Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [46]
Touring Tips for Visitors Staying On-Site
By far the greatest advantage of staying on-site is the shortened commute to the theme parks, making for an easy return to your hotel for a mid-afternoon nap or swim. You can reenter the parks in the early evening. Remember the mantra: Come early, stay late, and take a break in the middle of the day.
Take advantage of the Extra Magic Hour program. You’re given a brochure at check-in telling you which park is featured on which day of your visit. If you want to use this information in your pre-trip planning, visit www.disneyworld.disney.go.com to verify which park will have extended hours on which day.
Touring Tips for Visitors Staying Off-Site
Time your commute. If you can make it from your hotel to the theme-park gates within 30 minutes, it may still be worth your while to return to your hotel for a midday break. If your hotel is farther out and your commute is longer, it’s doubtful you’ll want to make the drive four times a day.
If it isn’t feasible to return to your hotel, find afternoon resting places within the parks. (See the sections headed “Afternoon Resting Places.”) Sometimes kids aren’t so much tired as full of pent-up energy. If that’s the case, take them to the play areas in each park (Tom Sawyer Island in the Magic Kingdom; the play fountains in Epcot; the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Adventure Zone at Hollywood; and the Boneyard at the Animal Kingdom) and let them run around for a bit.
The restaurants in the Magic Kingdom resorts are rarely crowded at lunch, and dining there is much more relaxed and leisurely than eating lunch in the parks. An early dinner can also effectively break up a summer day, when you’ll be staying at the park until late. If you do take the monorail to a Magic Kingdom resort, be sure to line up for the train marked RESORT MONORAIL and not the express back to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC).
Off-site visitors tend to tour all day, so get strollers for preschoolers. Few 4-year-olds can walk through a 14-hour day.
If you have the Park Hopper option on your ticket, spend the morning in a park where you’ll be active (like the Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom) and in the afternoon transfer to a park (such as Epcot or Hollywood) that has more shows and thus more places to sit and rest.
Tips to Save Your Sanity
Use Your Time Wisely
This boils down to one thing: Avoid the lines. Big-deal attractions draw long lines early and stay crowded all day.
Head for the most crowded, slow-loading attractions first. In the Magic Kingdom that’s Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain—although some Fantasyland attractions, such as Dumbo, Peter Pan, and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, can also draw long lines. In Epcot it’s Soarin’, Test Track, and Mission: SPACE. At Hollywood it’s Toy Story Mania, Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, and the Tower of Terror. At Animal Kingdom it’s Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Dinosaur.
Ride as many of the big-deal rides as you can in the morning, when waits are shorter. In general, except for those noted, save theater-style attractions for the afternoon. And if you can’t get to all the big-deal rides during the first couple of hours the park is open, try again during the parades, or during the last hour before closing.
Be Willing to Split Up
By this point in the planning process, it’s probably beginning to dawn on you that every single member of the family expects something different from this vacation.
Discuss which attractions you’ll enjoy as a family; some rides, shows, restaurants, and parades will be a blast for everyone. But there are also bound to be some attractions that won’t have such universal appeal and this is especially true if there’s a significant gap in the ages of your children.
If an attraction holds appeal for only one or two family members, there’s no need to drag the whole crew along. Preteens and teenagers, in