Mickey with Minis
Real-life advice for touring Disney parks with littles in tow, from two sisters who've done it and lived to tell the tale.
Mickey with Minis
Disney World Crash Course in 45 Minutes - Episode 200
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It's our 200th episode! Here's everything you need to know about Walt Disney World in a 45 minute crash course.
Want help planning your trip? Danielle would love to help! Reach out to her today at daniellegriggs@fantasticalvacations.com to get started!
We reference a lot of back episodes in this one, here's a list of those:
When to Go: 2, 11, 77, 147, 167, 179
Budgeting and Packing: 31, 70, 85, 136, 178
Getting There and Getting Around: 22, 34, 60, 68
Where to Stay (Including Hotel Deep Dives): 5, 6, 7, 8, 18, 76, 79, 82, 84, 88, 91, 120, 124, 131, 133, 139, 148, 151, 196, 199
Where to Eat and Drink: 23, 24, 26, 29, 69, 188
Attractions and Park Strategy: 35, 37, 40, 41, 43, 46, 65, 99, 102, 111, 114, 119, 121, 134, 142, 144, 150, 155, 181
Extras: 20, 53, 78, 87, 94, 113, 154, 165, 172
Special Considerations (pregnancy, disabilities, hurricanes): 19, 55, 57, 143
Mickey with Minis podcast outro music
Hello there. Hi, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. What is today, Daniel?
SPEAKER_01It's our 200th episode. Our 200th episode. That is. That is crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy talk. When did we start this? We started this in I think maybe May of 22. 23, I think.
SPEAKER_00I think it had to be 22, because isn't that when we did our big family trip? No?
SPEAKER_01I think it was 23 because it was my because we didn't because it was the my four we started it after my 40th birthday. Oh, okay. Yeah. And I was we've been at this for a long time. For a long time. Holy moly. Good job, us. Good job, us. And hey, thanks everybody for listening. It's we have fun doing it. We would probably do it even if no one did listen, but we really appreciate that people do.
SPEAKER_00It makes me very happy. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And today we're gonna do something a little bit different. Um something we've been talking about doing for a long time and just haven't gotten to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have both talked to, I feel like a lot of people recently who are either going to Disney for the very first time, or going for the first time as a grown-up and bringing their kids, or going for the first time, even in like 10 years when things have just changed an enormous amount. So, what we wanted to do was sort of like an episode we can point people to that's like, here's your 45-minute, really quick here crash course in Walt Disney World. So that's what we're gonna cover today. We're gonna try to cover all the things we can think of that are the main things you need to know if this is your first trip or first trip in a while. Um, what do you need to know to get things off on the right foot? Exactly. So we're gonna dive right in today. So Walt Disney World. Friends, if you're going to California, you're in the wrong place. Walt Disney World is the one in Orlando. Yes, Orlando, Florida. Orlando, Florida four theme parks, two water parks, 25 plus hotels, Disney Springs, so much more. So much more. Let's start with the four theme parks. We we cannot cover everything in the theme parks in 45 minutes. So we're just gonna highlight for you the main things to know about each of the four theme parks. Yes. Starting obviously with Magic Kingdom.
SPEAKER_01With Magic Kingdom. So at Magic Kingdom in Disney World, we have Cinderella Castle. We have currently Six Lands. There's plans for more, but currently Six Lands, which is Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Liberty Square, Adventureland, and Main Street USA.
SPEAKER_00Obviously, you have a lot of your classic attractions here since this was the original Florida Park. You've got Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, It's a Small World, one of our favorites, um, the Tiki Rim, Dumbo, Peter Pan, all of these things. Rides you think of when you think of Disney, basically. Yeah. When you picture Disney, you're you're probably picturing Magic Kingdom. Yeah. But there's also a lot of newer stuff. Um, if you've been on Splash Mountain before, that is now Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Um, there's Tron, which is a new uh roller coaster in Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mind Train, which I guess isn't even really too new at this point, but new-ish in the last I don't know, I don't know how many years.
SPEAKER_01I don't know how old that is. I know.
SPEAKER_00Me either.
SPEAKER_01Notably, what is not here at Magic Kingdom is Harry Potter anything. If you're thinking Harry Potter, you are thinking about Universal, you will not find any Harry Potter stuff at any Disney park, but I think a lot, I think most people who get confused about that are thinking that it's at Magic Kingdom.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's not here.
SPEAKER_01It's not here.
