My Favorite Disney Tips

I could probably write a book on our experiences at Disney and how much we’ve learned over the past four years going as parents but I really wanted to reduce this post to have my FAVORITE Disney tips and the things I find most important to bring when you’re planning a trip with kids, because y’all we could be here for days. Disney is my shiz.


When Dylan and I got together we probably had our first Disney trip within a month or two. I’ve been going with my family since I was 2 months old, however when we became parents our trips changed a LOT. You have to plan for meltdowns, naps, snacks, the heat, and a million other minuscule, mundane details of the day. It can be exhausting and as my mom would say, “any relationship problem you have will come out at Disney” - so planning is essential.

The first tip I would give you is that becoming an annual passholder is where it’s at. 
There’s different levels of passes for Disney World (however I know that isn’t true for Disney Land). You can pay anywhere from around 30$ a month per person to 60$, and you can also purchase passes separately. For example, if you didn’t want to buy a platinum pass, you could purchase a silver pass and a water park pass - the water park pass is a one time fee of about 100$ and having both makes it so you have  almost all of the same benefits as a platinum pass (with the exception of some block out days and access to photo pass). In comparison, you would be paying 100$ per person per day PER PARK if you didn’t have an annual pass. If you’re thinking “I don’t want to pay monthly for something I won’t use that often”, you only need to go about 4 or 5 times during the course of the year to make the annual pass worth it.

Staying on property.
Another thing that’s on point is staying at a Disney resort. If you’re a parent of young kids, you have car seats, and you also know driving back and forth, parking, getting them in and out of there sucks. Disney has buses that go to every hotel and a monorail that goes to the biggies like Grand Floridian, Polynesian, and the Contemporary. Boats are also available from hotels with water access like Wilderness Lodge and Swan. The kids love that they don’t have to go in their car seats to get around and it’s a fun way to get to point B instead of driving yourself. You’re on vacation, you should feel like it. Being on property also gets you Magic Hours, which means one park a day will either be open earlier or later than normal park hours and only guests staying on property can access it. Cool right?!
Disney hotels have amazing themes and make your trip feel more like a vacay, you really could spend an entire trip just going around to the hotels and checking them out, especially at Christmas time.

Fun passholder benefit: you get discounts on Disney hotels!

Bring your own food. 
I can’t stress this enough. I love Disney, but their food mostly sucks. Can we just be honest about that? With the exception of the one tofu bowl at Pandora, the festivals at Epcot and SOME places in downtown Disney, I would never pay for the food if I was outside of Disney. Let’s face it, you buy shit food at amusement parks, that’s just how it is, but you don’t need to plan every meal that way. Even if you’re staying at a value resort with no cooking possibilities, there are ways you can be healthier and save money and your sanity, because I can’t do french fries 3-4 days in a row!!
Some examples of things we like to bring with us are:

• organic fruits and veggies, easy finger foods to bring to the park and an item you will realize you miss dearly around so much brown food.

• sandwiches: peanut butter and jelly/turkey and cheese, you get the idea. These are so easy to pack in sandwich bags and throw in the hotel fridge to be snacked on by hungry husbands and kids throughout the days.

• breakfast bars/muffins/donuts - you will save a fortune by bringing this with you. Joffrey’s is awesome, but it adds up.

• smoothies- those little pre-made bottles of green smoothie at the grocery store save me while I’m at Disney. Again, I can’t do fried food over and over, plus there aren’t a TON of vegan/vegetarian options - although they are getting better.

Be smart about your stroller- BRING ONE.
Guys, kids get tired-even the older ones. Bring a stroller that’s easy to maneuver in crowds and if you have a double stroller that’s side by side, make sure the front wheel can move. We accidentally bought the double BoB stroller that’s front wheel is LOCKED straight (if that makes sense) so having to literally push on the handle to lift up the front wheel to turn made us have to get a different stroller. We ended up buying a Graco double Stand and Ride and we find it’s easier to get through stores and people however I kind of still wish I had just bought the proper doubl BoB.

Make fastpass plans, but don’t stress yourself about using them. 

If you know you want to go to a particular park, get fastpasses for your favorite rides. The lines are long, the heat can be brutal, and your child WILL have a meltdown in line if you make them wait too long. Each kid has a breaking point, you will know when yours is getting near, so get what you can done, enjoy the things you most wanted to see, but don’t feel bad if you don’t make it to all your plans. Disney is a complete production, everything takes a long time, so eliminating some of the wait time with fastpasses can make a huge difference. 

Get to the parks when they open.

Most people would assume this already. Get there early. Get there as early as you physically can get your butt out of bed, and bring your muffins and green smoothie, because I promise you’ll have a better day. It’s less hot in the mornings, there’s way less people and you have a higher chance of getting on the rides you want and getting your kids to take a nap, which means you can stay out later.

Use your passholder discounts in stores. 

We spend a lot at Disney. That’s just a fact of our life. But we also hustle them for their deals wherever we can. Disney offers 20% discount on merch and that definitely helps out on those here and there purchases. 

Bring a portable fan when it’s hot.

Finding those little portable stroller fans saved our sanities with the kids when they were littler. Now that Liam and Lavender are running around the parks on their own two legs more we haven’t been using the fans as much, however newborns and babies that sit in strollers for the majority of the time need this and I highly recommend getting one with good wind power (some of the fans you can’t feel anything so make sure to read reviews before buying). 

I guess that’s it! These are my major tips for Disney. I hope this helped!