Disney Tips: 4 Tips To Help You Make the Most Out of Your Magical Trip
Headed to the happiest place on earth? Here are some travel tips you may not be aware of to help you make the most out of your Disney vacation. These are tips and pointers I’ve been gathering over my time as a Disney Cast Member and a frequenter of the parks. We always recommend you to book your Disney vacations through our Disney travel specialists, but once you start making your specific plans, these should come in handy to optimize your time and energy.
1) Avoid peak seasons
If your vacation dates are flexible,
plan your Disney trip to avoid peak seasons. While the slowest
seasons are great for their lack of crowds, keep in mind that they
are the slower seasons for a reason. The weather may be cold,
shorter park hours, and the parks take advantage of this limited
attendance to close and update many attractions. The slowest times
of the year are right after New Year’s Day up to Presidents Week in
February, right after Labor Day weekend up until mid-week before
Thanksgiving, and the week following Thanksgiving through the week
before Christmas.
If you’d prefer to visit during the
moderate seasons, simply avoid major holidays - such as New Year’s
Eve and Day, Easter, Labor Day, and Christmas – and the mid to late
summer months. If you want pleasant weather and lower to moderate
crowds, try visiting late April through early June or mid September
through the first part of Thanksgiving week. But don’t fret! Even
if you can’t choose dates within these time frames, the parks
compensate for the larger crowds with more attractions being open and
longer park hours. And our remaining tips will still help you make
the most of your Disney experience.
2) Know which parks to avoid certain
days of the week
Did you know you should always avoid
the Magic Kingdom on Mondays? Or that Hollywood Studios is usually
more crowded on the weekends? This is the most important tip for the
best optimization of your trip – no matter what time of year you
visit. If you want to travel like a Disney pro, make a plan for
which parks you will visit on certain days of the week. This will
allow you to avoid the biggest rookie mistakes. Every park has peak
days of the week, so plan accordingly. Below is a chart I created to
help you to see which days are best.
Sunday
|
Monday
|
Tuesday
|
Wednesday
|
Thursday
|
Friday
|
Saturday
|
|
Magic
Kingdom
|
light
|
crowded
|
average
|
average
|
above
average
|
crowded
|
crowded
|
Hollywood
Studios
|
above
average
|
average
|
average
|
above
average
|
average
|
above
average
|
above
average
|
EPCOT
|
light
|
average
|
above
average
|
average
|
above
average
|
light
|
light
|
Animal
Kingdom
|
light
|
above
average
|
above
average
|
above
average
|
average
|
light
|
light
|
Our advice to you would be to plan
according to this information, also understanding that holidays and
special events, such as Marathons, will impact the crowd numbers. In
general, focus on visiting during the mid-week. Unless you are
utilizing a park’s Extra Magic Hours – only accessible to those
guests staying at Disney resorts – avoid those as well.
3) Make flexible but general daily
plans
Not everyone wants to make a plan for
every moment of their vacation. And the plan would change within the
first ten minutes of being at a park anyway. But it is beneficial to
have a general plan for the days you will be at the parks. Once you
know which park you are attending on what day, plan out which two or
three attractions you would not leave the park without getting to
see, and plan accordingly. For example, if you are at the Animal
Kingdom on a Friday and you know there won’t be Extra Magic Hours
that day, you might want to get there as soon as the park opens in
order to get right on Kilamanjaro Safaris. This is the biggest
attraction at the Animal Kingdom, but it only gets more crowded as
the morning progresses. Or you could plan on seeing a show you know
the times for, say Finding Nemo the Musical with a show at 10:00, and
have a Fast Pass for the Safaris at 11:00.
Knowing what you’d like to see at
each park will help you to prioritize, work around show times, and
build in Fast Passes if desired. It is also beneficial to know that
the Animal Kingdom is less crowded after lunch and EPCOT and
Hollywood Studios are busier in the late afternoon to evening hours.
While you will have a general plan for each park each day, you will
also benefit from being flexible as vacation plans don’t always
turn out the way we think. Being flexible will help you to work
around unforeseen circumstances and have a better time.
4) Work around the crowds
If you are traveling with children, or
just need to plan some down time for yourself, plan breaks from the
parks at mid-day when the parks are most crowded. Planning to go
back to your resort from noon to three will allow you to miss the
bigger crowds, the heat, and you’ll get a much needed breather.
Disney vacations can be exhausting for first-timers and they require
a lot of walking, so plan accordingly.
If you are staying at the parks all
day, eat meals early so you can enjoy the attractions while everyone
else is eating lunch and dinner. Other times the majority of guests
will be preoccupied during big shows and parades. If you are not
interested in seeing an evening show, plan your last big attraction
for that time.
Planning a Disney vacation can be
overwhelming with so many websites throwing tips and tricks at you.
Hopefully these four tips can help alleviate any stress or confusion
you may have. Call one of our Disney vacation consultants today to
get an ultimate stress-free Disney vacation. We can book your
resort, your tickets, your meal plan, and dinner reservations.
Remember, it’s the happiest place on earth so let us help you make
the planning process easy so all you have to worry about is what to
pack.
www.personaltravelonline.com
812-923-8768
1-877-484-2835
Written by: Brenna Phelps
Disney World Cast Member and employee of Personal Travel
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