There’s nothing more overwhelming than planning your first trip to Walt Disney World (WDW). There is a plethora of information online, as well as travel agents whose sole job is to help people book WDW trips. I definitely recommend doing your research, but this blog has 10 tips for your first trip to WDW to make sure you have a magical holiday.
Before I jump into the tips, a word of warning for those planning a trip to Walt Disney World. WDW is huge. On WDW property alone there are 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, over 20 resorts, Disney Springs shopping and dining district, and more. If you have visited the parks in California, Hong Kong, or Paris, you may expect that everything at WDW is close together and walkable. With very few exceptions, this is not the case and there is an extensive transport system designed to get guests around (more on that later). People who are unprepared for its size can find their trip overwhelming (and fair enough!), but keep this in mind as we go through our top 10 tips.
So, here are my top 10 tips for a WDW first-timer:
- As Scar would say, be prepared!
A lot of bad experiences are had by people who are not prepared for a WDW holiday. You can’t just wing it, you have to do your research and prepare for your trip. There are countless resources available online with everything from basic information to ride and restaurant specific tips and tricks. WDW is massive and WDW is busy, and failing to plan will cause you stress and impact how much you enjoy your trip. It is unfortunately not the kind of holiday you can just show up for, so to ensure you have a great time – be prepared!
2. Make sure your trip is long enough.
With so many parks and so much to do, first-time guests sometimes find they haven’t booked a long enough trip. My recommendation is to have 1 full day in each park, with a rest day in between. If you want to spend more time at the parks, visit the water parks, resort hop, or have more down time, add time for that onto your trip too. As I’ve already said, WDW is HUGE. Make sure you know what you want to do and give yourself enough time to accomplish most of that.
3. Decide what kind of trip you want to have and budget/save accordingly.
It’s not a secret that a WDW trip is expensive, just how expensive is mostly up to you. A lot of the tips in this blog will cost money, or cost more than a cheaper alternative. There are some great blogs on how to do a Disney trip on a budget, and you can have an amazing trip on a budget by forgoing some of the things I’ll mention in this blog. But from my experience, if you can save that little bit extra to enhance your trip you will feel the benefits (and the magic).
Once you’ve figured out how much your trip will cost, add at least another 10% on top of that to find your budget. Trust me – you will get swept up in the magic and find yourself buying merch, food, and maybe even experiences that you hadn’t initially budgeted for. By adding a buffer you can enjoy your trip how you want to enjoy it, without worrying about depleting your bank account before you go home. And don’t forget about those exchange rates if you’re visiting internationally!
4. Choose your dates wisely.
Walt Disney World is always busy, and there is no time of year that is consistently “quiet” by Walt Disney World standards. However, there are some things to keep in mind when deciding when to travel to Disney: weather, festivals, events, holidays, and parties.
September is one of the quieter months to visit WDW, but it is also peak hurricane season and you risk losing park days if the forecast is so bad they close the parks early. Closing the parks for weather seems to be a post-COVID change, but in September 2022 Hurricane Ian forced all WDW parks to close and guests were stuck in their hotels (where they were, of course, well taken care of). On my last visit in November 2022, the parks were closed at 5:00pm due to the approach of Hurricane Nicole. I sloshed through Magic Kingdom in my crocs and poncho before settling in for a Disney movie marathon at my resort, but I did miss out on a few hours of park time because of the storm.
There are always events on at Disney, including the various festivals at EPCOT and the Halloween and Christmas parties at Magic Kingdom, marathons, sporting events, and more. These can impact crowd numbers, opening hours, transport options, and serenity (hello cheerleading season!) so find some WDW event calendars online and use these to help decide when you will travel. Crowd calendars also help, especially for international visitors who may not know about American public holidays.
Oh and unless you like feeling like a sardine, do not go to Disney World over Christmas and New Years. If you’d like to see the Christmas decorations, go in early-mid November or early January.
5. Stay at a Walt Disney World resort.
This may be a controversial one. There are a lot of great non-Disney hotel and accommodation options near WDW which may be friendlier on the budget, but for me a trip to WDW requires total immersion. Not to mention, staying on property gives you access to a variety of free transport options. All resorts have free transport to all parks and Disney Springs (previously Downtown Disney). Depending on your resort you will have buses, boats, the monorail, or the Skyliner available to get around. And if you’re in a rush or don’t want to wait for a bus, Uber and Lyft within WDW are inexpensive.
