First Timer’s Trip to Disney

We just took our family of 5 on our first trip to Walt Disney World! As a first timer, let me share with you the things I loved, and the things I wish I had known.

If you don’t want to read the whole story, jump to 2/3 down the page for a summary of tips.

First, our family consists of 2 adults and 3 girls, ages 10, 8 and 5. Our 5-year-old still naps pretty often in the afternoons, so this was an little bit of a challenge. She's practically narcoleptic, too, so when she decides she's tired she just lays down anywhere and is out.

We were also accompanied by my in-laws, both in their mid-70's. My father-in-law struggles with walking for long distances, which is important later in this story.

Second, our trip was coordinated by a travel agent, Trish at Bright Wishes Travel (highly recommend this!)This was organized as group trip with our financial advisor, so the trip was designed with people of retirement age in mind. I will say, however, that Trish did a great job adapting the package they had created to one more suited for my family situation.

We chose a “standard view” room since we didn't really think we'd be spending any time in our room – and we were right. I will say the view was actually pretty sub-standard, with an overview of the lobby roof and HVAC system. I didn't really care, though, as it was still pleasant to sit on the balcony and enjoy a truly lovely breeze with your morning coffee or evening wine.

Day 1, Friday: Arrival

Our flight arrived in Orlando at about noon on a Friday, and after traveling to the resort via car service (a paid service gifted to us by our group host), we had all afternoon to check out the resort. The Yacht Club was lovely, and shares the Storm-a-long Bay water park/pool with the Beach Club Resort. Storm-a-long Bay is simply incredible... huge pools, a big pirate shipwreck with long water slide, lazy river, and sandy shores. Yes, sand in the pool. I don't know why these poor people would choose to do that to themselves because it must be a complete pain to maintain, but the kids thought it was the coolest pool they'd ever seen.

I chose to have groceries delivered to our hotel via InstaCart, rather than fully rely on Disney dining and take-out. I would 100% do this again, but err on the side of less (or at least be careful about what we are able to pack and bring home). We wound up with almost a full suitcase worth of leftover snacks! As a side note, the hotel did charge $6 for bell service on groceries. Since they didn't charge to take bags up to the room I wasn't aware there'd be an extra fee. They would not let me use one of their carts myself so I was kinda stuck with bell service (unless I wanted to hunt down the rest of my party and make them carry it all up!)

Friday night we had a meet and greet with our travel party at the Ale & Compass Lounge. While I thought the food was good and had some fun choices, the menu was not ideal for our children. They're not terribly picky eaters, but the selection was just too “interesting” for their tastes. Plus, having been woken up at 4am they were pretty beat, so we grabbed some to-go mac-n-cheese meals from the market to take to our room and went to bed surprisingly early. There is also the Ale & Compass Restaurant on site, with a wider selection of food that you can order to-go, but the Market was quicker and easier in this case.

Day 2, Saturday: Magic Kingdom

As resort guests, we got early access to the park, but were unable to coordinate ourselves in time to take full advantage. We arrived only 10 minutes before public opening. This morning marked was my first attempt at using the Genie app – you can make your preferred attraction selection any time but Genie won't give you an itinerary until the day of at 7a. It was nice to see a time-efficient way to organize your day... however it recommended a ride in Tomorrowland, then Frontierland, then back to Tomorrowland. For us, this really made little sense. It may have been more time efficient, but my kids would not be able to walk from one side of the park to another multiple times throughout the day, so we opted for a little longer wait times but visiting everything important to us in each section before moving on. I fought all day long with the Genie app to try to get it to reorganize attractions, but you can't easily change order once it decides. You can swap out attractions, but you have little choice in what it suggests as a swap. It took me two days to figure out you could just hit the “Tip Board” button to see all ride wait times.

