What is an easy way to tell Chip and Dale apart?
Please check the comments section for the answer!
Category Disney World
Disney World Planning Basics: A Planning Timeline
Planning a trip to Walt Disney World can be a daunting task, especially for a first timer. It’s almost like planning a wedding with all of the details and deadlines. Here is the basic timeline that I follow when planning my Disney World vacations.
- As Soon As You Start Thinking About A Trip As soon as you start considering a trip to Walt Disney World the first thing to do is sign up for a My Disney Experience account. This is Walt Disney World’s official site where you will be able to book your room reservation, dining reservations, purchase and link your park admission tickets and book your Fastpass+ reservations.
- 12 Months Or More In Advance Now is the time to research where you want to stay and to book your room reservation.
- 10 Months In Advance If you are going to be flying to Disney World, now is the time to start checking for flights and once you find a great deal that works for you, book it.
- 8 Months In Advance You should now start researching restaurants, tours and experiences that you would like to book and make a list of your most wanted reservations.
- 6 1/2 Months In Advance This is the time to check the park hours for your trip, choose what days you would like to visit each park and start getting it all down on paper by creating a planning spreadsheet. At this point, it’s a good idea to take your list of most wanted reservations and match it up to what day you will be in each park.
- 6 Months In Advance (180 Days Exactly) This is an important day! Today’s the day to book your dining, tour and experience reservations! Some things like dining with the princesses at Cinderella’s Royal Table book up within minutes of the reservation window opening. Grab your list of most wanted reservations and get busy booking them fast! Fill them in on your planning spreadsheet as you get them reserved.
- 5 Months In Advance Next up is researching your different ticket options to figure out which one is best for you and your family.
- 4 Months In Advance Now is the time to purchase the admission tickets that you researched and then link them to your My Disney Experience account as soon as they arrive. If you are going to be renting a car while in Disney World, this is a great time to book one.
- 3 1/2 Months In Advance (100 Days) This is a perfect time to create a clever countdown to your vacation to get the whole family in on the anticipation and excitement. You might try a colorful paper chain, a cute Disney calendar to mark the days off of or just a simple countdown on the refrigerator!
- 3 Months In Advance At this point, you can research what attractions you and your family would like to see at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Because Walt Disney World is so large, it is very difficult to see everything during one trip, so be sure to get everyone’s top priorities. Add these attractions to your planning spreadsheet on the day that you will be visiting that particular park.
- 2 Months In Advance (60 Days Exactly) Another important day! Today’s the day for guests staying on property to book Fastpass+ reservations! In case you aren’t familiar with it, Fastpass+ is Disney’s ride reservation system that allows you to book a reserved one hour window to enjoy an attraction. You can pre-book Fastpass+ reservations on three different attractions in one park per day. These are great to use for the very popular headliner attractions to help minimize your wait in line. This is also the day for on property guests to check in online for your Disney resort hotel room.
- 1 Month In Advance (30 Days Exactly)This is the day for guests staying off property to book their Fastpass+ reservations. Also, now is the time to finalize your planning spreadsheet making sure it includes all of your dining, tour, experience and Fastpass+ reservations. You can even create more detailed daily plans at this time if you wish. This is also a perfect time to develop a packing list to make sure you remember to take everything you will need for your trip!
- 1 Week In Advance It’s finally time to confirm all of your reservations, print your travel documents and pack.
- Last but not least, have a great trip!
Hopefully, this timeline will give you a good starting point for planning your Disney World vacation. It has always been a big help for me! And don’t forget to check out all of the great links in this post for lots of information to help with your planning process. After all, the planning and anticipation are half of the fun!
Friday Favorites – Best Disney World Snacks
One of the things that I think Disney does best in the way of food is their snacks! They have so many wonderful snacks and treats available that some days when I’m there I don’t even eat a meal! I just eat four or five of their delicious snacks throughout the day. So without further ado here is my list of the best Disney World snacks!
- Dole Whip Without a doubt this is one of the top snacks at Disney World. If you have never had a Dole whip it is a frozen soft serve dessert. They come in the classic pineapple flavor as well as orange or vanilla. The orange flavor is my absolute favorite! It has a light citrus taste and is nice and sweet. You can even get them in a swirl or a float! The most popular place to pick one up is at the Aloha Isle in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom. On a hot summer day, the line for these can be very long, but definitely worth it!
- Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bar Another iconic treat and fan favorite is the Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bar. This treat is vanilla ice cream shaped like a Mickey Mouse head dipped in chocolate and served on a stick. It is very similar to a Dove bar that you can get at home, but made way better simply because it is in the shape of Mickey! These treats are so popular that you can now get shirts, magnets and pins to declare your love for these yummy snacks! You can get one of these ice cream bars all over the parks from many of the cart vendors.
- Turkey Legs Now this is a not a personal favorite of mine, because I can’t stand to eat meat that still resembles the animal, but they are definitely one of the top snacks at Disney World. From what I hear these turkey legs have great flavor and are not at all dry. You will see people wandering all over gnawing on these things! If you are in the mood for a high protein snack, you can find these being sold at several of the cart vendors throughout the parks.