SPEAKER_00What is here? Um, there is a new Starlight parade in the evenings. Um, Magic Kingdom had not had a nighttime parade for many years, and now it is a brand new parade. Um, we really like it. I'm hoping to see it again to get like kind of another sense of it, but um, very fun. The happily ever after fireworks, which might be my favorite nighttime show. It is so good. A million opportunities to meet characters here. If you're looking for princesses, if you're looking to meet Mickey Mouse, um, just tons of characters to meet at Magic Kingdom. Um, let's see, table service, dining here. Probably not the best if you're like a foodie person. Um, I would say Skipper's Canteen is kind of a fun spot if you're looking for something a little different. We had a really great fancier meal at Be Our Guest restaurant. Um, and also Cinderella's Royal Table is definitely on the expensive side, but if you're looking to hit a lot of princesses in a short amount of time, that's definitely um the place to go. A place to go.
SPEAKER_01Um, Liberty Tree Tavern is another one that's like New Englandy food. Um you can get like classic Italian at Tony's, Tony's Town Square. There's also um the plaza, which is a great kind of I think it's supposed to feel like an old timey soda shop or something, but it's yeah, um kind of a varied menu. And then Crystal Palace is another great character dining opportunity with a sit-down buffet.
SPEAKER_00My favorite quick service place here is probably the Columbia Harbor House, um, where you can get like salmon. You can also get your chicken tenders, things like that. But I like it that it has some lighter options. Um, Gaston's Tavern is another place that's pretty popular for a cinnamon roll the size of your head and a LeFoos brew. Um there's also a whole lot of snacks that have sort of cult followings. There's um obviously you've got like your Mickey bars and your Mickey pretzels, but there's also um spring rolls. Eggland are huge, yeah, in Adventureland. Um, so lots of fun things like that. There's Cheshire Cattails um over in Fantasyland.
SPEAKER_01Oh yes. Is that Aloha Isle or is that the name of the one at the We don't do Dole Whip, so I'm not sure what we're doing. We don't do Dole Whip. Sorry. Sorry, everyone.
SPEAKER_00On to the next park. Yes. Epcot. If you are picturing the park with the giant golf ball, this is the one. Um Epcot is uh it used to be comprised of future world and world showcase. Now the whole future world side of the park is called um divided into world celebration, world discovery, and world nature. Um, I cannot remember any of those names. I still call that the side of the park future world. But they're um kind of edutainment type rides. So they're like rides that are entertaining, but also teaching you something. So you've got um Spaceship Earth, which is a classic. That's the ride that actually goes through the large golf ball, takes you through the history of communication, living with the land, one of Danielle's very favorites. One of my favorites, uh one all about um horticulture. Yes. Um newer stuff like Guardians of the Galaxy, my favorite ride in the Disney World. You don't really learn anything on that one.
SPEAKER_01You learn about a fictional land that you're learning, but it's not real.
SPEAKER_00And then the other side of the park is the World Showcase, which has 11 countries represented. Um, there's a bunch of rides, that's where you're going to find the frozen ride, um, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. Um, there's also Caballeros, three Caballeros. Um, there's also pavilions for each of the 11 countries where you can do shopping, you can also learn things about each country. So much food. If you were looking for table service in Epcot, there are a million different places to go. Um, I like La Celier for a steak, which is in Canada.
SPEAKER_01I've never been there.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I like it. I like it a lot. We did Via Napoli for sort of a casual um pizza type meal in Italy. Um, what else do you recommend?
SPEAKER_01There's well, you gotta love uh San and I'm gonna say it wrong, San Angel. Oh, yeah. And there's two different options in the Mexico Pavilion um for sit-down. Um, I would love to try Monsieur Paul. That's a fine dice experience in the France pavilion. Um, that's like a fancy, fancy one. It's multiple many and that kind of thing. Um people love Rosen Crown, which is a pub in England. That's a big favorite for people. Um, also, we didn't mention the lounge. There's also a lounge at Magic Kingdom now, which is girl, which we're huge fans of. Yes. That's just like like small picky snacks, but it's a pirate-themed tavern. So don't miss it. Also, bajillions of lounges. There's just you guys you got choices all over the place.
SPEAKER_00Yes. There's also a ton of quick service places, but you should also know that Epcot most of the year has a festival going on. So there's Festival of the Arts during the initial winter months. There's the Flower and Garden Festival, which starts usually sometime in early March and goes until late May or early June. I'm not actually sure. Maybe May. Then there's the Food and Wine Festival, which usually goes from like late August until um early November. And then the Festival of the Holidays, which finishes out the year. And each of these festivals come with all sorts of unique entertainment, but they also all come with food booths, um, where you can get all kinds of um, they're sort of snack sized, some of them are a little bit more substantial um from all different countries. There's usually a lot of really unique stuff. Um, and all cocktails, yeah, different links to go along with it. Your cider options, yeah. Yep. All right, on to Hollywood Studios. So Hollywood Studios is the park that covers the movies and Toy Story, Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.