Our first stop inside Magic Kingdom was a photo opp with PhotoPass. I bought MemoryMakers in advance, and I really liked it... especially if you're with a large group. Anyone whose magic band is associated with your account can scan their band and their photos get included in your plan, but we made the mistsake of having my Mother-in-Law scan her band for our first picture. Since I didn't manage her MagicBand, it wasn't included in our album. Still, it was so nice to get professional photos all over the park. We used them a lot in Magic Kingdom, not so much in Epcot. Bonus: all photo files are titled by where they were taken or subject matter! Plus all on-ride photos and videos are included, as well.

Our first ride stop was Space Mountain, only waiting in line about 25 minutes. Now, I measured my youngest at home, with and without shoes. At home, with shoes she was precisely 44” tall. However, she was a full inch or more short according to the height requirement tool outside the ride, so she went to another ride with my husband and MIL while my olders and I rode the coaster. Just be aware, what you measure at home may not match what they use at the park, so buy tall shoes!

My father-in-law spent his morning on the Keys to the Kingdom tour (another add-on gift from our group host). This sounded absolutely fascinating. It's a 5-hour tour of all the behind-the-scenes and underground operations of the park. Would I choose to spend the extra cash and 5 hours of my park day learning about the behind-the-scenes? Probably not. But his stories about the operations and history were certainly interesting. Plus the tour did let you jump the line on two rides and you got lunch.

We all joined back together for the parade around 3p. Main Street was PACKED with people starting around 2:15/2:30, so for a good front-row seat, come early (and bring water and an umbrella for shade!)

We hit up 1 or 2 more rides before having an early dinner at Be Our Guest – the Beauty and the Beast Castle restaurant, where Beast makes an appearance. Our reservation was at 4:35 which was actually perfect because we were all hot and really tired and overwhelmed by this point of the day. It was expensive, for sure (I think $69/adult, $49/kids under 9, plus tax and gratuity), but excellent food and a very cool room – we dined in the ballroom, you know, the one where Belle and Beast danced in the movie? It was incredible. Important to note, when I say Beast made an appearance, he literally walked around the room waving at everyone. They asked that you stay in your seat, so you couldn't really get up and get a picture with him. Was it worth it? Kinda. Food was amazing, timing was perfect for us, and it was a very magical experience. If you're looking for a more meet & greet character experience, there are some scheduled throughout the park. I didn't notice them in the app until later, so we only found a few by accident.

We stayed for fireworks, but got a less than ideal spot because we waited too long to line up. Fireworks were at 8p, we didn't get near Main Street til about 7:30p, after they had already shut down most of the walkways across. So if a good seat for fireworks is important to you, line up early, like 7 or 7:15.

Day 3, Sunday: Resort Pool Day

We rented a cabana for our rest day, it cost about $265 after taxes, and you can book 60 days in advance – since there are only 4 or 5 cabanas I recommend booking as early as possible. This was probably the best leap of faith I took on this trip. According to the website, cabanas are designed to host 4-6 guests. They include 2 mini fridges, one was empty for your items, one stocked with coke, diet coke, sprite, apple juice and waters. You get a snack basket (think chips, pretzels, popcorn, and a couple rice krispies), a fruit bowl (cut up mango, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwi, etc), and a dessert tray – which our host told us varies day to day. Ours had a 2 mini cannolis, 2 red velvet mini cupcakes, some purple mousse or pudding stuff that was probably blackberry/chocolate flavored, and 2 mini brownies. We had 7 people using our cabana, but we managed to share!

It's a guaranteed shady spot to rest, there's a TV and chargers for your phones/devices, comfortable patio furniture, and wait service from Hurricane Hannah's if you want to order alcohol or lunch. You get it for the day, 10a-7p, though the pool is open til 10p.

In our grocery delivery we had wine and beer, so we didn't get alcohol from the bar, but we did order burgers and chicken fingers for lunch, but snacked on the food we brought the rest of the day.

