Disney World Parks---Any Tips???

OMGosh! You are going to have a BLAST! Yes, you can bring your own food and drinks, as long as they are not in an ice chest. Disney is fine with it with that one exception. There are so many tricks and tips, there is no way I can list them all here. lol
We've only been a couple of times as a family, but my husband worked there (WDW); so, he knows a lot of tricks and tips. But we also have a Disney World book that gives more info. Please, feel free to e-mail me, and I can send you more info or let you know the name of the book. (I don't have it on-hand.)
Have FUN! :D

There is a website http://allears.net/index.html
that has lots of great info. My advise, watch the fireworks and parade at night. It is so worth the trip alpne. Seriously a memonry of a lifetime. Also, eat bring breakfast bars or other snack to eat, it will save big money. And make your reservation for dine with princess as early as possible. Don't forget to wear a princess dress. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is really worth te exspense. I would schedule the boutique the day before for two super grate days and wear the dress to the princess dinner the next day. Or do boutique early the same day for awsome pics. Any questions pm me, have fun!
sorry about the sp baby in hands.lol

Our 6th trip will be during spring break in a couple of weeks.
We have always stayed at the Polynesian which is on the monorail line and very easy to use. A lot of people say don't do the nicer resorts but we see a lot of value with being on the line.
Each day, 1 park opens early for the guests at the resort hotels. That was great when our daughter was interested in character autographs, etc.

I'd say don't miss the daily parade, nightly fireworks at magic kingdom. We enjoy the luau at Polynesion. This time we are going on a semi private safari at animal kingdom.

My daughter is 14 now and she is looking forward to the thriller rides with her best friend that she was always afraid of when she was little. We've been sin e she was 2,4,6,8,10 and now most likely our final trip for a while.

Wear good walking shoes. We rented strollers. Don't rent a car. Cab from airport is around $60 and door to door without having shuttle stops. The monorail is great. I've heard there are dining plans but we never checked that out. We like to go where we want with no limitations.

Chef mickey at the contemporary is fun, O'Hana and the luau at Polynesion are good. There is a breakfast inside MK with pooh characters.

I don't know rules for bringing things into the park. We just hopped on the boat shuttle from MK back to the Polynesian all the time. We do stay at the Concierge level which has food provided all the time. Of course that $$ is in the costs of our room but very handy and worth it to us.

I probably forgot a lot. Feel free to email and ask me questions.

We have tickets that are good from the time we get there unil midnight the day we fly out. All access to any park as many times as you want.

Oh yeah..........you pay everything in advance when you book it.

We went to DW in 2002 when my kids were 13 and 8. We loved it. Get the book that Stephanie H mentioned - it has a lot of tips. Get the book soon and start reading it - it will help youi plan. One tip that was great but sounds crazy is that people tend to go to the right, so the lines to the left are shorter. Believe it or not, it is true 8 out of 10 times. The book also tells you which days are the least crowded at each park. We stayed in a timeshare condo outside the park but an onsite hotel would be worth the money. We always ate breakfast before going and packed lunches in an insulated lunch box with a frozen ice pack. Lockers were $5 and worth it. The food at Disney is great. We did the princess breakfast at cinderella's castle and it was so good, we made dinner reservations for that night. Take a foot kit that includes mole skin (cut it down to bandaid size pieces in advance), powder and some extra socks. You will get blisters. I had a lightweight backpack that I carried these things in and it was so handy. I even got it signed by all the pooh characters at the Winnie the Pooh lunch. If you are going to be there several days, I would plan 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 1 day at Animal Kingdom and 1 & 1/2 days each at Epcot and MGM. Also, you can buy Disney Dollars in advance at any Disney Store. You can also buy Park Hopper tickets and maybe even that book. Oh & take advantage of the Fast Pass. You can reserve a specific time period on crowded rides and not have to wait so long. I think every park has a parade and they are awesome. I hope you have a great time. Just typing all this makes me want to go back.