SPEAKER_01It used to be called MGM. So if you're a 90s kid and you went, then this is what MGM has become. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um, the attraction highlights, obviously, if you're a Star Wars fan, you're going to want to hit Galaxy's Edge, where there's Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon. Over in Toy Storyland, um, the highlights are Slinky Dog Dash, which is a really fun but not too intense roller coaster. Um, Toy Story Midway Mania, which is a um, it's kind of like a carnival type game. You go around in like a little you're in a car, but you also play a whole bunch of different games as you go and you compete against everyone else. It's very fun. Really fun. Um, Tower of Terror, that's the big icon of the park. So if you see the icon for Hollywood Studios, that's what you're looking at. Um, it is terrifying.
SPEAKER_01Uh Rock and Roller Coaster, which is now being re-themed for uh to be Muppet themed. So can't wait to see what that is. Did you talk about Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway? I did not, but it's one of my favorites. That's inside the Chinese theater that used to have the great movie ride RIP. Um this is just like a fun little family ride.
SPEAKER_00There's also a whole bunch of shows at Hollywood Studios. So you've got the Frozen Show, which is actually very funny. Don't sleep on it. Um, kids like it because of Anna and Elsa, but there's also like a lot of really fun humor in it. There's Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, which has been there forever but still holds up. Um, there's a new villains show and a new Little Mermaid show, neither of which we have gotten to see yet, but we're excited about. And then my second favorite nighttime show, which is Phantasmic. And absolutely love it.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yep, so good. It's in an amphitheater. It's like on the like the action happens in the water and on this big structure in the water. It's very cool.
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't really say there's much here as far as table service highlights. Um, there is table service dining, but nothing I'd really go out of my way for.
SPEAKER_01Hollywood brown derby is the one that people kind of lean towards. Um, there's also 50s primetime um diner, 50s primetime cafe. I forget what the what the last word of that is, but it's um that's themed and interactive. Like it's the 50s, and your um or uncle is like giving you a hard time. There's a little TV on your table. And then there's sci-fi dine-in theater, which is like a um themed to be like a dry, old timey like drive-in movie theater. We actually still have one here in Massachusetts. It's really fun. Um, but uh they show old like classic um monster movies.
SPEAKER_00And then there are some good quick service places and lounge type places here. So for the Star Wars fans, um, Ogus Cantina is a must-visit over in Galaxy's Edge. Baseline tap house.
SPEAKER_01Cargo Bay, cargo bay. Docking Bay 7. Docking Bay 7. That's actually that's a decent, that's a decent quick service. You get your protein balls. Yeah. Ronto Roasters is also a favorite in the Star Wars area. That's got like a sausage roll kind of situation. And then over in Toy Storyland, we are very partial to Woody's Lunchbox. Oh, we forgot about the barbecue one, the barbecue plate, Woody's Roundup Rodeo. That's down as well. Yes.
SPEAKER_00All right, bopping on over to Animal Kingdom. Um, Animal Kingdom is not just a zoo, it has three hundred class species of animals, but the vibes here are amazing. It's absolutely gorgeous, incredibly immersive. It pains me to say this. If you do have to skip a park right now in 2026, this would be the park I would skip because there is a lot of construction going on. They did just close the dinosaur ride. Um so if you have to skip somewhere, this would be it. That said, if you have the time to do it, I still highly recommend doing it because I just think it is absolutely wonderful.
SPEAKER_01And it can be a full day if you want to really experience all of the animal exhibits and do all the interactive stuff in addition to the attractions. This can still be a full day.
SPEAKER_00The Kilimanjaro Safari is probably the major highlight for me. It's a safari ride um through the whole savannah area of the park. It's absolutely enormous. It's different every time because you never know what the animals will be up to. It's pretty amazing. Um, the whole Pandora land is incredible, especially if you're lucky enough to see it after dark when it's all lit up. Totally. Um, there's Avatar Flight of Passage, and then there's Nabi River Journey. Um, I really like both. I know Flight of Passage is obviously you know the more popular of the two, but I really do enjoy them both.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. And Expedition Everest is the other big attraction. Um this is a coaster. Um, and I would recommend going through the standby queue at least once in your life. Personally, the theming in the queue is impeccable. Um, but we tend to do single rider, which um is the fastest way to get on for sure.
SPEAKER_00And also um just re just opening this summer, you can take the wildlife express train um out to a different area of the park where you can meet Bluey. That would be a big going to be so popular. Yes, yeah, yes, very exciting.
