Instructions for Your First Visit to Walt Disney World
By Dave Shute
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- Josh Humphrey, 1985-2022
INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR FIRST DISNEY WORLD VISIT
Follow the instructions that follow for your first family visit to Walt Disney World to save thousands of dollars, and avoid dozens of hours waiting in line, while seeing all the best of Walt Disney World!
1. When to Go to Walt Disney World:
Most years, I suggest that if you can, you should arrive at Walt Disney World one of the first two, sometimes three, Saturdays after Thanksgiving. In 2026, I recommend the first three weeks after Thanksgiving. More… Next best dates to go…
2. How Long to Stay:
You can have a wonderful trip spending as few as 5 days. However, if you can, be in Orlando for 9 days–a Saturday through a Sunday. More… Going for a shorter trip…
3. How Old/Tall Your Children Should be:
Kids of any age can have a wonderful time at Disney World. However, if this may be your kids’ only childhood visit, consider going when your youngest child is at least 8 or 9, and your shortest child at least 48 inches tall. More… Planning for going with younger/shorter kids…
4. Where to Stay at Walt Disney World:
Stay at Disney’s Polynesian Resort if you can afford it, or at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort if you can’t. More… Next best resort options…
5. How Much to Budget:
You can have a wonderful first visit for $3,000 or less. However, to see all the best of Walt Disney World at the best time of the year to visit, budget if you can $14,000 if you are staying at the Polynesian, or $9,500 if at Art of Animation. More… Developing a much lower or a different budget…
6. When Your Plans Need to be Firm:
Your plans should be firm at least 181 days before your arrival date. More… Planning if it’s already later than that…
7. How to Eat at Walt Disney World:
Sign up for the “Magic Your Way Plus Dining” package. More… Planning if you can’t do this package…
8. Where to Eat:
The Basic Itinerary tells you exactly where to eat (as do the Other Itineraries). More… Next best dining choices…
9. How to Spend Your Time at Walt Disney World:
The Basic Itinerary tells you exactly how to spend your time in Orlando (as do the Other Itineraries). More… Other Itineraries…
10. What to do When:
See the To-Do List for an exact list of what to do when to prepare for your trip. More… To-Do Lists for Other Itineraries…
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1,261 comments
We are doing Disney four days straight. Dec. 17, 18, 19 and 20. four kids ages 3 , 5, 8, and 12. Six adults. No park hoppers. We wondered which days would be best for MK and Epcot. I understand futureland is in epcot. We thought two days for each but which days would you recommend for each considering the crowds and special happenings. Thanks so much. Your site is invaluable.
Hi Mary! Your dates MK will be least crowded the 17th and 20th, but each of those days the park closes early (at 7) so you’ll miss the fireworks and parade. So I’d pick one of those two, and also the 18th–bigger crowds but you cna see the evening stuff then.
Epcot will be worst the 17th and 20th, so that suggests the 19th for Epcot.
I’m not sure Epcot will be worth two days, especially for the two younger kids, so putting it all together I’d do this
17 MK
18 MK
19: Epcot
20th–return to your favorite of these tow, or head to another park. Decide the night before…
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In addition to my previous email, I should tell you we are staying off site. We will be arriving each day from our resort by shuttle to Epcot. We will then be going back the next week for two days either the 22, 23, 25 or 26. Same parks. And again, which days would you suggest for which parks. This time we will be driving ourselves. Please direct us to parking info too. Thanks again. You are a godsend.
Mary you aren’t shuttling to Epcot on your Magic Kingdom days, are you? And frankly, the 22-26th will be a zoo. That’s the busiest week of the year, and I can’t recommend any park. Above all avoid parks that have morning extra magic hours. The schedule for that will change, but likely MK and AK will have morning extra magic hours every day the 22-26…
Thanks so much for your suggestions. And YES, we are shuttling to Epcot on the MK days. That is where the resort shuttle goes. Since we have so many in our party, the resort is having a shuttle just for us so maybe I’ll try to get the shuttle to drop us of at MK instead. If that isn’t possible, what would you suggest ? Is there any way we could take Disney transport from Epcot to MK without using our pass. Thanks again.
Mary, you can take Disney transport from Epcot to MK without entering the park. You just hop on the monorail, which will take you to the “Ticketing and Transportation Center” (TTC), from which you either take the ferry or a different monorail to MK. It will be much faster, however, for your driver to just drop you off at TTC…
Hi Dave
I have seen a lot of links to disboards.com on this site. I am wondering, do you have a disboards.com account? I want to know because I do, and I posted a lot of disney plans, and I am curious if you could use your opinion on those plans I posted.
