Disney World in Florida is one of our quintessential family vacation destinations. With its four theme parks, two water parks, and over two dozen resort hotels there is so much to do on vacation here. Our family has also spent time at Disney Springs, which has plenty of shops, restaurants and entertainment to more than fill your day.

One of the things I love most about a trip to Disney World is the feeling of being in the “Disney Bubble”. As you are surrounded by all things Disney, you can forget about the outside world even if its just for a few days. Just enjoy your vacation and take it easy!

Spending your time

The 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom) have many different attractions and entertainment to keep your family more than busy for a day or two at each. We have had a variety of trip lengths to the parks here (from 2-10 days). One can typically get in most of the attractions in a single park in 1 day if you plan carefully and maximize the park hours. However, giving yourself extra time at each park can make it feel a little less go-go-go and would definitely be encouraged at busier times of the year (holidays, mid-year school breaks and summertime). This is where the different options for ticket lengths can help. Once you purchase a ticket length longer than about 5 days, the cost of the overall ticket doesn’t really increase that much more per day. There are also add-ons to your ticket, such as park hopper, that can be beneficial as it can allow you to visit more than 1 park in a day.

Getting the most out of your Park Ticket

One of the things I have learned from purchasing tickets at Disney World is to watch the prices of the tickets around the start date of when the ticket begins. For all ticket lengths except single day tickets (which are only valid for the intended date that you select), there is a grace period for when you can use your ticket. For instance if you select a 2-day ticket, you have a 4-day period to use the 2 days in. If you know the specific dates that you want to go try to choose an earlier day of the week that may be lower cost. For instance if a ticket starts in the middle of the week versus closer to the weekend the cost will generally be lower. This worked out to our advantage when we had a 2-day park ticket in January 2024. We wanted to go to Magic Kingdom on a Wednesday and EPCOT on a Friday. I chose to buy our tickets to start on Tuesday even though we weren’t going to be going to the park that day as the overall cost for our tickets was about $30 cheaper. It didn’t save us a lot of money but every little bit helps.

Journey of Water in EPCOT

Disney World will sometimes have ticket specials but these can be far and few depending on the time of the year. Sometimes these discounted tickets are only for Florida residents and other times the tickets are only good for a certain time period. Look at the details to any promotions before you purchase the tickets to ensure that it is the right fit for your family and for the vacation you would like to have. As of the beginning of 2024, Disney World does not require park reservations for date-based tickets, however some tickets do require reserving a park reservation so look closely when purchasing your tickets if you are taking advantage of a promotion to see if a park reservation is needed.

Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios

Hotels: Staying On-Property vs Off-Property

Disney World has over two dozen hotel resorts to choose from but the costs of these hotels has risen quite a bit over the last few years. You can still find some good deals depending on the time of the year that you are going though. We have gone to the parks when staying both on-property as well as off-property. While staying off-property can be lower in cost, I have noticed one large disadvantage. After a long day at the parks, you need to make the trek all the way back to your car with exhausted kiddos and then still drive back to your hotel/vacation rental. When park close isn’t until 10-11 PM or later this can make getting your kids into bed well after midnight. The other option some people may resort to is leaving the park early. However when already spending quite a bit on your park tickets this isn’t always the best choice either as most of us want to get most out of our tickets.

Polynesian Village in Walt Disney World

There are quite a few advantages for staying on-property. One of the best things about staying at a Disney Resort is that transportation is provided to all the parks, water parks and to Disney Springs. You do not have to worry about driving to the parks or anywhere else in Disney World for that matter, as they take care of that all for you. All of the resorts have bus transportation depending on their location to a theme park. Other modes of transportation include the Disney Skyliner, the monorail, and also boat transport.

Caribbean Beach Resort in Walt Disney World

Another advantage to staying on-property is early entry. This allows you to enter any theme park 30 minutes before park open to start enjoying certain rides and attractions before other park guests. For guests of deluxe hotels and villas, there are also certain dates where there are extended evening hours, typically for 2 hours after park close.. Currently only Magic Kingdom and EPCOT are the parks that have this benefit. We were able to experience this in January 2024 when we stayed at the Polynesian Villas where Magic Kingdom was open from 11 PM to 1 AM. It got pretty late but as the night went on there were fewer and fewer guests in the park which made for almost zero wait for many of the rides.

My Favorite Rides/Attractions with the Kids

My wife and I had the chance to go to Disney World many years ago, just as a couple, and that was our first taste of these magical parks. We loved it so much that we have gone back now quite a few times with our children and it has been so fun to share our favorite rides with our kiddos. There are so many different lands to explore in each park that every trip is a new experience. It also seems like each year new rides and attractions open so there is always something different and exciting to enjoy as well.

Some of my favorites rides and attractions at each park include:

Magic Kingdom

• Peter Pan’s Flight
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• TRON Lightcycle/Run

EPCOT

• Test Track
• Frozen Ever After
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Spaceship Earth
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
• Soarin’ Around the World
• Journey of Water – Inspired by Moana

Hollywood Studios

• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Toy Story Mania!
• Slinky Dog Dash
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

Animal Kingdom

• Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Na’vi River Journey
• Wilderness Explorers
• Rafiki’s Planet Watch

The World of Pandora at Animal Kingdom

Character Meet and Greets

Each park within Disney World has a large amount of character meet and greets that are available. Typically, you will need to go on the Disney World (My Disney Experience) app to find out what time character greetings will be occurring. While most of the time you will only be able to meet characters at specific locations and times, there have been multiple times when we have been wandering around the park and have met some unexpected characters. These are among my most treasured memories of going to Disney World. It is so heart-warming to watch our kids become so excited to meet one of their favorite characters.

The Bottom Line

I am so happy that we have been able to enjoy a handful of trips to Disney World especially when our kids are young still. Over the years we have learned a lot from our experiences there and I am happy that I can share some of that insight with you. When you decide that your next family vacation will be going to Disney World hopefully these tips will help you to have an even more magical trip.

What are your tips for having the most magical and memorable trip to Disney World? Let me know in the comments below!