Simply Living: Disney World Tips With Kids!

Having just come back from our first trip to Disney World I wanted to jot down a few tips, in case anyone is interested. Leading up to our trip I was reading tons of blog posts with tips, I like to be prepared;) This trip was made with an almost 4 year old and a 4 month old. We were there from Tuesday late afternoon to Thursday late afternoon. On Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios, on Wednesday to Magic Kingdom, and Thursday to Animal Kingdom.

Tip #1: Stay on property. All the perks of staying on property outweighs any cons. We stayed at a value resort (All-Star Music) for $122/night. Didn't have to pay for parking, shuttles are every 20 minutes starting quite early in the morning, extra magic hours, magic bands included, earlier access to fast pass reservations, and there's probably more I've forgotten or didn't know about. The rooms were small and basic, didn't have a coffee pot (we brought our own!) but did have a refrigerator. Next time I will try to find a good deal on a moderate hotel just to have a little more space. Credit to my sister-in-law for really pushing me to stay at a Disney resort!

Our coffeepot from home:)

Tip #2: With young kids, take a break in the middle of the day!! There was extra magic hours on Wednesday night for Magic Kingdom and my thought was, we'll take a break in the middle of the day and then stay later. Um no! I was done by 8:45 pm. We did start early though, we were on the bus by 7:15 since we had an 8:20 breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest Restaurant. Which brings me to...

Just hanging out while brother napped.

Tip #3: Keep checking fast pass reservations and restaurant reservations in the days leading up to your trip. I was determined to get a reservation at Be Our Guest but that's not easy to come by, I checked every morning and night to see if one would pop up. The day before we were leaving I found a lunch one, but pushed a wrong button and it was gone that fast. Found a dinner one (ended up cancelling) and got that but the next day on our way to Orlando I found the 8:20 breakfast one! I had read that getting a breakfast reservation before the park actually opens for the day is a great way to beat the crowds, and that was very true! I was also constantly checking Animal Kingdom fast passes for one of the Avatar rides, more because I thought Howie would enjoy it and managed to get one for the river ride that we could all go on. In retrospect, I don't really understand what would make people wait 2 hours for that ride, thankfully we only waited about 10 minutes.

Breakfast at Be Our Guest

Tip #4: Use fast passes for what your kid is actually going to enjoy the most. For Sam that was meeting the princess. I used all 3 at Magic Kingdom for meeting Rapunzel, Ariel, and Belle. We got there early enough to wait in line to meet Cinderella. Once those were gone in the evening, I started getting fast passes for rides. even though the wait for It's a small world was only 25 minutes there was a fast pass time available so we literally walked right on to a boat (no wait) and that's what I did the rest of the evening, as soon as we checked into one ride I would find the next one. So we rarely waited in line. In a span of about 3 hours we rode probably 7 rides with little to no wait and had dinner.

Meeting Rapunzel

Dancing with Belle

Tip #5: Share meals and mobile order. Sam is not a huge eater and the kids meals come with a decent amount of food so I shared quite a bit with her and would eat a bit of Howie's as well. We tended to be ready to eat at the same time as everyone else so if I saw the line was long I just ordered on the Disney app and I would get a notification when it was ready, super easy.

Tip #6: When looking at the different crowd calendars, know that "light" days still mean a massive amount of people. I wasn't expecting that. I will never go when "heavy" days are expected (at least not with young kids).

Tip #7: Say "yes" to your kid a little more often than you normally would:)