Hey Danny, I’m not much on disboards–I love it, but don’t often have time for both it and this site. I’m on disboards as davidhobart.
Hi Dave,
I was wondering if you or someone else could give me an opinion. I’m taking my daughter to the BBB (she will be 8) and I was wondering if I should consider taking my son (he will be 6) and have the knight package at BBB or take him to the Pirate’s League? So, my question is which would be a better option?
Jennifer M I don’t have a strong feeling on this. My guess is that the Pirates League will be the better choice…
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Again Dave, THANKS SOOOO MUCH.
Dave,
Love your site. Want your expert opinion for our upcoming WDW visit. First time at WDW.
Traveling Dates: Nov 12 to Nov 18.
Four adults, four kids (three girls age 8, 6 and 3 and my lovely 3 year old boy)
Will arrive around noon on 12th and have to leave by 2:00 pm on 18th.
Staying at Disney’s Coronado Spring Resort, have dining plan, 6 day park tickets with park hopper option for MK, AK, Epcot and Hollywood. Park hopper is really needed? IF not, shall I cancel and ask for refund? How should we plan our days? Please recommend what is age appropriate must do attraction for girls/boy.
Also, made dining reservations for 8:00 pm dinner at Akershus Banquet Hall on 11/16 (mostly for girls) and Lunch with Donald Safari in Tuskerhouse on 11/13 at 2:00 pm. Do you recommend any other character dining? All of us are vegetarian, so any suggestion on Veggie friendly restaurants?
I bought a package for air tickets/hotels/dining/park tickets/insurance/photopass and think have already spent fortune to have all these. I know there will be Mickey’s Christmas party around that time but still thinking if it is worth it to attend with two small kids? What is the best thing about the party? Do you think we would have enough time to cover parks, character dining and Christmas party. If yes, do you recommend advance reservations or tickets can be easily purchase on same day of the party.
Any other recommendations for the trip?
Thanks.
Hi Atka and thanks for the kind words about the site!
My you have lotsa questions–and frankly some of them are well outside my focus…
First you can easily do without hoppers. I’m also personally not keen on trip insurance, but that’s widely controversial and related to your own appetite for risk. All I can say is to read the fine print carefully.
An optimal Disney World trip for an 8 year old is wildly different than an optimal one for a three year old, and 5-6 year olds live somewhere in between. If this won’t be your only visit, design the trip for the 8 year old. If it will be your only visit, it’s a lot harder to give all a great experience. See this for some thoughts https://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/how-oldtall-your-children-should-be/what-if-theyre-too-shortyoung/taking-your-too-shortyoung-kids-anyway/
My itineraries are designed for 8 year olds and up on a longer trip, but they do give an idea of how to allocate your time overall and how to sequence a day in a park. See this https://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/basic-itinerary/alternative-itineraries/itineraries-for-the-rest-of-the-year/v2-of-2009-autumn-winter-spring-itinerary/ as qualified by this https://yourfirstvisit.net/required-september-2013-itinerary-and-to-do-list-changes/ The itinerary incorporates my dining recommendations.
Vegetarian dining is generally easy–you just have to let WDW know before, in most table service cases. See the links here: https://www.google.com/search?q=vegetarian+at+disney+world&rlz=1C1LENP_enUS492US492&oq=vegetarian+at+disney+world&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.5617j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
On the Xmas party, that’s a great–but expensive–way to see the parade and fireworks and get on some rides without as big crowds as you’ll find on your dates on non-party evenings at MK. If you will be returning, hold on it til the three year olds are five or so… See also this: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2012/04/30/crowds-and-walt-disney-world/
I’m probably raising more questions than I’m answering–so get back with your thoughts in response!
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Dave,
Thanks for very detailed response and giving me a hard exercise to do. I would definitely knock on your door to get some more advise.
We are planning to return to WDW after few years , therefore currently I thinking to focus on 3/6 years old kids bcoz this is their time to enjoy characters and simple rides and when they grow up they could do other stuff. Any comments? Any suggestions?
Do you recommend to avoid specific park on any particular day from my itinerary?
Akta–I’d do it the other way around. Disney is at the peak of magic for an 8 year old. The younger kids can grow into that peak for a later visit, whereas this is the only chance for that perfect match for the older kid.