Sorry for the late post, but this is what I learned. I have been several times in my life, twice with my children. Once my son was 3, and once when I had two--ages 5 and 1. The policy states that you are not supposed to bring food or drinks into the park. However, we had our bags searched every day and they always overlooked our bottles of water and snacks that we carried. I don't know if it helped that it was in a diaper bag, but they definitely weren't hidden. Good luck I hope you have a great time!

Found this article online. Hope it helps.

Disney on a Dime: Disney World has been on our kids' minds this year, but it wasn't in our family budget.

What's a parent to do?

Approach a trip to the Magic Kingdom and the rest of the sprawling Walt Disney World Resort with the same mind-set as the old Midas muffler commercials: I'm not gonna pay a lot for this vacation. It turns out, you really don't have to.

With a disciplined approach to the Big Three expense categories — food, lodging and admission fees — it's possible to "do Disney" without piling up bills that are scarier than The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (a ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios that left my 6-year-old screaming to do it again, and me searching for my stomach).

With a little extra effort and planning, you can even avoid a lot of the killer extras — like $31 a day to rent a double stroller.

If the economic meltdown has a silver lining, it's evident in the deals to be found in resort areas like Orlando, Fla. Disney itself is laying on more discounts and specials for Mouseketeers than travel experts can recall in recent history.

"It's a great time to go," says Bob Sehlinger, author of "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World," which is not affiliated with the resort. "It couldn't be better."

But read no further if your Disney vacation musts include first-class meals, brand-name Mickey and Minnie souvenirs and staying in the closest hotel to the monorail. This article is for penny-pinchers only.

Lodging: Figure out this piece of the puzzle first, since it will affect your strategy for the others.

Sehlinger's advice on this count is simple: "You're always going to save a lot of money if you stay in a non-Disney property outside of Disney World."

There are hotel discounts galore, thanks to the slow economy, and you can take your pick by shopping Web sites like http://www.roomsaver.com. Simply by poking around the Web, our family of four booked five nights in a sprawling two-bedroom suite at a beautiful new resort for just over $500 — and we didn't even have to listen to a time-share presentation.

There also is a plethora of fabulous private homes, often with private pools and amenities like home theaters, available to rent at tempting prices. Many are owned by Brits and other foreigners who fly in for weeks at a time and turn their vacation homes over to management companies when they're not around. Sehlinger cites http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com as one particularly user-friendly Web site. Another site — http://www.vrbo.com — lists homes being offered directly by owners.

If you want to stay at one of the more than 20 Disney owned-and-operated resorts — and they do come with perks such as extended theme park hours, free parking, free airport shuttle and free luggage delivery service — a handful fall into the "value" category. You can even pitch a tent at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, with campsite fees starting at $43 a night.

For most stays between Aug. 16 and Oct. 3, certain Disney resorts are offering a free Disney Dining Plan when you buy a five-night room and theme park package. (The package has to be booked by June 21.) There also some specials for members of the U.S. military.

To find the latest deals, your best bet is to go to Disney World's Web site — http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ — and click on the "special offers" tab.

Food: Your lodging decision will have a big effect on your food bill: Book a private home or a suite with a kitchen, and you can more easily avoid paying amusement-park prices for food. Even a cooler in your hotel room (or the mini-fridge at a discount hotel, where it won't be stocked with overpriced snacks) for OJ, milk and lunch meat can work wonders at cutting breakfast and lunch costs.

The bottom line from Sehlinger: "The more meals that you eat outside of Disney World, the better off you're going to be."

Eat breakfast in your room, or snag one of the many hotel deals that include a continental breakfast.

Head into the theme park with a backpack stuffed with snacks, sandwiches and drinks, and you're good till dinner.

It really can be done: We prowled five theme parks over four days, and spent exactly $8.25 for three ice cream sandwiches.

Everything else came out of the backpack — which has the side benefit of allowing you to avoid those snaking food lines.

Our kids didn't even mind, because we let them eat sugary breakfast cereals and snacks that they don't normally get at home.