SPEAKER_01They also did just um recent recently, not super recently, but kind of recently, reopen the um show experience inside of the tree of life. That this huge carved tree is the icon you're gonna see for this park. It has a bajillion animal species like carved into it. It's beautiful. They do some really neat things with projections on it at night. Um, but inside the tree, there is a show um that used to be it's tough to be a bug, which was kind of a nightmare, and now it is Zootopia Butter Together, and it's really cute. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um, table service highlights here. I have not been to Tusker House or Yakin Yeti, but I've heard people speak very highly of both of them. Yes. Um, we love Nomad Lounge to grab a drink and a couple of snacks and just kind of hang out and take a midday break. There's also Tiffin's FYI. Tiffin's, which is fancy. A little bit more of an elevated, yes. Lots of great, great quick service and snacky places all around the park. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um we didn't talk about the other two shows, actually. They these two shows are like huge favorites. I have actually not seen either of them in quite some time, but there is the Lion King show. Is it still Festival of the Lion King? Yes, yes, so that's a really neat one. Um, like full puppetry, like very, very cool. And then um there's also the Finding Nemo show. Yes, which is adorable.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I haven't seen that one in a while, but I absolutely love it. Yeah, so beyond the four main theme parks, um, there are also two water parks, um, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Blizzard Beach, the whole idea is that um it's a melted snow mountain. Um, so everything is snow themed um and ice themed, and then Typhoon Lagoon is um like island themed, very tropical and fun. I haven't been to either one of those in a number of years. We might go to one this summer. Um, but yeah, they're both great. Check um, depending what time of year you're going, only one of them might be open. Um, for parts of the year, they only have one open at a time. And then in the summer, they're both usually open at the same time. So check that out um when you're planning your dates. For sure.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01They've also been free to visit on your check-in day if you're staying at a Disney property. That's not like guaranteed to keep continuing, but that has been the case recently. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Hotels. Hotels. Oh my goodness. Basically, every type of accommodation you can think of is here at Disney World. So there are several categories of hotel room, which are value, moderate, and deluxe. They obviously go up in price, and the deluxe has, you know, more amenities than the values. We do have separate episodes um on each of these types of resorts if you're looking for a deeper dive. Um, there's also the Fort Wilderness Campground if you're looking to do that in the Florida swamp for some reason.
SPEAKER_01Well, you can so they have they have uh tent sites, but they also have RV sites. So if you have an RV, you can drive down there. There's also a huge RV rental uh market down there where you can add one and they'll bring it right there for you. So you could do it with some form of AC potentially.
SPEAKER_00There's also um Disney Vacation Club, which is a timeshare uh program at Disney World. They have villas you can stay in as well as cabins and bungalows.
SPEAKER_01Um you can book these on cash. You don't have to be a vacation club member to book a villa. Um you just usually have a little bit less time, like it's uh later to release to the public than it is to DVC members.
SPEAKER_00So the all of those things that we've talked about are called staying on site or on property um in all the Disney-owned hotels. And there's a couple of benefits to that um that I think are really worthwhile. First of all, people really like staying in the Disney bubble. I am one of those people. I like to get on property and not leave. Um, there's also early entry, which means that if you're staying at one of those hotels, you can enter each of the parks 30 minutes early each day before the off-site guests. And if you're in a deluxe hotel, certain nights of the week, they have what is called extended evening hours, which is basically after a certain park, usually Magic Kingdom or Epcot has closed for the day, it's open for two more hours for guests staying at deluxe resort. So you get lower wait times.
SPEAKER_01Um, I'm sorry, a child was yelling at a cat and the cat was yelling back in the background. Did you talk about uh being able to book your lightning lanes early?
SPEAKER_00I did not. So that's one of the other advantages to staying on site. We're going to talk more about lightning lanes and what those are, but yes, you do get an advantage to booking those. You can book them seven days before your first park day, as opposed to three days before your first park day if you're off site. And you also get the advantage in dining where you can book for the length of your stay um at 60 days out from your check in date.
SPEAKER_01Instead of 60 days out from each day of each individual day here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yes. You can stay off site. Um, we have separate episodes on the benefits of off-site versus on-site. Um, but again, you don't get those benefits that we just talked about. We personally are generally really big fans of staying on site.
SPEAKER_01We're yeah, in the Disney bubble people. But a lot of people will book. You can there's many um they used to be called good neighbor hotels. I forget what they're called now, like more great, more great accommodations or something like that. Um, standard hotel chains that you know and love, everything from uh the four seasons to like a holiday in type situation. And um those are pretty popular and often offer some type of transportation to the park because the other big Disney bubble benefit is the multitude of transportation options that you have that is just included. Yes. Um but some of those hotel chains will also offer um transportation, or there is a really big Airbnb market in Orlando, and you can find some really cool, enormous places with a private pool and crazy theming. So if you're not attached to being in the bubble or don't, you know, see a whole bunch of value for your family and those benefits, that can be a good option as well.
