Do's and Don'ts at Disney

[MammaLex]

We are about to bite the bullet and do Disney! We are going to Florida in October. DS will be 9 while we are there. What are the must do's and the avoid like the plague 's. ???

Do book Mickeys Halloween Tickets

You must go to the Epcot food and wine show!! It was the most adult thing we did when we were there. Along with having a glass of wine singing along to Billy Ocean who was fab!!

Lots of helpful tips on here ! Following !
Thanks mums x

We like very laid back holidays and usually like to see "what pans out" BUT we did our research and planned out each day at Disney and it saved so much time. We last went 3/4 years ago in August and managed not to queue more than 25 minutes all holiday.
Cloudtree has some great tips above and check out Disney forums such as the Dibb for other ideas.
I feel excited for you just reading this post.

We were there in October last Autumn and it was Food & Wine at Epcot - fantastic!

Star Wars opens August 29th... Although Rise of the Resistance won't.

Ah ok they've obviously brought that forward since I last checked. In that case OP, be aware that Disney World will be absolutely rammed and prices will be higher than normal. They have announced that they may have to restrict access to hollywood studios if demand is too great so thats even more of a reason to stay on site and get the extra magic hours.

Go early.
Leave late morning. Lunch, nap or swim or all three.
Go back for late afternoon/evening.
Don’t try and do whole
Days.

All the advice is great. I would say also take a phone charge booster for your mobile. You do so much on the app and you are lost if your phone runs out of charge.

Don’t be tempted to do a Halloween evening at universal. It’s too hardcore for sub-teenagers.

Halloween at Universal is too hardcore for me! Mickeys Not so scary Party is great though

There are no real avoids and no one right way of doing it - its all personal preference. I have been many times and have my plan of how I want it to work down pat - but its what works for my family.

So research and planning ahead is the real key to all of this that and accepting no matter how hard you try and how long you go for you cannot get everything done. There are still some things I have not done ever and many only once or twice

Get Mydisneyexperience (both as an app and check it out as a website) as this is where fastpass and dining reservations will be done

Look at for Universal if you want a night in one of the 3 hotels to offer Express passes if you are going there

And accept that tickets are expensive as a 14 day option but good value for a day

Do plan before you go.
Do rip up the plan and go with the flow if you want to.
It is exhausting. You won’t see and do everything.
Do remember it’s everyone’s holiday not a marathon

Do have a hug with Tigger - essential to perk you up.

"Do plan before you go.
Do rip up the plan and go with the flow if you want to.
It is exhausting. You won’t see and do everything.
Do remember it’s everyone’s holiday not a marathon"

Absolutely agree with you here ChippyMinton

I hate pre-planning everything down to the nth degree. In the end we had a loose plan, and went with the flow. We found that we could sort out fast passes on the day at the parks. It helped that neither DD nor I like white knuckle rides anyway. Also, at 16 DD wasn't interested in meeting the characters (except for the Jungle Book ones at Animal Kingdom), or meals with characters.

Research the ethics behind Sea World and Discovery Cove before booking, just so you make an informed decision. It's on the "don't" list for us.

We've decided to do the full shabang and stay on site with Disney 11 days and Hard Rock 3 days to utilise all the perks. I will be planning to the nth degree as I love it, although I guess we will have to be guided by the fast passes when they're released.

We're not doing the full table service as I think it'll just be too much food for us and we wouldn't want to sit down to eat too often as we're light eaters, plus with tipping it'll cost a fair bit more so we're going to stick to the quick service dining plan I think unless on pricing up character meals we decide TS is better.

We're here at the moment and my best tip is comfy shoes and go with the flow. We had a plan and have stuck to it on the most part. We're staying in a villa offsite and have had a couple of chill out days. We stayed one night last week in royal pacific @ universal and made good use of the 2 days express passes thrown in.

At Disney I had all the fast passes booked before we arrived, however I have swapped a lot of them on the day for rides with longer wait times. No point wasting a fast pass if the line is only 20 minutes. We've had an amazing time but definitely going with the flow a bit has been right for us and the kids are happy enough if plans change as they realise it's a full on holiday and we don't want to go home totally exhausted.

We've also done a mix of arriving at the parks for opening time and arriving after lunch. I prefer going later and staying later as the queues haven't been as long.

Have fun!

Oh and definitely get the magic bands and memory maker/photo pass. We bought our tickets directly from disney website and these were thrown in free. Love all my photos arriving on my phone. Great quality. Also saves messing about with tickets, just we've your wrist and you're off. Booked disney tickets via quidco and got £60 cashback too.

"plus with tipping it'll cost a fair bit more"

It is worth remembering that American waiting staff expect huge tips. We preferred the self service places because we weren't bothered every 5 minutes by waiting staff asking if everything was OK.

We didn't bother with magic bands or memory makers stuff as I felt they were an unnecessary expense.

I had the memory maker included and it was a bit rubbish. I would not pay for it. Magic bands were also included we liked them

Hollowvictory - recently memorymaker has come as standard with the 14 days for the price of 7. Brilliant if included like that - not worth it otherwise

Visit www.thedibb.co.uk ..you will find everything you need to know about Disney

I’m starting to plan for Easter next year. 2 adults 2 teens and 2 older children. Looked at Disney hotels 😮 v expensive and then dining on top. Looks like a villa may be a cheaper option for us.

Easter is an expensive time because it falls in US Spring Break so has peak pricing. It's also usually excluded from free dining offers. If at all possible it may be worth thinking about late August, which is slightly cheaper and quieter.

Quartz yes I know, as I said I had the mempmaker included but I didn't rate it tbh.

Did you get any of the magical photos etc done it’s really good for that and ride videos

I would have liked the magical photos but the queues took a long time in the boiling heat as every person had multiple images taken. Yes we got the ride videos but what have you done with them since?