One of my favorite moments at the Magic Kingdom was lunch on a picnic table under a shade tree on Tom Sawyer Island.

At dinner time, there are plenty of offsite restaurants to explore — and by then you may well be ready for a theme-park break anyway.

And if you're paying the $12 a day to park at Disney World, you can leave for dinner and come back without A. additional parking fee.

For people flying in to Orlando and debating whether to rent a car, Sehlinger says, "The savings that you'll obtain by eating outside of Walt Disney World will probably more than pay for the rental car."

If you do opt to eat at the theme parks, there are a range of restaurants that run the pricing gamut. And Sehlinger says the portions are generous enough that in some cases two people can share A. entree and not go away hungry.

Admissions: This is the toughest nut to crack: Nominal discounts are typically the best you can hope for on admission fees at Disney World.

You can score a coup if you time your visit to coincide with someone's birthday: You get in free on your birthday throughout 2009.

There also is a generous deal running for current and retired members of the U.S. military and their families and friends. Check out http://www.disneyworld.com/military.

If you're planning to hit some non-Disney attractions in the area, such as SeaWorld or Universal Orlando studios, discounts may be more plentiful.

The independent Web site http://www.mousesavers.com compiles one of the best lists around for reputable deals — at Disney and elsewhere.

Because Disney offers all sorts of ticket options — one- to 10-day passes, no-expiration upgrades, annual passes, etc. — it's best to plot out how you plan to spend your time so you don't buy more than you need. In general, the longer you stay, the cheaper the tickets.

The Web site http://www.touringplans.com, affiliated with Sehlinger's guide book, has a free "least expensive ticket calculator" that will help you figure out the cheapest route.

Not-so-little extras: You can make all the right moves on the big-ticket items and still spend a small fortune at Disney World if you don't watch the extras.

Rides tend to dump you out in the middle of shops overflowing with tantalizing souvenirs. There's that pricey stroller rental fee. The refrigerator rental fee at Disney resorts. The locker fee at the water parks. Think it all through in advance, and you can hold down the add-ons.

At http://www.DisneyWorldMoms.com, a panel of Disney-wise parents offers tips about budgeting and other matters.

The unofficial Disney online guide at http://www.wdwinfo.com/ has good discussion boards for planning every aspect of your trip, including a "budget board" where you can get tips on everything from where to buy Disney souvenirs to deals on airfare. You can even orchestrate a "stroller swap" with other families — a stroller is donated and passed from one vacation family to the next.

The bottom line: How did my family do with the Midas challenge?

Even Sehlinger was impressed: We spent $200 on gas to drive from Virginia, about $510 on accommodations, and not much more on food than we would have spent at home. We'd paid for our no-expiration theme-park tickets five years earlier (and gotten a AAA discount, of course), so that was no hit at all. And the kids both stuck within their $20 budgets for souvenirs.

Ah, but there was that impulsive $8.25 binge on ice cream. Next time, I promise we'll do better.

This is the best book for planning your trip: PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2009: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake (Spiral-bound) by Jennifer Marx. You can order it from Amazon.com for only $16. You can also use www.smallworldadventures.com to plan your trip for you. They are an authorized Disney vacation planner and there is absolutely no charge to you to use them. We have done Disneyland, Disney World and Disney Cruise and Small World is the best there is!

We always take our own breakfast food (cereal bars, fiber bars, Pop Tarts) and eat it in the room in the morning. The Disney hotels have small refrigerators so we would buy a couple of small milks at hotel's food court and some fruit (bananas and apples) and that would save us a lot on breakfast. I always carry a backpack to the parks. In it we put water bottles, snacks, maps, camera, autograph book & pen, visors/caps, sunscreen, and those $1 ponchos that you can get at Target or Wal-Mart. If it rains and you don't have one then you'll have to spend $8 on a Disney rain poncho. We usually eat counter food for lunch in the parks. For dinner we either do a nicer, themed restaurant at the parks (advance reservations required) or they have pizza delivery to your room which was not too pricey. We ate at the food court in the hotel too because everyone could choose what they wanted and also order a la carte. Hope this helps. Email me if you want any more specific info. Have a blast!

