Stay on property.
Unless you have been given a condo, and a driver, preferably willing to wear Mickey ears, please make every effort to stay on property.
The pools and water features on Disney property make afternoon breaks more appealing.
- All guests not only have free transportation to and from the airport, but transportation around the parks from each hotel. While a nearby hotel may have shuttle service, experienced Mickey fans will tell you that these shuttles run on the hotel’s schedule, and not on the park’s schedule. If you have early breakfast reservations, 8:30 for example, and you plan to check in about 15 minutes early, you’d need to leave your hotel at around 7:15 or so. Be sure to confirm that the vans run that early, or plan to take a cab to your meal, and plan to add about $15 to your budget.
- Even if you travel by car and don’t need transportation to the parks, you’d have to pay for parking daily. If you visit 6 parks during your stay, that comes to almost $85.
- If you have an person in your party who is likely to need a nap, or a swim break, in the middle of the day, it is much simpler to take a shuttle, boat, or the monorail back to your resort than to drive off property. The campus of Walt Disney World is very large. The parking lot to Magic Kingdom alone is 125 acres, and Epcot covers 500 acres. If you are staying just outside the gates, you might be 20 miles from Magic Kingdom because “the gates” are around the entire property, not a moat around Cinderella Castle.
- When you are leaving a park, and are tempted to cry, I mean, afraid one of the children will cry, convincing them that they are going to hunt for Hidden Mickeys in the lobby, or trade pins with cashiers at the Disney Store at your hotel. The fun doesn’t end, it continues in another part of the resort.
- Extra Magic Hours. The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is an encyclopedia of knowledge for the first timer, or the frequent visitor, and maps out which parks to visit, based on the day of the week, and the proximity of that date to holidays and vacations. If you are staying at a Disney hotel, you can enter a park before other guests, meaning that you get in line sooner for Space Mountain or Toy Story Mania, rent the first stroller, and queue up first to shake fins with Arial. Of course, waiting in line is fun, too.
- CMs. Cast Members all over Walt Disney World have a rule. They can’t say, “I don’t know.” If you ask the stroller rental lady where to find a new memory card for your camera, she may excuse herself to pick up the phone. She is checking for you. She isn’t staring at you our wondering why you expect her to know. Cast Members are there to make every moment of your stay memorable.
- With planning, you may save money. Value resorts during quiet seasons have room rates as low as $79.00/night. We spent the first night of our last vacation in the campground. A drive-in site was around $40, and we got a 24-hour jump start on our vacation.
- Disney dining plan not only saves you money, it reminds you of college. While you may think an all-inclusive vacation means that you have to take a cruise or go the Caribbean, but up until 3 days before you arrive, you can add a dining plan to your resort plan, called the Magic Your Way package. You can choose from option for those who plan on burgers, sodas, and bagels, plus snacks, all the way up to three sit down meals, with wine, and more. It is only available if you stay on property.
- Advance Dining Reservations, also known as ADRs. If you are trying to book breakfast with Cinderella, I hope you are about 6-months ahead in your planning, and I hope you are staying on site. If you have a room reserved, or even a camp site, you can call to book your meal 180 days before you arrive, but you can also book the rest of the meals for the duration of your visit. You get a head start of hard to find reservations, like Le Cellier or Cinderella’s Royal Table
While pools, theming and amenities vary a great deal from place to place, try to stay on site if you find that you can afford a room similar to what you are used to on other trips. It is possible to spend thousands of dollars on lodging, but it is also possible to spend very little. If you stay in a Holiday Inn when you go to out of town weddings, maybe you won’t feel “cheated” because every member of your group doesn’t have their own bathroom on a Disney vacation. Some people find a favorite resort and return to it every year. Others have a lifelong goal of staying everywhere at least once. I’m somewhere in between.
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