Disney - BEFORE YOUR TRIP!

BEFORE YOUR TRIP 

1) Book with a travel agent - I used Cupcake Castles and they saved me $500+ (based on what I wanted if I booked direct through Disney.com) AND the agent is FREE!  Travel agents can recommend times with additional savings (like 30% off hotel stay or FREE dining plans) and if a better deal comes out during your travel dates, they will adjust your package!  Get a quote from Cupcake Castles HERE - tell them TIFFS DEALS sent you!)

2) Call Disney and find out what park has extra MAGIC HOURS (either in the morning or evening) and choose to stay in that park for the day! (Or if you book with a travel agent- ask them!)
During Magic Hours, only those staying at Disney Resorts are allowed on rides and most people go home anyway (for instance we would stand in line 60-85 minutes during the day to ride ONE ride - but at night during extra hours, we could ride 5-6 rides in that same amount of time!

See my park ideas/suggestions list here

3) Book your dining reservations! I highly recommend NOT traveling to another resort or park for a reservation - bus transportation takes 1-2 hours to travel anywhere and you wind up using 4-5 hours just to eat a meal.  If you are staying in Disney for more than 1 week, than I am sure you would have time to travel more. So figure out what park has extra hours - and book your reservations in that park!

My dining suggestions are listed HERE

4) To HOPPER or not? You can purchase Hopper passes which allow you to "hop" from park to park to in one day - this is an additional charge and we choose NOT to add it - and we spent an entire day in each park! It is like $50-75 per person EXTRA to add a Hopper pass.

5) Magical Express - If you stay at a Disney Resort, you get FREE bus transportation for you and your luggage from the airport to your resort.  Make sure you made a reservation in advance and provided your airline information so you can run through the lines quickly (just show them your barcode) This is a BIG SAVINGS for a family and luggage services!

6) CHECK IN ONLINE! This will save you lots of time when you arrive at your resort (you can do up to 10 days in advance)

7) PHOTOPASS PLUS - Up to 2 weeks before your trip, the photopass plus is $150! This allows you to get digital prints of EVERY ride photo taken for FREE - every dinner event where photos are taken (included printed 8x10 and 3-5x7s and a digital photo).  It also can be used for all your family photos in front of Epcot Ball/Cinderella's Castle, etc and when you get home, log in and all your images on right there!

NOTE: Anyone can get a Photopass in the park (which is FREE) and will include digital images taken by Disney photographers in front of castle, etc, but you cannot use it for the ride/dinner photos.

Ride photos are $18.95 for ONE printed photo - and digital images are $14.95 each soooo...if you have 3 people in each car on Buzz Lightyear that is $45 for the digital images on ONE RIDE alone! You can also purchase a Ride Photopass in the park for $45 that includes digital images of your rides ONLY (no dinners etc) AND If you are in the park late at night and ride Splash Mountain six times in a row - you just saved yourself a LOT Of money!

8) Consider matching shirts! I am not normally "that" person - but it makes the photos look cute and coordinated and it is easy to find your family in a crowd!

9) Things I recommend bringing:

• I created Luggage tags on Vistaprint and used them as "Lost" tags for my kids...luckily they never got lost, but had them tied to their waist or arm just in case! Use this link to Vistaprint and get $5 off your next order!

• To rent a stroller in disney is expensive ($15 a day single/$30 a day double) - I purchased one used on the Kenner Swap site on facebook for $50 and was able to use it at the airport and transport all the way to the hotel room every night - a BIG lifesaver as the kids fall asleep on the bus ride home (disney strollers are rented in the park and must be returned before leaving the same park) and it stored all my "stuff" so I didn't have to carry everything all day long!

• I also used ponytail holders to tie our cups to the stroller - make it easy to carry lots of drinks and also easy to spot our stroller in the crowd

• a BACKPACK - kids or no kids, you still need one...filled with sunscreen, sunglasses, light jacket (one for everyone), deodorant (for you or a fellow crowd member - YUCK!), an extra pair of underwear when you pee your pants on the scary rides (LOL!) and a place to hold your water bottles/snacks.  I brought my own first aid kit (one tylenol is $3-4 in Disney), bug spray, big size ziploc bags (to store frozen waters and ponchos) - My very own Mary Poppins bag:)

•  I also brought BIG HEADPHONES for my little one that is scared of fireworks/loud noises! Even gave her courage on some of the "scarier" rides! 

We bought these BACKPACKS at the airport (same deal was at Downtown Disney and The Resorts - Spend $25 in gift shop, get a Disney towel for $13 - spend $40, get a Disney backpack for $20 - NOTE: You can spend $40 and get BOTH the towel and backpack (for $33) 

• I used a small wallet to carry EVERYONE's admission tickets together (this is really important for fastpasses!)

• A Rain poncho - in Disney they are $8.50 each - not bad, but if you need 6 of them, that adds up quick...the ones at the Dollar Tree are cheap - and literally cheap - so they are one time use and fall apart quick...I would suggest grabbing a few in advance of your trip from Academy/Walmart - I was impressed by those with pink ones, etc...And if you have a stroller, you need a poncho to cover it from rain as Disney provides no covered areas for strollers!

If you like this post, find out LOTS of great deals on TIFFS DEALS facebook page!