I will say the pool was kinda slow on Sunday, it was probably half the number of people we witnessed Friday, so lots of lounge chairs were open in nice shady spots, but I don't regret the cabana for a second. My 5-yo (and my FIL and myself) were able to nap in the shade on cushy seats while the rest of our party kept swimming. When we wanted the kids to rest before gong to dinner, they laid on the couch and watched some TV.

That evening we had reservations at Topolino's at Disney's Riviera Resort. We took the Skyliner over, which was a fun experience itself, and arrived about an hour early. We used that hour to walk around that resort area and found the Cay Cove playground, which was really nice.

We chose Topolino's at the suggestion of our travel agent, from the terrace you can watch Epcot's fireworks show. Topolino's is a quiet, upscale, classy atmosphere with a menu selection that reflects it's elegance (read: expensive). They do have a dress code, but it's very vague on their website. Just be mindful you can't waltz around in your swim coverall.

While the food was marvelous and unique (grilled octopus, anyone? Menu items I can't pronouce?), the portions were a bit small (as lots of fancy restaurants tend to do), and since we had picked a later dinner time to coincide with fireworks during dessert, the kids were really tired and towards dessert they were struggling. We wound up leaving before fireworks and watching them from the Skyliner ride home.

Day 4, Monday: Epcot

Our visit took place during the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot. This was actually the main reason our travel group chose Disney.

We had breakfast reservations at the Garden Grill, where we met Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. The food was fine, nothing remarkable, but we were there more to meet characters anyway. In retrospect, I wouldn't have booked breakfast since we were fresh and excited, and it prevented us from taking advantage of early access to the park (we didn't have time to wait in line and still make our reservation). I would've rather spent our morning on attractions and rides than sitting and eating. A late lunch or early dinner would've made more sense for our party.

During the festival, there are dozens of little food stands with appetizer-sized samplings from each country, and lines went pretty quickly. Our interest in Epcot was more about the attractions than food, but it was nice to have quick and interesting dining options. We wound up cancelling our dinner reservations at Akershus, another high-dollar character-dining experience, so we could justify eating at the kiosks.

If I'm being totally honest, by this day, we were all really tired and everyone's patience was wearing a little thin. Towards evening, my in-laws were really tired so they went to find a restaurant to sit at and rest. They wound up sitting on the water in Ireland, which turned out to be a wonderful viewing spot for the Fireworks show. My MIL said this was the best food she had the whole weekend, and the Guinness shake was amazing.

We wound up dining at the food court underneath the Epcot ball, their food selection is basically pizza, burgers, a couple salads, and chicken fingers. It was all very good, better than I had honestly expected from a food court. Two of my girls got pizza, one got a burger, my Husband got a chicken sandwich, and I got Margerita Pizza. The pizza slices are huge, just as an FYI, I was unprepared when my meal came with two giant slices. I could've easily shared. I will also note that the salads looked really good.

Then the 5 of us watched fireworks from the bridge near the rear exit and France. It was a really great spot, although we couldn't see the Epcot ball, and I'm sure it was lighting up in fun colors during the show.

Day 5, Tuesday: Check out

I've picked up my husband's frugal habits (in some respects, anyway), so prior to coming to Disney I had bought a $500 Disney gift card to get fuel points at our local grocery. Naturally, when I woke up Tuesday morning and saw a message that they had already charged our credit card for our room charges, I got really nervous. I knew the app allowed you to check out without visiting the front dest, but I thought I'd have a chance to check out!

So I visited the front desk and explained what happened. She was really nice, helped refund my credit card to charge the gift card instead, and advised me that if paying by gift card, pay for room charges the night prior to checking out. Their system automatically begins charging accounts at midnight on your day of check-out.

Important Notes Summarized:

Making the most of your money:

Since our travel agent also accepted Disney gift cards for payment, we paid for our entire Disney trip via Disney gift cards, which I estimate got us about $300 in free gas. I know lots of grocers have a fuel points-style program, so it's worth checking into.