Honestly... We went to Disney World last year and hated it. Well some of us did. Its like the whole experience is geared towards adults with a few hard to find million mile long lines for little kids rides. The stuff for little ones was few & far between and what there was - was overwhelmingly overcrowded bc so many people brought little ones. Then the other things like breakfast with the princesses was around $45-$50 a PERSON!

I have 5 kids (4 then I was pregnant) and my teenagers had a blast but the little ones spent the majority of the time in the strollers bc there just wasnt anything for them ti do. The experience is more "visual" than active.

I have heard Disney LAND is all about little kids so we may try there next.

Just my .02!

We went this past summer in July, and it was probably one of the best vacations we've ever had. I was prepared to spend a lot of money, to be hot, wait in long lines, and walk a lot. It was hot, but I grew up in Houston. We spent a lot of money, but it was all worth it. The lines were not bad at all. I remember spending my summer at Six Flags, and their lines were horrendous. Disney World was not bad at all. And we walked a lot, but so what, right?

We stayed at the Yacht Club resort on the club level. My husband griped about the extra cost, but he totally loved it by the first day. The concierge books everything for you...does everything for you. It was worth the cost of paying for the concierge. There was also a food room where you can get snacks & drinks. My husband loved that! He thought it was a terrible idea at first & griped about it before we went. Now, he won't stay at Disney without a food room. We also got a private safari ride in the Animal Kingdom that was offered to the club level people. It cost money, but we got to see the animals up close...especially the baby giraffe which came up to our van.

Another poster on here said it was geared for older kids. Um, I'm honestly not sure what she's talking about. My son was 4 1/2, and he had a blast. There were a lot of rides for him, and he's a bit of a chicken on the rides. There is so much to do for adults & kids that we couldn't fit it all in within the 5 days.

We saw 1 park a day, and I had mapped it out beforehand. That helped with the schedule, so we didn't wake up every day not knowing what to do. We're planners. ;)

The only thing we'll change the next time we go is that we'll stay more days!

I just wanted to add that going in the summer is not recommended. It is VERY hot and humid and extremely crowded. You will spend much of your time in lines if you go in the summer. Another time to avoid is spring break and mid to late December and early January. It sounds like your daughter will be school aged next year, but don't let that deter you from going during the school year. We took our 6 year old out of school for a week in early November. Yeah, I know she should be in school, but to us, if we were going to spend that much money on a vacation, we wanted it to be as perfect as possible. Heat and lines make us miserable, so we went when it was cooler and not at all crowded. She attends school in pisd and we told her teacher about the trip as soon as we booked it. We told her the reason for going during school and she understood. Her words to us were, "Since I am a teacher, I cannot say yes, you should take your child out of school to go to Disney, but it will be a wonderful memory making trip for your family and I understand why you want to do it." She told us we had to write a letter in advance to the school explaining the reason for the absence. Doing that allowed our daughter to make up all her work (the teacher gave us work for her to do on the plane and asked our daughter to write a sentence in her journal each night of the trip explaining her favorite part of the day). The absences were considered unexcused, which is to be expected, but in PISD a child is allowed some unexcused absences. Our kid only misses school for true illness, so she was only absent one other day that school year. I think it was totally worth taking her out of school I would recommend doing it during the early grades rather than later ones, though.

http://www.mousesavers.com/ is a good website. They send out an email once a month with specials. I bought our Disney World tickets through a website they have listed and saved over $90 on our park tickets. We just got back from Disney and stayed at the Hilton Downtown Disney. It is on Disney property so you get all of the same perks as Disney Park hotel except for the free shuttle to and from the airport. It was a nice hotel and we got a good price. The shuttle bus to the parks were always on time and easy to use and we were able to use Magic Hours also. You are allowed to bring snacks and water into the park.