SPEAKER_00Um, since you just mentioned it, let's touch on the transportation real quick. So once you're on Disney property, it's very easy to get around. Yeah. Um, you can take the bus from park to park and from the hotels to the park. Um, there are several different um boat services that go between hotels and from hotels to the park. There's obviously the monorail, which is so iconic, that goes um a whole loop around the uh Magic Kingdom area resorts and also goes over to Epcot. More recently, there is the Skyliner, which connects Hollywood Studios and Epcot and a bunch of hotels in the middle. And that's like a gondola situation. Yes. Very efficient. Really convenient options. Um, obviously, you can rent a car that can be um a little bit more work in terms of getting around. You got to deal with the parking and everything, but some people do love to kind of be in control of their own timeline as opposed to waiting for a bus. Um, there are also something called minivans, which are powered through the lift app. Um, and they are literal minivans um that are decorated to kind of look like mini mouse's skirts. So they're like red with the white dots. And these you do pay for, these are not free, but they can be convenient if you're trying to get from like one hotel to another, for example. This can be a really quick way to do it. Um, so that's something to keep in mind that's available as well. And those do have car seats available, which so if you're traveling with little ones, those are convenient. Yes.
SPEAKER_01They also um usually have a better drop-off spot than if you just call a regular lifter and Uber, which you can also do. Um the minivan's gonna get you closer to the entrance almost every time.
SPEAKER_00And then along the lines of transportation, um, just thinking about getting around the parks, you can rent strollers, ECVs, and wheelchairs at each of the parks.
SPEAKER_01It's like a scooter situation, like a wheelchair uh mobility scooter. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um, but keep in mind if you're renting any of those at the parks, you leave them at the park and then you have to get yourself to the bus or to the parking lot afterward. So if you're going to want any of those devices, um, it might be better to rent them um and have them delivered to rent them from an off-site company, have them delivered to your hotel um so that you have full use of them throughout your trip. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And there is a particular third-party company that will um deliver to Bell Services without having to meet you, so it can just be waiting there when you arrive. Yes. So I do, I do suggest that. Although I did see at Hollywood Studios in particular on our last trip, I noticed some wheelchairs in the bus area that were just for people that needed help getting from the bus to the rental area at the front of the park because that one's a bit of a hike. So that was interesting.
SPEAKER_00I saw that at Magic Kingdom on our last trip too. So that was sweet. I think that's probably new-ish. That's new because we've had that problem before. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00So a little bit more in dining. We've already talked about um some of the restaurants. There are 300 plus dining establishments on Disney property. We're just going to talk real quick about some of the dining logistics. Um, you can make your reservations, like we said, 60 days out for the length of your trip if you're staying on site. Don't stress if you don't get what you want at the 60 day mark or if you book inside of the 60 day mark. There's always lots of availability popping up here and there.
SPEAKER_01Um typically, typically there's a cancel with no penalty as long as it's more than two hours in advance of your reservation. So you're gonna see a lot of movement even while you're on your trip. So if there's something you didn't get, you just want to keep refreshing, you can set some alerts and just keep an eye on things. You're probably, with a very few exceptions, you're probably gonna be able to get something. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um, now is probably a good time to mention the My Disney Experience app, which you can get in the app store. It's free. Um, it's kind of a one-stop for your whole Disney vacation, and you'll definitely want to download it for your trip. Um, but two of the things pertinent to dining that are in there, one is mobile order. So if you're at a quick service restaurant, um, so like not a sit-down location, you can mobile order your food. So it'll be waiting for you when you get there, as opposed to waiting in a line. And you can also use the app to check walk-up dining availability. So if there's a restaurant that you wanted to go to, but you couldn't get a reservation. If you're in the vicinity um that day, you can check if they have any walk-up availability and join the list that way.
SPEAKER_01That's also how you're gonna check in for your most of your reservations as well. So that app's pretty critical. And we I would really recommend download it well in advance. Just start playing around with it before you go. There's a map feature, there's all kinds of stuff in there, and that way you're just kind of more familiar before you're having to use it for stuff that actually matters. I like to check wait times for fun from a car.
SPEAKER_00Okay, we're coming up on 30 minutes and we wanted to do this in 45. So, real quick, we're just gonna touch on the Disney dining plan, which is um a way you can pre-pay for some of your food as opposed to paying out of pocket, just pay as you go, like you normally would. We've done a lot of episodes on this that I'd recommend listening to if you're thinking about the dining plan. The short answer is the dining plan is rarely financially worth it unless you're deeply committed to eating steak and drinking all the alcoholic drinks. Um honestly I am, but I am. Those two things are my favorite. So you can maximize it if you really set your mind to it. But even if you're not going to like break even on the plan, some people do like that it gives the vacation sort of an all-inclusive feel, um, even if it ends up being a little bit more expensive. They just like the idea that they've prepaid for their meals and they're not, you know, paying for things constantly while you're in the parks.