Also, use a travel agent! I’m pretty sure they get paid through kick-backs, so lean on their expertise! Trish at Bright Wishes was incredibly helpful and made herself very available to discuss questions and tips.

Picking Days:

Check for special events or early/late park closings before deciding which parks you want to visit which days. Ex: on days with Mickey's Halloween party, Magic Kingdom closes early at 6, but it doesn't cost any less to visit that day. A ticket to the Halloween Party is almost the cost of a full day pass, too. Animal Kingdom closes the earliest, typically at 7p, because of the animals. The night we visted, Magic Kingdom was open extra late, til 11pm. My thought would be starting with your longest hour day/most intense day first, then visiting less intense parks that close earlier later. Opening and closing hours vary day to day for each park, so check your specific visiting days.

Food:

You can bring just about anything you want food- & drink-wise into the theme parks (except alcohol and glass containers, and the only food rule online was it couldn't be too “strong-odored”). We packed crackers, cheese, pepperoni, uncrustables, individual hummus packs, pretzels, chips, carrots, and apples. I think next time I'd pack lunch meat sandwiches or wraps in a lunch-bag or soft-side cooler for even easier eating – I went with crackers and pepperoni cuz my kids aren't big into lunch meat but it'd be way easier. To make the most of our time, we ate while waiting in long lines rather than sitting down somewhere. Definitely bring reuseable insulated water bottles, there are plenty of water fountains with luke-cool water around the park, and you can get ice & tap water from any vendor. Some vendors didn't have lids for their cups, and the rest only gave you a lid if you asked for one. I'd also bring reusable straws, because all disney parks use paper straws, and paper straws SUUUUCK.

Pool:

I'm pretty sure this is true for all Disney Resorts, but at the Yacht Club/Beach Club, you can bring any food or drink you want, including alcohol, as long as there's no glass containers! So when ordering your groceries, pick cans!

Security:

I’m only mentioning this as an FYI: Disney uses fingerprinting when you enter the park, and facial recognition software throughout their parks. We didn't have a problem at Magic Kingdom, but at Epcot, my 5-yr-old’s finger wouldn't scan – apparently it was too small to register easily. They called over another employee to verify her. On her tablet were 4 other photos of my daughter from rides or the other park entrances. I can't decide how I feel about this, but just be aware they're watching you! They told me in the future for young children, parents can scan their fingers instead.

Magic Bands:

I thought these were worth…. Magic Band +, not so much (not by what I saw, anyway). If you link your credit card to your account, you can use your MagicBand to buy food or merch at any Disney-owned property, as well as open your hotel room door and scan to track your professional photos in the parks. I never carried my wallet the entire trip. As far as I can tell, the only perks to MagicBand+ is that they light up and vibrate on certain rides and during fireworks, there are a few games in the Disney Play app that require them. To me that is not worth the extra $10-$20 per band. Buy before you go, you can get a basic band for $10.

Genie App:

This was helpful, but not all its cracked up to be. It was nice that it tries to get you the best route to do what you want, but you can't sub out stuff easily – they give you limited options for substitutions. For example, you put in your top attractions and it puts them in order – seemingly regardless of their locaiton in the park. In Magic Kingdom it told us to visit a ride in Tomorrowland, then Frontierland, then back to Tomorowland. It made no sense. At Epcot, no matter what I put in my preferences, it would not add the Test Track ride to my itinerary. I found this really annoying. So I certainly wouldn't pay for Genie+ (however I do believe Genie+ automatically includes 2 or 3 lightning lanes for your party, so that may be worth it to some).

Disney Play App:

This was OK, not sure it's the best option for passing time in line. There are ride-specific and park-specific games, some you can only access in certain locations, some games you can play at home/from anywhere. There aren't a ton of games, but it helps pass time in longer lines. I saw lots of people playing Disney Catch-Phrase while waiting in line, but I never bothered to look up the app.