Here’s parks to avoid by day:
11/12: Avoid MK, Epcot–unless you are just going for the evening fireworks
11/13: Avoid MK, AK
11/14: Avoid MK
11/15: Avoid Epcot
11/16: Avoid HS
Hope you can answer this question for me. I just happened to find our tickets from Disneyworld from Jan 1993. We have four tickets and each one has one day left on each of them. These are called the *super pass* tickets. (old parkhoppers) Question…can we still use them ? It would be the same people using them now as were using them then. Thanks Dave.
Sorry, Mary–only Disney Guest Services can answer that, and only with the physical tickets in front of then…
Hello,
I would first like to thank you so much for all the information that your site provides that has been a great help with my trip planning so far. I have always dreamed of taking my wife and children Girl 12, boy 6 to Disney world! Through many years of saving and praying, my dream come true is coming in a couple weeks…..
We are staying at the Art of Animation Arriving Thur. October 10-Friday Oct. 18th. We are arriving late on thur, so we will be in the parks on Friday morning.
I have a few questions for advice from you cause I believe your site to be amazing.
*My daughter is turning 13 on Sat Oct. 12th….. Are there any secrets that you are aware of, of any parks or places that do anything extra special for birthdays at very little to no charge, just nice surprises?
*We are attending the Mickeys not so scary Halloween parade on that Monday. Is there any helpful hints or great secrets you can fill me in on for this.
*We selected the Quick Service meal plan. Was wondering if there were any quick service restaurants that you recommend way above others. Would just be great to know…..
*My wife and I are also celebrating our When we met Anniversay down there that Thursday. Any advice on anything at the resort, where I could have flowers or wine or something to those regards delivered?
And last, just any information of awesome things at the Art of Animation itself you could tell us or any secrets of anything going on the week that we are there? Since there are so many questions I asked, please feel free to email me with the attached address.
I thank you so much for any help or information!!!!! This trip is honest to god the biggest dream come true of my life that I have worked so many years hoping there would come a day. I am asking your EXPERT advice so I can hopefully make this more perfect than imaginable! Or as they say at Disney, Magical!!!!! 🙂
THANK YOU SO MUCH AND GOD BLESS,
JASON & FAMILY
Sheffield, Pennsylvania
Hi Jason and I bet you’ll have a blast!
On your questions:
For birthdays, see the second half of this: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2012/02/01/is-walt-disney-world-free-on-your-birthday/
For the Halloween Party, see this, especially the part on “Strategy” at the end: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2013/09/24/review-mickeys-not-so-scary-halloween-party/
The quick service restaurants I recommend are in my itineraries–see for example this: https://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/basic-itinerary/alternative-itineraries/itineraries-for-the-rest-of-the-year/v2-of-2009-autumn-winter-spring-itinerary/
The Disney World florist can have flowers delivered to your room, but not wine–if I were you, I;d skip the price of that and spend it instead on a nice dinner with just the two of you. There’s no inexpensive way to do this…Suggest Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge or Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge
Finally on the Art of Animation Resort check out my reviews starting here (for 4 person rooms) https://yourfirstvisit.net/2012/09/23/review-standard-little-mermaid-rooms-disneys-art-animation-resort/ or here for the six person rooms https://yourfirstvisit.net/2012/06/10/review-the-family-suites-at-disneys-art-of-animation-resort/
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Hi Dave,
We’re arriving at WDW on 4/19 and leaving 4/25. We plan on visiting MK two days, HS one day and AK another day with one day off to relax at our resort. I know this week will be extremely crowded given the fact that it’s spring break, but do you have any recommendations as to which parks we should visit on which days? The day we arrive and leave, we’re not planning any park visits. Almost 180 days out and looking forward to finalizing our plans! Thanks for your help!
Ava, though not good, everything will be better later in your visit than earlier.
Skipping Epcot, here’s parks to avoid by day:
4/20: Avoid MK
4/21: Avoid Ak
4/22: Nothing stands out as worse than others
4/23: Avoid AK and HS
4/24: Avoid MK
4/25: Avoid HS
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Everything you provided was very useful! Thanks so much Dave!
Dave, just so you know, I did get in touch with Disney about our old tickets (1992) and was pleased to find they are still good !! Apparently all tickets prior to 2005 with no expiry date can still be used but have to be traded for an updated electronic ticket. (no extra cost) I do have a question though. We have already purchased tickets for December but because we are staying off Disney property, we have to pick them up at the ticket counters at Disney. Can that be done in any park ? Also, can one or two from our group of eleven go and get all the tickets or do we all have to wait in line. There are five kids ages 1 to 12, so you can understand why I would rather we not all have to wait for tickets. Thanks for your help Dave.
Mary
Mary, thanks for the update! Yes, you can go to any park. I’m not certain if just a couple of you can do it for everyone or not.