SPEAKER_01And you're not gonna like have a really nice dinner and be really happy with it and then get a $300 bill and be bummed out. Like, yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Takes that kind of off the table. So if you're more if you are interested in the dining plan, highly recommend checking out some of our episodes on that for more information. General planning advice. Um, we've done a deep dive episode on budgeting. So I would listen to that if possible. I'm gonna put together pretty detailed like show notes on our website for this episode to be like, if you're interested in budgeting, listen to episode number XYZ. Yeah. Um, so people can kind of follow along. But basically, do whatever your budget allows and you can still have a great trip. If you stay off site, if you stay at a value resort, you will still have an amazing time. Totally. If you can't afford lightning lanes, there are great ways to avoid crowds and waiting in lines, even if you can't spend a ton of things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maximizing your day without paying for the lightning lanes.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. But if you're looking for like what exactly to include in your budget, we do have a deep dive episode on that that I'd recommend listening to. Um, the best times to go. We've also covered an episode. Our general feeling is whatever time works for you is a great time to go. Every time of year has pros and cons when it comes to weather and crowds and special events going on that time of year. Um, my personal favorite is probably the first two weeks of December. Do you have a favorite?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I love seeing all the Halloween stuff, but I also love the like late February, early March weather. Yes. Myself. I'm not a big fan of early, so I don't care if it's like not super hot, and that's just a good time to go for me.
SPEAKER_00We realized we haven't done an episode um specifically on what is the best age to bring your kids. So stay tuned for that coming soon. But short answer, we have brought kids aging from three months to 12 and a half at this point. Yeah, and everything. I don't think if there's any bad age. Yeah, I don't think there's anybody there. All have their pros and cons. If the kids won't remember, you will. I have no regrets about taking my kids super young. Um, yeah, I just think there's pros and cons to any time you go. All of it. Yep, for sure. General park strategy. Um, how long to visit for a first visit? I think the ideal would be a day for each park plus a rest day or two.
SPEAKER_01That's that's what I typically recommend to clients. So I usually do an arrival day, two park days, a rest day, two park days, and a departure day. And that's kind of like your standard little package. Um can do it without a rest day, but it's a lot. You want to be able to enjoy your hotel for sure as well. So uh that's kind of what I usually recommend for folks who are just kind of like, tell me what I should do. Um yeah. Yes.
SPEAKER_00There are um a bunch of different types of park tickets. The the major ones to be aware of are park hopper or non-park hopper tickets. The park hopper lets you go from park to park each day. The non-park hopper tickets is their one park per day. You can exit that park, go back to the hotel, take a break, come back to the same park later, but you can't hop from say Magic Kingdom to Apcot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So that's actually if you're on the website, it's called a base ticket. Um, the non-hopper, non-hopper ticket is called a base ticket. And yeah, one park per day, but you can re-enter. Um, whereas a park hopper ticket, you can, if you want to go to two parks in a day, you can. If you want to go to four parks in a day, you can. Um, so that's uh that's the gist. You cannot reasonably add one day. Like if you're gonna get a park hopper, you're getting a park hopper for all days. Financially, it does not make any sense to add a park hopper as a single ticket purchase to just hop on one particular day.
SPEAKER_00Um basically your first day is the most expensive, and then your per day cost gets a little bit less per day that you add to incentivize you to spend more days. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Um, I think we generally recommend the park hopper. Um, I like it for flexibility, even if you're not getting the maximum value out of it, especially if you're thinking this is a one and done kind of trip. You don't want to miss that favorite ride because something was down and you're not weren't planning on getting back to that park on a different day. So I typically recommend it. Um, even if you don't think you're gonna park hop a ton, it's not that in the cost in the grand picture of a Disney vacation, it's a drop in the bucket. So that is usually my recommendation.
SPEAKER_00Yes. All right, we have got 11 minutes left. Let's do lightning lanes real quick. So we're gonna talk about waiting in lines or not. So when we say standby, that means you're just waiting in the line. You don't have any special pass to speed things up. Um, when we talk about lightning lanes, if you haven't been in a long time, this is sort of what fast pass looks like now.
SPEAKER_01It's safely access to a usually shorter line. Much shorter line. And again, we have some deep dives on all of this, so we'll link them up in the notes.
