Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [45]
If you’ll be at Disney World for more than four days, consider planning a “day off” in the middle of your vacation. A day in the middle of the trip devoted to sleeping in, hanging around the hotel pool, shopping at Downtown Disney, and maybe taking in a character breakfast at an on-site hotel can make all the difference. Not only will you save a day on your multiday ticket, but you’ll also start the next morning refreshed and energized.
You need a strategy for closing time. Except for the Animal Kingdom, the major parks all have nighttime extravaganzas that result in huge logjams as nearly every guest in the park convenes for the show and then mobs the exits en masse when it’s over. See the “Tips for Leaving” sections in each park for specific information on how to best exit each park.
Go digital. Disney’s official Mobile Magic app ($9.99) provides real-time info about line lengths, Fastpass return times, and even the locations of the characters for meet-and-greets. It’s also GPS-enabled to keep you oriented and to help when you need to find a character, a hamburger, or a restroom—and you need to find them fast. The only drawback is that this app is available solely to Verizon customers. Not a Verizon customer? There are six (and counting) unofficial apps for the iPhone priced between $0.99 and $3.99. Collectively they provide maps, park information, hotel-and-restaurant-reservation tracking, and more. An app with real-time, ride-line lengths is free.
Money-Saving Tips
It isn’t easy to save money at Disney, but the following tips will help.
Consider the Disney Dining food plan. By turning your vacation into more of an all-inclusive, it helps you better gauge the cost of your trip in advance, a planning tool that some families prefer to showing up and “winging it.”
Choose wisely when it comes to your hotel. A more expensive hotel with lots of family-friendly perks might end up being more cost-effective than a hotel with a lower nightly rate but no extras.
Tickets are expensive, so only use them on days when you can maximize your hours in the park. This might mean not visiting a park on the first or last days of your vacation when your travel schedule cuts into your available time; instead use these days for a character breakfast at a Disney hotel, a visit to Downtown Disney, miniature golf, or just to relax at the hotel pool.
Be aware of how little things add up. Bring strollers, sunscreen, water bottles, video supplies, diapers, etc., from home. Make lunch your big meal of the day. Let two family members share a drink or a meal. Ask for a cup of ice water instead of buying bottled water at quick-service venues. And bring resealable plastic bags so that you can save leftover chips and fruit for a later snack.
When it comes to character mania, cut corners where you can. If you figure out ways to meet the characters inside the park, you won’t have to pay for a character breakfast. One mother from Florida reported that she bought her daughter’s Cinderella dress on sale at The Disney Store before they left home and then did her own version of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in their hotel room on the morning of their character lunch. “I dabbed on a little makeup and put her hair in an updo with glitter hairspray,” she said “and this all probably saved us a hundred dollars.”
On the other hand, when faced with a $10 balloon, there are times that you just have to take a deep breath and