Trip Planning Guide To Walt Disney World

 

 If you're planning a trip to Walt Disney World, there are a few major costs that you will have to consider when deciding when to go, where to stay and much more.  Here are a few threads on the biggest decisions that come with planning a trip.

How Are The Disney And Universal Experiences Different?

 

We all love Walt Disney World.  At least, I assume you do if you’re reading this, and I know I do as I’m writing it.  They’re the pinnacle of theme park design in this country, if not the world.  They’re bigger than anyone else, they make more money than anyone else, and they’ve created higher standards for themselves by their commitment to guest service over the years.  If you think “theme park industry”, you think Disney.

 

And with great power comes great responsibility (which is a phrase I just made up – don’t bothering Googling it).  Disney gets all the coverage in the press, good or bad.  All eyes are on them, even if other companies make similar decisions before Disney does (some of the Covid-era closing/re-opening announcements come to mind).  So it stands to reason that anytime Disney does something that can be considered unpopular among fans, those announcements get magnified in a negative way, on social media (or even mainstream media) and comments on blogs.

 

The Best And Worst Times To Visit Walt Disney World

 

 

When you’re dreaming about a trip to Walt Disney World, one of the first steps in making that dream a reality is to decide when you want to visit.  So many of the other things you need to book (air fare, hotel, etc) have to wait until you know the days that you’re going.  This can be a big decision and not an easy one.  There are many factors at play that can help determine the best time for your trip.  The two largest factors, which will be discussed at length here, are weather and crowds.  Let’s take a look at those.

 

Weather:

I don’t think this will come as any surprise to anyone reading this, but Florida can be HOT.  Depending on where you live, an average day in Florida could be considerably hotter than anything that you’re used to. And it’s not just the heat – Florida has one of the most humid climates year round, which makes the heat even more heavy and oppressive.  Combine that with the fact that you’ll be doing a lot of walking around outdoors, and you have a recipe for long, withering days and short tempers.  Perhaps you’re used to the hot weather, or maybe you can stand the heat and don’t see what all the fuss is about.  If that’s the case, you can visit pretty much any time (or at least skip to the crowd section below to fine tune things).  But for the rest of us, we’ll look at Florida at different times of year.

 

Should You Take Your Kids Out of School For a Trip to WDW?

 

A topic I see debated frequently when it comes to taking trips to Walt Disney World is whether you should take your kids out of school for your vacation.  In another post, we discussed the best and worst times of year to go to WDW.  Some of the times of year with the lowest crowds are actually during the summers, when children are off from school.  If that’s the case, why would you ever feel the need to pull your kids from school just for a vacation?

 

Well, part of it comes from the other half of that “best times to go” post – the weather.  If you don’t want to walk around the surface of the sun (aka, central Florida in the summer) or deal with potential hurricanes, you’re probably not going to want to go to Walt Disney World during that time of year.  And while there are other school breaks and such, as discussed in that post, those typically have the highest crowds in any given year.

 

In fact, the recommendations in that post are all times in which kids WOULD be in school, with low crowds and generally favorable weather.  I generally fall into the category of “so what if the kids miss a little school?” so I’m going to lean heavily on those experiences here.  But as I’ve said before and I’m sure I will again – you know your kids better than I do.  Perhaps for some people, kids missing time from school is a deal breaker and not worth the hassle.  And for others, they know their kids are quick learners and can make up the work they’ll miss with ease.  Both sides have validity here.

 

Can You Really "Do It All" at Walt Disney World?

 

A common question I see regarding Walt Disney World vacations is, “How long does it take to do everything?”  I’m always tempted to answer something like, “I’m not sure anyone’s EVER done EVERYTHING” but that sounds negative and discouraging.  Truly, though, Walt Disney World is a vast resort, encompassing theme parks, water parks, resort hotels, restaurants, golf courses … the list goes on.  Think about trying to eat every dish served at every eatery throughout the resort – it would take many months if not years, and while some people have made careers out of such endeavors, the average vacationing guest can only sample a small fraction of them.

 

When that question gets asked, the person asking is usually referring to only the attractions and such in the theme parks.  Most average guests aren’t going to care that they’re serving a new sandwich at Tortuga Tavern (though maybe they should).  So the parks and their attractions are what we’re going to focus on in this post.

 

Is Epcot Worth Visiting With Kids?

One of the most common questions I get asked when talking to people about Walt Disney World is “I have kids – should we skip Epcot?”  There is a common misconception that Epcot is only for “adults” (and I use this term loosely here, because when you’re at Walt Disney World, even the adults feel like kids) and that kids would be bored there.  Let’s take a look at what Epcot has to offer and see whether this kind of thinking holds up.

 

My caveat here (and anytime a post on this site talks about kids) is that everyone is different.  You certainly know your kids more than I do, so you would probably be able to know whether Epcot holds any value to you on a trip.  I guess I’ll spoil the ending, but for me personally, my two kids (now 11 and 8) LOVE Epcot.  My daughter told me it’s her favorite of the four parks.  We seem to have developed a tradition of using our half day on arrival day to get in some Epcot time.  So while I’m not trying to convince you to be like me (certainly not a great idea!), that’s been my experience.

 

What Type of Ticket Do You Need at Walt Disney World?

 

When planning a vacation to Walt Disney World, your three largest expenses will be park tickets, hotel/resort costs and food and entertainment (if you don’t live locally, airline tickets would be a fourth big expense, but we’re likely not going to cover that here).  In this post, we want to take a look at one of these things – specifically, park tickets.

 

There are a lot of options for purchasing Walt Disney World park tickets.  For the sake of this post, we’re going to assume that you’re not a member of the military (though you can find more information on discounted tickets here and that you aren’t interested in an annual pass (but if you purchase regular daily tickets and find that you just can’t get enough Disney, these can be upgraded to annual passes – see this page for more information.

 

With those out of the way, that basically leaves you with three ticket options – one park per day tickets, park hopper or park hopper plus.  We’ll take a look at all of these options below.