SPEAKER_00Um lightning lane multipass um is the is the pass that you can use for multiple rides in a day. So basically the way this works is seven days before your first park day, if you're staying on site at 7 a.m., you can purchase lightning lanes. The price fluctuates by year. Um I would say for you know, it varies by by day. Um it can, I would say for Animal Kingdom, you're looking at, you know, in the neighborhood of $18 to $20. If you're looking at Magic Kingdom, you're looking closer to $30. And you can book pre-book three times when you can enter an attraction um before you even enter the park. You have those things booked. Once you use your first one, you can start booking your next ones. So you can churn them all throughout the day, depending, you know, what time you get there and subject to availability. And again, you do this all in the app. Um, you can parkop with it. So if you're starting the day at Animal Kingdom and hopping over to Magic Kingdom, you can pre-book your three at Animal Kingdom and then start booking for Magic Kingdom as soon as you've used that first one. It sounds confusing. It is a little confusing. Yeah. Yep. Um, but you can do it and it can make an absolutely enormous difference in how much you're able to accomplish in a day. Totally. Caveat is they do not the Lightning Lane multi-pass does not cover pretty much the most popular ride in each park or the most popular two rides at Magic Kingdom. For those rides, you're going to need what's called Lightning Lane Single Pass. And that's basically a fee you pay for a one-time pass to ride that ride. So at Magic Kingdom, that's for Tron and Seven Dwarfs Mind Train. At Epcot, that's for Guardians of the Galaxy. At Animal Kingdom, it's for Avatar Flight of Passage. And at Hollywood Studios, it's for Rise of the Resistance. Yes.
SPEAKER_01So it's a it's a fee that you pay per ride to ride it one time via the lightning lane, which is typically the shorter line.
SPEAKER_00It is not necessarily like a front of the line pass. I would say the average lightning lane time I experience is like a five to ten minute line. Five five to fifteen minute wait waiting, depending on the ride.
SPEAKER_01But it can back it can also back up. So just be prepared for that going in. Like if the ride has been down, something like that. Yeah, weather delay or something like that. Yes.
SPEAKER_00There's also what's called Lightning Lane Premiere Pass. This is much more expensive for Magic Kingdom. I think it starts in the $300 to $400 range. This is a pass you buy that allows you for one park, there's no park hopping. For one park, you get a pass that allows you to use a lightning lane at the multi-pass and single pass rides at any time in whatever your whatever order you want once per ride. So you don't need to worry about pre-booking. You don't need to worry about once you scan in booking your next ride. You just go to every ride that offers mul offers lightning lane and you scan in and you go and you ride it.
SPEAKER_01Very expensive, but can be a good option for somebody who's like, I don't want to have to know any of this.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And I don't want to be on my phone. This is just easy. Yeah. Yep, for sure. Uh much more expensive for somebody who definitely just doesn't want to know anything is um the VIP tours. So Disney offers VIP tours, they are like categorically like fabulous, basically. Everyone is obsessed and no one has a bad time on these. Um and basically you pay and um hefty fee, it's I want to say $699 per hour up to $900 an hour, depending. That may have gone up since I've quoted one of these. But hefty, it's up to 10 people. I want to say it's eight hours. You get a VIP guide, they will transport you park to park. So you definitely want to have a park hopper if you're gonna do this. And um basically they'll bring you in the lightning lanes as many times as you want. It's not a front-of-the-line situation, but they try to make everything happen for you. It's like White Glove Disney, basically. Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00The other thing we haven't touched on for not waiting in lines is single rider, which is free. Uh, the single rider line, it's reliably offered on a handful of rides, including um Expedition Everest for sure, and a couple other rides. And sometimes they're testing it out at other random rides. So um you might see it pop up here and there. Basically, you hop in this single rider line, they don't guarantee you a shorter wait, but most likely it's gonna be a much shorter wait for Everest. It's often almost a lock on. Um, but the caveat is you will be split up from your party. They'll send you a few, they'll send you to fill in. Yeah, they'll send you to fill in available space throughout the car. Um, so just know that going in. But if you're, you know, a group of grown-ups that doesn't care about riding together, that it's a great option to save some time.
SPEAKER_01We also have some back episodes about park strategy in general and whether rope dropping, which means getting there before the park is even open and being at the front of the pack or staying late at night when things are closing and you're just in line at the end. So again, we'll link those in the show notes. There's other options for doing a shorter line if you're not looking to shell out for some of these experiences.
SPEAKER_00Okay, extra stuff. I want to emphasize here if you do absolutely none of this on your Disney vacation, you will still have an amazing time. You don't need to do any of this. But if you are looking for extra stuff to do, or if you have someone in your party who might really love one of these things, we want to touch on these things real quick. There is a whole category on Disney's website called Enchanting Extras. Probably the biggest one if you have little kids is Bibity Bobbity Boutique. This is Princess Makeover in the Magic Kingdom. The reservation can be kind of hard to get. Um, it it's it's an upcharge, obviously. You can bring your own dress to save money. Um, but if you have a princess loving kid, great thing to do. Um, there's a spa at the Grand Floridian and also over at the Swan and Dolphin hotels. So if you're into spas, that's there.
SPEAKER_01Um there's like firewalls, parties, there's yeah, there's fishing, there's all kinds of this extra stuff that you can either add to your park day or make part of your rest day, and it's very, very fun. There's also something called Capture a Moment, which is a photo session, it's typically 20 minutes, and that's an extra fee. They do them in the parks in various locations, and Haley has had some adorable ones taken.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we did like a maternity shoot. It was absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_01So cute.