Virtual Queues:

Generally, I'm all for it... if you can get in. It saves you from spending hours in line! However, they close fast... Example 1: Tron: I missed the 7am queue call because I just didn't know any better, but I got in at the 1pm call. I did get into the app a few minutes after 1:00p, (think 1:07p) so we were group 176 out of 200 total. Once they call your group you have 1 hour to show up in line. They called our group around 10pm! I don't know exactly how long we were in line, but we were done with the ride and post-ride PhotoPass pictures and walking out of the park by 10:45. Example 2: Guardians of the Galaxy: This time I was ready! At 6:59a I refreshed the queue app until 7:00, but it filled instantly. I was pretty preturbed. The next call wasn't until 6pm, and Epcot closes at 9p so I did not bother trying at 6:00p to get into the queue.

MemoryMakers/PhotoPass:

I loved it. Yes, its a bit expensive (we paid $170 before our trip, I think it's more if you buy it on site), but professional photos of your day – especially character meetings, on-ride photos, little videos from the rides, made it worth it. Plus, when you download your photos, they come LABELED with the park name and what they were from (ie: a photo from Tron was labeld with “PhotoNumber-Magic Kingdom-Tron.jpg”. So convenient for sorting through later! I did not take as much advantage of our MemoryMakers package as I wish I would've, I didn't get real good at spotting the PhotoPass employees until our last day (most of them wear these bright green shirts and navy blue shorts). But we did get our staple family photo in front of the castle and the Epcot ball.

Transportation:

Per my travel agent, Disney does not have complimentary transport to and from the airport. Our travel agent set up a private driver, Paul, from Plush Transportation (courtesy of our group organizer, so I have no idea what that cost) to get us to and from the airport. so be advised you will have to get yourself from the airport to your resort if you fly. Once at a Disney resort, however, they have complimentary bus service between all parks that runs every 10-15 minutes or so, and you can find bus times somewhere in the app (I never had to look it up because we used the kiosks at the bus stops). There was also a boat service from our resort to the Boardwalk across the lake and to Epcot. Epcot was only about 1/4-1/2 mile walk from the Yacht Club, though, so the boat service wasn't time efficient at all. From Epcot, there is also the Skyliner service to other resorts and Hollywood Studios.

Dining:

We had 3 sit-down meals, 2 of which were character-dining experiences. At Magic Kingdom we went to Be Our Guest (Beast's castle), and the food was excellent. The character experience was not real involved, but Beast wasn't high on our list for character meets. I already commented above about Topolino's, and even though the food was excellent I don't think I'd go back again, at least not with children. At Epcot, we had breakfast at Garden Grill. As I mentioned above, next time I'd go for late lunch or early dinner instead, but we did get to meet Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale and get photos and autographs, so I do not regret it. Note: you can cancel reservations up to 2 hours before your time without penalty... So, on the other hand, if you want something you weren't able to book ahead, keep checking frequently because people cancel ALL THE TIME, even the day of, like us! I choose to believe we made someone's day by freeing up that reservation!

My Disney Experience App:

You pretty much have to have the My Disney Experience app to get the most out of your trip. You're kinda flying blind without it. Perks: You can check into your room without ever visiting the front desk, order food, make dining reservations, check out of your room, view room charges, see ride and attraction wait times through Genie, and generally organize your whole trip.

MagicMobile:

I didn't use Magic Mobile, and I don't really understand the difference between this and MagicBands. It basically puts all functions of MagicBands into your phone, which I guess negates the need for adults to have MagicBands, but for the kids to be able to open our hotel room I still like the bands.

Charger:

Bring a phone re-charger of some kind! Because so much of what happens in the park requires your phone, mine needed recharging both days around 2pm.

Flights:

United does have nonstop flights to Orlando from Cleveland. We flew Southwest because it was cheaper at the time we looked, but had to go through Chicago. We did not check bags on our flight down, but checked a few bags on the flight back (including leftover snacks!). We packed a couple extra small backpacks so we could bring souveniers home.