In February 2020 we took our first family trip to Disney World. My husband and I had visited Epcot on our honeymoon nearly 15 years ago, but this was a first for the entire family. We had a blast of a trip, and we learned several things along the way that may help you navigate your first trip to Disney World. As we entered the first park on the first day I kind of felt like everyone else had already been to Disney World and knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going. As we all know Disney is HUGE, and it can be overwhelming. I hope you find something that helps you out!

*This information is for those that stay off sight. Many tips still apply to anyone visiting a Disney park. However, some information may vary for those that stay in a Disney resort.

Helpful Tips for Your First Family Trip to Disney World

Order Tickets Online

I would highly suggest you purchase your tickets online. You still have to go through the ticketing line at the first park you visit. However, you go through a separate, shorter line for those that purchased tickets online. At the first Disney park you visit, each person in your family will receive their own card (looks like a debit/credit card), or get your Magic Bands activated. After the first park, no more ticketing lines. You are good to go in all other parks.

Download the My Disney Experience App

Once you’ve purchased your tickets online, go ahead and download the My Disney Experience app on your phone. You can easily link your tickets to your account on the app using the ID code on each ticket. You can also choose to download the app first and purchase your tickets directly through the app. Anyone can download the app, but for our family of 5 that stayed together most of the time, we only needed it on one phone.

It is with this app that you can book your Fastpass reservations, restaurant reservations, check wait times on rides, rearrange your Fastpass bookings, check when and where characters will be and more! There’s a GPS map of each park on the app which is super helpful. More on this later, but if you’re visiting Hollywood Studios and have plans to get on Star Wars Rise of the Resistance, you’ll have to have the app for that.

Give yourself plenty of time to get into Magic Kingdom

We ended up at Magic Kingdom the day after the Super Bowl. I wouldn’t suggest this for future visits. It was SO CROWDED. The lady at the ticket counter even said it was a busy day. However, I would venture to say it is just as crowded pretty much any day in the summer and most weekends throughout the year. It took us 90 minutes to get from our parking spot until we were actually in the park.

You ride a tram (or walk) from your parking spot, and then you get to the security check. The security check takes the most time.

Pro tip:

If you can manage to go in the park without any bags you can get right through a fast line for security. It will literally only take minutes to get through security without a bag. However, especially if you have children, it may not be realistic to go to the park without a bag.

After security it’s off to the ticket line. As mentioned previously, this line goes much faster if you pre-purchased tickets online. If you purchase tickets at the park, I would estimate another 40-60 minute wait.

Pro tip:

If you go to a different Disney park first, you’ll already have your tickets and can skip the whole ticket line making this part of entry LOADS faster.

And then finally… you are still not in the park! Now you have the choice of the ferry or monorail to deliver you to the gates of Magic Kingdom. And now, you are finally there!

Is the MagicBand worth it?

If you’re trying to save a few bucks on your Disney trip I would definitely say no on this one. They are basically created for convenience. You can do the exact same thing with your park ticket card as you can with the band. At an additional $15 each we opted not to get the bands, and it worked out perfectly for us. Mostly your cards or bands are used to get into the parks and to use your Fastpass bookings. My husband had the perfect little pocket in our backpack where he kept the cards. Any time we went into the park or to use a Fastpass he would hand out the cards to each person, and as soon as we swiped the cards, we gave them back to him for safe keeping.

If you are staying at a Disney resort it may be more beneficial to have the bands as they can be used for a few other things such as getting into your room, and you can connect a credit card to your band to be able to pay with it (but only if you are staying at a Disney resort).

What’s a Fastpass, and how do they work?

With every ticket purchased, each individual gets 3 Fastpasses for each day you have a ticket. A Fastpass allows you to skip the regular line and go in a shorter line on specific rides. Here’s how it works. First you have to schedule your Fastpass bookings. Log on to the Disney app mentioned above, find the rides you want. Click on each ride, and it will show you available times to sign up for your Fastpass. It will show times such as 11:30 am – 12:30 pm. This means that you can show up to the specified ride any time during that specific hour and use the Fastpass lane. You have to scan your card or band at the Fastpass tower at each ride in order to get in the Fastpass line.

