Disney Tips have arrived!

Since I spent many many hours researching Disney World, and asking countless questions from friends who have been there before, I thought I'd put a list of tips together for those of you who are looking to visit Disney World! Keep in mind these tips are from two people with a 5 year old little girl, who learned their lesson on what to do and what not to do : )

*You will want to get a PhotoPass. The card is free, and you are able to view all of your pictures after your trip. You can spend around $13 for one picture, or you can spend around $100 and get all of your pictures, plus the copyright to print as many as you want. Pretty much a no-brainer if you ask me. We were able to get a lot of family shots this way. When you get the card from the Phtopass photographer, make sure you write the number down, just in case you lose your card. You can always get another card from a photographer, but if you don't write your photopass # down, there's no way to view your pictures from the card if you lose it. With the photopass, they will also do photo-edited pictures as well. Tinkerbell and Simba showed up in our daughter's hands! : )

*Photopass Photographers are not in the Character dining places, so you'll need to bring your own camera for character pictures at your table. If you chose the Princess Storybook Dining at Norway (Epcot), you will receive a 5x7 and four 4x6 of your child and one princess for free. I believe you get free Princess pictures at the Cinderella's Royal Table dining too.

*If you have a daughter, take lots of money! No joke! We thought we'd be able to hold off on buying things, but it is very very hard! Save up and treat your princess. How often do you get to go to Disney World anyway?! : ) In Downtown Disney, they have a toy store with some great deals. You can stuff a box with Mr. Potato Head (Disney Themed, btw) stuff for $19.00. The best thing to do is if you already have a potato head, just get the accessories, so that way you can get more, because you won't have a potato to take up space. You can also stuff a box of My Little Pony things for $18. They have all of the Princess clothes, and accessories for My Little Ponies that you can only get at Disney World. They also have a "Make Your Own Light Saber" station for the little boys in your life : )

*If you're going to Downtown Disney, get a map before you go. The place is huge, and you'll want to park close to the part you'll be visiting. If you're not going to any shows or the "nightlife" stuff, then you're probably gonna be going to the Marketplace side, which is where all of the toy stores, Christmas stores, etc are.

*If you do Character dining at 1900 Parkfare at the Grand Floridian, request a table in the center of the restaurant. You will get to meet all of the characters regardless of where you sit, but Cinderella and Prince Charming come out for a dance in the center of the restaurant, and Prince Charming will dance with the little girls sometimes.

*If you have little kids, start with little rides first. Trust us, we learned this the hard way, by taking our daughter on the big rides first. After a scary ride on Splash Mountain, she thought all of the rides were scary....even Winnie the Pooh : )

*In Magic Kingdom, get seated for the parade at least one hour before the parade starts. As the time gets closer, it's very hard to find a seat. The best place for the parade, and fireworks afterwards, is on Main St. USA right down from the bridge that crosses over into Tomorrowland, looking toward the castle. Make sure you look up to the right of the castle before the fireworks start, because you might just see someone flying from the castle! ; )

*In Magic Kingdom, right after you pass the bridge into Liberty Square, there is a lady that does silouhettes. It is only $8.00 per person and you get two copies. It is very cool, because she cuts your child's profile out of paper, just by looking at them! If you get any kind of drawing anywhere else, you'll spend a fortune! This was a really neat thing to have, and very inexpensive.

*If you are doing a character dining for lunch, schedule it for an early lunch. If it's a buffet, they will still have breakfast food on the bar, so you can get the best of both worlds! : ) My hubby enjoyed this at the Play N Dine at Hollywood Studios!

*The best way to meet characters is to do character dining. We went during off season, so we met a lot of characters in the parks, but I would imagine it's pretty hard to meet them during peak seasons. If you have a little princess that wants to meet all of the princesses, the best place is at Akershus Royal Princess Storybook Lunch in Norway at Epcot. All of the princesses come around to your table, so you don't have to worry about standing in line in the parks to meet them. The Hall of Fame tent in Toontown at Magic Kingdom is good for meeting several characters at once...and it's inside...so no standing out in the heat!

*If you choose to use fast-passes, get them early. Some of the most popular rides only allow a certain amount of fast passes per day. If you choose to use the fast pass, make sure it's something that you really want to ride. If you get a fast pass at 1:00 and it tells you to come back at 3:00, you can't get another fast pass until you ride the ride at 3:00. If you don't mind being split up on rides, the easiest and fastest way to ride is using the single rider que. You can pretty much walk right on the ride, and beat the line!

*Ellen's Dinosaur ride is pretty neat. However, depending on what your beliefs are, you might want to skip it. They talk about how the world came into existence by the Big Bang, and for us, personally, we believe it was God that created the world and not from something just all of a sudden exploding, so if you choose to ride this ride, be warned!

*You'll want to get drinks in bottles instead of cups with lids. You're allowed to take bottled drinks into shows and rides, but not drinks in regular cups with lids. You'll have to leave those outside.

*Epcot has a KidCot thing, but all it is, is just coloring. You can color a mask and go around to the different countries and get a stamp from the different countries, but it wasn't worth spending time on in my opinion.

*If you're looking for something really educational, go to the American Theater in Epcot. It's got a lot of information on the history of our Country.

*Epcot has the best fireworks I have ever seen in my life! Don't miss them!

*Animal Kingdom is not worth spending the money on! It is very hot and humid and almost imposible to find your way around, even with a map! You almost need a GPS in that park..LOL! They have a neat safari ride, and the Everest coaster is really cool, but it's not worth spending your quality time on. We won't be doing Animal Kingdom when we go back.

*If you have a small child, definitely check out Turtle Talk With Crush from Finding Nemo at Epcot. Crush interacts with the kids, and the kids love it!

*Be sure to check out some of the 3D shows. Be prepared, because they do have special effects!

*When you get into the park, be sure to pick up a times schedule in addition to a park map. The times schedule will tell you what time everything is open, the shows, parades and fireworks times, and where the characters are and at what time.

*As far as the hotels, you get what you pay for. The budget hotels are pretty small, but it was fine for the 3 of us. If you stay at a higher-end hotel, you get to ride the monorail to the parks, instead of the bus.

*Take VERY comfortable walking shoes, and if you're not already walking everyday, start now! LOL! We were very sore from all of the walking, because we weren't exactly used to it. We would have enjoyed ourselves much more had we not been hobbling around from sore feet! : )


We hope you'll get some use out of these tips, and keep in mind, these are just our personal opinions! : ) Hope you have as much fun as we did! : )