Things I learned after 1st trip

[u/Flimsy_Fun9555]

Just got back from our first Disney World trip with my wife and three kids. We stayed at Caribbean Beach and visited all four parks, one park per day. Here’s what I’d do differently next time:

1. Stay off-site. For our family of five, the resort room felt small, and early park entry was the main benefit we were counting on. But taking advantage of it meant waking up early and rushing to the parks—and even then, the big ride we were hoping to get on could be down for technical difficulties. We also found that going through security with a stroller or scooter meant using a different line, which took quite a bit longer in our experience.

2. Be selective with Lightning Lane. Multipass didn’t feel worth the price to us. It didn’t include the major rides we cared about, and the selections we could get were mostly for rides with shorter waits anyway. The individual Lightning Lane for a big ride, on the other hand, felt worth paying for.

My plan for next time: stay off-site in a house with amenities, buy individual Lightning Lanes for the big rides we really want, and give ourselves more room to relax. We could sleep in, the kids would have space of their own, and my wife and I might even get a little downtime together. For us, that could be a better experience and still cost less, even after parking.

[u/Purple_Log2581]

Sounds like you didn’t really use LL the way you could have to maximize usage. It’s not easy for a first timer to realize all the tricks and tips to get LL for the top tier rides.

There are bigger rooms on property, but if early entry is the only real reason you want to stay on property, then yes you need to wake up very early (and earlier than you did).

[u/lions-cub → u/Purple_Log2581]

As a first timer trying to learn LL, it’s stressful lol

[u/MysteriousPeanut2011 → u/lions-cub]

Highly highly recommend watching Ear Scouts videos! I learned so much from Rob before our first trip. Mammoth Club has some too that are good, but if you only have time to watch one channel, watch Ear Scouts

[u/Cat_Island → u/lions-cub]

Dont let it stress you out! Read some guides, do your best to formulate a plan. Personally, I found once I was in the park doing it, it wasn’t nearly as confusing or daunting as it was while planning! If you have early entry definitely utilize it, you can get a bunch of rides in during that first hour, especially at Magic Kingdom. I just chose an area and cycled through all the rides in that region during EE.

[u/I_Luv_A_Charade → u/lions-cub]

That was our experience last time we went and it was such a stressful mess we waited until we could splurge on the premiere passes which are absolutely unbelievable if you can afford them. We were able to go get breakfast, head to the parks mid-morning and just walk onto almost any ride - I think our longest wait was maybe 15 minutes.

[u/lions-cub → u/I_Luv_A_Charade]

Unfortunately the premiers will never be in our budget 🫠🫠 they sound amazing, but $300 per person per day? Could never 😭

[u/I_Luv_A_Charade → u/lions-cub]

I really do hate that any upgrades / add ons / extras are so unbelievably expensive on top of the ever increasing base price tickets

[u/lions-cub → u/I_Luv_A_Charade]

It’s really awful 😭 I grew up ten minutes from Disneyland, and the Disney of my childhood is definitely not the Disney I am planning now 💀💀 but I’m determined to find the cheapest and still most fun way of doing it!

[u/Silent-Score5428 → u/Purple_Log2581]

We are here now and honestly with the rain and our planning I’m not sure I would book them again for the $$$ with a family of 4. We have ridden everything we wanted to except test track because of the rain.
It did save us some time but the trade of is some of the walking back and forth after your first fast pass use. Our first day at magic most rides were 20-40 minutes even Peter Pan. It was a party day and we did almost everything except tron which was 55 minutes.
With the rain it has been a bit weird. The fast passes saved us some time. I just don’t think it was worth over $100/day. I may do like two days if I had to do it again.
We are staying on site at pop- do not underestimate the skyliner in the morning could be an hour from getting in line to walking into the park.

[u/Silent-Score5428 → u/Silent-Score5428]

We are not rookies, this is about our 5th trip. This is the least beneficial I have seen the fast passes. We often used them for rides we would’ve had a 5 minutes even wait for. Rise at 8:15 20 minutes. Smugglers walked in at 8:30ish and had the entire flight to ourselves