- Popcorn Another one of my personal favorites is the popcorn. Imagine the best movie theatre popcorn you’ve ever had only better and then you’ll have Disney World popcorn. They go through so much of it, it always seems fresh and warm. It’s not overly salty, with the perfect amount of butter and crunch, now that is a great snack! The large size is sold in a cute seasonal bucket with lid so you can continue to graze on it all day. Like most of the other snacks, popcorn can be found at several of the cart vendors throughout the parks. One of my favorite stands is at the cart just inside the Magic Kingdom.
- Fancy Cupcakes This is my all time favorite Disney World snack! I love the wide variety of flavors of cupcakes that they have at Disney World. They have simple ones like chocolate and vanilla to exotic ones that contain all different kinds of fillings and toppings. A couple of my favorites are the White Chocolate Elephant Cupcake which is dark chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream frosting topped with toasted coconut and the Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake which is a yellow cake, topped with a whipped cream type frosting filled with Grand Marnier soaked strawberries. My kids love the Oreo Bon Bon Cupcake featuring yellow cake topped with a cookies n’ cream buttercream frosting, Oreo crumbles and two Oreos to resemble Mickey’s ears! These gourmet cupcakes can be found throughout the parks and resort hotels. One of the places for the best selection is the Boardwalk Bakery at Disney’s Boardwalk Inn.
There you have it folks, some of the best snacks in Disney World! Makes my hungry just thinking about them!
What about you? Do you have a favorite Disney World snack? If so, please leave a comment!
Disney World Tips & Tricks – Occupying Kids While Waiting In Line
One thing that is for certain about your time in Disney World; you will spend a fair amount of it waiting in lines. If you visit during a busy time of year, you will wait in line for everything…check in, check out, transportation, getting in the park, getting out of the park, bathrooms, meals, shows, characters, parades, fireworks and of course, rides! If you are a parent like me, you may be stressing out at the thought of having to wait in line with your (wild) kids. How much whining will there be? Or complaining? And what about your kids, how will they handle it?! Here are some tips and tricks that I have used throughout the years with my boys!
- Managing Expectations Before you even leave for Disney World, sit down with your kids and explain to them that in Disney World, they will be waiting in line, but it will be worth it to get to see lots of amazing things. Reinforce this conversation at home, when you are waiting in line to buy a new toy, to see a movie or to play laser tag. Remind them that this is what it will be like on your trip. That way when you arrive, they won’t get an unpleasant surprise when they have to wait in line.
- Planning Your Day One of the best tips is to plan your day so that you can avoid the longest lines if possible. Get to the park at least 15 minutes before rope drop to make sure you are one of the first families in the park. Head straight for the most popular and slowest loading rides first (like Dumbo the Flying Elephant). Save your Fastpass+ reservations, the larger capacity rides (like the Walt Disney World Railroad) and shows for the busiest afternoon hours. By doing this you are already ahead of the game and hopefully won’t find yourself in a line more than about 30 minutes even during the busiest times of year.
- Make Sure They Are Prepared Before you get in a long line with your kids, make sure they are ready. It is especially tough waiting with a child that is hungry or desperate for a bathroom!
- Interactive Queues Disney must have heard pleas of parents, because they are helping us out by redesigning some of their queues to make them interactive. Dumbo the Flying Elephant has an entire play area that you wait in and you will have a pager that goes off when it’s your turn to ride. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has lots of fun things for kids to touch and play with while they wait. The Haunted Mansion has an elaborate interactive cemetery to walk through to pass the time while you and your kids wait. There are several queues like this scattered throughout all four parks.
- Food This one is my boys’ favorite! Pick up a snack and spend the time while waiting in line sharing it. My kids have even eaten their breakfast (granola bar, banana, juice box) while waiting in line for the park to open. This can be both a time saver as well as a way to keep them busy.
- Electronics Some people might frown on this. You are on vacation after all, isn’t this supposed to be family time? But after several hours in a hot, crowded theme park, some times kids just need a few minutes to zone out on their own thing. Now I like to travel light while I’m in the parks so I don’t carry anything large like an iPad or a Nintendo DS, but a few apps on my phone works perfectly.
- Games Another great way to pass the time while you are waiting is to play a game. They can be simple like who can name the most rides or most Disney characters, who can stand on one foot the longest, or who can be quiet the longest (love this one!). Or they can be more complex like Disney trivia questions or finding hidden Mickeys.
- Rewards (aka bribery!) When my kids were younger, I would carry tiny stickers with me and when I “caught” them being good in line, I would give them a sticker. At the end of each day, they could trade their stickers in for money towards souvenirs. You can set the value of the stickers to whatever you like. I usually paid $1 per sticker.
Hopefully using a few of these tips and tricks will help keep your kids occupied and happy while waiting in line! They sure worked for me and my boys!
What about you? Do you have any great tips and tricks for keeping your kids occupied while waiting in line? If so, please share them in the comments section!
Tuesday Trivia – Duffy’s Original Name
Before appearing as Duffy (the teddy bear that Minnie made Mickey the night before he set off on a long ocean journey), this bear originally appeared with what name during the opening of what Downtown Disney Marketplace store in 2002?
Please check the comments section for the answer!
Disney World Enthusiast 