When scheduling your Fastpass uses you can all schedule your Fastpasses at the same time for the same rides, or you can individualize it for each member of your family. We chose to schedule Fastpasses only for rides that the entire family would enjoy so we could use them all together. If you have little ones and teens you might want to split it up, it’s totally up to you.

You can schedule your Fastpass up to 30 days prior to your visit, or 60 days prior for those that stay at a Disney Resort. For step by step instructions on how to book your Fastpass with the My Disney Experience app and how to make the most out of using them, visit this page at mousehacking.com. If something comes up throughout the day you are visiting and you can’t make your scheduled Fastpass, you can just log on to your app and change the time. The available times will be limited, but you can usually find something that will work for you.

Pro tip:

There is no limit to how many Fastpasses you can use once in the park. When you’re at the park, once you’ve used all 3 Fastpasses that you booked in advance, you can then make another reservation for that day. Once you’ve used that one, you can then make another reservation, and so on.

If you want to eat at one of the nicer restaurants in the park, make your reservations MONTHS in advance.

You can book Advance Dining Reservations up to 180 days in advance of your visit (using the My Disney Experience app). You have to be more ahead of the game on that than we were. Restaurant reservations would be for those restaurants with dinner shows, character meals, fine dining, and buffets. Some examples of these are Be Our Guest and Cinderella’s Royal Table in Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom. If you’re looking for a reservation at one of these popular spots, you’ll definitely want to book those at 180 days out. Depending on the time of year you visit, you may be able to make day of reservations at some restaurants, but not those most popular.

If eating fine dining or a special character dinner isn’t something of interest to you, there are plenty of quick-service restaurants and snack stands throughout the park that do not need reservations. One thing you don’t have to worry about when visiting Disney World is going hungry!

Pro tip: You can order online through your My Disney Experience app for many of the quick-service restaurants in the park, so you show up and skip the line! You can also pre-order for breakfast and lunch at Be Our Guest up to 30 days prior to your visit to the park. This gives you the experience of the restaurant and delicious food without spending lots of time waiting.

Is the Disney After Hours ticket worth it?

So I have to admit, we purchased this pass for our visit to Magic Kingdom, and we totally messed up. I’ll tell you our experience to save you from making the same mistake. We purchased the after hours ticket and knew we would have extra time in the park from 8pm – 12am when hardly anyone else was in the park. We had been told this was a great time to see the princesses and go on the most popular rides because there would be almost no line during these extended hours. And those people were exactly correct.

What we did not realize UNTIL we were at the ticket counter (mind you this is after being in the security line for nearly an hour) was that our special after hours pass was ONLY good from 7 pm – 12 am! We thought we had paid extra for the full day at the park plus after hours, however we had ONLY paid for after-hours!!! So here we were, in the line with our children, and we had to decide, do we fork out the money for a regular ticket or turn around and come back at 7 pm? We decided to fork out the money, and I can tell you, we did not regret any of it.

As we walked through the park and saw long lines, we were able to say “we’ll do that later when everyone else is gone”. And that’s exactly what we did. To be honest, we felt it was well worth the money. Just the fact that there was hardly any crowd was worth it. We were able to get right in to see the princesses and all the rides we skipped out on during the day. We also got unlimited free popcorn, drinks, and specific snacks throughout the park. Since we were only visiting the parks for 2 days this trip, it was well worth it for us. However, if you were going to be at the parks for 5+ days already, I’m not sure I’d spend the extra money for the after hours access.

Now that we’ve had the experience of Magic Kingdom during the day, if we ever choose to do Magic Kingdom again, we’ll probably skip the daytime and opt for after hours access only.