Hi Dave,
We are in fastpass+ test at all star sports. We checked in online and got our magic bands..Do we need to check in at sports still for any reason, or can we go straight to epcot right off magic express?
Thanks
Lisa, here’s the word–which another of my readers confirmed with Disney: you should be able to go to straight to the parks, but because its a test, there’s a chance your MagicBands might be messed up.
So I’d go to the resort first.
Among other things you’ll get your “Key to the World” card there, which serves as a backup to the MagicBand
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Dave,
I love this site. We are traveling with 15 people. 4 generations and meeting 4 other family members who live in Orlando. My parents are 73 we plan on renting scooters for them. (Can you recommend a company?) There are 5 of us in our early 50’s our children are late 20’s and the great grand children are 6, 5 they live there and will only be joining a couple days. We have a 3 year old and a 5 month old. You can see by our itinerary that we have a full schedule would you recommend getting park hopper passes? Also would you recommend go to the Christmas party at magic kingdom? We are traveling with the younger children because this would be my parents last time to Disney as a family. I plan on returning again when my 3 year old granddaughter is older. As you can see we have booked dining reservations that can’t be changed due to having 18 people we are staying at carribean beach resort and took advantage of the free dining. My main question is is it worth the extra 65 per ticket to get the park hopper and should we spend the extra money for the Christmas party?
Saturday December 14th Downtown Disney
Planet Hollywood 5:30
Sunday December 15th
Hollywood Studio extra hours 9 am- 10 pm
Hollywood and Vine 3:50 confirmed special seating starting at 6:00 for
Fantasmic at 6:30
Monday December 16th
Magic Kingdom extra magic hours late 9 am- 11 pm
Light parade at 8, wishes at 9
Confirmed Crystal Palace at 5:00 for 18 people
Tuesday December
Illuminations at 9:30 pm
Chef Mickeys at Contemporary Resort at 6:25 for 19 people
Wednesday December 18th
Animal Kingdom
Rainforest Cafe at 4:30 at Animal Kingdom for 18
Thursday December 19th
Magic Kingdom
Ohana at 5:05 for 19 people
Friday December 20th
Epcot open
Lunch at Coral Reef 12:30
Thanks for any advice you can give us.
Kathy
Kathy, I actually answered you similar question here yseterday: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2013/10/03/finally-a-reason-to-buy-an-ipad/#comment-401403
On your itinerary…see this for what I’d recommend that week–it’s not an exact fit, but it is close:https://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/basic-itinerary/basic-itinerary-daily-links/
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Hello Dave,
Thank you so much for answering my question under another topic so quickly 🙂 I do have another question though. I don’t remember where, I must confess, I’ve looked at a lot of sites, but I read somewhere that Disney was changing their
policy on handicapped people and the lines because of abuse.i was wondering if you’ve heard anything more on this subject?
Hi Stefanie! See this: http://blog.touringplans.com/2013/10/15/disneys-disability-access-service-definitive-guide/
Dave,
Sorry about the double question. I forgot which section I was in to ask my questions.
Thanks again,
Kathy
No worries, Kathy, it happens all the time 🙂
Okay Dave! We are all booked and ready…Resort check, dining reservations check. Now, for my question…We will be there for my birthday and would like to do an “adult” dinner (we have reservations at the California Grill). However, I can’t find alot of reviews on the kids clubs on the Disney properties. I can find all the choices, what ages, how much, what they do, but I can’t find alot of reviews from people that have actually used them.
Any recommendations from you? Or do you know of another site that does?
Christie, have a great trip! I don’t know of such a page that I can recommend. I found this, but it’s thin: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1954828-i20534-k6264949-Disney_kids_clubs-Disney_World_Florida.html
I’ll check with some buddies to see if they have recommendations…
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Christie, Here is some information I have posted on them: http://www.capturingmagicalmemories.com/2012/05/resort-activities-for-kids-clubs-and-community-halls/
We have used the Kids Club in the past for an older child. They were fun for the kids and I would not hesitate in leaving them there. They are served a light dinner and they will not be bored.
Another option if the kids are younger is Kids Night Out. They actually come to your room and bring a suitcase of fun. They are the ONLY in room sitter service recommended by Disney. We have taken to do this lately and LOVE them. They kids actually complain when the sitter has to leave.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me at my site.
Thanks, Mary!!
bout taking photos all over the place, but the price is high. I also wonder bout the quality of the Disney pkg.photos. Please comment. Hopefully I will find the answer since it is the first place on the site.
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