Category — s. FAQ and Glossary

OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S GIVE A DAY, GET A DISNEY DAY PROGRAM

Note: Disney has met its goal of getting a million people to sign up, and thus is no longer accepting new registrants for this program.

For current Walt Disney World discounts, see this.

Disney’s “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program provides one day of free theme park admissions (or other goodies) in return for a day of volunteer work at a pre-approved  project or event. 

For some families, this ticket will be worth more than $80 per person. 

Other families won’t be able to use the ticket itself, but can redeem their day instead for a cool special FASTPASS program that will likely limit their waiting the day that they use it.

MORE DETAILS ON DISNEY’S GIVE A DAY, GET A DISNEY DAY PROGRAM

How it works:

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: WALT DISNEY WORLD AIR TRAVEL 101

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

This page is the first of several designed to give tips and insights to those traveling by air to Walt Disney World for whom air travel is a new or rare thing. 

I will try to cover in it all the key things they may not know about such travel. 

This series purposely excludes tips and hints for getting the best deals  on air travel.  Those are on a different page—Air Travel 201.

Air Travel 101 for Walt Disney World includes the following pages:

1. Flights and Tickets
2. Seats and Ground Transport
3. Bags and Packing
4. From the Day Before You Leave Until the Day You Return

A. PICKING YOUR AIRLINE, FLIGHTS, AND TICKET TYPE

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S MAGIC EXPRESS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

(This page is one of a new series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

Note: Disney’s Magical Express service will end at the end of 2021. No replacement or intent to replace it has been announced.

Disney’s Magical Express is usually described as one program, but it is actually two, plus it shares in a third:

1.  Free bus transport between Orlando International Airport and your Walt Disney World resort hotel, both ways (you can schedule it for one way trips as well, if more convenient for you) and

2.  If you ride the bus, you can also get free transfer of your baggage, if you checked it, from your arriving plane to your hotel room (that is, you do not need to claim it at Orlando baggage claim, or schlep it around).

Your carry-ons will also be transported for free, but you need to get them from the plane to the bus, and from the bus to your room

3. A separate, but related, program that is available to all Walt Disney World resort hotel guests, whether or not they are using Disney’s Magical Express, is free resort airline check in services for domestic flights at the hotel

• Using this service, you can check your bags and get your boarding pass before your return to Orlando International Airport—whether on Disney’s Magical Express or through other means.
• Only certain airlines participate in this separate resort check in program (you can use ANY airline flight that lands at or departs from Orlando International Airport–MCO–for the Magical Express program.) See this page for more on airlines that participate in the separate resort check in program.

These services are available only to guests staying at Walt Disney Word owned and operated hotels.  See this for which they are.

Disney’s Magical Express is not available, therefore, at Shades of Green, the Swan, the Dolphin, or the hotels of the Disney Springs Resort Area–or any off-site hotel.

To use the Disney Magical Express between the Orlando International Airport and your hotel, you need to sign up in advance.  You can do this over the web or at 407-939-7675. You can sign up in advance to use it for your return to the airport, or sign up from the resort itself.

These programs save money and reduce complexity.

MORE DETAIL ON DISNEY’S MAGIC EXPRESS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: GETTING MORE FASTPASSES FASTER AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

Walt Disney World’s FASTPASS program permits your family to skip a lot of waiting in line for some of Walt Disney World’s most loved—and hence crowded—attractions, for free.

I have posted details on this program elsewhere. This page is meant to help you—at some real cost—overcome some of the key limitations of the FASTPASS program:

• You can only get a FASTPASS every two hours
• Some FASTPASSES are completely distributed early in the day
• Other FASTPASSES quickly build to a return time very late in the day

Walt Disney World currently has no program similar the “Universal Express Program” for Universal resort guests.

This remarkable Universal program allows Universal hotel guests to move to the front of almost every ride’s waiting line as many times as they wish, whenever they wish, beginning as soon as the parks open. (See this for details.)

However, you can buy your way into a roughly similar situation at Walt Disney World—simply by buying and using more than one theme park admission ticket per person!

Two theme park tickets used for admission allow twice as many FASTPASSES, on average granting you a FASTPASS every hour rather than every two.

DETAILS ON GETTING MORE FASTPASSES FASTER AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2011

Three types of Walt Disney World prices are important to think about:

• Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices—the tickets that grant you admission to the parks
• Walt Disney World resort hotel prices, and
• Park and hotel food prices

This page focuses on Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices for 2011 until August, when they typically go up.

MORE DETAILS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2011: HOW THE TICKETS WORK

[Read more →]

How to Eat    Where to Eat    The Dining Plan    Guide to Disney Dining

OVERVIEW: THE DISNEY DINING PLAN(S)

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

There are several Disney Dining Plans available to guests at Walt Disney World resort hotels. The basic premise of these plans is that by pre-paying many of your meals, your budgeting is simplified, and, quite possibly, you might save money.

(See this for the official Walt Disney World website material on all of these plans.)

Only one of Disney Dining Plans–the “Disney Dining Plan” itself—is worth considering.  This site recommends that those eating all the meals in one of its recommended itineraries purchase it.

The rationale is that those with younger children eating a number of character buffet meals will save some money by purchasing the dining plan.  Not a lot, though.

Buying this plan, however, raises a couple of complexities.

First, to get the maximum value out of it, you really should eat at some of Walt Disney World’s best loved dining settings.  These can sell out months in advance, so you should follow this site’s advice on when your plans should be firm.

Second, while you are actually at Walt Disney World, there can be confusion about which credits apply to which settings, and what items are included and not included.  The itineraries of this site take care of most of this for you.

MORE DETAIL ON THE DISNEY DINING PLAN(S)

[Read more →]