Skip the Park Hopper if it’s your first family visit to Disney World

If you’ve never been to the Disney parks before, I would personally skip out on paying the extra money for the park hopper. There is so much to take in at each park, and if you’ve never been before, you’ll most likely want to spend the entire day soaking up all there is to offer at each park. We spent a full day at each of the two parks we did visit and still didn’t see, ride, and experience everything there was to experience. We had no desire to skip out and head to a different park. It would have felt way too rushed and stressful in my opinion.

Take a Break in Between Parks

Whether you have tickets for 2 days or 5 days, I would HIGHLY suggest that you schedule in a day of rest between each park day (unless you don’t plan to spend the entire day at the park). We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the parks, but we were utterly exhausted after all that walking. I’m talking 11 miles at Magic Kingdom! Especially if you’re taking a family, I would highly recommend those breaks. Otherwise you’re just asking for exhaustion and meltdowns.

A few money saving tips

• If you’re looking to save money on tickets, your best bets are to purchase a 3-day ticket or more, or go for an all-inclusive package through a Disney resort (although this won’t necessarily help you save on accommodations)
• Purchase gifts cards at Sam’s Club or Costco at a small discount, and use these cards to purchase your tickets and food
• Take your own food into the parks – yes this allowed, no I personally wouldn’t do it. Ha! Too much work and too much to carry around in my opinion, but to each his own
• Every park has a Starbucks, and you can stop in and order a free ice water without ordering anything else
• On your first visit, make sure to stop by the guest relations desk and get a First Visit Pin = free souvenir!

So how does this Rise of the Resistance actually work?

This is the newest Star Wars ride/experience at Hollywood Studios that you have to get a reservation for. We were given lots of thoughts and opinions on this before getting in the park, and here’s what we figured out for ourselves.

We were originally told to get there early. That some people start arriving at the park by 6 am. The park doesn’t officially open until 8. What we discovered was that getting a spot on this coveted ride really has nothing to do with what time you arrive at the park AS LONG AS you are inside the park gates by 8 am. This means through security and the ticket line and actually inside the park. But, it doesn’t matter if you ware inside the park at 6 am or at 7:58 am.

The key is quick fingers!

So how do you secure yourself a spot? The key is quick fingers! This is where the My Disney Experience app is a must. Once you’re in the park, open the app, find the Rise of the Resistance ride, and there will be a button to Join Boarding Group. You won’t be able to click this button until 8 am. A cast member makes an announcement over the intercom that the portal is open, and you use those fast fingers to click the button on your app and snag yourself a spot. You click the join button, choose all persons under your app that you want to participate and confirm.

Apparently my husband has fast fingers, and we made it to group 8. We had been told that the groups don’t exactly go in order and we should go to guest relations to find out when our group would go, so that’s exactly what we did. We were told groups 1-7 were being called and that we should head over to the area and by the time we got there they would most likely be calling our group. So, the groups do mostly go in order, it’s just that they call several numbers at once (like 1-7 all together).

We headed to the infamous ride and got right in. We did have to wait in line for a time, but it was not a terrible wait. One important thing to note is, if you receive a number above 65, you are not guaranteed to get on the ride that day. Another reason those fast fingers are so important. So, you could secure yourself a spot in a group, yet still not be guaranteed a spot on the ride.

Visit in September or February or weekdays in spring/fall

It is said that these are the least busy times to visit the parks. However, beware that there is rarely, if ever, a slow day at Disney World. Also note, in February, the day after the super bowl is always busy, so you might want to skip that one. I may know this from experience.

Ask a cast member about EVERYTHING

This is not the norm for my husband, but I was SO GLAD on this trip he had no shame and asked a cast member any questions we had throughout the day. This helped us avoid lots of wasted time and possible mistakes trying to figure it out on our own.

Consider staying at a timeshare

I won’t share a ton on this, but we purchased a small timeshare in the summer, and this was our first stay, and it was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. Staying at a gorgeous resort with plenty of space for the entire family, a washer and dryer, an amazing pool, and so much more beats a single hotel room any day. If you’d like to find out more about a timeshare option, send me an email to jennie@myfavoritelife.net. I can hook you up.

For the best travel bags for your kiddos, check out this post here!

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