With Summer right around the corner, no doubt you are starting to plan your family vacations. If you are thinking about heading to Disney World, check out these tips from a Mom who also happens to be a Travel Agent:
1. Slow Down. If you have small children, getting to the park at opening is not really that important if you are visiting on a lightly attended day. Let the kids wake up at a reasonable time, stay at the park through lunchtime and return to the hotel for some down time or even a nap. Head back to the park around 4pm when its not so hot and lines start to shorten. If you plan to stay for the fireworks, don’t immediately try to exit the park with the masses but stay a few minutes until the crowd thins.
2. Plan Ahead. Subscribe to a touring website such as www.touringplans.com for up to date closures and park crowd expectancy. Use this website to track crowd levels and visit the least busy park for that day. This tool will also tell you about any special events happening at parks which usually boost crowds up. We also love the Disney World Wait Times App to determine which rides have the shortest lines.
3. Consider the Dining Plan. The Disney dining plan is well worth the extra money if you plan on doing character dining. Most character dining will only cost you one table service meal on your dining plan and saves a lot of money. In one trip we did Chef Mickey’s, Ohana and the Princess Storybook breakfast at Epcot on our dining plan.
4. Location, Location, Location. If you plan on spending most of your time at the Magic Kingdom, consider staying at the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge or Contemporary hotels. You can save considerable time getting to the park by using the boat or monorail. Also, if you have smaller children and hate leaving the parks after the fireworks you can watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks displays from the beach at your hotel.
5. Take to the Water. If visiting Disney during warm months, the Water Park & More option is well worth the few extra dollars to add it to your Magic Your Way ticket. Both of the water parks offer excellent kids areas and in my opinion are pretty great as far as water parks go.
DISNEY DEALS
Now, for some Pixie Dust! Right now Disney World is offering up to 30% off rooms at select Disney World Resort Hotels for stays 3/14-4/12 and 4/20-6/15/2014. Save even more by upgrading to a room and ticket package with a minimum 4-Day Magic your Way ticket package and get one more ticket day FREE!
Ready to wear your Mouse Ears? Call Mom & Travel Consultant for Travel Central Vacations, Rachelle Noullet at 504-487-7574 or email at rachelletravels at gmail dot com.
See ya real soon!
Great tips! We are fortunate to live 90 minutes away and go a lot. I see families, especially those with really young kids, trying to get every drop out of the parks and making everyone miserable. It’s so much better to do as you said; go to the water park or back to the room and take a nap until it cools off. The idea is to have fun and make family memories!
Next time we go, we want to stay at the Fort Wilderness campgrounds. We love camping…add Disney to that and you have my family’s idea of perfection.
Someday I’d really like to take the kids to Disney, thank you for the tips.