my shirts & ears from either Amazon or Macy’s sales! I got one shirt for Grant from Target (others we had were previous gifts from family, that I’m not sure where they were from).
💫DISNEY MERCHANDISE: I took the tip from MDKID and I bought a ton of things from AMAZON before the trip, including: mickey ears, autograph books (with pens attached – we actually didn’t end up using these at all since there weren’t many characters around the parks. And when there was, we didn’t do many, except Anna/Elsa/Cinderella), bubble wands, light up sticks, a mickey purse for Brooke, and more.
I’m sure I’m forgetting more, but hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have any questions if you are going any time soon, or if you agreed with any of the above ?!
#disneyfamilytrip #disneyworld #adreamisawish #cinderellascastle #toddlertips #toddlertraveling #toddlertraveltips #disneytime #disneymagic
Photo courtesy of The Columbia Mom, Howard County, Maryland Mom.