SPEAKER_00Um barely touched on Disney Springs, it's a massive complex.
SPEAKER_01Dino shopping, entertainment complex, basically. It's a little intense at night, just FYI, but in really fabulous restaurants in particular over here, and a lot of souvenir shopping. World of Disney is the big one.
SPEAKER_00There's something called hard ticket events, which basically means something that is beyond your normal park ticket. Um, the major ones I would say are Mickey's not so scary Halloween party in the fall, Mickey's very Merry Christmas party over the holidays, and then something called Disney After Hours, which is like a nighttime event for three or four hours after the park has closed to regular guests, super low wait times. Um, I think it can be a good value if you're maybe replacing a park day. Yeah. Um, it certainly adds extra cost to your trip, but you do get like free popcorn and soda and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01There's also Jollywood nights around the holidays at Hollywood. Oh, yeah. That's a newer one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, there are backs various backstage tours you can do. I did Keys to the Kingdom, absolutely loved it.
SPEAKER_01Living with the Land has one called Behind the Seeds that's supposed to be very fun. These can range from like very inexpensive to much more expensive. So there's a big, big uh swing in there, I would say.
SPEAKER_00Um, also, memory maker is something you can purchase before or during your trip. I think it's a little cheaper if you purchase it in advance. More there are photographers all around Disney property. Um, and your memory maker, if you buy it, will include all of those photos as well as your on-ride photos. So a bunch of the rides have photos they take while you're on it. This will include everything. Um, personally, with little kids, I have found this to be really good value because there's just so many pictures, you know, in front of the castle and with characters and stuff.
SPEAKER_01It's just a really good way to make sure that everybody gets in the photo. You're not like handing your phone, your phone to one person over and over again. They're not in any pictures. All right, we have a minute and a half, Ailey.
SPEAKER_00Okay, couple things we want to hit on. One, height limits. You want to look through them before your trip so that your kids are not set up for disappointment. There are a number of rides that have height limits. If you have kids who are either scared to ride or don't meet the height limit, you need to know about ride or swap. The way this basically works, you wouldn't your whole party, your whole party has to walk up to the front of the ride, talk to the cast member. Tell them you want a ride or swap. They will put on your magic band or on your park ticket if you're using your phone a swap. So basically, somebody can come back and ride the ride again with it, varies usually one to two other people. So basically, one parent goes and rides with most of your kids while the other parent waits with the kid who's too small to ride, and then everybody swaps. So everybody gets to ride. That's basically how it works.
SPEAKER_01Another thing to make people aware of is something called disability access service. Um, we've done other episodes on this, it's really mostly for people with autism or autistic people, is usually how I talk about it. But um, this is something you have to pre-qualify for. You're gonna want to do some research um about the whole process. We have back episodes on it, but I don't think we've done one in a while since they updated the system. But if that might apply to you, that's something you're gonna want to look up. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Uh lastly, if you're traveling while you're pregnant, we have special episodes on that because I've done it twice. And if you're traveling with very young children, the baby care centers are uh are in each of the four parks. They are fantastic. They have private nursing rooms if you want to nurse, or in my case, pump in private. Um, if you need to buy last-minute formula, last-minute diapers, if you need a cool place to cool off your baby and change their diaper, fantastic places to go when you're in the park. So be on the lookout for those. There's one in each park. Yep. Woo!
SPEAKER_01Did we do it, Danielle? 45 minutes? We well, we we're very close. We're very close. We're gonna count it because we did a little intro. How about that? We did, we did, we did. Um, one thing that I will say, having run through all of this, um, is if you're listening and you're like, oh my god, I can't possibly, what is this? Hey, you should book a vacation with me or another travel agent. That our I'm with fantastical vacations. All of our agents are fabulous. I would love to help you, but any one of them can help you as well. We will make sure you are up to speed on all of this in depth with very little effort from you at all. So um, that is honestly the easiest way to streamline your Disney vacation if you don't know what any of this stuff meant. Um, but again, uh yeah, I'd love to help. Just reach out Danielle Griggs, G-R-I-G-G-S. I like to spell it because my dad used to say Briggs, um, at fantasticalvacations.com and we will get you sorted up to speed, no stress. 200 episodes, Haley. 200 episodes. Oh, so fun! So fun, so fun. Thank you guys again for listening. We super appreciate you. Um, and you know, anytime you want to like or review or rate or share, we would love it if you would share the podcast with other people. Um if you know somebody who's like going to Disney for the first time, point them to this episode and we will uh hopefully get them up to speed. I used to get a lot of emails from people being like, It's my first trip. Like, what do I need to know? Way back before I was a travel agent. And I had like a canned email response because it was that many people. Yeah. But this is the podcast version of that. So there you have it. Well, hey, see you real soon. See you real soon.