Planning a trip to Disney soon? It’s the world’s most magical place, but if you don’t go prepared, you’ll spend your vacation fighting the crowds and weather. In this episode, Brandon shares his tips for making your Disney vacation more enjoyable.
Topics Discussed:
Planning tips
Using the Disney app to avoid lines
Planning for Florida weather
Transcript:
Hi everyone and welcome to a very special edition of coffee talk with Brendan, I am your special guest today filling in while he's out on vacation. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about my favorite vacation spot, which of course, is Walt Disney World. Most of you know, I go every single year or almost every single year, and have been doing so since I was just a young, young boy. So today I'm going over my quick tips. And hopefully this helps anyone that is thinking about going. So let's kind of jump right in here.
My first tip is of course to plan ahead. You must buy park tickets and park reservations months in advance to ensure that you get into the park of your choice. Due to COVID they have added these Park reservations so you can no longer just buy a ticket and show up to a park that morning, you must have the reservation as well. When selecting your park ticket, you'll be asked if you wanted to add a park Hopper option, which allows you to jump from Park to park within the same day. My advice would be if you have a large family or if it's your first time going to not opt for the hopper option just to get more bang for your buck as there's plenty to do in every single park. So my advice would be to forego the park Hopper if it's your first time around it stay in that park for the full day. It will also save you a lot of money for that not choosing that Hopper option, as it can double the price of admission for one person per Park per day. So it can get pretty costly.
Next for planning ahead, is going into the park, and knowing which rides you want to go on. And also what shows you want to see, just planning ahead and having a general idea will definitely make the day go a lot smoother. Also, while planning ahead, once you book your tickets or when you know you'll be in the area, you can make dinner reservations in advance, even months in advance. So if there is a restaurant you want it to go to or you have a large family, I would definitely advise making dinner reservations well in advance to ensure you get there.
My next big tip is around avoiding long lines. And here are some simple things to learn. And this is typically what people complain about the most. Again, there's those long lines. So first and foremost, once you do buy those tickets, download the Disney World app. On the app, they have everything from wait times to every ride in the park to park maps directions. So this will definitely help you navigate your day. Within the app also has the newest addition, which is the genie. The genie actually will make some ride suggestions for you. But more importantly, it has replaced the old Fastpass system, and will allow you to select a ride or multiple rides to cut the line in and it will prompt you for a return time. So that is very important to cut the lines. And I could probably spend a whole week just talking about the genie. So if you have questions about it, let me know and we got to answer.
The other way to avoid lines is mobile ordering again right from that Disney app. There will have select restaurants within the park or within the resorts that you can order straight from your phone and plug it in and as soon as it's ready, they'll notify you. You can walk right up to the counter, grab it and go. So again, you're not waiting in the food lines which also can be just as long as some of the rides, b elieve it or not.
The other big tip of mine is rider switch which is not very common and not many people know about it. But long story short, if someone in your party is either too young or doesn't want to ride on a ride, doesn't meet the height requirements, and an adult must sit out with them. One adult can actually wait with that child or non rider while the rest of the of your group or in your party can go on to the ride. When they come off the ride, the person who was waiting is allowed to cut the line and go right onto the ride and go on to the lightning Lane pass which is their new kind of Quick Lane. So they, that person can take another guest, someone else who might have just came off the ride, so that person can actually ride it twice, believe it or not. And so at least saves time for your party, and especially that person who was waiting while everyone else got to enjoy their enjoy the ride. Again, very nice thing to know, if you have a large party and especially with young ones that can't ride.
Then my other thing to avoid long lines is arrive early and stay late. I'm a big fan of arriving at the park probably, you know, 45 minutes to an hour early, just to get up, get up front, beat a lot of the rush and maybe even hop on one or two rides before the lines start to build up. Same thing at the end of the day. Typically people head out after the fireworks, I tend to stay. And that's another great time to get on a lot of the rides when most people are exiting the ride still run even late into the hour.
Next on my list is to dress accordingly. I'm sure a lot of people aren't really thinking about this. But this little chart here on the left is actually my steps from back in April of this year. I believe this was at Animal Kingdom, you can see I took over 27,000 steps in that one day. And I think that equates to something around 12 to 13 miles of just walking. And obviously, that doesn't count just standing in line taking smaller steps either. So my advice would be that to dress accordingly is to wear socks and sneakers, you're going to be on your feet for a long time. So might as well be comfortable while doing so.
The other thing that I've prepared for is ponchos and sweatshirts. Me and my family bought a pair of ponchos about 5-10 years ago and I bring them with us every year. It rains a lot, especially in the summertime. So you don't want it to put a damper on your day. And believe it or not, if you're okay to get a little wet, throw a poncho on and hop on some of the rides, they do not close those rides unless there's thunder in the area. So if you're not afraid of getting wet, the lines will definitely be a lot shorter. And you'll be able to get on a lot of rides a lot quicker. And then obviously we're sweatshirts during the winter fall spring months, it does get a lot cooler at nighttime. So just be prepared for all weather conditions. Look ahead and be prepared for those long days in the park.
And I think that pretty much wraps it up. Obviously, I want everyone to have a magical day within the parks. Set expectations you're probably not going to get on every single ride. But having a plan going into the day will definitely make for a much, much better day. So hopefully this helps. Again, I could probably talk about this all week, but Brendan told me to cut it down to 10 minutes. So if you do have any questions or want to learn any more, feel free to let me know. So hope this helps. Hope you have a great day. Thank you so much.