My personal favourite WDW resort is Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR), where buses get you to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Disney Springs, and the Skyliner gets you to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. The main complaints about CBR are about the size of the resort as it is quite spread out, but I wouldn’t let that sway you. The pools are gorgeous, the rooms are big and (mostly) renovated, there are some great food and beverage options, the theming is fantastic (check out their pirate themed rooms!), and the transport options are some of the best on property.
6. Buy Genie+ and Lightning Lane.
This one is another controversial one for WDW visitors, as the paid Genie+ and Lightning Lane services replaced the free FastPass and FastPass+ service at WDW. Purchasing Genie+ each day allows you to use the app to book times to go to rides and skip the queue through the lightning lane.
Genie+ is a paid extra where you can use the WDW app to book ride return times for the busier rides, with a lightning lane that lets you skip most of the queue. There are restrictions on when you can book rides, for example you must either ride the ride or wait for 2 hours to pass before you can book another ride. But purchasing Genie+ will save you hours in queues, especially during the busy season. If going on specific rides is important to you, it is a must have.
Confusingly, there is also the Lightning Lane which usually applies to the newest or most popular ride in each park. The Lightning Lane must be purchased individually for these rides, but gives you the same benefit of skipping the standby line as Genie+. Additionally, some of the new rides don’t have a standby line and you can only ride them by booking a time first thing each morning. These timeslots usually get snapped up in minutes, and purchasing a Lightning Lane for that ride gives you a better chance of getting on the ride.
7. Calories don’t count when you’re on a WDW holiday.
I’m not just saying this to make you feel better about getting another churro – as I said before WDW is HUGE and you will be walking A LOT. On my last trip, I was walking 25,000 steps a day at a minimum. There are also a plethora of tasty treats to try (especially if you’re at EPCOT during the Food and Wine Festival), so don’t feel guilty about eating a little bit more or a little bit unhealthier than you usually do. This is an expensive holiday and you might only take this trip once, so dip that Mickey pretzel in a cup of liquid cheese without second guessing yourself. You’ve earned it!
This brings me to my next point:
8. Plan for rest days!
A WDW holiday is not cheap, and you may be tempted to skip rest days to make your trip shorter and save you some money (even though I already told you at tip #2 to plan for rest days). Florida is hot. WDW is big. WDW is sensory overload as there is so much to look at, smell, taste, and hear. You will get tired, and you will regret not having a rest day.
Last time I was at WDW, I’d opted to skip rest days to keep costs low for my friend who was joining me on the trip. On Day 4 at around 4:00pm I tried to pay for a pretzel with my Magic Band and it wouldn’t go through. Did I have a debit card and cash on me that I could use to pay for the pretzel? Yes. Did that stop me from having a minor temper tantrum after I paid cash for the pretzel? No, it did not. And that is because I was exhausted. Taking rest days is good for your energy levels, meaning you can enjoy your holiday more, and good for your relationships with your fellow travellers.
9. Despite all the information out there, do what YOU want to do.
Everyone who visits WDW will have an idea of what is an unmissable experience, but we’re all different and someone else’s unmissable experience could be something you’re happy to go without. This is YOUR holiday, and while doing your research can give you an idea of what you want to do, at the end of the day you need to focus on what will make the trip magical for you.
I personally love taking the raft to Tom Sawyer Island and spending some time wandering through the caves and jungle, though this is not the most popular attraction by any means. On the other hand, the Enchanted Tiki Room and Muppet Vision are huge favourites amongst WDW visitors but I would rather be stuck on Autopia during a hurricane without a poncho than visit either of those attractions.
Finally, and most importantly:
10. Take the time to enjoy the magic.
I was once at WDW with a friend and was spouting out facts about everything we could see from shop windows to the colour of the ground to hidden Mickeys. She said to me “I could point at a trash can and you could tell me a fact about it,” to which I responded “Well actually…” and launched into a story about the talking trash can in Tomorrowland.
Every inch of WDW has been thought out in detail, and getting off the beaten path or taking the time to look around you will allow you to find the magic in the details. Did you know during the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT there is an air-conditioned room in the back of the Morocco pavilion in EPCOT where you can rest your feet and have free soft drink? And that Animal Kingdom has multiple walking trails where you can see plants and animals, and hardly anyone uses them?
Even taking a rest can turn into a magical experience. A friend and I were sitting in a quiet, shaded area in Tomorrowland eating a Mickey ice cream and having a bit of a rest when Dale (of Chip and Dale fame) broke away from a crowd trying to get photos of him and started rummaging for acorns in the bush right in front of us. He saw us sitting there and came over to entertain us and make our day special. Those are the moments that will make your trip.
So be prepared, know what you want to do, eat the Dole Whip, and have a magical holiday.
